[Valens], emperor of the Romans [1]; being a heretic[2] himself and also organizing the heretics, he lived in the ways of his own parents. When Tatianus[3] was governor of Alexandria, [Valens] sent away on exile bishops and presbyters and deacons and monks; and he tortured many a Christian and some of them he burned. All these things [were done] after Athanasius'[4] death. The orthodox of Constantinople, thinking that they would be pitied by Valens, sent to him an embassy, when he happened to be in Nicomedea, consisting of eighty priests and led by Theodoros and Kourbasos and Menedimos;[5] [Valens] ordered them to be burned along with their ship. And they were all burned down with the ship, and the ship endured until Dakibiza[6] and then it dissolved. At the time of loathsome Valens, a Loukios,[7] bishop of the Arian heresy, assaulted the Church straightway like a wolf; and Peter[8] fled to Rome. And Loukios did things even worse than those that had been done during the persecutions of the Gentiles; he sent three thousand [soldiers] throughout the desert to kill and plunder the holy men.[9]
Oualês, basileus Rhômaiôn: hos kakodoxôn kai sunkrotôn tous hairetikous eis tên hodon tôn idiôn paterôn eporeueto. kai gar episkopous eis exorian epempe kai presbuterous kai diakonous kai monachous, Tatianou tote archontos Alexandreias: kai pollous tôn Chri- stianôn ebasanise kai tinas puri paredôke. tauta de panta meta tên teleutên Athanasiou. hoi oun en Kônstantinoupolei orthodoxoi eleêthêsesthai nomizontes hupo Oualentos presbeian esteilan pros auton en Nikomêdeiai tunchanonta, pempsantes p# hieratikous andras, hôn hêgounto Theodôros kai Kourbasos kai Menedimos: hous hapantas sun tôi ploiôi huphaphthênai prosetaxe. kai pantes sun têi nêï katephlechthêsan, mechri Dakibizôn tou ploiou diarkesantos kakeise dialuthentos. epi tou bdelurou Oualentos Loukios tis episkopos tês tôn Areianôn haireseôs parachrêma hôs lukos têi ekklêsiai epepêdêsen: ho de Petros eis tên Rhômên apephugen. ho de Loukios tosauta enedeixato, hoia oude en tois diôgmois tôn Hellênôn egeneto: treis gar chiliadas apesteile kata tên erêmon anairountas kai porthountas tous theosebeis andras.
[1] Of Pannonian descent (b. 328, emperor 364-378); his wife was Domnika and they had two daughters, Anastasia and Karossa (
Theophanes Confessor,
Chronographia 56-65), and a son, Galatius (Symeon Logothetes,
Chronicon 99). Valens' reign is discussed in many chronographic and religious narrations of the Byzantine period: the earliest are those of Socrates Scholasticus (
Historia Ecclesiastica 4-5) and Sozomenus (
Historia Ecclesiastica 6.6-40). The sources for the Suda can be located at George the Monk,
Chronicon breve 110.677-680, and Constantinus VII Porphyrogenitus,
De virtutibus et vitiis 1.151.12-28. For a narrative and evaluation of the events during Valens' reign, see John Curran, 'From Jovian to
Theodosius', in
Cambridge Ancient History [edn.2] XIII, 80-101; also the
De Imperatoribus Romanis entry at web address 1 (Noel Lenski).
[2] Of the Arian heresy; Arianism was the first doctrinal dispute within Christianity after its official recognition by Constantine in 313, a heresy that denied the consubstantiality (
o(moou/sion) of the Father and the Son, thereby negating the Divinity of Jesus Christ. See also Henry Chadwick, 'Orthodoxy and heresy from the death of Constantine to the eve of the first council of
Ephesus',
CAH XIII [above], 561-600. In the Suda, see
alpha 3834,
alpha 3835.
[3] Flavius
Eutolmius Tatianus,
e)/parxos of Egypt, referred to in many inscriptions and papyri of the second half of the 4th century, e.g. P.Oxy. 1101.
[4] Athanasius the Great (293-373), Patriarch of Alexandria (328-373).
[5] The narrative of this embassy can also be found elsewhere; however the names
*Kourbaso/s and
*Mene/dimos are attested only here (a
*Kourba=s occurs in a papyrus (SB 6662)). Other versions of the story appear in Sozomenus (6.14), Socrates Scholasticus (4.16), Constantinus VII Porphyrogenitus (1.151), George the Monk (110.677) and
Theophanes Confessor (58.30); there we find the names
*Ou)rbasos or
*Ou)rbanos and
*Mene/dhmos or
*Bene/dhmos.
[6] Seaside fortress in
Bithynia, on the road between Chalcedon and Nicomedea. Also attested as
*Daki/dizos (feminine),
*Daki/diza (neuter plural or feminine singular) or
*Daki/buza (neuter plural). See also
delta 29.
[7] Arian Patriarch of Alexandria after the death of Athanasius the Great.
[8] Peter II, orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria between 373 and 380.
[9] Referring to ascetics; the events are narrated in George the Monk (110.680-681). For a survey of this religious practice at the time, see Peter Brown, 'Asceticism: pagan and Christian',
CAH XIII [above], 601-631.
Cameron A. – Garnsey P. (edd.), The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume XIII, The Late Empire, A.D. 337-425, Cambridge 1998
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