Abstract

Potamius of Lisbon is hardly one of the more celebrated churchmen of the fourth century AD. His life is shrouded in obscurity: we do not know when he was born, when he became bishop, or when he died. He emerges into the light of history in the mid-350s when, during the western residence of the ‘Arian’ emperor Constantius II, many bishops were called upon to adhere to the emperor’s preferred version of Christian orthodoxy — a version that would later be denounced as heresy after the triumph of Nicene Christology at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Potamius’ actions during this period are instructive.