Strategius (correspondent of Isidore of Pelusium)

Strategius is known chiefly as a correspondent of Isidore of Pelusium, to whom he received at least ten letters in the Pelusium and eastern Nile Delta milieu of the early-to-mid 5th century. The letters' own address lines trace a striking career: across several he is greeted as a monk and given spiritual direction on the love of virtue, the contempt of worldly fortune, and vigilance against the devil's assaults on the soul; in one he is addressed as 'the Duke,' a military commander who has just received a governorship from the emperor and is urged to administer it as a service to God; and in another he is congratulated as 'recently installed as bishop' and warned that the office is a ministry, not a position of rule, and that he must first govern himself. Isidore's tone toward him is warm and approving rather than corrective, rejoicing at his progress and promising a personal visit to the monastery to embrace him and their mutual friend Theodosius. Beyond what these letters reveal of his progression from monk to office-holder to bishop, Strategius is otherwise unattested.