Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History

ToposText · Evagrius Scholasticus · 219 sections

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§ 3.30.1 This Anastasius, being of a peaceful disposition, was altogether averse to the introduction of changes, especially in the state of the church, but endeavoured by every means, that the most holy churches should continue undisturbed, and the whole body of his subjects enjoy profound tranquillity, by the removal of all strife and contention from matters both ecclesiastical and civil. During these times, accordingly, the synod of Chalcedon was neither openly proclaimed in the most holy churches, nor yet was repudiated by all: but the bishops acted each according to his individual opinion. Thus, some very resolutely maintained what had been put forth by that synod, and would not yield to the extent of one word of its determinations, nor admit even the change of a single letter, but firmly declined all contact and communion with those who refused to admit the matters there set forth. Others, again, not only did not submit to the synod of Chalcedon and its determinations, but even anathematised both it and the tome of Leo. Others, however, firmly adhered to the Henoticon of Zeno, and that too although mutually at variance on the point of the single and double nature; some being caught by the artful composition of that document; and others influenced by an inclination for peace. Thus the churches in general were divided into distinct factions, and their presidents did not even admit each other to communion. Numerous divisions, hence arising, existed in the East, in the West, and in Africa; while the eastern bishops had no friendly intercourse with those of the West and Africa, nor the latter with those of the East. The evil too became still more monstrous, for neither did the presidents of the eastern churches allow communion among themselves, nor yet those who held the sees of Europe and Africa, much less with those of remote parts. In consideration of these circumstances, the Emperor Anastasius removed those bishops who were promoters of change, wherever he detected any one either proclaiming or anathematising the synod of Chalcedon in opposition to the practice of the neighbourhood. Accordingly, he rejected from the see of the imperial city, first, Euphemius, as has been already mentioned, and afterwards Macedonius, who was succeeded by Timotheus; and Flavian from the see of Antioch.
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§ 3.31.1 The monastic body in Palestine, writing to Alcison concerning Macedonius and Flavian, express themselves thus: “On the death of Peter, they were again separated, but Alexandria, Egypt, and Africa remained at unity among themselves; as, on the other hand, did the rest of the East; while the churches of the West refused to communicate with them on any other terms than the anathematising of Nestorius, Eutyches, and Dioscorus, including also Peter, surnamed Mongus, and Acacius. Such, then, being the situation of the churches throughout the world, the genuine followers of Dioscorus and Eutyches were reduced to a very small number; and when they were upon the point of disappearing altogether from the earth, Xenaias, who was truly a stranger to God, with what object we know not, or pursuing what enmity towards Flavian, but under colour of defending the faith, as is generally said, begins to raise a stir against him, and to calumniate him as being a Nestorian. When, however, he had anathematised Nestorius and his notion, Xenaias transferred his attacks from him to Dioscorus and Theodore, Theodoret, Ibas, Cyrus, Eleutherius, and John; and we know not whom, besides and whence he mustered them: some of whom really maintained the opinions of Nestorius, but others, having been suspected, anathematised him, and departed in the communion of the church.'Unless,' said he,'thou shalt anathematise all these, as holding the opinions of Nestorius, thou art thyself a Nestorian, though thou shouldest ten thousand times anathematise him and his notion.' He also endeavoured by letters to induce the advocates of Dioscorus and Eutyches to take arms with him against Flavian, not however with a view of exacting from him an anathema upon the synod, but merely on the before-mentioned persons. But when the bishop Flavian had maintained a prolonged resistance to them, and other persons had united with Xenaias against him, namely, Eleusinus, a bishop of Cappadocia Secunda, Nicias, of Laodicea in Syria, and others from other quarters, the motive of whose spite against Flavian it is the province of others, not of ourselves, to detail; at last, in hope of peace, he yielded to their contentious spirit, and having in writing anathematised the before-mentioned persons, he despatched the instrument to the emperor, for they had stirred up him also against Flavian as a maintainer of the opinions of Nestorius. Xenaias, not contented with this, again demands of Flavian that he should anathematise the synod itself, and those who maintained two natures in the person of the Lord, namely, the flesh and the Godhead; and on his refusal, again accused him of being a Nestorian. After much stir upon this subject, and after the patriarch had put forth an exposition of faith, in which he confessed that he admitted the synod as far as regards the deposition of Nestorius and Eutyches, not however as defining and teaching the faith; they again impugn him as secretly holding the opinions of Nestorius, unless he would further anathematise the synod itself, and those who maintained two natures in the person of the Lord, the flesh and the Godhead. They also win over to their side the Isaurians, by various deceitful expressions, and having drawn up a formulary of faith, in which they anathematise the synod together with those who maintained the two natures or persons, they separate themselves from Flavian and Macedonius, but unite with others on their subscribing the formulary. At the same time they also demanded of the bishop of Jerusalem a written statement of faith; which he put forth, and sent to the emperor by the hands of the party of Dioscorus. This they present, containing ari anathema upon those who maintained the two natures. But the bishop of Jerusalem himself, affirming that it had been forged by them, puts forth another without such anathema. And no wonder. For they have often forged discourses of the fathers, and to many writings of Apollinaris they have attached titles assigning them to Athanasius, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and Julius; their principal object in so doing being to draw over the multitude to their own impieties. They also demanded of Macedonius a written statement of faith; who put one forth, affirming that he recognised only the creed of the three hundred and eighteen, and of the one hundred and fifty fathers, anathematising at the same time Nestorius, Eutyches, and those who held the doctrine of two sons or two Christs, or divided the natures; making, however, no mention of the synod of Ephesus, which deposed Nestorius, nor that of Chalcedon, which deposed Eutyches. Indignant at this, the monastic bodies about Constantinople separate from their bishop Macedonius. In the mean time Xenaias and Dioscorus, associating with them many of the bishops, became insufferable, from the stir which they raised against those who refused to anathematise; and, by various devices, they endeavoured to procure the banishment of those who persisted in their refusal. In this way, accordingly, they banish both Macedonius, find John, bishop of Paltus, and Flavian.” Such are the contents of the letter.
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§ 3.32.1 There were other things which caused secret vexation to Anastasius. For when Ariadne was desirous of investing him with the purple, Euphemius, who held the archiepiscopal see, withheld his approval, until Anastasius had presented to him an agreement, written with his own hand, and secured with fearful oaths, that he would maintain the faith inviolate, and introduce no innovation into the holy church of God, in case he should obtain the sceptre: which document he also deposited with Macedonius, the keeper of the sacred treasures. This measure he adopted, because Anastasius had generally the reputation of holding the Manichaean doctrine. When, however, Macedonius ascended the episcopal throne, Anastasius was desirous that the agreement should be returned to him, affirming it to be an insult to the imperial dignity, if the before-mentioned document, in his own hand-writing, should be preserved: and when Macedonius resolutely opposed the demand, and firmly protested that he would not betray the faith, the emperor pursued every insidious device for the purpose of ejecting him from his see. Accordingly, even boys were brought forward as informers, who falsely accused both themselves and Macedonius of infamous practices. But when Macedonius was found to be emasculate, they had recourse to other contrivances; until, by the advice of Celer, commander of the household troops, he secretly retired from his see. With the ejection of Flavian, other circumstances are associated. For we have met with some very aged men who remembered all the events of this time. These say, that the monks of the district called Cynegica, and of the whole of Syria Prima, having been wrought upon by Xenaias, who was bishop of the neighbouring city of Hierapolis, and who was named in Greek Philoxenus, rushed into the city in a body with great noise and tumult, endeavouring to compel Flavian to anathematise the synod of Chalcedon and the tome of Leo. Roused at the indignation manifested by Flavian, and the violent urgency of the monks, the people of the city made a great slaughter of them, so that a very large number found a grave in the Orontes, where the waves performed their only funeral rites. There happened also another circumstance of scarcely less magnitude than the former. For the monks of Coele Syria, now called Syria Secunda, from sympathy with Flavian, since he had led a monastic life in a monastery of the district called Tilmognon, advanced to Antioch, with the intention of defending him. From which circumstance, also, no inconsiderable mischief arose. Accordingly, on the ground either of the former or latter occurrence, or both, Flavian is ejected, and condemned to reside at Petra, on the extreme verge of Palestine.
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§ 3.33.1 Flavian having been thus ejected, Severus ascends the episcopal throne of Antioch, in the five hundred and sixty-first year of the era of that city, in the month Dius, the sixth year of the Indiction; the year in which I am now writing being the six hundred and forty-first of that era. He was a native of Sozopolis, a city of Pisidia, and had applied himself to the profession of a pleader at Berytus; but immediately on his abandoning the practice of the law, having participated in holy baptism in the sacred precinct of the divine martyr Leontius, who is revered at Tripolis, a city of Phoenicia Maritima, he assumed the monastic life in a certain monastery situated between the city of Gaza and the town called Majumas; in which latter place Peter the Iberian, who had been bishop of the same Gaza, and had been banished with Timotheus Aelurus, passed through the same discipline, and left behind him a famous memory. Severus there engages in a discussion with Nephalius, who had formerly sided with him on the question of the single nature, but had subsequently been one of the synod at Chalcedon and among those who held the opinion of two natures in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he is, in consequence, expelled from his own monastery by Nephalius and his party, together with many others who held similar doctrines. Thence he proceeds to the imperial city, to plead the cause of himself and those who had been expelled with him, and thus obtains the notice of the emperor Anastasius, as is narrated by the author of the life of Severus. Accordingly, Severus, in issuing synodical letters, expressly anathematised the synod at Chalcedon; on which point the letters addressed to Alcison speak as follows. “The synodical letters of Timotheus of Constantinople were admitted here in Palestine, but the deposition of Macedonius and Flavian was not admitted, nor yet the synodical letters of Severus; but the bearers were put to flight, with the ignominy and insult which they deserved, by the people and monks of the city, who rose upon them. Such was the situation of matters in Palestine. But of the bishops subject to Antioch, some were carried away into compliance, among whom was Marinus, bishop of Berytus; others by force and compulsion concurred in the synodical letters of Severus, which included an anathema, both on the synod and all others who affirmed two natures or persons in the Lord, namely, the flesh and the Godhead; and others, after having concurred by compulsion, recalled their assent, and among them the bishops subject to Apamea; others, again, altogether refused concurrence, among whom were Julian, bishop of Bostra, Epiphanius of Tyre, and some others, as is said. But the Isaurian bishops, having returned to their sober senses, are now condemning themselves for the error into which they had been beguiled, and are anathematising Severus and his party. Others of the bishops and clergy subject to Severus have abandoned their churches, and among them Julian of Bostra, and Peter of Damascus, who are now living in these parts, as also Manias. This latter is one of those two who seemed to be the chiefs of the followers of Dioscorus, by whose means also Severus obtained his dignity: but he now condemns the arrogance of that party.” And presently the letter proceeds. “The monasteries in these parts and Jerusalem itself are, with the aid of God, unanimous respecting the right faith, and very many cities besides, together with their bishops, for all of whom, and for ourselves, pray thou that we may not enter into temptation, our most holy lord and honoured father.”
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§ 3.34.1 Since, then, these letters state, that the priests subject to Apamea had separated from Severus, let me now add a circumstance transmitted to us from our fathers, although it has not hitherto found a place in history. Cosmas, bishop of my native place, Epiphanea, which stands on the Orontes, and Severian, bishop of the neighbouring city of Arethusa, being troubled at the synodical letters of Severus, and having withdrawn from his communion, despatched an instrument of deposition to him, while still bishop of Antioch. They entrust the document to Aurelian, chief of the deacons at Epiphanea, and he, through dread of Severus and the majesty of so great a bishopric, on his arrival at Antioch puts on a female dress, and approaches Severus with delicate carriage and the entire assumption of a woman's appearance. Letting his vail fall down to his breast, with wailing and deep drawn lamentation he presents to Severus, as he advanced, the instruments of deposition in the guise of a petition: he then passes unobserved from among the attendant crowd and purchased safety by flight, before Severus had learned the purport of the document. Severus, having received the document and learned its contents, continued, nevertheless, in his see, until the death of Anastasius. On being informed of these transactions, for I must record the benevolent measure of Anastasius, he directs Asiaticus, who was commander in Phoenicia Libanensis, to eject Cosmas and Severian from their sees, because they had sent the instrument of deposition to Severus. Finding, on his arrival in the East, that many adhered to the opinions of those bishops, and that their cities resolutely upheld them, he reported to Anastasius that he could not eject them without bloodshed. So great then was the humanity of Anastasius, that he wrote in express terms to Asiaticus, that he did not desire the accomplishment of any object, however important and illustrious, if one drop of blood was to be shed. Such, then, was the situation of the churches throughout the world down to the reign of Anastasius; whom some, treating him as an enemy to the synod at Chalcedon, erased from the sacred diptychs; and he was also anathematised at Jerusalem even during his life-time.
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§ 3.35.1 It will not be inconsistent, if, in accordance with the promise which I originally made, I insert in my narrative the other circumstances worthy of mention which occurred in the time of Anastasius. Longinus, the kinsman of Zeno, on his arrival at his native country, as has been already detailed, openly commences war against the emperor: and after a numerous army had been raised from different quarters, in which Conon, formerly bishop of Apamea in Syria, was also present, who, as being an Isaurian, aided the Isaurians, an end was put to the war by the utter destruction of the Isaurian troops of Longinus. The heads of Longinus and Theodore were sent to the imperial city by John the Scythian; which the emperor displayed on poles at the place called Sycae, opposite Constantinople, an agreeable spectacle to the Byzantines, who had been hardly treated by Zeno and the Isaurians. The other Longinus, surnamed of Selinus, the main stay of the insurgent faction, and Indes, are sent alive to Anastasius by John, surnamed Hunchback; a circumstance which especially gladdened the emperor and the Byzantines, by the display of the prisoners led in triumph along the streets and the hippodrome, with iron chains about their necks and hands. Thenceforward, also, the payment called Isaurica accrued to the imperial treasury, being gold previously paid to the Barbarians annually, to the amount of five thousand pounds.
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§ 3.36.1 The Scenite barbarians also insulted the Roman empire; not, however, to their own advantage; by plundering Mesopotamia, either Phoenicia, and Palestine. After having been everywhere chastised by the commanders, they subsequently continued quiet, and universally made peace with the Romans.
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§ 3.37.1 The Persians too, having, in violation of treaties, marched beyond their own territories under their king Cabades, first attacked Armenia, and having captured a town named Theodosiopolis, reached Amida, a strong city of Mesopotamia, which they took by storm; and which the Roman emperor subsequently restored by great exertions. If any one is inclined to learn the particulars of these transactions, and to trace the whole minutely, a very able narrative, a work of great labour and elegance, has been composed by Eustathius; who, after having brought down his history to this point, was numbered with the departed; closing with the twelfth year of the reign of Anastasius. After the close of this war, Anastasius founds a city on the spot called Daras, in Mesopotamia, situated near the limits of the Roman dominion, and, as it were, a border-point of the two empires. He surrounds it with strong fortifications, and embellishes it with various stately erections, both of churches and other sacred buildings, basilicas, public baths, and other ornaments of distinguished cities. The place is said by some to have obtained the name of Daras, because there Alexander the Macedonian, the son of Philip, utterly defeated Darius.
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§ 3.38.1 By the same emperor was raised a vast and memorable work called the Long Wall, in a favourable situation in Thrace, distant from Constantinople two hundred and eighty stadia. It reaches from one sea to the other, like a strait, to the extent of four hundred and twenty stadia; making the city an island, in a manner, instead of a peninsula, and affording a very safe transit, to such as choose, from the Pontus to the Euxine Sea. It is a check upon the inroads of the Barbarians from the Euxine, and of the Colchians from the Palus Maeotis, and from beyond the Caucasus, as well as of those who have made irruptions from Europe.
