Letter to Leo I.
A Latin version of a letter of his to the emperor Leo I. Thrax (who reigned from A. D. 457 to 474), is given in the various editions of the
Concilia. It recognises the authority of the three councils of Nice,
A. D. 325, Ephesus
A. D. 431, and Chalcedon
A. D. 451, and declares Timotheus (Aelurus) patriarch of
Alexandria, to be deserving of deposition. From the reference to this last matter, on which
Leo seems to have required the judgment of various prelates, the letter appears to have been
written in or soon after
A. D. 457. In the superscription to the
letter he is called " Byzae Metropolitanus ;" but if we are correct in identifying Byza with
Bizya, this title must not be understood as implying archiepiscopal rank, for Bizya does not
appear to have been an archiepiscopal see, but a simple
bishoprick, under the
metropolitan of Heracleia, of whom Lucian appeared as the representative in the council of
Chalcedon. Lucian's name is subscribed to a decretal of Gennadius I., patriarch of
Constantinople (
A. D. 459 to 471), as Lucian, " bishop of the
Metropolitan see of Byza,"
ἐπίοκοπος μητροπόλεως
Βύζης.