Photius compared Clement's treatise, which like his other works was highly syncretic, featuring ideas of Hellenistic, Jewish and Gnostic origin, unfavourably against the prevailing orthodoxy of the 9th century.

In his critique of the theology of Clement of Alexandria, Photius in his Myriobiblon held that Clement ’ s views reflected a quasi-docetic view of the nature of Christ, writing that Clement " He hallucinates that the Word was not incarnate but only seems to be.

The first of them was the Bibliotheca written by the patriarch Photius ( 9th century ).

The patriarchal throne was filled with Photius, a renowned scholar and kinsman of Bardas.

Herodotus's recitation at Olympia was a favourite theme among ancient writers and there is another interesting variation on the story to be found in the Suda, Photius and Tzetzes, in which a young Thucydides happened to be in the assembly with his father and burst into tears during the recital, whereupon Herodotus observed prophetically to the boy's father: " Thy son's soul yearns for knowledge.

For example, Photius I of Constantinople, who became Patriarch in 858 and was deposed by Pope Nicholas I in 863, was an enemy of the Pope.

Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, shortly after the council in which he had pronounced sentence of deposition against Pope Nicholas I, was driven from the patriarchate by a new emperor, Basil the Macedonian, who favoured his rival Ignatius.

At this council Adrian was represented by legates who presided at the condemnation of Photius as a heretic, but did not succeed in coming to an understanding with Ignatius on the subject of jurisdiction over the Bulgarian church.

The second mission ( 860 ), requested by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III and the Patriarch of Constantinople Photius ( a professor of Cyril's at the University and his guiding light in earlier years ), was a missionary expedition to the Khazar Khaganate in order to prevent the expansion of Judaism there.

According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of " advocate " of the imperial treasury.

But it would seem that Photius was under some misapprehension.

He was brought up under the care of the ascetics and acquired a very extensive classical knowledge, and, according to Photius, a style of Attic purity.

Photios I (;, Phōtios ; c. 810 – c. 893 ), also spelled Photius or Fotios, was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867 and from 877 to 886.

This further indicates that the majority of the works cannot have been read while Photius was in the Abbasid empire.

The full title, according to Photius, was Four Books of Extracts, Sayings and Precepts ( Eklogon, apophthegmaton, hypothekon biblia tessara ).

We learn from Photius that the first book was preceded by a dissertation on the advantages of philosophy, an account of the different schools of philosophy, and a collection of the opinions of ancient writers on geometry, music, and arithmetic.

He contended that the Patriarch of Constantinople Ignatius was deposed in 857 and Photius raised to the patriarchal see in violation of ecclesiastical law.

By the will of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, Photius was elected lawfully and canonically in 858 according to the Church of Constantinople.

Ignatius ’ elevation to the Patriarchate was declared to be uncanonical and Photius was acclaimed as properly elected as the new Patriarch.

Unhappy with Byzantine influence and desiring an autocephalous status which Photius was unwilling to grant, Boris sent an embassy to Nicholas with 106 questions on the teaching and discipline of the Church in August 866.

The Bibliotheca (, Bibliothēkē, " library "), in three books, provides a comprehensive summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends, " the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times ," Aubrey Diller observed, whose " stultifying purpose " was neatly expressed in the epigram noted by Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople:

Photius had already been declared deposed by the Pope, an act which the Church of Constantinople accepted at this council.

* Patriarch Ignatius is imprisoned and ( December 25 ) deposed to be succeeded by Patriarch Photius I.

On his demand to be restored in accordance with the verdict of Photius and Eustathius at Beirut and Tyre, the Acts of that synod were read, and the next day the pope's legates gave their opinion that Ibas, was unlawfully deposed, and should be at once restored.

Anastasius was in correspondence with the deposed Byzantine patriarch, Photius, and sought to mediate between the patriarch and the pope and also to assuage the controversy over the Holy Ghost by assuming that the Latins understood the processio ( procession ) of the Holy Ghost from the Son in the sense of missio ( transmission ).

Photius, writing in the 9th century, found various text appended to manuscripts of the seven canonical books, which lead Daniel Heinsius to suggest that the original eighth book is lost, and he identified the text purported to be from the eighth book as fragments of the Hypopotoses.

” As the Holy Apostolic See has made known to us that the blasphemous errors of a certain Photius against the Holy Ghost are still vigorous in the East, errors which teach that the Holy Spirit proceeds not from the Son but from the Father only we exhort you venerable brethren, together with us, in accordance with the admonition of the ruler of the Roman See, after a careful study of the works of the Fathers, to draw from the quiver of Holy Writ arrows sharp enough to slay the monster which is again springing into life .”

The style is characterized by Photius as concise, clear and pure ; other historians have judged his accounts confused or muddled, and valuable only because he preserves information from lost histories.

* September – Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople is removed from office and banished ; Ignatius is patriarch of Constantinople once again.

A few extracts from the five orations on Chrysostom were preserved by Photius ( codex 273 ).

According to Photius, Agrippa died, childless, at the age of seventy, in the third year of the reign of Trajan, that is, 100, but statements of historian Josephus, in addition to the contemporary epigraphy from his kingdom, cast this date into serious doubt.

Of the two histories, we possess abridgments by Photius, and fragments are preserved in Athenaeus, Plutarch and especially Diodorus Siculus, whose second book is mainly from Ctesias.

Further information is contained in the excerpts from Ctesias by Photius ; Plutarch ’ s lives of Artaxerxes II and Lysander ; also Thucydides ' History of Peloponnesian War.

The days on which the Pithoigia and Choës were celebrated were both regarded as ἀποφράδες ( nefasti, " unlucky ") and μιαραί (" defiled "), necessitating expiatory libations ; on them the souls of the dead came up from the underworld and walked abroad ; according to Photius, people chewed leaves of buckthorn and besmeared their doors with tar to protect themselves from evil.

During his reign, relations with the Byzantine Empire soured over his support for Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had been removed from his post in favor of Photius.

The mistaken attribution was made by scholars from Photius onwards.

Although his work was superseded by more detailed accounts in the 2nd century AD, Photius found a copy of Erythraean Sea in the 10th century, from which he preserved extensive extracts in his Bibliotheca.

Photius states that Agatharchides wrote in the Attic dialect, with a style that was dignified and perspicuous, and abounded in sententious passages — inspiring a favorable opinion from Photius.

* Arrian, Events after Alexander ( from Photius ' Bibliotheca ) translated by John Rooke, edited by Tim Spalding

They had accepted the teaching of Paul of Samosata, though at a later period the name of Paul was believed to be that of the Apostle ; and they were not quite free from the Dualistic principle of the Gnostics, at a later period too much identified with the teaching of Mani, by Photius, Petrus Siculus, and other authors.

Other immediate issues were that in Constantinople, the Patriarch Photius had been ejected and Stephen, the son of Emperor Basil I, had taken the office.