Acacius () was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

military officer, active in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

during the reign of

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

(r. 527–565).

Life

Acacius was a native of

Amida Amida can mean : Places and jurisdictions * Amida (Mesopotamia), now Diyarbakır, an ancient city in Asian Turkey; it is (nominal) seat of: ** The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Amida ** The Latin titular Metropolitan see of Amida of the Ro ...

, and

Zacharias Rhetor Zacharias of Mytilene (Ζαχαρίας ό Μιτυληναίος; c. 465, Gaza City, Gaza – after 536), also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian. Life The life of Zacharias of Mytile ...

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

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

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

Patriarch Paul of Alexandria Patriarch Paul of Alexandria or Paul of Tabennesis 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 ...

and his replacement by

Zoilus Zoilus ( ''Zoilos''; c. 400320 BC) was a Greek grammarian and literary critic from Amphipolis in Eastern Macedonia, then known as Thrace. He took the name Homeromastix (Ὁμηρομάστιξ "Homer whipper"; ''gen''.: Ὁμηρομάστιγ ...

(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''), translated as count, was a Roman title, generally linked to a comitatus or comital office. The word ''comes'' originally meant "companion" or "follower", deriving from "''com-''" ("with") and "''ire''" ("go"). Th ...

'' or a '' tribunus'' (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