Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/186

Rh 172 FLAVIANUS. cedon and depose its leading supporters ; but Flavian and Ellas of Jerusalem managed to prevent its effecting anything. Flavian still hoped to ap- pease his opponents, and wrote to the emperor, expressing his readiness to acknowledge the first three councils, and pass over that of Chalcedon in silence ; but his efforts were in vain ; a tumultuous body of monks of the province of Syria Prima as- sembled at Antioch, and frightened Flavian into pronouncing an open anathema against the Council of Chalcedon, and against Theodore of Mopsuestia and the other bishops whom Xenaias had already obliged him to condemn. The citizens were not equally compliant ; they rose against the monks, and killed many of them : and the confusion was renewed by the monks of Coele-Syria, who ern- braced the side of Flavian, and hasted to Antioch to defend him. These disturbances, or some trans- actions connected with the Council of Sidon, gave the emperor a ground or pretext for deposing Flavian (a. d. 511) and putting Se varus in his place. Victor Tununensis places the deposition of Flavian as early as the consulship of Cethegus, A. D. 504. Flavian was banished to Petra in Arabia, where he died. His death is assigned by Tillemont, on the authority of Joannes Mos- chus, to A. D. 518. In Vitalian's rebellion (a. d. 513 or 514) his restoration to his see was one of the demands of that rebel. [Anastasius.] Flavian is (at least was) honoured in the Greek Church as a confessor, and was recognised as such by the Romish Church, after long opposition. (Evagr. Hist. Ecc. iii. 23, 30, 31, 32 ; Theophan, Chronog. pp. 220 — 247, ed. Bonn ; Marcellin, Ckron. (Paul, et Muse. Cass.) Vict. Tun. Chron. (ab A7iast. Aug. Cos. ad Cetheg. Cos.) Baron. Annul. Eccles. ad Ann. 496 et 512 ; Pagi, Critice in Baron. ; Tillemont, Mem. vol. xvi. p. 675, &c.) 3. Of Constantinople. He was chosen suc- cessor to Proclus, bishop of Constantinople, who died anno 439 Alex, era, or 446 A. D. At the time of his election he was a presbyter and keeper of the sacred vessels in the great church at Con- stantinople. Chrysaphius, the eunuch, a friend and supporter of the monk Eutyches [Eutyches], was at this time an influential person at court ; and he having a dislike to Flavian, managed to set the emperor Theodosius II. against him, from the very commencement of his episcopate. Dioscorus, who had just ascended the episcopal chair of Alex- andria, and was persecuting the kinsmen of his predecessor, Cyril [Cyrillus], was also irritated against Flavian, who had befriended the persecuted parties. Flavian was indeed befriended by Pul- cheria, the emperor's sister ; but her aid was more than counterbalanced by the enmity of the empress Eudocia [Eudocia Augusta], who was influ- enced by Chrysaphius, and was, moreover, irritated by Flavian's defeating a plan to remove Pulcheria altogether from the state and the court by having her ordained a deaconess. Flavian was not, how- ever, daunted. He assembled a synod of forty bishops, and deposed Eutyches from his office of archimandrite or abbot, and excommunicated him, on the ground of his heretical opinions. [Eu- tyches] This bold step irritated the opponents of Flavian, and they prevailed on the emperor to summon a synod at Constantinople to try Flavian on a charge of falsifying the acts of the synod at which Eutyches was condemned. Flavian was acquitted, but his enemies persuaded Theodosius to FLAVIUS. summon a general council at Ephesus. At tliis council, over which Dioscorus presided, and which is known in history as the Council of Robbers (7/ ATjo-rptKT)), Flavian and the other members of the synod which had condemned Eutyches were present, but were not allowed to vote, since their conduct was called in question. Their friends were overborne in an irregular manner, Eutyches was restored, and Flavian not only deposed and sentenced to banishment, but so roughly beaten and kicked by the Egyptian and other attendants of Dioscorus, that he died three days afterwards (a. D. 449). This violence probably tended to the reaction which took place in the mind of the emperor. Pulcheria regained her ascendancy ; the body of Flavian was, by her order, honourably conveyed to Constantinople, and buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles. Pope Leo the Great honoured him as a confessor, and the Council of Chalcedon as a martyr ; and since the time of Baronius he has been commemorated in the Mar- tyrology of the Romish Church. A letter of Flavian to Pope Leo was published by Cotelerus {Monuin. Eccles. (iraec. vol, i. p. 50); and a confes- sion of his faith presented to the emperor Theo- dosius, and some other pieces, are given with the acts of the Council of Chalcedon 'in the Concilia of Labbe and Harduin ; and are also inserted in the Concilia of Mansi, vol. viii. p. 833. (Evagr. Hist, Ecc. i. 8, 9, 10 ; Theophanes, Chronog. pp. 150 — 158, ed Bonn ; Marcellin, Chron. (Prolog. etAstur. Coss.) ; Vict. Tun. Chron. (Callip. et Ardat). Coss. Post, et Zen. Coss.) ; Synod. Vetus., apud Fabric. ; Fabr. Bild. Gr, vol. ix. p. 290, and vol. xii. pp. 393, 394, and 672 ; Tillemont, Mbn. vol. xv. pp. 446, &c.) [J. C. M] FLA'VIUS. ]. M. Flavius, a Roman, who in B. c. 328, during the funeral solemnity of his mother, distributed meat (visceratio) among the people. It was said that this gift was made as much to honour his mother as to show his gratitude towards the people for having acquitted him some time before, when he had been accused by the aediles of adultery. The people evinced their gratitude in return by electing him at the next comitia tribune of the people, although he was absent at the time, and others had offered them- selves as candidates. In b. c. 323 he was invested with the same office a second time, and brought forward a rogation to chastise the Tusculans for having incited the Veliternians and Privernatans to make war against Rome. But the Tusculans came to Rome and averted the punishment by their prayers and entreaties. (Liv. viii. 22, 27 ; Val. Max. ix. 10. § 1.) 2. Flavius, a Lucanian, who lived during the second Punic war, and for a time was at the head of the Roman party among the Lucanians. But in B.C. 213 he suddenly turned traitor; and not satisfied with going over to the enemy him- self, and making his countrymen follow his ex- ample, he resolved to deliver the Roman general, with whom he was connected by hospitality, into the hands of the Carthaginians. He accordingly had an interview with Mago, who commanded the Punic forces in Bruttium, and promised to deliver up to him the proconsul Tib. Sempronius Gracchus, on condition that the Lucanians should be free, and retain their own constitution. A place was then fixed upon where Mago might lay in ambush with an armed force, and whither Flavius promised to