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TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 03 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 23.01.17 History Book 4 Part 3
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Chapter XX.-Of Mavia,hyperlink Queen of the Saracens, and the Ordinationhyperlink Of Moses the Monk.
At this timehyperlink the Ishmaelites were devastating the country in the neighbourhood of the Roman frontier. They were led by Mavia, a princess who regarded not the sex which nature had given her, and displayed the spirit and courage of a man. After many engagements she made a truce, and, on receiving the light of divine knowledge, begged that to the dignity of high priest of her tribe might be advanced one, Moses by name, who dwelt on the confines of Egypt and Palestine. This request Valens granted, and ordered the holy man to be conveyed to Alexandria, and there, as the most convenient place in the neighbourhood, to receive episcopal grace. When he had arrived and saw Lucius endeavouring to lay hands on him-"God forbid" said he "that I should be ordained by thine hand: the grace of the Spirit visits us not at thy calling." "Whence," said Lucius, "are you led to conjecture this?" He rejoined "I am not speaking of conjecture but of clear knowledge; for thou fightest against the apostolic decrees, and speakest words against them, and for thy blasphemous utterances thy lawless deeds are a match. For what impious man has not on thy account mocked the meetings of the Church? What excellent man has not been exiled? What barbarous savagery is not thrown into the shade by thy daily deeds?" So the brave man said, and the murderer heard him and desired to slay him, but was afraid of kindling once again the war which had come to an end. Wherefore he ordered other bishops to be produced whom Moses had requested. After receiving the episcopal grace of the right worthy faith Moses returned to the people who had asked for him, and by his apostolic teaching and miracles led them in the way that leads to truth.hyperlink
These then were the deeds done by Lucius in Alexandria under the dispensation of the providence of God.
Chapter XXI.
At Constantinople the Arians filled a boat with pious presbyters and drove her without ballast out to sea, putting some of their own men on another craft with orders to set the presbyters boat on fire. So, fighting at the same time against both sea and flames, at last they were delivered to the deep, and won the martyrs crown.
At Antioch Valens spent a considerable time, and gave complete license to all who, under cover of the Christian name, pagans, Jews and the rest, preached doctrines contrary to those of the gospel. The slaves of this error even went so far as to perform pagan rites, and thus the deceitful fire which, after Julian, had been quenched by Jovian, was now rekindled by permission of Valens. The rites of Jews, of Dionysus, and of Demeter were now no longer performed in a corner, as they would be in a pious reign, but by revellers running wild in the forum. Valens was a foe to none but them that held the apostolic doctrine. First he drove them from their churches, the illustrious Jovian having given them also the new built church. And when they assembled close up to the mountain cliff to honour their Master in hymns, and enjoy the word of God, putting up with all the assaults of the weather, now of rain, now of snow and cold, and now of violent heat, they were not even suffered this poor protection, and troops were sent to scatter them far and wide.
Chapter XXII.-How Flavianus and Diodorus Gathered the Church of the Orthodox in Antioch.
Now Flavianus and Diodorus, like break-waters, broke the force of the advancing waves. Meletius their shepherd had been constrained to sojourn far away. But these looked after the flock, opposing their own courage and cunning to the wolves, and bestowing due care upon the sheep. Now that they were driven away from under the cliff they fed their flocks by the banks of the neighbouring river. They could not brook, like the captives at Babylon, to hang their harps upon the willows,hyperlink but they continued to hymn their maker and benefactor in all places of his dominion.hyperlink But not even in this spot was the meeting of the pious pastors of them that blessed the Lord suffered by the foe to be assembled. So again this pair of excellent shepherds gathered their sheep in the soldiers training ground and there tried to show them their spiritual food in secret. Diodorus, in his wisdom and courage, like a clear and mighty river, watered his own and drowned the blasphemies of his opponents, thinking nothing of the splendour of his birth, and gladly undergoing the sufferings of the faith.
The excellent Flavianus, who was also of the highest rank, thought piety the only nobility,hyperlink and, like some trainer for the games, anointed the great Diodorushyperlink as though he had been an athlete for five contests.hyperlink
At that time he did not himself preach at the services of the church, but furnished an abundant supply of arguments and scriptural thoughts to preachers, who were thus able to aim their shafts at the blasphemy of Arius, while he as it were handed them the arrows of his intelligence from a quiver. Discoursing alike at home and abroad he easily rent asunder the heretics nets and showed their defences to be mere spiders webs. He was aided in these contests by that Aphraates whose life I have written in my Religious History,hyperlink and who, preferring the welfare of the sheep to his own rest, abandoned his cell of discipline and retirement, and undertook the hard toil of a shepherd. Having written on these matters in another work I deem it now superfluous to recount the wealth of virtue which he amassed, but one specimen of his good deeds I will proceed now to relate, as specially appropriate to this history.
Chapter XXIII.-Of the Holy Monk Aphraates.
On the north of the river Orontes lies the palace. On the South a vast two storied portico is built on the city wall with lofty towers on either side. Between the palace and the river lies a public way open to passengers from the town, through the gate in this quarter, and leading to the country in the suburbs. The godly Aphraates was once passing along this thoroughfare on his way to the soldiers training ground, in order to perform the duty of serving his flock. The emperor happened to be looking down from a gallery in the palace, and saw him going by wearing a cloak of undressed goat's skin,hyperlink and walking rapidly, though of advanced age. On its being remarked that this was Aphraates to whom all the town was then attached, the emperor cried out "Where are you going? Tell us." Readily and cleverly he answered "To pray for your empire." "You had better stop at home" said the emperor "and pray alone like a monk." "Yes," said the divine man, "so I was bound to do and so I always did till now, as long as the Saviour's sheep were at peace; but now that they are grievously disturbed and in great peril of being caught by beasts, I needs must leave no means untried to save the nurslings. For tell me, sir, had I been a girl sitting in my chamber, and looking after the house, and had seen a flash of flame fall and my father's house on fire, what ought I to do? Tell me; sit within and never mind the house being on fire, and wait for the flame to approach? or bid my bower good bye and run up and down and get water and try to quench the flame? Of course you will say the latter, for so a quick and spirited girl would do. And that is what I am doing now, sir. You have set fire to our Father's house and we are running about in the endeavour to put it out." So said Aphraates, and the emperor threatened him and said no more. One of the grooms of the imperial bedchamber, who threatened the godly man somewhat more violently, met with the following fate. He was entrusted with the charge of the bath, and immediately after this conversation he came down to get it ready for the emperor. On entering he lost his wits, stepped into the boiling water before it was mixed with the cold, and so met his end. The emperor sat waiting for him to announce that the bath was ready for him to enter, and after a considerable time had gone by he sent other officers to report the cause of the delay. After they had gone in and looked all about the room they discovered the chamberlain slain by the heat, and lying dead in the boiling water. On this becoming known to the emperor they perceived the force of the prayers of Aphraates. Nevertheless they did not depart from the impious doctrines but hardened their heart like Pharaoh, and the infatuated emperor, though made aware of the miracle of the holy man, persisted in his mad rage against piety.
Chapter XXIV.-Of the Holy Monk Julianus.
At this time too the celebrated Julianus, whom I have already mentioned, was forced to leave the desert and come to Antioch, for when the foster children of lies, the facile framers of calumny, I mean of course the Arians, were maintaining that this great man was of their faction, those lights of the truth Flavianus, Diodorus, and Aphraates sent Acacius,hyperlink an athlete of virtue who afterwards very wisely ruled the church at Beroea, to the famous Julianushyperlink with the entreaty that he would take pity on so many thousands of men, and at the same time convict the enemy of lies and confirm the proclamation of the truth. The miracles worked by Julianus on his way to and from Antioch and in that vast city itself are described in my Religious History, which is easily accessible to all who wish to become acquainted with them. But I am sure that no one who has enquired into human nature will doubt that he attracted all the population of the city to our assembly, for the extraordinary is generally sure to draw all men after it. The fact of his having wrought great marvels is attested even by the enemies of the truth.
Before this time in the reign of Constantius the great Antoniushyperlink had acted in the same way in Alexandria, for he abandoned the desert and went up and down that city, telling all men that Athanasius was the preacher of the true doctrine and that the Arian faction were enemies of the truth. So those godly men knew how to adapt themselves to each particular opportunity, when to remain inactive, and at rest, and when to leave the deserts for towns.
Chapter XXV.-Of What Other Monks Were Distinguished at This Period.
There were also other then at this period who emitted the bright rays of the philosophy of solitary life. In the Chalcidianhyperlink desert Avitus, Marcianushyperlink and Abraames,hyperlink and more besides whom I cannot easily enumerate, strove in their bodies of sense to live a life superior to sense. In the district of Apamea,hyperlink Agapetus,hyperlink Simeon,hyperlink Paulus and others reaped the fruits of the highest wisdom.
In the district of the Zeugmatenseshyperlink were Publiushyperlink and Paulus. In the Cyrestianhyperlink the famous Acepsemas had been shut up in a cell for sixty years without being either seen or spoken to. The admirable Zeumatius, though bereft of sight, used to go about confirming the sheep, and fighting with the wolves; so they burnt his cell, but the right faithful general Trajanus got another built for him, and paid him besides other attentions. In the neighbourhood of Antioch, Marianus,hyperlink Eusebius,hyperlink Ammianus,hyperlink Palladius,hyperlink Simeon,hyperlink Abraames,hyperlink and others, preserved the divine image unimpaired; but of all these the lives have been recorded by us. But the mountain which is in the neighbourhood of the great city was decked like a meadow, for in it shone Petrus, the Galatian, his namesake the Egyptian, Romanus Severus,hyperlink Zeno,hyperlink Moses, and Malchus,hyperlink and many others of whom the world is ignorant, but who are known to God.
Chapter XXVI.-Of Didymus of Alexandria and Ephraim the Syrian.
At that period at Edessa flourished the admirable Ephraim, and at Alexandria Didymus,hyperlink both writers against the doctrines that are at variance with the truth. Ephraim, employing the Syrian language, shed beams of spiritual grace. Totally untainted as he was by heathen educationhyperlink he was able to expose the niceties of heathen error, and lay bare the weakness of all heretical artifices. Harmoniushyperlink the son of Bardesaneshyperlink had once composed certain songs and by mixing sweetness of melody with his impiety beguiled the hearers, and led them to their destruction. Ephraim adopted the music of the songs, but set them to piety, and so gave the hearers at once great delight and a healing medicine. These songs are still used to enliven the festivals of our victorious martyrs.
Didymus, however, who from a child had been deprived of the sense of sight, had been educated in poetry, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, the logic of Aristotle, and the eloquence of Plato. Instruction in all these subjects he received by the sense of hearing alone,-not indeed as conveying the truth, but as likely to be weapons for the truth against falsehood. Of holy scriptures he learnt not only the sound but the sense. So among livers of ascetic lives and students of virtue, these men at that time were conspicuous.
Chapter XXVII.-Of What Bishops Were at This Time Distinguished in Asia and Pontus.
Among the bishops were the two Gregorii, the one of Nazianzushyperlink and the other of Nyssa,hyperlink the latter the brother and the former the friend and fellow worker of the great Basilius. These were foremost champions of piety in Cappadocia; and in front rank with them was Peter, born of the same parents with Basilius and Gregorius, who though not having received like them a foreign education, like them lived a life of brilliant distinction.
In Pisidia Optimus,hyperlink in Lycaonia Amphilochius,hyperlink fought in the front rank on behalf of their fathers faith, and repelled tim enemies assaults.
In the West Damasus,hyperlink Bishop of Rome, and Ambrosius, entrusted with the government of Milan, smote those who attacked them from afar. In conjunction with these, bishops forced to dwell in remote regions, confirmed their friends and undid their foes by writings-thus pilots able to cope with the greatness of the storm were granted by the governor of the universe. Against the violence of the foe He set in battle array the virtue of His captains, and provided means meet to ward off the troubles of these difficult times, and not only were the churches granted this kind of protection by their loving Lord, but deemed worthy of yet another kind of guidance.
Chapter XXVIII.-Of the Letter Written by Valens to the Great Valentinianus About the War, and How He Replied.
The Lord roused the Goths to war, and drew on to the Bosphorus him who knew only how to fight against the pious. Then for the first time the vain than became aware of his own weakness, and sent to his brother to ask for troops. But Valentinian replied that it were impious to help one fighting against God, and right rather to check his rashness. By this the unhappy man was filled with yet greater infatuation, yet he did not withdraw from his rash undertaking, and persisted in ranging himself against the truth.hyperlink
Chapter XXIX.-Of the Piety of Count Terentius.
Terentius, an excellent general, distinguished for his piety, had set up trophies of victory and returned from Armenia. On being ordered by Valens to choose a boon, he mentioned one which it was becoming in a man nurtured in piety to choose, for he asked not gold nor yet silver, not land, not dignity, not a house, but that one church might be granted to them that were risking their all for the Apostolic doctrine. Valens received the petition, but on becoming acquainted with its contents he tore it up in a rage, and bade Terentius beg some other boon. The count, however, picked up the pieces of his petition, and said, "I have my reward, sir, and I will not ask another. The Judge of all things is Judge of my intention."
Chapter XXX.-Of the Bold Utterance of Trajanus the General.
After Valens had crossed the Bosphorus and come into Thrace he first spent a considerable time at Constantinople, in alarm as to the issue of the war. He had sent Trajanus in command of troops against the barbarians. When the general came back beaten, the emperor reviled him sadly, and charged him with infirmity and cowardice. Boldly, as became a brave man, Trajanus replied: "I have not been beaten, sir, it is thou who hast abandoned the victory by fighting against God and transferring His support to the barbarians. Attacked by thee He is taking their side, for victory is on God's side and comes to them whom God leads. Dost thou not know," he went on, "whom thou hast expelled from their churches and to whose government these churches have been delivered by thee?" Arintheus and Victor,hyperlink generals like Trajanus, confirmed the truth of what he said, and implored the emperor not to be angered by reproaches which were founded upon fact.hyperlink
Chapter XXXI.-Of Isaachyperlink The Monk of Constantinople and Bretanio the Scythian Bishop.
It is related that Isaac, who lived as a solitary at Constantinople, when he saw Valens marching out with his troops, cried aloud, "Whither goest thou, O emperor? To fight against God, instead of having Him as thy ally? 'Tis God himself who has roused the barbarians against thee, because thou hast stirred many tongues to blasphemy against Him and hast driven His worshippers from their sacred abodes. Cease then thy campaigning and stop the war. Give back to the flocks their excellent shepherds and thou shalt win victory without trouble, but if thou tightest without so doing thou shalt learn by experience how hard it is to kick against the pricks.hyperlink Thou shalt never come back and shalt destroy thy army." Then in a passion the emperor rejoined, "I shall come back; and I will kill thee, and so exact punishment for thy lying prophecy." But Isaac undismayed by the threat exclaimed, "If what I say be proved false, kill me."
Bretanio, a man distinguished by various virtues, and entrusted with the episcopal government of all the cities of Scythia, fired his soul with enthusiasm, and protested against the corruption of doctrines, and the emperor's lawless attacks upon the saints, crying in the words of the godly David, "I spoke of thy testimonies also before Kings and was not ashamed."hyperlink
Chapter XXXII.-Of the Expedition of Valens Against the Garbs and How He Paid the Penalty of His Impiety.
Valens, however, spurned these excellent counsellors, and sent out his troops to join battle while he himself sat waiting in a hamlet for the victory. His troops could not stand against the barbarians' charge, turned tail and were slain one after another as they fled, the Romans fleeing at full speed and the barbarians chasing them with all their might. When Valens heard of the defeat he strove to conceal himself in the village where he lay, but when the barbarians came up they set the place on fire and together with it burnt the enemy of piety. Thus in this present life Valens paid the penalty of his errors.hyperlink
Chapter XXXIII.-How the Goths Became Tainted by the Arian Error.
To those ignorant of the circumstances it may be worth while to explain how the Goths got the Arian plague. After they had crossed the Danube, and made peace with Valens, the infamous Eudoxius, who was on the spot, suggested to the emperor to persuade the Goths to accept communion with him. They had indeed long since received the rays of divine knowledge and had been nurtured in the apostolic doctrines, "but now," said Eudoxius, "community of opinion will make the peace all the firmer." Valens approved of this counsel and proposed to the Gothic chieftains an agreement in doctrine, but they replied that they would not consent to forsake the teaching of their fathers. At the period in question their Bishop Ulphilas was implicitly obeyed by them and they received his words as laws which none might break. Partly by the fascination of his eloquence and partly by the bribes with which he baited his proposals Eudoxius succeeded in inducing him to persuade the barbarians to embrace communion with the emperor, so Ulphilas won them over on the plea that the quarrel between the different parties was really one of personal rivalry and involved no difference in doctrine. The result is that up to this day the Goths assert that the Father is greater than the Son, but they refuse to describe the Son as a creature, although they are in communion with those who do so. Yet they cannot be said to have altogether abandoned their Father's teaching, since Ulphilas in his efforts to persuade them to join communion with Eudoxius and Valens denied that there was any difference in doctrine and that the difference had arisen from mere empty strife.hyperlink
Footnotes
95 cf. Soz. vi. 38, and Soc. iv. 36.
96 The word used is xeirotonia, of which it is well to trace the varying usages. These are given by the late Rev. E. Hatch (Dict. Christ. Ant. ii. 1501) as follows. "This word is used (a) in the N. T. Acts xiv, 24, xeirotonhsantej de autoij kat' ekklhsian presbuterouj: II. Cor. viii. 19 (of Titus) xeirotonhqeij upo twn ekklhsiwn; (b) in sub-apostolic Greek, Ignat. ad Philad. c. 10; (c) in the Clementines, Clement. Ep. ad Jacob. c. 2; (d) in the Apostolical Constitution; (e) in the Canon Law; (f) in the Civil Law. Its meaning was originally "to
97 i.e. about 375. elect," but it came afterwards to mean even in classical Greek, simply "to appoint to office," without itself indicating the particular mode of appointment (cf. Schomann de Comitus, p. 122). That the latter was its ordinary meaning in Hellenistic Greek, and consequently in the first ages of church history, is clear from a large number of instances; e.g. in Josephus vi. 13, 9, it is used of the appointment of David as King by God; id. xiii, 22, of the appointment of Jonathan as High Priest by Alexander; in Philo ii, 76 it is used of the appointment of Joseph as governor by Pharaoh; in Lucian, de morte Peregrini c. 41 of the appointment of ambassadors. "In Sozomen vii, 24 of the appointment of Arcadius as Augustus by Theodosius." "In later times a new connotation appears of which there is no early trace; it was used of the stretching out of the bishop's hands in the rite of imposition of hands." The writer of the above seems hardly to do justice to its early use for ordination as well as for appointment. In the Pseudo-Ig. ad. Her. c. iii, it is said of bishops ekeinoi xeirotonousi, xeiroqetousi and Bp. Lightfoot comments "while xeiroqesia is used of laying on of hands, e.g. in confirmation, xeirotonia is said of ordination, e.g. Ap. Const. viii. 27. `episkopoj upo triwn h duo episkopwn xeirotoneisqw.
0' Referring originally to the election of the Clergy xeirotonia came afterwards to be applied commonly, as here, to their ordination." Theodoretus uses the word in both senses, and sometimes either will fit in with the context.
98 Sozomen (vi. 38) describes Lucius as remonstrating in moderate language. "Do not judge of me before you know what my creed is." Socrates (iv. 36) makes Moses charge Lucius with condemning the orthodox to exile, beasts, and burning. On Socrates Valesius annotates "Hanc narrationem de episcopo Saracenis dato et de pace cum iisdem facta, desumpsit quidera Socrates, ex Rufini lib. ii. 6." Lucius was ejected from Alexandria when the reign of Valens ended with his death in 378. Theodoretus appears to confound this Lucius with an Arian Lucius who usurped the see of Samosata. Vide chap. xviii.
99 Psalm cxxxvii.
100 Psalm ciii. 22.
101 cf. "Virtus sola nobilitas."
102 Diodorus was now a presbyter. Chrysost. (Laus Diodori §4. tom. iii. p. 749) describes how the whole city assembled and were fed by his tongue flowing with milk and honey, themselves meanwhile supplying his necessities with their gifts. Valens retorted with redoubled violence, and anticipated the "noyades" of Carrier at Lyons. cf. Socrates iv. 17 and Dict. Christ. Biog. ii. 529.
103 The five contests of the complete athlete are summed up in the line
alma, podwkeihn, diskon, akonta, palhn.
104 Relig. Hist. viii.
105 The word Sisura was used for a common upper garment, but according to the grammarian Tzetzes (Schol. Ad. Lyc. 634) its accurate meaning is the one given in the text.
106 A monk of Gindarus near Antioch (Theod. Vit. Pat. ii.) afterward envoy from the Syrian churches to Rome, and Bishop of Beroea, (Aleppo) a.d. 378. He was at Constantinople in 381, (cf. v. 8.) and is famous for his opposition to Chrysostom.
107 Julianus Sabas (i.e. Abba) an ascetic solitary of Osrhoëne, the district south of the modern Horton. He is the second of the saints of Theodoret's "Religious History," where we read that he lived on millet bread, which he ate once a week, and performed various miracles, which are recorded by Theodoret on the authority of Acacius.
108 Antonius, St. Anthony, the illustrious and illiterate ascetics friend and correspondent of Constantine (Soc. i. 13), the centre of many wild legends, was born in 250 a.d. in upper Egypt. Athanasius calls him the "founder of Asceticism." In 335 he revisited Alexandria to oppose the Arians, as narrates in the text. He died in his cell in 355, bequeathing his "hair shirt. his two woollen tunics, and his bed, among Amathas and Macarius who watched his last hours, Serapion, and Athanasius."
Vide Ath. Vit. S. Ant.
109 i.e. the district round Chalcis in Syria, to be distinguished from the Macedonian Chalcidice.
110 Native of Theodoret's see of Cyrus. He built himself a cell like the "Little Ease" of the Tower of London, and promoted orthodoxy by the influence of his austerities. _c. 385. cf. Tillemont, viii. 483.
111 A. went on missionary journeys disguised as a pedlar, and eventually unwillingly became bishop of Carrae. Theod. Relig. Hist. 3.
112 Presumably Apamea ad Orontem. (Famiah.)
113 Bishop of Apamea, a comrade and disciple of Marcianus. (Relig. Hist. iii.)
114 Also a disciple of Marcian. For fifty years he maintained a school of ascetic philosophy. cf. Chrysost. Ep. 55. and Tillemont. ix. 304. Apparently not the same as Simeones Priscus of Relig. Hist. vi.
115 i.e. near Zeugma, on the Euphrates, opposite Apamea.
116 vide Relig. Hist. v.
117 i.e. round Theodoret's see of Cyrus.
118 Uncle of Eusebius, a "faithful servant of God." Relig. Hist. iv.
119 Relig. Hist. iv. Abbot of Mt. Coryphe nephew of Marianus. He chained his neck to his girdle that he might be compelled to violate the prerogative of his manhood (cf. Ovid. Met i. 85) and keep his eyes on the ground.
120 Vide Relig. Hist. iv. He had a monastery near Antioch.
121 Relig. Hist. vii.
122 cf. the Symeones Priscus of Relig. Hist vi.
123 The disciple of Ephrem Syrus. Vide Soz. iii. 16, and Eph. Syr. Act. S. Abraam.
124 Born at Rhosus. His life is given in Relig. Hist. xi.
125 Relig. Hist. xii. He lived "without bed, lamp, fire, pitcher, pot, box, or book, or anything."
126 Met in his old age by Jerome, to whom he told the story of his life. Born at Edessa, he ended his days at Maronia, near Antioch. Vide Jer. vita Malchi.
127 Flourished c. 309-399. Blind from the age of four, he educated himself with marvellous patience, and was placed by Athauasius at the head of the catechetical school of Alexandria. Jerome called him his teacher and seer and translated his Treatise on the Holy Spirit. Jer. de Vir. Illust. 109.
128 "paideiaj 'Ellhnikhj." His ignorance of languages weakens the force of his dialectic and illustrations. Vid. Dict. Christ. Biog: s. v.
129 Harmonius wrote about the end of the 2nd century, both in Greek and in Syriac. cf. Theod. Haeret. Fabul. Compend. i. 22, where he is said to have learned Greek at Athens.
130 Bardesanes, or Bar Daisan, the great Syrian gnostic, was born in 155. cf. the prologue to the "Dialogues."
131 Gregorius of Nazianzus (in Cappadocia, on the Halys) was so called not as bishop of Nazianzus. He was bishop successively of Sasima, "a detestable little village," - (Carm. xi. 439-446) - and of Constantinople, and was called "Nazianzenus" because his father and namesake was bishop of that see. On his acting as bishop at Nazianzus after his withdrawal from Constantinople, vide note on page 136.
132 A younger brother of Basil, bishop of Caesarea, born about 335; he was bishop of Nyssa, an obscure town of Cappadocia, from 372 to 395. Their parents were Basil, an advocate and Emmelia. Petrus, the youngest of ten children, was bishop of Sebaste.
133 Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia; was present at Constantinople in 381. He was a witness to the will of Gregory of Nazianzus.
134 Vide note on p. 114.
135 Vide note on p. 82.
136 On this Valesius remarks that Valentinian was already dead (_ 375) when the Goths crossed the Danube and ravaged Thrace (376). Theodoretus should have written "Gratianus" for "Valentinianus," and "nephew" for "brother."
137 Magister equitum. Amm. xxxi. 7.
138 Gibbon (chap. xxvi) records the conduct of the war by "Trajan and Profuturus, two generals who indulged themselves in a very false and favourable opinion of their own abilities." "Anhelantes altius. sed imbelles." Amm.
The battle alluded to is presumably the doubtful one of Salices. Ammianus does not, as Gibbon supposes, imply that he had himself visited this particular battlefield, but speaks generally of carrion birds as "adsuetae illo tempore cadaveribus pasci, ut indicant nunc usque albentes ossibus campi." Amm. xxxi. 7. 16.
139 Possibly the Isaac who opposed Chrysostom. Soz. viii. 9.
140 Acts ix. 5.
141 Psalm cxix. 46. The text quotes the Sept. elaloun en toij marturioij sou enantion basilewn kai ouk hsxunomhn.
142 "On the 9th August, 378, a day long and fatally memorable in the annals of the empire, the legions of Valens moved forth from their entrenched camp under the walls of Hadrian. ople, and after a march of eight miles under the hot sun of August came in sight of the barbarian vanguard, behind which stretched the circling line of the waggons that guarded the Gothic host. The soldiers of the empire, hot, thirsty, wearied out with hours of waiting under the blaze of an August sun, and only half understanding that the negotiations were ended and the battle begun, fought at a terrible disadvantage but fought not ill. The infantry on the left wing seem even to have pushed back their enemies and penetrated to the Gothic waggons. But they were for some reason not covered as usual by a force of cavalry and they were jammed into a too narrow space of ground where they could not use their spears with effect, yet presented a terribly easy mark to the Gothic arrows. They fell in dense masses as they had stood. Then the whole weight of the enemy's attack was directed against the centre and right. When the evening began to close in, the utterly routed Roman soldiers were rushing in disorderly flight from the fatal field. The night, dark and moonless, may have protected some, but more met their death rushing blindly over a rugged and unknown country.
