Church History

Contents

Reading pages: 0–1.6 · 1.7–1.13 · 1.14–1.24 · 1.25–2.6 · 2.7–2.16 · 2.17–2.24 · 2.25–2.32 · 2.33–3.9 · 3.10–3.14 · 3.15–4.1 · 4.2–4.12 · 4.13–4.18 · 4.19–4.24 · 4.25–4.30 · 5.1–5.8 · 5.9–5.15 · 5.16–5.21 · 5.22–6.6 · 6.7–6.18 · 6.19–6.26 · 6.27–6.32 · 6.33–7.2 · 7.3–7.13 · 7.14–7.20 · 7.21–7.29 · 8.1–8.8 · 8.9–8.19 · 8.20–8.28 · 9.1–9.12 · 9.13–9.17

1. 0Sozomen dedicates his Church History to Theodosius II, praising his learning, generosity and self-control, and sets out the plan of the nine books.
2. 1.1Sozomen asks why the Hebrews were slower to believe than the nations, cites Josephus and the Sibyl on Christ, explains his sources and method, and warns that partisan collections of documents distort the history of the Arian controversy.
3. 1.2The bishops of the great sees in 324 are listed, and Christians in Licinius's East are said to worship in fear while those in Constantine's West worship freely.
4. 1.3Constantine, before his war with Maxentius, sees the sign of the cross with the words “Conquer by this,” and Christian priests explain to him Christ, the resurrection, baptism and repentance.
5. 1.4Constantine has the Labarum remade in the form of the cross, and stories are told of its protection of those who carried it.
6. 1.5Sozomen rejects the pagan story that Constantine turned to Christianity because the philosopher Sopater refused him cleansing for killing his son Crispus, arguing from dates and from pagan rites of purification.
7. 1.6The churches under Constantine prosper, as they had under his father Constantius, who kept faithful Christians at court and dismissed those who sacrificed; Constantine's victories bring Italy and Illyricum under his rule.
8. 1.7Licinius turns against the Christians and to pagan divination before his last war with Constantine, but is defeated, surrenders, and is later put to death.
9. 1.8Once sole emperor, Constantine restores the persecuted, returns their property, curbs pagan rites, funds churches, endows the clergy, marks his army with the cross, and makes Sunday and Friday days of rest.
10. 1.9Constantine repeals the penalties on the unmarried and childless, lets those vowed to virginity make wills, exempts clergy from taxes, makes bishops' judgments binding, and grants citizenship to slaves freed in church.
11. 1.10Many confessors of the recent persecution, among them Hosius, Amphion, Maximus and Paphnutius, still adorned the churches.
12. 1.11Stories of Spyridon of Trimythus: the bound sheep-thieves, the deposit recovered from his dead daughter, the dishonest borrower, his rebuke of Triphyllius for altering a Gospel word, and his eating with a guest in Lent.
13. 1.12Sozomen describes the monastic philosophy, its virtues and its origins, which some trace to Elijah and John the Baptist, others to the community Philo describes by Lake Mareotis, and others to flight in persecution.
14. 1.13Antony, the great monk, his disciplines, teaching and fame, and his disciple Paul the Simple, who left his adulterous wife and became stronger than his master against demons.
15. 1.14Amun of Nitria lives in virginity with his wife for eighteen years before founding the monasteries of Nitria; his wonders and Antony's vision of his death are told, and the Novatian monk Eutychian frees a prisoner and wins Constantine's favour.
16. 1.15The Arian controversy begins: Arius's earlier career, his teaching that the Son was made from nothing, his excommunication by Alexander, and the support he wins from Eusebius of Nicomedia and bishops in Bithynia and Palestine.
17. 1.16Constantine, grieved by the Arian dispute and the disagreement over the date of Easter, writes to Alexander and Arius urging concord and sends Hosius of Cordova to make peace.
18. 1.17Constantine summons the council of Nicaea; about 320 bishops gather, the emperor burns their petitions of complaint against one another, and the bishops debate Arius's teaching, in which the deacon Athanasius stands out.
19. 1.18At Nicaea a simple confessor converts a pagan philosopher by a plain statement of the faith, and Alexander of Constantinople silences a philosopher in the name of Christ.
20. 1.19The emperor opens the council in the palace, and after Eusebius of Caesarea's address urges the bishops to lay aside their strife and settle the dispute in peace.
21. 1.20The council votes that the Son is of the same essence as the Father; Constantine threatens exile for opponents; Sozomen withholds the text of the creed out of reverence for the discipline of secrecy.
22. 1.21The council declares the Son of the same essence as the Father, anathematizes Arius's formulas and his Thalia; Constantine exiles Arius, orders his writings burned, and deposes Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis.
23. 1.22Acesius, the Novatian bishop, accepts Nicaea's faith and Easter date but refuses communion to those guilty of mortal sin after baptism, and Constantine tells him to climb to heaven alone.
24. 1.23At Nicaea Paphnutius dissuades the bishops from requiring married clergy to abstain from their wives, appealing to the ancient tradition that clergy do not marry after ordination but do not leave wives already married.
25. 1.24The council confines Melitius to Lycopolis with the bare title of bishop and sets terms for receiving the clergy he had ordained.
26. 1.25Constantine feasts the bishops at his twentieth anniversary, urges them to unity, and writes to the churches, especially Alexandria, commending the council's faith as the mind of God.
27. 2.1After Nicaea Constantine builds a church at Golgotha; Helena comes to Jerusalem, the tomb and three crosses are uncovered beneath a temple of Aphrodite, and the true cross is identified by the healing of a dying woman.
28. 2.2Helena builds churches at Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives, serves consecrated virgins at table, gives generously throughout the East, and dies honoured, about eighty years old.
29. 2.3Constantine founds Constantinople as a new Rome free of pagan worship and adorns it with churches, among them the Michaelion, where Sozomen and others report healings and visions.
30. 2.4At the oak of Mamre, where Jews, pagans and Christians held a yearly festival with sacrifices, Constantine orders the altar destroyed and a church built.
31. 2.5Constantine's officials strip the temples of their images, which are melted down or taken to Constantinople; famous temples are destroyed, and many cities, such as Maiuma near Gaza, turn to Christianity.
32. 2.6Christianity spreads among the barbarians beyond the frontiers, especially through Christian priests taken captive in the third-century invasions.
33. 2.7A Christian captive woman heals a child and the queen of the Iberians; the king, rescued from darkness while hunting, accepts Christ; a column of their first church is miraculously raised, and they ask Constantine for priests.
34. 2.8The Armenians under Tiridates had become Christian earlier, and the faith spread from them and from Osrhoene to the Persians.
