Read the _Ecclesiastical History_ of Basil the Cilician.[124] It
begins with the death of Simplicius, bishop of Rome,[125] who
wrote to Acacius of Constantinople[126] to have no dealings with
Peter surnamed Mongus,[127] who was then corrupting Alexandria
by anathematizing, publicly and in church, the holy council of
Chalcedon. It was through him that Acacius was deprived of his see;
for although Acacius at first was justly incensed against him,
he subsequently showed no aversion to his doctrines and thereby
incurred the suspicion of being a heretic. This matter came up again
during the reign of Zeno. The history begins at this time and goes
down to the death of Anastasius, after he had reigned twenty-seven
years and three months, Justin the Thracian being proclaimed his
successor.[128] The present book finishes about this time, and
embraces the period from Zeno to the death of Anastasius and the
proclamation of Justin as emperor. The author also states that two
other books were written by him, the first and the third; the first
beginning with the reign of Marcian and ending with that of Zeno,
where the second begins, while the third continues the narrative of
the second, beginning with the reign of Justin.
The author’s style is rather slovenly and uneven. He also introduces
a large amount of episcopal correspondence, the object of which, he
says, is to prove what he writes; these vastly increase the bulk of
the book and contain but little history, and that buried under a
mass of verbiage. The clearness of the narrative is destroyed by the
number of parentheses.