Agrippa Castor

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Agrippa Castor was an Ancient Greek writer who lived around AD 135 during Hadrian’s reign. He is known as the earliest recorded writer to oppose heresy and the only one who wrote a book devoted entirely to refuting Basilides. Most details about his life come from later sources, and little is known beyond brief mentions. Eusebius and Jerome cite him as the author who criticized Basilides and his twenty-four books of Exegetics. Jerome also places him among early Christian apologists in Athens. Agrippa Castor is said to have argued that Basilides taught it was morally insignificant to taste food offered to idols, and that his followers should endure a five-year silence, following a Pythagorean pattern. He is also linked to Basilides’ use of numerology and the name Abrasax as the supreme God, a term found in Greek magical traditions.