STYLITE.
Another early Monophysite was Simeon of Beth Arsharn, who by a series of journeys and disputations within the Persian empire did all he could to prevent the triumph of Nestorianism among the Persian Christians. He had considerable success at the time, but the ground he had won was soon reconquered by his oppo nents, except at Taghrith and the surrounding district. It was after a successful disputation in presence of the Nestorian catholicus Babhai (497-502/3) that Simeon was made bishop of Beth Arshim, a town near Seleucia. He made several journeys to Constantinople, where he enjoyed the favour of the empress Theodora. It was there he died, probably about 532-533. His biography was written by John of Asia in the collection of lives of eastern saints which has been edited by Land (Anecd. syr. vol. ii.). His literary productions consist only of a liturgy and two exceedingly interesting letters. The one has for its subject Barsauma and the other Nestorian leaders in Persia, and gives a highly malicious account of their proceedings. The other, which has been often edited, is an account of a severe persecution which the Himyarite Christians of Najran in south-west Arabia under went in 523, at the hands of the king of Yemen. (See The book of the Himyarites, a Syriac work edited and translated by A. Mo berg, Lund, 1924.) As Simeon had repeatedly visited al-Hirah and was in touch with the Arab kingdom which centred there, his letter is a document of first-rate historical importance.
Mention should be made of two other early Monophysite leaders who suffered persecution at the hands of the emperor Justin I. (518-527). The one, John of Tad, author of 538 canons, answers to questions by the priest Sergius, a creed and an exposition of the Trisagion. His life was written by his disciple Elias, and also by John of Asia. The other, John bar AphtOnya, was the founder of the famous monastery of Ken neshre, opposite Jerabis on the Euphrates, and wrote a com mentary of the Song of Songs, a number of hymns and a biog raphy of Severus, the Monophysite patriarch of Antioch (512 The life of the great missionary bishop Jacob Burdelna or Baradaeus, from whom the Monophysite Church took its name of Jacobite, belongs rather to ecclesiastical than to literary his tory. (See H. G. Kleyn, Jacobus Baradaeus, de Stichter der
Syrische monophysietische Kerk, Leyden 1882.) Translators from the Greek.—In Sergius of Ras'ain we find one of the best Greek scholars and ablest translators whom Syria has produced. Of his life little is known, and that little not wholly creditable. He wavered curiously in his ecclesiastical views, and ended by helping the persecutors of the Monophysite Church, to which he himself had belonged. He seems to have lived as a priest and physician at Ras'ain in Mesopotamia most of his life.
About 535 he travelled on various ecclesiastical missions, and finally made a journey to Rome and thence to Constantinople (in this latter accompanied by the pope Agapetus). The result was to bring about the deposition and banishment of the Mono physites from the latter city. Sergius died almost immediately afterwards, in 536. Among the works which he translated into Syriac and of which his versions survive are treatises of Aris totle, Porphyry and Galen, the Ars grammatica of Dionysius Thrax, the works of Dionysius the Areopagite, and possibly two or three treatises of Plutarch. His own original works are less important, but include a "treatise on logic, addressed to Theodore (of Merv), which is unfortunately imperfect, a tract on negation and affirmation ; a treatise, likewise addressed to Theodore, On the Causes of the Universe, according to the Views of Aristotle, show ing how it is a Circle; a tract On Genus, Species and Individuality; and a third tract addressed to Theodore, On the Action and In fluence of the Moon, explanatory and illustrative of Galen's He'll Kptati.ccop ipEpc,)p, bk. iii., with a short appendix 'On the Motion of the Sun' " (Wright). According to the historical compilation which passes under the name of Zacharias Rhetor, he also wrote a treatise on the faith. Some of his translations were revised at a later time by Honain ibn Istak (d. 873).