in which times, when he had presided over the church of the Romans, Eutychianus succeeded; and he, not having lasted even ten whole months, left the inheritance to Gaius of our day. And when he too had presided about fifteen years, Marcellinus was established as his successor, whom also the persecution overtook.
In these times, over the episcopate of the Antiochenes, after Domnus, Timaeus presided; and him our contemporary Cyril succeeded, in whose time we came to know Dorotheus, a learned man, who had been deemed worthy of the presbyterate at Antioch. This man, being a lover of what is good in things divine, applied himself also to the Hebrew tongue, so that he read the Hebrew Scriptures themselves with understanding.
And this man was among those of the most liberal education, not unversed also in the preliminary Greek studies; but he was by nature a eunuch, having been so formed from his very birth, so that the emperor on this account made him his own, as some marvel, and honoured him with the charge of the purple-dyeing works at Tyre.
We listened to him expounding the Scriptures with moderation in the church. And after Cyril, Tyrannus succeeded to the episcopate of the parish of the Antiochenes, in whose time the besieging of the churches reached its height.
And over the parish at Laodicea, after Socrates, Eusebius presided, who had set out from the city of Alexandria. The cause of his migration was the affair concerning Paul, on account of which, having entered Syria, he was prevented by those there who were zealous in things divine from returning home; being a most lovely embodiment of godliness among the men of our day, as it is easy to discern from the words of Dionysius cited above.
Anatolius was established as his successor—a good man, they say, succeeding a good one—himself also an Alexandrian by birth, who, on account of learning and Greek education and philosophy, had carried off the foremost honours among the most approved of our day, inasmuch as he had advanced to the summit in arithmetic and geometry and astronomy and the rest of dialectic, and moreover in natural science and in the studies of rhetoric. On which account, report has it that he was deemed worthy by the citizens there to establish the school of the succession of Aristotle.
Countless other notable exploits of his they relate in the siege of the Brucheum quarter at Alexandria, seeing that he was deemed worthy of a special privilege by all those in office; but for the sake of one specimen only I shall make mention of this.
When the wheat had failed those who were besieged, they say, so that the famine had now become more unbearable to them than the enemies outside, the man we are speaking of, being present, devised some such plan as this. While the other part of the city was in alliance with the Roman army and was therefore unbesieged, Anatolius sent and instructed Eusebius—for he was still there at that time, before his migration to Syria, being among those not besieged, and having gained great fame and a name renowned even up to the Roman general—concerning those who were perishing by famine during the siege.
And he, learning of it, asked of the Roman general, as a very great favour, that safety be granted as a gift to deserters from the enemy; and having obtained his request, he made it known to Anatolius. And the latter, immediately receiving the promise, gathered a council of the Alexandrians, and at first asked them all to give the right hand of friendship to the Romans; but when he perceived that they were enraged at the proposal, he said: “But I think you will not gainsay me at least in this—if I should counsel that the superfluous, and those nowise useful to us ourselves, the old women and infants and aged men, be sent out to walk beyond the gates wherever they wish. For why should we keep with us these who are all but already dead to no purpose? And why should we wear out with famine those who are maimed and crippled in body, when we ought to feed only the men and the young, and to store up the necessary wheat for those fit for the guarding of the city?”
By some such reasonings having persuaded the council, he was the first to rise and bring forward the motion that all the population unfit for military service, whether of men or of women, be released from the city; because for those who remained and lingered uselessly in the city there could be no hope of safety, since they would perish by the famine.
And when all the rest had assented to this counsel, he all but saved the whole body of the besieged: taking forethought first for those of the church, and then also that those of every age throughout the whole city should slip away—not only those decreed by the motion, but, under that pretext, countless others too, who secretly clothed themselves in women's dress and went out by night through the gates by his contrivance, and made for the Roman army. There Eusebius, receiving them all, like a father and physician, restored those worn out by the long siege with all forethought and care.
Of such pastors was the church at Laodicea deemed worthy of two in succession, who, by divine forethought, after the war just mentioned, migrated from the city of Alexandria to these parts.
Now very many treatises were composed by Anatolius with diligence, and so many of them have come down to us, through which it is possible to learn at once both his eloquence and his great learning; among these he sets forth especially his views concerning the Pascha, from which it would be necessary at present to make mention of these things. [From the Paschal Canons of Anatolius]
It has, then, in the first year, the new moon of the first month, which is the beginning of the entire nineteen-year cycle, on the twenty-sixth of Phamenoth according to the Egyptians, and according to the months of the Macedonians on the twenty-second of Dystrus, or as the Romans would say, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of April.
And the sun is found, on the aforesaid twenty-sixth of Phamenoth, not only to have entered the first segment, but already to be traversing the fourth day within it. This segment they are wont to call the first twelfth-part, and the equinoctial, and the beginning of months, and the head of the cycle, and the starting-point of the course of the planets; and the one before it, the last of the months, and the twelfth segment, and the final twelfth-part, and the end of the planets' circuit. Wherefore we say that those who place the first month in it, and take the fourteenth of the Pascha accordingly, err in no small way nor by chance.
And this is not our own statement, but it was known to the Jews of old, even before Christ, and was observed by them most carefully. One may learn it from the words of Philo, Josephus, and Musaeus, and not only of these, but also of still more ancient men, the two Agathobuli, surnamed ‘the teachers,’ and of the renowned Aristobulus, who was reckoned among the seventy who translated the sacred and divine Scriptures of the Hebrews for Ptolemy Philadelphus and his father, and who dedicated expository books on the law of Moses to the same kings.
