ABSTRACT
The key figures in the Monophysite party at the time of Justinian’s reign include Severus of Antioch, John of Tella, Peter of Reshaina, Thomas of Dara, Thomas of Damascus, Antony of Aleppo, Thomas of Himeria, Constantine of Laodicea, Peter of Apamaea and John Bar Aphthonia, all of whom were invited to a meeting with the new emperor in 527AD.1
Some of these men also took part in the Conference of 532AD, namely: John of Tella, Peter of Reshaina and John Bar Aphthonia, who again acted as scribe.2 These three men, together with Severus, seem to have been senior members of the party at the time of writing of the Dionysian corpus. If we add Paul of Callinicum and Zacharias (or Ps-Zacharias) of Mitylene (Rhetor), both of whom were responsible for producing works which contained (apparently pre-532AD) references to ‘Dionysius the Areopagite’, we have six men with a keen interest in furthering the fortunes of the party at this tricky time: Severus of Antioch, John of Tella, Peter of Reshaina, John Bar Aphthonia, Paul of Callinicum and Zacharias of Mitylene. The ‘pre-532AD’ references to ‘Dionysius the Areopagite’ would therefore seem to emanate from this group. I will now examine their careers in more detail.
