Article,
Winning the Intracommunal Dialogues: Zacharias Scholasticus’ Life of Severus
Journal of Early Christian Studies, (2005)
Abstract
Elements of Zacharias Scholasticus’ Life of Severus are often used selectively
to document pagan-Christian religious interactions in late antiquity, but the
text itself is poorly understood. This is particularly problematic for a thirty-
page section of the biography in which Severus goes unmentioned and much
detail is given about the conversion of a young pagan student named Paralius.
Zacharias’ habitual republication of earlier works suggests that this segment of
the Life of Severus was originally published separately to perform a specific,
protreptic function for Christian students of the 490s. When he reused this
text in the Life of Severus, Zacharias placed this specific narrative in a broader
context designed to respond to attacks on Severus. Nevertheless, modern
historians of religion need to use the information contained in this section of
the Life of Severus with a full awareness of its original, rather limited, polemic
intent.
