Akakios (correspondent of Nilus of Ancyra)

Akakios is known only as a correspondent of Nilus of Ancyra (d. c. 430), to whom the ascetic writer addressed at least eight short letters in the early-5th-century Galatian milieu of Ancyra (modern Ankara). In these letters he is repeatedly addressed as "the Memorialis," that is, an imperial court secretary or record-keeper (memorialis), and the correspondence shows him as an educated layman in state service eager for instruction: Nilus answers his questions about the typological meaning of the cross, the prayer-posture of Moses against Amalek, the interpretation of the patriarchs' Hebrew names, and the standing of believing Jews and Gentiles. Akakios himself wrote to Nilus (one letter responds to his observation that monks are "Levites" wholly consecrated to God), so the relationship is that of an inquiring official receiving spiritual and exegetical direction from a revered monastic teacher. He is otherwise unattested.