Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/238

Rh 226 PETRUS. Court, to whose temporizing course this decisive step was adverse, he denied that he had done so. Evagrius {H. E. iii. 17) has preserved the letter he wrote to Acacius on this occasion, which is the only writing of Peter now extant. By this tergi- versation he preserved his see, and was enabled to brave the repeated anathemas of the Western Church. When, however, to recover the attachment of the Monophy sites, he again anathematized the Council of Chalcedon ; and Euphemius, the newly elected patriarch of Constantinople, forsaking the policy of his predecessors, took part with the Western Church against him, his difficulties became more serious. What result this combination against him might have produced, cannot now be known ; death re- moved him from the scene of strife A. d. 490, shortly before the death of Zeno. He was suc- ceeded in the see of Alexandria by another Mono- physite, AthanasiusII. ( Evagrius, i/.£^. iii. 11 — 23; Breviculus Historiae EutycUanistarum s. Gesta de Nomine Acadi^ apud Concilia^ vol. iv. col. 1079, ed. Labbe ; Liberatus, Breviarium, c. 15 — 18 ; Theo- phanes, Chronograpliia, pp. 107 — 115, ed. Paris, pp. 86—92, ed. Venice, vol. i. pp. 194—206, ed. Bonn ; Victor Tunnunensis, Chronicon ; Tilleraont, Manoires, vol. xvi. ; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 477, vol. i. p. 455 ; Fabric. Biblioth. Grace, vol. xi. p. 336 ; and Synodicon Vetus, apud Fabric. Bibl. Gi'. vol. xii. pp. 398, 399 ; Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, vol. ii. col. 416, &c.) 23. Of NicoMEDEiA. Of the prelates, who with certain deacons and monks had to clear themselves in the third Constantinopolitan or sixth oecumenical council (a.d. 680), from the suspicion of holding the Monothelite heresy, the leader was Peter, metropolitan of Nicomedeia. Peter and his companions appeared before the council, and deli- vered to them, upon oath, solemn written confes- sions of their belief in the orthodox doctrine of two wills in Christ ; the confessions were of consider- able length, and all exactly alike, and are given in the original Greek with a considerable hiatus, but completely in a Latin version in the Acta Concilii CPolitani III., Actio x. ; or according to one of the Latin versions of the Acta given by Hardouin, in Actio ix. {Concilia, vol. vi. col. 784, 842, ed. Labbe, vol. iii. col. 1202, 1248, 1537, 1561, ed. Hardouin ; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 680, vol. i. p. 595.) 24. Orator. [No. 25.] 25. Patricius et M agister, a Byzantine his- torian of the sixth century. He was born at Thessalonica (Procop. De Bell. Gotthic. i. 3), in the province of Macedonia, then included in the prae- torian praefecture of lUyricum, on which account he is said to have been " an Illyrian." (Procop. /. c.) Peter settled at Constantinople, where he acquired distinction as a rhetor or advocate, a profession for which his cultivated mind, agreeable address, and natural powers of persuasion, were admirably adapted. These qualifications pointed him out to the discernment of the emperor Justinian L as suited for diplomatic life, and he was sent by him (a.d. 534) as ambassador to Amalasuntha, regent, and Theoda- tus, one of the chieftains of the Ostrogoths in Italy. On his way, at Aulon, near the entrance of the Adriatic, on the coast of Epeinis, or perhaps before his arrival there, Peter heard of the death of Atha- laric, the young Ostrogothic king, of the marriage of Amalasuntha and Theodatus and their exaltation to the throne of Italy, and of their subsequent dissen- sionsandtheimprisonmentof Amalasuntha. Hecon- PETRUS. sequently despatched intelligence of these important events to the emperor, while he himself waited at Aulon for further instructions. Justinian, without delay, undertook to vindicate the cause of the im- prisoned queen, and directed Peter to declare hia purpose openly to Theodatus. Peter immediately proceeded (a.d. 535), to Italy; but his arrival was speedily followed by the murder of Amalasuntha, an event extremely opportune for the ambitious views of Justinian, who, through Peter, immediately declared war against the Ostrogoths, on account of the queen's death. Such is the account given in one place by Procopius (ibid. c. 4) ; but he else- where {Hist. Arcan. c. 16) charges Peter with instigating Theodatus to commit the murder, being secretly commissioned to do so by the jealousy of Theodora, Justinian's wife, who held out to him, as an inducement to comply with her desire, the hope of great advancement. The baseness of Theodatus was alarmed by the declaration of war, and by the successes of Belisarius, who rapidly conquered Sicily ; and he negotiated with Peter, who had not yet quitted Ravenna, a peace by which he ceded Sicily to Justinian, engaged to pay a yearly tribute in monej', and to furnish him yearly with a body of Ostrogothic soldiers ; he consented also to restrict the exercise of his own power within very narrow limits, and to exercise it under the supremacy of Justinian. He at the same time commissioned Peter, in case the emperor should reject these terms, to promise an unconditional abdication ; binding him, however, by oath not to reveal this second offer, unless the em- peror should have previously rejected the first. Peter returned to Byzantium : the first offer was rejected, and the second then divulged and ac- cepted ; and Peter with another ambassador, Atha- nasius, was sent back to Italy to complete the arrangement. But Theodatus meanwhile, encou- raged by some disasters which the Byzantine forces had sustained in Dalmatia, had changed'his mind : he not only refused to fulfil his promise of sub- mission, but violated the law of nations b}'^ impri- soning the ambassadors. (Ibid. De Bell. Gotthico, i. 6 — 8.) Peter and his colleague remained in captivity until Belisarius, by detaining some Ostro- gothic ambassadors, compelled Vitiges, who had suc- ceeded Theodatus, to release them about the end of A. D, 438. (Ibid. ii. 22.) On his return, Peter re- ceived, as Procopius {Hist. Arcan. c. 16,) intimates, by Theodora's interest, and as a reward for his parti- cipation in procuring Araalasuntha's death, the high appointment of magister officiorum, bat incurred, according to the same authority, general odium by the part he had acted. He exercised his au- thority with the most unbridled rapacity ; for al- though he was, according to Procopius, naturally of a mild temper, and by no means insolent, he was at the same time the most dishonest of all mankind, KeirTl(TTaTos S« dvBpunruv dirdvTwv. (Ibid. c. 24.) Several years afterwards (about A. d. 550), Pe- ter, who retained his post of magister officiorum, and had in addition acquired the dignity of patri- cian (a dignity which Niebuhr not inaptly com- pares to that of privy councillor in England), was sent by Justinian to negotiate a peace with Chos- roes I. king of Persia ; but Chosroes, who did not desire peace, dismissed him, with a promise of sending an ambassador of his own to Constanti- nople to effect the proposed arrangement. Shortly afterwards (a.d. 551 or 552) Peter was engaged