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§ 3.39.136 The same emperor completed an extraordinary and divine achievement, namely, the entire abolition of the tax called chrysargyrum: which transaction I must now detail, though the task needs the eloquence of Thucydides, or something still more lofty and graceful. I will, however, myself describe it, not in reliance upon powers of language, but encouraged by the nature of the action. There was imposed upon the Roman commonwealth, so singular in its magnitude and duration, a tax vile and hateful to God, and unworthy even of Barbarians, much more of the most Christian empire of the Romans: which, having been overlooked, from what cause I am unable to say, until the time of Anastasius, he most royally abolished. It was imposed, both on many other classes of persons who procured their livelihood by an accumulation of petty gains, and also upon women who made a sale of their charms, and surrendered themselves in brothels to promiscuous fornication in the obscure parts of the city; and besides, upon those who were devoted to a prostitution which outraged not only nature but the common weal: so that this mode of revenue proclaimed, as distinctly as a direct enactment, that all who chose, might practise such wickedness in security. The impious and accursed revenue raised from this source, the collectors paid at the end of every five years into the hands of the first and most dignified of the prefects: so that it formed no unimportant part of the functions of that office, and had its separate exchequer, and accountants, men who regarded the business as a military service, suited, like the rest, to persons of some distinction. Anastasius, being informed of the circumstance, laid the matter before the senate, and justly declaring it to be an abomination and unparallelled defilement, decreed that it should be utterly abolished; and committed to the flames the papers which were vouchers for its collection. With the desire also of making this measure a complete sacrifice to God, and of preventing any of his successors from reviving the ancient shame, he puts on the appearance of vexation, and accuses himself of inconsiderateness and excessive folly, saying, that in the too eager pursuit of novelty he had neglected the interests of the commonwealth, and had rashly and thoughtlessly abolished so important a revenue, which had been established in former times and confirmed by so long a continuance,
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§ 3.39.138 without duly weighing the impending dangers, or the expenses necessary for the maintenance of the army, that living bulwark of the empire, nor yet for the service of God. Accordingly, without betraying his secret thoughts, he proclaims his desire to restore the before-mentioned revenue; and having summoned those who had been in charge of the levy, he told them that he repented of the step, but knew not what course to take, or how to rectify his error, now that the papers had been burnt which could be vouchers for the particulars of its exaction. And while they, on their part, lamented the abolition of the levy, not in semblance but in reality, on account of the unrighteous gain which had thence accrued to them, and were professing the same perplexity as the emperor, he urged and exhorted them to employ every mode of search, in the endeavour to procure from among documents preserved in various quarters, a statement of the entire levy. Supplying each individual with money, he despatched him to collect materials, enjoining him to bring every paper which threw light upon this matter wherever it might be found; that by means of the utmost circumspection and minute attention, a statement of the business might be again put together. Accordingly, on the return of those who were engaged in the execution of these orders, Anastasius put on a pleased and gladsome appearance, and was in reality rejoiced in having compassed the object on which he was bent. He also made particular enquiries, both how they were discovered and in whose possession, and whether any thing of the same kind was still remaining: and on their affirming that they had expended great pains upon the collection, and swearing by the emperor himself, that no other paper which could be a voucher was preserved throughout the whole empire, Anastasius again lighted up a great pile with the papers thus produced, and drenched the ashes with water, with the intention of removing every trace of this levy; so that there might appear neither dust, nor ashes, nor any remnant whatever of the business, through imperfect combustion. In order, however, that, while we are thus extolling the abolition of this impost, we may not seem to be ignorant how much has been written under passionate feelings on the subject by former authors, let me produce these matters, and shew their falsehood, and that more especially from their own statements.
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§ 3.40.1 Zosimus, a follower of the accursed and foul religion of the Greeks, in his anger against Constantine, because he was the first emperor that had adopted Christianity, abandoning the abominable superstition of the Greeks, says, that he was the person who devised the tax called Chrysargyrum, and enacted that it should be levied every five years. He has on many other grounds also reviled that pious and magnificent monarch; for he affirms that he contrived many other intolerable proceedings against every class of persons; that he miserably destroyed his son Crispus, and made away with his wife Fausta by inclosing her in an overheated bath; and that, after having in vain endeavoured to to procure purification from murders so detestable at the hands of the priests of his own religion (for they plainly declared its impossibility), he met with an Egyptian who had come from Iberia; and, having been assured by him that the faith of the Christians had the power of blotting out every sin, he embraced what the Egyptian had imparted to him, and thenceforward abandoning the faith of his fathers, he made the commencement of his impiety. The falsehood of these assertions I will forthwith shew, and in the first place treat of the matter of the Chrysargyrum.
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§ 3.41.139 Thou sayest, O evil and malignant demon, that Constantine, wishing to raise a city equal to Rome, first made a commencement of so vast a place by laying strong foundations and erecting a lofty wall between Troas and Ilium; but when he had discovered in Byzantium a more suitable site, he in such fashion encircled the place with walls, so far extended the former city, and embellished it with buildings so splendid, as hardly to be surpassed by Rome itself, which had received gradual increase through so long a course of years.
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§ 3.41.140 Thou sayest also that he made a distribution of provisions at the public cost to the people of Byzantium, and bestowed a very large sum of gold upon those who had accompanied him thither, for the erection of private houses. Again, thou writest to the following effect: that on the decease of Constantine, the imperial power came into the hands of Constantius, his only surviving son after the death of his two brothers; and that when Magnentius and Vetranio had assumed the sovereignty, he wrought upon the latter by persuasives: and when both armies had been mustered, Constantius, addressing them first, reminded the soldiers of the generosity of his father, with whom they had served through many wars, and by whom they had been distinguished with the most liberal gifts; and that the soldiers, on hearing this, stripped Vetranio of his imperial robe, and made him descend from the tribunal into a private station; and tha,t he suffered no unkindness at the hands of Constantius: who has shared with his father in so much of thy calumny. How thou canst then maintain that the same person could be so liberal, so munificent, and at the same time so paltry and sordid as to impose so accursed a tax, I am utterly unable to comprehend. In proof that Constantine did not destroy Fausta or Crispus, nor was on that account initiated by an Egyptian into our mysteries, listen to the history of Eusebius Pamphili, who was contemporary with Constantine and Crispus, and had intercourse with them. For what thou writest, so far from being truth, was not even contemporary hearsay, since thou livedst long after, in the time of Arcadius and Honorius ----to which period thou hast brought down thy history----or even after their time. Eusebius, in the eighth book of his ecclesiastical history, has the following words: “After no very long interval, the emperor Constantine, having maintained a disposition remarkable for gentleness in respect to his whole life, kindliness towards his subjects,
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§ 3.41.141 and favour towards the divine word, closes his life by the common laws of nature, leaving behind him, as emperor and Augustus in his own room, a, legitimate son, Constantius.” And farther on he says: “His son Constantius, having at the very commencement of his reign been proclaimed supreme emperor and Augustus by the armies, and long before by God himself, the universal Sovereign, shewed himself an imitator of his father's piety as respects our faith.” And at the end of the history he expresses himself in the following terms: “The mighty, victorious Constantine, distinguished by every religious excellence, in conjunction with his son Crispus, a sovereign highly beloved of God, and resembling his father in all things, obtained his rightful possession of the East.” Eusebius, who survived Constantine, would never have praised Crispus in these terms, if he had been destroyed by his father. Theodoret, in his history, says that Constantine partook in the saving baptism at Nicomedia, near the close of his life, and that he had deferred the rite till this period, from a desire that it should be performed in the river Jordan. Thou sayest, O most detestable and polluted one, that the Roman empire from the time of the appearance of Christianity, fell away and was altogether ruined: either because thou hast not read any of the older writings, or because thou art a traitor to the truth. For, on the contrary, it clearly appears that the Roman power increased together with the spread of our faith. Consider, for instance, how, at the very time of the sojourn of Christ our God among mankind, the greater part of the Macedonians were crushed by the Romans, and Albania, Iberia, the Colchians, and Arabians were subjugated. Caius Caesar also, in the hundred and eighty-first Olympiad, subdued in great battles the Gauls, Germans, and Britons, and thereby added to the Roman empire the inhabitants of five hundred cities;
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§ 3.41.142 as has been recorded by historians. He also was the first who attained to sole sovereignty since the establishment of consuls, thereby preparing a way for the previous introduction of a reverence for monarchy, after the prevalence of polytheism and popular rule, on account of the monarchy of Christ which was immediately to appear. A further acquisition was also forthwith made of the whole of Judaea and the neighbouring territories: so that it was at this time that the first registration took place; in which Christ also was enrolled, in order that Bethlehem might fulfil the prophecy relating to it; for thus had the prophet Micah spoken respecting that place: “And thou, Bethlehem, territory of Judah, art by no means least among the princes of Judah, for from thee shall come forth a governor who shall feed my people Israel.” Also after the nativity of Christ our God, Egypt was added to the Roman dominion; Augustus Caesar, in whose time Christ was born, having completely overthrown Antony and Cleopatra; who also killed themselves. Upon which Cornelius Gallus is appointed by Augustus governor of Egypt, being the first who ruled that country after the Ptolemies: as has been recorded by historians. To what extent the territories of the Persians were curtailed by Ventidius, Corbulo the general of Nero, Severus, Trajan, Carus, Cassius, Odenatus of Palmyra, Apollonius, and others; and how often Seleucia and Ctesiphon were taken, and Nisibis changed sides; and how Armenia and the neighbouring countries were added to the Roman empire; these matters have been narrated by thyself, as well as by others. I had, however, nearly forgotten to notice what thou thyself writest respecting the achievements of Constantine, how nobly and courageously he swayed the Roman empire, while professing our religion, and what befell Julian, thy hero and the votary of thy orgies, who bequeathed to the commonwealth injuries so serious. Whether, however, he has either already received a foretaste of the things which have been foretold concerning the end of the world,
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§ 3.41.143 or will even receive their full measure, is a question relating to an economy too high for thy comprehension. Let us, at all events, consider under what circumstances heathen and Christian emperors have respectively closed their reigns. Did not Caius Julius Caesar, the first sole sovereign, close his life by assassination? In the next place, did not some of his own officers despatch with their swords Caius, the grandson of Tiberius? Was not Nero slain by one of his domestics? Did not Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, who reigned in all only sixteen months, suffer a similar fate? Was not Titus, on his attaining the empire, taken off by poison by his own brother Domitian? Was not Domitian himself miserably despatched by Stephanus? What too dost thou say about Commodus? Was not he killed by Narcissus? Pertinax and Julian, did they not meet with the same treatment? Antoninus, the son of Severus, did he not murder his brother Geta, and was himself murdered by Martial? Macrinus too, was he not dragged about Byzantium, like a captive, and then butchered by his own soldiers? And Aurelius Antoninus, the Emesene, was he not slaughtered together with his mother? And his successor Alexander, was he not, together with his mother, involved in a similar catastrophe? What should I say, too, concerning Maximin, who was slain by his own troops? or Gordian, brought to a similar end by the designs of Philip? Tell me whether Philip and his successor Decius did not perish by the hands of their enemies? And Gallus and Volusian by their own armies? Aemilian, was he not involved in the same fate? And Valerian, was he not made prisoner and carried about as a show by the Persians? After the assassination of Gallienus and the murder of Carinus,
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§ 3.41.144 the sovereignty came into the hands of Diocletian and those whom he chose as his partners in the empire. Of these, Herculius, Maximian, and Maxentius his son, and Licinius utterly perished. But from the time that the renowned Constantine succeeded to the empire, and had dedicated to Christ the city which bears his name, mark me, whether any of those who have reigned there, except Julian thy hierophant and monarch, have perished by the hands of either domestic or foreign foes, and whether a rival has overthrown any of them; except that Basiliscus expelled Zeno, by whom, however, he was afterwards overthrown and killed. I also agree with thee in what thou sayest about Valens, who had inflicted so many evils upon the Christians: for of any other case not even thou thyself makest mention. Let no one think that these matters are foreign to an ecclesiastical history; since they are, in fact, altogether useful, and essential, on account of wilful desertion of the cause of truth on the part of heathen writers. Let me now proceed to the rest of the acts of Anastasius.
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§ 3.42.1 The before-mentioned measures Anastasius successfully carried out in a truly royal spirit; but he adopted others by no means worthy of them: both by devising what is called the gold-rate, and farming out the supplies for the army on terms most burdensome to the provincials. He also took the levying of imposts out of the hands of the councils of the respective cities, and appointed what are called Vindices, at the suggestion, as is said, of Marinus the Syrian, who held the highest prefecture, termed in former times the Prefect of the Praetorium. The result was that the revenue fell off to a great extent, and the local dignitaries sunk into abeyance: for persons of high families formerly had their names inscribed in the album of each city; which regarded those who were members of its council, as a kind of senate.
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§ 3.43.1 Vitalian, a Thracian by birth, disputes the empire with Anastasius, and having devastated Thrace and Mysia as far as Odessus and Anchialus, was advancing rapidly upon the imperial city, at the head of an innumerable force of Huns. The emperor despatched Hypatius to encounter this force; and, after he had been captured through the treachery of his own troops, and liberated at a large ransom, the conduct of the war was entrusted to Cyril. The battle which followed, was at first indecisive, with several subsequent alternations of success; but, notwithstanding the advantage was on the side of Cyril, the enemy rallied, and he was ultimately routed through the wilful desertion of his own soldiers. In consequence, Vitalian captured Cyril in Odessus, and advanced as far as the place called Sycae, laying the whole country waste with fire and sword; meditating nothing less than the capture of the city itself and the seizure of the sovereignty. When he had encamped at Sycae, Marinus the Syrian, whom we have mentioned before, is despatched by the emperor to attack him by sea. The two armaments, accordingly, encountered, the one having Sycae astern, the other Constantinople. For a time the fleets remained inactive: but, after the skirmishings and discharge of missiles had been followed by a fierce conflict in the place called Bytharia, Vitalian withdraws from the line of battle and takes to flight, with the loss of the greater portion of his fleet. The remainder then fly with such precipitation, that the next day not a single enemy was found in the channel or in the neighbourhood of the city. It is said that Vitalian then continued inactive for some time at Anchialus. There was also another inroad of Huns, who had passed the defiles of Cappadocia. About the same time Rhodes suffered by a violent earthquake at the dead of night: this being the third time it had been visited by that calamity.
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§ 3.44.1 [518CE] A very great sedition occurred at Byzantium, arising from a wish of the emperor to add to the Trisagion the clause, “Who was crucified for our sakes:” which was regarded as subversive of the Christian religion. Its prime mover and chief was Macedonius, aided by his subject clergy, as Severus says in a letter to Sotericus, which he wrote before his elevation to the episcopal throne, while residing at the imperial city, at the time when, with several others, he had been expelled from his monastery, as I have already mentioned. It was on account of this imputation, in addition to the causes before mentioned, that, in my opinion, Macedonius was ejected from his see. Amid the uncontrollable excitement of the populace which followed, persons of rank and station were brought into extreme danger, and many principal parts of the city were set on fire. The populace, having found in the house of Marinus the Syrian, a monk from the country, cut off his head, saying that the clause had been added at his instigation; and having fixed it upon a pole, jeeringly exclaimed: “See the plotter against the Trinity!” Such was the violence of the tumult, filling every quarter with devastation, and surpassing every means of control, that the emperor was driven to appear at the Hippodrome in pitiable guise, without his crown, and despatched heralds to proclaim to the assembled people, that he was most ready to resign his sovereignty; at the same time reminding them, that it was impossible that all should be elevated to that dignity, which admitted not of a plurality of occupants, and that one individual only could be his successor. At this the temper of the people was suddenly changed, as by some divine impulse; and they begged Anastasius to resume his crown; with a promise of peaceable conduct in future. Anastasius survived this event a very short time, and departed to the other world after a reign of twenty-seven years, three months, and three days.
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§ 4.1.1 THE FOURTH BOOK. After Anastasius had, as I have said, departed for the better lot, Justin, a Thracian by birth, assumes the purple, in the five hundred and sixty-sixth year of the Era of Antioch, on the ninth day of the month Panemus, which the Romans call July. He was proclaimed emperor by the imperial body-guards, of which he was also the commander, having been appointed-prefect of the household troops. His elevation was, however, contrary to all expectation, since there were many most distinguished and flourishing members of the family of Anastasius, possessed also of sufficient influence to have secured for themselves the supreme power.
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§ 4.2.1 Amantius was the imperial chamberlain, and a man of very great influence; but as it was not lawful for any emasculated person to attain the sovereignty of the Romans, he was desirous that the imperial crown should be given to Theocritus, one of his creatures. He, therefore, sends for Justin, and gives him a large sum of money, with orders to distribute it amongst the persons most fit for this purpose, and able to invest Theocritus with the purple. But with the money he either bought over the people, or purchased the goodwill of what are termed the Excubitores--for both accounts are given--and so attained the empire. Soon afterwards he took off Amantius and Theocritus, with some others.
