Chronicle 1

Preface. After the wonderful work which Eusebius of Caesarea published in Greek style — recording the origin of this age, the times, the years, the kingdoms, and the virtues of mortals, and the inventors of various arts, and the monuments of almost all the provinces, from the framing of the world down to the emperor Constantine — our Jerome translated the whole into Latin, and added in Roman eloquence down to Caesar Valens. Therefore each author of this work, with marvellous ingenuity, then reckoned this world to be four thousand five hundred and seventy-nine years old.

But I, following only the Eastern empire with a simple reckoning, counting through the indictions and through the consuls written below, one hundred and forty years — namely from the seventh indiction and from the consulship of Ausonius and Olybrius (in whose consulship also Theodosius the Great was made emperor) — and gathering up as far as the consulship of Magnus of the eleventh indiction, I appended to the work of those same authors; and likewise another sixteen years, from the first consulship of Justin Augustus down to the fourth consulship of Justinian Augustus, I added: that is together one hundred and fifty-six years, and I have set down my rustic work. HERE BEGINS THE CHRONICLE. (A.D. 379.) In the seventh indiction, Ausonius and Olybrius being consuls.

Theodosius, a Spaniard, of the city of the divine Trajan in Italica, was created emperor by Gratian Augustus at Sirmium, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February, the thirty-ninth day after the death of Valens, to rule the Eastern commonwealth only — a man exceedingly religious and a propagator of the Catholic Church, to be set above all the Eastern princes, save that he had Marcian, the third prince after him, as his imitator. He conquered the Alans, the Huns, the Goths, and the Scythian peoples in great and many battles. (A.D. 380.) In the eighth indiction, Gratian Augustus for the fifth time and Theodosius Augustus being consuls.

Gregory of Nazianzus, a most eloquent priest of Christ and the teacher of our Jerome, when our church at Byzantium had been seized by the Arians, kept the Catholic people together by daily Catholic address in the oratory of blessed Anastasia. For he was often assailed by the revilings of the wicked; but, endowed with the grace of Christ, he withstood the faithless Arians up to that time when, by his presence, that same church was restored to our people. For in these consulships, Theodosius the Great, after he had triumphed over the Scythian peoples, having immediately expelled the Arians from the church of the orthodox — who had held it for nearly forty years under the Arian emperors — restored it to our Catholics; the orthodox emperor did so in the month of December. (A.D. 381.) Indiction.

In the ninth indiction, Eucherius and Evagrius (perhaps Syagrius) being consuls. When the one hundred and fifty holy Fathers had been gathered in the imperial city against Macedonius, who was making shipwreck concerning the Holy Spirit, by those same bishops the holy synod was confirmed: Damasus, namely, holding the see of blessed Peter; but at Constantinople, through Timothy of Alexandria, and through Meletius of Antioch and Cyril of Jerusalem the bishops, Nectarius, baptized straightway from a pagan and ordained pontiff in the aforesaid synod. Athanaric, king of the Goths, with whom the emperor Theodosius had made a treaty, came to Constantinople in the month of January, and in the same month perished of disease. (A.D. 382.) In the tenth indiction, Antonius and Syagrius being consuls. The body of the divine Valentinian the Great.

His body was brought back from Italy by the emperor Theodosius and buried in a tomb at the Comitatus quarter. In the same year the whole nation of the Goths, upon the death of their king Athanaric, surrendered itself to the Roman empire in the month of October. Damasus, the thirty-fifth bishop of the Roman Church (not counting Liberius and Felix), fell asleep in the Lord in the eighteenth year of his pontificate. (A.D. 383.) Indiction 11, in the consulship of Merobaudes (for the second time) and Saturninus. Siricius was made the thirty-sixth bishop of the Roman Church; he lived for fifteen years. Arcadius was crowned colleague in empire with his father Theodosius Augustus at the seventh milestone from the City. The emperor Gratian was killed at Lyon through the treachery of the usurper Maximus, on the eighth day before the Kalends of September. (A.D. 384.) Indiction 12, in the consulship of Richomeres and Clearchus.

Ambassadors of the Persians came to Constantinople, asking for peace from the emperor Theodosius. At the same time another son, Honorius, was born to Theodosius, in the month of September. (A.D. 385.) Indiction 13, in the consulship of Arcadius and Bauto. The emperor Theodosius, through his envoys, subjected a number of Eastern nations to his rule. (A.D. 386.) Indiction 14, in the consulship of Honorius Caesar and Euodius. The emperor Theodosius recovered Thrace, which had been invaded by enemies, and as victor entered the City together with his son Arcadius. Galla, the second wife of king Theodosius, came to Constantinople in this consulship. (A.D. 387.) Indiction 15, in the consulship of Valentinian (for the third time) and Eutropius.

Arcadius Caesar celebrated his five-year anniversary together with his father Theodosius. Theodosius the Great set out to do battle against the usurper Maximus in Italy. (A.D. 388.) Indiction 1, in the consulship of Theodosius Augustus (for the second time) and Cynegius. Valentinian, brother of Gratian, and the emperor Theodosius defeated the usurper Maximus and his son Victor, who were in rebellion, at Aquileia. The count Andragathius, upon learning of the death of Maximus, threw himself headlong from his ship into the waves and was drowned. (A.D. 389.) Indiction 2, in the consulship of Timasius and Promotus. The emperor Theodosius entered Rome in the month of June together with his son Honorius, distributed a largess to the Roman people, and left the City on the Kalends of September.

About the same time crackling hail fell for two days on end instead of rain, destroying flocks and trees. A star rising in the north at cockcrow appeared, burning rather than shining after the manner of the morning star, and ceased to be on the twenty-third day. The temple of Serapis at Alexandria was demolished by an edict of the emperor Theodosius. (A.D. 390.) Indiction 3, in the consulship of Valentinian Augustus (for the fourth time) and Neoterius. A sign appeared in the sky like a column hanging and burning, for thirty days. Galla, wife of Theodosius, was driven out by her stepson Arcadius. An obelisk was set up in the circus; a column was erected not far from the church, which to this day is beheld bearing a silver statue of Theodosius the Great. (A.D. 391.) Indiction.

4, in the consulship of Tatian and Symmachus. The emperor Theodosius, leaving Italy, returned to Constantinople. The emperor Valentinian was treacherously strangled to death at Vienne through the plot of Arbogast, on the Ides of March. Eugenius, trusting in the favour of Arbogast, usurped the empire for himself. (A.D. 392.) Indiction 5, in the consulship of Arcadius (for the second time) and Rufinus. Arbogast, after the emperor Valentinian had been killed and Eugenius had been made Caesar, drew together countless and invincible forces from all sides into the Gauls, intending to claim the Western empire for himself—a barbarian man, excessive in spirit, in counsel, in hand, in audacity, and in power. He gathered from every quarter countless forces, supported partly by garrisons of the Romans, partly by auxiliaries of the barbarians, here by his authority, there by kinship.

Up to this nineteenth year of the reign of Theodosius, the blessed Jerome, beginning from the apostle Peter and ending with himself, recorded the ecclesiastical writings of a hundred and thirty-five illustrious men, after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. He lived in the town of Bethlehem, where he both founded a monastery for himself and, instructed also in Hebrew letters, wrote many other ecclesiastical works; and he came to the end of his life when very old, and was buried there—to the Catholics indeed an impregnable tower of the Church, but to all heretics a tireless enemy, contending both by the purpose of his own life and by the affirmations of the books he published. (A.D. 393.) Indiction 6, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the third time) and Abundantius.

