Zacharias Rhetor - Life

Life

The life of Zacharias of Mytilene can be reconstructed only from a few scattered reports in contemporary sources (the accounts are also partly conflicting - for example, some Syrian authors have "Melitene" instead of "Mytilene"). Zacharias was born near Gaza, which hosted a significant school of rhetorics in late antiquity. That was also where he received his initial education. In 485, he travelled to Alexandria, where he studied philosophy for two years. In Alexandria, he was embroiled in a conflict between Christians and Pagans in connection with the Horapollo affair. It was also there he met Severus, who was later to become a notable patriarch of Antioch. Zacharias was baptized and travelled in 487 to Beirut to study law at its law school. He stayed there, leading a very ascetic life, until 491, but he also made several journeys to different parts of Palestine in search for religious knowledge. He finally moved to Constantinople, where he worked as a lawyer for a long time. Zacharias, who was leaning towards moderate Monophysitism, seems to have often played with the thought of becoming a monk. He apparently had good contacts with the Imperial court and that probably won him the appointment as Bishop of Mytilene (on Lesbos). His successor is known to have taken the post in 553, setting the terminus ante quem for his death. He was certainly alive in 536, as he took part in the Synod in Constantinople that year.