Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/303

Rh PHILTPPUS. deed so eminent that Philip regarded his relation- ship to him as a sxibject of exultation (Socrates, //. E. vii. 27). Having entered the church, he was ordained deacon, and had much intercourse with Chrysostom ; in the titles of some MSS. he is styled his Syncellus, or personal attendant, which makes it probable that he was, from the early part of his ecclesiastical career, connected with the church at Constantinople. Liberatus {Breviar. c. 7) says he was ordained deacon by Chrysostom ; but Socrates, when speaking of his intimacy with that eminent man, does not say he was ordained by him. Philip devoted himself to literary pursuits, and collected a large library. He cultivated the Asiatic or diffuse style of com- position, and became a voluminous writer. At what period of his life his different works were produced is not known. His Ecclesiastical His- tory was, as we shall see, written after his dis- appointment in obtaining the patriarchate : but as his being a candidate for that high office seems to imply some previous celebrity, it may be inferred that his work or works in reply to the em- peror Julian's attacks on Christianity were written at an earlier period. On the death of Atticus patri- arch of Constantinople a. d. 425 [Atticus] Philip, then a presbyter, apparently of the great church of Constantinople, and Proclus, another presbyter, were proposed, each by his own partizans, as can- didates for the vacant see ; but the whole people were bent upon the election of Sisinnius, also a presbyter, though not of Constantinople, but of a cliurch in Elaea, one of the suburbs. (Socrates, H. E. vii. 26.) The statement of Socrates as to the unanimity of the popular wish leads to the inference that the supporters of Philip and Proclus were among the clergy. Sisinnius was the suc- cessful candidate ; and Philip, mortified at his defeat, made in his Ecclesiastical History such severe strictures on the election of his more for- tunate rival, that Socrates could not venture to transcribe his remarks ; and has expressed his strong disapproval of his headstrong temper. On the death of Sisinnius (a. d. 428) the supporters of Philip were again desirous of his appointment, but the emperor, to prevent disturbances, deter- mined that no ecclesiastic of Constantinople should succeed to the vacancy ; and the ill-fated heresiarch Nestorius [Nestorius], from Antioch, was con- sequently chosen. After the deposition of Nes- torius at the council of Ephesus (a. d. 431), Philip was a third time candidate for the patriarchate, but was again unsuccessful. Nothing is known of him after this. It has been conjectured that he was dead before the next vacancy in the patriarchate A. D. 434, when his old competitor Proclus was chosen. Certainly there is no notice that Philip was again a candidate : but the prompt decision of the emperor Theodosius in Proclus' favour prevented all competition, so that no inference can be drawn from Pliilip's quiescence. Philip wrote, 1. Multa volumina contra Impe- ratorem Julianum Apostatam. (Liberatus, Breviar. c. 7 ; comp. Socrat. H. E. vii. 27.) It is not clear from the expression of Liberatus, which we have given as the title, whether Philip wrote many works, cr, as is more likely, one work in many parts, in reply to Julian. 2. 'larop'ia XpurnaviK-^^ Ilistoria Christiana. The work was very large, consisting of thirty- six BigAot or Bt§Aia, Libii, each subdivided into twenty-four T6yioi or AJ701, PIIILIPPUS. 291 i. e. sections. This voluminous work appears to have comprehended both sacred and ecclesiastical history, beginning from the Creation, and coming down to Philip's own day, as appears by his record of the election of Sisinnius, already noticed. It appears to have been finished not very long after that event. Theophanes places its completion in A. M. 5922, Alex, era = a. d. 430 ; which, accord- ing to him, was the year before the death of Sisinnius. That the work was completed before the death of Sisinnius is probable from the apparent silence of Philip as to his subsequent disappointments in obtaining the patriarchate: but as Sisinnius, according to a more exact chronology, died A. D. 428, we may conclude that the work was finished in or before that year, and, consequently, that the date assigned by Theophanes is rather too late. The style was verbose and wearisome, neither polished nor agreeable ; and the matter such as to display ostentatiously the knowledge of the writer, rather than to conduce to the improvement of the reader. It was, in fact, crammed with matter of every kind, relevant and irrelevant : questions of geo- metry, astronomy, arithmetic and music ; descrip- tions of islands, mountains and trees, rendered it cumbersome and unreadable. Chronological ar- rangement was disregarded. The work is lost, with the exception of three fragments. One of these, De Scholae Catecheticae Aleocandrinae Sttc- cessio?ie, on the succession of teachers in the Cate- chetical School of Alexandria, was published from a MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, by Dodvvell, with his Disseiiationes in Trenaeum, 8vo. Oxford, 1689, and has been repeatedly reprinte''. It is given in the ninth volume of the Bibliotheca Patrum of Galland, p. 401. Another fragment in tlie same MS., De Constantino^ Maximiano, et Li' cinio Augustis, was prepared for publication by Crusius, but has never, we believe, been actually published. The third fragment. To yivo/MiPa ev HepffiSi ^i€Ta|j) XpKTTtavwv 'EA-^vwv re koi 'lov- SaiuiV, Acta Disimtatioiiis de Christo, in Perside, inter Christianas^ Ge7i(iles, et Judaeos habilae, is (or was) in the Imperial Library at Vienna. Philip was present at the disputation. (Socrates, H. E. vii. 26, 27, 29, 35 ; Liberatus, I. c. ; Phot. BibL cod. 35 ; Theophan. Chronog. p. 75, ed. Paris, p. 60, ed. Venice, vol. i. p. 135, ed. Bonn ; Tillemont. Hist, des Empereurs, vol. vi. p. 1 30 ; Cave, Hisi% Lilt, ad ann. 418, vol. i. p. 395 ; Oudin, De Scrip- torib. Eccles. vol. i. col. 997 ; Fabric. BibL. Graec. vol. vi. pp. 739, 747, 749, vol. vii. p. 418, vol. x. p. 691 ; Galland, Biblioth. Patrum, vol. ix. Prol. c. 11 ; Lambecius, Commentar. de Biblioth. Cae- saraea, lib. s. vol. v. col. 289, vol. vi. pars ii. col. 406, ed. Kollar.) 27. SoLiTARius. The title Solitarius is given by bibliographers to a Greek monk of the time of the emperor Alexius I. Comnenus, of whom nothing further seems to be known than what may be gleaned from the titles and introductions of his ex- tant works. He wrote: — 1. Aion-rpa, Dioptra,s. Amussis Fidei et Vitae Chiistianae, written in the kind of measure called " versus politici," * and in the Jesuit Goar : " In versibus politicis, numerua syllabarum ad cantum non ad exactae poetices pros- odiam observatur. Octava syllaba, ubi caesura est, medium versus tenet, reliquae septern perficiunt. u 2
 * These " versus politici " are thus described bv