Theon (correspondent of Nilus of Ancyra)

Theon is known only as a correspondent of Nilus of Ancyra (d. c. 430), to whom five short letters of spiritual and moral counsel survive, set in the early-5th-century Ancyra (modern Ankara) milieu of Galatia in Asia Minor. The letters address him under two differing titles that Nilus's collection does not reconcile: in three he is "Theon the Monk" (letters 703-705), warned against rashly choosing solitary anchoritic life over communal monastic discipline and instructed that withdrawing simply to avoid being provoked to anger is no better than the behavior of an irrational beast; in two others he is "Theon the Magistrate" (politeuomenos, a member of the city council, letters 300-301), consoled on the death of a beloved relative and urged to temper grief with hope in the resurrection. Whether these address one man at different stages of life or two distinct correspondents bearing the same name is not determinable from the evidence; in either case he serves as a recipient of Nilus's characteristic admonitory and consolatory direction. He is otherwise unattested.