The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

294
EVAGRIUS
4 After him Priscus assumed the military command: he was not an
accessible man, nor yet easily approached, with the exception of essential
matters, 15 who considered that everything would be achieved if for the
most part he remained by himself, since thereby indeed, through fear,
the soldiers would be more submissive to orders. And so, after arriving
at the camp with a supercilious and arrogant expression and decked out
in a rather elegant way, he made an announcement about the duration
of the soldiers’ active service, and about their precise equipment and
what they received from the treasury. 16 Having already indeed heard
about these matters, they let their anger burst out into the open; coming
together at the place where his tent was pitched, like barbarians they
composed at this time: John need not have shared Evagrius’ partiality towards Philippicus,
and Evagrius was probably in a position to anticipate the tenor of John’s narrative, even if
the completed work was not available for him to read. For analogous criticism of the
veracity of other writers, cf. i.21 with n. 178 (Eudocia’s withdrawal to Jerusalem).
15 Evagrius approved of those who restricted access to themselves (cf. iv.40, Anastasius
of Antioch; v.19, Maurice). At ¢rst sight, Priscus appears to be similar to Anastasius, who is
described as ‘neither vulnerable to what was unsuitable by being approachable and accessible,
nor by being austere and merciless was he inaccessible for what was necessary’ (mZde' ...
duspro¤ siton e ’B ta' de¤ onta: pp. 190:33^191:1). But Evagrius strongly disapproved of
Priscus, whose arrogance is shown to be unsuitable when faced by a crisis. Evagrius presumably
thought that Priscus did not make su⁄cient exceptions to his principle of remoteness,
and I wonder whether the sentence should have an extra negative to convey this point more
clearly, ‘not even with the exception of essential matters’.
16 The sequence of events in the early part of 588 is also recorded, with some signi¢cant
di¡erences, by Theophylact iii.1.1^3.6. At the end of the 587 campaign Philippicus was
replaced as magister militum per Orientem by Priscus (PLRE III. 1052^7, s.v. Priscus 6);
Philippicus had already received an order from Maurice to impose a reduction of one
quarter in military pay, which was probably meant to be o¡set by a return to public
provision of clothing and equipment and by some improvements to conditions of service;
he arranged for the promulgation of this while the troops were in winter quarters. Priscus
arrived at the main Roman camp at Monocarton in time to celebrate Easter on 18 April; he
immediately upset the soldiers by not dismounting when they greeted him. Discussion in
Whitby, Maurice 286^8.
The analysis of Krivouchine, ‘Re¤ volte’ 154^61, focuses on the literary contrasts which
Evagrius draws between the di¡erent participants in the mutiny, the rebellious army on the
one hand and on the other the sequence of Priscus the arrogant instigator, Germanus the
reluctant commander, and Gregory the e¡ective conciliator. Evagrius, however, does recognize
the signi¢cance of the orders about military remuneration, of which the soldiers already
knew (‘Having already indeed heard . . .’; and cf. n. 16 above) and which were clearly the
cause of their rage; Priscus’ behaviour merely brought this anger into the open. Thus
Evagrius’ presentation does include other factors besides the contrasting personalities.