Month: March 2016

Agapius now begins the events of the reign of the emperor Maurice.  This chunk ends with an oriental tale, with which authors of histories of that period evidently were obliged to lace their narratives. 

17. Then Justin the Younger, King of Rum, died.  After him there reigned over Rum Tiberius, for four years.  This happened in the third year of the reign of Hurmuz, son of Anushirwān, king of the Persians.  In the first year of the reign of Tiberius, King of Rum, there was made patriarch of Constantinople Cyriacus.  He held the office for sixteen years and died.  In the second year of his reign there was made patriarch of Jerusalem Anus.  He held the office for eight years and died.

18. Tiberius, King of Rum, died.  After him there reigned over Rum Maurice, for twenty years.  This happened in the seventh year of the reign of Hurmuz, son of Anushirwān, king of the Persians.  In the time of Maurice, King of Rum, there lived a monk named Marun, who claimed that Christ, our Lord, has two natures, one will, one operation and only one person, so corrupting the doctrine of the people.  Most of those who followed this doctrine and became his disciples were inhabitants of the city of Hamah, of Qinnisrīn, al-‘Awāsim and a large number of the people of the land of Rum.  His followers and those who professed the doctrine were called Maronites, named after Marun.  After the death of Marun, the inhabitants of Hamah constructed at Hamah a monastery, calling it “Dayr Marun”, and they embraced the religion of Marun.

19. In the fifth year of the reign of Maurice, there was at Antioch a terrible and violent earthquake.  A great part of the city of Antioch was destroyed and the inhabitants perished.  In the nineteenth year of his reign there was another violent earthquake in the land of Rum and in Syria, about the third hour of the day.  Many cities in Syria and in the land of ​​Rum were destroyed, and many people died because of the earthquake.  In the seventh year of the reign of Maurice, king of Rum, there was made patriarch of Jerusalem Isaac.  He held the office for eight years and died.  That same year died Gregory, Patriarch of Antioch.  The inhabitants of Antioch then went to Jerusalem to look for a man to designate as their patriarch.  Isaac, patriarch of Jerusalem, said to them: “For my part I would suggest this old sexton who serves at the Church of the Resurrection”.  They found him easily, and they undertook to bring him to Antioch.  Then [the old man] said to them: “Do you not recognize me?”  They answered no.  And he said to them: “I am Anastasius, and I was your patriarch.  But having been accused of fornication, I fled away from you and since then I have looked after the Church of the Resurrection service, after I buried my garments in such a place in Antioch.”  He led them to Antioch, took them to the place where he had buried his clothes, unearthed them and was restored to office.  He was their patriarch for nine years and died.

20. In the seventeenth year of the reign of Maurice another Anastasius was made patriarch of Antioch.  He held the office for six years and died.  After the death of Anastasius the see of Antioch remained without a Patriarch for twenty-two years.  In the fifteenth year of the reign of Maurice there was made patriarch of Jerusalem Zechariah.  He held the office for seven years and was exiled.  In the fifth year of the reign of Maurice there was made patriarch of Rome Gregory.  He held the office for thirteen years and died.  In the eighteenth year of his reign there was made patriarch of Rome Sabinianus.  He held the office for a year and died.  In the nineteenth year of the reign of Maurice there was made patriarch of Rome Boniface.  He held the office for six years and died.  In the fourteenth year of his reign there was made patriarch of Constantinople Thomas.  He held the office for fourteen years and died.  In the second year of his reign there was made patriarch of Alexandria Eulogius.  He held the office for twenty years and died (In another text it says “for two years”).

