Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Hecebolius, a rhetor at Constantinople
Hecebolius or Hecebolus, a rhetor at Constantinople in the reign
of Constantius, who professed himself a "fervent" Christian, and was therefore
selected by that emperor as one of the teachers of Julian (Socr. iii. 1, 13).
After the death of Constantius, however, Hecebolius followed the example of his
former pupil and became a "fierce pagan" (γοργὸς
Ἕλλην; Socr. u.s. 13). He was in great favour with Julian, and appears
to have been one of his familiar correspondents (Julian, Ep. 19, ed. Heyler,
p. 23; Ἑκηβὸλῳ), and seems to have had some
civil office at Edessa. The Arians of that city, "in the insolence of wealth,"
had violently attacked the Valentinians. Julian wrote to Hecebolius to say that,
"since they had done what could not be allowed in any well-governed city," "in
order to help the men the more easily to enter the kingdom of heaven as it was
prescribed" by their "most wonderful law, he had commanded all moneys to be taken
away from the church of the Edessenes, that they might be distributed among the
soldiers, and that its property should be confiscated to his private treasury;
that being poor they might become wise and not lose the kingdom of heaven which
they hoped for" (Julian, Ep. 43, ed. Heyler, p. 82; Baron. s.a.
362, xiii.; Soz. vi. 1). Such appropriation of church property was one of the
crimes of which Julian was accused after his death (Greg. Naz. adv. Jul. Orat.
iii.). The emperor adds that he had charged the inhabitants of Edessa to abstain
from "riot and strife," lest "they themselves" should suffer "the sword, exile,
and fire." The last sentence in the letter appears to intimate that he would hold
Hecebolius personally responsible for the future good conduct of the city. After
the death of Julian and the reversal of the imperial policy, Hecebolius ostentatiously
professed extreme penitence for his apostasy and prostrated himself at the church
door, crying to all that entered, "Trample upon me—the salt that has lost its
savour" (Socr. iii. 13; Baron. u.s. =
Matt. v. 13). Baronius assumes the identity of the magistrate
of Edessa with the "rhetor" of Constantinople (s.a. 362, xiii. xiv.), but
Tillemont regards them as different persons (Mém. vii. 331, 332). Libanius
mentions a Hecebolius, but gives us no clue to his history (Ep. 309).
[T.W.D.]