The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK III 187
such abominable murders but not obtaining it ^ for it was not even
possible to speak them in public ^ he encountered an Egyptian who had
arrived from Iberia. And on being assured by him that the Christian
faith was able to wipe out all sin, he partook of what the Egyptian
shared with him; 153 abandoning thereafter his ancestral belief, he made
the start of his impiety, as Zosimus says. And I will reveal forthwith
how these things are indeed untrue, but ¢rst something will be said
about the Chrysargyron.
41 You say, you wicked and deceitful demon, that when he wished to
raise in opposition a city that was equal to Rome he ¢rst embarked on
preparations for so great a city in between Troas and Ilium, establishing
foundations and raising a wall to some height, but when he found that
Byzantium was a more suitable site he so encircled it with walls, so
expanded the previous city, and glori¢ed it with such beautiful constructions
that it was not far short of Rome, which had gradually received its
growth over so many years. [140] You state that he also allocated to the
Byzantine people a public grain ration, and that to those who came to
Byzantium with him he granted an enormous quantity of gold for the
construction of private houses. 154
Again, you write in these words that, following Constantine’s death,
government passed to Constantius, his only son after the death of his
two brothers, and how in the twin usurpation of Magnentius and
Vetranio, he won Vetranio round by persuasion: once both the armies
had assembled, Constantius ¢rst addressed the soldiers and reminded
them of the generosity of his father, with whom they had toiled in many
campaigns and by whom they had been rewarded with very large gifts;
and when the soldiers heard this they stripped Vetranio of his robes and
took him down from the platform as a private individual, and he experi-
153 Zosimus ii.29.3^4; cf. also Julian, Caesars 38, 336a-b (II. 413, Wright). The Egyptian
from Iberia alludes to Ossius (Hosius), Bishop of Cordoba, who was the most in£uential
ecclesiastical adviser to Constantine for much of his reign: see Paschoud, Zosime I. 221^2.
Although Ossius did visit Alexandria in 324 as part of the negotiations which led up to the
Council of Nicaea, he is not otherwise known to have had Egyptian connections and the
label is intended to imply that he was a charlatan. Festugie're (352) wrongly interprets
‘Egyptian’ as a proper name, Aegyptius.
154 Zosimus ii.30^2. The assertion that Constantine ¢nanced major constructions near
the ancient site of Troy is also noted by Sozomen (ii.3.1^3) and Zonaras (xiii.3.1), but questioned
by Paschoud (notes to Zosimus ii.30: Zosime I. pp. 225^6). For the bread ration and
other incentives for people to settle in the new capital, see Dagron, Naissance 530^41.