35. 2.9In Persia the magi and Jews accuse Bishop Symeon of Seleucia-Ctesiphon before Sapor II, who taxes and persecutes the Christians; Symeon refuses to worship the sun, and the eunuch Usthazanes, rebuked by him for having done so, confesses Christ and is beheaded.
36. 2.10On Good Friday Symeon of Seleucia-Ctesiphon is executed after encouraging a hundred clergy put to death before him.
37. 2.11Pusices, chief of the king's craftsmen, is cruelly executed for encouraging Ananias; on the next Good Friday Sapor orders a general massacre of Christians, then limits it to the clergy after the death of his favourite eunuch Azades.
38. 2.12Tarbula, Symeon's sister, with her sister and servant, is accused by Jews of poisoning the queen and is sawn in two; persecution then falls on the clergy, especially in Adiabene.
39. 2.13Bishop Acepsimas and other clergy are tortured; Acepsimas dies, and Sozomen lists many Persian bishops martyred under Sapor, among them Dausas with Mareabdes and 250 clergy.
40. 2.14The bishop Milles, after cursing a city that rejected him, goes on pilgrimage; Sozomen sums up the Persian martyrs under Sapor at sixteen thousand known by name, besides countless others.
41. 2.15Constantine writes to Sapor commending the Persian Christians to him, citing his own victories under the cross and Valerian's fate after persecuting the church.
42. 2.16Arius is recalled from exile, and Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea recover their sees after sending the bishops a letter accepting the Nicene faith while explaining that they had refused only to condemn Arius personally.
43. 2.17Athanasius succeeds Alexander at Alexandria, according to Apolinarius by a divinely guided choice he tried to flee; Sozomen rejects the Arian account of an irregular ordination and tells how the boy Athanasius played at baptizing other children, whose baptism Alexander accepted.
44. 2.18Eusebius of Nicomedia presses Athanasius to receive Arius's party, and Eusebius of Caesarea and Eustathius of Antioch accuse each other of departing from Nicaea and of Sabellianism.
45. 2.19A synod at Antioch deposes Eustathius, ostensibly for misconduct but really for his defence of Nicaea; riots follow, Eusebius of Caesarea declines the see, and Euphronius is ordained.
46. 2.20Julius becomes bishop of Rome and Maximus of Jerusalem, Maximus having been kept back from Diospolis to succeed Macarius.
47. 2.21In Egypt the Melitians, under John, make common cause with the Arians; elsewhere Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis erase their signatures to Nicaea and oppose “of the same essence,” angering Constantine.
48. 2.22Eusebius of Nicomedia and the Melitians accuse Athanasius before Constantine; the emperor first threatens Athanasius if he excludes anyone from the church, then acquits him of charges of taxing linen and sending gold to a conspirator.
49. 2.23The Melitians accuse Athanasius of breaking a chalice and of murdering Arsenius, whom they have hidden; Athanasius's deacon proves Arsenius alive, and Constantine rebukes the accusers.
50. 2.24Frumentius and Aedesius, captured as boys by “Indians” after their kinsman Meropius is killed, serve the king, gather Christians, and Frumentius is ordained bishop by Athanasius and evangelizes the country.
51. 2.25At the synod of Tyre Athanasius faces charges of violence, of breaking a chalice, of murdering Arsenius and of violating a woman; he exposes the last two, but fearing for his life flees to Constantinople and is deposed in his absence.
52. 2.26The bishops at Tyre are summoned to Jerusalem to dedicate Constantine's church of the Martyrium, whose dedication becomes a yearly eight-day feast.
53. 2.27Through a presbyter favoured by Constantia, Constantine recalls Arius, who submits a creed in scriptural terms; the bishops gathered at Jerusalem receive Arius and Euzoius into communion.
54. 2.28Athanasius appeals in person to Constantine, who summons the bishops of Tyre to Constantinople; Eusebius of Nicomedia's party renews the charge of the broken chalice, and Constantine exiles Athanasius to Trier.
55. 2.29Eusebius's party threatens Bishop Alexander of Constantinople unless he receives Arius; Alexander prays all night, and on the eve of the appointed day Arius dies suddenly in a public latrine.
56. 2.30Sozomen quotes Athanasius's account of the death of Arius as divine judgment on his perjury, and adds that the place became notorious until an Arian bought and built over it.
57. 2.31After Arius's death Constantine refuses the Alexandrians' and Antony's pleas to recall Athanasius, but also exiles the Melitian leader John as a cause of division.
58. 2.32Constantine's law against the heretical sects (Novatians, Montanists, Valentinians, Marcionites, Paulianists) makes most of them disappear, though the Novatians and the Montanists of Phrygia survive; Eusebius of Nicomedia's party begins to reinterpret Nicaea.
59. 2.33The Eusebian party deposes Marcellus of Ancyra for teaching that the Son began from Mary and that his kingdom will end, views he reached, Sozomen says, in opposing the Arian sophist Asterius.
60. 2.34Constantine, having divided the empire among his sons, is baptized at Nicomedia, dies aged about sixty-five after thirty-one years' reign, and is buried in the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople.
61. 3.1After Constantine's death opponents of Nicaea, led by Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis and aided by the presbyter who had held Constantine's will and by the chamberlain Eusebius, gain influence at the court of Constantius.
62. 3.2Constantine II restores Athanasius to Alexandria with a letter to its church; the Arians renew their charges; Acacius succeeds Eusebius at Caesarea; Constantine II is killed fighting Constans.
63. 3.3Paul becomes bishop of Constantinople on Alexander's recommendation over Macedonius; Sozomen judges him a fine teacher but poor at handling enemies, who later had him exiled and, it is said, strangled.
64. 3.4After Alexander's death the church of Constantinople divides between supporters of Macedonius and of Paul; Paul is chosen, but Constantius has a synod depose him and installs Eusebius of Nicomedia.
65. 3.5At the dedication synod of Antioch (341) ninety-seven bishops appoint Gregory to Alexandria in place of Athanasius and issue creeds avoiding “of the same essence,” one said to be Lucian the martyr's.
66. 3.6Eusebius of Emesa, a learned Edessene, declines the see of Alexandria; Gregory is installed by soldiers, and Athanasius escapes from his church during a psalm and goes to Rome.
67. 3.7Rome and the West receive Athanasius; at Constantinople rival bishops Paul and Macedonius are installed, riots kill the general Hermogenes, and Constantius expels Paul and cuts the city's grain dole; George replaces Gregory at Alexandria.
