the Iliad and other works on the Homeric poems are still extant in MS. He died in the year 1061. Isaac’s great aim was to restore the former strict organization of the government, and his reforms, though unpopular with the aristocracy and the clergy, and not understood by the people, certainly contributed to stave off for a while the final ruin of the Byzantine empire.
See E. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (ed. J. Bury, London, 1896, vol. v.); G. Finlay, History of Greece (ed. 1877, Oxford, vols. ii. and iii.).
ISAAC II. (Angelus), emperor of the East 1185–1195, and again 1203–1204, was the successor of Andronicus I. He inaugurated his reign by a decisive victory over the Normans in
Sicily, but elsewhere his policy was less successful. He failed in
an attempt to recover Cyprus from a rebellious noble, and by the
oppressiveness of his taxes drove the Bulgarians and Vlachs to
revolt (1186). In 1187 Alexis Branas, the general sent against
the rebels, treacherously turned his arms against his master, and
attempted to seize Constantinople, but was defeated and slain.
The emperor’s attention was next demanded in the east, where
several claimants to the throne successively rose and fell. In
1189 Frederick Barbarossa of Germany sought and obtained leave
to lead his troops on the third crusade through the Byzantine
territory; but he had no sooner crossed the border than Isaac,
who had meanwhile sought an alliance with Saladin, threw every
impediment in his way, and was only compelled by force of arms
to fulfil his engagements. The next five years were disturbed by
fresh rebellions of the Vlachs, against whom Isaac led several
expeditions in person. During one of these, in 1195, Alexius, the
emperor’s brother, taking advantage of the latter’s absence from
camp on a hunting expedition, proclaimed himself emperor, and
was readily recognised by the soldiers. Isaac was blinded and
imprisoned in Constantinople. After eight years he was raised
for six months from his dungeon to his throne once more (see
Crusades). But both mind and body had been enfeebled by
captivity, and his son Alexius IV. was the actual monarch. Isaac
died in 1204, shortly after the usurpation of his general, Mourzouphles.
He was one of the weakest and most vicious princes
that occupied the Byzantine throne. Surrounded by a crowd of
slaves, mistresses and flatterers, he permitted his empire to be
administered by unworthy favourites, while he squandered the
money wrung from his provinces on costly buildings and expensive
gifts to the churches of his metropolis.
See Gibbon, Decline and Fall (ed. J. Bury, London, 1896, vol. vi.); G. Finlay, History of Greece (ed. 1877, Oxford, vols. iii. and iv.).
ISAAC OF ANTIOCH, “one of the stars of Syriac literature,”[1] the reputed author of a large number of metrical homilies,[2] many of which are distinguished by an originality and acumen
rare among Syriac writers. As to the identity and history of the
author considerable difficulty has arisen. The statements of
ancient writers, Eastern and Western, were collected by Assemani
(B.O. i. 207–214). According to these accounts Isaac flourished
under Theodosius II. (408–450),[3] and was a native either of Amid
(Diarbekr) or of Edessa. Several writers identify him with Isaac,
the disciple of S. Ephraim, who is mentioned in the anonymous
Life of that father; but according to the patriarch Bar Shūshan
(d. 1073), who made a collection of his homilies, his master was
Ephraim’s disciple Zenobius. He is supposed to have migrated
to Antioch, and to have become abbot of one of the convents in
its neighbourhood. According to Zacharias Rhetor he visited
Rome and other cities, and the chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of
Tell-Mahrē informs us that he composed poems on the secular
games of 404, and wrote on the destruction of Rome by Alaric in
410. He also commemorated the destruction of Antioch by an
earthquake in 459, so that he must have lived till about 460.
Unfortunately these poems have perished. He is of course to be distinguished from Isaac of Nineveh, a Nestorian writer on the
ascetic life who belongs to the second half of the 7th century.[4]
When we examine the collection of homilies attributed to Isaac, a difficulty arises on two grounds. (1) The author of some of the poems is fervently orthodox or Catholic (see especially Nos. 1-3 in Bickell’s edition=62-64 in Bedjan), in other and more important homilies (such as Bickell 6, 8=Bedjan 59, 61, and especially Bedjan 60) the doctrine is monophysite, even though Eutyches and Nestorius are equally condemned. (2) One of the monophysite homilies, the famous poem of 2136 lines on the parrot which uttered the Trisagion in the streets of Antioch (Bickell, 8=Bedjan 61), appears to have been written at Antioch after Peter the Fuller (patriarch 471-488) raised the dispute about the addition to the doxology of the words qui crucifixus es pro nobis. It is therefore scarcely possible that the author of this homily should be the same who composed the lost poems on the secular games in 404 and on the sack of Rome.
