Theodore the Syncellus, Homily on the siege of Constantinople in
626 AD (2007). Preface to the online edition
The following sermon on the deliverance of Constantinople from
the siege by the Avars, Slavs and Persians in 626 in the reign of
the emperor Heraclius is generally attributed in modern times to
Theodore the Syncellus. The events of the siege are also discussed
in the Chronicon Pascale and George of Pisidia. It was first
published by Angelo Mai in 1853 in Nova Patrum Bibliotheca vol. 6.2
pp. 423-437 with a Latin translation. However Mai only had access
to a truncated form of the text contained in Codex Vaticanus
Graecus 1572, on folios 41v-74v. This Vatican library manuscript
was dated to the 10th century by Mai, and by 11-13th by various
other scholars in the catalogue of the Vatican library Greek mss.
published in 1899 by the Bollandists. Sternbach discovered the
complete text in the only other manuscript known, Codex Parisinus
Suppl. Graecus 241, a parchment folio-size codex of the 10th
century in the Bibliotheque Nationale Franais, on folios 32v-53r.
This translation has been made from the French of Ferenc Makk. Such
a proceeding is obviously unsatisfactory, but it has value in that
it is accessible. To the best of my knowledge no English
translation exists, and a remarkable number of people are unable to
read French, which is in any case offline and inaccessible. It is
hoped that making this version available will stimulate interest in
the text. If it leads more people to take an interest in the text
of Theodore, it will have been worthwhile. Bibliography Ferenc
Makk, Traduction et Commentaire de l'homlie crite probablement par
Thodore le Syncelle sur le sige de Constantinople en 626. Szeged
(1975). Checked. Contains French introduction, translation and
brief notes, followed by Greek text reprinted from L. Sternbach,
Analecta Avarica, Cracow (1900). Roger Pearse Ipswich, 27th August,
2007
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2007.
This file and all material on this page is in the public domain -
copy freely. Greek text is rendered using unicode.
Early Church Fathers Additional Texts
Theodore the Syncellus, Homily on the siege of Constantinople in
626 AD (2007). English translation On the foolish attack of the
Avars and godless Persians against this city, protected by God, and
of their shameful retreat which the divine love brought about for
mankind by the intervention of the Mother of God. I. Prophesying
long ago, by the prophetic inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the
benevolence of God the Father, with regard to the incarnation and
the birth of the divine Word by the Mother of God, the eminent
prophet Isaiah proclaimed and says: "Go up a high mountain, to
announce good news in Sion: raise up your voice loudly, to announce
good news in Jerusalem: 'Lift up your voice without fear!' Say to
the cities of Judah: 'Here is our God! Here is the Lord God who
comes with power, extending his sovereign arms.'" The prophet says
this by divine inspiration; and by the mountains overhanging the
naked and the ground, according to my opinion, he referred,
tropologically to the high and elevated thought which does not wish
anything to see things stuck to the world, except that which is
absolutely necessary. Such was his thought and his word, and such
of all those who, being prophets and apostles, like Isaiah merited
the grace of the Holy Spirit. Since there are, here and now, such
things to tell which, so to speak, by a miracle, resulted from the
kindness of God towards us, amidst great suffering, exceeding even
the celestial spheres, which none could show to the world and show
clearly to men, except someone who had the prophetic heart, and who
was worthy of the light of the Holy Spirit. II. Come then, holy
Isaiah, because indeed your powerful spirit envisaged and predicted
great things, inspire me, by the pen of your prophetic grace, the
things which I have to tell; approach me, you who predicted the
glory of the only son of God and the mystery of the Virgin, after
having seen the throne of God, and having heard the song of the
Seraphs, and the doors trembling before you on their hinges, and
besides every obstacle depart before he that entered the sacrosanct
residence of God. It is for you to paint for me the current
miracle, and to give the grace which I can see in the figure and
the example of old Jerusalem, all these admirable miracles that the
Mother of God accomplished for this city because of the divine love
for men. Listen then, and understand thereafter, the picture that
is before us, what it represents and what it shows. In the house of
David at once time reigned king Ahaz, the son of Ozias the leper,
the heir to both the spite and the kingdom of his father. And
because even Ahaz fell easily into sin, and was inclined to
injustice, he did not accept in his heart the teaching of the
divine mystery of the Virgin, though he was invited by God, by the
prophet, to ask that He grant to him a sign of the end of the reign
of death, or further, on the divine incarnation. The sign was
anyway given to the house of David, and this sign is completed,
because the Virgin gave birth to God, while keeping until the end
her virginity. Ahaz remained nevertheless the image of unbelief,
while the Jewish people shout until our own day: "I do not ask for
a sign, because I will not test the Lord."
