Acacius ( el, ) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

military officer, active in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

during the reign of

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

(r. 527–565).

Life

Acacius was a native of Amida, and

Zacharias Rhetor Zacharias of Mytilene (c. 465, Gaza – after 536), also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian. Life The life of Zacharias of Mytilene can be reconstructed only from a few scattered repo ...

calls him "Bar Eshkhofo", which seems to mean "son of a

cobbler Cobbler(s) may refer to: *A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes Places * The Cobbler, a mountain located near the head of Loch Long in Scotland * Mount Cobbler, Australia Art, entertainment and media * ''The Cobbler'' (1923 film) ...

.Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 9 Zacharias further reports that after the deposition of

Patriarch Paul of Alexandria Patriarch Paul of Alexandria was Greek Patriarch of Alexandria between 537 and 542. He was elected Patriarch in 537 when the Greek Church of Alexandria, which had previously recognized the Miaphysite Theodosius I, then exiled Gainas. He was the ...

and his replacement by

Zoilus Zoilus ( el, Ζωΐλος ''Zoilos''; c. 400320 BC) was a Greek grammarian, Cynic philosopher, and literary critic from Amphipolis in Eastern Macedonia, then known as Thrace. He took the name Homeromastix (Ὁμηρομάστιξ "Homer whip ...

(in 539/540), Acacius was the military officer tasked to protect Zoilus from the hostile population of Alexandria.''Chronicle of Zachariah Rhetor, Bishop of Mytilene'', X.1, ed. 1889, p. 300 Acacius was probably a professional soldier, but seems to have held a lower position, perhaps a ''

comes rei militaris ''Comes'' ( ), plural ''comites'' ( ), was a Roman title or office, and the origin Latin form of the medieval and modern title "count". Before becoming a word for various types of title or office, the word originally meant "companion", either i ...

'' or a ''

tribunus Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

'' (cavalry regimental commander).

References

Sources

* * {{citation , last=Martindale , first=John R. , last2=Jones , first2=A.H.M. , last3=Morris , first3=John , title=The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume III: AD 527–641 , year=1992 , publisher=Cambridge University Press , isbn=0-521-20160-8 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fBImqkpzQPsC 6th-century Egyptian people 6th-century Byzantine military personnel Byzantine military personnel Roman-era Alexandrians Comites