264 Maximus the Confessor great empire, and his minister Kautilya helped establish the institutions that sustained it The empire grew in size, wealth, and culture under his son and grandson, reaching its zenith under Emperor Ashoka Its legacy to modern times is the concept of unity for the subcontinent See also Buddhist councils; Jainism Further reading: Basham, A L The Wonder That Was India: Survey of the Culture of the Indian Sub-Continent before the Coming of the Muslims New York: Grove Press, 1954; Gokhale, B G Asoka Maurya New York: Twayne, 1966 Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur Maximus the Confessor (580–662 c.e.) Catholic theologian Maximus the Confessor, also known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople, was born in Constantinople to a noble Byzantine family and received a good education He served as a secretary of the emperor Heraclius, became head of the imperial chancellery, and oversaw the comprehensive overhaul of the upper echelons of civil service However, he renounced his post and became a monk around 614 c.e at the monastery of Chrysopolis He was unhappy about the religious attachments of the court and retired to enjoy his love for quiet prayer By 618 he had made enough progress in the monastic life to acquire a disciple, the monk Anastasius, who was Maximus’s companion for the rest of his life When the Persians invaded his region in 626, Maximus fled to Africa During his time there he gained a considerable theological reputation The majority of what are considered his greatest theological writings come from his time in Africa There, he became an outspoken opponent of monothelitism—the doctrine that Jesus Christ had one will but two natures: divine and human The Catholic Church rejected this doctrine, as did Maximus, who insisted on dythelitism, which believed that Christ had two wills, rather than one He spoke out against monothelitism at the Lateran Council of 649 His outspokenness led to his arrest in 653 by Emperor Constans II, and when he refused to accept the emperor’s decrees, he was exiled He returned to Constantinople in 661 but once again refused to renounce his beliefs His punishment included having his right hand and tongue cut off, and he was banished once again He died on August 13, 662 Considered one of the great theologians of the Catholic Church, Maximus was given the title of “the Theologian” and is ranked as a Doctor of the Church because of his contributions to theology, most notably of the Incarnation Maximus favored two forms of writing: a collection of paragraphs, many being very short, and the other being responses to questions asked of him by others In his work he saw himself as interpreting different traditions, most important scripture, but also church fathers, councils, saints, and sacraments Maximus’s writings are considered by some to be highly speculative, very intellectual, and difficult to comprehend He liked to explain things at great length He left behind approximately 90 writings, notably his Letter on Love, Difficulty 10, Difficulty 41, Difficulty 71, and Opuscule These writings dealt with topics such as theological and polemical treatises, symbolism, mysticism, Gregory of Nazianzus, spiritual maturity, and the Incarnation of Christ See also Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth; monasticism Further reading: Bathrellos, Demetrios The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature, and Will in the Christology of Saint Maximus the Confessor New York: Oxford University Press, 2004; Louth, Andrew Maximus the Confessor London: Routledge Press, 1996; Nichols, Aidan Byzantine Gospel: Maximus the Confessor in Modern Scholarship Edinburgh, Scotland: T and T Clark, 1993 James E Seelye, Jr Maya: Classic Period During the Classic Period, which is divided into Early (250–600 c.e.), Late (600–800), and Terminal (800– 900/1100), Maya civilization reached the pinnacle of its cultural, economic, and political development From the 200s to the 400s c.e dozens of autonomous citystates, many founded in the Preclassic, others early in the Classic, jockeyed for power By the 500s two had gained preeminence: Tikal and Calakmul These were sprawling city-states of 100,000 people or more, with towering pyramids and temples, massive civic and ceremonial centers, outer rings of lesser compounds and residences, and intensively farmed hinterlands extending many miles A hereditary king and a small class of elites controlled vital trade routes and secondary centers and aggressively pursued conquest of and alliances with other polities From the 500s to the 700s a series of highly destructive wars erupted between these two great powers and their respective allies Elsewhere in the Maya zone other citystates engaged in the same process of expansion, alliance building, and warfare