Lesson plan
Pempton
The Pempton (Greek τὸ πέμπτον, "the fifth") was a complex of Christian monasteries in late Roman Egypt. It was named for the fifth milestone west of Alexandria along the coastal road between Lake Mareotis and the Mediterranean Sea, probably near present-day al-Maks. It is attested from the early fourth century until the beginning of the seventh. It was one of a series of monastic sites along the coast west of Alexandria, others being the ninth (Enaton), eighteenth (Oktokaidekaton) and twentieth (Eikoston). The region around the Pempton was called the Eremika, "desert" in Greek. In 338, Palladius of Galatia went to live as a hermit there under the spiritual direction of a certain Dorotheos of Thebes, who had been living in a cave there for sixty years. He had built cells for the other brothers living the region. According to Sozomen and Xanthopoulos, writing at some distance, there were around that time 2,000 monks in the coastal monastic centres, including the Pempton. The first writer to record the presence of a monastery at the Pempton is Epiphanius of Salamis, who describes a visionary monk from there who behaved as if he were a bishop. There are only a few scattered references to the Pempton in the surviving literature. On 18 April 448, an imperial edict condemning Nestorianism and the decree of the prefect of Egypt ordering it to be read were read at the Pempton.…
Article summary
The Pempton (Greek τὸ πέμπτον, "the fifth") was a complex of Christian monasteries in late Roman Egypt. It was named for the fifth milestone west of Alexandria along the coastal road between Lake Mareotis and the Mediterranean Sea, probably near present-day al-Maks. It is attested from the early fourth century until the beginning of the seventh. It was one of a series of monastic sites along the coast west of Alexandria, others being the ninth (Enaton), eighteenth (Oktokaidekaton) and twentieth (Eikoston). The region around the Pempton was called the Eremika, "desert" in Greek. In 338, Palladius of Galatia went to live as a hermit there under the spiritual direction of a certain Dorotheos of Thebes, who had been living in a cave there for sixty years. He had built cells for the other brothers living the region. According to Sozomen and Xanthopoulos, writing at some distance, there were around that time 2,000 monks in the coastal monastic centres, including the Pempton. The first writer to record the presence of a monastery at the Pempton is Epiphanius of Salamis, who describes a visionary monk from there who behaved as if he were a bishop. There are only a few scattered references to the Pempton in the surviving literature. On 18 April 448, an imperial edict condemning Nestorianism and the decree of the prefect of Egypt ordering it to be read were read at the Pempton.…
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
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