Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/813

Rh SEVERUS. Alexandria, cited by Evagrius {H. E. iv. 1 0) and Nicephorus Callisti {H. E. xvii. 8), the S^voSi/cct, Synodica, or ''K-niaroXaX crvvoSiKal, Epistolae Si/- nodicae, or 'EiricTToKal iydpoviariKai, Epistolae In- augurales^ issued by him on his promotion to the patriarchate, in which he anathematized the council of Chalcedon, and all who supported the doctrine of the two natures of Christ. (Evagr. H.E. iii. 33, 34 ; Niceph. Callist. H. E. xvii. 2.) Of his other works the following are cited in various MSS. : '2.'t-naKor els Tods jj-aprvpas^ Hypacoe in Martyres, or simply 'TiraKOTJ, Hijpacoe. 13. Tlpos ^ Avaardffiov hid- hoyos, Dialoyus ad (s. Contra) Anastasium, 14. Tlpos EvTrpd^LOV Kov€LKOvXdpioy diroKpicTGis, Re- sponsiones ad Eupraxiurn Cubicularium. 15. Els ro " 07105 6 &e6s," avuTayfia^ Syntagma in illud^ '•'■ Sanctus Deus ;" and, 16. liiSKos rwv VTToariiJLeiaideuTUV tStoxf'pws Siacpoptav KecpaXaioov, Liber capitum variorum manu propria subsignato- rum, of which Joannes Damascenus cites a passage in the Appendix to his De Jejuniis (Le Quien's ed. I. c). Several citations of the works of Severus are given in the Hodegus s. Duw Viae of Anastasius Sinaita, and by Photius {Biblioth. Cod. 230) and in the Concilia ; but they are chiefly, if not wholly, from his Sermones and Epistolae. A work. Liber de Ritibus Baptismi et Sacrae Synaais apud Syros receptis, published in Syriac, with a Latin version, 4to. Antwerp, 1572, under the name of Severus, patriarch of Alexandria*, is ascribed in some MSS. to our Severus ; and Cave inclines to assign it to hira. Dionysius Bar Salibi, a Syriac writer, cites a work of "• Severus patriarcha oecumenicus," which he entitles Canticum Crucis (Assemani, Ribl. Orient, vol. ii. p. 205). The works of Severus are enumerated imperfectly by Cave {Hist. Litt. ad ann. 513, vol. i. p. 499, and more fully by Montfaucon (Biblioth. Coislin. p. 53, &c.), and Fa- bricius (Biblioth. Graec. vol. x. p. 616, &c.). 3. Encratita. There were two Severi emi- nient as leaders of bodies accounted heretical. The earlier was a leader of one of the divisions of the Gnostic body ; the latter, and far more cele- brated was the Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch [See No. 2.] We speak here of the former, who appears to have lived in the latter part of the second century. Little is known of his personal history. Eusebius (H.E. iv. 29), speaking of the sect of the Encratitae and their founder Tatian [TatianusJ, Bays that a certain person named Severus having strengthened the sect, gave occcasion to their being called, after his own name, Severiani. Theo- doret also makes Severus posterior to Tatian (Haeret. Fabtd. Comp. i. 21). Epiphanius, on the other hand, makes Severus anterior to Tatian. But the silence of Irenaeus, who mentions Tatian, but not Severus, makes it probable that Tatian was the earlier. Our account of the opinions of the Severiani is very obscure. According to Eu- sebius they admitted the Law and the Prophets (Euseb. H.E. iv. 29), while according to Augustin they rejected them (De Haeres. c. xxiv.). It is not improbable that they admitted them as an Liturgy is ascribed, is apparently Severus sur- named Bar Maschi, who lived in the tenth cen- tury after the Saracen conquest had superseded both the Greek goveniment and the Greek lan- guage in Egypt ; so that he comes not within the limits of cur work. VOL. III. SEVERUS. 801 authentic record of the Old or Mosaic Dispen- sation, promulgated by the Demiurgos, and as such may have used them, and argued from them ; but yet denied their authority as binding upon themselves, who had embraced the New Dis- pensation, which rested not on the authority of the Demiurgos, but on the higher and opposite authority of the Supreme and All-merciful God. This explanation of two apparently opposite state- ments is at any rate consistent with the leading principles of Gnosticism. The curious opinions of Severus, at least of the Severiani, as to the genea- logy of the Devil, and the origin of the vine, and of the formation of woman and man, are noticed elsewhere [Tatian us]. Severus denied the apostolic office of Paul, and consequently the authority of his writings ; going in these respects beyond Tatian. His followers also denied, according to Augustin, the resurrection of the body, which is likely enough. It is not impossible that these differences may have led to the temporary division of the sect of the Encratitae to which Severus and Tatian both belonged, and to the formation of separate bodies under the respective names of Tatiani and Severiani, who afterwards reunited under the old and generic name of Encratitae. The ascetic features, abstinence from marriage and from the use of animal food and wine, appear to have been common to the whole body, whether designated Tatiani, Severiani, or Phicratitae. [Ta- tianusJ. (Euseb. /. c. ; Epiphan. Haeres. xlv. ; Augustin. I. c. ; Theodoret. /. c. ; Ittigius, De Hae- resiarchis, sect. ii. c. xii. § xv. ; Tillemont, Mc- moires, vol. ii. p. 414 ; Neander, Church History (by Rose), vol. ii. p. Ill ; and (by Torrey) vol.ii. p. 167, note 3.) 4. Haeresiarcha. [Nos. 2, 3.] 5. MONOPHYSITA. [No. 2.] 6. Rhetor. Of this writer nothing certain is known. Fabricius is disposed to identify him with the ^€§r]pos aocpiaTris 'Pccfxalos^ Severus Sophista Romanus, mentioned by Suidas (s. v.) and by Pho- tius, in his abstract of the life of Isidorus by Damas- cius (Biblioth. Cod. 242). The Severus of Photius resided at Alexandria in the latter part of the fifth century, in the enjoyment of an ample library, and of literary leisure, and was a great patron and encou- rager of learned men, circumstances which bespeak him to have been a man of fortune. The prospect of the revival of the Western Empire during the brief reign of the Emperor Anthemius [Anthb- Mius], led him to visit Rome, where he obtained the honour of the consulship (a. d. 470), which honour, according to Damascius, was portended by the circumstance, deemed a prodigy, that his horse, when rubbed down, emitted from his skin an abundance of sparks. Severus, the rhetorician, wrote the following works: — I. 'Hdovouai, Et/iO' poeiae, a series of fictitious speeches, supposed to be uttered by various historical or poetical per- sonages at particular conjunctures. There are extant eight of these Ethopoeiae. Some of them were first printed, with a Latin version, by Fed. Morel, 8vo. Paris, 1616: viz.,. Herculis, Peri- clymeno in certamine sese commutante. 2. Menelai^ rapta a Paride Helena. 3. (but in an imperfect form) HectoriSf quum comperisset Priamum apud inferos cum AchiUe convivatum : and, 4. with title merely of Fragmentum alterius Ethopoeiae^ a fragment of a fourth, which was afterwards given in a complete form by AUatius j viz. Pictoris, depicfae 3 F
 * The Severus of Alexandria, to whom this