Queen Mavia's revolt and her Arab bishop Moses
c. c. 375 – c. 378
Place: syria-arabia-frontier · coming soon
No coordinates. This node is on the timeline only.
Reported by Socrates (HE 4.36), Sozomen (HE 6.38) and Rufinus, all church historians and so insider sources. Her exact tribe and territory are debated.
Named scholars here are as cited in the handoff, not a new survey.
Mavia, a queen of Arab federates, defeated Roman armies until Emperor Valens agreed to her terms, which included an orthodox desert monk named Moses as bishop for her people. Hers is an early recorded case of an Arab ruler choosing a Christian bishop, and of Arabs being pulled into the Arian–Nicene dispute.
People named here
- Mavia
- Moses (bishop)
- Valens
Where scholars disagree
For
- Glen W. Bowersock — 'Mavia, Queen of the Saracens' (1980), as cited in Fisher 2011
Against
No names on this side.
Links
Context
Out
Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381): the Trinity defined
Mavia demanded an orthodox (Nicene) bishop, Moses, against Arian Valens.
context
attested
Sources
- Socrates Scholasticus, Church History Book 4 (NPNF trans., PD)
New Advent. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Sozomen, Church History Book 6 (NPNF trans., PD)
New Advent. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Wikipedia: Mavia (queen)
Wikipedia contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0). Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Greg Fisher, Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity (2011)
Oxford University Press. Accessed 2026-11-11.