Moreover, Lamy (S. Ephraemi hymni et sermones, iv. 361-364) and Bedjan (Homiliae S. Isaaci, i. pp. iv-ix) have recently called attention to statements made by Jacob of Edessa (708) in a letter to John the Stylite. He says there were three Isaacs who wrote in Syriac:—two orthodox (i.e. monophysite), and one a Chalcedonian heretic (i.e. orthodox or Catholic). (a) The first, he says, a native of Amid, and pupil of S. Ephraim, visited Rome in the time of Arcadius (395-408), on his return journey suffered imprisonment at Byzantium, and afterwards became a priest in the church of Amid. (b) The second was a priest of Edessa, and flourished in the reign of Zeno (474-491). He went up to Antioch in the time of Peter the Fuller. Jacob then tells the story of the parrot (see above). (c) The third was also an Edessene. At first in the days of Bishop Paul (510-522) he was orthodox (monophysite): but afterwards in the time of the Chalcedonian (Catholic) bishop Asclepius he became Nestorian (Catholic) and wrote poems setting forth Nestorian doctrine.
With such conflicting evidence it is impossible to arrive at a certain result. But Jacob is an early witness: and on the whole it seems safe to conclude with Bedjan (p. ix) that works by at least two authors have been included in the collection attributed to Isaac of Antioch. Still the majority of the poems are the work of one hand—the 5th-century monophysite who wrote the poem on the parrot.[5] A full list[6] of the 191 poems existing in European MSS. is given by Bickell, who copied out 181 with a view to publishing them all: the other 10 had been previously copied by Zingerle. But the two volumes published by Bickell in his lifetime (Giessen, 1873 and 1877) contain only 37 homilies. Bedjan’s edition, of which the first volume has alone appeared (Paris, 1903) contains 67 poems, viz. 24 previously published (18 by Bickell), and 43 that are new, though their titles are all included in Bickell’s list.
The writer’s main interest lies in the application of religion to the practical duties of life, whether in the church or in the world. He has a great command of forcible language and considerable skill in apt illustration. The zeal with which he denounces the abuses prevalent in the church of his day, and particularly in the monastic orders, is not unlike that of the Protestant reformers. He shows acquaintance with many phases of life. He describes the corruption of judges, the prevalence of usury and avarice, the unchastity which especially characterized the upper classes, and the general hypocrisy of so-called Christians. His doctrinal discussions are apt to be diffuse; but he seldom loses sight of the bearing of doctrine on practical life. He judges with extreme severity those who argue about religion while neglecting its practice, and those who though stupid and ignorant dare to pry into mysteries which are sealed to the angels. “Not newly have we found Him, that we should search and pry into God. As He was He is: He changeth not with the times. . . . Confess that He formed thee of dust: search not the mode of His being: Worship Him that He redeemed thee by His only Son: inquire not the manner of His birth.”[7]
Some of Isaac’s works have an interest for the historian of the 5th century. In two poems (Bickell 11, 12=Bedjan 48, 49), written probably at Edessa, he commemorates the capture of Bēth-Hūr (a
- ↑ W. Wright, Short Hist. of Syr. Lit. p. 51.
- ↑ The fullest list, by G. Bickell, contains 191 which are extant in MSS.
- ↑ The trustworthy Chronicle of Edessa gives his date as 451–452 (Hallier, No. lxvii.); and the recently published Chronicle of Michael the Syrian makes him contemporary with Nonus, who became the 31st bishop of Edessa in 449.
- ↑ The date of Isaac of Nineveh is now known from the Liber fundatorum of Īshō’-děnah, an 8th-century writer; see Bedjan’s edition, and Chabót, Livre de la chasteté, p. 63. Assemani (B.O. i. 445) had placed him late in the 6th century, and Chabót (De S. Isaaci Ninivitae vita, &c.) in the second half of the 5th.
- ↑ Lamy (op. cit. iv. 364-366) has pointed out that several of the poems are in certain MSS. attributed to Ephraim. Possibly the author of the orthodox poems was not named Isaac at all.
- ↑ Assemani’s list of 104 poems (B.O. i. 214-234) is completely covered by Bickell’s.
- ↑ From a really noble poem (Bedjan 60) on the problem whether God suffered and died on the cross.
