CHAPTER XLIV

OF THEIR RECEPTION BY THE NOTARY MACARIUS; THE DISTRIBUTION OF MONEY TO THE POOR; AND OFFERINGS TO THE CHRUCH

THE director and chief of these officers was a most useful servant of the emperor, a man eminent for faith and piety, and thoroughly acquainted with the Divine word, who had been honourably conspicuous by his profession of godliness during the time of the tyrants’ power, and therefore was deservedly intrusted with the arrangement of the present proceedings. Accordingly, in faithful obedience to the emperor’s commands, he received the assembly with courteous hospitality, and entertained them with feasts and banquets on a scale of great splendour. He also distributed lavish supplies of money and clothing among the naked and destitute, and the multitudes of both sexes who suffered from want of food and the common necessaries of life. Finally, he enriched and beautified the church itself throughout with offerings of imperial magnificence, and thus fully accomplished the service he had been commissioned to perform.