68. 3.8Athanasius, Paul, Marcellus, Asclepas and Lucius, deposed in the East, are received at Rome by Julius, who restores them and rebukes the Eastern bishops; these answer with a sharp letter defending their synod and threatening to break communion.
69. 3.9The prefect Philip secretly removes Paul from Constantinople and installs Macedonius amid a massacre in the church; Athanasius, threatened with death by Constantius on new charges, goes into hiding.
70. 3.10Julius rebukes the Eastern bishops for acting without him and against Nicaea; at his request Constans summons Eastern envoys, who present a new creed but fail to convince him.
71. 3.11The Eastern bishops send the Long Exposition west; the council called to Sardica splits, and the Easterners, meeting apart, depose Julius of Rome, Hosius and others and issue their own creed.
72. 3.12The Western bishops at Sardica, led by Hosius, acquit Athanasius, Marcellus, Asclepas and Lucius, depose leading Eastern bishops, and issue an expanded statement of the Nicene faith.
73. 3.13After Sardica East and West break communion; the West holds firmly to Nicaea under Rome's lead, while in the East many who agree in substance resist the word homoousios, and Paul, Athanasius and the monks hold openly to Nicaea.
74. 3.14A survey of the monks of Constantius's reign: the two Macarii and other Egyptian ascetics, Pachomius and his rule, Hilarion in Palestine, Julian near Edessa, Eustathius of Sebaste and the excesses condemned at Gangra, Martin in the West, and the learned bishops of the time.
75. 3.15Didymus the Blind teaches at Alexandria and is praised by Antony; Hilary, Eusebius and Lucifer are distinguished in the West, and Aetius among the Arians; Sozomen explains why he praises the eloquence of men he does not follow in doctrine.
76. 3.16Ephrem the Syrian, whose writings keep their power in Greek translation, counters the heretical hymns of Harmonius with orthodox hymns to the same melodies; anecdotes of his chastity, meekness and humility, and of his famine relief at Edessa.
77. 3.17Under Constantius and Constans the churches are well led and grow; the emperors exempt the clergy, close pagan temples, build churches, and forbid Jews to own or circumcise non-Jewish slaves.
78. 3.18Constans keeps the Nicene faith; Constantius is persuaded to replace “of the same essence” with “of like essence” (homoiousios), which its proponents defended as more fitting for incorporeal beings.
79. 3.19Sozomen rejects the Arian story that Constantine, persuaded by his sister, wished to undo Nicaea and charged Constantius to hold the council of Ariminum; the councils of Ariminum and Seleucia arose rather from Aetius's teaching.
80. 3.20Under pressure from Constans, Constantius recalls Athanasius, who refuses communion with Leontius at Antioch and asks a church for the Eustathians; the rival doxologies at Antioch and Leontius's saying about the melting snow.
81. 3.21Constantius sends Athanasius back with letters commending him; Athanasius replaces Arian clergy in Egypt and is welcomed by the bishops of Palestine, who hold a synod at Jerusalem.
82. 3.22The synodal letter of the bishops at Jerusalem rejoices with the church of Alexandria at the return of Athanasius.
83. 3.23Ursacius and Valens, who had investigated Athanasius in the Mareotis, retract their charges in a letter to Julius of Rome and anathematize Arius.
84. 3.24Ursacius and Valens write to Athanasius offering peace; Athanasius, Paul, Marcellus, Asclepas and Lucius recover their sees, with disturbance only at Ancyra.
85. 4.1Constans is murdered by Magnentius; Vetranio and Nepotianus also claim the empire; Athanasius has the Egyptian bishops confirm his acquittal.
86. 4.2Constantius again expels the restored bishops; Paul dies in exile at Cucusus, reportedly strangled, and Macedonius persecutes Paul's followers at Constantinople.
87. 4.3Martyrius and Marcian, clerics of Paul's household, are executed and later honoured as martyrs at Constantinople, where wonders occur at their tomb.
88. 4.4George persecutes Athanasius's supporters in Egypt; Vetranio submits to Constantius and is spared; Gallus is made Caesar in the East.
89. 4.5Under Bishop Cyril a great sign of the cross appears in the sky over Jerusalem, reported to the emperor by Cyril's letter, and leads many to Christianity.
90. 4.6A synod at Sirmium (351) deposes Photinus, who taught that Christ began from Mary, and issues three creeds avoiding the language of essence; Hosius is forced to sign; Basil of Ancyra defeats Photinus in debate.
91. 4.7Magnentius is defeated, flees, and kills himself; Silvanus's usurpation is crushed; Gallus suppresses a Jewish revolt at Diocaesarea, then plots rebellion and is executed.
92. 4.8Julius dies and Liberius becomes bishop of Rome; the Eastern bishops renew their attacks on Athanasius, and Constantius, now sole emperor, tries to win the Western bishops to condemn him.
93. 4.9At the council of Milan most Western bishops condemn Athanasius; the few who resist, with Hilary, are exiled; Athanasius sends envoys to Constantius, resists a summons, and escapes when troops break into the church of Theonas.
94. 4.10Stories of Athanasius's foresight: escaping a treacherous maid, outsailing his pursuers on the Nile, and interpreting a crow's cry as Latin “cras”; George's violent rule at Alexandria provokes the people, and he is driven out and returns.
95. 4.11After Milan Constantius exiles its opponents; Liberius of Rome refuses to condemn Athanasius, defends him with the retraction of Valens and Ursacius, rejects the emperor's gold, and is exiled to Beroea; Felix replaces him, and the Roman people demand Liberius back.
96. 4.12Aetius openly teaches that the Son is unlike the Father; Eudoxius seizes the see of Antioch with court support and, with Acacius and Uranius, rejects both homoousios and homoiousios, appealing to the Western creed signed by Hosius at Sirmium.
97. 4.13Opponents of Eudoxius bring George of Laodicea's letter to a synod at Ancyra, which sends Basil, Eustathius and Eleusius to Constantius; the emperor withdraws his support from Eudoxius.
98. 4.14Constantius's letter to the church of Antioch disowns Eudoxius and denounces Aetius and his followers, affirming that the Son is like the Father in essence.
99. 4.15At Sirmium Liberius, under pressure from Basil and the Eastern bishops, signs a composite creed and anathematizes those who deny the Son is like the Father in essence; he returns to Rome, where Felix soon dies.
100. 4.16A planned synod at Nicomedia is cancelled when an earthquake destroys the city, foreseen by the confessor Arsacius, who dies praying; after much correspondence the Arian leaders arrange for separate councils at Ariminum and Seleucia.
101. 4.17At the council of Ariminum (359) over four hundred Western bishops reject the Dated Creed of Sirmium offered by Valens and Ursacius, reaffirm Nicaea, and depose its proponents, who appeal to the emperor.
