ARSENIUS (c. an anchorite, said to have been born of a noble Roman family. He was appointed by Theodosius the Great, tutor of the young princes Arcadius and Honorius; but at the age of 4o he retired to Egypt, where for 4o years he lived in monastic seclusion at Scetis in the Thebais, under the spiritual guidance of St. John the Dwarf. He died at the age of 95 at Troe near Memphis. His biography by Simeon Metaphrastes is largely fiction.
Of his writings, two collections of admonitory maxims are extant: see Fr. CombetIs in .-luctarium biblioth. patr. novissim. (1672), pp. 301 et seq.; and Cotelerius, Eccl. grace. monum., 1677, i. pp. 353-372.