The Nicene Age · AD 313–400
Aetius of Antioch
d. c. 367 · Deacon of Antioch · Radical Arian (Anomoian) theologian · Antioch → Alexandria
The Nicene Age
Who Aetius of Antioch was
A former goldsmith and physician turned dialectician, Aetius pushed Arianism to its logical extreme — the “Anomoian” position that the Son is unlike (anomoios) the Father in substance, arguing the point with a syllogistic confidence that scandalized moderates on every side. Deacon under the Arian bishop of Antioch, teacher of Eunomius, briefly favoured and then exiled even by his fellow-Arians as too radical, he wrote the Syntagmation, a chain of tight logical propositions against the Nicene faith. The hardest, most rationalist edge of the anti-Nicene reaction.
Also listed in heretics & schismatics.
Common questions
When did Aetius die?
Aetius of Antioch is dated d. c. 367 in the archive, which places Aetius in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
What did Aetius write?
Aetius of Antioch has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: The Syntagmation.
Which early sources mention Aetius?
Aetius of Antioch is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Epiphanius of Salamis, Philostorgius and Socrates Scholasticus. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Aetius from?
The archive associates Aetius of Antioch with Antioch, Alexandria. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Writings (1)
The Syntagmation
Forty-seven syllogisms of Anomoian logic — preserved entire because Epiphanius copied the whole tract in order to answer it[The complete text survives inside Panarion 76]Read the interlinear source text →
Primary-source mentions (3)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Panarion 76 (Epiphanius)
c. AD 377Aetius… boasted that he knew God as well as he knew himself, and reduced the ineffable mystery to the terms of Aristotle’s categories, spinning out syllogisms against the faith.Epiphanius of Salamis · source text
Church History III.15–27 (the Eunomian historian's hero)
c. AD 430Ecclesiastical History II.35 (the dialectician surnamed 'the Atheist')
c. AD 440From the manner of his reasoning he was surnamed the Atheist.Socrates Scholasticus · Ecclesiastical History II.35 · source text
Connected in the archive
People
- Eunomius of Cyzicus
- Arius
- Eusebius of Nicomedia
- Leontius of Antioch
- Eudoxius of Antioch and Constantinople
Events in this lifetime
- AD 301 · Hripsime and her company, AD 301
- AD 303 · The Great Persecution begins, AD 303
- AD 303 · The search of the church at Cirta, AD 303
- AD 306 · The Council of Elvira, AD 306
- AD 311 · Galerius’ edict of Serdica, AD 311
- AD 313 · The Edict of Milan, AD 313
- AD 314 · The Council of Arles, AD 314
- AD 320 · Silvanus tried before Zenophilus, AD 320
- AD 325 · The Council of Nicaea, AD 325
- AD 339 · The persecution of Shapur II, AD 339
- AD 343 · The Council of Serdica, AD 343
- AD 361 · Julian’s pagan restoration, AD 361
- AD 366 · Damasus and the catacomb epigrams, AD 366
- AD 367 · Athanasius lists the 27 NT books, AD 367
Place
Places served
The 2 places the sources put Aetius, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.