osius

Updated: May 4, 2025

Perhaps their complaint was not without foundation, that the credulity of the emperor had been abused by the insidious arts of his favorite Osius. The influence of falsehood and corruption might procure the condemnation of the innocent, or aggravate the sentence of the guilty.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2

He blamed everybody, but most of all Stanislaus and the tricky Jesuits who, he said, were back of the whole scheme. He wrote to Cardinal Osius that he would not rest until he had broken up the Jesuit college in Pultowa and driven every schemer of them out of Poland. As for Stanislaus, he would follow him across the world, if need were, and drag him back to Kostkov in chains.

William Terence Kane - For Greater Things; the story of Saint Stanislaus Kostka

But the credit of his favorite Osius, who appears to have presided in the council of Nice, might dispose the emperor in favor of the orthodox party; and a well-timed insinuation, that the same Eusebius of Nicomedia, who now protected the heretic, had lately assisted the tyrant, might exasperate him against their adversaries.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2

The fall of Liberius and Osius reflected a brighter lustre on the firmness of those bishops who still adhered, with unshaken fidelity, to the cause of Athanasius and religious truth.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2

Among the adherents of Eutropius, who were equally numerous and insincere, two were of especial importance Osius, who had risen from the post of a cook to be count of the sacred largesses, and finally master of the offices, and Leo, a soldier, corpulent and good-humored, who was known by the sobriquet of Ajax, a man of great body and little mind, fond of boasting, fond of eating, fond of drinking, and fond of women.

- The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 03

When he was banished to Beræa in Thrace, he sent back a large sum which had been offered for the accommodation of his journey; and insulted the court of Milan by the haughty remark, that the emperor and his eunuchs might want that gold to pay their soldiers and their bishops. The resolution of Liberius and Osius was at length subdued by the hardships of exile and confinement.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2

'Look, Osius, said one, 'that man is here again! 'And doubtless with the same motives which brought him here yesterday, replied the other.

Wilkie Collins - Antonina

Among those prelates who led the honorable band of confessors and exiles, Liberius of Rome, Osius of Cordova, Paulinus of Treves, Dionysius of Milan, Eusebius of Vercellæ, Lucifer of Cagliari and Hilary of Poitiers, may deserve to be particularly distinguished.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2

The eminent station of Liberius, who governed the capital of the empire; the personal merit and long experience of the venerable Osius, who was revered as the favorite of the great Constantine, and the father of the Nicene faith, placed those prelates at the head of the Latin church: and their example, either of submission or resistance, would probable be imitated by the episcopal crowd.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2