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PHILOPATRIS
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PHILOPATRIS , the See also:title of a See also:dialogue formerly attributed to See also:Lucian, but now generally admitted to be See also:spurious. Its date and purport have See also:long formed the subject of discussion. The See also:scene is laid at See also:Constantinople. A certain Triephon, who has been converted to See also:Christianity by a bald, long-nosed Galilaean, who was carried up through the See also:air into the third See also:heaven (an evident allusion to St See also:Paul), meets a friend, See also:Critias, who is in a See also:state of 'See also:great excitement. Triephon inquires the See also:reason, and the invocation of See also:Zeus by Critias leads to a discussion on See also:pagan-ism and Christianity, in which all the gods proposed by Critias are rejected by Triephon, who finally suggests that Critias should swear by the Trinity. (The sub-title, i S&Saaicoµevos, refers to this " instruction " of Critias in matters See also:relating to Christianity.) Critias goes on to relate how he had been introduced to a gathering of pessimists, who predicted all kinds of disturbances in the See also:empire and defeat at the hands of its enemies. In the mean-See also:time a third See also:person appears on the scene, with the See also:news that the imperial armies have obtained a glorious victory. The See also:hope is expressed that See also:Babel (See also:Bagdad, the See also:chief See also:city of the caliphs) may soon be destroyed, See also:Egypt subdued (that is, reconquered from the See also:Arabs), and the attacks of the Scythians (Russians or Bulgarians) repulsed. The whole concludes with thanks to the unknown See also:god of See also:Athens that they have been permitted to be the subjects of such an See also:emperor and the inhabitants of such an empire. The Philopatris was for a long time regarded as an attack upon Christianity, and assigned to the time of See also:Julian the Apostate (emperor 361-363). See also:Chronological indications (e.g. the allusion to a See also:massacre of See also:women in See also:Crete) led See also:Niebuhr to ascribe it to the reign of Nicephorus See also:Phocas (963–969), and this view is now generally supported. There being at that time no pagans in Constantinople, the " pessimists " referred to must be Christians—either monks, especially the intimate See also:friends of the See also:patriarch of Constantinople, who, aggrieved at the See also:measures taken by Phocas in regard to the See also:property of the See also: In any See also:case, the author, whether he was a sophist commissioned by Phocas to attack the monks, or some See also:professor who hoped to profit by singing the imperial praises, represents the views of the " patriotic " (as the title shows) as opposed to the " unpatriotic " party. According to another view, which assigns the dialogue to the time of See also:Heraclius (610-641), the author was a See also:Christian fanatic, whose See also:object was to make known the existence of a conventicle of belated pagans, the enemiesalike of the Christian faith and the empire; it is doubtful, however, whether such a pagan community, sufficiently numerous to be of importance, actually existed at that date. The object of the first and longer portion of the dialogue was to combat the See also:humanism of the See also:period, which threatened a revival of polytheism as a See also:rival of Christianity. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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