Chronicle of Edessa

XXVI. In the year 674, in the month of June, Emperor Julian led his forces into the region of the Persians, and there he perished.

XXVII. In the year 675, in the month of February, Valentinian the Great assumed the Empire along with his brother Valens.

XXVIII. In the year 678, Mar Julian the Elder original: "Julian Saba" departed from this world.

XXIX. In the year 681, the great Baptistery of Edessa was constructed.

XXX. In the year 684, on the ninth day of the month of June, Mar Ephrem, most celebrated in doctrine, departed from this world.

XXXI. In the month of September of the same year, the people left the church of Edessa, having been expelled by the Arians.

[The year 361] was spent not far from Edessa, as the author of the Alexandrian Chronicle reports under the consuls of this year, in these words: "Constantine, at the beginning of the fourth Indiction The fifth Indiction began in September, says Pagi, number 4., having been warned of the ambushes of Julian the Caesar, hurried from Tarsus of Cilicia to Mopsuestia, or the springs of Mopsus, etc."

1. Julian. Pagi, number 4, places his death on the 26th day of June, in the year of Christ 363, based on Ammianus, Socrates, Idacius in the Fasti, and the author of the Alexandrian Chronicle.

2. Valentinian. He was proclaimed Emperor on the 26th of February, according to Socrates at the beginning of book 4. Valens was made a partner in the Empire on the 28th of March, as Ammianus writes in book 25. Since he assigns Valentinian's inauguration to a leap year, he shows that it occurred in the year of Christ 364, confirming what is clear from the statements above, namely that the year of the Greeks 675 corresponds to the year of Christ 364.

3. Julian the Elder. The transcriber of Dionysius negligently defers his death to the following year. See above page 154.

4. Baptistery. The same is reported from our Chronicle in Dionysius at this year.

5. Mar Ephrem. That his death should not be extended beyond the year of Christ 373, in addition to the authority of the Syrians whom I praised on page 34, can also be conjectured from the time of the persecution moved by the Emperor Valens against the orthodox Edessenes. For this occurred according to Baronius in the year 371 or 372, as Pagi wishes, or finally in 373, as the Syrians prefer. It can in no way be deferred to the year 378 or 380, where most place the death of the Holy Doctor. But the author of our Chronicle, Dionysius, and other Syrians testify that Saint Ephrem was called to the heavens before that persecution was moved. Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret appear to support them, as they accurately described the same persecution without making any mention of Ephrem, of whom they would undoubtedly have made mention if he had still been among the living. For what is more certain than that he would have become famous on that occasion through some remarkable deed, either by removing the persecution from the Edessene Church or by following his bishop, Barses, and the other priests and clerics exiled by the Emperor Valens to their place of exile? Certainly, he would not have allowed himself to be surpassed by that generous woman whose most noble deed the cited authors report. Nor is there any reason why Valens would spare Ephrem alone while exiling all other orthodox believers to various regions. From this, the death of Saint Basil the Great is also inferred, who departed from this light about six months before Saint Ephrem, as is clear from the life of the same Basil compiled by Amphilochius and from the deeds of Ephrem reported above. I do not agree with Pagi, who at the year 370, number 24, contends that Basil survived the Edessene persecution based on those words of Basil himself in epistle 297 to the pastors. [He argues] that [the enemy] had stripped his own people, and that he had moved from the East to Caesarea and attacked Basil there, which Nazianzen in his oration in praise of Basil and Theodoret in book 4, chapter 19, also testify. For even if that is true regarding Valens, it is sufficient that he harassed the churches of most of Thrace, Asia, Syria, and several other provinces; there is no need [to prove] that he also invaded Edessa. Add that Modestus, who according to the opinion of all writers was Praetorian Prefect while Valens attacked Basil at Caesarea, is said to have held that dignity until the year of Christ 373 in the laws of the Theodosian Code, as Pagi also notes at the year 370, number 31. However, at number 25, he had incorrectly written that it appeared from the subscriptions of the laws of the Theodosian Code that Modestus was Praetorian Prefect in the year 375. Therefore, Basil had been attacked by Valens before the persecution occurred, which was only excited in the month of September of the year 373. Nor does it stand in the way that Amphilochius writes in the Life of Basil that he died on the Kalends of January in the fifth year of Valens and Valentinian, and that, as Gregory of Nyssa testifies in his epistle to Olympius, after eight years had been passed in the episcopate and the ninth had begun. And so, [it was] the year of Christ 380, which was the fifth year of Valentinian the Younger, as Pagi says at the year 378, number 2; or the year 376, into which the fifth consulship of Valens and Valentinian fell, as Combefis thinks in his notes to Amphilochius; or finally the year 378, as others have imagined. For to begin with the words of Amphilochius, everyone acknowledges that there is an error in them, whether it is placed in the number of years, or in the name of Valens, or for any other reason. Hence, no truth can be extracted from them, and no light can shine upon that obscure history. The eight years of the episcopate which are mentioned by Nyssa as having the ninth begun can be applied equally comfortably to all the opinions of the authors, especially since Amphilochius, chapter 8 and 9, Nicephorus, book 10, chapter 25, and the author of the Alexandrian Chronicle under the consuls of the year 363, called Basil bishop while Julian was emperor, because he was indeed taking care of the Church of Caesarea in the absence of the pastor, even though he was still a priest, as the often-cited Pagi rightly warns at the year 365, number 5.