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§ 4.3.1 Justin sends for Vitalian, who was living in Thrace and who had entertained designs of dethroning Anastasius, to Constantinople: for he dreaded his power, his military experience, his universal renown, and his great desire to possess the sovereignty: and rightly conjecturing that he should not be able to overcome him otherwise than by pretending to be a friend; by way of concealing his guile under a plausible mask, he appoints him commander of one of the bodies called Praesentes, and, as a more effectual persuasive, with a view to a still greater deception, he raises him to the consulship. He, being consul elect, was assassinated on visiting the palace, at an inner door, and thus met with a punishment for his insolence towards the Roman sovereignty. But these events happened subsequently.
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§ 4.4.1 Severus, who had been ordained president of Antioch, as stated above, ceased not daily to anathematise the synod at Chalcedon, and chiefly by means of those epistles called Enthronistic, and in the responses which he sent to all the patriarchs, though they were received only at Alexandria, by John, the successor of the former John, and by Dioscorus and Timotheus: which epistles have come down to our time. Many contentions having thus arisen in the church, whereby the. most faithful people were split into factions, Justin, in the first year of his reign, ordered him to be arrested, and to be punished, as some say, by having his tongue cut out; the execution of which sentence was committed to Irenaeus, who, at Antioch, held the government of the Eastern provinces. Severus himself confirms the account of Irenaeus being appointed to arrest him, in a letter to some of the Antiochenes, describing the manner of his escape; wherein he casts the strongest invectives on Irenaeus, and states that he is under the strictest surveillance lest he should escape from Antioch. Some say that Vitalian, who still appeared to be in the highest favour with Justin, demanded the tongue of Severus, because he had reproached him in his discourses. Accordingly, he flies from his see, in the month Gorpiaeus, which in the Latin language is called September, in the five hundred and sixty-seventh year of the Era of Antioch. Paul succeeds to the see, with orders to proclaim openly the synod at Chalcedon. Afterwards, retiring voluntarily from Antioch, he went the way of all flesh by a natural death. He is succeeded in his see by Euphrasius from Jerusalem.
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§ 4.5.1 About the same period of Justin's reign there happened at Antioch numerous and dreadful fires, as if harbingers of the terrible shocks which afterwards took place, and serving as a prelude for the coming calamities. For, a short time after, in the tenth month of the seventh year of Justin's reign, being Artemisius or May, on the twenty-ninth day of the month, precisely at noon, on the sixth day of the week, the city was visited with the shock of an earthquake, which very nearly destroyed the whole of it. This was followed by a fire, to share, as it were, in the calamity: for what escaped the earthquake, the fire in its spread reduced to ashes. The damage that the city sustained, how many persons according to probable estimate became the victims of the fire and earthquake, what strange occurrences surpassing the power of words took place, have been feelingly related by John the Rhetorician, who concludes his history with the relation. Euphrasius also perished in the ruins, to add another misfortune to the city, by leaving no one to provide for its exigencies.
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§ 4.6.1 But the saving care of God for man, which prepares the remedy before the stroke, and the compassion which, while sharpening the sword of wrath, at the moment of the deepest despair displays its sympathy, raised up Ephraemius, at that time governor of the Eastern provinces, to take upon himself all the care of the city; so that it lacked not any thing that its exigency required. On this account, the sons of the Antiochenes so admired him, that they elected him their priest: and he thus attains the apostolic see as a reward and prize of his singular care for the place. Thirty months after, the city suffered again from an earthquake. At this time also, what had been hitherto called the city of Antiochus was entitled the City of God, and received additional care at the hands of the emperor.
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§ 4.7.1 Now that I have recorded the above-mentioned calamities, let me also add to the present narrative some other circumstances worthy of record, and which have been transmitted to us from those who have made them a subject of notice. Zosimas was a native of Sinde, a village of Phoenicia Maritima, distant from Tyre about twenty stadia, and pursued the monastic discipline. He, by means both of abstinence and use of food, having attained to such a union with God as not only to discern forthcoming events, but also to possess the grace of perfect freedom from passion, was in company with a distinguished person from Caesarea, the capital of one of the Palestines. This was Arcesilaus, a man of good family, accomplished, and high in dignities and whatever gives lustre to life. Zosimas, at the very moment of the overthrow of Antioch, suddenly became troubled, uttered lamentations and deep sighs, and then shedding such a profusion of tears as to bedew the ground, called for a censer, and having fumed the whole place where they were standing, throws himself upon the ground, propitiating God with prayers and supplications. Upon Arcesilaus asking the reason of all this trouble, he distinctly replied, that the sound of the overthrow of Antioch was at that instant ringing in his ears. This led Arcesilaus and the rest of the astonished company to note down the hour; and they afterwards found that it was as Zosimas had said. By his hand many other miracles were performed: but omitting the greater part of them, since they are too numerous to detail, I shall mention a few. Contemporary with Zosimas, and endued with equal virtues, was a man named John, who had practised the endurance of the solitary and immaterial life in the cloister called Chuzibas, situated at the extremity of the glen at the northern part of the highway leading from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was now bishop of the before-named Caesarea. This John, the Chuzibite, having heard that the wife of Arcesilaus had lost one of her eyes by a stroke of a spindle, runs immediately to her to see the accident; and when he finds that the pupil is gone and the eye altogether lacerated, he commands one of the physicians in attendance to bring a sponge, and, having replaced as well as he could the lacerated parts, to apply and secure the sponge with bandages. Arcesilaus was absent, for he happened to be with Zosimas in his monastery at Sinde, distant from Caesarea full five hundred stadia. Accordingly, messengers proceeded with all haste to Arcesilaus, whom they found sitting in conversation with Zosimas. When informed of the circumstance, he uttered a piercing cry, tore his hair and cast it towards heaven. Upon Zosimas asking him the reason, he told him what had happened, interrupting his account with frequent wailings and tears. Whereupon Zosimas, leaving him alone, goes to his chamber, where he used to make his addresses to God according to the rule of such persons, and after some interval he approaches Arcesilaus with a solemnly joyous countenance, and gently pressing his hand, said: “Depart with joy, depart. Grace is given to the Chuzibite. Your wife is cured, and is in possession of both her eyes; for the accident has had no power to deprive her of them, since such was the desire of the Chuzibite.” This was brought about by the united wonder-working of both the just men. Again, as the same Zosimas was going to Caesarea, and leading an ass laden with certain necessaries, a lion encountered him and carried off the ass. Zosimas follows into the wood, reaches the place where the lion was, satiated with his meal upon the beast, and smiling says, “Come, my friend; my journey is interrupted, since I am heavy and far advanced in years, and not able to carry on my back the ass's load. You must therefore carry it, though contrary to your nature, if you wish Zosimas to get out of this place and yourself to be a wild beast again.” All at once the lion, forgetting his ferocity, fawned on him, and by his gestures plainly manifested obedience. Zosimas then put the ass's load upon him, and led him to the gates of Caesarea, showing the power of God, and how all things are subservient to man if we live to Him and do not pervert the grace given to us. But that I may not render my history prolix by more circumstances of the kind, I will return to the point whence I digressed.
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§ 4.8.1 During the reign of Justin, Dyrrachium, formerly called Epidamnus, suffered from an earthquake; as did also Corinth in Greece, and afterwards, for the fourth time, Anazarbus, the capital of Cilicia Minor. These cities Justin restored at great expence. About the same time Edessa, a large and flourishing city of Osroene, was inundated by the waters of the Skirtus, which runs close by it; so that most of the buildings were swept away, and countless multitudes that were carried down by the stream, perished. Accordingly, the names of Edessa and Anazarbus were changed by Justin, and each of them was called, after himself, Justinopolis.
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§ 4.9.1 When Justin had reigned eight years, nine months, and three days, he associated in the government Justinian, his nephew, who was proclaimed on the first of the month Xanthicus, or April, in the five hundred and seventy-fifth year of the era of Antioch. After these transactions, Justin departs his earthly sovereignty, closing his life on the first of the month Loius, or August, having had Justin for his associate in the empire four months, and reigned in all nine years and three days. Now that Justinian was sole sovereign of the Roman empire, and the synod at Chalcedon was being proclaimed in the most holy churches by the commands of Justin, as stated before; the state of the church was disturbed in some of the provinces, but chiefly at Constantinople and Alexandria, Anthimus being bishop of the former, and Theodosius of the latter: for both held the doctrine of the single nature of Christ.
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§ 4.10.1 Justinian very resolutely upheld the synod at Chalcedon and what was put forth by it; and Theodora, his consort, those who maintained the single nature: either because such were their real sentiments--for when the faith is a matter of dispute, fathers are divided against their children, children against the authors of their birth, a wife against her own husband, and again a husband against his own wife--or by mutual understanding, that he should uphold those who maintained the two natures in Christ our God after the union; and she those who alleged the single nature. Neither conceded to the other: but he strenuously supported the acts at Chalcedon, and she, ranging with the opposite party, exercised the greatest care towards those who maintained the single nature. Our people she treated with the warmest kindness, and others too with great munificence. She also persuades Justinian to send for Severus.
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§ 4.11.1 There are letters extant from Severus to Justinian and Theodora, from which we may gather that at first he put off his journey to the imperial city on leaving his see of Antioch. Nevertheless he afterwards arrived there; and has written to the effect that when he came thither and had conversed with Anthimus, and found him holding the same sentiments with himself, and the same opinions with respect to the Godhead, he persuaded him to withdraw from his see. He wrote concerning these matters to Theodosius, bishop of Alexandria, and greatly gloried in having persuaded Anthimus, as stated before, to prefer such doctrines to earthly glory and the possession of his see. Letters are also extant on this subject from Anthimus to Theodosius, and from Theodosius to Severus and Anthimus; which I pass over, leaving them to those who choose to consult them, that I may not include in the present work too great a mass of materials. Nevertheless, both were ejected from their sees, as opposing the imperial mandates and the decrees of Chalcedon. Zoilus succeeded to that of Alexandria, and Epiphanius to that of the imperial city: so that from that time forward the synod at Chalcedon was openly proclaimed in all the churches; and no one dared to anathematise it; while those who dissented, were urged by innumerable methods to assent to it. Accordingly, a constitution was drawn up by Justinian in which he anathematised Severus, Anthimus, and others, and subjected those who held their doctrines, to the highest penalties: the effect of which was, that thenceforward no schism remained in any of the churches, but the patriarchs of the several dioceses agreed with each other, and the bishops of the cities followed their respective primates. Four synods were thus proclaimed throughout the churches; first, that held at Nicaea; secondly, that at Constantinople; thirdly, the former one at Ephesus; and fourthly, that at Chalcedon. A fifth also took place by order of Justinian, concerning which I shall say what is suitable in its proper place, while I weave into my present narrative the several events of the same period which are worthy of notice.
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§ 4.12.1 The history of Belisarius has been written by Procopius the Rhetorician. He says that Cabades, king of the Persians, wishing to invest his youngest son Chosroes with the sovereignty, was desirous to have him adopted by the Roman emperor, so that by that means his succession might be secured. But when this was refused, at the suggestion of Proclus, who advised Justinian as his quaestor, they conceived a still greater hatred against the Romans. This same Procopius has, with diligence, elegance, and ability, set forth the events of the war between the Romans and Persians while Belisarius was commander of the forces of the East. The first victory on the side of the Romans which he records, was in the neighbourhood of Daras and Nisibis, under the command of Belisarius and Hemogenes. He subjoins an account of the occurrences in Armenia, and the mischief inflicted on the Romans by Alamundarus, the chieftain of the Scenite barbarians, who captured Timostratus, the brother of Rufinus, together with his troops, and afterwards liberated him for a considerable ransom.
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§ 4.13.1 He also feelingly details the incursion of the before-named Alamundarus and Azarethus into the Roman territory; and how Belisarius, compelled by his own troops, engaged them in their retreat by the Euphrates, on the eve of Easter day; and how the Roman army was destroyed through their repugnance to the measures of Belisarius; and how Rufinus and Hermogenes made with the Persians the peace called the perpetual peace. He subjoins an account of the insurrection of the people at Byzantium, which derived its name from the watchword of the populace: for they entitled it “Nica”, because on their assembling they chose this term as the watchword, to know each other. On this occasion Hypatius and Pompeius were compelled by the people to assume the sovereignty. But on the defeat of the populace, both were beheaded by the soldiers at the command of Justinian, and the insurrection was quelled. Procopius states that thirty thousand persons were killed in this disturbance.
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§ 4.14.1 The same writer, when treating of the affairs of the Vandals, has recorded most important occurrences and worthy of perpetual memory, which I now proceed to mention. Himeric, the successor of Genseric, and a professor of the creed of Arius, entertained most cruel intentions against the African Christians, in the endeavour to convert by force the maintainers of the orthodox doctrines to the opinions of the Arians. Those who refused compliance, he destroyed both by fire and various modes of death, and some he deprived of their tongues. The latter, Procopius says that he himself saw, when they had taken refuge at the imperial city, and that he maintained a conversation with them in the same manner as with unmutilated persons: that their tongues were cut out from the root; nevertheless their speech was articulate, and they conversed distinctly; a new and strange marvel, of which also a constitution of Justinian makes mention. Two of these persons lapsed, as Procopius himself writes. For on their desiring commerce with women, they were deprived of their speech, since the grace of their martyrdom had abandoned them.
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§ 4.15.1 He also relates another wonderful occurrence, wrought by our Saviour God in the case of men, aliens indeed to our religion, who, however, acted with religious reverence. He states that Cabaones was chieftain of the Moors in the neighbourhood of Tripolis. This Cabaones, he says--for it is worth while to use his own words during his able narration of this matter also--this Cabaones, as soon as he learned that the Vandals were marching against him, acted in the following manner. First, he commanded all his subjects to refrain from injustice and all luxurious food, but particularly from commerce with women; and having raised two fortified enclosures, he encamped himself with all the men in one, and enclosed the women in the other, threatening death to any man who should approach the women. Afterwards, he sent scouts to Carthage with these instructions: that when the Vandals on their march outraged any temple reverenced by the Christians, they should note what was being done, and when the Vandals left the place, should, immediately on their departure, treat the sanctuary in a manner directly the reverse. It is mentioned that he further said, that he was ignorant of the God worshipped by the Christians, but it was likely, if he were powerful, as was affirmed, that he would chastise those who outraged him, and defend such as rendered him service. The scouts, therefore, coming to Carthage, continued to watch the preparations of the Vandals, and when the army set forward for Tripolis, they followed it, disguised in a sorry dress. The Vandals, encamping at the close of the first day, introduced their horses and other beasts into the temples of the Christians, and abstained from no species of outrage, but gave way to their usual license; and beating and severely scourging the priests whom they happened to seize, bid them wait upon them. But as soon as the Vandals had left the place, the scouts of Cabaones did all that had been enjoined them, and immediately cleansed the sanctuaries, sedulously removing the dung and every other defilement: they lighted all the tapers, paid reverent obeisance to the priests, and saluted them with every kindness; and when they had bestowed money on the beggars who sat round the shrine, they followed the army of the Vandals, who, from this point along the whole line of march, committed the same outrages, while the scouts remedied them. When, however, they were at no great distance, the scouts, proceeding in advance, announced to Cabaones all that had been done by the Vandals and themselves to the temples of the Christians, and that the enemy were now near. On hearing this, he prepared to engage. By far the greater part of the Vandals, as our author states, were destroyed: some were captured by the enemy, and very few returned home. Such was the misfortune that Thrasamund sustained at the hands of the Moors. He died some time after, having ruled the Vandals for seven and twenty years.