102. 4.18The synodal letter of the council of Ariminum to Constantius defends the Nicene faith, reports the deposition of Ursacius, Valens, Germinius, Auxentius and Gaius, and asks that the exiled bishops be allowed home.
103. 4.19Constantius ignores the envoys of Ariminum; the bishops return home; Sozomen gives two accounts of how the council was later brought to sign the creed of Valens and Ursacius, published at Nice in Thrace to be confused with Nicaea.
104. 4.20Macedonius, with Marathonius and Eleusius, persecutes the supporters of homoousios; the Novatians move their church from Pelargus to Sycae (later rebuilt as Anastasia), and Novatians and catholics nearly unite.
105. 4.21Eleusius destroys the Novatian church at Cyzicus; troops sent by Macedonius are massacred by the Novatians of Mantinium; Macedonius's removal of Constantine's coffin causes a bloody riot and turns Constantius against him; Julian is made Caesar.
106. 4.22At the council of Seleucia (359) the majority, led by George of Laodicea, Eleusius and Sophronius, uphold the Dedication Creed of Antioch against Acacius's party, which proposes a creed saying only that the Son is like the Father; the majority depose Acacius, Eudoxius, George of Alexandria and others.
107. 4.23At Constantinople Acacius's party wins over the court; Aetius is condemned, and Constantius, persuaded that “like” means the same as homoousios, presses the envoys of Seleucia to sign the creed of Ariminum.
108. 4.24The Acacian synod at Constantinople (360) confirms the creed of Ariminum, deposes Aetius, and then deposes Macedonius, Basil of Ancyra, Eustathius, Eleusius and others on disciplinary charges.
109. 4.25Cyril of Jerusalem, in rivalry with Acacius of Caesarea, is deposed on the charge of having sold church treasures in a famine; the deposed bishops are replaced, Eudoxius taking Constantinople, Eunomius Cyzicus and Meletius Sebaste.
110. 4.26Macedonius dies; Eudoxius, installed at Constantinople, jests from the pulpit that the Father is “impious”; he and Acacius impose the creed of Ariminum throughout the empire, causing a persecution of Christians by Christians.
111. 4.27Macedonius, after his deposition, teaches that the Son is like the Father in essence but that the Holy Spirit is a ministering servant; his followers, sustained by the ascetic Marathonius, become known as Macedonians or Marathonians.
112. 4.28Meletius, transferred to Antioch by Eudoxius's party, declares the Son of the same essence as the Father and, when the archdeacon covers his mouth, signs the Trinity with his fingers; he is exiled, Euzoius replaces him, and his followers form a separate congregation.
113. 4.29The Acacian bishops at Antioch drop even “like” and teach that the Son is unlike the Father and from nothing, defending “God from God” by Paul's “all things are from God.”
114. 4.30George persecutes pagans and dissenting Christians at Alexandria, preparing his own death; after Cyril's deposition Herennius, Heraclius and Hilarius hold Jerusalem until Cyril's return under Theodosius.
115. 5.1Julian, proclaimed Augustus in Gaul, openly turns pagan and marches east; Constantius dies on the way to meet him, and Julian becomes sole emperor.
116. 5.2Julian’s open apostasy, the omens at his sacrifices and initiation, and his upbringing as a Christian, his secret turn to paganism, and his career as Caesar in Gaul.
117. 5.3Julian restores pagan temples, priests and sacrifices, favours pagan cities and slights Christian ones, and joins Christian Maiuma (Constantia) to pagan Gaza.
118. 5.4Julian punishes Christian Caesarea in Cappadocia for destroying its temples, and adopts a show of mildness toward Christians, bearing Maris of Chalcedon’s rebuke in silence.
119. 5.5Julian recalls exiles and forbids violence against Christians, but strips the clergy of their privileges and allowances, demands the rebuilding of temples, and favours those wronged by Constantius.
120. 5.6Athanasius reappears in Alexandria after hiding for years in the house of a beautiful and chaste virgin, who served him in secret.
121. 5.7Athanasius resumes the Alexandrian churches; the pagans of Alexandria lynch the Arian bishop George, partly over the Mithraeum affair, and Julian rebukes them only by letter.
122. 5.8Count Julian, the emperor’s uncle, kills the presbyter Theodore at Antioch, profanes the church’s vessels, and dies eaten by worms.
123. 5.9The pagan mob of Gaza murders the brothers Eusebius, Nestabus and Zeno; their cousin Zeno, later bishop of Maiuma, enshrines their relics, and Julian punishes the governor who had arrested the rioters.
124. 5.10Hilarion flees from Gaza to Sicily, Dalmatia and Cyprus; at Heliopolis pagans butcher consecrated virgins, and at Arethusa the old bishop Mark is tortured by the mob for destroying a temple.
125. 5.11Martyrdoms under Julian: Macedonius, Theodulus and Tatian roasted at Merus, the confession of the Encratite Busiris at Ancyra, and the deaths of Basil of Ancyra and Eupsychius of Caesarea.
126. 5.12Lucifer and Eusebius return from exile; Lucifer ordains Paulinus at Antioch, while the synod of Alexandria (362) under Athanasius confirms Nicaea, confesses the Spirit consubstantial, and rules on ousia and hypostasis.
127. 5.13Eusebius of Vercelli fails to reconcile the Meletians and Paulinians at Antioch; Lucifer breaks with him and the Luciferian schism begins; Eusebius and Hilary strengthen the Nicene faith in the West.
128. 5.14The Macedonians, now a separate party, hold synods condemning the Acacians and the creed of Ariminum and claim a middle way between homoousios and the Anomoean doctrine.
129. 5.15Julian expels Athanasius from Alexandria, drives Eleusius from Cyzicus and incites Bostra against its bishop Titus; Sozomen tells how his own grandfather’s family and Alaphion’s became Christians at Bethelia through Hilarion.
130. 5.16Julian plans to model pagan worship on the church’s order and charity, and Sozomen quotes his letter to Arsacius, high priest of Galatia, urging priests to imitate Christian care for strangers and the poor.
131. 5.17Julian has pagan gods painted beside his imperial images and makes soldiers burn incense when receiving his donative; some Christian soldiers, realizing what they had done, return the gold and are dismissed.
132. 5.18Julian bars Christians from civic offices and from teaching Greek literature; Apolinarius answers by recasting Scripture in classical forms, and the bishops retort to Julian’s “I read, I understood, I condemned.”
133. 5.19At Antioch Julian quarrels with the citizens and writes the Misopogon; the oracle of Apollo at Daphne is silent because of the martyr Babylas, whose coffin the Christians carry back to the city singing psalms against idols.
