A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

7.98) SEVERUS. SEVERUS.
an inscription preserved by Muratori, ULPIAE. opinions had rendered him a dangerous or a disSEVERINAE. AUG. CoIUGI. D. N. INVICT. AURE- agreeable inmate of his Palestinian monastery,
LIANI. AUG. No details regarding her history and he hoped to find a more cordial welcome or a
nave been transmitted to us, but we learn from securer shelter with Nephalius. In this hope he
some Alexandrian coins that she survived her was disappointed: Nephalius embraced the side of
husband. (Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 487.) [W. R.] Council of Chalcedon, and Severus and others
SEVE'RUS (2evuipos). Greeks, literary and ec- were expelled from the monastery (Evagr. 1. c.).
clesiastical. The name of Severus, though of pure Hereupon he fled to Constantinople, to plead his
Latin original, passed into the East, and was borne own cause and that of his fellow-sufferers; and in
by various writers, whose works, chiefly in Arabic, this way became known to the emperor Anastasius,
are still extant in MSS. Only three persons of who had (A. D. 491) succeeded Zeno. Severus is
the name, however, require notice here, the two charged (Libellus Monaclhor. 1. c.) with exciting
haeresiarchs (Severus the Encratite and Severus troubles in the city of Alexandria, and occasioning
of Antioch) and Severus the rhetorician. For the burning of many houses and the slaughter
the others the reader is referred to Assemani, Bib- of many citizens, though the city had afforded him
liotheca Orientalis; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. p. 106, a shelter " in his adversity: " but it is difficult to
ed. Oxford, 1740-43; and Fabric. Bibl. Graec. fix the time to which these charges refer. If lihe
vol. x. p. 623, &c. was in Alexandria after leaving the monastery in
]. ACEPHALORUM PRINCEPS [No. 2.]. Palestine, and before entering that of Nephalius,
2. Of ANTIOCH. An eminent leader of the Mo- the expression "in his adversity" intimates that
nophysites in the earlier part of the sixth century, he had been diven from his monastery in Palestine:
whence he is designated HAERESIARCHA and ACE- but it is not unlikely that the disturbances at
PHALUS (the Acephali,'AtKeeAoL, " the headless," Alexandria may have been consequent on his exwere the stricter Monophysites, and were so called pulsion and that of his fellow-monks by Nephabecause they renounced the communion of Peter lius; and the term " his adversity" may be unMongus, the trimming head of their party), not derstood as referring to that expulsion.
to enumerate the other reproachful epithets heaped In what year Severus went to Constantinople,
upon him by the members of the orthodox Greek or how long he abode there, is not clear. Tillemont
and Latin churches. As a compensation for all places his arrival in A. D. 510; but he probably rethis abuse, it may be observed that he enjoys, to lied on a passage in Theophanes (C/lronog. ad A. M.
this day, the highest reputation among the Jaco- 6002) which is ambiguous. The fellow-monks
bites of Syria and other parts of the East. He was for whom Severus came to plead, were partisans of
born at Sozopolis, a town of Pisidia, in Asia Minor; Peter Mongus [PETRUS, No. 22.]; and Severus,
and was in early life a pleader at Berytus in Syria, because he had formerly anathematized Peter, was
being at that time a heathen. He is charged by reproached with inconsistency in taking their part
his adversaries with having practised magic (Eva- (Liberat. 1. c.). He appears to have been at Congrius, H. E. iii. 33; Epistola Orthodoxor. Episcop. stantinople, A.D. 512; when, in consequence of
Orientalium, and Libellus Monaclhor. ad Mennam the disturbances, excited on account of Flavian,
apud Concil. vol. v. col. 40, 120, 121, ed. Labbe). patriarch of Antioch [FLAVIANUS, Ecclesiastics,
Having, however, embraced Christianity and been No. 2.], that prelate was deposed and banished to
baptized in the church of St. Leontius, the Martyr, Petra in Idumaea (Evagr. H. E. iii. 32), and
at Tripolis in Syria, he quitted the bar and devoted Anastasius eagerly seized the opportunity afforded
himself to a monastic life, in a monastery of Pales- by this vacancy to procure the appointment of
tine, between Gaza and its portMaiuma. He appears Severus to the patriarchate. The appointment
to have embraced the Monophysite doctrine almost was most offensive to the orthodox party. Wheimmediately after his conversion; for he is charged ther Anastasius or Severus took any steps to abate
(Libellus lllonachor. 1. c.) with renouncing, before its offensiveness is not clear. A letter of Epithe days of his baptism were complete, the church phanius, archbishop of Tyre, and some other preinto which he had been baptized; " calling the holy lates to the synod of Constantinople states it as a
temples of God receptacles of heresy and impiety " matter of common report, yet with a cautious ex(ibid.). It is probable, and indeed Theophanes pression of doubt as to its truth, that Severus,
distinctly asserts it (Chronog. p. 241, ed. Bonn.), before his consecration as patriarch, renounced the
that the monastery to which he withdrew, was a ordination to the office of presbyter, which he had
monastery of the Monophysites; and it was there received when among the Monophysites. This
that he met with Peter the Iberian, bishop of Gaza, renunciation, if it really took place, implies that he
a strenuous Monophysite and a follower of Timo- was re-ordained to the priesthood by some orthodox
theus Aelurus [TIMOTHRUS], whose banishment prelate. Theodore Anagnostes or Lector (Ilist.
he had shared. Severus was so earnest a Mo- Eccles. ii. 31) states, on the authority of Joannes
nophysite that he rejected the Henoticon of the Diacrinomenus, or John the Dissenter [comp.
emperor Zeno [ZENO], and anathematized Peter JOANNES, literary and ecclesiastical, No. 2.], that
Mongus, the more moderate Monophysite patriarch Anastasius obliged Severus to swear that he would
of Alexandria [PETaus, literary and ecclesias- not anathematize the Council of Chalcedon (comp.
tical, No. 22.], because he received the Henoticon Synodicon, apud Fabric. DBibioth. Graec. vol. xii.
(Liberat. Breviar. c. 19). Severus ridiculed the p. 401, and apud Concilia, vol. iv. col. 1414); hut
emperor's edict in his writings, calling it not the that Severus on the very day of his consecration,
" Henoticon" (evcWrifcdv, " edict of union"), but which appears to have taken place at Antioch,
Kenoticon (KCeVWTKOri, " edict of vanity"), and yielded to the urgent solicitations of his MonophyDiaereticon (3La1PEsrKCV, "edict of disunion "). site friends, and, ascending the pulpit, publicly
From his monastery in Palestine, Severus appears anathematized the Council, and afterwards (A. D.
to have removed to another monastery in Egypt, 413) obtained the confirmation of the anathema
of which Nephalius was abbot. Possibly his ultra by a council which he assembled at Antioch (Sy