Akademik

(c. 270–336 AD)

   Egyptian Christian priest in Alexandria of Libyan origin who enunciated the doctrine of Arianism indicating that Christ had only one nature—human as against the orthodox view of two natures, human and divine intermingled. He was fiercely opposed by Athanasius, later patriarch of Alexandria, who forced him to leave the city. Arius died in Constantinople in 336. His doctrine found little support in Egypt, although Athanasius was for a time deposed by an Arian, but it influenced several emperors and later spread to barbarian converts outside the empire.