Letters
The letters of Pope Simplicius, many of them to the emperor Zeno and to Acacius of Constantinople about the sees of Alexandria and Antioch. Each carries a consular date, which makes them a fixed point for the events of 482.
Simplicius was bishop of Rome when the emperor Zeno recovered his throne and when the see of Alexandria fell vacant. His letters press the emperor and Acacius of Constantinople to uphold the Council of Chalcedon and to keep its opponents out of the great sees.
Letters 17 and 18, both dated on the Ides of July in the consulship of Severinus, that is 15 July 482, show what Rome knew at that moment: that Timothy of Alexandria was dead, that the emperor had rejected the successor elected there, and that he meant to give the see to Peter, whom Rome regarded as a heretic. They are the pope’s protest against that plan.
Cited in
- AD 482 to AD 519, firm date