Philip of Side

PHILIP OF SIDE: Church historian; b. at Side (the modern Eski Adaliah; 92 m. sm. of Konieh, the ancient Iconium), Pamphylia; flourished about 420. He studied under Rhodon at the catechetical school in Alexandria, and while still a young man became the head of the branch school established by Rhodon, probably at Philip's suggestion, in Side about 405. Later he was a priest in Constantinople, where he was an intimate friend of Chrysostom; and he was a candidate for the patriarchate of Constantinople against Sisinnius (425), Nestorius (428), and Maximianus (431). He seems to have been identical with the Byzantine presbyter Philip, who was commended by Cyril of Alexandria for refusing to associate with the heretical Nestorius, and whom the Alexandrine patriarch sought to reconcile with Maximianus, when the latter succeeded the deposed heresiarch. It is also very possible that Philip may have spent some time in Antioch and Amida.

From the statements of Socrates (Hist. eccl., VII., xxvii.), Photius (Bibliotheca, xxxv.), and Nicephorus (Hist. eccl., xiv. 29) it is clear that Philip of Side was a man of extraordinary learning and diligence, but more diffuse than accurate. Among his numerous books, which dealt with many themes, the most important were his "History of Christianity" and his polemic against the Emperor Julian. Of his writings, however, only scant fragments have survived, these being merely of an average character. A number of his fragments have been edited by Carl de Boor (ZKG, vi. 478–494; TU, v. 165–184), and his history seems also to have influenced the "Religious Conference at the Sassanid Court" (ed. Eduard Bratke, in TU, xix., part 3, 1899). A few other fragments of Philip's writings are known to exist, and it is possible that he was also the author of the still unedited De tinctura æris Persici et de tinctura æris Indici.

(E. Bratke†.)

Bibliography: A. Wirth, Aus orientalischen Chroniken, pp. 208 sqq., Frankfort, 1894; O. Bardenhewer. Patrologie, pp. 332–333, Freiburg, 1901, Eng. transl., St. Louis, 1908; idem, in KL, ix. 2022–23; F. Kampers, Alexander der Grosse and die Idee des Weltimperiums in Prophetie and Sage, pp. 116–135, Freiburg, 1901; DCB, iv. 356; Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés, viii. 535.