Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Sozomen/Book IX/Chapter 11
Chapter XI.—The Tyrants who in the West at that Time rebelled against Honorius. They are wholly destroyed on account of the Emperor’s Love of God.
During this period many tyrants rebelled against Honorius in the Western government. Some fell upon one another, while others were apprehended in a marvelous way, and so evidenced that the Divine love toward Honorius was not common. The soldiers in Britain[1]
were the first to rise up in sedition, and they proclaimed Mark as
tyrant. Afterwards, however, they slew Mark, and proclaimed Gratian.
Within four months subsequently they killed Gratian, and elected
Constantine in his place, imagining that, on account of his name, he
would be able to reduce the empire firmly under his authority; and for
no other reason than this, several other persons of the same name were
elected to the tyranny. Constantine passed over from Britain to
Bononia, a maritime city of Gaul; and after inducing all the troops in
Gaul and Aquitania to espouse his cause, he reduced to obedience the
inhabitants of the regions extending to the mountains which divide
Italy from Gaul, and which the Romans have named the Cottian Alps. He
then sent his oldest son, Constans, whom he had already nominated
Cæsar, and whom he afterwards proclaimed emperor, into Spain.
Constans, after making himself master of this province, and appointing
his own governors over it, commanded that Didymus and Verinian,
relatives of Honorius, should be loaded with chains, and brought before
him. Didymus and Verinian had at first differed among themselves, but a
reconciliation was effected between them, when they found themselves
menaced by the same danger. They combined their forces, which consisted
chiefly of armed peasants and slaves. They attacked Lusitania in
common, and slew many of the soldiers sent by the tyrant for their
capture.
Footnotes
edit- ↑ Independent chapter. Olymp. Fragm. 12; Zos. vi. 1–5; Oros. vii. 39.