A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
William Smith, Ed.

Lu'cius

1. Of ADRIANOPLE or HADRIANOPLE, was bishop of that city in the fourth century, succeeding, though Tillemont doubts if immediately, St. Eutropius. He was expelled from his see by the Arian party, then predominant in the East, under the emperor Constantius II., the son of Constantine the Great; and went to Rome to lay his cause before the pope, Julius I., apparently in the year 340 or 341. Several other bishops were at Rome on a similar errand, about the same time; and the pope, having satisfied himself or their innocence and of their orthodoxy, sent them back to their respective churches, with letters requiring their restoration, and other letters rebuking their persecutors. The Oriental bishops appear to have rejected the pope's authority, and sent him back a remonstrance against his rebukes. Lucius, however, recovered his see by the authority of the emperor Constantius, who was constrained to restore him by the threats of his brother Constans, then emperor of the West. This restoration is placed Tillemont before the council of Sardica, A. D. 347. When the death of Constans (A. D. 350) was known in the East, the Arian party, whom Lucius had provoked by the boldness and severity of his attacks, deposed him, bound him neck and hands with irons (as they had done at least once before), and in that condition banished him. He died in exile. The Romish church commemorates him as a martyr on the eleventh of February. (Athanas. Apolog. de Fuga sua, 100.3, and Hist. Arianor. ad Monach. 100.19; Socrat. H. E. 2.15, 23, 26; Sozomen. H. E. 3.8, 24, 4.2; Theodoret, H. E. 2.15; Tillemont, Mémoires, vols. vi. and vii.; Bolland, Acta Sanctorum Februarii, vol. ii. p. 519, Epistolae Julii Papae et Orient. Episc. apud Concilia, vol. ii. col. 475, &c. ed. Labbe.)