A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

13. Of NISIBIS, commonly designated MAGNUS, the Great (ὁ μεγας, Theodoret.), was born at Nisibis, or, as it is sometimes called, Antiocheia ad Mygdonium or Mygdonica, an important town of the Eastern Empire in Mesopotamia on the frontier toward Persia. The time of his birth is not ascer tained; it was probably in the latter half of the third century. He embraced a life of solitude and asceticism, living on the mountains, sleeping in thickets and under the open sky in spring, summer, and autumn, and seeking the shelter of a cave during the rigour of the winter. Theodoret ascribes to him the gift of prophecy and other mis raculous powers. After a journey into Persia, apparently to promote the spread of Christianity there, and to encourage its professors, he returned to the neighbourhood of Nisibis, of which he was afterwards made bishop. On this appointment he left his solitude for the city, but continued his hard fare and coarse clothing. He was the friend and benefactor of the poor, the guardian of widows and orphans, and the protector of the injured. The famous Ephraem, when expelled from home by his father, an idolatrous priest, because he refused to participate in his idolatrous practices, found a refuge with Jacobus. The Menaea of the Greeks ascribe to him the conversion of many idolators. If this statement has any foundation in fact, it may possibly have reference to his journey into Persia already mentioned. According to Gennadius, he was one of the sufferers in the great persecution under the successors of Diocletian. Jacobus attended the council of Nice, A. D. 325, and distinguished him-self as one of the champions of the Consubstantial party. (Labbe, Concilia, vol. ii. col. 56.) Some

(e. g. Fabricius) have affirmed that he took part as an author in the Arian controversy, founding their assertion on a passage of Athanasius. (Ad Episcopos Aegypti et Lybiae Epistola Encyclica contra Arianos, sometimes cited as Contra Arianos, 100.8; Opera, vol. i. p. 278, ed. Benedictin.) But what Athanasius says is, that the writings of the heretics were apparently so orthodox, that if they had been written by such men as "Jacobus and the rest from Mesopotamia," there would be no ground for reading them with suspicion -- a statement which by no means asserts that he wrote any thing on the question. The name of Jacobus appears among those subscribed to the decrees of the council of Antioch, A. D. 341 (Labbe, vol. ii. col. 585); but there are several difficulties connected with the history of this council.

The most remarkable incident in the life of Jacobus was the siege of Nisibis by the Persians under their king, Sapor II. The siege was vigorously pressed, but the defence was equally well conducted, the brave citizens being animated by the exhortations of their bishop. At length the crisis of their fate seemed to be at hand, when Jacobus, at the entreaty of his disciple Ephraem and others, ascended the walls and prayed for the deliverance of the city. A swarm of gnats or mosquitoes and other insects, which just afterwards attacked the besiegers, made their horses restive, and otherwise produced such annoyance as, with other things, to compel them to raise the siege, was considered as an answer to this prayer. The citizens regarded Jacobus as their deliverer; and when he died, apparently soon after, he was buried in the city. The time of the siege is disputed: Nisibis was twice vainly attacked by Sapor, A. D. 338 and 350. The author of the Chronicon Edessenum given by Assemani (Biblioth. Orient. vol. i. p. 387, &c.), and Dionysius, patriarch of the Jacobites, in his Syriac Chronicle, quoted in the same work, place his death in A. D. 338, which would determine the first of the two sieges to be the one at which he signalised himself; but we have seen that he was probably at the council of Antioch in A. D. 341; and there is reason to believe, with Tillemont, that the second siege is the one referred to, and that the Syrians have antedated the death of Jacobus. The character of Jacobus, as drawn by Theodoret, is very amiable. The miracles ascribed to him, even when punitive, are described as dictated or tempered by mercy, except perhaps in the case of the celebrated Arius, whose opportune death is ascribed by the author of a spurious passage in Theodoret to the prayer of Jacobus that God would preserve the church from the calamity (so it was considered) of that reputed heretic's restoration. [ARIUs.]