The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK VI 313
ordained that if Siren should conceive in her womb I would send to
your all-revered shrine the cross worn by her. And on this account
both I and Siren have this purpose, that we should have possession
of this cross in remembrance of your name, holy one. And instead
of it we have resolved to dispatch as its value 5,000 staters,
although it does not extend beyond 4,400 miliary staters. 78
And from the time when I had the said request in my mind and
made this resolution until the time we came to Rhesonchosron 79
no more than ten days elapsed, and you, holy one, not because I
am worthy but because of your goodness, you appeared to me in a
dream at night and thrice said to me that Siren had conceived in
her womb. And in the same dream I thrice responded to you
saying: ‘‘Good’’. And because you are the granter of requests,
from that day Siren did not know what is customary for women.
But I had doubts about this, but for the fact that I trusted in your
words and that you are holy and a granter of requests, after she
did not experience what women do, from this I knew the power of
the dream and the truth of what you had spoken. And so straightaway
I sent the said cross and its value to your all-revered
house, 80 ordering that from its value one paten and [238] one
chalice should be made for the sake of the divine mysteries, but
indeed also that a cross be made which should be ¢xed on the
honoured altar, and a censer all of gold, and a Hunnic curtain
decorated with gold; and the miliaresia left over from this sum
are for your holy house, so that through your fortune, holy one, in
all things but especially in this request, you may come to the aid
of myself and Siren, and that what has come to us through your
intercession may proceed to completion through the mercy of
your goodness and for the wish of myself and Siren; so that I and
had let blood from her arm. Khusro had a second Christian wife, known as Maria the
Roman.
78 The Roman silver coin, the miliarensis (the word used later in the inscription at p.
238:5) had fallen out of use in the ¢fth century, whereas Persians still used silver. Khusro
presumably was calculating in dirhams, the standard Persian coin.
79 A Persian royal palace near the Diyala river.
80 In the previous paragraph it appeared that Khusro and Shirin intended to retain the
cross and substitute a greater monetary compensation, but here it seems that both the cross
and the money are being sent.