His father Theodosius made Honorius Caesar in the same place where he had made his brother Arcadius, that is, at the seventh milestone from the royal city. At that time, indeed, at the third hour of the day, darkness fell. (A.D. 394.) Indiction 7, in the consulship of Arcadius (for the third time) and Honorius (for the second time). Theodosius Augustus, having taken Honorius as Caesar—his own son—hastened once more against Arbogast, who had dared to make the usurper Eugenius emperor. When battle was joined, Eugenius was defeated, captured, and slain; Arbogast struck himself down with his own hand. An earthquake threatened continuously from the month of September into November, and a number of regions of Europe were shaken. The Baths of Arcadius received their name from the name of their founder. (A.D. 395.) Indiction.

8, in the consulship of Olybrius and Probinus. Theodosius the Great departed this life at Milan. He reigned for seventeen years. His body was brought to Constantinople in the same year and buried. Arcadius and Honorius, the two brothers, began to hold the two halves of the empire, with only their seats divided. The patrician Rufinus, plotting against the emperor Arcadius, secretly sending him money, made Alaric king of the Goths hostile to the commonwealth and sent him into Greece. But when his plot was discovered, Rufinus was deservedly slain by the Italian soldiers who had once been sent to Arcadius with the count Gainas, before the gates of the city. His head and his right hand were displayed throughout all Constantinople. (A.D. 396.) Indiction 9, in the consulship of Arcadius (for the fourth time) and Honorius (for the third time).

The wife and daughter of Rufinus went into exile. Eutropius, chamberlain of the sacred palace, seized all his wealth and surpassed all bounds of avarice. There was an earthquake for very many days, and the sky was seen to burn. (A.D. 397.) Indiction 10, in the consulship of Caesarius and Atticus. In this consulship Flaccilla, a daughter, was born to Arcadius. (A.D. 398.) Indiction 11, in the consulship of Honorius (for the fourth time) and Eutychianus. Anastasius, the thirty-seventh bishop of the Roman Church, was ordained and lived four years. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, a citadel of the faith, a Catholic orator endowed with virtues, departed to Christ the Lord. John, born at Antioch, ordained there as lector of the church by Meletius, bishop and confessor of that same city, rose through each grade of office.

There, throughout five continuous years, as deacon he published many and divine books; made presbyter also, he composed yet more over the course of several years. Thereafter, deservedly spread abroad everywhere by so great a reputation, he was appointed bishop at Constantinople in the place of Nectarius. There he added very many sweet volumes of the divine Scriptures to his Catholic work, and he had these bishops as enemies: Theophilus of Alexandria, Epiphanius of Cyprus, Acacius of Beroea, Antiochus of Ptolemais, Severian of Gabala, and Severus of Chalcedon.

Gildo, a count and likewise a pagan, who after the death of the emperor Theodosius was governing Africa, while Arcadius and Honorius were still children reigning, grew envious of them and strove to gain Africa for himself. His brother Mascezel, having learned of his madness, left his two sons in Africa and returned to Italy: Gildo treacherously slew both his brother's sons. Mascezel, on learning of his brother's crime, advanced as an enemy against Gildo with five thousand of his men, against Gildo who was coming to meet him with seventy thousand armed men, and—aided by his own fastings and prayers, indeed by the warning of the blessed Ambrose in dreams—he put the parricide Gildo to flight. Gildo, fleeing, strangled himself with his own hand;

and thus Mascezel earned a victory without war, and vengeance without slaughter. (A.D. 399.) Indiction 12, in the consulship of Theodorus and the eunuch Eutropius. This Eutropius was the first and last consul of all eunuchs, of whom the poet Claudian wrote: 'All monstrous portents have yielded, now a eunuch is consul.' Pulcheria, a second daughter, was born to Arcadius. The count Gainas at Constantinople secretly incited his barbarians to prepare for civil war; he himself, feigning ill health, left the city. When battle was begun against the Byzantines, very many of the enemy fell; the rest, fleeing, took refuge in our church, and there, when the roof of the church had been uncovered and stones cast down from above, they were crushed. (A.D. 400.) Indiction 13, in the consulship of Stilicho and Aurelian.

A naval battle was waged against the usurper Gainas between the Chersonese and the Hellespont: many thousands of Goths were slain or drowned. The count Gainas escaped by flight from this battle; yet in that same year he was killed, in the month of February (perhaps December). (A.D. 401.) Indiction 14, in the consulship of Vincentius and Fravitta. The head of Gainas, fixed on a spear, was brought to Constantinople. The surface of the Pontic Sea was so bound by frost that, for thirty days, the ice when at length loosened was carried up over the Propontis like mountains and went rushing down. Theodosius the younger was born to his father Arcadius on the third day before the Ides of April. (A.D. 402.) Indiction 15, in the consulship of Arcadius (for the fifth time) and Honorius (for the fifth time).

Innocent was made the thirty-eighth bishop of the Roman Church; he lived fifteen years. Theodosius the younger was made Caesar in the place where his father and uncle had been. There was a great earthquake at Constantinople. (A.D. 403.) Indiction 1, in the consulship of Theodosius the younger and Rumoridus. Marina was born to her father Arcadius on the third day before the Ides of February. A silver statue of Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius, set upon a porphyry column beside the church, stands there to this day. John, bishop of the city of Constantinople, against whom the six aforementioned bishops had been vainly hostile and had brought over thirty other bishops to their side, they sent into exile—against the will of the emperor Arcadius—to the town of Cucusus in Armenia.

And after one year they relegated him from that exile into a further exile, to the estate which is called Comana in the region of Pontus. When he died there, the religious orthodox populace—warned in dreams by the holy Basiliscus, bishop and likewise martyr—buried him in the courtyard of that same martyr, in a new tomb found shortly before. (A.D. 404.) Indiction 2, in the consulship of Honorius (for the sixth time) and Aristaenetus. A flame of fire, which had arisen from the throne of the blessed John, formerly bishop, suddenly consumed the church of Constantinople, and creeping on it nonetheless burned up the neighbouring portion of the city's face. Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius, met her day. (A.D. 405.) Indiction 3, in the consulship of Stilicho (for the second time) and Anthemius.

The Isaurians, running riot through Mount Taurus, brought great loss upon the commonwealth; to whom the envoy Narbazaicus straightway repaid a greater injury. (A.D. 406.) Indiction 4, in the consulship of Arcadius (for the sixth time) and Probus. Theodosius the younger held his five-year celebration. Radagaisus, a pagan and a Scythian, with two hundred thousand of his men, flooded over all of Italy. Uldin and Sarus, kings of the Huns and Goths, straightway overcame Radagaisus, cutting off his head and selling his captives at one gold piece each. (A.D. 407.) Indiction 5, in the consulship of Honorius (for the seventh time) and Theodosius the younger (for the second time). A very great cistern was built beside the porphyry column of the emperor Constantine in his forum, under the passage of the street. (A.D.