III. So Ahaz reigned over Jerusalem, but the picture that I
intend to give differs anyway from the description of the prophet.
Because my emperor is religious and without misdeeds, devoting, it
can be said, all his life to completing and observing the divine
commands and he encourages all his subjects to do the same. How
could our city not obtain help and divine support more than the
other Jerusalem, our city which has received from God such an
emperor 1, who loves God particularly, and has another Isaiah, i.e.
my archpriest 2, ever vigilant, and who transmits in a sober spirit
the decrees of God to his people? But, my prophet, paint for me the
other details of the picture, since the difference between the two
monarchs and their characters is obvious! So while Ahaz was the
king to devastate the town of Jerusalem, and to dethrone the
descendant of David, and to help to power the son of Tabeel who
formed part of and became companion in their spite, it is beautiful
to read the words of the prophet himself about them, not only
because they are full of holiness and divine grace, but also so
that you see your own eyes, by listening to what was said in
paraboles, the figure of the prophet, painting this picture. IV.
"In the time of Ahaz, son of Joatham, son of Oziah, king of Judah,
Rezin, king of Aram, went up with Phacaeus, son of Romelius, king
of Samaria, against Jerusalem, to besiege it. He brought this news
brought to the house of David while saying: Aram has allied itself
to Ephraim. Then the heart of the king and the heart of his people
began to sway, like the trees in the forest sway in the wind. The
Lord said to Isaiah: So go and join Ahaz, you and your son that
survives and is called Jaschub (i.e. "returning to God"), at the
end of the channel of the upper pool, on the road of the field of
the Fuller, and you will say to him: Hey, don't be disturbed! don't
be afraid, so that your heart does not weaken because of these ends
of smoking firebrands. Because every time my anger is raised, it is
calmed. The son of Aram and the son of Remaliah have exploited your
loss, saying: Let us go up against Judah, to terrify it and to
plunder, and we will make the son of Tabeel king there! But that
won't happen." V. And all that the prophet said and wrote, as
history and parabole, happened to those of the Jews who then lived
in Jerusalem, as a figure and example, but was used also as a
prediction for us, to whom God spread the grace of his love, by the
mediation of the Mother of God. Because look: God revealed by the
prophet the blessed message of the redemption of Ahaz, a descendant
of David in the carnal way, and through him of the unbelieving
people of the Jews, by the way of the channel of the higher pool,
on the road of the field of the Fuller. Because the word clearly
shows that any redemption which was purchased, purchases and will
purchase mankind, flows from the teaching of the mystery of Christ.
