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to send forth, as differing in no way from the dead lying in tombs. Therefore, the sinner, being tormented in these things, said the following: "Woe to me, wretched and worthy of lamentations, what a punishment I suffer for what I have dared against the Christians." And having said these things with great pain, he died. When Constantius, who was surnamed Chlorus because of the paleness of his face, died, his son Constantine, who was born to him by Helen near the city of Dacia, succeeded to the rule. Likewise, when Severus also died, Licinius, the brother-in-law of Constantine, was brought in his place. Therefore, when Constantine was baptized and found that miraculous deliverance from the disease which afflicted him, immediately his mother Helen and his relatives and friends were also baptized. Then, hearing of the terrible and strange things done by Maxentius in Rome, and having received an embassy from 37 the Romans, he marched against him, carrying before his army the sign of the cross which was shown to him in heaven, by which he also routed Maxentius. And thus he advanced to Rome, and all, together with women and infants and the entire populace of the Romans, received him with acclamations and insatiable joy. After Maxentius, Constantine the Great reigned for 32 years, the first and most Christian among emperors, who strengthened piety and orthodoxy in all things. In the 25th year of his reign, the council in Nicaea of the 318 God-bearing fathers was assembled against Arius the vain-minded. His mother died at the age of 80, and was buried by him in the church of the Holy Apostles. When he himself died in Nicomedia at the age of 65, his three sons took power: Constantius in the East, and Constantine and Constans in the West; the latter, having killed his brother Constantine and having reigned alone for 10 years, was himself slain by the populace. After Constantine the Great, his son Constantius reigned for 11 years; who, after his father's death, being led astray into the Arian way of thinking, tried to force the divine Alexander to receive Arius into communion. But when he would not tolerate it, but rather beseeched God with tears, the thrice-wretched man ended his life by a most shameful fate. 38 After Constantius, Julian reigned for 2 years, and was Caesar for 4 years and ʹ months; who, having shown much evil against the Christians, was slain in Persia by divine justice, being 30 years old. After Julian, Jovian reigned for 8 months; who, being constrained by the army to accept the symbols of the empire, is said to have told the army that he could not reign over them as they had been polluted by Julian. Then all are said to have answered with one voice, "We are Christians," and so he accepted the empire. But this pious and wonderful man, after 8 months of his reign, died while returning from Persia, leaving great mourning for the church and for all the peoples. After Jovian, Valentinian reigned for 12 years; who, 30 days after his own proclamation, summoning his own brother Valens from Pannonia, took him as a partner in the empire; who, assembling the heretics, did not cease exiling bishops and presbyters and deacons and peoples, and contriving many unholy and most cruel things against the church of God. But later, having joined battle with the Goths and being utterly defeated, he fled with a few men into a dwelling, in which the enemy burned him down along with those with him and the dwelling itself, after having reigned impiously for 14 years. But Valentinian the Great, coming from the regions of Gaul, died, leaving as heirs to his empire 39 his son Gratian, who was Augustus and staying in Rome, and Valentinian, who happened to be very young, whom the necessity of those attempting to usurp the place of the empire prepared, even in his brother's absence, to be bound with the purple. And Gratian, having brought Theodosius the Great from Spain, appointed him to