21. In the time of King Maurice there lived a robber from the city of Ifrīqiyah, the head of a gang of robbers, who preyed on and killed anyone who came into his hands.  The ways were so unsafe that no-one dared to walk the streets of the city of Ifrīqiyah for fear of this robber.  Under intense pressure, the patrician of Ifrīqiyah resorted to every means and even ruses  to catch the robber, but his efforts were in vain.  Hearing about this, the king Maurice sent one of his men to offer the robber a safe conduct.  He accepted it and went to the king Maurice who was very generous towards him, filled him with honors and gave him a high position.  After a short time the robber fell ill and was admitted into the sanatorium which was in the city of Constantinople.  One night, prostrate with grief that afflicted him, and convinced that he was about to die and appear before his Lord, gracious and merciful to his worshipers, he began to cry and to raise supplication, saying: “My Lord, as you received the tears of Peter and forgave him, as you have received the tears of Hezekiah, and as you received the thief who was crucified with you, so also receive my tears and erases with them my sins.  Please, in your great mercy receive my prayer!”  So he is saying he wiped his eyes with the cloth that he had on his face.  For hours the robber continued to invoke his Lord and to confess his sins.  Then he gave up his spirit.  There was a man in Constantinople, who was among the most distinguished, charitable and virtuous doctors, who used to visit the sick every day in the sanatorium.  Now, while he was sleeping in his house, he saw in a dream, at the same time as when the robber died, a troop of negroes approach the bed of the robber, carrying with them several sheets on which were written in detail the sins that he had committed.  Then he saw two men, whose faces shone white as snow and as beautiful as the sun, who carried with them a set of scales.  The negroes came forward, and they laid on the balance all the sheets so that one side rose and the other went down under the weight.  Then one of the white men said to his companion: “We have nothing to do here.”  And the other replied: “What can we do, in fact, if it is not even ten days since he stopped robbing?”  But then they began to rummage in his bed, and they found the cloth with which he wiped his eyes, and they threw it on the plate.  The empty plate sank down and the other rose, on which were the sheets, and they were all scattered.  Then they cried out, and said: “He won the mercy of God!” and so saying, they took the soul [of that robber] and took him away with them, while the negroes, confused and sad, fled.  The doctor awoke, immediately went to the robber and found him dead with a cloth over his eyes.  Those who slept next to the robber reported that they had heard his crying out and his prayers.  The doctor then took the cloth, was received by the King, showed it to him and told him about what he had seen in his dream and what he had heard from those who slept next to the robber.  Then the doctor said to the king: “Praise be to God who welcomed the robber, thanks to your good offices, and forgave his sins, just as he did with the first thief on the cross.  This in fact was the first, and that the second.”

The reign of Justinian continues, and after him Justin II.  We have two extracts from the lost Sassanid Persian chronicle that Eutychius has in Arabic translation.  The Persian chronicler was plainly very well-disposed towards the next Sassanid Persian king, Anūshirwān.

13. Qabād died.The years when Qabād reigned, together with the years in which Rāmāsf reigned, were around forty.  After him reigned his son Kisra, son of Qabād, called Anūshirwān.  He reigned for forty-seven years and six months.  This happened in the fourth year of the reign of Justinian, king of Rum.  Kisra ordered that the leaders of the Mazdeans should be expelled from his realm.  He confiscated the goods, which they had illegally seized, and returned them to their owners, preserving for himself the goods of those who had no heirs, and repaired what they had damaged and rebuilt what had been destroyed.  He interested himself in those whose houses and farms had beene extorted from them, and gave them back their own.  To those who had taken a woman by force he ordered them give her twice her dowry, unless, being fully satisfied, he took her as his wife.  And if she had a husband, he was to give him the equivalent of the dowry that the woman had at the time of the wedding.  If necessary he made him marry the woman.  What prompted him to set aside the punishment for those who had been guilty of crimes was the fact that he had at heart the good of the people and he did not like to treat anyone in a way that rendered them hostile.  He ordered a census of the families of nobles and aristocrats who, having lost those who supported them, had fallen into poverty; gave to their orphans and their widows what they needed,   to teach their children the arts for which they were fit and to give their daughters in marriage to rich people equal to them.  Also he showed interest in houses and land whose owners were no longer able to maintain them, for lack of means, and dug irrigation canals and waterways, so as to make the water flow in the rivers, and provided their owners the money needed to purchase seeds and livestock.  He went visiting the villages that had been destroyed and built formidable fortresses.  Then he chose ministers, prefects and judges and transferred them into the provinces.  He published the books of Azdashīr which contained the teachings which had inspired his own conduct, and urged the people to do the same, sending letters in this regard into all the provinces.  In the ninth year of his reign, in the twelfth year of the reign of Justinian, king of Rum, he went to Antioch at the head of his soldiers.  At Antioch he found the soldiers of Justinian, king of the Rum.  He fought against them and captured the city.  He then ordered a map of the city to be made, respecting the measure, the number of dwellings, in height and depth, of the streets and all that was there.  He sent a copy to his lieutenant of Ctesiphon, and ordered him to build him a city of the same shape and construction so that the eye would not notice any difference between it and Antioch.  The city was built, called ar-Rūmiyah, and he transfered the population of Antioch to live there.  When they arrived and passed the gate of the city, each family found a house very similar to the one left, and they all had the feeling of simply being returned to the Antioch that they had left.