408.) Indiction 6, in the consulship of Bassus and Philippus. The count Stilicho, whose two daughters Maria and Thermantia had each been wives of the emperor Honorius—both, however, dying virgins—scorning Honorius and gaping after his kingdom, stirred up against the realm of Honorius the nations of the Alans, Sueves, and Vandals, enticed by gifts and money, desiring to make his own son Eucherius—a pagan, who was contriving plots against Christians—Caesar. He was killed together with that same Eucherius, his plot having been uncovered. At Rome in the Forum of Peace the earth gave forth a bellowing for seven days. The emperor Arcadius came to the end of his life: he reigned thirteen years after the death of his father Theodosius. (A.D. 409.) Indiction 7, in the consulship of Honorius (for the eighth time) and Theodosius the younger (for the third time).

At Constantinople a great sedition of the people flared up, namely because a scarcity of bread had fallen upon them. (A.D. 410.) Indiction 8, with Varanes as sole consul. Alaric invaded the trembling city of Rome, burned part of it with fire, and on the sixth day after he had entered it, left the plundered city, carrying off Placidia, sister of the emperor Honorius, whom afterwards he gave in marriage to his kinsman Athaulf. (A.D. 411.) Indiction 9, in the consulship of Honorius (for the ninth time) and Theodosius (for the fourth time). Theodosius the younger gave his ten-year celebration; Honorius gave his twenty-year celebration at Rome. Constantine usurped the empire in the Gauls and made his own son, drawn from a monk, Caesar; he himself is killed at the city of Arles; his son Constans is beheaded at Vienne. (A.D.

412.) Indiction 10, with the emperor Theodosius (for the fifth time) as sole consul. Jovinus and Sebastianus, contriving a usurpation in the Gauls, were killed. Attalus, captured at sea and presented to Honorius, was left his life with his hand cut off. (A.D. 413.) Indiction 11, with Lucius as sole consul. Heraclian, count of Africa, advancing towards the City with seven hundred ships and three thousand soldiers, soon disembarked toward the city of Rome; terrified at the encounter with the count Marinus and turned to flight, he seized a ship and returned alone to Carthage, where he was at once killed. (A.D. 414.) Indiction 12, in the consulship of Constantine and Constans. Pulcheria, sister of Theodosius, was called Augusta.

Wallia, king of the Goths, having made peace with the emperor Honorius, restored to him his sister Placidia, then a widow. (A.D. 415.) Indiction 13, in the consulship of Honorius (for the tenth time) and Theodosius (for the sixth time). The church of Constantinople, formerly consumed by fire, was in this consulship restored and dedicated, Atticus being bishop governing that same church. Lucianus, a presbyter and a holy man, to whom in this consulship God revealed the place of the tomb and of the relics of the body of the holy Stephen, the first martyr, wrote out that revelation itself in the Greek tongue for the people of all the churches. (A.D. 416.) Indiction 14, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the seventh time) and Palladius. Orosius, a presbyter of Spanish stock, wrote seven books of Histories.

This same Orosius, sent by bishop Augustine to the presbyter Jerome to learn the doctrine of the soul, was the first to bring to the West, on his return, the relics of the blessed Stephen then but newly discovered. Atticus, bishop of Constantinople, wrote to the queens, daughters of the emperor Arcadius, a book On Faith and Virginity, exceedingly excellent, in which, anticipating the Nestorian doctrine, he attacks it. (A.D. 417.) Indiction 15, in the consulship of Honorius (for the eleventh time) and Constantius (for the second time). Darkness fell by day. Cybera, a city of Asia, and a number of estates were swallowed by an earthquake. Zosimus was ordained the thirty-ninth bishop of the Roman Church; he lived three years. (A.D. 418.) Indiction 1, in the consulship of Honorius (for the twelfth time) and Theodosius (for the eighth time).

The count Plinta, likewise the instigator of the rebels in the province of Palestine, was destroyed. An eclipse of the sun took place. A star, rising in the East and burning, appeared for seven months. (A.D. 419.) Indiction 2, in the consulship of Monaxius and Plinta. Valentinian the younger was born at Ravenna of his father Constantius and his mother Placidia, on the fifth day before the Nones of July. Many cities and villages of Palestine collapsed in an earthquake. Our Lord Jesus Christ, ever present everywhere, manifested himself from a cloud upon Mount Olivet near Jerusalem.

Then many peoples of both sexes, of the neighbouring nations, terrified and made believing both by what they saw and by what they heard, were washed in the holy font of Christ; and on the tunics of all the baptized the cross of Christ the Saviour, by the nod of the Godhead, was forthwith imprinted and shone forth. (A.D. 420.) Indiction 3, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the ninth time) and Constantius (for the third time). Boniface was ordained the fortieth bishop of the Roman Church; he lived three years. In the East the soldiers stirred up a tumult and slew their own leader, Maximinus by name. In Persia a persecution raged fiercely against the Christians. (A.D. 421.) Indiction 4, in the consulship of Eustathius and Agricola. The emperor Theodosius took Eudoxia, an Achaean woman, as his wife.

This same Theodosius dedicated in his father Arcadius's forum, upon a huge column, a vast statue. The Cistern of Aetius was built. The Romans clashed with the Persians. (A.D. 422.) Indiction 5, in the consulship of Honorius (for the thirteenth time) and Theodosius (for the tenth time). The emperor Theodosius begot a daughter, Eudoxia. At the thirty-year celebration of Honorius, the usurpers Maximus and Jovinus, vanquished by the sword, were brought from the Spains and put to death. The Huns laid waste Thrace. The Persians made peace with the Romans. (A.D. 423.) Indiction 6, in the consulship of Asclepiodotus and Marinianus. Celestine was created the forty-first bishop of the Roman Church; he lived nine years. Evagrius wrote the Dispute of the Jew Simon and the Christian Theophilus, which is known to almost everyone.

There were earthquakes in many places, and a famine of crops followed. The philosophers Philippus and Sallustius perished of disease. A star, often burning and comet-like, appeared. The emperor Honorius fulfilled his fated end. (A.D. 424.) Indiction 7, in the consulship of Victor and Castinus. Placidia, mother of Valentinian, was proclaimed Augusta. Valentinian, made Caesar, betrothed to himself Eudoxia, daughter of the emperor Theodosius. John, on the death of Honorius, seized the Western kingdom. (A.D. 425.) Indiction 8, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the eleventh time) and Valentinian Caesar. The aforesaid John was slain rather by the treachery of Ardabur and Aspar than by valour. Valentinian the younger was made emperor at Ravenna. (A.D. 426.) Indiction 9, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the twelfth time) and Valentinian (for the second time).

Sisinnius, a man of holy simplicity and of simple holiness, was made bishop of Constantinople. (A.D. 427.) Indiction 10, in the consulship of Hierius and Ardabur. The Pannonias, which had been held by the Huns for fifty years, were recovered by the Romans. The Baths of Theodosius were dedicated. (A.D. 428.) Indiction 11, in the consulship of Felix and Taurus. Nestorius, born at Antioch, a man indeed of considerable eloquence but of little wisdom, with the Constantinopolitans much striving for it, was ordained bishop from being a presbyter. The memory of the most blessed bishop John, long before exiled through the malice of evil bishops, began to be celebrated at the court, on the twenty-sixth day of the month of September. (A.D.

