A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. Of EGYPT. Palladius in the biographical notices which make up what is usually termed his Lausiac History, mentions two brothers, Paäsius (Παήσιος) and Esaias, the sons of a merchant, Σπανόδρομος. by which some understand a Spanish merchant. Upon the death of their father they determined to quit the world; one of them distributed his whole property to the poor, the other expended his in the foundation of a monastic and charitable establishment. If the Orations mentioned below are correctly ascribed to the Esaias of Palladius, the first oration (which in the Latin version begins "Qui mecum manere vultis, audite," &c.) enables us to identify him as the brother that founded the monastery. Rufinus in his Lives of the Fathers, quoted by Tillemont, mentions an anecdote of Esaias and some other persons of monastic character, visiting the confessor Anuph or Anub (who had suffered in the great persecution of Diocletian, but had survived that time) just before his death. If we suppose Esaias to have been comparatively young, this account is not inconsistent with Cave's opinion, that Esaias flourished A. D. 370. Assemanni supposes that he lived about the close of the fourth century. He appears to have lived in Egypt.