134. 5.20Julian orders reprisals; the young Theodore endures the rack singing the psalm and is released; the temple of Apollo at Daphne burns, and Julian orders martyrs’ shrines near Didyma destroyed.
135. 5.21Julian replaces the statue of Christ at Paneas with his own, which is struck by lightning; Sozomen adds the healing spring at Emmaus–Nicopolis and the tree at Hermopolis that bowed to the child Christ.
136. 5.22Julian, courting the Jews against the Christians, funds the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem; an earthquake, fire from the foundations and crosses on the workers’ clothes stop the work.
137. 6.1Julian’s Persian campaign: the crossing of the Tigris, the retreat misled by a Persian guide, and his death from an unknown horseman’s spear, with Libanius’s claim that the slayer was a Christian.
138. 6.2Sozomen weighs whether a Christian killed Julian, and reports visions announcing his death, a churchman’s prophecy, the story of Julian flinging his blood to the sky, and the disasters of his reign, including the tidal wave at Alexandria.
139. 6.3Jovian, elected by the army, declares himself a Christian, makes peace with Persia, restores Christian worship and privileges, and makes the seduction or marriage of consecrated virgins a capital crime.
140. 6.4After Julian’s death doctrinal disputes revive: the homoiousian bishops petition Jovian, and a synod at Antioch under Meletius and Acacius writes to him accepting the Nicene creed and explaining homoousios.
141. 6.5Jovian rejects the Arian Lucius’s charges against Athanasius and sends him back to Alexandria; the Nicene faith prevails again for a time, though Antony’s vision of mules kicking the altar foretold further turmoil.
142. 6.6Jovian dies at Dadastana; the army elects Valentinian, once exiled by Julian for shaking off the pagan priest’s lustral water; he makes his Arian brother Valens emperor of the East.
143. 6.7The homoiousian bishops, permitted by Valentinian to meet, hold the synod of Lampsacus, annul the acts of Constantinople and uphold “like in essence”; Valens, won over by Eudoxius, exiles their envoys and persecutes Meletius’s party at Antioch.
144. 6.8Valens defeats and executes the usurper Procopius, then forces Eleusius of Cyzicus to accept the Arian creed; Eleusius repents publicly, and Eudoxius installs Eunomius at Cyzicus.
145. 6.9Valens expels the Nicene party and the Novatians from Constantinople and exiles the Novatian bishop Agelius, who is soon recalled through the influence of Marcian, tutor to the emperor’s daughters.
146. 6.10Amid earthquakes Valens and Eudoxius persecute the Macedonians, who send Eustathius, Silvanus and Theophilus to the West; at Rome they accept the homoousios before Liberius and are received into communion.
147. 6.11The Macedonian envoys’ letter of confession to Liberius, accepting the Nicene faith and the homoousios and condemning Arius, the creed of Ariminum and other heresies.
148. 6.12The synod of Tyana welcomes the western letters and summons a synod to Tarsus, which Valens forbids; ordered to expel bishops restored under Julian, the authorities fail to seize Athanasius, and Valens lets him return.
149. 6.13At Eudoxius’s death the Arians ordain Demophilus at Constantinople and the Nicene party Evagrius, ordained by Eustathius of Antioch; Valens exiles both Eustathius and Evagrius.
150. 6.14Eighty clergy who petition Valens at Nicomedia against the Arians’ persecution are secretly condemned; put on a ship as if for exile, they are burned at sea.
151. 6.15Valens hopes to seize the churches of Caesarea while Basil is estranged from its bishop Eusebius and living with monks in Pontus, but Basil returns, is reconciled with Eusebius and defends the church.
152. 6.16Basil, now bishop of Caesarea, defies Valens’s prefect, who threatens him with death; Valens honours him at Epiphany but plans his exile, until his son falls ill and Basil is called to pray for him.
153. 6.17Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, trained in rhetoric and in Origen’s exegesis, defend the Nicene faith: Basil founds monastic communities in Pontus and Gregory leads the Nicene remnant at Constantinople.
154. 6.18Valens persecutes the Nicene party at Antioch; at Edessa a woman hurrying with her child to share martyrdom in the plain shames the prefect Modestus into persuading Valens to abandon the massacre.
155. 6.19At Athanasius’s death the Arian Lucius is installed at Alexandria by Euzoius and imperial officers; Athanasius’s successor Peter is imprisoned and escapes to Rome, and the Nicene clergy and virgins are tortured and exiled.
156. 6.20Lucius attacks the Egyptian monks, who heal a paralytic in Christ’s name; the two Macarii, exiled to a pagan island, deliver the priest’s daughter from a demon and convert the islanders, and Lucius is forced to let them return.
157. 6.21In Scythia, whose one bishop Bretannio defies Valens at Tomi, the emperor exiles him but soon restores him for fear of the Scythians; in the West Valentinian leaves church matters to the priests.
158. 6.22The dispute over whether the Holy Spirit is consubstantial with Father and Son grows; Anomoeans and homoiousians deny it, the Nicene leaders affirm it, and the bishop of Rome’s letter for a consubstantial Trinity quiets the question.
159. 6.23Damasus succeeds Liberius at Rome despite the violent rival claim of Ursicinus; a Roman synod condemns Auxentius of Milan, and Sozomen quotes Damasus’s letter to the bishops of Illyricum upholding Nicaea and the consubstantial Spirit against the creed of Ariminum.
160. 6.24At Auxentius’s death the people of Milan acclaim the governor Ambrose, still unbaptized, as bishop, and Valentinian confirms it; the Novatians of Phrygia begin keeping Pascha with the Jews.
161. 6.25Apolinarius and the Antiochene presbyter Vitalius form their own church with Apolinarius’s popular hymns, condemned by Damasus and Peter; Sozomen traces Apolinarius’s break to George of Laodicea’s refusal to restore him after an old excommunication.
162. 6.26Eunomius of Cyzicus, heir of Aetius’s Anomoean doctrine, is credited by some with introducing baptism by a single immersion; Sozomen argues that such innovators undercut their own baptism, and outlines the history of the Aetian–Eunomian party.
163. 6.27Sozomen quotes Gregory of Nazianzus’s letter to Nectarius against Apolinarius’s teaching that Christ’s flesh came from heaven, that he lacked a human mind, and that his Godhead suffered; the monks of Syria and Cappadocia checked both Apolinarianism and Eunomianism.
164. 6.28Sozomen begins his survey of the famous monks of Egypt under Valens: John, Or, Ammon of Tabennesis, Benus, Theonas, Copres, Helles, Elias, Apelles, Isidore, Serapion, Dioscorus and Eulogius.
