The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK V 287
too, going from Octavian, Trajan and Marcus reached as far as the death
of Carus. Certain things concerning these times are recorded by Arrian
and Asinius Quadratus. 86
Concerning subsequent times, Zosimus has narrated down to the
emperors Honorius and Arcadius, and events after them have been
collected by Priscus the rhetor and others. All these things have been
excellently abridged by Eustathius of Epiphania in two volumes, one
down to the capture of Troy and the other down to the twelfth year of
the emperor Anastasius. 87 Events from him as far as the times of Justinian
have been covered by Procopius the rhetor. 88 The sequel to these
has been recorded in succession by Agathias the rhetor and John, my
fellow townsman and relative, down to the £ight of Chosroes the
younger to the Romans and his restoration to his kingdom: Maurice by
no means remained unmoved in this matter, but received him royally,
and most speedily brought him back to his kingdom, with great expenditure
and armaments. These have not yet actually been published. 89
86 Up to here this catalogue of secular historians almost certainly reproduces a list in
Eustathius of Epiphania who is mentioned in the following paragraph (see next note), and
it is unlikely that Evagrius consulted any of these writers directly. For further information
on individual authors, see Oxford Classical Dictionary (ed. 3, 1996). Nicostratus of Trabzon
is otherwise unknown. Eusebius poses a problem, since the coverage of this work matches
that of the earliest version of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea, but Evagrius
has already mentioned him in the preceding paragraph; the easiest solution is that this
is indeed the church historian (contra Allen, Evagrius 239), and that Evagrius simply lifted
the name, without realizing, from Eustathius’ list (where Eusebius might not have been
identi¢ed by his distinctive epithets).
87 In contrast to the authors in the preceding paragraph, it is likely that Evagrius had
consulted these writers, in addition to knowing them through the epitome by Eustathius.
Zosimus, at any rate, is the object of a long harangue at iii.40^1, and Priscus has been cited
at various points in the ¢rst two books (e.g. i.17, ii.1); the terminus of Eustathius’ work is
marked at iii.37. Zachariah, whose work Evagrius used extensively, is not mentioned.
88 The source for most of iv.12^25, of which some is verbatim quotation.
89 The History of Agathias covered from 553 to 558/9; the work of John of Epiphania
began with an allusion to Agathias as his predecessor, even though his own narrative only
began in 572, with the outbreak of the Persian war under Justin II, and extended to the
restoration of Khusro II in 591. Evagrius had already commented (iv.24) that Agathias’
work had not yet reached him, and it is also likely that he had no more than a general impression
about John’s presentation of events (on the question of the relative priority of John
and Evagrius, and the direction of in£uence from one to the other, see Whitby, Maurice 245,
265^6).
The concluding sequence of this book (23^4) is clearly modelled on, and adapted from,
Eustathius of Epiphania’s presentation of the start of Anastasius’ reign (cf. nn. 82, 86