list of participants. Hosius ostensibly supported Alexander of Alexandria against Arius. After the Council, Hosius returned to his diocese in Spain. For nearly 50 years Hosius was one of the foremost bishops of his time. He was held in universal esteem and exercised great influence. After Constantine's death in 337, Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian and friend of the Imperial family, was named to the see of Constantinople. In his new role as patriarch, Eusebius and his supporters brought pressure to bear upon Constantius II to expel Athanasius of Alexandria, a staunch anti-Arian, for a second time from his diocese. Eusebius urged the emperor to have Hosius, a supporter of Athanasius, summoned to Milan, where the Bishop of Cordoba declined to condemn Athanasius. Hosius so impressed the emperor that he was authorized to return home. Hosius had a prominent role to play at the Council of Serdica, which began in the summer, or, at latest, in the autumn of 343, proved by the fact that he was the first to sign the Acts of this council. Continued pressure from Eusebius led to Constantius' writing a letter demanding whether Hosius alone was going to remain obstinate in his support of Athanasius. In reply, Hosius sent his courageous letter of protest against imperial interference in Church affairs (353), preserved by Athanasius which led to Hosius' exile in 355 to Sirmium, an imperial center in Pannonia (in modern Serbia). From his exile he wrote to Constantius II his only extant composition, a letter justly characterized by the French historian Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont as displaying gravity, dignity, gentleness, wisdom, generosity and in fact all the qualities of a great soul and a great bishop. Subjected to continual pressure from the Eusebian party, Hosius signed the homoean formula adopted by the Third Council of Sirmium in 357, which involved communion with the homoeans (Acacians) but not the condemnation of Athanasius. He was then permitted to return to his Hispanic diocese, where he died in 359. There is a letter from Pope Liberius to him (ca. 353). References Further reading V. C. de Clercq, Ossius of Cordova. A contribution to the history of the Constantinian period (Washington, 1954). Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont, Mémoires, VII. 300-321 (1700) Karl Josef von Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vol. i. Henry Melvill Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism (Cambridge, 1882, 2nd ed., 1900) A. W. W. Dale, The Synod of Elvira (London,