Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/148

Rh 136 PATRICIUS. tion to AsparV influence. Leo and Aspar had been estranged from each other ; but a recon- ciliation having been effected between them, it was agreed that Patricius should receive the hand of one of Leo's daughters. Nicephorus Callisti says he was to marry Ariadne, the elder of the two ; but it was more probably Leontia, the younger, as Ariadne appears to have been already married to Zeno, afterwards emperor [Zeno]. It Avas also stipulated that Patricius should be raised to the rank of Caesar. As this would have been equivalent to pointing him out as Leo's successor on the throne, and as Patricius held the Arian principles of his father and family, the arrangement was vehemently opposed by the orthodox clergy, monks, and populace of Constantinople, who re- quired that the arrangement should be set aside, or, at least, that Patricius should make profession of orthodoxy as the price of his elevation. Leo appeased the malcontents by promising that their request should be complied with. Whether Pa- tricius renounced Arianism is not stated ; but he received the title of Caesar, and was either married, or, as Tillemont thinks, only affianced to the em- peror's daughter. He soon after set out in great state for Alexandria ; but he must soon have re- turned, as he was at Constantinople when Leo determined on the removal of Aspar and his sons by assassination. Aspar, and Ardaburius, his eldest son, fell, and most writers state that Pa- tricius was murdered also ; but according to the more ancient, circumstantial, and, on the whole, more trustworthy narrative of Candidus, Patricius escaped, though not without many w^ounds. Ac- cording to Nicephorus Callisti he was banished, and deprived of his affianced bride, who was given to Zeno ; the statement that he was banished, and that his wife was taken from him, or that the marriage was not completed, is not improbable ; but that she was given to Zeno is probably an error, arising from Nicephorus's confounding Leon- tia and Ariadne. Valesius says that Patricius was father of Vitalian, who played so conspicuous a part under the emperors Anastasius and Justin L He does not cite his authority, but he probably followed the statement of Theophanes, that Vita- lian was the son of Patriciolus, by which name Marcellinus calls our Patricius ; but Theophanes never gives the name Patriciolus to the son of Aspar, nor does there seem sufficient reason for identify- ing them. It is difficult to ascertain the dates of these transactions ; the elevation of Patricius is fixed by Cedrenus in the twelfth year of Leo, i. e. A. D. 469 ; the assassination of Aspar is placed by the Alexandrian Chronicle in the consulship of Pusaeus and Joannes, A. D. 467 ; by Theophanes in A. M. 5964 ; Alex, era, A. D. 472 ; and by the Latin chroniclers, Marcellinus, Cassiodorus, and Victor of Tunes, whose date is adopted by Tille- mont, in A. D. 471 ; vve do not attempt to recon- cile these discrepancies. This Patricius, the son of Aspar, is to be distinguished from Patricius, magister officiorum, whom the intriguing empress Verina [Verina], Leo's widow, after driving her son-in-law Zeno [Zeno] from his throne and csipital, hoped to marry, but who was put to death by Basiliscus, Verina's brother [Basiliscus] ; from Pelagius Patricius, the supposed author of the Homero-Centra [Patricius, Literary, No. 5] ; and from Patricius, a distinguished general in the war carried on by Anastasius, Zeno's successor, PATRICIUS. against the Persian king Cabades. (Chron. Faschal vol. i. p. 323, ed. Paris, p. 596, ed. Bonn ; Theophanes, Chronng. p. 101, ed. Paris, pp. 1 81, 1 82, ed. Bonn ; Marcellin. Cassiodor. Victor Tunet. Chronica ; Zonaras, Annal. xiv. 1 ; Cedre- nus, Compend. p. 350, ed. Paris, vol. i. p. 613, ed. Bonn ; Candidus, apud Phot. Bibl. Cod. 79 ; Niceph. Callist. Hist. Ecdes. xv. 27 ; Valesius, Rernm Francic. lib. v. vol. i. p. 213, ed. Paris, 1646, &c. ; Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. vol. vi. p.413, &c.) [J. CM.] PATRI'CIUS (UaTpiKios), literary. 1. Arar- sius. [Ararsius.] 2. Christophorus. [Christophorus.] 3. Of Mytilene. [Christophorus.] 4. MoNACHUs. [No. 8.] 5. Pelagius. According to Zonaras {Annales^ lib. xiii. c. 23, vol. ii. p. 44, ed. Paris, p. 35, ed. Venice) the Homero-Centra^ or Homero-Centrones, 'OfJLTipoKevrpa Sl koX Kevrpwves, composed by the Empress Eudocia, wife of the younger Theodosius [EuDociA, No. 1], had been begun but left un- finished by a certain Patricius, or, for the expres- sion (UarpiKiov Tivos) is ambiguous, by a certain Patrician. If a MS. noticed below is right in terming him Sacerdos, Patricius must be under- stood as a name, not as a title. Cedrenus (p. 354, ed. Paris, 621, ed. Bonn) ascribes the Homero- Centra to a certain Pelagius Patricius, or (for there is the same ambiguity as in Zonaras), " Pela- gius the Patrician" (HeXdyiov t6v U.arplKiov who was put to death by the Emperor Zeno. If we understand Zonaras to say that Patricius left the Homero-Centra unfinished at his death, and that they were afterwards finished by Eudocia, who herself died in a. d. 460 or 461, he must have been a different person from the Pelagius Patricius slain by Zeno, who did not become em- peror till A. D. 474. But it is not necessary so to understand Zonaras. A MS. in the king's library at Paris (formerly No. 2891) is supposed to con- tain the Homero-Centra as written by Patricius, consisting of only two hundred and three lines, yet noticing all those events in the Saviour's History which are recapitulated in the Apostles' and Ni- cene Creeds. Two other MSS. in the same library (formerly Nos. 2977 and 3260) are thought to contain the poem as completed by Eudocia, consist- ing of six hundred and fifteen verses, and compre- hending not only the work of Patricius, but also narratives of many of the miracles of Christ in- serted in the appropriate places, and a description of the last judgment. In the account of a MS. in the Escurial, the poem is described (Fabric. BiU. Gr. vol. xi. p. 706) as composed by " Patricius Sacerdos," but arranged and corrected by Eudocia. It is not unlikely therefore that the poem of Patri- cius was not properly left unfinished, as Zonaras states, but composed on a less comprehensive plan, and that Eudocia enlarged the plan, and re-arranged the poem, inserting her own additions in suitable places. There is then little difficulty in believing that Patricius was contemporary with Eudocia, but survived to the reign of Zeno, and was put to death by him as related by Cedrenus. The diffi- culty would be removed by supposing the correct- ness of the title of one of the above MSS. in the king's library at Paris (formerly No. 2977), which ascribes the poem in its complete state to the later Empress Eudocia of Macrembolis [Eudocia, No. 8] ; but the supposition is contrary to all other