The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

242
EVAGRIUS
tolerate being numbered among Christians, he had him impaled in Sycae
as murderer of his child. And these things happened in this way. 117
37 After Menas Eutychius ascended to the see, while at Jerusalem Salustius
succeeded to the see after Martyrius, and Elias after him, and then
Peter, and after him Macarius, though the emperor had not yet
approved; he was expelled from his throne, for they said that he professed
the doctrines of Origen. After him Eustochius succeeded to the bishopric.
After the expulsion of Theodosius, as has already been described, Zoilus
was appointed bishop of the city of the Alexandrians, and after he had
been added to his predecessors Apollinarius obtained the throne. After
Ephrem Domninus was entrusted with the see of Antioch. 118
38 While Vigilius was in charge of the elder Rome, of the new Rome ¢rst
Menas, then Eutychius, of the city of Alexander Apollinarius, of that of
Antiochus Domninus, and of Jerusalem Eustochius, Justinian
summoned the Fifth Synod for the following reason. Because those who
revered the doctrines of Origen were increasing in power, especially in
the so-called New Lavra, Eustochius made every e¡ort to drive them
out. And after coming to the said New Lavra he expelled everyone and
117 The same miracle is recorded by Georgius Monachus, vol. II 654:19^656:11, incorrectly
placed in the reign of Justin II; Gregory of Tours (Glory of the Martyrs 9) has the same
story, but with no speci¢c location or chronological indication, while the father is punished
by being pushed into his own furnace by an angry crowd. There is a rather more mundane
version in the Life of Sabas ch. 5: the monastic baker had left some clothes to dry in his oven,
which was then heated up, but the young Sabas plunged into it to rescue them after making
the sign of the cross. In Rufus, Plerophories 14, there is a Monophysite version of the story,
in which an old prophet has a vision before the Council of Chalcedon: he sees a crowd of
bishops placing a beautiful child in a furnace for three days; the child is Christ, who identi-
¢es Dioscorus of Alexandria as his only friend.
For Sycae as a place of execution, cf. iii. n. 136 above.
118 This episcopal synchronism is the ¢rst constructed by Evagrius himself: the last one,
at iii.23 (the end of Zeno’s reign in 491), was based on Zachariah (see iii n. 76 above). It is
designed to set the scene for the report of the Fifth Ecumenical Council. Menas of Constantinople
died in 552, during preparations for the Council, and was rapidly replaced by Eutychius
(cf. n. 123 below). For Jerusalem (now added for the ¢rst time to the three major
Eastern patriarchates), Evagrius traces the succession back into the ¢fth century: Martyrius
(478^86), Salustius (486^94), Elias ( 494^516), Peter (524^52), Macarius (552), Eustochius
(552^63); Evagrius has omitted John III (516^24). For Alexandria, Evagrius repeats the
error he made at iv.11 in omitting Theodosius’ immediate successor, Paul the Tabennesiot
(537^40), who was followed by Zoilus (540^51) and Apollinarius (551^70). At Antioch,
Ephrem died in 545, to be succeeded by Domninus (545^59).