The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK VI 301
While these matters were proceeding thus the Avars twice penetrated
as far as the so-called Long Wall, captured by siege and enslaved Singidunum,
and Anchialus, and the whole of Greece and other cities and
forts, destroying and burning everything, since most armies were
engaged in the East. 37
The emperor sent Andrew, who was the chief of the imperial bodyguard,
to persuade the army to accept their former o⁄cers and the
others. 38
11 Since they did not even endure that the instruction reach their ears,
[229] the business was transferred to Gregory, not only because he was
capable of accomplishing the greatest of things but also because the
army owed great respect to him, since some he had welcomed with
money, others with clothes and food and other things when they were
passing through his see after being enrolled from the register. 39
37 It is likely that this rare notice of contemporary Balkan events was the result of Evagrius’
visit to Constantinople for Gregory’s trial in 588. In 583 the Avars, having failed to
obtain an increase in the Roman peace payments, invaded the Balkans; they captured Singidunum,
ravaged as far as Anchialus, near which they spent the winter, and threatened to
continue to the Long Walls of Constantinople before being persuaded to withdraw. In 584
Slav raiders did reach the Long Walls, but were driven o¡. In 586/7 another major Avar
attack brought them as far as Adrianople and other cities of the Thracian plain. In 588
there was an even more successful Avar onslaught in which Singidunum was forced to pay
a ransom, Anchialus was captured and the Roman forces under Priscus outmanoeuvred
near the Long Walls. Evagrius’ notice is probably a con£ation of the events of 588 with a
vaguer impression of the earlier campaigns; throughout these years Maurice was prevented
from taking e¡ective action by the need to allocate available manpower to the eastern front.
For discussion, see Whitby, Maurice 140^55.
38 This probably represents the mission to the army in spring 589, when their customary
salary was distributed (Theophylact iii.4.6); Andrew’s rank cannot be speci¢ed, though
PLRE (III. 77, s.v. Andreas 12) suggests that he may have been comes domesticorum.
39 Cf. the eulogy of Gregory’s qualities at v.6. As often, Evagrius’ general praise can be
connected with speci¢c incidents: cf. Whitby, ‘Patriarchs’ 330. These benefactions are also
mentioned in Gregory’s speech to the soldiers (vi.12 with n. 43 below).
This passage is important for its evidence on Roman recruiting practices in the late sixth
century, about which there is very little information. Enrolment from the register refers to
the standard Roman method of conscription, for which the tax registers provided the basis;
these recruits who passed through Antioch on their journey towards their units were likely
to have been enrolled for service in the units of the mobile army (comitatenses: the limitanei
who served in the frontier units were hereditary, so that recruits are unlikely to have had to
travel long distances to reach their units). Discussion in Whitby, ‘Recruitment’, section 4
esp. pp. 82^3.