Nevertheless, Antoninus was virtually unique among emperors in that he dealt with these crises without leaving Italy once during his reign, but instead dealt with provincial matters of war and peace through their governors or through imperial letters to the cities such as Ephesus ( of which some were publicly displayed ).

On his arrival at Ephesus a three months ' truce was concluded with Tissaphernes, the satrap of Lydia and Caria, but negotiations conducted during that time proved fruitless, and on its termination Agesilaus raided Phrygia, where he easily won immense booty from the satrap Pharnabazus ; Tissaphernes could offer no assistance, as he had concentrated his troops in Caria.

* Ephesos, a Lydian Amazon, after whom the city of Ephesus was thought to have been named ; she was also said to have been the first to honor Artemis and to have surnamed the goddess Ephesia.

* Sisyrbe, after whom a part of Ephesus was called Sisyrba, and its inhabitants the Sisyrbitae.

At a later period, Paul's epistles place him with Paul and Saint Timothy at Ephesus, whence he was sent by Paul to Corinth, Greece for the purpose of getting the contributions of the church there on behalf of the poor Christians at Jerusalem sent forward.

He was with Paul at a later date in Ephesus.

Apollos and Paul were both in Ephesus at the time Paul wrote the letter ( 55 AD ); 16: 12 states Apollos was unwilling to go to Corinth yet at Paul's urging, but that he would later when he had an opportunity.

Octavian was not present, but at the next meeting made a reply of such a nature that the consuls both left Rome to join Antony ; and Antony, when he heard of it, after publicly divorcing Octavia, came at once to Ephesus with Cleopatra, where a vast fleet was gathered from all parts of the East, of which Cleopatra furnished a large proportion.

The Nicene Creed, largely a response to Arianism, was formulated at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 respectively and ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the First Council of Ephesus in 431.

It was situated about 12 miles South East of Laodicea, and near the great road from Ephesus to the Euphrates.

The Council of Chalcedon was convened by Emperor Marcian, with the reluctant approval of Pope Leo the Great, to set aside the 449 Second Council of Ephesus, better known as the " Robber Council ".

This was reaffirmed at the First Council of Constantinople ( 381 ) and the Council of Ephesus ( 431 ).

The competing claims between the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria led the Emperor to call a council which was held in Ephesus in 449.

He was a central figure in the First Council of Ephesus in 431, which led to the deposition of Nestorius as Patriarch of Constantinople.

There was an opinion in the Church that viewed that perhaps the Council understood the Church of Alexandria correctly, but wanted to curtail the existing power of the Alexandrine Hierarch, especially after the events that happened several years before at Constantinople from Pope Theophilus of Alexandria towards Patriarch John Chrysostom and the unfortunate turnouts of the Second Council of Ephesus in AD 449, where Eutichus misled Pope Dioscorus and the Council in confessing the Orthodox Faith in writing and then renouncing it after the Council, which in turn, had upset Rome, especially that the Tome which was sent was not read during the Council sessions.

It is also to be noted that by anathemizing Pope Leo because of the tone and content of his tome, as per Alexandrine Theology perception, Pope Dioscorus was found guilty of doing so without due process ; in other words, the Tome of Leo was not a subject of heresy in the first place, but it was a question of questioning the reasons behind not having it either acknowledged or read at the Second Council of Ephesus in AD 449.

This title is historically known as “ Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa on the Holy Apostolic Throne of Saint Mark the Evangelist ,” that is “ of Alexandria and of all Africa .” The title of “ Patriarch ” was first used around the time of the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, convened in AD 431, and ratified at Chalcedon in AD 451.

After the Council of Ephesus had condemned Nestorianism, there remained a conflict between Patriarchs John of Antioch and Cyril of Alexandria.

Cyril is counted among the Church Fathers and the Doctors of the Church, and his reputation within the Christian world has resulted in his titles Pillar of Faith and Seal of all the Fathers, but Theodosius II, the Roman Emperor, condemned him for behaving like a " proud pharaoh ", and the Nestorian bishops at the Council of Ephesus declared him a heretic, labelling him as a " monster, born and educated for the destruction of the church.

