The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK II 59
to sleep in the sun, which was hot and ¢ery, out of keeping with the season
of the year; 8 but an eagle stationed itself up above and making its £ight
antithetical to the sun in the vertical axis, like a cloud devised shade and
hence relief [38] for Marcian. In amazement Geiseric correctly conjectured
the future; he had Marcian summoned and released him from
captivity, after con¢rming with strong oaths that after coming to the
kingship he would indeed preserve the agreements with the Vandals and
would not mobilize arms against them. And Procopius narrates that
Marcian preserved this in practice. 9 But, let us abandon the digression
and return to the matter in hand.
Marcian was pious in divine matters and just in matters relating to his
subjects. 10 He regarded as wealth not what was stored away, nor indeed
what was collected by tax-gatherers but one thing alone: the ability to
provide for the needy and to make their wealth secure for those with
substantial property. 11 He was not terrifying in punishment, but in
8 Procopius, who also records this miracle (Wars iii.4.1^11), states that this occurred in
summer, at midday, so that Evagrius has improved the nature of the miracle. It is likely that
Priscus was the ultimate source for this story. Monophysite writers recorded hostile predictions
of Marcian’s reign: an old monk said that the impious emperor Marcian would force
bishops to deny that the cruci¢ed one was God, a symbolic darkness covered the earth at his
accession, while an abbot predicted twenty years in advance that Marcian would lead the
bishops away from God and the Antichrist would arrive soon after the end of his reign
(Rufus, Plerophories 7, 12).
9 In addition to this miracle (104:19^105:4) Theophanes also records another version,
associated with the Persian war of 421/2, when the shadowing eagle was observed in Lycia
by the brothers Tatianus and Julius, who had cared for Marcian during an illness (103:33^
104:19).
There are other explanations for Marcian’s failure to ¢ght the Vandals while emperor, for
example the chaos in the Balkans caused by Attila in the 440s, and the danger of further
Hunnic attacks, though Blockley, Historians I. 66, is probably right to detect an attempt
by writers favourable to Marcian to excuse his inaction.
10 As the emperor responsible for Chalcedon, Marcian evoked diametrically opposite
assessments from ecclesiastical writers: for a summary of views, see Allen, Evagrius 97^8.
For praise of other favourite emperors of Evagrius, cf. v.13 (Tiberius) and vi.1 (Maurice).
11 In 447 Attila’s demands for subsidies had led Theodosius to increase taxation, and the
pitiful plight of senatorial families forced to contribute is described by Priscus (fr. 9.3:22^33)
and Nestorius (Bazaar 341^2). The fact that Attila had turned his attentions west allowed
Marciantotakeahardlinewiththe Hunsandwithholdpayments. As a resulttax concessions
were possible, which particularly bene¢ted senators through the abolition of thefollis or collatioglebalis(asurtaxonsenatorsintroducedbyConstantine:Zosimusii.38.4)andthetermination
of lavish expenditure on magisterial games; tax arrears for the years 437^47 were also
remitted,whichwouldhavehelpedarather widersectionof the population(Jones,LRE 219).