The history of the church from our Lords incarnation, to the twelth year of the Emperour Maricius Tiberius, or the Year of Christ 594 / as it was written in Greek, by Eusebius Pamphilius ..., Socrates Scholasticus, and Evagrius Scholasticus ... ; made English from that edition of these historians, which Valesius published at Paris in the years 1659, 1668, and 1673 ; also, The life of Constantine in four books, written by Eusibius Pamphilus, with Constantine's Oration to the convention of the saints, and Eusebius's Speech in praise of Constantine, spoken at his tricennalia ; Valesius's annotations on these authors, are done into English, and set at their proper places in the margin, as likewise a translation of his account of their lives and writings ; with two index's, the one, of the principal matters that occur in the text, the other, of those contained in the notes.

CHAP. XIII. Concerning the Fire which [hapned] at Con∣stantinople.

a 1.1 THere hapned together with these [mischiefs] a like, or rather a far more grievous [ca∣lamity] at Constantinople; this mischievous ac∣cident

began in that part of the City that lay towards the Sea, which they term the b 1.2 Ox-Street. 'Tis reported, that about such time as Candles are usually lighted, a cer∣tain mischievous and exe∣crable Devill having clo••hed himself in the shape of a woman, or rather in reali∣ty a poor woman instiga∣ted by the Devill, (for 'tis reported both ways;) car∣ried a Candle into the Market, being about to buy some * 1.3 Salt-fish; and that the woman set down the Candle there, and went away. And, that the fire having taken hold of some Flax, raised a vast flame, and in a moment burnt † 1.4 the Market-house. After which, that it easily consumed the adjoyning buildings, the fire preying all about, not only upon such [houses] as might with ease be fired, but upon Stone-buildings also; and that it conti∣nued till the fourth day; and that, having ex∣ceeded all possibility of being extinguished, all the middle of the City, from the Northern to the Southern Quarter, five furlongs in length, and fourteen in breadth, was in such a manner con∣sumed; that nothing, either of the publick or private buildings, was left [standing] within this compass, not the Pillars, nor Arches of Stone: but, that all the most hardned matter was burnt, as if it [had been straw, o••] any such combustible stuff. Further, this calami∣tous mischief raged in the Northern part, * 1.5 where∣in is the Haven of the City, from that termed the † 1.6 Bosporos, unto the Old Temple of Apollo. In the Southern part, from Julianus's Haven to those houses which stand not far off from that Oratory termed the Church of c 1.7 Concordia. And in the middle part of the City, from that termed Constantine's Forum, to that called Tau∣rus's Forum, [it left] a miserable and most deformed spectacle to [the view of] all men. For, whatever Edifices] had stood stately to behold in the City, or had been brought to a Magnificence and incomparableness of Beauty, or * 1.8 accommodated to publick or pri∣vate uses, were every one on a sudden transformed into mountains and hills, inaccessible and impassible, made up with all man∣ner of Rubbish, which deformed the Pristine Beauty and sight [of the City.] In so much that even the possessours themselves of the places could not discern, what any one of those for∣mer [Edifices] had been, and in what place [it had stood.]

Notes

• a 1.1

  'Tis not amongst▪ Authours agreed con∣cerning the year whereon this fire hapned at Constantinople. For Theophanes and Cedrenus place it on the fifth year of Leo, in the fifteenth Indiction, Leo Augustus being the second time Consul with Severas which was the year of Christ 462. But Marcellinus Comes and the Authour of the Alexandrian Chronicle place this fire of Constantinople in the Consulate of Basiliscus and Hermenericus, that is on the year of Christ 465. Our Evagrius seems to have followed the former opinion. For the verb [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, hapned together,] which he uses at this place, gives an indication of what I have said; to wit, that that Conflagration of Constantinople hapned no long time after the An∣tiochian Earthquake. Further, concerning that fire wherewith the City Constantinople was consumed in the times of Leo Augustus, Candidus Isaurus does also write, in the first book of his History, and relates that many things were usefully ordered therein by Aspar the Patritius. Vales.
• b 1.2

  He means the Portus Phosphorianus▪ which was in the fifth Region of the City, as the old description of Constanti∣no••le informs us. The Greeks te••med it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; as Constantinus Porphyro∣gennetus tells us in his second book de Thema••ibus about the end, and Georgius Codinus in his book de Originibus Constantinopolitan. 57. Vales.
• * 1.3

  Or, Salt∣meat.
• † 1.4

  Or, the houses.
• * 1.5

  Or, wherein are the Havens of the City.
• † 1.6

  Or, Ox∣street.
• c 1.7

  The Church of Homonoea [or Con∣cord, [was in the ninth Region of the City Constanti∣nople, as the Old de∣scription of that City informs us. Why this Church had this name, we are told by Theodorus Lector in book 4. of his Eccles. History; whose words are cited by Johannes Dama••cenus in his ••^d book de Imaginibus. For, it was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 [Concord,] because the hundred and fifty Fathers of the Constantinopolitane Synod in the Reign of Theodosius the Great [See Socrates's Eccles. Hist. book 5. chap. 8.] meeting therein, agreed in one opinion concerning the Consubstantiall Trinity. Vales.
• * 1.8

  Or, called.