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§ 4.16.1 The same author writes that Justinian, having, in pity to the Christians in that quarter, professed his intention of undertaking an expedition for their relief, was being diverted from his purpose by the suggestion of John, prefect of the palace, when a dream appeared to him, bidding him not to shrink from the execution of his design; for, by assisting the Christian she would overthrow the power of the Vandals. Being determined by this circumstance, in the seventh year of his reign, he despatches Belisarius, about the summer solstice, to attack Carthage; on which occasion, when the general's ship touched at the shore of the palace, Epiphanius, bishop of the city, offered up appropriate prayers, having previously baptized some of the soldiers and embarked them on board the vessel. He also narrates some circumstances, worthy of record, relating to the martyr Cyprian, in the following words: “All the Carthaginians especially reverence Cyprian, a holy man, and having erected on the shore, in front of their city, a noble shrine, besides other reverential observances, they celebrate an annual festival, and call it Cypriana; and the sailors are accustomed to call the tempestuous weather which I have before mentioned by the same name as the festival, since it is wont to happen at the time of the year at which the Africans have fixed its perpetual celebration. This temple the Vandals, in the reign of Huneric, took by force from the Christians, and ignominiously expelling the priests, refitted it, as henceforward belonging to the Arians. They say that Cyprian, frequently appearing in a dream to the Africans who were indignant and distressed on this account, told them that there was no occasion for the Christians to be solicitous about him, for in time he would avenge himself: which prediction attained its accomplishment in the time of Belisarius, when Carthage, ninety-five years after its loss, was reduced by him under the Roman power, by the utter overthrow of the Vandals: at which time the doctrine of the Arians was entirely extirpated from Africa, and the Christians recovered their own temples, according to the prediction of the martyr Cyprian.”
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§ 4.17.1 The same author writes as follows. “When Belisarius had subdued the Vandals, he returned to Byzantium, bringing the spoils and prisoners, and among them Gelimer, king of the Vandals. A triumph was granted him, and he carried in procession through the Hippodrome whatever would be an object of wonder. Among these were considerable treasures obtained by Genseric from the plunder of the palace at Rome, as I have already narrated; when Eudoxia, the wife of Valentinian, emperor of the West, having been both deprived of her husband and subjected to an outrage on her chastity by Maximus, invited Genseric, with a promise of surrendering the city to him: on which occasion, after burning Rome, he conveyed Eudoxia and her daughters to the country of the Vandals. Together with the other treasures, he then carried off all that Titus, the son of Vespasian, had brought to Rome on the capture of Jerusalem; offerings which Solomon had dedicated to God. These Justinian, in honour of Christ our God, sent back to Jerusalem; an act of becoming reverence to the Deity, to whom they had in the first instance been dedicated. On this occasion, Procopius says that Gelimer, prostrating himself on the ground in the hippodrome, before the imperial throne on which Justinian was sitting to witness the proceedings, made application, in his own language, of the divine oracle: ”Vanity of vanities; all is vanity."
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§ 4.18.1 Procopius mentions another circumstance, unnoticed before his time, but one that can scarcely be regarded with sufficient wonder. He states that the Moors of Libya settled in that country after being dislodged from Palestine, and that they are those whom the divine oracles mention as the Girgashites and Jebusites, and the other nations subdued by Joshua the son of Nun. He concludes the entire truth of the story from an inscription in Phoenician characters, which he says that he himself had read, and that it was near a fountain, where were two pillars of white stone on which were engraved these words: “We are those who fled from the face of Joshua the robber, the son of Nun.” Such was the end of these transactions, in Africa becoming again subject to the Romans, and paying, as before, an annual tribute. Justinian is said to have restored one hundred and fifty cities in Africa, some of which had been altogether, and others extensively ruined; and this he did with surpassing magnificence, in private and public works and embellishments, in fortifications, and other vast structures by which cities are adorned and the Deity propitiated: also in aqueducts for use and ornament, the supply of water having been in some cases conveyed to the cities for the first time, in others restored to its former state.
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§ 4.19.1 I now proceed to relate what occurred in Italy; events which have also been treated very distinctly by Procopius, the Rhetorician, down to his own times. After Theodoric, as I have already detailed, had captured Rome and utterly destroyed its king Odoacer, and had closed his life in possession of the Roman sovereignty, his wife Amalasuntha held the reins of government, as guardian of their common son Athalaric; a woman rather of a masculine temperament, and administering affairs accordingly. She was the first person who led Justinian to entertain a desire for the Gothic war, by sending an embassy to him on the formation of a conspiracy against herself. On the death, however, of Athalaric at a very early age, Theodatus, a kinsman of Theodoric, was invested with the sovereignty of the West, but abdicated when Justinian had despatched Belisarius to that quarter; being a person addicted rather to literature, and altogether wanting in military experience; while Vitiges, an able soldier, was in command of his forces. From the materials which the same Procopius has collected, one may gather that Vitiges abandoned Rome on the arrival of Belisarius in Italy; who at once marched upon the city. The Romans readily opened their gates to him; a result mainly brought about by Silverius, their bishop, who, with this view, had sent to him Fidelis, formerly assessor to Athalaric. They accordingly surrendered their city to him without resistance: and thus Rome, after an interval of sixty years, again fell into Roman hands on the ninth day of the month Apellaios, called by the Latins December.7 The same Procopius writes, that, when the Goths were besieging Rome, Belisarius, suspecting Silverius of a design to betray the city, transports him to Greece and appoints Vigilius in his room.
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§ 4.20.1 About the same time, as Procopius also writes, when the Heruli, who had already crossed the river Danube in the reign of Anastasius, had experienced generous treatment at the hands of Justinian, in large presents of money, the whole nation embraced Christianity and adopted a more civilised mode of life.
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§ 4.21.1 Jn the next place he records the return of Belisarius to Byzantium, and how he brought thither Vitiges, together with the spoils of Rome; also the seizure of the sovereignty of Rome by Totila, and how the city again fell under the dominion of a Goth; how Belisarius, having twice entered Italy, again recovered the city, and how, on the breaking out of the Median war, he was recalled to Byzantium by the emperor.
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§ 4.22.1 Procopius also records, that the Abasgi, having become more civilised, embraced the Christian doctrine about the same time, and that Justinian sent to them one of the eunuchs of the palace, their countryman, by name Euphratas, with an interdict, that henceforward no one in that nation should undergo emasculation in violation of nature; for from among them the imperial chamberlains were principally appointed, whom usage styles eunuchs. At this time, Justinian, having erected among the Abasgi a temple in honour of the Mother of God, appointed priests for them; by which means they were accurately instructed in the Christian doctrine.
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§ 4.23.1 The same author narrates, that the people on the Tanais (the natives give the name of Tanais to the channel extending from the Palus Maeotis to the Euxine Sea) urged Justinian to send a bishop to them; which request he granted, and gladly sent them a priest. The same writer describes, with great ability, the irruptions of the Goths of the Maeotis into the Roman territory in the time of Justinian, and the violent earthquakes which took place in Greece; how Boeotia, Achaia, and the neighbourhood of the Crissaean Gulf suffered shocks; how innumerable towns and cities were levelled, and chasms were formed, many of which closed again, while others remained open.
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§ 4.24.1 Procopius also describes the expedition of Narses, who was sent by Justinian into Italy; how he overthrew Totila and afterwards Teia; and how Rome was taken for the fifth time. Those about the person of Narses affirm that he used to propitiate the Deity with prayers and other acts of piety, paying due honour also to the Virgin and mother of God, so that she distinctly announced to him the proper season for action; and that Narses never engaged until he had received the signal from her. He recounts also other distinguished exploits of Narses in the overthrow of Buselinus and Syndualdus, and the acquisition of nearly the whole country as far as the ocean. These transactions have been recounted by Agathias the Rhetorician, but his history has not reached our hands.
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§ 4.25.1 The same Procopius has also written the following account. When Chosroes had learned what had occurred in Africa and Italy favourable to the Roman dominion, he was moved to excessive jealousy, and advanced certain charges against the Roman government, that terms had been violated and the existing peace broken. In the first place, Justinian sent ambassadors to Chosroes to induce him not to break the peace which was intended to be perpetual, nor to trespass on the existing conditions; proposing that the points in dispute should be discussed and settled in an amicable manner. But Chosroes, maddened by the ferment of jealousy, would not listen to any proposals, and invaded the Roman territory with a large army, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Justinian. The historian also writes, that Chosroes captured and destroyed Sura, a city on the banks of the Euphrates, after having professed to make terms, but dealing with it in defiance of all justice, by paying no regard to the conditions, and becoming master of it rather by stratagem than by open war. He also narrates the burning of Beroea, and then the advance upon Antioch; at which time Ephraemius was bishop of the city, but had abandoned it on the failure of all his plans. This person is said to have rescued the Church and its precincts, by arraying it with the sacred offerings, in order that they might serve as a ransom for it. The historian also feelingly describes the capture of Antioch by Chosroes, and its promiscuous devastation by fire and sword: his visit to the neighbouring city of Seleucia, and to the suburb Daphne, and his advance towards Apamea, during the episcopate of Thomas, a man most powerful in word and deed. He had the prudence to yield to Chosroes in becoming a spectator of the horse-race s in the hippodrome, though an act of irregularity; employing every means to court and pacify the conqueror. Chosroes also asked him whether he was desirous to see him in his own city: and it is said that he frankly replied that it was no pleasure to see him in his neighbourhood: at which answer Chosroes was struck with wonder, justly admiring the truthfulness of the man.
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§ 4.26.1 [540CE] Now that I have arrived at this point of my narrative, I will relate a prodigy, which occurred at Apamea, and is worthy of a place in the present history. When the sons of the Apameans were informed that Antioch had been burnt, they besought the before-mentioned Thomas to bring forth and display the saving and life-giving wood of the cross, in deviation from established rule; that they might behold and kiss for the last time the sole salvation of man, and obtain a provision for the passage to another life, in having the precious cross as their means of transport to the better lot. In performance of which request, Thomas brings forth the life-giving wood, announcing stated days for its display, that all the neighbouring people might have an opportunity to assemble and enjoy the salvation thence proceeding. Accordingly, my parents visited it together with the rest, accompanied by myself, at that time a school-boy. When, therefore, we requested permission to adore and kiss the precious cross, Thomas, lifting up both his hands, displayed the wood which blotted out the ancient curse, making an entire circuit of the sanctuary, as was customary on the ordinary days of adoration. As Thomas moved from place to place, there followed him a large body of fire, blazing but not consuming; so that the whole spot where he stood to display the precious cross seemed to be in flames: and this took place not once or twice but often, as the priest was making the circuit of the place, and the assembled people were entreating him that it might be done. This circumstance foreshewed the preservation which was granted to the Apameans. Accordingly, a representation of it was suspended on the roof of the sanctuary, explaining it by its delineation to those who were uninformed: which was preserved until the irruption of Adaarmanes and the Persians, when it was burnt together with the holy church in the conflagration of the entire city. Such were these events. But Chosroes, in his retreat, acted in direct violation of conditions--for even on this occasion terms had been made--in a manner suited to his restless and inconstant disposition, but utterly unbecoming a rational man, much more a king professing a regard for treaties.
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§ 4.27.1 The same Procopius narrates what the ancients had recorded concerning Edessa and Abgarus, and how Christ wrote a letter to him. He then relates how Chosroes made a fresh movement to lay siege to the city, thinking to falsify the assertion prevalent among the faithful, that Edessa would never fall into the power of an enemy: which assertion, however, is not contained in what was written to Abgarus by Christ our God; as the studious may gather from the history of Eusebius Pamphili, who cites the epistle verbatim. Such, however, is the averment and belief of the faithful; which was then realised, faith bringing about the accomplishment of the prediction. For after Chosroes had made many assaults on the city, had raised a mound of sufficient size to overtop the walls of the town, and had devised innumerable expedients beside, he raised the siege and retreated. I will, however, detail the particulars. Chosroes ordered his troops to collect a great quantity of wood for the siege from whatever timber fell in their way; and when this had been done before the order could well be issued, arranging it in a circular form, he threw a mound inside with its face advancing against the city. In this way elevating it gradually with the timber and earth, and pushing it forward towards the town, he raised it to a height sufficient to overtop the wall, so that the besiegers could hurl their missiles from vantage ground against the defenders. When the besiegers saw the mound approaching the walls like a moving mountain, and the enemy in expectation of stepping into the town at day-break, they devised to run a mine under the mound--which the Latins term “aggestus”--and by that means apply fire, so that the combustion of the timber might cause the downfall of the mound. The mine was completed; but they failed in attempting to fire the wood, because the fire, having no exit whence it could obtain a supply of air, was unable to take hold of it. In this state of utter perplexity, they bring the divinely wrought image, which the hands of men did not form, but Christ our God sent to Abgarus on his desiring to see Him. Accordingly, having introduced this holy image into the mine, and washed it over with water, they sprinkled some upon the timber; and the divine power forthwith being present to the faith of those who had so done, the result was accomplished which had previously been impossible: for the timber immediately caught the flame, and being in an instant reduced to cinders, communicated with that above, and the fire spread in all directions. When the besieged saw the smoke rising, they adopted the following contrivance. Having filled small jars with sulphur, tow, and other combustibles, they threw them upon the aggestus; and these, sending forth srnoke as the fire was increased by the force of their flight, prevented that which was rising from the mound from being observed; so that all who were not in the secret, supposed that the smoke proceeded solely from the jars. On the third day the flames were seen issuing from the earth, and then the Persians on the mound became aware of their unfortunate situation. But Chosroes, as if in opposition to the power of heaven, endeavoured to extinguish the pile, by turning all the water-courses which were outside the city upon it. The fire, however, receiving the water as if it had been oil or sulphur, or some other combustible, continually increased, until it had completely levelled the entire mound and reduced the aggestus to ashes. Then Chosroes, in utter despair, impressed by the circumstances with a sense of his disgraceful folly in having entertained an idea of prevailing over the God whom we worship, retreated ingloriously into his own territories.
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§ 4.28.1 What occurred at Sergiopolis through the proceedings of Chosroes shall also be described, as being a notable event and worthy of perpetual remembrance. Chosroes advanced against this city too, eager for its capture; and on his proceeding to assault the walls, negociations took place with a view to spare the city: and it was agreed that the sacred treasures should be a ransom for the place, among which was also a cross presented by Justinian and Theodora. When they had been duly conveyed, Chosroes asked the priest and the Persians who had been sent with him, whether there was not any thing besides. Upon this one of them, being persons unaccustomed to speak the truth, told Chosroes that there were some other treasures concealed by the townsmen, who were but few. In fact, there had been left behind not any treasure of gold or silver, but one of more valuable material, and irrevocably devoted to God, namely, the holy relics of the victorious martyr Sergius, lying in a coffin of the oblong sort, plated over with silver. Chosroes, influenced by these persons, advanced his whole army against the city; when suddenly there appeared along the circuit of the walls, in defence of the place, innumerable shields; on seeing which the persons sent by Chosroes returned, describing, with wonder, the number and fashion of the arms. And when, on further enquiry, he learned that very few persons remained in the city, and these consisted of aged people and children, from the absence of the flower of the population, he perceived that the prodigy proceeded from the martyr, and, influenced by fear and wonder at the faith of the Christians, he withdrew into his own country. They also say that in his latter days he partook in the holy regeneration.
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§ 4.29.1 12 [542-594CE] I WILL also describe the circumstances of the pestilence which commenced at that period, and has now prevailed and extended over the whole world for fifty-two years; a circumstance such as has never before been recorded. Two years after the capture of Antioch by the Persians, a pestilence broke out, in some respects similar to that described by Thucydides, in others widely different. It took its rise from Aethiopia, as is now reported, and made a circuit of the whole world in succession, leaving, as I suppose, no part of the human race unvisited by the disease. Some cities were so severely afflicted as to be altogether depopulated, though in other places the visitation was less violent. It neither commenced according to any fixed period, nor was the time of its cessation uniform; but it seized upon some places at the commencement of winter, others in the course of the spring, others during the summer, and in some cases, when the autumn was advanced. In some instances, having infected a part of a city, it left the remainder untouched; and frequently in an uninfected city one might remark a few households excessively wasted; and in several places, while one or two households utterly perished, the rest of the city remained unvisited: but, as we have learned from careful observation, the uninfected households alone suffered the succeeding year. But the most singular circumstance of all was this; that if it happened that any inhabitants of an infected city were living in a place which the calamity had not visited, these alone were seized with the disorder. This visitation also befell cities and other places in many instances according to the periods called Indictions; and the disease occurred, with the almost utter destruction of human beings, in the second year of each indiction. Thus it happened in my own case--for I deem it fitting, in due adaptation of circumstances, to insert also in this history matters relating to myself--that at the commencement of this calamity I was seized with what are termed buboes, while still a school-boy, and lost by its recurrence at different times several of my children, my wife, and many of my kin, as well as of my domestic and country servants; the several indictions making, as it were, a distribution of my misfortunes. Thus, not quite two years before my writing this, being now in the fifty-eighth year of my age, on its fourth visit to Antioch, at the expiration of the fourth indiction from its commencement, I lost a daughter and her son, besides those who had died previously. The plague was a complication of diseases: for, in some cases, commencing in the head, and rendering the eyes bloody and the face swollen, it descended into the throat, and then destroyed the patient. In others, there was a flux of the bowels: in others buboes were formed, followed by violent fever; and the sufferers died at the end of two or three days, equally in possession, with the healthy, of their mental and bodily powers. Others died in a state of delirium, and some by the breaking out of carbuncles. Cases occurred where persons, who had been attacked once and twice and had recovered, died by a subsequent seizure. The ways in which the disease; was communicated, were various and unaccountable: for some perished by merely living with the infected, others by only touching them, others by having entered their chamber, others by frequenting public places. Some, having fled from the infected cities, escaped themselves, but imparted the disease to the healthy. Some were altogether free from contagion, though they had associated with many who were afflicted, and had touched many not only in their sickness but also when dead. Some, too, who were desirous of death, on account of the utter loss of their children and friends, and with this view placed themselves as much as possible in contact with the diseased, were nevertheless not infected; as if the pestilence struggled against their purpose. This calamity has prevailed, as I have already said, to the present time, for two and fifty years, exceeding all that have preceded it. For Philostratus expresses wonder that the pestilence which happened in his time, lasted for fifteen years. The sequel is uncertain, since its course will be guided by the good pleasure of God, who knows both the causes of things, and their tendencies. I shall now return to the point from which I digressed, and relate the remainder of Justinian's history.