These men, in resolving the questions arising in connexion with the Exodus, say that all alike ought to sacrifice the passover offerings after the spring equinox, at the middle of the first month; and that this falls when the sun is traversing the first segment of the solar, or as some of them named it, the zodiac circle. And Aristobulus adds that at the feast of the passover offerings it is of necessity that not only the sun should be traversing an equinoctial segment, but the moon as well.
For since there are two equinoctial segments, the one vernal, the other autumnal, and these diametrically opposite one another, and since the day of the passover offerings is appointed to the fourteenth of the month after evening, the moon will stand in the position opposite and diametrical to the sun, as indeed it is possible to see at the full moons; and the one—the sun—will be at the vernal equinoctial segment, while the other—the moon—of necessity at the autumnal equinoctial segment.
I know many other things said by them—some plausible, some advancing by means of demonstrations from the Lord—through which they attempt to establish that the feast of the Pascha and of unleavened bread must by all means be kept after the equinox. But I pass over demanding such materials of demonstrations, from which the veil upon the law of Moses has been taken away, and from now on, with face unveiled, one must ever behold Christ and the teachings and sufferings of Christ as in a mirror. And that the first month among the Hebrews is about the equinox, the teachings in Enoch also are confirmatory.
And the same man also left behind, in ten whole treatises, introductions to arithmetic, and other specimens of his leisure in things divine and of his great experience.
Upon this man Theotecnus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, first laid hands for the episcopate, providing beforehand to procure him as his own successor for his own parish after his death. And indeed for some short time both presided over the same church; but when the synod concerning Paul called him to Antioch, as he was passing by the city of the Laodiceans, he was detained by the brethren there, Eusebius having fallen asleep.
And when Anatolius had departed this life, Stephen was established as the last of the bishops of that parish before the persecution—a man admired by many for philosophical learning and the rest of Greek education, but not similarly disposed toward the divine faith, as the season of the persecution, advancing, proved; for it showed the man to be a dissembler, cowardly and unmanly, rather than a true philosopher.
Nevertheless, the affairs of the church were not to be overthrown on his account; but they were set right by God Himself, the Saviour of all, when forthwith Theodotus was proclaimed bishop of that parish—a man who by his very deeds verified both the name ‘Lord-given’ and the office of bishop. For he held the first place in the science of the healing of bodies, but in the healing of souls he was such as no other man among men chanced to be, for his benevolence, sincerity, sympathy, and zeal for the benefit of those in need of him. And much also was the practice he had in things divine. Such, then, was this man.
And in Caesarea of Palestine, when Theotecnus had most diligently fulfilled the episcopate, Agapius succeeded him, whom we know to have laboured much, and to have exercised most genuine forethought in the oversight of the people, and with a liberal hand to have cared most of all for the poor.
In his time we came to know Pamphilus, a most learned man, a true philosopher in his very life, who had been deemed worthy of the presbyterate of that parish. Of what sort he was and whence he came would be no small matter to set forth; but the several details of his life and of the school he established, and his contests during the persecution in various confessions, and the crown of martyrdom which over all these he bound about himself, we have treated in a special work concerning him.
But this man, then, was the most admirable of those there; and among those especially of our day whom we know to have been most rare, were, of the presbyters at Alexandria, Pierius, and Meletius, bishop of the churches in Pontus.
But the one was approved for a life of utter detachment from possessions and for philosophical learning, being supernaturally well-exercised in the contemplations and expositions of things divine, and in the discourses at the common assembly of the church; while Meletius—those of education used to call him ‘the honey of Attica’—was such a man as one might describe as most perfect on account of accomplishments in every kind of learning. For as to his excellence in rhetoric, it is not even possible to admire it worthily; yet this, one might say, was to him a natural endowment. But as for his great experience and great learning in the rest, who could surpass his excellence?
For in all the rational sciences you would have called him, having had but a single trial of him, the most skilful and most learned, and that without rival. And the virtues of his life were on a par with these. Him, during the time of the persecution, we observed for seven whole years escaping through the regions of Palestine.
And over the church at Jerusalem, after the bishop Hymenaeus mentioned a little before, Zabdas received the ministry. And not long after, when he had fallen asleep, Hermon succeeded to the apostolic throne, still preserved there even to this day, being the last before the persecution of our time.
And at Alexandria, when Maximus had held the episcopate for eighteen years after the death of Dionysius, Theonas succeeded him; in whose time Achillas, who had been deemed worthy of the presbyterate at Alexandria along with Pierius, became distinguished, being entrusted with the school of the sacred faith, and displaying a work of philosophy second to none in its rarity, and a genuine manner of evangelical conduct.
And after Theonas, who had served for nineteen years, Peter succeeded to the episcopate of those at Alexandria, himself also pre-eminent among the most distinguished for twelve whole years; of which, having presided over the church for not even three full years before the persecution, for the remaining time of his life he led himself in a more strenuous ascetic discipline, and cared not obscurely for the common benefit of the churches. Accordingly, then, in the ninth year of the persecution, having had his head cut off, he was adorned with the crown of martyrdom.
Having in these things rounded off the subject of the successions—which from the birth of our Saviour to the destruction of the houses of prayer extends to three hundred and five years—come now, let us next leave in writing, for those after us to know, the contests of those of our day who played the man on behalf of godliness, how many and how great they were.