165. 6.29Sozomen continues with the monks of Egypt: Apollo, Dorotheus, Piammon and John, Benjamin, Mark, Macarius the younger, Apollonius, Moses the Ethiopian, Paul of Pherme, Pachon, Stephen, Moses the Libyan and Pior.
166. 6.30The elders of Scetis and the Tall Brothers, including Ammonius, who cut off his ear to avoid ordination; and Evagrius, Gregory of Nazianzus’s archdeacon, who after a dream fled Constantinople and became a monk.
167. 6.31The monastic settlements of Nitria and the Cells; and the church of Rhinocorura under its monk-bishops Melas and Solon, Melas welcoming and feeding the officers sent to exile him.
168. 6.32The monks of Palestine: Hesychas, Epiphanius (later bishop of Salamis), the brothers Salamanes, Phuscon, Malachion and Crispion at Bethelia, Ammonius of Kapharchobra, and Silvanus, founder of the community at Gerara.
169. 6.33The monks of Mesopotamia and Syria: the “Grazers” of Mount Sigoron near Nisibis, Eusebius the recluse and the bishops Vitus and Protogenes at Carrhae, and Aones at Phadana, pioneer of Syrian anchoritism.
170. 6.34Monks of Edessa (Julian, Ephraem, Barses, Eulogius) and of Syria, their austerities and long lives spreading the faith among Syrians, Persians and Saracens; and the communal monks of Galatia and Cappadocia, including Prapidius, head of Basil’s Basileias.
171. 6.35Pagan philosophers consult a tripod to learn Valens’s successor, read the letters THEOD and expect the courtier Theodore; Valens executes them and many philosophers, and Sozomen blames both the emperor’s cruelty and the diviners’ folly.
172. 6.36Valentinian dies of a burst blood vessel while raging at Sarmatian envoys, and his young son Valentinian II is proclaimed; at Antioch the philosopher Themistius urges Valens to tolerate doctrinal differences.
173. 6.37Driven out by the Huns, the Goths cross the Danube; Fritigern, helped by Valens, adopts his Arian faith, as does the Gothic bishop Ulfilas, translator of the Bible into Gothic; Athanaric persecutes Gothic Christians, and the Goths turn on Thrace.
174. 6.38Queen Mavia of the Saracens wars on the Roman East until Valens grants her the monk Moses as bishop; Moses refuses ordination from the Arian Lucius, and Sozomen relates the Saracens’ descent from Ishmael, their Jewish customs, and the conversion of Zocomus’s tribe.
175. 6.39Peter returns to Alexandria with Damasus’s letters and Lucius is expelled; with the Goths at the gates, the people of Constantinople jeer Valens into marching out against them.
176. 6.40The monk Isaac warns Valens that he will not return unless he restores the churches to the Nicene party; Valens is defeated by the Goths at Adrianople and burned to death in a house where he had taken refuge.
177. 7.1After Adrianople the Goths reach the walls of Constantinople and are driven off by Saracen allies and the citizens; Gratian recalls those exiled for religion and grants freedom of worship except to Manichees, Photinians and Eunomians.
178. 7.2Gratian makes Theodosius co-emperor; the Macedonians reclaim churches and reject the homoousios at Antioch in Caria, while some returning Nicene bishops, like Eulalius of Amasea, offer to share their sees with Arian bishops for the sake of unity.
179. 7.3At Antioch Meletius’s and Paulinus’s parties agree that the survivor of the two will be sole bishop, the candidates swearing not to seek the see meanwhile; Meletius and other bishops resolve to transfer Gregory of Nazianzus to Constantinople.
180. 7.4Theodosius, baptized by Ascholius at Thessalonica during an illness, issues from there his law requiring all subjects to hold the faith taught by Peter and kept by Damasus and Peter of Alexandria, naming its adherents catholic and others heretics.
181. 7.5At Constantinople Gregory leads the Nicene minority in the Anastasia church, scene of healings and a woman restored to life; Theodosius orders the Arian bishop Demophilus to accept Nicaea or leave, and the Nicene party receives the churches (380).
182. 7.6The Arians and Eunomius seek to win Theodosius, but the empress Placilla keeps him from meeting Eunomius; an old bishop who greets the young Arcadius without honour teaches the emperor that the Father is offended when the Son is not equally honoured.
183. 7.7Theodosius summons the council of Constantinople (381): 150 Nicene bishops and 36 Macedonians, who refuse the homoousios and leave; Gregory of Nazianzus, chosen for the see, resigns in the face of opposition.
184. 7.8Theodosius picks the unbaptized senator Nectarius, last on the bishops’ list at Diodore of Tarsus’s suggestion, as bishop of Constantinople; he is baptized and consecrated while still in his white baptismal garment.
185. 7.9The council of Constantinople confirms Nicaea, limits bishops to their own provinces, gives Constantinople second rank after Rome as “new Rome,” and annuls the ordination of Maximus the Cynic; Theodosius’s law names the bishops whose communion marks orthodoxy.
186. 7.10Nectarius is taught church order by Cyriacus of Adana; his physician Martyrius refuses ordination, arguing that baptism had cleansed Nectarius but not himself; the relics of Paul of Constantinople and of Meletius are solemnly translated.
187. 7.11Flavian is ordained at Antioch on Meletius’s death in breach of the oaths, prolonging the schism with Paulinus; Egypt, Cyprus and the West back Paulinus and summon the eastern bishops.
188. 7.12Theodosius convenes the heads of the sects (383); on the Novatian Sisinnius’s advice they are asked to accept the pre-schism Fathers as authorities, and when they disagree each submits a creed, of which only the Nicene and Novatian are approved; laws against heretics follow.
189. 7.13Justina, Valentinian II’s Arian mother, tries to have Ambrose exiled and issues a law for the creed of Ariminum, which the official Menivolus refuses to draft; Gratian is murdered by the usurper Maximus’s general, and Valentinian flees to Thessalonica.
190. 7.14Honorius is born; Theodosius marches against Maximus; the Novatian Agelius names Marcian and then Sisinnius as successors; Theophilus and John succeed at Alexandria and Jerusalem; Arians burn Nectarius’s house on a false rumour, and Maximus is killed.
191. 7.15The Paulinian schism continues at Antioch under Evagrius; at Alexandria Theophilus’s mockery of pagan relics provokes a pagan rising in the Serapeum, which ends with Theodosius’s order to destroy the temples; pagans of Apamea burn bishop Marcellus, whose death the synod forbids his sons to avenge.