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§ 4.30.1 Justinian was insatiable in the acquisition of wealth, and so excessively covetous of the property of others, that he sold for money the whole body of his subjects to those who were entrusted with offices or who were collectors of tributes, and to whatever persons were disposed to entrap others by groundless charges. He stripped of their entire property innumerable wealthy persons, under colour of the emptiest pretexts. If even a prostitute, marking out an individual as a victim, raised a charge of criminal intercourse against him, all law was at once rendered vain, and by making Justinian her associate in dishonest gain, she transferred to herself the whole wealth of the accused person. At the same time he was liberal in expenditure; so far as to raise in every quarter many sacred and magnificent temples, and other religious edifices devoted to the care of infants and aged persons of either sex, and of such as were afflicted with various diseases. He also appropriated considerable revenues for carrying out these objects; and performed many such actions as are pious and acceptable to God, provided that those who perform them do so from their own means, and the offering of their deeds be pure.
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§ 4.31.1 He also raised at Constantinople many sacred buildings of elaborate beauty, in honour of God and the saints, and erected a vast and incomparable work, such as has never been before recorded, namely the largest edifice of the Church, a noble and surpassing structure, beyond the power of words to describe. Nevertheless I will endeavour to the best of my ability to detail the plan of the sacred precinct. The nave of the sanctuary is a dome, supported by four arches, and raised to so great a height that the sight of persons surveying it from below can scarcely reach the vertex of the hemisphere, and no one from above, however daring, ventures to bend over and look down to the floor. The arches are raised clear from the pavement to the roof: but within those on the right and left are ranged columns of Thessalian stone, which, together with other corresponding pillars, support galleries, so as to allow those who wish, to look down upon the performance of the rites below. From these the empress also, when attending at the festivals, witnesses the ceremony of the sacred mysteries. But the eastern and western arches are left vacant, without any thing to interrupt the imposing aspect of so vast dimensions. There are also colonnades under the before-mentioned galleries, forming, with pillars and small arches, a termination to so vast a structure. But in order to convey a more distinct idea of this wonderful fabric, I have thought proper to set down in feet, its length, breadth, and height, as well as the span and height of the arches, as follows:--The length from the door facing the sacred apse where are performed the rites of the bloodless sacrifice, to the apse, is one hundred and ninety feet: the breadth from north to south is one hundred and fifteen feet: the depth from the centre of the hemisphere to the floor is one hundred and eighty feet: the span of each of the arches is * * * feet: the length, however, from east to west is two hundred and sixty feet; and the range of the lights seventy-five feet. There are also to the west two other noble colonnades, and on all sides unroofed courts of elaborate beauty. Justinian also erected the church of the holy Apostles, which may dispute the first place with any other. In this the emperors and the bishops are usually interred. I have thought fit thus to take some notice of these and similar matters.
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§ 4.32.1 Justinian was possessed by another propensity, of unequalled ferocity; whether attributable to an innate defect of his disposition, or to cowardice and apprehensions, I am not able to say. It took its rise from the existence of the faction among the populace distinguished by the name “Nica.” He appeared to favour one party, namely the Blues, to such an excess, that they slaughtered their opponents at mid-day and in the middle of the city, and, so far from dreading punishment, were even rewarded; so that many persons became murderers from this cause. They were allowed to assault houses, to plunder the valuables they contained, and to compel persons to purchase their own lives; and if any of the authorities endeavoured to check them, he was in danger of his very life: and it actually happened that a person holding the government of the East, having chastised some of the rioters with lashes, was himself scourged in the very centre of the city, and carried about in triumph. Callinicus also, the governor of Cilicia, having subjected to legal punishment two Cilician murderers, Paul and Faustinus, who had assaulted and endeavoured to despatch him, suffered impalement, as the penalty for right feeling and maintenance of the laws. The members of the other faction having, in consequence, fled from their homes, and meeting with a welcome nowhere, but being universally scouted as a pollution, betook themselves to waylaying travellers, and committed thefts and murders to such an extent, that every place was filled with untimely deaths, robberies, and every other crime. Sometimes also, siding with the other faction, Justinian put to death in turn their opponents, by surrendering to the vengeance of the laws those whom he had allowed to commit in the cities equal outrages with barbarians. Neither words nor time would suffice for a minute detail of these transactions. Thus much will, however, serve for a conception of the remainder.
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§ 4.33.1 There lived at that season men divinely inspired and workers of distinguished miracles in various parts of the world, but whose glory has shone forth every where. First, Barsanuphius, an Egyptian. He maintained in the flesh the exercise of the fleshless life, in a certain seat of contemplation near the town of Gaza, and succeeded in working wonders too numerous to be recorded. He is also believed to be still alive, enclosed in a chamber, although for fifty years and more from this time he has not been seen by any one, nor has he partaken of any earthly thing. When Eustochius, the president of the church of Jerusalem, in disbelief of this account, had determined to dig into the chamber where the man of God was enclosed, fire burst forth and nearly consumed all those who were on the spot.
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§ 4.34.1 There lived also at Emesa, Simeon, a man who had so completely unclothed himself of vain-glory as to appear insane to those who did not know him, although filled with all wisdom and divine grace. This Simeon lived principally in solitude, affording to none the means of knowing how and when he propitiated the Deity, nor his time of abstinence or eating. Frequently, too, on the public roads, he seemed to be deprived of self-possession, and to become utterly void of sense and intelligence, and entering at times into a tavern, he would eat, when he happened to be hungry, whatever food was within his reach. But if any one saluted him with an inclination of the head, he would leave the place angrily and hastily, through reluctance that his peculiar virtues should be detected by many persons. Such was the conduct of Simeon in public. But there were some of his acquaintances, with whom he associated without any assumed appearances. One of his friends had a female domestic, who, having been debauched and become pregnant by some person, when she was urged by her owners to name the individual, said that Simeon had secretly cohabited with her and that she was pregnant by him; that she was ready to swear to the truth of this statement, and, if necessary, to convict him. On hearing this, Simeon assented, saying that he bore the flesh with its frailties; and when the story was universally spread, and Simeon, as it seemed, was deeply disgraced, he withdrew into retirement, as if from feelings of shame. When the woman's time had arrived, and she had been placed in the usual position, her throes, causing great and intolerable sufferings, brought her into imminent peril, but the birth made no progress. When, accordingly, they besought Simeon, who had come thither designedly, to pray for her, he openly declared that the woman would not be delivered before she had said who was the father of the child: and when she had done this, and named the real father, the delivery was instantaneous, as though by the midwifery of truth. He once was seen to enter the chamber of a courtezan, and having closed the door, he remained alone with her a considerable time; and when, again opening it, he went away looking round on all sides lest any one should see him, suspicion rose to so high a pitch, that those who witnessed it, brought out the woman, and inquired what was the nature of Simeon's visit to her and continuance with her for so long a time. She swore that, from want of necessaries, she had tasted nothing but water for three days past, and that Simeon had brought her victuals and a vessel of wine; that, having closed the door, he set a table before her and bid her make a meal, and satisfy her hunger, after her sufferings from want of food. She then produced the remains of what had been set before her. Also at the approach of the earthquake which visited Phoenicia Maritima, and by which Berytus, Byblus, and Tripolis especially suffered, raising a whip in his hand, he struck the greater part of the columns in the forum, exclaiming, “Stand still, if there shall be occasion to dance.” Inasmuch as none of his actions were unmeaning, those who were present carefully marked which were the columns he passed by without striking them. These were soon afterwards thrown down by the effects of the earthquake. Many other things he also did which require a separate treatise.
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§ 4.35.1 At that time lived also Thomas, who pursued the same mode of life in Coele-Syria. On occasion of his visiting Antioch, for the purpose of receiving the yearly stipend for the support of his monastery, which had been assigned from the revenues of the church in that place, Anastasius, the steward of the church, struck him on the head with his hand, because he frequently troubled him. When the bystanders manifested indignation, he said that neither himself should again receive nor Anastasius pay the money. Both which things came to pass, by the death of Anastasius after an interval of one day, and by the departure of Thomas to the unfading life, on his way back, in the sick hospital at the suburb of Daphne. They deposited his body in the tomb appropriated to strangers: but, after the subsequent interment of two others, his body was found above them, an extraordinary wonder, proceeding from God, who bore testimony to him even after his death; for the other bodies were thrown to a considerable distance. They report the circumstance to Ephraemius, in admiration of the saint. In consequence, his holy body is transported to Antioch, with a public festival and procession, and is honoured with a place in the cemetery, having, by its translation, stopped the plague which was then visiting the place. The yearly festival in honour of whom the sons of the Antiochenes continue to celebrate to our time with great magnificence. Let me now, however, return to my subject.
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§ 4.36.1 When Anthimus, as has been already mentioned, was removed from the see. of the imperial city, Epiphanius succeeds to the bishopric; and after Epiphanius, Menas, in whose time also occurred a remarkable prodigy. It is an old custom in the imperial city, that, when there remains over a considerable quantity of the holy fragments of the immaculate body of Christ our God, boys of tender age should be fetched from among those who attend the schools, to eat them. On one occasion of this kind, there was included among them the son of a glass-worker, a Jew by faith; who, in reply to the inquiries of his parents respecting the cause of his delay, told them what had taken place, and what he had eaten in company with the other boys. The father, in his indignation and fury, places the boy in the furnace where he used to mould the glass. The mother, unable to find her child, wandered over the city with lamentations and wailings; and on the third day, standing by the door of her husband's workshop, was calling upon the boy by name, tearing herself in her sorrow. He, recognising his mother's voice, answered her from within the furnace, and she, bursting open the doors, saw, on her entrance, the boy standing in the midst of the coals, and untouched by the fire. On being asked how he had continued unhurt, he said that a woman in a purple robe had frequently visited him that; she had offered him water, and with it had quenched that part of the coals which was nearest to him; and that she had supplied him with food as often as he was hungry. Justinian, on the report of this occurrence, placed the boy and his mother in the orders of the church, after they had been enlightened by the laver of regeneration. But the father, on his refusal to be numbered among the Christians, he ordered to be impaled in the suburb of Sycae, as being the murderer of his child. Such was the course of these occurrences.
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§ 4.37.1 After Menas, Eutychius is elevated to the see. At Jerusalem, Sallustius succeeds Martyrius, who is himself succeeded by Helias. The next in succession was Peter; and after him came Macarius, without the emperor's confirmation. He was ejected from his see, on the charge of maintaining the opinions of Origen, and was succeeded by Eustochius. After the removal of Theodosius, as has been already mentioned, Zoilus is appointed bishop of Alexandria, and when he had been gathered to his predecessors, Apollinaris obtains the chair. After Ephraemius, Domninus is entrusted with the see of Antioch.
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§ 4.38.186 During the time that Vigilius was bishop of the Elder Rome, and first Menas, then Eutychius of New Rome, Apollinaris of Alexandria, Domninus of Antioch, and Eustochius of Jerusalem, Justinian summons the fifth synod, for the following reason:--On account of the increasing influence of those who held the opinions of Origen, especially in what is called the New Laura, Eustochius used every effort for their removal, and, visiting the place itself, he ejected the whole party, driving them to a distance, as general pests. These persons, in their dispersion, associated with themselves many others.
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§ 4.38.187 They found a champion in Theodore, surnamed Ascidas, bishop of Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, who was constantly about the person of Justinian, as being trusty and highly serviceable to him. Whereas he was creating much confusion in the imperial court, and declared the proceeding of Eustochius to be utterly impious and lawless, the latter despatches to Constantinople Rufus, superior of the monastery of Theodosius, and Conon, of that of Saba, persons of the first distinction among the solitaries, both on account of their personal worth and the religious houses of which they were the heads; and with them were associated others scarcely their inferiors in dignity. These, in the first instance, mooted the questions relating to Origen, Evagrius, and Didymus. But Theodore of Cappadocia, with a view to divert them from this point, introduces the subject of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, and Ibas; the good God providentially disposing the whole proceeding, in order that the profanities of both parties should be ejected. On the first question being started, namely, whether it were proper to anathematise the dead, Eutychius, a man of consummate skill in the divine Scriptures, being as yet an undistinguished person--for Menas was still living, and he was himself at that time apocrisiarius to the bishop of Amasea --casting a look on the assembly, not merely of commanding intelligence but of contempt, plainly declared that the question needed no debate, since King Josiah in former time not only slew the living priests of the demons, but also broke up the sepulchres of those who had long been dead. This was considered by all to have been spoken to the purpose. Justinian also, having been made acquainted with the circumstance, elevated him to the see of the imperial city on the death of Menas, which happened immediately after. Vigilius gave his assent in writing to the assembling of the synod but declined attendance. Justinian addressed an inquiry to the synod on its assembling, as to what was their opinion concerning Theodore, and the expressions of Theodoret against Cyril and his twelve chapters, as well as the epistle of Ibas, as it is termed, addressed to Maris, the Persian. After the reading of many passages of Theodore and Theodoret,
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§ 4.38.188 and proof given that Theodore had been long ago condemned and erased from the sacred diptychs, as also that it was fitting that heretics should be condemned after their death, they unanimously anathematise Theodore, and what had been advanced by Theodoret against the twelve chapters of Cyril and the right faith; as also the epistle of Ibas to Maris, the Persian; in the following words:-- “Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, according to the parable in the gospels,” and so forth. “In addition to all other heretics, who have been condemned and anathematised by the before-mentioned four holy synods and by the holy catholic and apostolic church, we condemn and anathematise Theodore, styled bishop of Mopsuestia, and his impious writings; also whatever has been impiously written by Theodoret against the right faith, against the twelve chapters of the sainted Cyril, and against the first holy synod at Ephesus, and all that he has written in defence of Theodore and Nestorius. We further anathematise the impious epistle said to have been written by Ibas to Maris the Persian.” After some other matter, they proceed to set forth fourteen chapters concerning the right and unimpeachable faith. In this manner had the transactions proceeded: but on the presentation of libelli against the doctrine of Origen, named also Adamantius, and the followers of his impious error, by the monks Eulogius, Conon, Cyriacus, and Pancratius, Justinian addresses a question to the synod concerning these points,
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§ 4.38.189 appending to it a copy of the libellus, as well as the epistle of Vigilius upon the subject: from the whole of which may be gathered the attempts of Origen to fill the simplicity of the apostolic doctrine with philosophic and Manichaean tares. Accordingly, a relation was addressed to Justinian by the synod, after they had uttered exclamations against Origen and the maintainers of similar errors. A portion of it is expressed in the following terms: “O most Christian emperor, gifted with heavenly generosity of soul,” and so forth. “We have shunned, accordingly, we have shunned this error; for we knew not the voice of the alien; and having bound such a one, as a thief and a robber, in the cords of our anathema, we have ejected him from the sacred precincts.” And presently they proceed: “By perusal you will learn the vigour of our acts.” To this they appended a statement of the heads of the matters which the followers of Origen were taught to maintain, shewing their agreements, as well as their disagreements, and their manifold errors. The fifth head contains the blasphemous expressions uttered by private individuals belonging to what is called the New Laura, as follows. Theodore, surnamed Ascidas, the Cappadocian, said “If the Apostles and Martyrs at the present time work miracles, and are already so highly honoured, unless they shall be equal with Christ in the restitution of things, in what respect is there a restitution for them?” They also reported many other blasphemies of, Evagrius, and Theodore; having with great diligence extracted whatever bore upon these points. At an interval of some time after the meeting of the synod, Eutychius is ejected, and there is appointed in his place to the see of Constantinople John a native of Seremis, which is a village of the district of Cynegica, belonging to Antioch.
