Syria Prima (Roman province)

Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem from 421 to 458, eventually achieves his ambition and is recognized by the Council of Chalcedon as patriarch of the three provinces of Palestine.

The Monophysite Controversy, a debate among Christians who disagree with the Council of Chalcedon's assertion that the person of Jesus Christ comprises two natures, human and divine, troubles Palestine, as well as Syria and Egypt.

When Juvenal returns from Chalcedon, having signed the Council's canons, the monks of Palestine rise and elect another bishop of Jerusalem, and military force is required to subdue them.

The Chalcedonian doctrine gradually gains ground, however, and Palestine becomes a stronghold of orthodoxy.

Emperor Marcian refuses to become entangled in war with the Vandals in Africa, but minor troubles with nomadic peoples in Syria and along the frontier of southern Egypt have occurred during his reign, including a revolt by the Samaritans.

Simeon, a Syrian Christian ascetic dismissed from a Syrian monastery for excessive austerity, became a hermit on Mount Telanissae.

He eventually moves to a platform at the top of a pillar, or stylos.

His advice sought by thousands of pilgrims, he remains at the top of the pillar until his death in about 459.

Simeon, who will be widely imitated, is the first of early Christianity’s so-called pillar ascetics.

Zeno, while living in Antioch with his family, sympathizes with the Monophysite views of Peter the Fuller, and supports him against his opponent, the Chalcedonian bishop Martyrius.

Zeno allows the arrival in Antioch from nearby monasteries of monks who increase the number of Peter's followers, and does not repress effectively their violence.

Martyrius goes to Constantinople, to ask Emperor Leo for help, but returning to Antioch, he is informed that Peter had been elected bishop; Martyrius resigns.

Leo reacts, ordering the exile of Peter and on June 1, 471, addressing to Zeno a law that forbids the monks to leave their monasteries and to promote rebellion.

In 470/471, Zeno has also to deal with an invasion of Sanni, who attack Roman Armenia.

Peter the Fuller, a non-Chalcedonian Christian churchman, had received his surname from his former trade as a fuller of cloth.

Tillemont (Empereurs, tome vi.

p. 404) considers that Peter was originally a member of the convent of the Akoimetoi, which he places in Bithynia on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, at Gomon, "The Great Monastery" and being expelled thence for his behavior and heretical doctrine, passed over to Constantinople, where he courted persons of influence, through whom he was introduced to Zeno, the son-in-law of Leo I and future emperor whose favor he had secured, obtaining through him the chief place in the church of St. Bassa, at Chalcedon.

Here his Non-Chalcedonian beliefs had quickly become apparent, resulting with his flight to Zeno, who was then setting out for Antioch as commander of the East (Magister Militum per Orientem).

Arriving at Antioch 463, Peter had greatly desired the patriarchal throne, then filled by Martyrius.

He quickly befriended the populace, with whom he raised suspicions against Martyrius as a concealed Nestorian, thus causing Martyrius' tumultuous expulsion and his own election to the throne.

Theodorus Lector dates this to 469 or 470.

When established as patriarch, Peter at once declared himself openly against the Council of Chalcedon, and added to the Trisagion the words "Who was crucified for us," which he imposed as a test upon all in his patriarchate, anathematizing those who declined to accept it.

According to the Synodicon, he summoned a council at Antioch to give synodical authority to this novel clause (Labbe, iv.

1009).

The deposed Martyrius went to Constantinople to complain to the Emperor Leo, by whom, through the influence of the Patriarch Gennadius, he was courteously received; a council of bishops found in his favor, and his restoration was decreed (Theodorus Lector p. 554).

But despite the imperial authority, Peter's personal influence, supported by the favor of Zeno, was so great in Antioch that Martyrius's position was rendered intolerable and he soon left Antioch, abandoning his throne again to the intruder.

Leo was naturally indignant at this audacious disregard of his commands, and he dispatched an imperial decree for the deposition of Peter and his banishment to the Oasis (Labbe, iv.

1082).

According to Theodorus Lector, Peter fled, and Julian was unanimously elected bishop in his place (471).

Peter the Fuller, deposed from the Antiochene see in 471, has spent the past five years in Constantinople, in retirement in the monastery of the Acoimetae, allowed to reside there in return for a pledge that he would not create further disturbances (Theophanes p. 104).

Peter’s fortunes revive during the short reign of Basiliscus, who, under the influence of his wife, advocates for the Non-Chalcedonians, recalls Timothy Aelurus, Patriarch of Alexandria, from exile, and by his persuasion issues an encyclical letter to the bishops calling them to anathematize the decrees of Chalcedon (Evagr.

H. E. iii.

4).

Peter gladly complies, and is rewarded by a third restoration to the see of Antioch, 476 (ib.

5).

Julian is deposed, dying not long after.

On his restoration Peter enforces the addition to the Trisagion, and behaves with great zeal against the Chalcedonian party, crushing all opposition by an appeal to the Syrian people, over whom he has gained control.

Once established on the patriarchal throne, he soon stretches its privileges to the widest extent, ordaining bishops and metropolitans for all Syria.

The fall of Basiliscus brings the ruin of all who had supported him and been promoted by him, and Peter is one of the first to fall.

Leontius is recognized in Antioch and makes it his capital.

He raises a rebellion against emperor Zeno, who faces a revolt also from the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great.

He sends an army to Syria, but is defeated by the imperial general Illus.

Peter the Fuller, thrice deposed from the see of Antioch, is again placed on the throne of Antioch by Zeno on his signing the Henoticon in 485 (Theophanes p. 115; Theodorus Lector p. 569; Evagr.

H. E. iii.

16).

He at once resumes his zealous career, expelling Chalcedonian bishops who refuse to sign the Henoticon and performing ordinations not recognized by Chalcedonians, especially that of the Xenaias (Philoxenus) to the see of Hierapolis (Theophanes p. 115).

He is condemned and anathematized by a synod of forty-two Western bishops at Rome in 485, and excommunicated.

He will retain, however, the patriarchate at Antioch until his death in 488 (or according to Theophanes, 490 or 491).

One of his last acts is to be the unsuccessful revival of the claim of the see of Antioch to the obedience of Cyprus as part of the patriarchate, which the First Council of Ephesus had removed from Antioch's supervision in 431.

An earthquake devastates the Syrian port town of Latakia in 494.

A sporting event is held on July 9, 507 at Daphne, near Antioch, in the form of a chariot race between two parties, the Greens and the Whites.

The supporters of the Greens attack the local synagogue for no apparent reason, killing the Jews inside.