The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

INTRODUCTION lix
imperial city’, ‘the queen of cities’, ‘the new Rome’, ‘the newer Rome’.
O⁄cial positions and titles tend to be presented indirectly, as in the
case of Ephrem noted above, though there are exceptions in the citation
of the acta of Chalcedon (ii.18), and Longinus is described as holding
‘the o⁄ce of magister, which men previously called commander of
the regiments at court’ (iii.29, p. 125:28^9). 115 The same applies to
foreigners: the Huns are presented as Scythians (i.17, p. 26:26), or if
their modern name is used it is quali¢ed as ‘the Massagetae of old’
(iii.2, p. 100:10); Goths and Avars are also described as ‘Scythians’
(iii.25, p. 122:10; v.1, p. 196:6^7), and the Goths perhaps as Massagetae
(v.14, p. 209:31) though Evagrius is not consistent and sometimes uses
the contemporary term (Gothic at iii.27, p. 124:10; Avars at vi.10, p.
228:21). Such periphrases have been identi¢ed as characteristic of
secular historians like Agathias and Theophylact. 116 But Evagrius was
also prepared to be explicit: in his description of S. Sophia he provided
facts and ¢gures, which can largely be corroborated from the extant
building (iv.31), and his description of the ecclesiastical complex of S.
Euphemia at Chalcedon is also a clear account of the complicated
structure (ii.3). 117 Evagrius’ stylistic practice cannot be encapsulated in
a neat generalization.
With Evagrius the late antique tradition of ecclesiastical historiography
came to an end. For Allen, the explanation rested with the constraints
of the genre, which Evagrius had stretched to breaking-point by his inclusion
of substantial quantities of secular material and by the adoption of
the higher style of the classicizing secular tradition. 118 This explanation,
however, seems too mechanical: it disregards the precedents provided
by the ¢fth-century church historians for both these practices, the fact
that much formal ecclesiastical literature was couched in a fairly rhetorical
form, and the signi¢cant ways in which Evagrius reshaped his
115 There is also a partial admission of a Latin term in the description of Vitalian as
‘general of one of the so-called praesental armies’ (iv.3), and curopalatus is used, with appropriate
explanation at v.1. Thurmayr, Studien 11, provides a list of Latinisms, but does
not distinguish between those preserved in quoted documents (the majority) and those for
which Evagrius was personally responsible.
116 Averil Cameron, Agathias 88.
117 Caires, ‘Evagrius’ 34, compares Evagrius favourably with the vaguer descriptions of
buildings in Procopius’ panegyrical Buildings.
118 Allen, Evagrius 69^70.