Simeon then made his first journey to Constantinople, and obtained a letter from the emperor Anastasius to be delivered to the king of the Persians, where he begged him not to take sides in the quarrels between the Christians of his state.
This symposium, which occupies an important place in the text of John of Ephesus, apparently held in Arzun near Siirt in the Province of Nisibis (Arbayistan), at least in the presence of the Marzban, the provincial governor of the Persian frontier, who was to serve as an arbiter.
According to the Monophysite writer, the debate ended, of course, with Simeon's undisputed triumph, which was "on this occasion" (thus under the pontificate of Babai) promoted to be the Bishop of Beth Arsham to the dissident church located on the Tigris near Seleucia-Ctesiphon shortly before 503.
But some time later, at the urging of the Nestorian hierarchy by John of Ephesus, King Kavadh first ordered the arrest of all the bishops and archimandrites Monophysites and was imprisoned in Nisibis for seven years.
Anyone who does not confess that Mary is Theotokos, let him be anathema!Then, he traveled to Najran to interview eyewitnesses,[note 1] and write a report about the massacre of Christians perpetrated by the Jewish Himyarite "Dhu Nuwas" on 25 November 523.