Seleucia Pieria in 359, when the semi-Arian party was split into two, George headed the more numerous faction opposed to that of Acacius and Eudoxius, whom, with their adherents, they deposed. On the expulsion of Anianus from the see of Antioch, George was mainly responsible for the election of Meletius, believing him to hold the same opinions as himself. He was speedily undeceived, for on his first entry into Antioch Meletius startled his hearers by an unequivocal declaration of the Nicene Creed. Indignant at being thus entrapped, George and his fellows lost no time in securing the deposition and expulsion of a bishop of such uncompromising orthodoxy. He died in 359. Gregory Nyssen mentions a letter by George relating to Arius, and Socrates Scholasticus quotes a panegyric composed by him on the Arian Eusebius of Emesa, who was his intimate friend and resided with him at Laodicea after his expulsion from Emesa and by whose intervention at Antioch he was restored to his see. George was also the author of some treatises against heresy, especially that of the Manicheans.Niceph. H. E. vi. 32. Epiphanius preserves a statement of faith he wrote jointly with Basil of Ancyra in 359. Notes Sources Further reading Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A. eds. "George of Laodicea." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd rev. ed. Oxford University Press, 2005. Biography in Encyclopedia Britannica. DelCogliano, Mark. "The Death of George of Laodicea." The Journal of Theological Studies 60.1 (2009): 181–190. DelCogliano, Mark. "The Literary Corpus of George of Laodicea." Vigiliae christianae 65.2 (2011): 150–169. DelCogliano, Mark. "George of Laodicea: A Historical Reassessment." The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 62.4 (2011): 667–692. Ancient Alexandrians Egyptian philosophers Arian bishops 4th-century philosophers 359 deaths