Paul of Samosata the letter of the synod arrived after his death; for though the surviving letter
of his successor, Felix, addressed to Maximus of Alexandria on precisely the
point at issue, the divinity of Christ, is generally regarded as an Apollinarist
forgery, it may have replaced a genuine original letter.^134 Secondly, the letter
refers (, ) to the fact that Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia,
died at Tarsos on his way to Antioch, at a moment when the other partici-
pants had arrived and were waiting for him; according to the Greek calendar
his death took place on October.^135 The date of the synod can therefore
be fixed with considerable precision and with no real room for doubt.
The central element in the view that connects the career of Paul with
the wider political history of his time is a passage in Eusebius’ quotation
of the synodal letter.^136 The bishops state that Paul came from an impov-
erished family but had made himself rich through extortion in his bishop-
ric—‘‘by means of lawless deeds and sacrilegious plundering and extortions
from brethren by threats...makingtheserviceofGod[theosebeia] a source
of profit.’’ Then comes the key phrase—‘‘he sets his mind on high things
and is lifted up, clothing himself in worldly goods and wishing to be called
ducenarius[see below] rather than bishop.’’ The letter continues by describ-
ing the public role to which these aspirations led him—parading across the
market-places, reading letters and answering them as he went, with a numer-
ous bodyguard, some marching in front and some behind, so that his pomp
and pride made the faith an object of envy and hatred; in meetings of the
church he devised various means to impress the simple-minded—‘‘arrang-
ing for himself a tribunal [bēma]andahighthrone...andhavingasēkrēton
[audience chamber; see text to n. below] and calling it that, like worldly
rulers.’’
The termducenariuswas a well-established expression, deriving from the
level of salary, for a high-ranking imperialprocurator.^137 We find it used in a
letter of Cyprian and his fellow bishops to the congregation of Emerita—
‘‘proceedings taking place in public before theprocuratorducenarius.’’^138 As used
in Antioch, it could in normal times only have referred to theprocuratorof
. See, e.g., A. von Harnack,Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur bis EusebiusI (),
ff.; cf. J. Quasten,PatrologyII (), .
. See Loofs (n. ), ; Bardy (n. ), .
.HE, , – .
. See H.-G. Pflaum,Les procurateurs équestres(), ff.; andLes carrières procurato-
riennes(–), –, with F. Millar’s review inJRS (): – ( ‘‘The Eques-
trian Career under the Empire,’’ chapter in Fergus Millar,Rome, the Greek World, and the
EastII:Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire).
. Cypr.,Ep.,.