CHAPTER XXI

PROCEEDINGS OF MACEDONIUS IN MANTINIA. REMOVAL OF THE REMAINS OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. JULIAN BECOMES CÆSAR

ABOUT the same time Eleusius demolished the church of the Novatians in Cyzicus. The inhabitants of other parts of Paphlagonia, and particularly of Mantinia, were subjected to similar persecutions. Macedonius, having been apprised that the majority of these people were followers of Novatian, and that the ecclesiastical power was not of itself sufficiently strong to expel them, persuaded the emperor to send four cohorts against them. For he imagined that men who are unaccustomed to the use of military weapons, would, on the first appearance of armed soldiers, be seized with terror, and conform to his sentiments. But it happened otherwise, for the people of Mantinia armed themselves with whatever weapons came first to hand, and marched against the military. A sanguinary conflict ensued, and many of the Paphlagonians fell, but all the soldiers were slain. Many of the friends of Macedonius blamed him for having occasioned so much bloodshed, and the emperor was displeased, and regarded him with less favour than before. Inimical feelings were engendered still more strongly by another occurrence. Macedonius contemplated the removal of the remains of the Emperor Constantine, as the sepulchre in which they had been deposited was falling into ruin. The people were divided in opinion on this subject: some concurred in the design and others opposed it, deeming it impious to open the sepulchre. Those who maintained the Nicene doctrines were of the latter sentiment, and insisted that no indignity should be offered to the body of Constantine, as that emperor had held the same doctrines as themselves. They were beside, I can readily imagine, eager to oppose the projects of Macedonius. However, without further delay, Macedonius caused the coffin to be conveyed to the same church in which the tomb of Acacius, the martyr, is placed. The people, divided into two factions, the one approving, the other condemning the deed, rushed upon each other in the church, and so much carnage ensued that the sacred edifice was filled with blood and slaughtered bodies. The emperor, who was then in the West, was deeply incensed on hearing of this occurrence; and he blamed Macedonius as the cause of the indignity offered to his father, and of the slaughter of the people.

The emperor was then preparing to return to the East; he conferred the title of Cæsar on his cousin Julian, and sent him to Gaul.