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§ 4.39.190 At that time Justinian, abandoning the right road of doctrine, and following a path untrodden by the apostles and fathers, became entangled among thorns and briers; with which wishing to fill the Church also, he failed in his purpose, and thereby fulfilled the prediction of prophecy; the Lord having secured the royal road with an unfailing fence, that murderers might not leap, as it were, upon a tottering wall or a broken hedge. Thus, at the time when John, named also Catelinus, was bishop of the elder Rome, after Vigilius; John from Seremis, of New Rome; Apollinaris, of Alexandria; Anastasius, of Theopolis, after Domninus; and Macarius, of Jerusalem, had been restored to his see; Justinian, after he had anathematized Origen, Didymus, and Evagrius, issued what the Latins call an Edict, after the deposition of Eustochius, in which he termed the body of the Lord incorruptible and incapable of the natural and blameless passions; affirming that the Lord ate before his passion in the same manner as after his resurrection, his holy body having undergone no conversion or change from the time of its actual formation in the womb, not even in respect of the voluntary and natural passions, nor yet after the resurrection. To this, he proceeded to compel the bishops in all quarters to give their assent. However, they all professed to look to Anastasius, the bishop of Antioch, and thus avoided the first attack.
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§ 4.40.1 Anastasius was a man most accomplished in divine learning, and so strict in his manners and mode of life, as to insist upon very minute matters, and on no occasion to deviate from a staid and settled frame, much less in things of moment and having relation to the Deity himself. So well tempered was his character, that neither, by being accessible and affable, was he exposed to the intrusion of things unsuitable; nor by being austere and unindulgent, did he become difficult of approach for proper purposes. Accordingly, in serious concerns he was ready in ear and fluent in tongue, promptly resolving the questions proposed to him; but in trifling matters, his ears were altogether closed, and a bridle restrained his tongue, so that speech was enthralled by thought, and silence resulted, more valuable than speech. Justinian assaults him, like some impregnable tower, with every kind of device, considering that if he could only succeed in shaking this bulwark, all difficulty would be removed in capturing the city, enslaving the right doctrine, and taking captive the sheep of Christ. In such a manner was Anastasius raised above the assailing force by heavenly greatness of mind, for he stood upon the immoveable rock of faith, that he unreservedly contradicted Justinian by a formal declaration, in which he showed very clearly and forcibly that the body of the Lord was corruptible in respect of the natural and blameless passions, and that the divine apostles and the inspired fathers both held and delivered this opinion. In the same terms he replied to a question of the monastic body of Syria Prima and Secunda, confirming the minds of all, preparing them for the struggle, and daily reading in the Church those words of the “chosen vessel:”15 “If any one is preaching to you a gospel different from that which ye have received, even though it be an angel from heaven, let him be accursed.” 16 To this all, with few exceptions, paid a steady regard and zealous adherence. He also addressed to the Antiochenes a valedictory discourse, on hearing that Justinian intended to banish him; a discourse deserving admiration for its elegance, its flow of thought, the abundance of sacred texts, and the appropriateness of its historical matters.
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§ 4.41.1 But this discourse was not published, “God having provided some better thing for us:” 17 for Justinian, while dictating the banishment of Anastasius and his associate priests, departed this life by an invisible stroke, having reigned in all eight and thirty years and eight months.
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§ 5.1.1 THE FIFTH BOOK In this manner did Justinian depart to the lowest region of retribution, after having filled every place with confusion and tumults, and having received at the close of his life the reward of his actions. His nephew Justin succeeds to the purple; having previously held the office of guardian of the palace, styled in the Latin language Curopalata. No one, except those who were immediately about his person, was aware of the demise of Justinian or the declaration of Justin, until the latter made his appearance in the hippodrome, by way of formally assuming the stated functions of royalty. Confining himself to this simple proceeding, he then returned to the palace. His first edict was one dismissing the bishops to their respective sees, wherever they might be assembled, with a provision that they should maintain what was already established in religion, and abstain from novelties in matters of faith. This proceeding was to his honour. In his mode of life, however, he was dissolute, utterly abandoned to luxury and inordinate pleasures: and to such a degree was he inflamed with desire for the property of others, as to convert every thing into a means of unlawful gain; standing in no awe of the Deity even in the case of bishoprics, but making them a matter of public sale to any purchasers that offered. Possessed, as he was, alike by the vices of audacity and cowardice, he in the first place sends for his kinsman Justin, a man universally famous for military skill and his other distinctions, who was at that time stationed upon the Danube, and engaged in preventing the Avars from crossing that river. These were one of those Scythian tribes who live in wagons, and inhabit the plains beyond the Caucasus. Having been worsted by their neighbours, the Turks, they had migrated in a mass to the Bosphorus; and, having subsequently left the shores of the Euxine ---- where were many barbarian tribes, and where also cities, castles, and some harbours had been located by the Romans, being either settlements of veterans, or colonies sent out by the emperors----they were pursuing their march, in continual conflict with the barbarians whom they encountered, until they reached the bank of the Danube; and thence they sent an embassy to Justinian. From this quarter Justin was summoned, as having a claim to the fulfilment of the terms of the agreement between himself and the emperor. For, since both of them had been possessed of equal dignity, and the succession to the empire was in suspense between both, they had agreed, after much dispute, that whichever of the two should become possessed of the sovereignty, should confer the second place on the other; so that while ranking beneath the emperor, he should still take precedence of all others.
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§ 5.2.1 The emperor accordingly received him, in the first instance, with an abundant display of kindness. Afterwards, he proceeded to fix certain charges upon him, and to withdraw the various guards of his person, forbidding him at the same time access to his presence; for he himself lived in the retirement of his palace: and ultimately he ordered his removal to Alexandria. There he is miserably murdered in the dead of night, when he had just retired to rest; such being the reward of his fidelity to the commonwealth and his achievements in war. Nor did the emperor and his consort Sophia abate their rage, nor had they sufficiently indulged their boiling spite, before they had gazed upon his head and spurned it with their feet.
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§ 5.3.1 Not long after, the emperor brought to trial for treason Aetherius and Addaeus, members of the senate, who had occupied the very highest position at the court of Justinian. Aetherius confessed to a design of poisoning the emperor, saying that he had in Addaeus an accomplice in the plot and an abettor throughout. The latter, however, asseverated, with fearful imprecations, that he was utterly ignorant of the transaction. Both were accordingly beheaded, Addaeus affirming, at the instant of execution, that he had been falsely accused on this point, but admitting that he received his due at the hands of all-seeing Justice, for that he had taken off Theodotus, prefect of the palace, by sorcery. How far these statements are true, I am not able to say; but both were men of bad character; Addaeus being addicted to unnatural lust, and Aetherius pursuing to the utmost a system of false accusation, and plundering the property both of the living and the dead, in the name of the imperial household, of which he had been comptroller in the time of Justinian. Such was the termination of these matters.
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§ 5.4.197 Justin issues an edict to the Christians in every quarter, in the following terms. “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, the Emperor Caesar Flavian Justin, faithful in Christ, clement, supreme, beneficent, Alemannicus, Gothicus, Germanicus, Anticus, Francicus, Herulicus, Gepidicus, pious, fortunate, glorious, victorious, triumphant, ever-worshipful Augustus. ”'My peace I give to you,' says the Lord Christ, our very God.'My peace I leave to you,' he also proclaims to all mankind. Now this is nothing else than that those who believe on him should gather into one and the same church, being unanimous concerning the true belief of Christians, and withdrawing from such as affirm or entertain contrary opinions: for the prime means of salvation for all men is the confession of the right faith. Wherefore we also, following the evangelical precepts and the holy symbol or doctrine of the holy fathers, exhort all persons to unite in one and the same church and sentiment; and this we do, believing in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, holding the doctrine of a consubstantial Trinity, one Godhead or nature and substance, both in terms and reality; one power, influence, and operation in three subsistences or persons; into which doctrine we were baptized, in which we believe, and to which we have united ourselves. For we worship a Unity in trinity and a Trinity in unity, peculiar both in its division and in its union, being Unity in respect of substance or Godhead, and Trinity with regard to its proprieties or subsistences or persons; for it is divided indivisibly, so to speak, and is united divisibly: for there is one thing in three, namely, the Godhead; and the three things are one, namely, those in which is the Godhead, or, to speak more accurately, which are the Godhead: and we acknowledge the Father to be God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God, whenever each person is regarded by itself----the thought in that case separating the things that are inseparable----and the three when viewed in conjunction to be God by sameness of motion and of nature; inasmuch as it is proper both to confess the one God, and at the same time to proclaim the three subsistences or proprieties. We also confess the only begotten Son of God, the God-Word, who, before the ages and without time, was begotten of the Father, not made, and who, in the last of the days, for our sakes and for our salvation, descended from heaven,
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§ 5.4.199 and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and of our Lady, the holy glorious Mother of God and ever virgin Mary, and was born of her; who is our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Holy Trinity, united in glorification with the Father and the Holy Spirit: for the Holy Trinity did not admit the addition of a fourth person, even when one of the Trinity, the God-Word, had become incarnate; but our Lord Jesus Christ is one and the same, being consubstantial with God the Father, as respects the Godhead, and at the same time consubstantial with ourselves as respects the manhood; passible in the flesh, and at the same time impassible in the Godhead: for we do not admit that the divine Word who wrought the miracles was one, and he who underwent the sufferings was another; but we confess our Lord Jesus Christ to be one and the same, namely, the Word of God become incarnate and made perfectly man, and that both the miracles and the sufferings which he voluntarily underwent for our salvation belong to one and the same; inasmuch as it was not a human being that gave himself on our behalf; but the God-Word himself, becoming man without undergoing change, submitted in the flesh to the voluntary passion and death on our behalf. Accordingly, while confessing him to be God, we do not contravene the circumstance of his being man; and while confessing him to be man, we do not deny the fact of his being God: whence, while confessing our Lord Jesus Christ to be one and the same, composed of both natures, namely, the Godhead and the manhood, we do not superinduce confusion upon the union; for he will not lose the circumstance of being God on becoming man like ourselves; nor yet, in being by nature God, and in that respect incapable of likeness to us, will he also decline the circumstance of being man. But as he continued God in manhood; in like manner, though possessed of divine supremacy, he is no less man; being both in one, God and man at the same time, one Emmanuel. Further, while confessing him to be at the same time perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, of which two he was also composed,
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§ 5.4.200 we do not attach to his one complex subsistence a division by parts or severance; but we signify that the difference of the natures is not annulled by the union: for neither was the divine nature changed into the human, nor the human nature converted into the divine; but, each being the more distinctly understood and existent in the limit and relation of its own nature, we say that the union took place according to subsistence. The union according to subsistence signifies, that the God-Word, that is to say one subsistence of the three subsistences of the Godhead, was not united with a previously existing human being, but in the womb of our Lady, the holy glorious Mother of God and ever virgin Mary, formed for himself of her, in his own subsistence, flesh consubstantial with ourselves, having the same passions in all respects except sin, and animated with a reasonable and intelligent soul; for he retained his subsistence in himself, and became man, and is one and the same, our Lord Jesus Christ, united in glorification with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Further, while considering his ineffable union, we rightly confess one nature, that of the Divine Word, to have become incarnate, by flesh animated with a reasonable and intelligent soul; and, on the other hand, while contemplating the difference of the natures, we affirm that they are two, without, however, introducing any division, for either nature is in him; whence we confess one and the same Christ, one Son, one person, one subsistence, both God and man together: and all who have held or do hold opinions at variance with these, we anathematize, judging them to be alien from the Holy and Apostolic Church of God. Accordingly, while the right doctrines which have been delivered to us by the holy fathers are being thus proclaimed, we exhort you all to gather into one and the same Catholic and Apostolic Church,
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§ 5.4.201 or rather we even entreat you; for though possessed of imperial supremacy, we do not decline the use of such a term, in behalf of the unanimity and union of all Christians, in the universal offering of one doxology to our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and in abstinence for the future on the part of all from unnecessary disputes about persons and words----since the words lead to one true belief and understanding----while the usage and form which has hitherto prevailed in the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of God, remains for ever unshaken and unchanged." To this edict all assented, saying that it was expressed in orthodox language. None, however, of the severed portions of the Church were entirely reunited, because the edict distinctly declared that what had hitherto been unshaken and unchanged, should continue so in all coming time.
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§ 5.5.1 Justin also ejected Anastasius from the episcopate of Theopolis, on the charge of a profuse and improper expenditure of the funds of the see, and also for scandalous language against himself; inasmuch as Anastasius, on being asked why he was so lavishly squandering the property of the see, frankly replied, that it was done to prevent its being carried off by that universal pest, Justin. He is also said to have entertained a grudge against Anastasius, because he had refused to pay a sum of money, when demanded of him in consideration of his appointment to the bishopric. Other charges were also brought against him by persons, who, as I suppose, wished to second the emperor's bent.
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§ 5.6.1 Next in succession, Gregory is elevated to the episcopal see: “wide whose renown,” according to the language of poetry; a person who had devoted himself from the earliest period of life to the monastic discipline, and had wrestled therein so manfully and stoutly, that he arrived at the highest elevation when scarcely past his boyhood, and became superior of the monastery of the Byzantines, in which he had assumed the bare mode of life, and subsequently, by the orders of Justin, of the monastery of Mount Sinai. Here he encountered extreme danger, having sustained a siege by the Scenite Arabs. Having, nevertheless, secured the complete tranquillity of the spot, he was thence summoned to the archiepiscopal dignity. He was unrivalled in every excellence of intellect and virtue, and most energetic in accomplishing whatever he resolved upon, uninfluenced by fear, and incapable of shrinking before secular power. So noble was his expenditure of money, in a general system of liberality and munificence, that whenever he appeared in public, crowds, besides his ordinary attendants, followed him; and all gathered round him who saw or heard of his approach. The respect shewn to so high a dignity, was but second to the honour bestowed upon the individual, in the generous desire of persons to obtain a near view of him and to hear his words; for he was possessed of singular power to inspire with attachment towards himself all who held converse with him, being a person of most imposing aspect and sweet address, especially quick of perception and prompt in execution, a most able counsellor and judge, both in his own matters and in those of others. On this account it was that he accomplished so much, never deferring any thing till to-morrow. By dealing with matters with unfailing promptitude, according as either necessity required or opportunity favoured, he tilled with admiration not only the Roman but the Persian sovereigns, as I shall set forth the particulars in their proper place. His character was strongly marked by vehemence, and at times by indications of anger; while, on the other hand, his meekness and gentleness were not confined, but were exceedingly abundant; so that to him was admirably fitted the excellent expression of Gregory Theologus, “austerity tempered with modesty,” while neither quality was impaired, but each rendered more striking by the other.
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§ 5.7.1 In the first year of the episcopate of Gregory, the inhabitants of what was formerly called the greater Armenia, but afterwards Persarmenia ----this country was formerly subject to the Romans, but when Philip, the successor of Gordian, had betrayed it to Sapor, what is called the lesser Armenia alone was possessed by the Romans, but the remainder by the Persians ---- this people, being Christians and cruelly treated by the Persians, especially on the score of their faith, sent a secret embassy to Justin, imploring to be allowed to place themselves under the dominion of the Romans, in order to a safe and unrestrained observance of their religion. When the emperor had admitted their overtures, and certain written conditions had been settled on his part and guaranteed by the most solemn oaths, the Armenians massacre their governors; and the whole nation, together with their allied neighbours, both of kindred and foreign race, unite themselves to the Roman empire, Vardanes having a precedence among his countrymen by birth, dignity, and military skill. In reply to the complaints of Chosroes on account of these transactions, Justin alleged that the peace had expired, and that it was impossible to reject the advances of Christians, when desirous of uniting themselves with fellow Christians in time of war. Such was his reply. Notwithstanding, he made no preparation for war, but was involved in his habitual luxury, regarding every thing as secondary to his personal enjoyments.