14. In the thirtieth year of the reign of Justinian, king of Rum, there was made patriarch of Rome Pelagius.  He held the office for four years and died.  In the thirty-fifth year of his reign there was made patriarch of Rome, John.  He held the office for twelve years and died.  In the thirtieth year of his reign there was made patriarch of Antioch Anastasius the Great.  He had held the seat for six years when the inhabitants of Antioch accused him of fornication.  Anastasius fled, he took his clothes that he used to wear to celebrate mass and buried them.  In disguise he went to Jerusalem and took refuge in the Church of the Resurrection, where he had the task of lighting the candlesticks.  He remained as sacristan at the Church of the Resurrection, with the task of lighting the candlesticks, for twenty-four years, and no one ever knew that he was a patriarch.  In his place there was made Patriarch of Antioch Gregory.  He held the office for twenty-four years and died.  In the twenty-ninth year of the reign of Justinian there was made patriarch of Jerusalem, Macarius II.  He held the office for four years and died.  In the thirty-third year of his reign there was made Patriarch of Jerusalem John.  He held the office for ten years and he died.  In twenty-eighth year of his reign he was told that Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople, had denied the truth and had become a Jacobite.  He deposed him, and made patriarch of Constantinople, in his place, John.  He held the office for seven years and died.  After Eutychius, the patriarch of Constantinople who had been removed, the ministers and generals of the king were commissioned to plead his case to the king, and to ask him to reinstate him in his office, because what had been said about him were simply lies.  The king then reinstated him in the patriarchal office and he ruled for four years until he died.  In the thirty-ninth year of his reign there was made patriarch of Constantinople John.  He held the office for thirteen years and died.  Also Apollinaris, Patriarch of Alexandria, was patriarch for nineteen years and died.  In his thirteenth year in office he had a place on the Fifth Council.  After him there was made patriarch of Alexandria John.  He was a Manichaean.  He held the office for three years and died.  In the thirty-seventh year of the reign of Justinian there was made patriarch of Alexandria Peter. He was a Jacobite.  He held the office for two years and died.  King Justinian was of the Orthodox faith, loving the good, hater of the doctrine of the Jacobites and a tenacious advocate of the doctrine of the Melkites.

15. The king Justinian died after a reign of thirty-nine years.  After him reigned over Rum, for thirteen years, Justin the Younger.  This happened in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of Kisra, son of Qabād, king of the Persians.  Justin the Younger was also of the Orthodox faith, a champion of good, hater of the doctrine of the Jacobites and Nestorians and lover of the doctrine of the Melkites.  In the first year of his reign there was made patriarch of Alexandria Athanasius.  He was a Manichaean.  He held the office for five years and he died.  In the sixth year of his reign there was made patriarch of Alexandria John the Just.  He held the office for eleven years and died.  In the eighth year of his reign there was made patriarch of Rome Benedict.  He held the office for four years and died.  In the twelfth year of his reign there was made patriarch of Rome Pelagius.  He held the office for six years and died.

16. As for Kisra, son of Qabād, king of the Persians, called Anūshirwān, he moved with his troops against the Hayātilah to avenge his grandfather Firuz.  As he was already related by marriage to the Khaqan, Kisra, son of Qabād, wrote him a letter to inform him of his coming, and to tell him that he would march over the Hayātilah territory before he arrived.  Then he swooped down on him and the king killed him.  Balkh and the lands of Khurasan who were around it went over to Anūshirwān, who encamped his hosts in Farghānah, and married the daughter of the Great Khaqan.  In Khurasan, Sayf b. Du Yazan the Himyarite, head of the Yemeni population, presented himself to him, and asked for help against the Abyssinians.  He sent with him one of his generals at the head of an army from Deylaman, and they occupied Yemen and settled there.  Wherever he sent his troops Anushirwān obtained huge success and victories which rendered the condition of his subjects  prosperous.  Feeling the approach of death, he invested his son Hurmuz with power and died.  Anushirwān reigned forty-seven years and six months.  After him reigned his son Hurmuz, son of Anushirwān, for eleven years and six months.  This happened in the twelfth year of the reign of Justin, king of Rum.