Domitian of Melitene
Domitian (
Early life
Domitian is the subject of a short biography in the Synaxarion of Constantinople and another, probably sourced from the Synaxarion, in the 11th-century Menologion of Basil II. These were written centuries after his death and their reliability is suspect. According to the Synaxarion, he was thirty years old when he became bishop, and this fact may be accurate.[3] This would place his birth around 550.[2][3] He was certainly young at the time of his appointment.[3][4]
According to the
According to the Synaxarion, Domitian received both a secular and a
Maurice's advisor
According to John of Ephesus's Historia Ecclesiastica, Maurice arranged his election as bishop of Melitene about two years before he succeeded to the imperial throne, while he was still just magister militum per Orientem (578–582).[1][5] This would be around 580. The bishops of Melitene were metropolitans of their province, but Domitian was the first to be accorded the rank of archbishop. Although in administrative terms, Melitene was a part of Armenia, it was often considered to belong to Cappadocia. To honour Domitian, Maurice raised the rank of his province from Armenia Tertia to Armenia Prima.[3]
John of Ephesus says that Domitian moved to Constantinople soon after Maurice's accession.[3] He became one of Maurice's closest and most trusted advisors in the wars against the Persians and against the Avars and Slavs.[1][3] The monophysite John, who died before Domitian's persecution of the monophysites, considered him wise.[6] In religion, John says he was "thoroughly imbued with the opinions of" the Council of Chalcedon and Leo's Tome.[3] He reportedly gave the gifts he received from the emperor to the poor.[5]
Domitian mainly resided in Constantinople in the periods 582–585 and 591–598.
In the testament that Maurice had drawn up in 596 or 597, which was only discovered in the reign of Heraclius, Domitian was named guardian of the emperor's children.[1]
Persian mission
In 590, during a Persian civil war, he was sent with Bishop Gregory of Antioch to Constantina to join the exiled Persian king Khosrow II, whom Maurice intended to restore.[1][7][8] He and Gregory were seemingly chosen with the intention of converting Khosrow to Christianity.[3] In August 593,[1] Domitian wrote to his old friend Gregory the Great, now pope, informing him about his efforts. He apparently told him he should "recognize the size of the statue", referring to Maurice, "from the shadow". The letter is lost.[3] Gregory the Great wrote back to Domitian praising him for having "preached the Christian faith" to the Persian king.[9] Gregory wrote at least two more letters to Domitian (1 June 595 and September or October 598).[1] The last is concerned mainly with ecclesiastical affairs on Sicily.[3]
It was probably during his sojourn with the Persian court in exile that Domitian met the Christian noblewoman
Domitian took the surrender of the Persian garrison occupying
Spiritual authority
Domitian was de facto the highest spiritual authority in the empire under Maurice. The Chalcedonian patriarch
Domitian was one of the bishops who took part in the consecration of Patriarch Cyriacus II of Constantinople. In October 596, Gregory the Great reproved the bishops, including Domitian, for misusing Psalm 118:24.[3]
According to John of Nikiu, Domitian "gave order that force should be used to compel the Jews and Samaritans to be baptized and become Christians," but this project only resulted in false Christians.[3]
Persecution of monophysites
In 598 or 599, Maurice authorized Domitian to persecute the monophysites in the vicinity of Melitene.
When he had arrived in Mesopotamia and had set the persecution in motion, he came to Edessa and began to exercise great pressure on the Orthodox [monophysites]. He summoned the monks from the Abbey of the Orientals and did his utmost to deflect them from Orthodoxy by playing on their emotions, but they would have nothing of it. He tried threats instead, but they were impervious to fear. So then he ordered the commander of the troops whom the King had sent with him, whose name was Sakellarios, to take them out to the ditch outside the southern gate, which was called the Bēth Shemesh [House of the Sun] Gate and he slaughtered them all in a single pool of blood. In number they were four hundred men.[15]
Michael the Syrian, however, lays the blame on the commander:
[Domitian] departed like a beast of prey for Mesopotamia. . . [T]hat wicked man, he continued his persecutions for a long time, putting the Orthodox under pressure to receive communion from him even after they had eaten. Many of the Orthodox stood their ground sturdily in this combat and did not consent to accept the evil heresy of the Dyophysites [Chalcedonians]. They reviled the King [Maurice] and Domitian, and the soldier called [the s]patharios used this as a pretext, saying that he had heard the monks insulting the King and his nephew and that he had killed them for this reason. Many people were expelled from their churches.[16]
The
Death and veneration
According to
Other sources give his date of death as 10 January and that is the day of his celebration in the Chalcedonian churches, who regard him as a saint.[2] He is in the revised Roman Martyrology (2004), but not in the General Roman Calendar.[5]
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Martindale (1992), p. 411.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kaegi & Kazhdan (1991).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah Honigmann (1953), pp. 218–223.
- ^ a b Greatrex (2018).
- ^ a b c d Watkins (2016), p. 186.
- ^ Allen (1980), p. 16.
- ^ Allen (1980), p. 15.
- ^ Lee (2007), p. 100.
- ^ Booth (2019), p. 793.
- ^ a b Dal Santo (2011), p. 129.
- ^ Greatrex & Lieu 2002, p. 292 n. 18.
- ^ Palmer (1993), pp. 117–118.
- ^ Honigmann 1953, p. 222 n. 5: "at no other time were the Monophysites persecuted with such brutality"; Allen 1980, pp. 7–8: "the persecution cannot have attained significant proportions, for Maurice nonetheless was awarded the accolade of sainthood by the monophysite tradition"; contra Allen, however, Whitby 1988, p. 21, notes that the short Syriac hagiography of Maurice is of Nestorian rather than monophysite origin.
- ^ Palmer (1993), p. 76.
- ^ Palmer (1993), p. 118.
- ^ Palmer (1993), p. 118 n. 270.
- ^ Hatch (1937), p. 143.
- ^ Palmer (1993), p. 125.
Bibliography
- JSTOR 44170608.
- Booth, Phil (2019). "The Ghost of Maurice at the Court of Heraclius" (PDF). Byzantinische Zeitschrift. 112 (3): 781–826. ]
- Dal Santo, Matthew (2011). "Imperial Power and Its Subversion in Eustratius of Constantinople's Life and Martyrdom of Golinduch (c. 602)". Byzantion. 81: 138–176. JSTOR 44173231.
- Greatrex, Geoffrey (2018). "Domitianus". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). ISBN 978-0-19-881624-9.
- Greatrex, Geoffrey; Lieu, Samuel N. C., eds. (2002). The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars: A Narrative Sourcebook. Vol. Part II, AD 363–630. Routledge.
- JSTOR 1507949.
- Honigmann, Ernest (1953). "Two Metropolitans, Relatives of the Emperor Maurice: Dometianus of Melitene (about 580 – January 12, 602) and Athenogenes of Petra". Patristic Studies. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. pp. 217–225.
- ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- Lee, Doug (2007). "Episcopal Power and Perils in the Late Sixth Century: The Case of Gregory of Antioch". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. 50 (Supplement 91): 99–106. .
- ISBN 0-521-20160-8.
- Palmer, Andrew (1993). The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles. Liverpool University Press.
- Paret, Roger (1957). "Dometianus de Mélitène et la politique religieuse de l'empereur Maurice". Revue des études byzantines. 15: 42–72. .
- Watkins, Basil (2016). The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary (8th rev. ed.). Bloomsbury.
- Whitby, Michael (1988). The Emperor Maurice and His Historian: Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare. Clarendon Press.