The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

eading of his source might have avoided, but basic information is
provided with moderate accuracy. Allen claimed that Evagrius’ motive
for exploiting Procopius was an interest in military a¡airs and a belief
that he was heir to the secular historiographical tradition represented by
Procopius, 50 but these interlinked assertions are not proven. While
utilizing Procopius, Evagrius in fact created an entirely di¡erent type of
narrative in which military detail is reduced to a minimum, or even eliminated
as in the chapter on Cabaon the Moor, whereas attention is focused
on miracles, conversions and other elements which have a pronounced
Christian content. Evagrius used Procopius, in the same way as he
exploited stories of contemporary holy men, to demonstrate that
Justinian’s reign was a period when God showed his favour to the
empire, regardless of the doubts that people might have had about the
quality and character of the emperor himself. This total reshaping of
Procopius allowed Evagrius to overcome a basic problem in the
Procopian account of Justinianic campaigning, where there is an
increasing decline from the great successes of the ¢rst decade to the
eastern reverses and protracted slog in Italy during the 540s. Faced by
the capture of Antioch in 540, Procopius had despairingly expressed his
incomprehension at how God could allow such a disaster to occur (Wars
ii.10.4). To this Evagrius provided an answer by demonstrating the regularity
with which God helped the Romans to victory ^ in Africa, as
Procopius himself recorded, in Italy where Evagrius can add information
about the special relationship which the pious Narses enjoyed with the
Virgin Mary, and even in the East where the Procopian narrative of
Khusro’s successes in the period 540^4 is o¡set by attention to three occasions
when the Christian God contributed to his discom¢ture. 51 This is
providential history, not a military narrative in the secular tradition.
Arrangement of material
INTRODUCTION xxxi
Availability of material had a signi¢cant impact on Evagrius’ organization
of his material, since he tended to insert information in blocks: in
the ¢rst three books, ecclesiastical and secular events are narrated in
50 Evagrius 171.
51 Roman set-backs tend to be reported quite brie£y, e.g. the loss of Amida in 502/3
(iii.37), and Evagrius may also draw attention to the duplicity or treachery of those involved,
e.g. with regard to the loss of Apamea and Dara (v.10).