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§ 5.8.1 The emperor sends out his kinsman Marcian, as commander of the forces of the East, without, however, sufficiently supplying him with troops, or the other material of war. He occupies Mesopotamia, at the imminent risk of utter ruin, followed by very few troops, and these imperfectly armed, and by a few rustic labourers and herdsmen, whom he had pressed into his service from among the provincials. After gaining the advantage in some skirmishes near Nisibis with the Persians, who were themselves not yet completely prepared, he sits down before that city, though the enemy did not think it necessary to close the gates, and insolently jeered the Roman troops. Besides many other prodigies presaging the approaching calamities, I also saw, at the beginning of the war, a newly born calf with two heads.
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§ 5.9.1 Chosroes, when his preparations for war were completed, having accompanied Adaarmanes for some distance, sent him across the Euphrates from his own bank of the river into the Roman territory, by Circesium, a city most important to the Romans, situated at the limit of the empire, and rendered strong not only by its walls, which are carried to an immense height, but by the rivers Euphrates and Aboras, which, as it were, insulate the place. Chosroes himself, having crossed the Tigris with his own division of the army, advanced upon Nisibis. Of these operations the Romans were for a long time ignorant, so far that Justin, relying on a rumour to the effect that Chosroes was either dead or approaching his last breath, was indignant at the tardiness of the siege of Nisibis, and sent persons for the purpose of stimulating the efforts of Marcian, and bringing to him the keys of the gates as quickly as possible. Information, however, that the siege was making no progress, but that the commander was bringing great discredit upon himself by attempting impossibilities in the case of so important a city with so contemptible a force, is conveyed in the first instance to Gregory, bishop of Theopolis: for the bishop of Nisibis, being strongly attached to Gregory, as having received munificent presents from him, and especially being indignant at the insolence which the Persians were continually displaying towards the Christians, and desirous that his city should be subject to the Roman power, supplied information to Gregory of all things that were going on in the enemy's territory, at each several juncture. This the latter immediately forwarded to Jus tin, informing him as quickly as possible of the advance of Chosroes: but he, being immersed in his habitual pleasures, paid no regard to the letters of Gregory; nor was he indeed inclined to believe them, indulging rather the thoughts suggested by his wishes: for the ordinary mark of dissolute persons is a meanness of spirit combined with confidence with regard to results; as well as incredulity, if any thing occurs which runs counter to their desires. Accordingly he writes to Gregory, altogether repudiating the information as being utterly false, and, even supposing it were true, saying that the Persians would not come up before the siege was concluded, and that, if they did, they would be beaten off with loss. He further sends Acacius, a wicked and insolent man, to Marcian with orders to supersede him in the command, even supposing he had already set one foot within the town. This command he strictly executed, carrying out the emperor's orders without any regard to the public good: for, on his arrival at the camp, he deprives Marcian of his command while on the enemy's territory, and without informing the army of the transaction. The various officers, on learning at the break of the next clay that their commander was superseded, no longer appeared at the head of their troops, but stole away in various directions, and thus raised that ridiculous siege. Adaarmanes, on the other hand, in command of a considerable force of Persians and Scenite barbarians, having marched by Circesium, inflicted every possible injury with fire and sword upon the Roman territory, setting no limits to his intentions or actions. He also captures many fortresses and towns, without encountering any resistance; in the first place, because there was no one in command, and secondly, because, since the Roman troops were shut up in Daras by Chosroes, his foragings and incursions were made in perfect security. He also directed an advance upon Theopolis, without proceeding thither in person. These troops were compelled to draw off most unexpectedly; for scarcely any one, or indeed very few persons, remained in the city; and the bishop had fled, taking with him the sacred treasures, because both the greater part of the walls had fallen to ruins, and the populace had made insurrection with the hope of gaining ascendancy by change: a thing of frequent occurrence, and especially at junctures like this. The insurgents themselves also abandoned the city, without any attempt to meet the emergency or take active measures against the enemy.
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§ 5.10.1 Failing thus in this attempt, Adaarmanes, having burnt the city formerly called Heraclea but subsequently Gagalica, made himself master of Apamea; which, having been founded by Seleucus Nicator, was once flourishing and populous, but had fallen to a great extent into ruin through lapse of time. On the capitulation of the city from the inability of the inhabitants to offer any resistance, since the wall had fallen down through age, he fired and pillaged the whole place, in violation of the terms, and drew off, carrying away captive the inhabitants of the town and the adjoining country, and among them the bishop and the governor. He also exercised every kind of atrocity during his march, without meeting with any resistance or indeed attempt at opposition, except a very small force sent out by Justin under the command of Magnus, who had formerly been a banker at Constantinople, and subsequently appointed steward of one of the imperial residences. These troops however fled with precipitation, and narrowly escaped being made prisoners. After these operations, Adaarmanes joins Chosroes, who had not yet captured the city he was besieging. By the junction, he threw an important weight into the scale, in raising the spirits of his countrymen, while he disheartened their opponents. He found the city cut off by lines, and a huge mound carried forward within a short distance of the walls, with engines mounted, and especially catapults, shooting from vantage ground. By these means, Chosroes took the city by storm. John, the son of Timostratus, was governor, who paid little regard to the defence of the place, or perhaps betrayed it; for both accounts are reported. Chosroes had besieged the city for five months or more without any effort being made for its relief. Having brought forth all the inhabitants in immense numbers, some of whom he miserably slaughtered but retained the greater part as captives, he garrisoned the city, on account of its important situation, and then retired into his own territories.
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§ 5.11.1 On being informed of these events, Justin, in whose mind no sober and considerate thoughts found place after so much inflation and pride, and who did not bear what had befallen him with resignation suited to a human being, falls into a state of frenzy, and becomes unconscious of all subsequent transactions. Tiberius assumes the direction of affairs, a Thracian by birth, but holding the first place in the court of Justin. He had previously been sent out against the Avars by the emperor, who had raised a very large army for the purpose; and he would inevitably have been made prisoner, since his troops would not even face the barbarians, had not divine Providence unexpectedly delivered him, and preserved him for succession to the Roman'sovereignty; which, through the inconsiderate measures of Justin, was in danger of falling to ruin, together with the entire commonwealth, and of passing from such a height of power into the hands of barbarians.
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§ 5.12.1 Accordingly, Tiberius adopts a measure opportune and well suited to the state of affairs, which altogether repaired the calamity. He despatches to Chosroes, Trajan, a senator and an accomplished man, universally esteemed for his years and intelligence; not, however, as representative of the sovereign power, nor yet as ambassador for the commonwealth, but merely to treat on behalf of the empress Sophia; who herself also wrote to Chosroes, bewailing the calamities which had befallen her husband, and the loss of its head which the commonwealth sustained, and urging the unseemliness of trampling upon a widowed female, a prostrate monarch, and a desolate empire: at the same time reminding him that, when afflicted with sickness, he had himself not only been treated with similar forbearance, but that the very best physicians had been sent to him by the Roman government, and had cured him of his disease. Chosroes is, accordingly, moved by the appeal, and when upon the very point of attacking the empire, makes a truce for three years, embracing the eastern parts; with a condition that Armenia should be excepted, so as to allow of hostilities being maintained there, provided the East were not molested. During these proceedings in the East, Sirmium is taken by the barbarians, which had some time before fallen into the hands of the Gepidae, and been afterwards restored by them to Justin.
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§ 5.13.1 About this time Justin, by the advice of Sophia, bestows on Tiberius the rank of Caesar, giving utterance, in the act of declaration, to such expressions as surpass all that has been recorded in ancient or recent history; our compassionate God having vouchsafed to him an opportunity for an avowal of his own errors, and a suggestion of what was for the benefit of the state. For when there were assembled in the open court, where ancient usage enjoins that such proceedings should take place, both the archbishop, John, whom we have already mentioned, and his clergy, as well as the state dignitaries, and the household troops, the emperor, on investing Tiberius with the imperial tunic and robe, gave utterance with a loud voice to the following words: “Let not the grandeur of thy investiture deceive thee, nor the pomp of the present spectacle; beguiled by which, I have unwittingly rendered myself obnoxious to the most severe penalties. Do thou make reparation for my errors, by administering the commonwealth with all gentleness.” Then pointing to the magistrates, he recommended him by no means to put confidence in them, adding: “These are the very persons who have brought me into the condition which thou now witnessest:” together with other similar expressions, which filled all with utter amazement, and drew forth an abundance of tears. Tiberius was very tall, and by far the most noble in person not only of sovereigns but all mankind; so that, in the first place, his beauty was deserving of sovereignty. In disposition, he was mild and compassionate, and gave cordial reception to all persons at their very first approach. He deemed wealth to consist in aiding all with largesses, not merely so far as to meet their wants, but even to superfluity: for he did not consider what the needy ought to receive, but what it became a Roman emperor to bestow. He esteemed that gold to be adulterated which was exacted with tears: on which account he entirely remitted the taxation for one year, and released from their imposts the properties which Adaarmanes had devastated, not merely to the extent of the damage but even far beyond it. The magistrates were also excused from the necessity of making the unlawful presents, by means of which the emperors formerly made a sale of their subjects. On these points he also issued constitutions, as a security for coining time.
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§ 5.14.1 Tiberius, accordingly, applying to a rightful purpose the wealth which had been amassed by improper means, made the necessary preparations for war. So numerous was the army of brave men, raised among the Transalpine nations, the Massagetae, and other Scythian tribes, by a choice levy in the countries on the Rhine, and on this side of the Alps, as well as in Paeonia, Mysia, Illyria, and Isauria, that he completed squadrons of excellent cavalry, to the amount of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand men, and repulsed Chosroes, who, immediately after the capture of Daras, had advanced in the course of the summer against Armenia, and was thence directing his movements upon Caesarea, which was the seat of government of Cappadocia and the capital of the cities in that quarter. In such contempt did Chosroes hold the Roman power, that, when the Caesar had sent an embassy to him, he did not deign to admit the ambassadors to an audience, but bid them follow him to Caesarea; at which place he said he would take the embassy into his consideration. When, however, he saw the Roman army in the front of him, under the command of Justinian, the brother of that Justin who had been miserably put to death by the Emperor Justin, in complete equipment, with the trumpets sending forth martial sounds, the standards uplifted for conflict, and the soldiery eager for slaughter, breathing forth fury, and at the same time maintaining perfect order, and, besides, so numerous and noble a body of cavalry as no monarch had ever imagined, he drew a deep groan, with many adjurations, at the unforeseen and unexpected sight, and was reluctant to begin the engagement. But while he is lingering and whiling away the time, and making a mere feint of fighting, Kurs, the Scythian, who was in command of the right wing, advances upon him; and since the Persians were unable to stand his charge, and were in a very signal manner abandoning their ground, he made an extensive slaughter of his opponents. He also attacks the rear, where both Chosroes and the whole army had placed their baggage, and captures all the royal stores and the entire baggage, under the very eyes of Chosroes; who endured the sight, deeming self-imposed constraint more tolerable than the onset of Kurs. The latter, having together with his troops made himself master of a great amount of money and spoil, and carrying off the beasts of burden with their loads, among which was the sacred fire of Chosroes to which divine honours were paid, makes a circuit of the Persian camp, singing songs of victory, and rejoins, about nightfall, his own army, who had already broken up from their position, without a commencement of battle on the part of either Chosroes or themselves, beyond a few slight skirmishes or single combats, such as usually take place. Chosroes, having lighted many fires, made preparations for a night assault; and since the Romans had formed two camps, he attacks the division which lay northward, at the dead of night. On their giving way under this sudden and unexpected onset, he advances upon the neighbouring town of Melitene, which was undefended and deserted by its inhabitants, and having fired the whole place, prepared to cross the Euphrates. At the approach, however, of the united forces of the Romans, in alarm for his own safety, he mounted an elephant, and crossed alone; while great numbers of his army found a grave in the waters of the river: on learning whose fate he retreated. Having paid this extreme penalty for his insolence towards the Roman power, Chosroes retires with the survivors to the eastern parts, in which quarter the terms of the truce had provided that no one should attack him. Nevertheless Justinian made an irruption into the Persian territory with his entire force, and passed the whole winter there, without any molestation. He withdrew about the summer solstice, without having sustained any loss whatever, and passed the summer near the border, surrounded by prosperity and glory.
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§ 5.15.1 Chosroes, lost in frenzy and despair, and submerged in the surgings of sorrow, is brought to a miserable end by overwhelming anguish, after leaving behind him a lasting monument of his flight, in the law which he enacted, that no king of the Persians should henceforward lead an army against the Romans. He is succeeded by his son Hormisdas. These matters I must now pass over, since the events which follow in direct succession are inviting my attention and awaiting the regular progress of my narrative.
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§ 5.16.1 On the decease of John, named also Catelinus, Bonosus is intrusted with the helm of the Roman see, and he is succeeded by another John, and he, again, by Pelagius. In the imperial city John is succeeded by Eutychius, who had already held the see before him. Apollinaris is succeeded in the see of Alexandria by John, and he by Eulogius, After Macarius, John is elevated to the bishopric of Jerusalem, who had pursued the monastic discipline in what is called the monastery of the Acoemets. This period passed without any changes being attempted in the state of the Church.
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§ 5.17.1 In the third year of the administration of the empire by Tiberius, a violent earthquake befell Theopolis and its suburb of Daphne, precisely at noon; on which occasion the whole of that suburb was laid in utter ruin by the shocks, while the public and private buildings in Theopolis, though rent to the ground, were still not entirely levelled. Several other events occurred both in Theopolis, and also in the imperial city, deserving especial notice, which threw both places into confusion, and broke out into excessive disturbances: events which took their rise from zeal for God, and terminated in a manner worthy of divine agency. These I now proceed to notice.
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§ 5.18.1 There was residing at Theopolis a certain Anatolius, who was originally one of the vulgar and an artisan, but had subsequently, by some means or other, obtained admission into public offices and other posts of importance. In this city he was pursuing his engagements, from which resulted an intimacy with Gregory, president of that Church, and frequent visits to him, partly for the purpose of conversing on matters of business, and partly with a view to obtain greater influence on the ground of his intercourse with the prelate. This person was detected in the practice of sacrificial rites, and being called to account was proved to be a miscreant and a sorcerer, and implicated in innumerable enormities. He gains over, however, by bribery, the governor of the East, and would have obtained an acquittal, together with his accomplices, for he was associated with others of a similar stamp who were involved in the detection, had not the people risen, and, by exciting a universal stir, frustrated the design. They also clamoured against the bishop, saying that he was a party to the scheme; and some turbulent and malignant demon induced persons to believe that he had also taken part with Anatolius in the sacrificial rites. By this means Gregory was brought into extreme danger, from the vehement efforts of the populace against him; and the suspicion was so far prevalent, that even the emperor Tiberius was desirous of learning the truth from the mouth of Anatolius. Accordingly, he orders Anatolius and his associates to be conveyed forthwith to the imperial city. On learning this, Anatolius rushed to a certain image of the Mother of God, which was suspended by a cord in the prison, and folding his hands behind his back, announced himself as a suppliant: but she, in detestation and conviction of the guilty and God-hated man, turned herself quite round, presenting a prodigy awful and worthy of perpetual remembrance; which, having been witnessed by all the prisoners as well as by those who had the charge of Anatolius and his associates, was thus published to the world. She also appeared in a vision to some of the faithful, exhorting them against the wretch, and saying that Anatolius was guilty of insult against her Son. When he had been conveyed to the imperial city, and, on being subjected to the extreme of torture, was unable to allege anything against the bishop, he and his associates were the cause of still greater disturbances and a general rising of the populace: for, when some of the party had received sentence of banishment instead of death, the populace, inflamed with a sort of divine zeal, caused a general commotion, in their fury and indignation, and having seized the persons condemned to banishment and put them into a skiff, they committed them alive to the flames; such being the people's verdict. They also clamoured against the emperor and their own bishop Eutychius as betrayers of the faith; and they would have inevitably despatched Eutychius, and those who had been charged with the investigation, making search for them in every quarter, had not all-preserving Providence rescued them from their pursuers, and gradually lulled the anger of so numerous a population; so that no outrage was perpetrated at their hands. Anatolius himself, after being first exposed to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre and mangled by them, was then impaled, without terminating even then his punishment in this world; for the wolves, tearing down his polluted body, divided it as a feast among themselves; a circumstance never before noticed. There was also one of my fellow-citizens, who, before these events took place, affirmed that he had been informed by a dream, that the judgment upon Anatolius and his associates was in the hands of the populace. A person too of high distinction, being the curator of the palace, who had resolutely protected Anatolius, said that he had seen the Mother of God, demanding of him how long he intended to defend Anatolius, who had so grievously outraged herself and her Son. Such was the termination of this business.
