Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/54

Rh 40 EPIPHANIUS. 9. Called erroneously the Patriarch, author of some works on the schism of the Jlastem and Western churches. See above. No. 5. 10. Of Petra, son of Ulpianus, was a sophist or rhetorician of considerable reputation. He taught rhetoric at Petra and at Athens. He lived also at Laodiceia in Syria, where he was very inti- mate with the two Apollinarii, father and son, of whom the latter afterwards became the founder of the sect of the Apollinaristae. The Apollinarii were excommunicated by the bishop of Laodiceia on ac- count of their intimacy with Epiphanius, who, it was feared would convert them to the religion of the Greeks ; from which it appears that Epiphanius was a heathen. While he was at Athens, Libanius, then a young man, came thither, but did not apply for instruction to Epiphanius, then in the height of his reputation, though they were both from Syria ; neither is this Epiphanius the person to whom Libanius wrote. (Libanius, Epist. 831.) Epipha- nius did not live to be very old ; and both he and his wife, who was eminent for her beauty, died of the same disease, an affection of the blood. He wrote many works, which are enumerated by Sui- das. They are as follows: 1. Ucpl Koivwvias Kol Sia<popS,s Tav (TTOtrecyi/. 2. TipoyviivdafxaTa. 3. MeAeroi. 4. A'q/J.apxoi. 5. IloAe/iapxt/cos. 6. Aoyoi 'EiriSeiKTLKOL : and, 7. Miscellanies. Socrates mentions a hymn to Bacchus, recited by him, Tittendance on which recitation was the imme- diate occasion of the excommunication of the Apol- linarii. (Socrates, Hist. Eccl. ii. 46 ; Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. V. 25 ; Eunapius, Sophist. Vitae {Epi- phanius and Libanius) ; Eudocia, ^luivid, in the Anecdota Graeca of Villoison, vol. i. ; Suidas, s. v. 'ETTi^ai/ios ; the passages in Suidas and Eudocia are the same.) 11. Described as Scholasticus. Sixtus of Sena calls him a Greek, but Ceillier {Auteurs Sacres, vol. xvi.) and Cave (Hid. Lit. vol. i. p. 405) call him an Italian. He lived about the beginning of the sixth centuiy. He was the friend of Cassiodorus [Cassiodorus], at whose request he translated from Greek into Latin the Commentary of Didymus on the Proverbs and on Seven of tlie Canonical Epistles [Didymus, No. 4.], the Exposition of Solomon''s Song, said by Cassiodorus to be by Epi- phanius of Constantia or Salamis. Garetius thinks this exposition was probably written by Philo of Carpasus or Carpathus ; but Foggini vindicates the title of Epiphanius to the authorship. Whether Epiphanius Scholasticus was concerned in the translation of the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus, and of the Notes on some of tJie Catholic Epistles, from the writings of Clement of Alexandria, which Cassiodorus procured to be made, can only be con- jectured, as Cassiodorus does not name the trans- lators. Sixtus of Sena ascribes to Epiphanius Scholasticus a Catena ( or compilation of com- ments) on the Psalms, from the Greek Fathers ; but we know not on what authority. But his principal work was translating and combining into one the Ecclesiastical Histories of Sozomen, Socrates, and Theodoret. The Historia Tripartita of Cassio- dorus was digested from this combined version. He also translated, by desire of Cassiodorus, the Codex Enci/clius, a collection of letters, chiefly synodal, in defence of the council of Chalcedon, which collection has been reprinted in the Concilia of Binius, Labbe, Coletus, and Harduin, but most correctly by the last two. The version of the EPIPHANIUS. Commentary of Didymus on the Canonical Epistles is said [Didymu.s, No. 4] to be that given in the BiUioiheca Patrum ; but that on the Proverbs has not, we believe, been printed ; the versions of Epiphanius, Josephus, and Clement of Alexandria, have been printed. Tiiat of Epiphanius on Solomon''s Song was first published by Foggini, at Rome, in 1750, with a preface and notes. (Cassiodorus, Praef. in Histor. Tripart, De Institutione Divinar. Literar. cc. 5, 8, 11, 17, with the notes of Gare- tius ; Sixtus Senensis, Bibliotheca Sancta, lib. iv. ; Fabric. Biblioth. Med. et Inf. Latiiiitatis, vol. ii. p. 101, ed. Mansi, Biblioth. Grace, vol. vii. p. 425, vol. viii. p. 257, vol. xii. p. 299 ; Cave, Ceillier, and Foggini, //. cc.) Beside the foregoing, there are many persons of the name of Epiphanius of whom little or nothing is known but their names. The ecclesiastics of the name, who appear in the records of the ancient councils, may be traced by the Index in Labbe's Concilia, vol. xvi. [J. C. M.] EPIPHA'NIUS i'Emtpdvios), bishop of Con- stantia and metropolitan of Cyprus, was born at Bezanduca, a small town in Palestine, in the district of Eleutheropolis, in the first part of the fourth century. (Sozomen. vi. 32.) His pa- rents were Jews. He went to Egypt when young, and there appears to have been tainted with Gnostic errors, but afterwards fell into the hands of some monks, and by them was made a strong advocate for the monastic life, and strongly imbued with their own narrow spirit. He re- turned to Palestine, and lived there for some time as a monk, having founded a monastery near his native place. In A. D. 367 he was chosen bishop of Constantia, the metropolis of the Isle of Cyprus, fonnerl}'' called Salamis. His writings shew him to have been a man of great reading ; for he was acquainted with Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Greek, and Latin, and was therefore called TT^vTa'yXuxTaos. But he was entirely with- out critical or logical power, of real piety, but also of a very bigoted and dogmatical turn of mind, unable to distinguish the essential from the non- essential in doctrinal differences, and always ready to suppose that some dangerous heresy lurked in any statement of belief which varied a little from the ordinary form of expression. It was natural that to such a man Origen, whom he could not understand, should appear a dangerous teacher of error ; and accordingly in his work on heresies he thinks it necessary to give an essential warning against him. A report that Origen's opinions were spreading in Palestine, and sanctioned even by John, bishop of Jerusalem, excited Epipha- nius to such a pitch, that he left Cypras to inves- tigate the matter on the spot. At Jerusalem he preached so violent a sermon against any abettors of Origen's errors, and made such evident allusions to the bishop, that John sent his Archdeacon to beg him to stop. Afterwards, when John preached against anthropomorphism (of a tendency to which Epiphanius had been suspected) he was followed up to the pulpit by his undaunted antagonist, who announced that he agreed in John's censure of Anthropomorphites, but that it was equally neces- sary to condemn Origenists. Having excited suf- ficient commotion at Jerusalem, Epiphanius re- paired to Bethlehem, where he was all-powerful with the monks ; and there he was so successful in his denunciation of heresy, that he persuaded