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The conflux of these disastrous events occurred during a short space of
time; for they happened in the fourth year after the council at
Sardica, during the consulate of Sergius and Nigrinian. When these
circumstances were published, the entire sovereignty of the empire
seemed to devolve on Constantius alone, who, being accordingly
proclaimed in the East sole Autocrat, made the most vigorous
preparations against the usurpers. Hereupon the adversaries of
Athanasius, thinking a favorable crisis had arisen, again framed the
most calumnious charges against him, before his arrival at
Alexandria; assuring the Emperor Constantius that he was subverting
all Egypt and Libya. And his having undertaken to ordain out of the
limits of his own diocese, tended not a little to accredit the
accusations against him. Meanwhile in this conjuncture, Athanasius
entered Alexandria; and having convened a council of the bishops in
Egypt, they confirmed by their unanimous vote, what had been
determined in the Synod at Sardica, and that assembled at Jerusalem
by Maximus. But the emperor, who had been long since imbued with
Arian doctrine, reversed all the indulgent proceedings he had so
recently resolved on. And first of all he ordered that Paul, bishop
of Constantinople, should be sent into exile; whom those who
conducted strangled, at Cucusus in Cappadocia. Marcellus was also
ejected, and Basil again made ruler of the church at Ancyra. Lucius
of Adrianople, being loaded with chains, died in prison. The
reports which were made concerning Athanasius so wrought on the
emperor's mind, that in an ungovernable fury he commanded him to be
put to death wherever he might be found: he moreover included
Theodulus and Olympius, who presided over churches in Thrace, in
the same proscription. Athanasius, however, was not ignorant of the
intentions of the emperor; but learning of them he once more had
recourse to flight, and so escaped the emperor's menaces. The
Arians denounced this retreat as criminal, particularly Narcissus,
bishop of Neronias in Cilicia, George of Laodicaea, and Leontius
who then had the oversight of the church at Antioch. This last
person, when a presbyter, had been divested of his rank, because in
order to remove all suspicion of illicit intercourse with a woman named
Eustolium, with whom he spent a considerable portion of his time, he
had castrated himself and thenceforward lived more unreservedly with
her, on the ground that there could be no longer any ground for evil
surmises. Afterwards however, at the earnest desire of the Emperor
Constantius, he was created bishop of the church at Antioch, after
Stephen, the successor of Placitus. So much respecting this.
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