The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK V 269
was prosperous and populous but which had been largely ruined by time.
After taking over the city on certain conditions, since they had been
unable to resist as the wall was lying on the ground through age, he burnt
it completely and pillaged everything contrary to the agreements; he
departed and went away, after enslaving the city and the adjacent
districts. Among the captives he led away both the city’s priest and the
man who supervised the government. 42 He also carried out every atrocity
during the withdrawal, since there was nobody to restrain or resist him at
all, except for an extremely small army sent out by Justin under the
command of Magnus, who had formerly been controller of a bank in the
emperor’s city but had later been entrusted by Justin with one of the
imperial domains; [207] these indeed £ed headlong and came close to
being taken as prisoners. 43
And so Adarmaanes, after accomplishing these things, joined Chosroes
who had not yet ¢nished besieging the city. 44 His addition gave
them a great advantage, encouraging his own side and disheartening the
opposition. He found that the city had been blockaded and that a large
mound had been heaped up near the wall and many siege engines
42 Heraclea: near Beroe, though the precise location is unknown; J. D. Grainger, The
Cities of Seleukid Syria (Oxford, 1990) 103.
Apamea was one of the four great cities of Seleucid Syria, founded by the ¢rst of the
dynasty, Seleucus Nicator in the early third century BC. Khusro I had removed a substantial
amount of wealth when he was admitted to the city in 540, but had not damaged the
buildings (cf. iv.26 above, where Evagrius mentions the destruction by Adarmahan of the
painting of the miracle of the Cross). John of Epiphania (4, followed by Theophylact
iii.10.9) states that a ransom was agreed for the city, but Adarmahan then went back on his
word; John of Ephesus (EH vi.6) also refers to Persian duplicity, and says that substantial
plunder was found in the city, since it was full of ancient wealth (for its current splendour, cf.
also Antoninus Placentinus, Itinerary 46); the haul of captives was allegedly 292,000. The
current archaeological investigations, conducted by J. and J. C. Balty, suggest that the city
did enjoy considerable prosperity until 573, and that there was limited rebuilding thereafter.
43 Magnus (PLRE III. 805^7, s.v. Magnus 2) was a ¢nancial administrator, being successively
comes sacrarum largitionum, and curator of the imperial estates of Marina and Hormisdas
during the reigns of Justin and Tiberius (see Feissel, ‘Magnus’; and on the domus
divinae, Kaplan, Hommes 140^2). However, he was a native of Syria, and was also trusted
by al-Mundhir, the Ghassanid leader, and the latter factor perhaps explains his presence as
a military commander in the East: al-Mundhir had fallen out with Justin, and was currently
refusing to participate in the war, so that Magnus may have been intended to heal the rift;
after their discom¢ture, Magnus and his troops took refuge in the mountain fortress of
Mardin (Whitby, Maurice 257^8).
44 I.e. Dara (the blockade has already been mentioned in v.9, p. 206:4^5).