Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Religious figures biography for wider area of: "HAMA Governarate SYRIA" .
ARETHOUSA (Ancient city) SYRIA
Marcus, bishop of Arethusa, a city of Syria, on or near the Orontes, was one of three bishops sent to Rome A. D. 342 by the Eastern emperor Constantius II., to satisfy the Western emperor Constans of the justice and propriety of the deposition of Athanasius of Alexandria and Paulus of Constantinople. Marcus and his fellowprelates are charged with having deceived Constans, by presenting to him as their confession of faith, not the Arian or Eusebian confession, lately agreed on at the synod of Antioch, but another confession, of orthodox complexion, yet not fully orthodox, which is given by Socrates. Mark ap pears to have acted with the Eusebian or Semi-Arian party, and took part on their side, probably in the council of Philippopolis, held by the prelates of the East, after their secession from Sardica (A. D. 347), and certainly in that of Sirmium (A. D. 359), where a heterodox confession of faith was drawn up by him. It is to be observed, that the confession which is given as Mark's by Socrates is believed by modern critics not to be his. These critics ascribe to him the confession agreed upon by the council of Ariminum, A. D. 359, and also given by Socrates. During the short reign of Julian Marcus, then an old man, was cruelly tortured in various ways by the heathen populace of Arethusa, who were irritated by the success of his efforts to convert their fellow-townsmen to Christianity. He appears to have survived their cruelty, at least not to have died under their hands; but we read no more of him. His sufferings for the Christian religion seem to have obliterated the discredit of his Arianism; for Gregory Nazianzen has eulogised him in the highest terms, and the Greek church honours him as a martyr. (Athanas. de Synodis, c. 24; Socrates, H. E. ii. 18, 30, 37, with the notes of Valesius ; Sozomen, H. E. iii. 10, iv. 17,v. 10; Theodoret. H. E. iii. 7; Gregorius Naz. Oratio IV.; Bolland. Acta Sanctor. Mart. vol. iii. p. 774, &c.; Tillemont, Memoires, vol. vi. and vii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EPIFANIA (Ancient city) SYRIA
Evagrius, of Epiphaneia, known also as Evagrius Scholasticus and Ex-Praefectus.
He was a native of Epiphaneia on the Orontes, in the province of Syria Secunda,
as we gather from the title of his Ecclesiastical History, where he is called
Epiphaneus. (Comp. also his Hist. Eccles. iii. 34.) Photius says (Biblioth. Cod.
29), according to the present text, that he was of a celebrated city (poleos de
epiphanous) of Coele-Syria; but the text is probably corrupt. Nicephorus Callisti
(Hist. Eccles. i. 1, xvi. 31) twice cites him as ho epiphanes, "the illustrious;"
but this is probably an error, either in the transcription of Nicephorus or in
that of his authorities. The birth of Evagrius is fixed by data furnished in his
own writings in or about A. D. 536. (Evagr. Hist. Eccles. iv. 29, vi. 24.) He
was sent to school before or when he was four years old, for he was a schoolboy
when he was taken by his parents to the neighbouring city of Apameia to see the
exhibition of "the life-giving wood of the Cross," during the alarm
caused by the capture of Antioch by Chosroes or Khosru I., king of Persia, A.
D. 540. Two years afterwards (A. D. 542), he was near dying from a pestilential
disorder which then first visited the Byzantine empire, and which continued at
intervals for above half a century, if not more, to cause a fearful mortality.
Evagrius gives a melancholy catalogue of his own subsequent losses through it.
It took off, at different times, his first wife, several of his children (especially
a married daughter, who, with her child, died when the pestilence visited Antioch
for the fourth time, A. D. 591 or 592, two years before Evagrius wrote his history),
and many of his kindred and domestics. Evagrius was a "scholasticus"
(advocate or pleader), and is often designated from his profession. It is probable
that he practised at Antioch, which, as the capital of the province of Syria,
would offer an important field for his forensic exertions, and with which city
his writings shew that he was familiar. (Comp. Hist. Eccles. i. 18, iii. 28.)
He appears to have been the legal adviser of Gregory, patriarch of Antioch; and
some of his memorials, drawn up in the name of the patriarch, obtained the notice
and approval of the emperor Tiberius, who gave Evagrius, not as some have understood,
the quaestorship, but the rank of a quaestorian or ex-quaestor. (Evagr. Hist.
Eccles. vi. 24, where see the note of Valesius.) On the birth of Theodosius, son
of the emperor Maurice (A. D. 584 or 585), Evagrius composed a piece, apparently
a congratulatory address, which obtained a farther manifestation of imperial favour
in the rank of ex-prefect (apo eparchon), which designation he bears in the title
of his own work, and in Nicephorus. (Hist. Eccles. i. 1.) He accompanied the Patriarch
Gregory to a synod at Constantinople (A. D. 589), to the judgment of which the
patriarch had appealed when accused of incest and adultery. On his return to Antioch,
after the acquittal of Gregory, Evagrius (in October or November of the same year)
married a second wife, a young maiden. His reputation and influence are evidenced
by the fact that his marriage was celebrated by a general festival at the public
expense; but the rejoicing was interrupted by a dreadful earthquake, in which,
as some computed, 60,000 of the inhabitants perished. This is the last incident
in the life of Evagrius of which anything is known, except the death of his daughter,
already noticed, and the completion of his history, in A. D. 593 or 594.
Evagrius wrote (1) An Ecclesiastical History, which extends, besides
some preliminary matter, from the third general council, that of Ephesus, A. D.
431, to the twelfth year of the reign of the Emperor Maurice, A. D. 593-4. He
modestly professes that he was not properly qualified for such a work (me deinos
ego ta toiauta), but says he was induced to undertake it, as no one had yet attempted
to continue the history of the Church regularly (kat eirmon) from the time at
which the histories of Sozomen and Theodoret close. He has the reputation of being
tolerably accurate. His credulity and love of the marvellous are characteristic
of the period rather than of the individual. Photius describes his style as not
unpleasant, though occasionally redundant; and (as we understand the passage)
praises him as being more exact than the other ecclesiastical historians in the
statement of opinions: en de tei ton dogmaton orthoteti akribes ton allon mallon
historikon. Some however interpret the passage as a commendation of the historian's
orthodoxy. Nicephorus Callisti (Hist. Eccles. i. 1) notices, that Evagrius dwells
much on secular affairs, and enumerates the writers from whom he derived his materials,
namely Eustathius the Syrian, Zosimus, Priscus and Joannes, Procopius of Caesarea,
Agathias, " and other writers of no mean character." His history has
been repeatedly published. The edition of Valesius (Henri de Valois) which comprehends
the other early Greek Ecclesiastical Historians, has a valuable biographical preface,
a Latin translation, and useful notes. It was reprinted with some additional "
variorum" notes by Reading, 3 vols. fol. Camb. 1720. (2) A volume of Memorials,
Letters, Decrees, Orations, and Disputations, including the Memorials and the
address which procured for Evagrius his rank of Quaestorian and Ex-praeftect.
This volume is mentioned in the Ecclesiastical History, but appears to be now
lost. Some pieces of little moment have been ascribed to Evagrius, but most or
all of them incorrectly. (Evagrius, Hist. Eccles. iv. 26, 29, vi. 7, 8, 23, 24;
Photius, Biblioth. Cod. 29; Nicephorus Callisti, Hist. Eccles. i. 1, xvi. 31;
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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