APOLLINARIANISM AND THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE Arianism died hard after the Council of Nicaea, but in the end, Athanasius, supported by the so-called three Great Cappadocians—Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Caesarea, and Gregory of Nyssa, Basil’s younger brother—won the war. The Cappadocian theologians were able by their energies to enlist the support of a sufficiently large majority of Eastern bishops so that the First Council of Constantinople, convened at the request of Emperor Theodosius I