192. 7.16Nectarius abolishes the office of penitentiary presbyter after a scandal involving a noblewoman and a deacon; Sozomen describes public penance as still kept at Rome, and Theodosius’s law restricting the ministry of women to mothers over sixty.
193. 7.17Theodosius exiles Eunomius; the Eunomians split over whether the Son knows the last hour (Eutychius), and the Arians of Constantinople over whether God was Father before the Son existed (Dorotheus against Marinus and the “Psathyrians”).
194. 7.18The Novatian Sabbatius begins keeping Pascha with the Jews and founds the Sabbatians after the synod of Sangarus leaves the date “indifferent”; Sozomen surveys the reckonings of Pascha among Novatians, Samaritans, Quartodecimans and Montanists.
195. 7.19Sozomen lists differences of church custom: the Paschal dispute settled by Victor and Polycarp, bishops in villages, seven deacons at Rome, the Alleluia, preaching, Gospel reading, the length of Lent, Saturday assemblies, and the reading of the Apocalypses of Peter and Paul.
196. 7.20Theodosius closes and then destroys pagan shrines and bans sacrifice on pain of death; when the Nile rises late and the Egyptians demand sacrifices, he refuses, and the river then floods abundantly, leading many to convert.
197. 7.21The head of John the Baptist, held by Macedonian monks and stopped near Chalcedon under Valens, is taken by Theodosius from the virgin Matrona to a new church at the Hebdomon; its priest Vincent joins the catholic church.
198. 7.22Valentinian II is found hanged (392), whether murdered by Arbogast’s agents or by his own hand; the pagan-leaning Eugenius usurps the West with the support of Flavian’s divinations, and the monk John of Lycopolis foretells Theodosius’s victory and death.
199. 7.23Antioch riots over new taxes and pulls down the imperial statues (387); Bishop Flavian intercedes with Theodosius, whose anger melts when his table singers chant the Antiochenes’ penitential psalms.
200. 7.24Theodosius prays at the Hebdomon church of John the Baptist, wins over part of Eugenius’s army at the Alpine pass, and defeats the usurper at the Frigidus by a miraculous wind; Eugenius is beheaded and Arbogast kills himself.
201. 7.25Ambrose bars Theodosius from the church at Milan for the massacre at Thessalonica; the emperor does public penance and decrees a thirty-day delay for death sentences; Sozomen adds Ambrose’s placing of the emperor’s seat outside the sanctuary and his rescue of a man condemned by Gratian.
202. 7.26Bishop Donatus of Euroea kills a dragon with the sign of the cross and his spittle and brings forth a spring by prayer; Theotimus of Tomi, called “the God of the Romans” by the Huns, is made invisible to them and paralyses the arm of one who tried to lasso him.
203. 7.27Epiphanius of Salamis, generous with the church’s funds, is miraculously supplied with gold; and a beggar who feigns death to cheat him is found really dead.
204. 7.28Bishops of the time: Acacius of Beroea, who kept his house open day and night; Ajax of Botolium, who after three sons lived continently as a monk; and Zeno of Maiuma, still at every service and weaving linen near the age of a hundred.
205. 7.29The relics of the prophets Habakkuk and Micah are revealed to Bishop Zebennus of Eleutheropolis; Theodosius, falling ill at Milan after his victory, summons Honorius and dies (395).
206. 8.1Theodosius dies (395), leaving Arcadius and Honorius; Rufinus is killed; heretics decline and the Novatians flourish under Sisinnius, whose witty sayings Sozomen records.
207. 8.2At Nectarius’s death John (Chrysostom), the eloquent presbyter of Antioch, pupil of Libanius and of Diodore, who had recalled Theodore of Mopsuestia to the monastic life, is chosen bishop of Constantinople, spirited away from Antioch, and consecrated despite Theophilus’s preference for Isidore.
208. 8.3Chrysostom disciplines his clergy and, with Theophilus, sends Acacius and Isidore to Rome to reconcile the West and Egypt with Flavian, ending the Antiochene schism.
209. 8.4The Gothic general Gainas exploits Tribigild’s revolt to extort power, demands a church for the Arians, which Chrysostom resists, plots to seize Constantinople but is thwarted by phantom soldiers, and is destroyed after his crossing of the Hellespont fails; Theodosius II is born.
210. 8.5Chrysostom’s preaching draws crowds and converts; a Macedonian woman who tries to deceive her converted husband by substituting her own bread for the eucharist finds it turned to stone in her mouth.
211. 8.6Chrysostom deposes thirteen simoniac bishops in Asia, installs Heraclides at Ephesus, and replaces the popular physician-bishop Gerontius of Nicomedia with Pansophius, provoking charges that he overrode the rights of ordination.
212. 8.7The eunuch Eutropius, consul and patrician, who had a law passed against the right of asylum in churches, is forced to take refuge at the altar himself; Chrysostom preaches over him, and he is later executed and his law erased.
213. 8.8When the Arians sing provocative antiphonal hymns in nightly processions, Chrysostom organizes rival Nicene processions with silver crosses and candles; after fighting the emperor bans the Arian processions, and the Nicene night hymns continue.
214. 8.9Chrysostom’s harsh archdeacon Serapion, his advice to the deaconess Olympias to give wisely, and his rebukes of wandering monks earn him enemies among clergy and monks, who also slander him for eating alone.
215. 8.10Severian of Gabala, left in charge during Chrysostom’s absence, quarrels with the archdeacon Serapion and is expelled for a rash remark about the incarnation; the empress Eudoxia forces a reconciliation by laying her infant son on Chrysostom’s knees.
216. 8.11The Anthropomorphite controversy: Egyptian monks who imagine God in human form riot against Theophilus’s festal letter teaching that God is incorporeal; he placates them by condemning Origen’s books.
217. 8.12Theophilus turns against the Tall Brothers because of their support for Isidore, whom he had excommunicated over a disputed inheritance and the funds for the poor, and sets the Anthropomorphite monks against them as Origenists.
218. 8.13The Tall Brothers flee to Constantinople, where Chrysostom receives them but withholds communion pending trial; the empress Eudoxia promises a synod, and Theophilus resolves to depose Chrysostom.
219. 8.14Theophilus enlists Epiphanius against Origen’s books; Epiphanius comes to Constantinople, holds aloof from Chrysostom and seeks condemnations of Origen, opposed by Theotimus of Scythia, but is turned back from denouncing Chrysostom in the church.
220. 8.15Epiphanius bargains over the sick infant prince and is rebuked by the empress; the Tall Brothers shame him for condemning them unheard; he leaves for Cyprus and dies at sea, the two bishops having foretold each other’s fates.
