Chronicle 1 part 2/4

(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