Saturday, April 17, 2021

Emperor Zeno's highwire

After Theodosius II and Marcian, I don't hear much of Leo's theology. I am aware more of Leo's foreign policy, which was a disaster - I don't know why they call him "Leo the Great". Emperor Zeno is where I start hearing theology again, with the Henotikon, considered - by us Latins - as a betrayal of Chalcedon. I have to qualify this: Zeno was a pussy.

I found an account where Edessene bishop Cyrus II got the "Nestorians" kicked out of his city [UPDATE 7/24/23: Ibas' remnant]. The school became a shrine to - what else - the victorious Theotokos; they tell me it happened in AD 489. The next year Zeno at Constantinople raised Euphemius as Patriarch. Euphemius will be similarly spineless at first, until the next emperor Anastasius gave that one no choice but to grow a spine. Some call Euphemius a full Nestorian. I call those people less-polite names.

As to the context, I am guessing that Zeno was ailing. Anastasius was coming. At the same time the Latins couldn't be entirely alienated, and there remained Chalcedonians at home. As for Edessa, I'm proposing that Cyrus' "Nestorian" purge caught several orthodox Chalcedonians in the dragnet. If they could slander Euphemius later, they could slander his allies earlier.

I don't think Zeno was a Miaphysite. I think he was just weak.

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