The Life of Severus

Shortly thereafter, events occurred involving Paralios and Horapollon the grammarian, from which it is evident that the one who has been slandered contrary to divine laws is innocent of the calumnies of his infamous insulter. Here is the origin of these events.

Paralios was from Aphrodisias, which is the metropolis of Caria. He had three brothers, two of whom were addicted to idolatry and reconciled themselves to perverse demons through invocations, sacrifices, incantations, and the artifices of magicians. The third, Athanase—I mean that man of God—had embraced the monastic life in Alexandria, in the place called Enaton The Ninth [mile marker], at the same time as the illustrious Stephen. After his initial studies, during which he had studied jus civile civil law in Phoenicia, Athanase had gone to Alexandria for a certain matter. There he met Stephen, whom I mentioned earlier, who from his childhood was animated by an ardent piety and who was then exercising the functions of a sophist, that is to say, a teacher; and he deemed it good to reject with him the empty hopes of the bar. As if on a sign from God, each of them received the yoke of the true philosophy...