1

CHAP. XXXIV.-ACT OF DEPOSITION AGAINST SEVerus. 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Severian, bishop of the neighbouring city of Arethusa, being troubled at the synodical letters of Severus, and having withdrawn from his communion, despatched an instrument of deposition to him, while still bishop of Antioch.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 intrust 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

1 Apamea was the metropolis of Syria Cole, or Syria Secunda, to which Epiphania and Arethusa were subject.

from the sacred diptychs; and he was also anathematized at Jerusalem even during his life-time.

CHAP. XXXV.-SUPPRESSION OF THE ISAURIAN

INSURRECTION.

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 Sycæ, 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 mainstay 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.

CHAP. XXXVI.-INVASION OF THE ARABS.

THE Scenite2 barbarians also insulted the Roman empire; not, however, to their own advantage; by plundering Mesopotamia, either Phoenicia, and Palestine. After having been 1 See book i. chap. 1.

2 The Saracens, called oкnvirai, (Scenitæ,) from dwelling in tents, σκηναί.

everywhere chastised by the commanders, they subsequently continued quiet, and universally made peace with the Romans.

CHAP. XXXVII.-CAPTURE OF AMIDA. FOUNDING OF DARAS.

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 Theo- | dosiopolis, 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.

CHAP. XXXVIII.-THE LONG WALL.

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 Mæotis, and from beyond the Caucasus, as well as of those who have made irruptions from Europe.

CHAP. XXXIX.-ABOLITION OF THE CHRYSARGYRUM. 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:1 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 mili

1 By these words Evagrius seems to mean the prætorian prefecture; for that is called by Amm. Marcellinus, Vertex omnium dignitatum. To this prefecture therefore the tribute called Chrysargyrum was brought in every fourth year. Whether it ought to be called a tribute, or rather a toll or tax, is uncertain. Evagrius terms it réλog, which is vectigal, a toll, or tax. The old author of the Questions on the Old and New Testament tells us that it was usually termed aurum pœnosum, the punishing gold. Amongst the officials of the præfectus prætorio, four Numerarii are reckoned in the Notitia Imperii Romani; the first of whom was the Numerarius of the gold, that is, of the Aurum Lustrale, or Chrysargyrum. There was also amongst the officials a Comes Sacrarum Largitionum, a Primicerius of the Scrinium of the Golden Mass, and a Primicerius of the Scrinium of Gold; perhaps because a certain part of this tax was brought in to the chest of the sacred largesses.

tary 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 unparalleled 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, 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 in

1 See Euseb. Eccl. Hist. b. x. ch. 8.