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IN this time, on account of the necessities of war, it seemed best
to the officials whose concern it was, to impose more than the
customary taxes; for this reason the populace of Antioch in Syria
revolted; the statues of the emperor and empress were thrown down and
dragged by ropes through the city, and, as is usual on such
occasions, the enraged multitude uttered every insulting epithet that
passion could suggest. The emperor determined to avenge this insult by
the death of many of the citizens of Antioch; the people were struck
dumb at the mere announcement; the rage of the citizens had subsided,
and had given place to repentance; and, as if already subjected to the
threatened punishment, they abandoned themselves to groans and tears,
and supplicated God to turn away the anger of the emperor, and made
use of some threnodic hymns for their litanies. They deputed
Flavian, their bishop, to go on an embassy to Theodosius; but on
his arrival, finding that the resentment of the emperor at what had
occurred was unabated, he had recourse to the following artifice. He
caused some young men accustomed to sing at the table of the emperor to
utter these hymns with the litanies of the Antiochans. It is said
that the humanity of the emperor was excited; he was overcome by pity
at once; his wrath was subdued, and as his heart yearned over the
city, he shed tears on the cup which he held in his hand. It is
reported that, on the night before the sedition occurred, a spectre
was seen in the form of a woman of prodigious height and terrible
aspect, pacing through the streets of the city, lashing the air with
an ill-sounding whip, similar to that which is used in goading on the
beasts brought forward at the public theatres. It might have been
inferred that the sedition was excited by the agency of some evil and
malicious demon. There is no doubt but that much bloodshed would have
ensued, had not the wrath of the emperor been stayed by his respect for
this sacerdotal entreaty.
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