429.) Indiction 12, in the consulship of Florentius and Dionysius. Our orthodox took away the church of the Macedonians situated outside the walls of the city, because those same Macedonians had killed Antoninus, the Catholic bishop of Germe. The most blessed Augustine, most elegant priest of Christ of the Church of Hippo and a foremost teacher, rested in a peaceful death. (A.D. 430.) Indiction 13, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the thirteenth time) and Valentinian (for the third time). The emperor Theodosius held his thirty-year celebration. Felix was killed at Ravenna. Celestine, pontiff of the Roman citadel, by his own letter—granting him a respite of ten days—announces to Nestorius, bishop of depravity, either pardon if he repents, or condemnation if he dissents.

This same Nestorius, the faithless bishop of the Church of Constantinople, from whom also the Nestorian faithlessness sprang up, was condemned at Ephesus by the sentence of two hundred holy Fathers in synod, Celestine appointing Cyril, bishop of the city of Alexandria, as his vicar for the time. In the place of Nestorius the bishop Maximian was substituted. (A.D. 431.) Indiction 14, in the consulship of Antiochus and Bassus. Flaccilla, daughter of Theodosius Augustus, poured forth her last breath. Barbarians reared in the imperial city flocked to our church in hostile manner; while they cast fire into the church to burn the altar, by God's resistance they slew one another in turn.

At this time, while Theodosius was holding a procession to the public granaries, a scarcity of wheat pressing hard upon the people, the emperor was assailed with stones by the famished populace. (A.D. 432.) Indiction 15, in the consulship of Valerius and Aetius. Xystus was ordained the forty-second bishop of the Roman Church; he lived eight years. At the prompting of Placidia, mother of the emperor Valentinian, a great war was waged between the patricians Boniface and Aetius. Aetius, with a longer weapon prepared for himself the day before, wounded Boniface as he engaged, while himself remaining unhurt; and in the third month Boniface died of the wound by which he had been injured, exhorting his very wealthy wife Pelagia to marry no other than Aetius. (A.D. 433.) Indiction 1, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the fourteenth time) and Maximus.

The greater, northern part of the royal city was burned for three days on end and collapsed, in the month of August. (A.D. 434.) Indiction 2, in the consulship of Areobindus and Aspar. Honoria, sister of the emperor Valentinian, defiled by her procurator Eugenius, conceived, and being expelled from the palace and sent from Italy to the emperor Theodosius, was inciting Attila against the Western commonwealth. (A.D. 435.) Indiction 3, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the fifteenth time) and Valentinian (for the fourth time). The Forum of the emperor Theodosius was built in the place which is called Helianae. Sebastianus, son-in-law of the former patrician Boniface, fled the imperial city and was killed in Africa. (A.D. 436.) Indiction 4, in the consulship of Isidore and Senator.

The emperor Theodosius made for the city of Cyzicus by ship, and having bestowed much munificence upon that city, sailed back to the imperial city. (A.D. 437.) Indiction 5, in the consulship of Aetius (for the second time) and Sigisvuldus. The emperor Valentinian, having departed from Rome to join to himself in marriage Eudoxia, daughter of the emperor Theodosius, whom he had long before betrothed, came to Constantinople; and she having been married to him, while making for Italy again, he wintered at Thessalonica. (A.D. 438.) Indiction 6, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the sixteenth time) and Faustus. The robber Contradis, with his pirates and companions, was captured and killed. The relics of the most blessed John, formerly bishop of the imperial city, were restored to that same city and buried there, on the twenty-seventh day of the month of January.

The emperor Valentinian entered Ravenna with his wife Eudoxia. (A.D. 439.) Indiction 7, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the seventeenth time) and Festus. The emperor Theodosius held his eighth five-year celebration. Eudoxia, wife of the emperor Theodosius, returned to the royal city from Jerusalem, bringing with her the relics of the most blessed Stephen, the first martyr, which are venerated, placed in the basilica of Saint Lawrence. At this time Geiseric, king of the Vandals, occupied the cities of Africa and Carthage the metropolis with his followers, on the tenth day before the Kalends of November. (A.D. 440.) Indiction 8, in the consulship of Valentinian (for the fifth time) and Anatolius. Paulinus, master of the offices, was put to death at Caesarea in Cappadocia by command of the emperor Theodosius. Leo was created the forty-third pope of the Roman Church; he lived twenty-one years.

(A.D. 441.) Indiction 9, with Cyrus as sole consul. The Persians, Saracens, Tzanni, Isaurians, and Huns, having gone out from their own borders, laid waste the soil of the Romans. Against these were sent Anatolius and Aspar, masters of the soldiery, and they made a peace of one year's duration with them. John, a Vandal by nation and master of the soldiery, was killed in Thrace by the treachery of Arnegisclus. The kings of the Huns, with numerous thousands of their men, burst into Illyricum: they destroyed Naissus, Singidunum, and very many other cities and towns of Illyricum. (A.D. 442.) Indiction 10, in the consulship of Eudoxius and Dioscorus. A star which is called comet appeared, burning for a very long time.

Bleda and Attila, brothers and kings of many nations, devastated Illyricum and Thrace. (A.D. 443.) Indiction 11, in the consulship of Maximus (for the second time) and Paterius. In this consulship so great a snow fell that for six months it could scarcely melt: many thousands of men and animals, consumed by the rigour of the cold, perished. The emperor Theodosius returned to the city from his Asian expedition. The opening ceremonies of the Baths which are called Achillean were held. (A.D. 444.) Indiction 12, in the consulship of Theodosius (for the eighteenth time) and Albinus. The emperor Theodosius gave his ninth five-year celebration. Arcadia, sister of Theodosius, came to the end of her life.

A number of towns and estates of Bithynia, undermined and dissolved by the force of long continuous rains and the inundation of swelling rivers, perished. Severus a presbyter and John a deacon, who ministered to queen Eudoxia at the city of Aelia, were killed by Saturninus, count of the domestics, sent by the emperor Theodosius. Eudoxia, roused by some grief or other, forthwith beheaded Saturninus; and at once, by the nod of her husband the emperor, stripped of her royal attendants, she remained at the city of Aelia to die there. (A.D. 445.) Indiction 13, in the consulship of Valentinian (for the sixth time) and Nomus. Bleda, king of the Huns, was killed by the plots of his brother Attila. At Byzantium, a sedition of the people having arisen in the circus, many slew one another in turn, and within the city many

bodies of men and cattle perished by a plague. (A.D. 446.) Indiction 14, in the consulship of Aetius (for the third time) and Symmachus. In this consulship a great famine invaded Constantinople, and a pestilence at once followed upon it. The temple of the royal city was consumed by fire. (A.D. 447.) Indiction 15, in the consulship of Ardabur and Calepio. A vast earthquake threatening throughout various places, very many walls of the imperial city, lately built by recent reconstruction, collapsed along with fifty-seven towers. Huge stones also in the Forum of Taurus, long before set one upon another in a building, and very many statues collapsed, indeed without any injury to anyone, while nonetheless very many cities collapsed;

famine and a pestilential stench of the air destroyed many thousands of men and beasts. A great war, and one greater than before, was inflicted upon our people by king Attila, and scraped together almost all of Europe, with cities and forts destroyed and invaded. In the same year the walls of the imperial city, formerly collapsed by an earthquake, were rebuilt within three months, with Constantine, the praetorian prefect, lending his effort. King Attila advanced in hostile fashion as far as Thermopolis. Arnegisclus, master of the soldiery, fighting manfully in riverside Dacia near the river Utus, having slain very many of the enemy, was killed by king Attila. (A.D. 448.) Indiction 1, in the consulship of Zeno and Postumianus. The province of India sent to the emperor Theodosius, as a gift, a tamed tigress.

