Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/365

Rh ARIUS. render the books of Arius, which were to be burnt, and stigmatizing the Arians with the name of Porpliyrians — (from Porpliyrius, a heathen opponent of Christianity, who had nothing to do with the Arian question). The Arians at Alex- andria, however, remained in a state of insurrec- tion, and began to make common cause with the Meletians, a sect which had likewise been con- demned by the council of Nicaea, for both had to regard Alexander, and his successor Athanasius, as their common enemies. Arius remained in lUyricum till a. d. 328, when Eusebius of Nicomedeia and his friends used their influence at the court of Constantino, to persuade the emperor that the creed of Arius did not in reality differ from that established by the council of Nicaea. In consequence of this Arius was re- called from his exile by very gracious letters from the emperor, and in a. d. 330, had an audience with Constantine, to whom he presented a confes- sion of faith, which consisted almost entirely of passages of the scriptures, and apparently confirm- ed the representation which Eusebius had given of his opinions. The emperor thus deceived, granted to Arius the permission to return to Alexandria. (Socrat. H. E. i. 25 ; Rufin. //. E. i. 5.) On the arrival of Arius in Alexandria, a. d. 331, Athana- sius, notwithstanding the threats of Eusebius and the strict orders of the emperor, refused to receive him into the communion of the church ; for new outbreaks took place at Alexandria, and the Me- letians openly joined the Arians. (Athanas. Apolog. § 59.) Eusebius, who was still the main supporter of the Arian party, had secured its as- cendancy in Syria, and caused the synod of Tyre, in A. D. 335, to depose Athanasius, and another synod held in the same year at Jerusalem, to re- voke the sentence of excommunication against Arius and his friends. The attempt of Arius to re-establish himself at Alexandria failed not- withstanding, and in a. d. 336, he travelled to Constantinople to have a second interview with the emperor. He again presented his confession of faith, which was apparently orthodox. Here- upon Alexander, bishop of Constiintinople, who had hitherto refused recognising Arius as a mem- ber of the orthodox church, received orders from the emperor to administer to Arius, on the Sunday fol- lowing, the holy communion. When the day came, Arius accompanied by Eusebius and other friends, went in a sort of triumph through the streets of Constantinople to the church. On his way thither he went aside for a moment to relieve a physical want, but he never returned : he was seized by a fainting fit and suddenly died, and his corjjse was found by his friends and buried. (So- crat. H. E. i. 38 ; Epiphan. Haeres. 69. 10 ; Ru- fin. H. E. i. 13.) His sudden death in such a place and at such a moment, naturally gave rise to a number of strange suspicions and surmises ; the orthodox regarded it as a direct judgment from heaven, while his friends supposed that he had been poisoned by his enemies. Arius must have been at a very advanced age when he died, since he is called the old Arius at the time when he began his disputes with Alexan- der, and he was undoubtedly worn out and ex- hausted by the continued struggles to which his life had been exposed. He is said to have been unusually tall, pale, and thin, of a severe and gloomy appearance, though of captivating and mo- ARMINIUS. 347 dest manners. The excellence of his moral cha- racter seems to be sufficiently attested by the silence of his enemies to the contrary. That he was of a covetous and sensual disposition, ia an opinion unsupported by any historical evidence. Resides the works already referred to in this arti- cle, Arius is said to have written songs for sailors, millers, and travellers; but no epecimen or frag- ment of them is now extant. (Q. M. Travasa, Sloria cntica della Vita rfi J no, Venice, 1746; Fabric. DM. Graec. ix. p. 214, &c. ; Walch, Ilis- torie der Keizereien; and the church histories of Mosheira, Neander, and Gieseler.) [L. S.] ARME'NIDAS or ARME'NIDES {'Ap/xfvi- Sas or Ap^ei'iSrjs), a Greek author, who wrote a work on Thebes (0Tj§otKo), which is referred to by the Scholiast on ApoUonius Rhodius (i. 551) and Stephanus Byzantius. (s.v.'AXiapros.) But whether his work was written in prose or in verse, and at what time the author lived, cannot be as- certained. [L. S.] ARME'NIUS ('Ap/xevios or "Apfievos), one of the Argonauts, who was believed to have been a native of Rhodes or of Armenion in Thessaly, and to have settled in the country which was called, after him, Armenia. (Strab. xi, p. 530, &c.; Justin, xlii. 2 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. 'Apixfvia.) [L. S.] ARME'NIUS {'Ap/xevios), a Christian, who wrote in Greek an account of the martyrdom of Chrysanthus and Daria, whose contemporar}'- he appears to have been. The Greek original has never been published, but a Latin translation is printed in Surius, Act. Sanct. v. under the 25th of October. (Fabric. Bill. Gr. x. p. 210.) [L. S.] ARM'INIUS, or Hermann, "the chieftain," was the son of Sigimer, " the conqueror," and chief of the tribe of the Cherusci, who inhabited the coun- try to the north of the Hartz mountains, now forming the south of Hanover and Brunswick. He was born in the year 18 b. c, and in his youth he led the warriors of his tribe as auxiliaries of the Roman legions in Germany (Tac. Ann. ii. 10), where he learnt the language and military discipline of Rome, and was admitted to the freedom of the citv, and enrolled amongst the equites. (Veil. PaL ii.ll8.) He appears in historj' at a crisis which is one of the most remarkable in the history of Europe. In the year a. d. 9, the Romans had forts along the Danube, the Rhine, on the Elbe and the Weser. Tiberius Nero had twice (Veil. Pat. ii. 107) over- run the interior of Geraiany, and had left Varus with three legions to complete the conquest of the country, which now seemed destined to become, like Gaul, a Roman province. But Varus was a man whose licentiousness and extortion (Dion Cass. Ivi. 18; Veil. ii. 117) made the yoke of Rome into- lerable to the Germans. Arminius, who was now twenty-seven years old, and had succeeded his fa- ther as chief of his tribe, persuaded the other chiefs who were with him in the camp of Vanis, to join him in the attempt to free his country. He amused Varus with professions of friendship, with assur- ances that his countrymen were pleased with the improvements of Roman civilization, and induced him to send off detachments of his troops in differ- ent directions to protect his convoys ; and as these troops were separately attacked and cut to pieces. Varus gave orders for the army to march to quell what seemed an insurrection. Arminius promised to join him at a certiun place wifJi his Germans.