ABSTRACT
Around the year 345, Evagrius was born in Ibora, Pontus, a city that was probably not far from Annisa, where Basil retreated in about 358 to establish his monastic life and, indeed, where Basil’s sister Macrina had retired into monastic life.4 Evagrius was the son of a chorepiskopos, or ‘country bishop’, whose responsibilities are aptly summarised in the gloss on that term in an ancient Latin translation of the Lausiac history: ‘a priest responsible for many churches, whom they call periodeutês [i.e., “circuit-riders”]’.5 Evagrius may well have been named after his father, if we take Gregory Nazianzen’s Letter 3 as referring to Evagrius Ponticus.6 Some manuscripts further describe Evagrius’ father as being ‘a nobleman, of the better sort in the city’ and it is possible that he owned an olive grove.7 What can be inferred about Evagrius’ education would support the conclusion that he came from a family of some means: even though his later writings are not ostentatious (as one would expect from a monk), it is possible to find evidence in them that he benefited from training in philosophy and rhetoric, and had a gentlemanly appreciation of mathematics, medicine and astronomy.8