A sudden fire burned up both the Troadensian porticoes and both the towers of the gates; the ruin of these having been straightway cleared away, Antiochus, praetorian prefect, restored them to their former appearance, the envoys of Attila demanding from Theodosius the sums of money long ago disdained. (A.D. 449.) Indiction 2, in the consulship of Protogenes and Asturius. Marina, sister of king Theodosius, fulfilled the office of fate. The bishop Flavian, at the synod held at Ephesus, was exiled to Epipa by the force of Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, and of the eunuch Saturninus. The patricians Areobindus and Taurus died a common death. (A.D. 450.) Indiction 3, in the consulship of Valentinian (for the seventh time) and Avienus. The emperor Theodosius came to the end of his life:

he reigned forty-two years after the death of his father Arcadius. In his place Marcian obtained the empire. The eunuch Chrysaphius, at the nod of Pulcheria, sister of Theodosius, was destroyed together with his avarice. (A.D. 451.) Indiction 4, in the consulship of Marcian Augustus and Adelfius. With Leo the pontiff governing the see of the blessed Peter, the holy and universal synod of six hundred and thirty Fathers was confirmed against Eutyches, leader of the most abominable monks, at Chalcedon in the basilica of Saint Euphemia: Dioscorus alone, bishop of the Church of Alexandria, dissented, and was at once deprived of the priesthood by those same Catholic Fathers. (A.D. 452.) Indiction 5, in the consulship of Sporacius and Herculanus. Marcian Augustus

established by his decrees that those who desired to become consuls should scatter no money among the people, but should pay out the appointed sum for the repair of the City's aqueduct. At this time three great stones fell from heaven in Thrace. The city of Aquileia was destroyed by Attila, king of the Huns. (A.D. 453.) Indiction 6, in the consulship of Vincomalus and Opilio.

John the forerunner of the Lord and the Baptist — his head, which the impious Herodias once obtained by her wicked and abominable request, severed from the shoulders and placed upon a platter, and which she buried far from his trunkless body — he revealed to two Eastern monks who had come to Jerusalem to adore the resurrection of Christ the Lord, that, going to the dwelling of Herod the former king, they should, being so admonished, seek it out and faithfully raise it from the ground. This head, therefore, found by their faith and stowed away in a shaggy bag of theirs, while they were carrying it back as they journeyed homeward, a certain potter of the city of Emesa, fleeing the long-standing and threatening poverty that pressed upon him, offered himself to them as a companion:

and while he, unknowing, carried the wallet entrusted to him with the sacred head, he was admonished by night by him whose head he bore, and, fleeing, abandoned both his companions, and at once entered the city of Emesa with the holy and light burden. And there, as long as he lived, he venerated the head of the forerunner of Christ; and dying, he handed it over sealed in a small vessel to his sister, who knew nothing of the matter, to be cherished. She in turn left it deposited and sealed, just as it was, to her successor. Furthermore Eustochius, a certain presbyter secretly of the Arian treachery, unworthy, obtained so great a treasure, and the grace which Christ the Lord bestowed upon the ailing people through John the Baptist — this he disseminated among the common folk as though it were his own alone.

Hence, his depravity being exposed, he was expelled from the city of Emesa. Thereafter certain monks began to use as a dwelling that cave in which the head of the most blessed John had been placed in an urn and hidden beneath the earth. At last Marcellus, a presbyter and superior of the whole monastery, while dwelling in that same grotto a blameless life, the same blessed John and forerunner of Christ showed himself and his head to him, and revealed that it was buried there, resplendent with many miracles. This venerable head, therefore, is established to have been found through the aforesaid presbyter Marcellus, under Uranius bishop of the said city, in the consulship of Vincomalus and Opilio,

in the month of February, on the 24th day, in the middle week of the paschal fasts, while the emperors Valentinian and Marcian were reigning. Pulcheria Augusta, wife of the emperor Marcian, completed the basilica of blessed Lawrence with inimitable workmanship, and made a blessed end of living. (A.D. 454.) Indiction VII. In the consulship of Aelius and Studius. Attila, king of the Huns and bereaver of the European world, was stabbed by night by the hand and knife of a woman. But some report that he was killed by a haemorrhage of blood. Aetius the patrician, the great salvation of the Western commonwealth and the terror of king Attila, was murdered in the palace by the emperor Valentinian together with his friend Boethius; and with him fell the Western kingdom, nor has it been able to be restored to this day. (A.D. 455.) Indiction.

VIII, in the consulship of Valentinian for the eighth time and Anthemius. The emperor Valentinian, through the treachery of the patrician Maximus — by whose fraud Aetius too had perished — was cut down in the Campus Martius by Optila and Thraustila, retainers of Aetius, the eunuch Heraclius having already been struck down. The same Maximus seized the empire, and in the third month of his tyranny was dragged limb from limb through Rome by the Romans and torn to pieces. Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, invited by letters from Eudoxia the wife of Valentinian, entered Rome out of Africa; and having despoiled that city of all its goods, returning he carried off with him the same Eudoxia together with her two daughters. (A.D. 456. Indiction XI, in the consulship of Varanes and John.

In this consulship countless swarms of locusts laid waste the produce of Phrygia. Eucherius, bishop of the Church of Lyons, wrote many things necessary both for ecclesiastical and for monastic studies. (A.D. 457.) Indiction X, in the consulship of Constantine and Rufus. The emperor Marcian, to be compared with the good emperors, gave up the breath of life: he reigned six years and six months. Leo succeeded him at his death; by Leo's will Majorian was appointed Caesar at Ravenna. (A.D. 458.) Indiction XI, in the consulship of Leo Augustus and Majorian. The emperor Leo, on behalf of the Tome of Chalcedon, sent to each of the orthodox bishops throughout the whole world individual and consistent letters, that all might indicate to him by their written replies what they thought concerning that same Tome.

He received the letters of all these bishops so harmoniously agreeing, that you would think them to have been dictated at one time by the eloquence of a single man. (A.D. 459.) Indiction XII, in the consulship of Patricius and Ricimer. Isaac, presbyter of the Church of Antioch, wrote much in the Syriac tongue, and especially against the Nestorians and the Eutychians. For he lamented the ruin of Antioch in elegiac verse, just as Ephrem the deacon lamented the fall of Nicomedia. (A.D. 460.) Indiction XIII, in the consulship of Apollonius and Magnus. The city of Cyzicus, shaken by an earthquake, the circuit of its walls being broken, long bewailed itself and its people. (A.D. 461.) Indiction XIV, in the consulship of Dagalaifus and Severinus. Hilarus was made the 44th pontiff of the Roman Church; he lived six years.

Majorian Caesar was slain at Dertona, by the river called Hira. Severus seized his place. (A.D. 462.) Indiction XV, with Leo Augustus for the second time as sole consul. James, an Achaean by nation and a pagan by religion, became very famous by his skill in the art of medicine, as much by talent as by learning. He, in order to cure the emperor Leo, worn out with fever, was summoned and entered the sacred bedchamber of the palace; and at once, on a chair placed beside the imperial couch, he sat down without any nod of the Augustus, and so applied his healing hands.

