Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Sozomen/Book VI/Chapter 39
Chapter XXXIX.—Peter, having returned from Rome, regains the Churches of Egypt, after Lucius had given way; Expedition of Valens into the West against the Scythians.
Those in every city who maintained the Nicene doctrine now began to take courage, and more particularly the inhabitants of Alexandria in Egypt. Peter[1]
had returned thither from Rome with a letter from Damasus, confirmatory
of the tenets of Nicæa and of his own ordination; and he was
installed in the government of the churches in the place of Lucius, who
sailed away to Constantinople after his eviction. The Emperor Valens
very naturally was so distracted by other affairs, that he had no
leisure to attend to these transactions. He had no sooner arrived at
Constantinople than he incurred the suspicion and hatred of the people.
The barbarians were pillaging Thrace, and were even advancing to the
very suburbs, and attempted to make an assault on the very walls, with
no one to hinder them. The city was indignant at this inertness; and
the people even charged the emperor with being a party to their attack,
because he did not sally forth, but delayed offering battle. At length,
when he was present at the sports of the Hippodrome, the people openly
and loudly accused him of neglecting the affairs of the state, and
demanded arms that they might fight in their own defense. Valens,
offended at these reproaches, immediately undertook an expedition
against the barbarians; but he threatened to punish the insolence of
the people on his return, and also to take vengeance on them for having
formerly supported the tyrant Procopius.
Footnotes
edit- ↑ Soc. iv. 37, 38; Eunap. Fr. i. 6; Am. Marcel. xxxi. 11. 1–5; Zos. iv. 22–24.