other · 233–238 · Caesarea Maritima
He came from a rich pagan family in Pontus and was on his way to the law school at Beirut when he met Origen at Caesarea, and stayed. What makes the episode unusual in this dataset is that he wrote it up: the farewell address he delivered when he finally left is the only description we have of Origen as a teacher, and it is not a formal one. He describes being talked into philosophy almost against his will, compares Origen's hold on him to a spark catching, and sets out the curriculum — logic first, then physics and geometry and astronomy, then ethics, then theology and the reading of the scriptures, with the pupil sent to every school of philosophy and forbidden to settle on one. Origen, he says, was the first person who ever made him examine his own soul. He went home to Pontus afterwards and the address survives because somebody kept it.
Nothing — he was going to Beirut to read law, and stopped at Caesarea because his sister was travelling there.
Five years under Origen, and the one first-hand account anyone has of what that was like from inside.