University of Oxford
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

E04496: Evagrius Scholasticus in his Ecclesiastical History reports that Severus of Antioch (459/465-538) received baptism at the shrine of *Leontios (martyr of Tripolis, Phoenicia, S00216) in Tripolis. Written in Greek at Antioch (Syria), 593/594.

online resource
posted on 2017-12-19, 00:00 authored by erizos
Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, 3.33

33. Ἐκβεβλημένου τοίνυν Φλαβιανοῦ, Σευῆρος ἐπὶ τὸν ἱερατικὸν τῆς Ἀντιόχου θρόνον ἄνεισι, χρηματιζούσης τῆς πόλεως ἔτος πρῶτον καὶ ἑξηκοστὸν καὶ πεντακοσιοστόν, ἀνὰ τὸν Δῖον μῆνα, τῆς ἕκτης ἐπινεμήσεως τοῦ τηνικάδε κύκλου, κατὰ τήνδε τὴν γραφὴν χρηματιζούσης πρῶτον τεσσαρακοστὸν καὶ ἑξακοσιοστὸν ἔτος. Ὃς πατρίδα τὴν Σωζοπολιτῶν κληρωσάμενος, ἣ μία τοῦ Πισιδῶν ἐστιν ἔθνους, δικανικοῖς πρώην ἐσχολάκει λόγοις ἀνὰ τὴν Βηρυτίων· ἐκ δὲ τῆς τῶν νόμων ἀσκήσεως εὐθὺ τοῦ ἁγίου μεταλαβὼν βαπτίσματος ἀνὰ τὸ ἱερὸν τέμενος Λεοντίου τοῦ θεσπεσίου μάρτυρος, τοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς Τριπολιτῶν Φοινίκης παράλου τιμωμένου, ἐπὶ τὸν μονήρη βίον μετῆλθεν ἔν τινι φροντιστηρίῳ, ἀνὰ τὸν μέσον χῶρον κειμένῳ Γάζης τοῦ πολίσματος καὶ τοῦ λεγομένου Μαιουμᾶ τοῦ πολιχνίου.

‘33. Now, after Flavianos was deposed, Severus ascended the pontifical throne of Antioch, when the city was spending the 561st year of its era, in the month of Dios, in the sixth indiction of that cycle (at the time of writing it is in its 641st year). He hailed from Sozopolis, one of the cities of Pisidia, and had previously studied law at Berytus. Straight after his legal training, he received holy baptism at the holy shrine of Leontios, the divine martyr who is venerated at Tripolis of coastal Phoenicia, and converted to the monastic life at a monastery which lies midway between the city of Gaza and the town which is called Maiuma.’

Text: Bidez, Parmentier 2011.
Translation: E. Rizos.

History

Evidence ID

E04496

Saint Name

Leontios, martyr of Tripolis (Syria) : S00216

Saint Name in Source

Λεόντιος

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Language

  • Greek

Evidence not before

593

Evidence not after

594

Activity not before

459

Activity not after

512

Place of Evidence - Region

Syria with Phoenicia

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Antioch on the Orontes

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Antioch on the Orontes Thabbora Thabbora

Major author/Major anonymous work

Evagrius Scholasticus

Cult activities - Liturgical Activity

  • Other liturgical acts and ceremonies

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits

Source

Evagrius was born in about 535 in the Syrian city of Epiphania. Educated at Antioch and Constantinople, he pursued a career as a lawyer at Antioch, serving as a legal advisor to Patriarch Gregory (570-592). He wrote the Ecclesiastical History in 593/4, with the express purpose of covering the period following the coverage of the mid 5th century ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. His narrative starts with Nestorius and the Council of Ephesus (431) and stops with the death of Evagrius’ patron, Gregory of Antioch, in 592. The work offers a balanced mixture of ecclesiastical and secular events in the East Roman Empire, being best informed about Antioch and Syria. Evagrius also published a dossier of original documents from the archive of Patriarch Gregory of Antioch, which has not survived.

Discussion

The shrine of Leontios in Tripolis was the centre of his cult which was highly popular around the eastern Mediterranean.

Bibliography

Text and French translation: Bidez, J., and Parmentier, L., Evagre le Scholastique, Histoire ecclésiastique (Sources Chrétiennes 542, 566; Paris, 2011, 2014), with commentary by L. Angliviel de la Beaumelle, and G. Sabbah, and French translation by A.-J.Festugière, B. Grillet, and G. Sabbah. Other translations: Whitby, M., The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus (Translated Texts for Historians 33; Liverpool, 2000). Hübner, A., Evagrius Scholasticus, Historia ecclesiastica = Kirchengeschichte (Fontes Christiani 57; Turnhout, 2007). Carcione, F., Evagrio di Epifania, Storia ecclesiastica (Roma, 1998). Further Reading: Allen, P., Evagrius Scholasticus, the Church Historian (Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, Etudes et Documents 41; Leuven, 1981). Treadgold, W., The Early Byzantine Historians (Basingstoke, 2006), 299-308.

Usage metrics

    Evidence -  The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC