distinction, being the curator of the palace,1 who had resolutely protected Anatolius, said that he had seen the Mother of God, demanding of him how long he intended to defend Anatolius, who had so grievously outraged herself and her Son. Such was the terminaton of this business.

CHAP. XIX.-CHARACTER AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF MAURICE.

TIBERIUS, being by this time in possession of the crown on the death of Justin, supersedes Justinian, since he had not been equally successful against the barbarians, and appoints Maurice to the command of the forces of the East; a person who derived his descent and name from the elder Rome, but, as regards his more immediate origin, was a native of Arabissus2 in Cappadocia; a man of sense and ability, and of unvarying accuracy and firmness. Being staid and precise in his mode of living and manners, he was temperate in his food, using only such as was necessary and simple, and was superior to all other indulgences of a luxurious life. He was not easily accessible to the solicitations of the vulgar, nor a too easy listener in general; well knowing that the one tends to produce contempt, and the other leads to flattery. Accordingly, he granted audiences sparingly, and those only to persons on serious business, and closed his ears against idle talk, not with wax, as poets say, but rather with reason; so that this latter was an excellent key to them, appropriately both opening and closing them during conversation. So completely had he banished both ignorance, the mother of audacity, and also cowardice, which is at the same time a foreigner and a neighbour to the former, that with him to face danger was an act of prudence, and to decline it was a measure of safety; while both courage and discretion were the charioteers of opportunity, and guided the reins to whatever quarter necessity directed: so that his efforts were both restrained and put forth, as it were, by measure and rule. Concerning this person I shall speak more fully in the sequel; since the detail of his greatness and excellence I must reserve for the history of his reign; which displayed the man in a clearer light, as unfolding,

1 See above, note on chap. 3.

2 Arabissus, or Arabissum, was a town of Armenia; and in the first Constantinopolitan synod, a bishop of Arabissus in Armenia is mentioned.

through freedom of action, even the more inward parts of his character.

This Maurice, advancing beyond the limits of the empire, captures both cities and fortresses, of the greatest importance to the Persians, and carried off so much plunder, that the captives were sufficiently numerous to occupy at length whole islands, towns, and districts which had been deserted: and thus the land, which had been previously untilled, was everywhere restored to cultivation. Numerous armies also were raised from among them, that fought resolutely and courageously against the other nations. At the same time every household was completely furnished with domestics, on account of the easy rate at which slaves were procured.

CHAP. XX.-OVERTHROW OF THE PERSIANS.

He also engaged Tamchosroes and Adaarmanes, the prin cipal Persian commanders, who had advanced against him with a considerable force; but the nature, manner, and place of these transactions I leave others to record, or shall perhaps myself make them the subject of a distinct work, since my present one professes to treat of matters of a very different kind. Tamchosroes, however, falls in battle, not by the bravery of the Roman soldiery, but merely through the piety and faith of their commander: and Adaarmanes, being worsted in the fight and having lost many of his men, flies with precipitation, and this too, although Alamundarus, the commander of the Scenite barbarians, played the traitor in declining to cross the Euphrates and support Maurice against the Scenites of the opposite party. For this people are invincible by any other than themselves, on account of the fleetness of their horses: when hemmed in, they cannot be captured; and they outstrip their enemies in retreat. Theodoric too, commander of the Scythian troops, did not so much as venture within range of the missiles, but fled with all his people.

Theophylactus relates (b. iii. ch. 18) that he was killed in battle against Mauricius, after the death of the emperor Justinus.

CHAP. XXI.-PRODIGIES FORESHOWING THE ELEVATION OF

MAURICE TO THE EMPIRE.

PRODIGIES also occurred, which indicated that the imperial power was destined to Maurice. As he was offering incense, at the dead of night, within the sanctuary of Mary, the holy and immaculate virgin and Mother of God, which is called by the Antiochenes the church of Justinian, the veil which surrounds the holy table became wrapt in flames; so that Maurice was seized with amazement and awe, and was terrified at the sight. Gregory, the archbishop of the city, who was standing by, said that it was a Divine manifestation, betokening to him to the highest fortune.

Christ our God also appeared to him when in the East, calling upon him to avenge Him: which circumstance distinctly intimated the possession of sovereign power; for of what other person would He have made the demand than of an emperor, and one who manifested so much piety towards Him?

His parents also detailed to me circumstances remarkable and worthy of being recorded, when I was making inquiries on this point: for his father said that, about the time of his conception, he had seen in a dream a very large vine growing from his bed, on which hung great numbers of beautiful clusters of grapes; and his mother told me that, at the time of her delivery, the earth sent forth a strange odour of peculiar sweetness; and that Empusa,1 as she is called, had often carried off the child for the purpose of devouring him, but had been unable to injure him.

Simeon, too, who practised the station upon the pillar in the neighbourhood of Theopolis, a most energetic man, and distinguished by every divine virtue, both said and did many things which betokened his succession to the empire. The sequel of the history will relate respecting him whatever circumstances are suitable.

A witch. See Sozomen, Eccl. Hist. b. viii. ch. 6. The Empusa is mentioned by Aristophanes (Ranæ, 1. 293); the Latin equivalent is Larva, or Striga.

CHAP. XXII.-ACCESSION OF MAURICE.

MAURICE assumes the sovereignty, when Tiberius was at the point of death, and had bestowed upon him his daughter Augusta, and the empire as her dowry. Notwithstanding the shortness of his reign, Tiberius left behind him an immortal memorial in the remembrance of his good deeds; for he bequeathed to the commonwealth, in the appointment of Maurice, an inheritance, not admitting of specification in terms, but most precious. He also distributed his own appellations, giving to Maurice the name of Tiberius, and to Augusta that of Constantina. The transactions of their reign the sequel of the history will set forth, with the aid of the Divine impulse,

CHAP. XXIII.-CHRONOLOGICAL STATEMENT.

In order also to an accurate account of the various periods of time, be it known that Justin the younger reigned alone twelve years, ten months and a half; and in conjunction with Tiberius, three years and eleven months: so that the whole period is sixteen years, nine months and a half. Tiberius also reigned four years alone: so that the whole time from Romulus to the proclamation of Maurice Tiberius, amounts to * * * years; as appears from the previous and present dates.

CHAP. XXIV.-SUCCESSION OF WRITERS ON SACRED AND PRO

FANE HISTORY.

By the aid of God, an account of the affairs of the Church, presenting a fair survey of the whole, has been preserved for us in what has been recorded by Eusebius Pamphili down to the time of Constantine, and thenceforward as far as Theodosius the younger, by Theodoret, Sozomen, and Socrates, and in the matters which have been selected for my present work.

Primitive and profane history has been also preserved in a continuous narrative by those who have been zealous at the task; Moses being the first to compose history, as has been clearly shown by those who have collected whatever bears upon the subject, in writing a true account of events from the

beginning of the world, derived from what he learned in converse with God on Mount Sinai. Then follow the accounts which those who after him prepared the way for our religion have stored up in sacred Scriptures. Josephus also composed. an extensive history, in every way valuable. All the stories, whether fabulous or true, relating to the contests of the Greeks and ancient barbarians, both among themselves and against each other, and whatever else had been achieved since the period at which they record the first existence of mankind, have been written by Charax, Theopompus, Ephorus, and others too numerous to mention. The transactions of the Romans, embracing the history of the whole world, and whatever else took place either with respect to their intestine divisions or their proceedings towards other nations, have been treated of by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who has brought down his account from the times of what are called the Aborigines, to those of Pyrrhus of Epirus. The history is then taken up by Polybius of Megalopolis, who brings it down to the capture of Carthage. All these materials Appian has portioned out by a clear arrangement, separately grouping each series of transactions, though occurring at intervals of time. What events occurred subsequent to the before-mentioned periods, have been treated by Diodorus Siculus, as far as the time of Julius Cæsar, and by Dion Cassius, who continued his account as far as Antoninus of Emesa. In a similar work of Herodian, the account extends as far as the death of Maximus; and in that of Nicostratus, the sophist of Trapezus, from Philip, the successor of Gordian, to Odenatus of Palmyra, and the ignominious expedition of Valerian against the Persians. Dexippus has also written at great length on the same subject, commencing with the Scythian wars, and terminating with the reign of Claudius, the successor of Gallienus and he also included the military transactions of the Carpi and other barbarian tribes, in Greece, Thrace, and Ionia. Eusebius too, commencing from Octavian, Trajan, and Marcus, brought his account down to the death of Carus. history of the same times has been partially written both by Arrian and Asinius Quadratus: that of the succeeding period

:

The

Arrian wrote the Parthica and Alanica, in which books he related the actions performed by the Romans in their wars against the Parthians and Alans. These are the books to which Evagrius here alludes.