Then at midday, returning to the same sacred couch, he at once perceived that the seat in which he had sat that morning had been removed, on account of the throne; and undaunted he sat down upon the royal frame of the couch, and taught the ailing emperor that he had done this admonished by the precepts of the discoveries of his ancient study, and had not rashly presumed. (A.D. 463.) Indiction I, in the consulship of Vivianus and Felix. Prosper, a man of the Aquitanian region, scholastic in speech and vigorous in his arguments, is said to have composed many things. The letters too of Pope Leo against Eutyches, concerning the true Incarnation of Christ, are believed to have been dictated by him. (A.D. 464.) Indiction II, in the consulship of Rusticius and Olybrius. Beorgor, king of the Alans, was killed by Ricimer the king. (A.D. 465.) Indiction.

III, in the consulship of Basiliscus and Herminericus. Constantinople, invaded by a great fire and disfigured in appearance, bewailed itself. Severus, who had seized the principate of the West, died at Rome. (A.D. 466.) Indiction IV, with Leo Augustus for the third time as sole consul. Theodoret, bishop of the city of Cyrrhus, wrote concerning the Incarnation of the Lord against Eutyches the presbyter and Dioscorus bishop of the Church of Alexandria, who deny that there was human flesh in Christ. (A.D. 467.) Indiction V, in the consulship of Pusaeus and John. The emperor Leo sent the patrician Anthemius to Rome and appointed him emperor. Simplicius was created the 45th pontiff of the Roman Church; he lived fifteen years. An earthquake terrified the city of Ravenna. (A.D. 468.) Indiction VI, with Anthemius Augustus for the second time as sole consul.

Marcellinus, patrician of the West and likewise a pagan, while bringing aid and assistance to the Romans fighting against the Vandals at Carthage, was stabbed by treachery by those very men on whose behalf he had openly come to fight. (A.D. 469.) Indiction VII, in the consulship of Zeno and Marcian. In this consulship the head of Denzic, king of the Huns and son of Attila, was brought to Constantinople. (A.D. 470.) Indiction VIII, in the consulship of Jordanes and Severus. Gennadius, bishop of the Church of Constantinople, commented word by word and in full upon the prophet Daniel, and composed many homilies, and expounded all the Epistles of Paul. (A.D. 471.) Indiction IX, in the consulship of Leo Augustus for the fourth time and Probianus.

Aspar, first of the patricians, together with his sons Ardabur and Patriciolus — the former long since a patrician, the latter however styled Caesar and son-in-law of the emperor Leo — an Arian with his Arian offspring, was wounded by the swords of eunuchs in the palace and died. (A.D. 472.) Indiction X, in the consulship of Marcian and Festus. Mount Vesuvius in Campania, scorched and seething with internal fires, vomited forth its burnt entrails, and with nocturnal darkness pressing down in the daytime, covered the whole face of Europe with fine dust. The people of Byzantium yearly celebrate the memory of this fearful ash on the eighth day before the Ides of November. The emperor Anthemius was killed at Rome by Ricimer his son-in-law. Olybrius, substituted in his place, died in the seventh month of his reign.

In Asia several cities or towns collapsed in an earthquake. (A.D. 475.) Indiction XI, with Leo Augustus for the fifth time as sole consul. Glycerius was made Caesar at Ravenna more by presumption than by election. At Constantinople, a sedition having arisen in the circus, many of the Isaurians were slain by the people. (A.D. 474.) Indiction XII, with Leo the younger as sole consul. Leo the elder, emperor, having already made Leo the younger Caesar, perished of disease, in the seventeenth year and sixth month, counting both the years of his own empire and the months of this Leo's reign. Leo the younger, who was also his son and emperor, appointed Zeno prince of the kingdom.

Glycerius Caesar, holding the empire at Rome, was driven from the throne by Nepos, son of the sister of the once patrician Marcellinus; from being Caesar he was ordained bishop in the harbour of the city of Rome, and died. (A.D. 475.) Indiction XIII, with Zeno Augustus for the second time as sole consul. The emperor Zeno, beset by the plots of Verina his mother-in-law and of Basiliscus her brother, fled with Ariadne his wife and made for Isauria. Basiliscus the tyrant invaded Zeno's kingdom. Nepos, who had driven Glycerius from the throne, was raised up as emperor at Rome. Nepos being at once put to flight, Orestes set his own son Augustulus upon the throne. (A.D. 476.) Indiction XIV, in the consulship of Basiliscus and Armatus.

Basiliscus the tyrant, having made his son Marcus Caesar, while, swelling with Eutychian treachery against the catholic faith, he strove to rise up against it, he burst, puffed up, before he could, repentant, find a footing. Basiliscus, together with his son and Zenonis his wife — Zeno now returning to his former rule — was sent into exile, and thrust into a little town called Limnae in the province of Cappadocia, he wasted away by starvation. Odoacer, king of the Goths, obtained Rome; Odoacer forthwith slew Orestes; Odoacer condemned Augustulus, the son of Orestes, to the penalty of exile in the Lucullan fortress of Campania. The Western empire of the Roman people, which the first of the Augusti, Octavian Augustus, began to hold in the seven hundred and ninth [Chiffl.: seven hundred

and eighth] year began to hold — perished with this Augustulus, in the year 522 of the reign of the emperors his predecessors, the kings of the Goths thereafter holding Rome. (A.D. 477.) Indiction XV, without consuls. King Odoacer killed Count Bracila at Ravenna. (A.D. 478.) Indiction I, with Illus as sole consul. Theodulus, a presbyter in Coele-Syria, wrote much, and is held in renown. (A.D. 479.) Indiction II, with Zeno Augustus for the third time as consul. Sabinianus the Great, made commander of both the Illyrician forces, either fostered the fragile senate and the collapsed and just revenue of the commonwealth even while it feared beforehand, or protected it as it was being discharged.

Moreover he was so excellent an instructor and enforcer of military discipline that he may be compared with the ancient commanders of the Romans. The same Sabinianus deterred king Theodoric, who was raging through Greece, more by skill than by force. (A.D. 480.) Indiction III, with Basilius the younger as sole consul. The royal city, shaken by continuous earthquake for forty days on end, greatly afflicted bewailed itself. Both the porticoes of Troas collapsed; several churches were either split or fell down. The statue of Theodosius the Great, set up in the Forum of Taurus upon a spiral column, fell down, two arches of the same having collapsed. The people of Byzantium celebrate this dreadful day on the eighth day before the Kalends of October.

In this consulship, Nepos, whom Orestes had some time before deposed from the empire, was killed in his own villa, not far from Salona, by the plots of his counts Viator and Ovida. (A.D. 481.) Indiction IV, with Placidus as sole consul. Theodoric, son of Triarius, king of the Goths, having gathered his men as far as Anaplus, came armed to the fourth milestone of the City; yet, harming none of the Romans, he straightway turned back. Then, hastening into Illyricum, while he advanced amid the moving wagons of his men, he was pierced and run through by the point of a spear lying upon a cart, through the lurching of his terrified horse, and died. As for Sabinianus the Great, the death which deservedly threatens this sinning world took him away before he could become a complete support for the wearied commonwealth. (A.D.