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§ 5.19.1 Tiberius, being by this time in possession of the crown on the death of Justin, supersedes Justinian, since he had not been equally successful against the barbarians, and appoints Maurice to the command of the forces of the East; a person who derived his descent and name from the elder Rome, but, as regards his more immediate origin, was a native of Arabissus in Cappadocia; a man of sense and ability, and of unvarying accuracy and firmness. Being staid and precise in his mode of living and manners, he was temperate in his food, using only such as was necessary and simple, and was superior to all other indulgences of a luxurious life. He was not easily accessible to the solicitations of the vulgar, nor a too easy listener in general; well knowing that the one tends to produce contempt, and the other leads to flattery. Accordingly, he granted audiences sparingly, and those only to persons on serious business, and closed his ears against idle talk, not with wax, as poets say, but rather with reason; so that this latter was an excellent key to them, appropriately both opening and closing them during conversation. So completely had he banished both ignorance, the mother of audacity, and also cowardice, which is at the same time a foreigner and a neighbour to the former, that with him to face danger was an act of prudence, and to decline it was a measure of safety; while both courage and discretion were the charioteers of opportunity, and guided the reins to whatever quarter necessity directed: so that his efforts were both restrained and put forth, as it were, by measure and rule. Concerning this person I shall speak more fully in the sequel; since the detail of his greatness and excellence I must reserve for the history of his reign; which displayed the man in a clearer light, as unfolding, through freedom of action, even the more inward parts of his character. This Maurice, advancing beyond the limits of the empire, captures both cities and fortresses, of the greatest importance to the Persians, and carried off so much plunder, that the captives were sufficiently numerous to occupy at length whole islands, towns, and districts which had been deserted: and thus the land which had been previously untilled, was every where restored to cultivation. Numerous armies also were raised from among them, that fought resolutely and courageously against the other nations. At the same time every household was completely furnished with domestics, on account of the easy rate at which slaves were procured.
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§ 5.20.1 He also engaged Tamchosroes and Adaarmanes, the principal Persian commanders, who had advanced against him with a considerable force: but the nature, manner, and place of these transactions I leave others to record, or shall perhaps myself make them the subject of a distinct work, since my present one professes to treat of matters of a very different kind. Tamchosroes, however, falls in battle, not by the bravery of the Roman soldiery, but merely through the piety and faith of their commander: and Adaarmanes, being worsted in the fight and having lost many of his men, flies with precipitation, and this too, although Alamundarus, the commander of the Scenitae barbarians, played the traitor in declining to cross the Euphrates and support Maurice against the Scenites of the opposite party. For this people are invincible by any other than themselves, on account of the fleetness of their horses: when hemmed in, they cannot be captured; and they outstrip their enemies in retreat. Theodoric too, commander of the Scythian troops, did not so much as venture within range of the missiles, but fled with all his people.
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§ 5.21.1 Prodigies also occurred, which indicated that the imperial power was destined to Maurice. As he was offering incense, at the dead of night, within the sanctuary of Mary, the holy and immaculate virgin and Mother of God, which is called by the Antiochenes the church of Justinian, the veil which surrounds the holy table became wrapt in flames; so that Maurice was seized with amazement and awe, and was terrified at the sight. Gregory, the archbishop of the city, who was standing by, said that it was a divine manifestation, betokening to him the highest fortune. Christ our God also appeared to him, when in the East, calling upon him to avenge Him: which circumstance distinctly intimated the possession of sovereign power; for of what other person would He have made the demand than of an emperor, and one who manifested so much piety towards Him? His parents also detailed to me circumstance's remarkable and worthy of being recorded, when I was making inquiries on this point: for his father said that, about the time of his conception, he had seen in a dream a very large vine growing from his bed, on which hung great numbers of beautiful clusters of grapes: and his mother told me that, at the time of her delivery, the earth sent forth a strange odour of peculiar sweetness; and that Empusa, as she is called, had often carried off the child for the purpose of devouring him, but had been unable to injure him. Simeon, too, who practised the station upon the pillar in the neighbourhood of Theopolis, a most energetic man, and distinguished by every divine virtue, both said and did many things which betokened his succession to the empire. The sequel of the history will relate respecting him whatever circumstances are suitable.
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§ 5.22.1 Maurice assumes the sovereignty, when Tiberius was at the point of death, and had bestowed upon him his daughter Augusta, and the empire as her dowry. Notwithstanding the shortness of his reign, Tiberius left behind him an immortal memorial in the remembrance of his good deeds; for he bequeathed to the commonwealth, in the appointment of Maurice, an inheritance, not admitting of specification in terms, but most precious. He also distributed his own appellations, giving to Maurice the name of Tiberius, and to Augusta that of Constantina. The transactions of their reign the sequel of the history will set forth, with the aid of the divine impulse.
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§ 5.23.1 In order also to an accurate account of the various periods of time, be it known that Justin the younger, reigned alone twelve years, ten months and a half, and in conjunction with Tiberius, three years and eleven months: so that the whole period is sixteen years, nine months and a half. Tiberius also reigned four years alone: so that the whole time from Romulus to the proclamation of Maurice Tiberius, amounts to * * * years; as appears from the previous and present dates.
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§ 5.24.217 By the aid of God, an account of the affairs of the Church, presenting a fair survey of the whole, has been preserved for us in what has been recorded by Eusebius Pamphili down to the time of Constantine, and thence forward as far as Theodosius the younger, by Theodoret, Sozomen, and Socrates, and in the matters which have been selected for my present work. Primitive and profane history has been also preserved in a continuous narrative by those who have been zealous at the task; Moses being the first to compose history, as has been clearly shewn by those who have collected whatever bears upon the subject, in writing a true account of events from the beginning of the world, derived from what he learned in converse with God on Mount Sinai. Then follow the accounts which those who after him prepared the way for our religion have stored up in sacred scriptures. Josephus also composed an extensive history, in every way valuable. All the stories, whether fabulous or true, relating to the contests of the Greeks and ancient barbarians, both among themselves and against each other, and whatever else had been achieved since the period at which they record the first existence of mankind, have been written by Charax, Theopompus, Ephorus, and others too numerous to mention. The transactions of the Romans, embracing the history of the whole world and whatever else took place either with respect to their intestine divisions or their proceedings towards other nations, have been treated of by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who has brought down his account from the times of what are called the Aborigines, to those of Pyrrhus of Epirus. The history is then taken up by Polybius of Megalopolis, who brings it down to the capture of Carthage. All these materials Appian has portioned out by a clear arrangement, separately grouping each series of transactions, though occurring at intervals of time. What events occurred subsequent to the before-mentioned periods, have been treated by Diodorus Siculus, as far as the time of Julius Caesar, and by Dio Cassius, who continued his account as far as Antoninus of Emesa. In a similar work of Herodian, the account extends as far as the death of Maximus; and in that of Nicostratus, the sophist of Trapezus, from Philip, the successor of Gordian,
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§ 5.24.219 to Odaenathus of Palmyra, and the ignominious expedition of Valerian against the Persians. Dexippus has also written at great length on the same subject, commencing with the Scythian wars, and terminating with the reign of Claudius, the successor of Gallienus: and he also included the military transactions of the Carpi and other barbarian tribes, in Greece, Thrace, and Ionia. Eusebius too, commencing from Octavian, Trajan, and Marcus, brought his account down to the death of Carus. The history of the same times has been partially written both by Arrian and Asinius Quadratus: that of the succeeding period by Zosimus, as far as Honorius and Arcadius: and events subsequent to their reign by Priscus the Rhetorician, and others. The whole of this range of history has been excellently epitomised by Eustathius of Epiphania, in two volumes, one extending to the capture of Troy, the other to the twelfth year of the reign of Anastasius. The occurrences subsequent to that period have been written by Procopius the rhetorician as far as the time of Justinian; and the account has been thenceforward continued by Agathias the rhetorician, and John, my fellow-citizen and kinsman, as far as the flight of Chosroes the younger to the Romans, and his restoration to his kingdom: on which occasion Maurice was by no means tardy in his operations, but royally entertained the fugitive, and with the utmost speed restored him to his kingdom, at great cost and with numerous forces. These writers, however, have not yet published their history. With respect to these events, I also will detail in the sequel such matters as are suitable, with the favour of the higher power.
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§ 6.1.1 THE SIXTH BOOK Maurice [582-602CE], on succeeding to the empire, in the first place made the necessary arrangements for his nuptials, and, in accordance with the imperial ordinance, marries Augusta, named also Constantina, with magnificent ceremony, and with public banquetings and festivity in every part of the city. In attendance on the nuptials were Religion and Royalty, offering an escort most distinguished and gifts most precious. For the one supplied a father and mother, to hallow the rite with honoured locks of grey and venerable wrinkles— a circumstance strange in the story of sovereigns— as also brethren noble and blooming, to give dignity to the nuptial procession: the other, a gold embroidered robe, adorned with purple and Indian gems, and crowns most costly, with abundance of gold and the varied emblazonment of jewels; together with the attendance of all who were distinguished in courtly rank or military service, lighting the nuptial flambeaux in splendid costumes and investitures, and hymning the bridal cavalcade: so that no human display was ever more majestic and happy. Damophilus, when writing on the subject of Rome, says that Plutarch the Chaeronean has well remarked, that in order to her greatness alone did Virtue and Fortune unite in friendly truce: but, for myself, I would say, that in respect of Maurice alone did Piety and Good Fortune so conspire; by Piety laying compulsion upon Fortune, and not permitting her to shift at all. It was henceforward the settled aim of the emperor to wear the purple and the diadem not merely on his person but also on his soul: for he alone of recent sovereigns was sovereign of himself; and, with authority most truly centred in himself, he banished from his own soul the mob-rule of the passions, and having established an aristocracy in his own reasonings, he shewed himself a living image of virtue, training his subjects to imitation. Nor have I said this by way of flattery: for how could such be my motive, since he is not acquainted with what is being written? That such was, however, the case with Maurice, will be evidenced by the gifts bestowed upon him by God, and the circumstances of various kinds that must unquestionably be referred to divine favour.
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§ 6.2.1 Besides his other noble purposes, this was an especial object with the emperor, to avoid in every case the shedding of the blood of persons guilty of treason. Accordingly, he did not put to death Alamundarus, chieftain of the Scenitae Arabs, who had betrayed both the commonwealth and Maurice himself, as I have already detailed; but sentenced him to deportation to an island with his wife and some of his children, and appointed Sicily as the place of his banishment. Naamanes his son, notwithstanding a unanimous sentence of death, he detained as a prisoner at large, without any further infliction; although he had filled the empire with endless mischiefs, and, by the hands of his followers, had plundered either Phoenicia and Palestine, and enslaved the inhabitants, at the time when Alamundarus was captured. He pursued the same course in innumerable other cases, which shall be severally noticed in their places.
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§ 6.3.1 Maurice sent out as commander of the forces of the East, first, John, a Scythian, who, after experiencing some reverses, with some alternations of success, achieved nothing worthy of mention; afterwards, Philippicus, who was allied to him by having married one of his two sisters. Having crossed the border and laid waste all before him, he amassed great booty, and killed many of the nobles of Nisibis and the other cities situated within the Tigris. He also gave battle to the Persians, and, after a severe conflict, attended with the loss of many distinguished men on the side of the enemy, he made numerous prisoners, and dismissed unharmed a battalion, which had retreated to an eminence and was fairly in his power, under a promise that they would urge their sovereign to send immediate proposals for peace. He also completed other measures during the continuance of his command, namely, in withdrawing his troops from superfluities and things tending to luxury, and in reducing them to discipline and subordination: the representation of which transactions must be fixed by writers, past or present, according as they may be or have been circumstanced with respect to hearsay or opinion— writers whose narrative, stumbling and limping through ignorance, or rendered affected by partiality, or blinded by antipathy, misses the mark of truth.
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§ 6.4.1 He is succeeded in the command by Priscus, a person difficult of access, and not readily approached without necessary occasion, who expected the successful accomplishment of all his measures if he should maintain an almost entire seclusion; from a notion, that, through the awe thence resulting, the soldiery also would be more obedient to orders. Accordingly, on his arrival at the camp with stern and haughty look and in imposing costume, he issued certain orders, relating to the hardihood of the soldiery in the field, to strictness in respect of their arms and to their allowances. Having received previous intimation of the proceeding, they then gave unrestrained vent to their rage; and advancing in a body to the general's quarters, they pillage, in barbarian fashion, all his magnificence and the most valuable of his treasures, and would inevitably have despatched Priscus himself, had he not mounted one of the led horses, and escaped to Edessa: to which place they laid siege, demanding his surrender.
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§ 6.5.1 On the refusal of their demands by the citizens, they leave Priscus there, and seizing Germanus, who at that time held the command in Phoenicia Libanensis, they elect him their own general and emperor, while he resisted and they were the more urgent; and a struggle thus arose, on the part of the one to escape compulsion, of the others to enforce their object. After they had menaced him with death unless he would embrace the offered charge, and he, on his part, eagerly embraced the alternative, disclaiming all fear and consternation, they proceeded to certain severities and methods of cruelty, which they thought he would not be able to bear; for they did not suppose that he would manifest greater endurance than the strength of nature and his time of life would warrant. By putting him to the trial at first cautiously and sparingly, they succeed in forcing him to accede to their demands, and solemnly to swear that he would be true to them. Thus they compelled him to be their ruler under rule, their subject sovereign, their master in thraldom. Then chasing from them the officers of every grade, they elect others in their place, openly reviling the imperial government. They treated provincials on the whole less harshly than the barbarians did, but in a manner very unlike allies or servants of the commonwealth: for they levied their provisions not according to stated measures or weight, and were not contented with the quarters assigned to them: but the will of each individual was a rule, and his caprice an established measure.
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§ 6.6.1 The emperor despatches Philippicus to settle this ferment: they, however, not only denied him reception, but perilled the lives of all whom they supposed to be connected with him.
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§ 6.7.1 While matters were in this situation, Gregory, bishop of Theopolis, returns from the imperial city, after having been victorious in the struggle which I now proceed to detail. At the time when Asterius held the government of the East, a quarrel had arisen between him and Gregory: the higher ranks of the city sided entirely with the former, and were supported by the populace, and by those who were engaged in trades; for each class declared that they had been injured by Gregory; until at last license was given to the rabble to vent their abuse against him. Thus both the other classes accorded with the populace, and they clamoured forth their insults against the prelate in the streets and the theatre; and even the actors indulged in them. Asterius is removed from his government, and John is invested with it, with orders from the emperor to make inquiry into the stir; a man incompetent to the management of the most trifling matters, much less a business so important. Having, in consequence, filled the city with confusion and uproar, and given public license to any one that chose, to accuse the bishop, he receives a formal charge against him from a certain banker, to the effect that he had had criminal intercourse with his own sister, married to another man. He also receives accusations from other persons of the same stamp against Gregory, as having repeatedly disturbed the peace of the city. On the latter charge he declared his readiness to make his defence: with respect to the others, he appealed to the emperor and a synod. Accordingly, he repaired to the imperial city, to make answer to these charges, accompanied by myself as his adviser, and is victorious after a prolonged struggle during an investigation of the matter before the patriarchs from every quarter, who appeared either in person or by deputy, as well as the sacred senate, and many most religious metropolitans: and the result was that the accuser, after having been scourged and paraded round the city, was sent into exile. Gregory thence returns to his see, at the time when the troops were in a state of mutiny, and Philippicus was remaining in the neighbourhood of Beroea and Chalcis.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Edward Walford (1823-1897). Composed ca. 594 CE. Licence: public domain. Source.