Chronicle of Edessa

1

In the year six hundred and sixty-seven, Abraham of Chiduna was known.

2

In the year six hundred and seventy, Nicomedia fell.
In the year six hundred and seventy-two, Mar Abraham, Bishop of Edessa, departed from this world.

3

And in that same year, Vologesus, Bishop of Nisibis, died.

4 5

And in that same year, Barses the bishop, by order of the king, was moved from Haran to Edessa.

...is described accurately by Baronius at the year 337, number 51, in which, however, the Empire of the Orient from Illyricum up to Nisibis fell to Constantius, not Constantine. Furthermore, the name Constantinople was not imposed upon the restored Tela, but [the name] Constantina, as is read in the Acts of the Councils and among Greek, Latin, and Syrian ecclesiastical writers. Finally, since the restoration of that city happened in the year of the Greeks 661, or, according to our Chronicle, the year 661 (Christ 350), as Dionysius himself noted a little below, it must be attributed entirely to Constantius, who alone held Mesopotamia and all of Asia, and not to Constantine, who had already ceased to be among the living and never ruled in the East. That Tela is called with the addition Mauzalat, or Mauzalta, is witnessed, besides Dionysius at the cited place, by Gregory Barhebraeus in the Collection of Canons, where he often praises John, the Bishop of that city.

1 Abraham of Chiduna. Saint Ephrem described his deeds, as above on page 38. Dionysius mentions Chiduna, a village not far from the city of Edessa, at the year of the Greeks 1072, where he reports that Simeon the Monk, originating from that place, was forcefully dragged by the Edessenes from the monastery to the Patriarch George, and ordained Bishop of Edessa.

2 Nicomedia. Dionysius [says] the same regarding the fall of Nicomedia at this year, where, after he related that the Western bishops were gathered at Ariminum to settle the controversies of the Faith, at the urging of Constantius, he subjoins these things concerning the Orientals: The Orientals gathered at Nicomedia. And at that same hour the city fell by an earthquake. And it suffocated the bishop and the people who were found in it.

XXI. In the year six hundred and sixty-seven, Abraham 1 of Chiduna, the recluse, became famous.

XXII. In the year six hundred and seventy, Nicomedia 2 collapsed.

XXIII. In the year six hundred and seventy-two, Mar Abraham, Bishop of Edessa, departed from this world.

XXIV. In the same year, Vologesus 3, Bishop of Nisibis, died.

XXV. Likewise in the same year, Barses 4 the Bishop, by order of the Emperor 5, was moved from the city of Haran to Edessa.

...when it had collapsed from a huge earthquake and crushed its inhabitants, they betook themselves to Seleucia, a city of Isauria, where they held a Synod. Ammianus, book 17, describes this earthquake in these words: In those days, horrible earthquakes throughout Macedonia, Asia, and Pontus with constant tremors shook many towns and mountains. Among the monuments of manifold misfortunes, however, stood out the destruction of Nicomedia, the mother of the cities of Bithynia, the event of whose ruins I shall truly and briefly finish. At the first light of day, the 9th day before the Kalends of September, solid clouds of mist [formed] etc. Therefore, it happened according to Ammianus around the end of August, in the year of the Greeks 670 (Christ 359), as Dionysius and the Author of our Chronicle affirm, not 358, as Baronius thought. Furthermore, Saint Ephrem published a Sermon on the fall of Nicomedia, as testified by Gennadius, chapter 66, whose words we recorded on page 211.

3 Vologesus. He succeeded Saint Jacob, Bishop of Nisibis, as we said on page 18. But Dionysius in his Chronicle testifies that he was still alive in the year of the Greeks 674 (Christ 363).

4 Barses. Sozomenus, in book 6, chapter 32, writes that he was a bishop not of any [specific] city, but for the sake of honor only, as if to reward his distinguished deeds, ordained in his own monastery: which he also affirms regarding Lazarus and Eulogius, the successor of Barses. But Basil the Great, in two letters which he wrote to him, and Theodoretus, book 4, chapter 16, and others testify that he held the Bishopric of the city of Edessa: to which they assert, the Author of our Chronicle and the Patriarch Dionysius, he was moved from the Throne of Haran by the order of the Emperor. Wherefore (to use the words of Henricus Valesius in his Notes to the cited passage of Sozomenus) Barses and Eulogius seem at first to have been created bishops of a vacant place for the sake of honor: but later the Sees were handed over to them to govern.

5 By order of the Emperor: namely, Constantius, who [reigned] around the end of the year of the Greeks 672 (Christ 361).