Severus 3

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexM
FloruitE VIII
Dates721 (c) / 721 (c)
Variant NamesS'wyr'
EthnicitySyrian
LocationsEdessa (Syria) (residence);
Gasika (Mardin) (residence);
Syria;
Edessa (Syria);
Gasika (Mardin);
Mardin;
Edessa (Syria) (birthplace)
Textual SourcesChronicon Anonymi ad annum 1234 pertinens, ed. and tr. J.-B. Chabot, I = CSCO 81-82 (Paris, 1916-20), II = CSCO 109 (Louvain, 1937) (chronicle)

Severus 3 was a Syrian and a native of Edessa; he lived in the village of Gasika (Gsk') in the district of Mardin; described as "a cunning and crafty man", he went to the Jews and claimed to be either the Messiah himself or sometimes a messenger from the Messiah and in this way collected a large sum of gold; eventually he was reported to the Arab ruler Maslama 1 who arrested him and confiscated all that he had gained, but released him after he admitted that he was a fraud: Chron. 1234, ยง163 (p. 308). The date, from the place in the narrative, was around 721.

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