482.) Indiction V, in the consulship of Trocondus and Severinus the younger. Felix was ordained the 46th bishop of the Roman Church; he lived twelve years. Theodoric, surnamed Valamer, laid waste both Macedonias and Thessaly, plundering also the metropolis Larissa. (A.D. 483.) Indiction VI, with Faustus as sole consul. The same Theodoric, king of the Goths, almost pacified by the bounties of Zeno Augustus, made master of the forces in attendance, and designated consul as well, held for the time, with his retainers, the assigned portion of riverine Dacia and of Lower Moesia. (A.D. 484.) Indiction VII, in the consulship of Theodoric and Venantius.

Illus, an Isaurian by nation and master of the offices by rank, having had his ear cut off at court, invaded the East hostile to Zeno. Then with Leontius he seized the tyranny. For throughout all Africa a cruel persecution of the catholics among us was brought on by Hunneric, king of the Vandals. For, more than 334 orthodox bishops having been exiled and scattered, and their churches closed, the people of the faithful, subjected to various torments, completed a blessed contest.

Indeed at that time the same king Hunneric ordered the tongue of a certain catholic youth — who from his birth had passed his life without any speech — to be cut out; and that same mute man, having had his tongue cut off, at once spoke what he had learned by faith, believing in Christ without human hearing, and in the first beginning of his voice gave glory to God. Finally, from this company of the faithful, I myself beheld at Byzantium not a few most devout men, with their tongues cut out and their hands amputated, speaking with unimpaired voice. This cruelty of the Arians against the devout worshippers of Christ began to be inflicted, in the above-written consulship, in the month of February. (A.D. 485.) Indiction VIII, with Symmachus as sole consul.

Longinus, brother of Zeno Augustus, after a ten-year imprisonment which Illus had inflicted upon him in Isauria, came to his brother at Constantinople. (A.D. 486.) Indiction IX, with Longinus as sole consul [others: and Decius as consuls]. John of the parish of Antioch, from being a grammarian a presbyter, wrote against those who assert that Christ is to be adored in one substance only, and do not acquiesce that two natures are to be confessed in Christ. (A.D. 487.) Indiction X, with Boethius as sole consul. Theodoric, king of the Goths, never satisfied with the benefits of Zeno Augustus, with a great band of his men advanced in hostility as far as the royal city and the town of Melentias, and, very many places having been burned with fire, returned to the city of Novae in Moesia, whence he had come. (A.D.

488.) Indiction XI, in the consulship of Dynamius and Sifidius. Meanwhile Leontius the king and Illus the tyrant, captured in the fortress of Papyrius in Isauria, were beheaded. Their heads, brought to Constantinople and fixed on the points of spears, rotted away. In the same year king Theodoric, having gathered the whole multitude of all his Goths, set out for Italy. (A.D. 489.) Indiction III, in the consulship of Eusebius and Probinus. The same Theodoric, king of the Goths, occupied his desired Italy. Odoacer likewise, king of the Goths, terrified by fear of Theodoric, entered Ravenna; then, enticed by perjuries by the same Theodoric, he was slain. (A.D. 490.) Indiction XIII, in the consulship of Longinus for the second time and Faustus. The emperor Zeno ordered the throat of Pelagius to be broken with a noose on the island called Panormus. (A.D.

491.) Indiction XIV, with Olybrius as sole consul. Zeno Augustus departed this life, in the seventeenth year and sixth month, counting both the years of his own empire and the months of the tyranny of Basiliscus. Anastasius was created emperor from being a silentiary. A plebeian war arose among the people of Byzantium, and the greater part of the city and the circus were burned with fire. (A.D. 492.) Indiction XV, in the consulship of Anastasius Augustus and Rufus. While the Isaurian war was being prepared, and while the Isaurians strove to claim the empire for themselves, in Phrygia near the city of Cotiaeum they flowed together from all sides; and there Lilingis, a slow foot-soldier indeed but a most fierce horseman in war, was the first of them to be slain in battle by the Romans, and all the Isaurians together, given over to flight, made their way back to Isauria through mountainous and rough places.

This Isaurian war was drawn out over six years. (A.D. 493.) Indiction I, in the consulship of Eusebius for the second time and Albinus. Civil wars were waged against the reign of Anastasius at Constantinople: the statues of the king and queen were bound with ropes and dragged through the city. Julianus, master of the soldiery, fighting in a nocturnal battle, was pierced through by Scythian iron in Thrace and died. (A.D. 494.) Indiction II, in the consulship of Asterius and Praesidius. The emperor Anastasius began to stir up internal battles against the majesty of the orthodox faith: the treachery of his guilt he first manifested, with a profane disposition, against Euphemius bishop of the city, who manfully resisted him on behalf of the orthodox faith.

Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Tripolis, and Agathicum collapsed at one time and in one earthquake. Gelasius was ordained the 47th bishop of the Roman Church; he lived four years [Chiffl.: three]. (A.D. 495.) Indiction III, with Viator as sole consul. Euphemius, prelate of the imperial city, of whom we made mention above, falsely accused and condemned by the emperor Anastasius, was led into exile. Macedonius held the place of Euphemius. (A.D. 496.) Indiction IV, with Paulus as sole consul. Anastasius, having some time before granted his accession-donative to the soldiers, this year also, his brother being consul, bestowed a largess. India sent to the emperor Anastasius an elephant — which our poet Plautus calls by the name 'Luca bos' [i.e., the Lucanian ox] — and two giraffes as a gift. (A.D.

497.) Indiction V, with Anastasius Augustus [others: for the second time] as sole consul. An eclipse of the sun appeared; and the Isaurian war was quelled in this sixth year. Athenodorus, first of the Isaurians, was captured in Isauria and beheaded. His head, brought to the city of Tarsus, was fixed on a spear before the gates and rotted away. (A.D. 498.) Indiction VI, in the consulship of John the Scythian and Paulinus. Anastasius was ordained the 48th pontiff of the Roman Church; he lived two years. Longinus the Isaurian, surnamed Selinunteus, captured at Antioch, a city of Isauria, by Count Priscus, was sent to Constantinople, and chained, led about by an officer, was a vast spectacle to the emperor Anastasius and to the people; and was then worn out with various tortures at the city of Nicaea in Bithynia.

With coins which the Romans call 'Terentiani' [perhaps 'Teruntii' or 'Teruntiani'], the Greeks 'follares', struck with his own name, the emperor Anastasius distributed an exchange acceptable to the people. (A.D. 499.) Indiction VII, with John Gibbus as sole consul. Aristus, commander of the Illyrician soldiery, with fifteen thousand armed men and with 520 wagons laden with arms necessary for battle, set out against the Bulgars who were devastating Thrace. Battle was joined near the river Zurta, where more than four thousand of our men were destroyed, either in flight or over the precipice of the river's bank. And there the valour of the Illyrician soldiery perished, the counts Nicostratus, Innocentius, and Aquilinus being slain.

In this year a great earthquake shook the province of Pontus. (A.D. 500.) Indiction VIII, in the consulship of Patricius and Hypatius. Symmachus was made the 49th bishop of the Roman Church; he lived fifteen years. The emperor Anastasius sent a donative to be distributed to the Illyrician soldiers through Paulus, tribune of the notaries. (A.D. 501.) Indiction IX, in the consulship of Pompeius and Avienus. While Constantius, prefect of the city, was watching the theatrical games at midday, in that very spectacle a part of the Cerealian faction prepared hidden ambushes against the opposing Blue faction. For they set out swords and stones enclosed in earthen vessels — these same arms heaped over with various fruits — under the portico of the theatre, in the manner of those who sell. While, with Constantius

sitting, the voices of the citizens resounded after the custom, the arms, seen before they were heard, were snatched out, and stones were hurled like showers upon the unwary and the citizens, and brandished swords, smeared in the blood of friends and neighbours, raged together with their wielders. The hollow of the theatre wavered and groaned, and, trampled by the feet of those fleeing hither and thither, and defiled with the gore of the slain, it bewailed. For the imperial city wept for more than three thousand citizens lost to stones, swords, crushings, and the waters of the proscenium. (A.D. 502.) Indiction X, in the consulship of Probus and Avienus. The accustomed nation of the Bulgars again devastated Thrace, which it had often plundered, no Roman soldier resisting.