"Meanwhile Valens had sought shelterwith a little knot of soldiers (the two regiments of "Lancearii and Mattiarii"), who still remained unmoved amidst the surging sea of ruin. When their ranks too were broken, and when some of his bravest officers. had fallen around him, he joined the common soldiers in their headlon flight. Struck by a Gothic arrow he fell to the ground, but was carried off by some of the eunuchs and life-guardsmen who still accompanied him, to a peasant's cottage hard by. The Goths, ignorant of his rank, but eager to strip the gaily-clothed guardsmen, surrounded the cottage and attempted in vain to burst in the doors. Then mounting to the roof they tried to smoke out the imprisoned inmates, but succeeding beyond their desires, set fire to the cottage, and emperor, eunuchs, and life-guardsmen perished in the flames. Only one of the body-guard escaped, who climbed out through one of the blazing windows and fell into the hands of the barbarians. He told them when it was too late what a prize they had missed in their cruel eagerness, nothing less than the emperor of Rome.
Ecclesiastical historians for generations delighted to point the moral of the story of Valens, that he who had seduced the whole Gothic nation into the heresy of Arius, and thus caused them to suffer the punishment of everlasting fire, was himself by those very Goths burned alive on the terrible 9th of August. Thomas Hodgkin - "The Dynasty of Theodosius," page 97.
143 Christianity is first found among the Goths and some German tribes on the Rhine about a.d. 300, the Visigoths taking the lead, and being followed by the Ostrogoths. They were converted under Arian influences, and simply accepted an Arian creed. So Salvian writes of them with singular charity, in a passage partly quoted by Milman (Lat. Christ. I. p. 349.) "Haeretici sunt sed non scientes. Denique apud nos sunt haeretici, apud se non sunt. Nam in tantum se catholicos esse judicant ut nos ipsos titulo haereticae appellationis infament. Quod ergo illi nobis sunt, hoc nos illis. Nos eos injuriam divinae generationis facere certi sumus quod minorem patre filium dicant. Illi nos injuriosos patri existimant, quia aequales esse credamus. Veritas spud nos est. Sed illi spud se esse proesumunt. Honor Dei apud nos est, sed illi hoc arbitrantur honorem divinitatis esse quod credunt. Inofficiosi sunt; sed illis hoc est summum religionis officium. Impii sunt; sed hoc putant veram esse pietatem. Errant ergo, sed bono animo errant, non odio, sed affectu Dei, honorare se dominum atque amare credentes." (Salvianus de Gub. Dei V. p. 87.) The spirit of this good Presbyter of Marseilles of the 5th century might well have been more often followed in Christian controversy.
"Of the early Arian missionaries the Arian Records, if they ever existed, have almost entirely perished. The church was either ignorant of or disdained to preserve their memory. Ulphilas alone," - himself a semi-Arian, and accepter of the creed of Ariminum,-"the apostle of the Goths, has, as it were, forced his way into the Catholic records, in which, as in the fragments of his great work, his translation of the Scriptures into the Moeso-Gothic language, this admirable man has descended to posterity." "While in these two great divisions, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, the nation gathering its descendants from all quarters, spread their more or less rapid conquests over Gaul, Italy, and Spain Ulphilas formed a peaceful and populous colony of shepherds and herdsmen on the pastures below Mt. Haemus. He became the primate of a simple Christian nation. For them he formed an alphabet of twenty-four letters, and completed all but the fierce books of Kings"-which he omitted, as likely to whet his wild folks' warlike passions, - "his translation of the Scriptures." Milman Lat. Christ. III. Chap. ii.
The fragments of the work of Ulphilas now extant are (1) Codex Argenteus, at Upsala. (2) Codex Catolinus. (3) Ambrosian fragments published by Mai. cf. Philost. ii. 5, Soc. ii. 41 and iv. 33.
On Eudoxius, who baptized Valens, and was "the worst of the Arians," cf. note on page 86.