221. 8.16Chrysostom’s sermon against women is taken as aimed at the empress, who summons Theophilus; the bishops gather at Chalcedon, where Cyrinus, who reviled Chrysostom, is trodden on by Maruthas and dies of the wound.
222. 8.17At the synod of the Oak (403) Theophilus reconciles the Tall Brothers’ monks and summons Chrysostom, who demands a greater synod and impartial judges; after four summonses he is deposed for not appearing.
223. 8.18Riots follow Chrysostom’s deposition; Severian’s sermon on his pride inflames the crowd; the empress has him recalled, and he is carried back to his throne, preaching on Pharaoh’s attempt on Sarah as a figure of Theophilus.
224. 8.19Theophilus’s attempt to try Heraclides of Ephesus in absence sparks a riot, and he flees to Egypt; at Gerae the monk Nilammon dies in prayer rather than be ordained; a synod of sixty bishops annuls the acts of the Oak.
225. 8.20Chrysostom denounces the games at the dedication of Eudoxia’s statue and preaches “Again Herodias rages”; a new synod, without hearing the charges, deposes him under an Arian-made canon forbidding a deposed bishop to resume his see without a synod.
226. 8.21After his second deposition Chrysostom’s followers are driven by soldiers from the Easter baptisms (404) and meet apart as “Johannites”; two attempts on his life follow.
227. 8.22Chrysostom, ordered to leave, slips away to Bithynia (404); the great church and the senate house burn as his supporters struggle to leave, each side blaming the other; he is exiled to Cucusus and his followers imprisoned.
228. 8.23Arsacius succeeds Chrysostom; soldiers break up the Johannite assemblies and rob the women; many of his followers, among them the noble virgin Nicarete, whom Sozomen praises, leave the city, and the pagan prefect tortures many over the fire.
229. 8.24The reader Eutropius dies under torture, honoured in a dream to the Novatian Sisinnius; the deaconess Olympias defies the prefect and leaves for Cyzicus; the presbyter Tigrius is tortured; Innocent becomes bishop of Rome and Porphyry of Antioch, and a law expels those not in communion with Arsacius, Porphyry and Theophilus.
230. 8.25Huns ravage Thrace and Isaurian brigands raid the East; Stilicho, at enmity with Arcadius’s court, sets Alaric against Illyricum.
231. 8.26Innocent of Rome, condemning the proceedings against Chrysostom and seeking an ecumenical synod, writes a letter of consolation to John and another to his clergy denouncing the uncanonical installation of bishops in the place of the living and rejecting canons made by heretics.
232. 8.27Hail and the death of the empress Eudoxia (404) are seen as God’s anger; Arsacius dies and Atticus, a former Macedonian from Sebasteia, becomes bishop; Chrysostom in exile ransoms captives and draws visitors from Syria and Cilicia.
233. 8.28Innocent’s envoys seeking a synod are sent back in disgrace, and Chrysostom is ordered further away to Pityus; he dies on the way at Comana, warned by the martyr Basiliscus.
234. 9.1Arcadius dies (408) leaving the infant Theodosius II; his sister Pulcheria, aged fifteen, vows virginity with her sisters, governs for her brother, trains him in piety and royal bearing, and founds churches and hostels.
235. 9.2Relics of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia, hidden in the tomb of the Macedonian deaconess Eusebia, are rediscovered through visions to Pulcheria and the memory of an old monk, and enshrined beside St. Thyrsus; Sozomen attended the festival.
236. 9.3Pulcheria and her sisters live a common life of prayer, charity and weaving in the palace, and God protects the young emperor’s reign.
237. 9.4Persia makes a long truce; Stilicho, who had set Alaric against Illyricum and then dissuaded Honorius from going East, is suspected of plotting for his son Eucherius and is killed with him at Ravenna (408).
238. 9.5The Hun king Uldis invades Thrace boasting he could conquer all the sun shines on, but his officers desert to the Romans and he flees, losing the Sciri, who are sold or settled in Asia; Sozomen has seen them farming near the Bithynian Olympus.
239. 9.6Alaric besieges Rome; pagan senators resort to Etruscan diviners; Alaric tells a monk that an unseen power drives him against the city, and lifts the siege for a ransom.
240. 9.7Negotiations at Ariminum break down when the prefect Jovius has Honorius’s refusal of a generalship read before Alaric, who marches on Rome; the officials swear never to make peace, though Alaric soon offers alliance for grain and land.
241. 9.8Alaric makes the prefect Attalus emperor at Rome; Attalus, trusting diviners, loses Africa to Heraclian, marches on Ravenna, and is deposed by Alaric in agreement with Honorius when famine strikes Rome (409–410).
242. 9.9Pagans and Arians hope in Attalus, baptized by the Gothic bishop; Sarus’s attack wrecks Alaric’s peace talks, and Alaric takes Rome by treachery (410), sparing those who fled to St. Peter’s.
243. 9.10During the sack of Rome a Nicene Roman matron chooses death rather than be violated by an Arian Gothic soldier, who, admiring her chastity, takes her to St. Peter’s and pays for her keep until her husband can claim her.
244. 9.11The British army raises the usurpers Mark, Gratian and Constantine III, who takes Gaul and sends his son Constans to Spain, where Honorius’s kinsmen Didymus and Verenianus resist with an army of peasants and slaves.
245. 9.12Honorius’s kinsmen in Spain are captured and killed; Constans’s neglect of the Pyrenean passes lets Vandals, Alans and Suebi into Spain; Constantine III advances on Italy but retreats to Arles when his ally Allobichus is killed.
246. 9.13Gerontius, Constantine III’s general, rebels and sets up Maximus as emperor, kills Constans, besieges Arles, but flees before Honorius’s general Constantius; besieged by his own soldiers, he kills his Alan companion, his Christian wife at her plea, and himself.
247. 9.14Constantius and Ulfilas defeat Edobichus’s relief army at the Rhône; Edobichus is beheaded by his treacherous host Ecdicius, whom Constantius sends away unrewarded.
248. 9.15Constantine III abdicates, is ordained presbyter at Arles, surrenders, and is killed on the way to Italy (411); other usurpers soon fall.
249. 9.16Sozomen draws the lesson that piety guards an emperor; Galla Placidia marries Constantius, who briefly shares the western throne and fathers Valentinian III; God favours the eastern reign by revealing the relics of Zechariah and Stephen.
250. 9.17The relics of the prophet Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, are found near Eleutheropolis through a vision to the serf Calemerus, with a royally clad child at his feet, explained from an apocryphal writing as the son of King Joash; the history breaks off here.