Parabalani: A Terrorist Charity in Late Antiquity

The Alexandrian mob that murdered Hypatia, the neo-Platonist mathematician, in 415 came from a charitable group called parabakni, consisting of poor but healthy Christians recruited under the authority of the patriarch for the purpose of caring for the sick. After a review of the emergence of hospital care in late antiquity as well as legislation in the Theodosian code from 416 and 418 restricting the number and activities ofxheparabakni, they are shown, by reference to a passage in Eusebius' Theophany, to be called more correctly parabokni, whose willingness to run risks in charitable work evokes the better known philoponoi. As Christians they could sometimes act violently as agents of the patriarch.