ACTA ARCHELAI. – Account of two disputations held by Archelaus, bishop of Carcara in Mesopotamia, against Mani, during the time of the Emperor Probus. Composed in Syriac, only a few fragments remain in Greek and a poor Latin translation from the end of the 4th century. The author is a certain Hegemonius, who wrote at the beginning of the 4th century. The work provides valuable information on the origins of Manichaeism, though the two disputations it recounts appear to be entirely fictitious.
BIBL.: S. Jerome, De viris illustribus, 72; O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Liter., III, Munich 1912, pp. 265-69; P. de Labriolle, s. V. Archelaus de Carchara, in DGH, III, col. 1542. Text in PG 10, 1405; critical edition by Ch. H. Beeson in CB, XVI, Leipzig 1906. Antonio Ferrúa