58 – The sense is here to be elicited probably by repeating
the word ‘quod,’ so that the sentence should run, ‘dogma
nescio quod, quod Apollinaris asseritur.’
59 – There seems to be something corrupt in the text. Perhaps
we should read ‘moventur,’ ‘the dangerous parts of
Illyricum are in commotion;’ or ‘suspecta’ has taken the
place of some word, such as ‘superiora,’ which would stand
in antithesis to ‘maritima.’
60 – It may complete the subject of this series of letters
to remind the reader that about the same time that the
Council of the Italian Bishops was held, Theodosius
convened a second Council at Constantinople to deal
with the questions raised by the Westerns, where most of
the Bishops who had formed the previous General Council
re-assembled. They replied to the invitation to another
General Council at Rome by a Synodical letter, which is
given at full length by Theodoret (Eccles. Hist. v. 9.).
In it they excuse themselves from attending, on the ground
of their presence being required in their own Dioceses,
especially after the long exile of many of them, and the
prevalence of Arian usurpation, wishing that they ‘had
the wings of a dove,’ to fly to their Western brethren.
They then give a summary of the doctrinal decisions of
the two Councils, and announce that they have sent three
Bishops as deputies to explain all things more fully to
them, and, with reference to the disputed successions at
Constantinople and Antioch, give their assurance to their
brethren that both Nectarius and Flavian were canonically
elected, and the elections ratified both by the clergy
and the faithful of each diocese, and by the Council,
reminding them of the ancient Canon re-affirmed at Nicæa
that each province should settle all such questions for
themselves.
61 – Acholius, or Ascholius, as he is called by Socrates, was
the Bishop who baptised Theodosius, during an illness
which seized him on a campaign against the Goths. He was
present at the Council of Constantinople, and afterwards
at that of Rome, not as one of the deputies from the
East, but probably because his see had been so recently
transferred to the Eastern Empire, that he might seem to
belong to both East and West. (Tillemont Ambr. ch. xxxi.)
It was there that he met S. Ambrose, who had gone to Rome
to attend the Council, and had fallen ill. His death must
have occurred in A.D. 383, for his successor Anysius was
Bishop before the death of Damasus, Bishop of Rome, who
died in A.D. 384. Theodoret therefore (B. v. ch. 18.) must
be wrong in making him the Bishop who wrote to S. Ambrose
an account of the massacre at Thessalonica, which occurred
in A.D. 390. But the passage of Theodoret occurs in only
one MS., and is perhaps not genuine.
62 – The Goths had been settled within the boundaries of the
Empire by Valens in A.D. 376, when they implored his
protection against the Huns. He established them in Moesia,
where they soon revolted, and ravaged Thrace, uniting
with their former enemies, the Huns, and other barbarians.
Valens was defeated and slain by them in A.D. 378, and
then they overran all the neighbouring provinces. There is
a graphic account in Gibbon, ch. xxvi.
63 – The Benedictine text here reads ‘claudebatur.’ Several MSS.,
as the editors mention in a note, have ‘claudebat.’ They
themselves suggest ‘claudicabat.’ But ‘claudebat’ really
gives the same meaning, and there seems little doubt that
it is the true reading. It comes from claudeo or claudo,
(for both forms are to be found,) meaning ‘to be lame,’
‘to halt.’ It occurs three times in Cicero.
64 – ‘fisco vel arcæ.’ The ‘fiscus,’ or imperial treasury,
received whatever was assigned to the Emperor individually,
as distinguished from the ‘aerarium,’ which received what
belonged to the senate, as representing the old republica:
‘arca’ is sometimes used in late writers as equivalent to
‘fiscus,’ sometimes, when distinguished from it, as here,
it signifies the city funds, which were distinct from both.
65 – Julian’s edict, forbidding the Christians to teach in
the schools of grammar and rhetoric, is mentioned with
disapproval by Gibbon ch. xxiii.