Cyril is well-known due to his dispute with Nestorius and his supporter Patriarch John of Antioch, whom Cyril excluded from the Council of Ephesus for arriving late.

Cyril selected Ephesus as the venue since it supported the veneration of Mary.

However, when John of Antioch and the other pro-Nestorius bishops finally reached Ephesus, they assembled their own Council, condemned Cyril for heresy, deposed him from his see, and labelled him as a monster, born and educated for the destruction of the church.

Cyril died about 444, but the controversies were to continue for decades, from the " Robber Synod " of Ephesus ( 449 ) to the Council of Chalcedon ( 451 ) and beyond.

Cyril of Alexandria became noted in Church history because of his spirited fight for the title " Theotokos " during the First Council of Ephesus ( 431 ).

" Nestorius however, still would not repent and so this led to the convening of the First Ecumenical Council of Ephesus ( 431 ), over which Cyril presided.

The court excluded Theodoret from the Second Council of Ephesus in 449 because of his antagonism to Cyril.

When John of Antioch and his Syrian bishops finally reached Ephesus five days after the council, they met with Candidian who informed them that Cyril had begun a council without them and had ratified Celestine's conviction of Nestorius as a heretic.

The " Three Chapters " were, one, both the person and writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia ( d. 428 ), two, the attacks on Cyril of Alexandria and the First Council of Ephesus written by Theodoret of Cyrrhus ( d. c. 466 ), and three, the attacks on Cyril and Ephesus by Ibas of Edessa ( d. 457 ).

* Pope Sixtus III helps to settle a Christological dispute between the patriarchs Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch that has continued since the First Council of Ephesus, two years ago.

Cyril took charge of the First Council of Ephesus in 431, opening debate before the long-overdue contingent of Eastern bishops from Antioch arrived.

* St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Christological Controversy ISBN 0-88141-259-7 by John Anthony McGuckin — includes a history of the Council of Ephesus and an analysis of Nestorius ' Christology.

When John reached Ephesus a few days after the council had begun, he convened a counter-council which condemned Cyril and vindicated Nestorius.

There the synod of Ephesus was declared to have been a " robber synod ," its proceedings were annulled, and, in accordance with the more dyophysite ( two-nature ) strand in the teaching of Cyril of Alexandria, it was declared that the two natures are united in Christ ( without any alteration, absorption or confusion ) and ' come together to form one person and one hypostasis '.

He engaged to publicly anathematize Nestorius and all who thought with him on his return, and declared the identity of his doctrine with that agreed upon by John and Cyril, and that he accepted the decrees of Ephesus equally with those of Nicaea as due to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Pope Dioscorus served as the dean of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, and was the personal secretary of Saint Cyril the Great, Pope of Alexandria, whom he accompanied to the Third Ecumenical Council held at Ephesus, rising to the position of archdeacon.

Nestorius was condemned and deposed by the First Council of Ephesus, which approved of the Second Epistle of Cyril to Nestorius ( which included a dogmatizing of " Theotokos "), and made no other dogmatic definitions.

On August 8, 449 the Second Council of Ephesus began its first session with Dioscorus presiding by command of the Emperor.

Finally, Emperor Theodosius II convoked a council in Ephesus to solve the dispute.

The Emperor had called for bishops to assemble in the city of Ephesus.

However, this dating was disputed by Hypatius of Ephesus, who met the monophysite party during the 532 meeting with Emperor Justinian I ; Hypatius denied its authenticity on the grounds that none of the Fathers or Councils ever cited or referred to it.

Conrad fell seriously ill at Ephesus and was sent to recuperate in Constantinople, where his host the Emperor Manuel I acted as his personal physician.

