Against the “idol-maniacs”: Paganism in Antioch and the Christian East in the Sixth Century as the Background for the Anti-pagan Polemical Digressions of Evagrius Scholasticus

Abstract This article argues that a significant pagan presence in Antioch and the wider Christian East during the lifetime of Evagrius Scholasticus (c. 536–590 CE) provided the impetus for the anti-pagan polemical digressions against the historian Zosimus and the anonymous “idol-maniacs” in his Historia Ecclesiastica. Scholars have argued over the nature of these polemical digressions and the historical situations that precipitated them. Some like Pauline Allen have attributed these digressions to a “tired” rhetorical convention of ecclesiastical historiography. Others have noted the great environmental disasters in Antioch and Persian military incursions in the sixth century as a motivation for stimulating remaining pagans in the region. I argue that the existence of pagans in Antioch and the broader Christian East during the reigns of Justinian (r. 527–565), Justin II (r. 565–678), Tiberius II Constantine (r. 578–582), and Maurice (r. 582–602) necessitated a polemical response by Evagrius in his Historia. Through a careful analysis of contemporary sources during these reigns, such as the Codex Justinianus , John of Ephesus’ Historia Ecclesiastica and Lives of the Eastern Saints , and the Vita of Symeon Stylites the Younger, and building upon the scholarship of Glanville Downey, Michael Whitby, Anthony Kaldellis, Lucy Parker, and others, this essay analyzes how pagan scandals in Antioch, purges throughout the Christian East in the sixth century, and Evagrius’ own personal crises in a city ravaged by war, natural disaster, and plague warranted his inclusion of these polemical digressions.