Cabades, king of the Persians, in the fifth month from when he had begun to besiege it, burst into Amida, that most opulent city, betrayed by the cunning of its monks, and slew its betrayers, the monks. (A.D. 503.) Indiction II, in the consulship of Dexicrates and Volusianus. Three Roman commanders — Patricius, Hypatius, and Areobindus — who had formerly been sent against the Persians with fifteen thousand armed men to fight, joined battle without boldness near the fort of Sificum with those same Persians, many commanders of the soldiery then fleeing from the battle being slain. Then, an immense weight of gold having been given to the enemy, those same our commanders ransomed the captured and empty city of Amida — Celer, master of the offices, having now been assigned to them with two thousand warriors as a reinforcement.

(A.D. 504.) Indiction XII, with Cethegus as sole consul. Meanwhile Celer, master of the offices, leading armed soldiery through Callinicum, a city of Mesopotamia, ranged abroad to devastate the Persian countryside; he slaughtered very many peasants intent on their rustic labours like cattle, carried off the herdsmen of various flocks together with numerous beasts of burden, assaulted forts built of brick and clay, advanced laying waste everything as far as the Iron Bridge so called by name, and, having seized all the booty, returned to the common camp with his soldiery enriched. Thereafter he deliberated somewhat about striking a treaty with the Persians, Harmonius the secretary having been sent to him to negotiate the treaty. (A.D. 505.) Indiction XIII, in the consulship of Sabinianus and Theodorus.

The same Sabinianus, son of Sabinianus the Great and commander of the soldiery, being assigned against Mundo the Geta, made ready his arms, dragging with him ten thousand armed men whom he had gathered to himself and wagons laden with arms and supplies, and advanced to fight; and battle being joined at Horreum Margi [perhaps Horrea Margi], many of his soldiers having been lost in this conflict and killed in the river Margus, his wagons moreover lost, he fled with a few into the fort called Natus: so greatly did the hope of the soldiery fall in this lamentable war that it could in no wise be repaired among mortals. (A.D. 506.) Indiction XIV, in the consulship of Areobindus and Messala. In this consulship,

the statue of the emperor Anastasius was set up in the same place where formerly that of Theodosius the Great had stood, upon a huge column in the Forum of Taurus. (A.D. 507.) Indiction XV, with Anastasius Augustus for the third time [Cassiod.: and Venantius] as consul. A popular sedition arose in the circus; the soldiery and the armed men withstood it. The northern steps of the circus, with their structure, were burned and collapsed, while Anastasius Caesar was tarrying at the processions. (A.D. 508.) Indiction I, in the consulship of Celer and Venantius.

Romanus, count of the domestics, and Rusticus, count of the scholarians, with one hundred armed ships and as many fast-galleys carrying with them eight thousand armed soldiers, set out to ravage the shores of Italy, and assaulted as far as Tarentum, that most ancient city; and, having recrossed the sea, they reported back to Anastasius Caesar the dishonourable victory which the Romans, with a piratical daring, had snatched from the Romans. (A.D. 509.) Indiction II, with Opportunus [or Importunus] as sole consul. A fire having broken out in the imperial city, the fire reduced to dust both porticoes from the Forum of Constantine as far as the slender statue of Perdiccas. The harbour of Julian, first drained of its waters by wheeled machines and the mud dug out, was cleansed. (A.D. 510.) Indiction.

III, with Boethius as sole consul. A bronze image in the Forum of Strategius, sitting upon an arch and holding the horn of plenty of Fortune, was blasted by fire and, burned, lost its arm — which, however, the statuaries at once made solid again. Appius the patrician was exiled. Constantine, formerly master of the soldiery, was ordained bishop of Laodicea. (A.D. 511.) Indiction IV, in the consulship of Secundinus and Felix. Macedonius, bishop of the imperial city, although long since beset by the deceits and frauds of the emperor Anastasius, and accused before that Caesar by the testimonies of wicked men — because he delayed to give to that emperor the Tome of the holy Fathers, long ago strengthened by holy subscription at Chalcedon — was by that same emperor consigned to exile at Euchaita.

Timothy, ordained bishop at midday by Anastasius Caesar, usurped the place of Macedonius. (A.D. 512.) Indiction V, in the consulship of Paulus and Muscianus. Often the sky was seen to burn from the northern quarter. On the Lord's Day, while, at the command of Anastasius Caesar, through Marinus and through Plato, those standing in the pulpit of the church added to the hymn of the Trinity the quaternity of the Theopaschites, many of the orthodox, chanting in the ancient manner and rebuking the faithless heralds with shouts, were cut down in the very bosom of that church, and being led off to the prisons perished; on another day no less, in the atrium of Saint Theodore [Chiffl.: Theodosius], the catholics were struck down with greater slaughter for the one faith.

Wherefore the bands of the orthodox, stirred up, on the following day — that is, on the eighth day before the Ides of November (on which day the memory of the ash that once covered all Europe is celebrated among the people of Byzantium) — flowed together from all sides into the Forum of Constantine: of whom some indeed, while the rest day and night chanted the hymn of the Trinity to Christ God, traversed the whole city and slew with sword the flatterers in the monastic garb of Anastasius Caesar, with flame and fire; others carried the keys of the gates and all the military standards to the forum where they had pitched the camp of religion; and there, while Anastasius Caesar was engaged in the processions, they cried aloud that Areobindus should be made emperor over them. Then, the images and statues of Anastasius having been cast down to the ground, the senators Celer and Patricius,

sent to them for the sake of supplicating or giving satisfaction, they drove back with stones cast like rain. The houses of Marinus and Pompeius having been set on fire, coming into the circus to Anastasius and standing before his throne, chanting together the hymn of the Trinity after the manner of the catholics, and bearing the gleaming Gospel and the cross of Christ, very many gathered from the forum, crying out that Marinus and Plato, the authors of his depravity, should be cast to the wild beasts. These citizens that same Anastasius Caesar, with his accustomed perjuries and feigned utterances, promising that he would do everything, made return to their dwellings without any accomplishment of their demands, on the third day after I had come into the forum.

Then Anastasius, his depravity renewed, ordered an infamous and laughable synod to be held against the orthodox bishop [others: bishops] at the city of Sidon — from whose name 'titles' are put forward in jests — nearly eighty faithless bishops being gathered together. Flavian, catholic patriarch of Antioch, and John, bishop of the town of Palti, because they had refuted this sacrilegious assembly, were sent as exiles into the fort called Petra. There Flavian, confessor of Christ, rested in the Lord; John, Justinus Augustus, soon made emperor, recalled. About the same times an eclipse of the sun occurred. The nation of the Heruli was introduced into the lands and cities of the Romans by the order of Anastasius Caesar. (A.D.