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ἐκπέμπειν ὡς μηδὲν τῶν ἐν τάφοις κειμένων νεκρῶν διαφέρειν. ἐν τούτοις οὖν ὁ ἀλιτήριος ἐταζόμενος τοιάδε ἔφη "οἴμοι τῷ ἐλεινῷ καὶ θρήνων ἀξίῳ, ὁποίαν τῶν εἰς Χριστιανοὺς τετολμημένων ὑπέχω τιμωρίαν." καὶ ταῦτα μετὰ πολλῆς ὀδύνης εἰπὼν ἀπέθανεν. Κωνσταντίου δὲ τοῦ ἐπικληθέντος Χλωροῦ διὰ τὴν τοῦ πρωσώπου ὠχρότητα τελευτήσαντος ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ Κωνσταντῖνος, ὃς ἐξ Ἑλένης αὐτῷ ἐγεννήθη περὶ τὴν τῆς ∆ακίας πόλιν, τὴν ἀρχὴν διεδέξατο. ὡσαύτως καὶ Σεβήρου τεθνηκότος Λικίννιος ὁ γαμβρὸς Κωνσταντίνου ἀντεισάγεται. τοῦ οὖν Κωνσταντίνου βαπτισθέντος καὶ τὴν παράδοξον ἐκείνην ἀπαλλαγὴν τῆς κατεχούσης νόσου εὑρηκότος, αὐτίκα καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ Ἑλένη καὶ οἱ τούτου συγγενεῖς τε καὶ φίλοι βαπτίζονται. εἶτα ἀκούσας τὰ ὑπὸ Μαξεντίου ἐν Ῥώμῃ χαλεπά τε καὶ ἄτοπα γενόμενα, καὶ πρεσβείαν ἐκ 37 τῶν Ῥωμαίων δεξάμενος, ἐστράτευσεν κατ' αὐτοῦ, προηγούμενον τῆς αὐτοῦ στρατιᾶς τὸ ἐν οὐρανῷ ὑποδειχθὲν αὐτῷ σημεῖον τοῦ σταυροῦ ἐπιφερόμενος, δι' οὗ καὶ ἐτροπώσατο Μαξέντιον. καὶ οὕτως ἐπὶ Ῥώμην ἐλαύνει, καὶ πάντες αὐτὸν ἅμα γυναιξὶ καὶ νηπίοις καὶ παντὶ τῷ δήμῳ Ῥωμαίων μετ' εὐφημίας καὶ ἀπλήστου χαρᾶς ὑποδέχονται. Μετὰ δὲ Μαξέντιον ἐβασίλευσε Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ μέγας καὶ πρῶτος ἐν βασιλεῦσι χριστιανικώτατος ἔτη λβʹ, ὃς τὴν εὐσέβειαν καὶ ὀρθοδοξίαν διὰ πάντων ἐκράτυνεν. ἐν δὲ τῷ κεʹ ἔτει τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας συνεκροτήθη ἡ ἐν Νικαίᾳ σύνοδος τῶν τιηʹ πατέρων θεοφόρων κατὰ Ἀρείου τοῦ ματαιόφρονος. ἐτελεύτησε δὲ ἡ μὲν μήτηρ αὐτοῦ ἐτῶν πʹ, καὶ ἐτάφη παρ' αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ ναῷ τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων. αὐτοῦ δὲ ἐν Νικομηδείᾳ τελευτήσαντος ἐτῶν ξεʹ οἱ τρεῖς υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ ἐκράτησαν, τῆς μὲν ἀνατολῆς Κωνστάντιος, τῆς δὲ δύσεως Κωνσταντῖνος καὶ Κώνστας, ὃς τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ Κωνσταντῖνον φονεύσας καὶ βασιλεύσας μόνος ἔτη ιʹ ἐσφάγη καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου. Μετὰ δὲ Κωνσταντῖνον τὸν μέγαν ἐβασίλευσε Κωνστάντιος υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ἔτη ιαʹ, ὃς μετὰ τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς τελευτὴν εἰς τὸ Ἀρειανικὸν φρόνημα παρασυρεὶς ἐβίαζε τὸν θεῖον Ἀλέξανδρον δέξασθαι τὸν Ἄρειον εἰς κοινωνίαν. τοῦ δὲ μὴ ἀνεχομένου, ἀλλὰ τὸν θεὸν σὺν δάκρυσιν ἱκετεύοντος, αἰσχίστῳ μόρῳ τὸν βίον κατέστρεψεν ὁ τρισάθλιος. 38 Μετὰ δὲ Κωνστάντιον ἐβασίλευσεν Ἰουλιανὸς ἔτη βʹ, Καῖσαρ δὲ ἐγένετο ἔτη δʹ καὶ μῆνας ʹ· ὃς πολλὰ κακὰ κατὰ Χριστιανῶν ἐνδειξάμενος ἐν Περσίδι ὑπὸ τῆς θείας δίκης ἀναιρεῖται, ἐτῶν ὢν λʹ. Μετὰ δὲ Ἰουλιανὸν ἐβασίλευσεν Ἰοβινιανὸς μῆνας ηʹ, ὃς ὑπὸ τοῦ στρατοῦ κατασχεθεὶς εἰς τὸ τὰ τῆς βασιλείας ὑποδέξασθαι σύμβολα, λέγεται πρὸς τὸ στρατόπεδον εἰρηκέναι μὴ δύνασθαι βασιλεύειν αὐτῶν ὡς ὑπὸ Ἰουλιανοῦ μολυνθέντων. τότε πάντας μιᾷ φωνῇ ἀποκριθῆναι λέγεται ὅτι ἡμεῖς Χριστιανοί ἐσμεν, καὶ οὕτω τὴν βασιλείαν ἐδέξατο. ἀλλ' οὗτος ὁ εὐσεβὴς καὶ θαυμάσιος μετὰ ηʹ μῆνας τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλεία ἐν τῷ ὑποστρέφειν ἀπὸ τῆς Περσίδος ἐτελεύτησε, μέγα πένθος καταλείψας τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ λαοῖς ἅπασιν. Μετὰ δὲ Ἰοβινιανὸν ἐβασίλευσεν Οὐαλεντινιανὸς ἔτη ιβʹ, ὃς μετὰ λʹ ἡμέρας τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀναγορεύσεως τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἀδελφὸν Οὐάλεντα ἐκ Παιονίας μεταπεμψάμενος κοινωνὸν τῆς βασιλείας προσελάβετο, ὃς τοὺς αἱρετικοὺς συγκροτῶν οὐ διέλιπεν ἐπισκόπους καὶ πρεσβυτέρους καὶ διακόνους καὶ λαοὺς ἐξορίζων καὶ πλεῖστα ἀθέμιτα καὶ ὠμότατα κατὰ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησίας μηχανώμενος. ὕστερον δὲ τοῖς Γότθοις πόλεμον συμβαλὼν καὶ κατὰ κράτος ἡττηθεὶς φεύγει σὺν ὀλίγοις εἰς οἴκημα, ἐν ᾧ τοῦτον κατέκαυσαν οἱ πολέμιοι σὺν τοῖς συνοῦσιν αὐτῷ καὶ αὐτῷ οἰκήματι, βασιλεύσαντα ἀνοσίως ἔτη ιδʹ. Οὐαλεντινιανὸς δὲ ὁ μέγας ἐκ τῶν μερῶν τῆς Γαλλίας ἐλθὼν ἐτελειώθη, κληρονόμους τῆς ἑαυτοῦ βασιλείας 39 καταλιπὼν Γρατιανὸν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ, Αὔγουστον ὄντα καὶ ἐν Ῥώμῃ διατρίβοντα, καὶ Οὐαλεντινιανὸν νέον κομιδῇ τυγχάνοντα, ὃν ἡ ἀνάγκη τῶν ἐπιχειρούντων τὸν τόπον τῆς βασιλείας ὑφαρπάζειν παρεσκεύασεν καὶ ἀπόντος τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ τὴν πορφυρᾶν ἀναδήσασθαι. Ὁ δέ γε Γρατιανὸς τὸν μέγαν Θεοδόσιον ἐξ Ἱσπανίας ἀγαγὼν προεχειρίσατο εἰς