Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/93

Rh EUDOCIA. the second or pseudo-council of P'phesus (a. d, 449), known as "the council of robbers" (r^ X-ncrrpiKrt ), Flavian was deposed, and so roughly treated by the assembled prelates, that he died of their vio- lence a few days after. But Theodosius was soon led to take up the cause of the murdered patriarch. He banished Chrysaphius, and stripped him of all his possessions ; and shewed his anger with Eudocia by reviving the quarrel about the apple ; so that she begged and obtained permission to retire to Jerusalem. Pulcheria was recalled, and resumed the now vacant management of aifairs, which she retained during the short remainder of the reign of Theodosius and that of her husband Marcian, who succeeded him. Eudocia might possibly have been reconciled to her husband, but for an event recorded by Mar- cellinus, which rendered the breach irreparable. Saturninus, who held the office of comes domesti- corum, being sent for the purpose by Theodosius, on what account is not stated, but probably through jealousy, slew two ecclesiastics, Severus, a priest, and Johannes or John, a deacon, who were in the service of Eudocia at Jerusalem. She, enraged, put Saturninus to death, and was in return stripped of the state and retinue of empress, which she had been hitherto allowed to retain. Marcellinus places these sad events in the eighteenth consulship of Theodosius, a. d. 444 ; but this date is alto- gether inconsistent with the facts mentioned by Nicephorus. Theophanes placed them in a. m. 5942, Alex, era (a. d. 450), which is probably correct ; if so, it must have been before the death of Theodosius, which took place in that year. Eudocia spent the rest of her life in the Holy Land, devoting herself to works of piety and charit} She repaired the walls of Jerusalem, conversed much with ecclesiastics, built monaste- teries and hospitals, and a church in honour of the proto-martyr Stephen on the spot where he was said to have been stoned ; enriched existing churches Avith valuable offerings, and bestowed great sums i-n charity on the priests and the poor. But she was, for some years, obnoxious to the imputation of heres^^ The opinion of Eutyches on the union of the two natures in Christ, which she held, and which had triumphed in the " council of robbers " at Ephesus (a. d. 449), was condemned in another council held at Chalcedon (a. d. 451), soon after the death of Theodosius. The decrees of this latter council Eudocia for some years rejected. "When, however, she heard of the captivity of her daughter Eudoxia [Eudoxia], whom, with her two daughters, Genseric, king of the Vandals, had carried into Africa (a. d. 455), she sought to be reconciled to Pulcheria, that she might interest her and her husband, the emperor Marcian, in behalf of the captives. By the intervention of Olybrius, to whom one of the captive princesses was betroth- ed, and of Valerius, the reconciliation was eifected ; and Pulcheria anxiously sought to restore Eudocia to the communion of the church. She engaged her brothers and daughters (according to Nicephorus) to write to her for this purpose : from which it may be gathered that the brothers of Eudocia had become Christians, and were still living. According to the Paschal Chronicle, they had been advanced to high offices, Aetius or Gesius in the provinces, and Valerius at court. Possibly the Valerius who had been one of the mediators between the prin- cesses, was cue of them. Who " the daughters," EUDOCIA. 79 of Eudocia were, is not clear. We read onlj'- of two, Eudoxia, now in captivity, and Flacilla, long since dead. If the letters were from the captive princesses, we must understand daughters in the more extended sense of female descendants. These letters and the conversations which Eudocia held with Symeon the Stylite, and Euthymius, an emi- nent monk of Jerusalem, determined her to re- nounce Eutychianism ; and her conversion led many others to follow her example ; but it is ho- nourable to her that she continued her gratuities to those who retained as well as to those who re- nounced these opinions. She died at Jerusalem ia the fourth year of the reign of Leo I. A. D. 460-61, and was buried in the church of St. Stephen, wjhich she herself had built. Theophanes places her death in A. M. 5947 Alex, era (a. d. 455), but this is too early. Her age has been already noticed. She solemnly declared at her death that she was free from any guilty connexion with Paulinus. Eudocia was an author. She wrote — 1. A poem on the victory obtained hy the troops of her husband Theodosius over the Persians^ A. D. 421 or 422. This was in heroic verse, and is mentioned by Socrates. {Hist. Ecdes. vii. 21.) 2. A pai-aphruse of the Odateuch, also in heroic verse. Photius de- scribes it as consisting of eight books, according to the division of that part of Scripture which it em- braced ; and says it was well and perspicuously written, and conformable to the laws of the poetic art ; but that the writer had not allowed herself the poetic licences of digression and of mingling fiction with truth, having kept very close to the sense of the sacred books 3. A paraphrase of the Prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah^ in the same measure. 4. A poem.^ in the same measure and in three books, om tlie history and martyrdom of Cy' prian and Justina^ who suffered in the persecution under Diocletian. Photius gives a pretty full ac- count of this poem. 5. Zonaras and Joannes Tzetzes ascribe to Eudocia Homero-Centones ; and a poem under that title, composed of verses and parts of verses from Homer, and having for its subject the history of the fall and of the redemp- tion of man by Jesus Christ, has been repeatedly published, both in the original and in a Latin ver- sion. In one edition, it is said to be by Eudocia Augusta, or Patricius Pelagius. The genuineness of this work is, however, very disputable, and even the fact of Eudocia having ever written anything of the kind, is not quite clear, (Socrates, Hist. Ecdes. vii. 21 ; Evagrius, HisL Ecdes. i. 20, 21,22; Nicephorus Callisti, Hist. Ecdes. xiv. 23, 47, 49, 50 ; Zonaras, Annates., vol. iii. p. 34 — 37, ed. Basil. 1557; Marcellinus, Chro- nieon ; Chronicon Aleocandriimm sive Paschale ; Jo- annes Malalas, Chronographia., lib. xiv. ; Theo- phanes, Chronographia., ab A. M. 5911 ad 5947, Alex, era ; Joannes Tzetzes, Hktoriar. Variar Chilias. X Hist. 306; Cedrenus, Co/Kpewrf/wm, p. 590 -91, ed. Bonn ; Michael Glycas, Annates^ pars iv, pp. 484-5, ed. Bonn; Photius, Biblioth. codd. 183, 184; Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. vol. vi. ; Gibbon, Decl. and Fall. ch. xxxii. ; Cave, Hist. Lit. vol. i. p. 403, ed. Oxford, 1740-43 ; Oudin, De Scriptor. Ecdes. vol. i. p. 1258; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol, i. p. 552, &c., vol. X. p. 730, &c.) 2. Daughter of Valentinian III. and of Eudoxia, daughter of Theodosius II., and consequently grand- daughter of the subject of the preceding article. She was carried captive to Carthage by