Justinian hoped that this would contribute to a reunion between the Chalcedonians and monophysites in the eastern provinces of the Empire ; various attempts at reconciliation between the monophysite and orthodox parties were made by many emperors over the four centuries following the Council of Ephesus, none of them succeeding, and some, attempts at reconciliation, such as this — the condemnation of the Three Chapters — causing further schisms and heresies to arise in the process, such as the aforementioned schism of the Three Chapters, and the heresies of monoenergism and monotheletism — the propositions, respectively, that Christ had only one function, operation, or energy ( purposefully formulated in an equivocal and vague manner, and promulgated between 610 and 622 by the Emperor Heraclius under the advisement of Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople ) and that Christ only had one will ( promulgated in 638 by the same ).

The Emperor Theodosius II ( 401 – 450 ) was eventually induced to convoke a general church council, sited at Ephesus, itself a special seat for the veneration of Mary, where the theotokos formula was popular.

Emperor Basil's reign was marked by the troublesome ongoing war with the heretical Paulicians, centered on Tephrike on the upper Euphrates, who rebelled, allied with the Arabs, and raided as far as Nicaea, sacking Ephesus.

When the proposed government of universal Christendom by five patriarchal sees ( Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, known as the pentarchy ), under the auspices of a single universal empire, was formulated in the legislation of Emperor Justinian I ( 527-565 ), especially in his Novella 131, and received formal ecclesiastical sanction at the Council in Trullo ( 692 ), the name " patriarch " became the official one for the Bishops of these sees, and the title " Exarch " remained the proper style of the metropolitans who ruled over the three remaining ( political ) dioceses of Diocletian's division of the Eastern Prefecture, namely the Exarchs of Asia ( at Ephesus ), of Cappadocia and Pontus ( at Caesarea ), and of Thrace ( at Heraclea Sintica ).

However, as Eutyches protested against this verdict and received the support of Dioscorus I of Alexandria, the Emperor convoked another Council to Ephesus.

He became Patriarch through the influence of Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria with Emperor Theodosius II, after the deposition of Flavian by the Second Council of Ephesus, having previously been the apocrisiarius or representative of Dioscorus with the emperor at Constantinople.

Emperor Theodosius II convened the Second Council of Ephesus, and in remembrance of Cyril's role during the council of 431, the emperor, under strong influence of the eunuch Chrysaphius, a senior advisor and a close friend of Eutyches, asked Dioscorus, also a friend of Eutyches, to preside over the meetings.

These are 5th century concerns, the independence of the Church of Cyprus having been declared by the First Council of Ephesus in 431 and confirmed by Emperor Zeno in 488.

Councils were held at Milan in 343 and 347, against Photinus ; in the cause of St. Athanasius, at which the Emperor Constans menaced the bishops ; 390, against Jovinian ; 451, against the Robber Council of Ephesus ; 680, against the Monothelites ; 1060, 1098, 1117, 1287, for ecclesiastical reforms.

He certainly left a vivid impression in the imperial capital, not least by his physical presence: John of Ephesus records that years later, the Emperor Justin II ( r. 565 – 578 ), who had descended into madness, was frightened and went to hide himself when he was told " Arethas is coming for you ".

The Emperor Theodosius I, who called the Council, divided the eastern Roman Empire into five " dioceses ": Egypt ( under Alexandria ), the East ( under Antioch ), Asia ( under Ephesus ), Pontus ( under Caesarea Cappadociae ), and Thrace ( originally under Heraclea, later under Constantinople ); and the Council also decreed: " The bishops are not to go beyond their dioceses to churches lying outside of their bounds, nor bring confusion on the churches ; but let the Bishop of Alexandria, according to the canons, alone administer the affairs of Egypt ; and let the bishops of the East manage the East alone, the privileges of the Church in Antioch, which are mentioned in the canons of Nice, being preserved ; and let the bishops of the Asian Diocese administer the Asian affairs only ; and the Pontic bishops only Pontic matters ; and the Thracian bishops only Thracian affairs.

: PG 135: Joannes Zonaras, Patriarch Georgius Xiphilinus of Constantinople, Emperor Isaac II Angelos, Neophytus Presbyter, Joannes Chilas Metropolite of Ephesus, Nicolaus Metropolite of Methone, Eustathius of Thessalonica