Because I know that his words say "field" for the Universe, because
man is a microcosm, and he symbolically names the Fuller, according
to the Bible, that which can clean the stain. From all that, it is
obvious that conversion, leading to baptism by true knowledge,
opens to the men the way to heaven. VI. But it is time to return to
our main subject, because there is no point in missing the target,
however skillfully one draws one's arrows. "Hear this, therefore,
all the peoples, listen, all the inhabitants of the world, the
descendants of earth and the sons of men. (Because the descendants
of earth 3 are those who are interested only in terrestrial things,
and the sons of men are those who keep the dignity of the image of
God.) Listen well, and I will tell you what great things the Lord
of armies has done through the Mother of God. But I will not relate
further events with these details (because that would exceed the
power of even the wisest) but, as a my talent allows, my report
will have the value of the words of a modest historiographer. In
the past Syria and
Samaria undertook the war against Jerusalem, of which the
monarch and the king in Damascus was Rezin, and that in Samaria,
the son of Remaliah, who reigned indeed over the people living next
to the country of Judah, but which were rightly minimised by their
neighbors, because their power was short-lived. But the heart of
Ahaz and the heart of his people began to sway anyway as the trees
in the forest sway, as you heard in the prophetic words. Against
this city and the man reigning there in the love of God with his
pious father, the Chaldaeans and Assyrians started to boast; they
had been formerly the Masters of the Eastern people, vicious and
cruel, according to every writing, famous for their malice and
power. The other dog also started to boast and was mad, furious and
barbarous, the ruler of savage peoples, who made foreign peoples
migrate, living in the north and most of the west, whose the number
is only like the grains of sand of the beaches of the sea; these
deliberated, advanced, sprang, and surrounded the earth and the
sea, like a swarm of bees. VII. However the powerful emperor was
far away, because he had left on campaign for a remote area,
against those who were devastating all the Eastern part of the
Roman empire; he did not see the the three-headed chimera, but the
many-headed, Nabuchodonosor 4; I speak about the current tyrant of
Babylon: of the devil Chosrau who owes his life and empire over the
Persians to the grace of the Christian emperor 5. The mighty
emperor was thus far away, and entrusted the throne to his son, the
imperial prince 6, who wished to follow the piety and devotion of
his father. The emperor thus entrusting him with his brothers and
the city to the guardianship of God and the Virgin, left them. But
the Persian Shahrbaraz (as the Babylonians call this Holophernes)
outrunning all the elite army of Persia, encircled Chalcedon nearby
with his cavalry and his siege-engines, because God prevented his
passage, because of the favorable situation of the city: he laid
out in front of the city our Jordan, to put an obstacle to the
incursion of those which are uncircumcised in their hearts. But he
did not prevent the wickedness of that demented person who showed
himself by words, councils and by the sending of troops, the ally
and battle-companion of this pig, attacking our city from the west;
and after having burned all the holy places, every imperial
building, every warehouse and private dwelling, in his advance
without delay and his effervescent fury, he even intended to burn
the imperial city. VIII. However, the enemy of the west, which was
led by a terribly abominable little runt, called by the barbarians
in their own language the Khagan, attacked the ramparts of the city
for several days, making advance innumerable people which covered
the land and the sea with their arms. Because he was the
devastating revenge of the eternal malignant spirit; he showed
himself to be the child of the devil, not by nature, but by his own
decision, and every diabolical wickedness was incarnate in him.
Like an anti-god, believing that he had power over land and sea, he
mouthed off at heaven and reached the land of his language, to
crush the people of God, like abandonned eggs, according to his
plan. This is why he extended his hands, soiled with blood, from
the confines of the land down to the sea. Using his pirate fleet,
he transformed the sea into firm ground, and he covered the firm
ground with cavalry and infantry, because he wanted to devastate
this Jerusalem from all sides. So what led him into so great a
nonsense? And who inspired him with this malevolent plan? I will
answer the first question initially, then finally I will be able to
do the second also. IX. Firstly, I say and I report as the primary
cause, the multiplicity and the variety of our sins, and that we
run our public life unworthily from every point of view of the
divine commands of
our redeemer God, because we corrode ourselves and we devour
ourselves, and we attempt to commit every form of wickedness. In
the second place I mention the insatiability and culpability of
this wild beast, and there is nothing which could and would satisfy
this leech. Because his carnal procreator (if only it had not
happened!) had taken refuge, like a plague sent by God, in the
remote lands near these regions, where his people currently live,
by beseeching previous Roman emperors. Those had treated him then
as a refugee, had clothed him naked, and had given food to him
starving; they did not even suspect what a infamous creature they
admitted in their vicinity, and what a devastating danger for the
Roman empire they accomodated almost at their heart! 7 The empire
of the father was inherited by his son, the successor, the elder
brother of this dog of today. However in a short time, these seized
control of nearby people by plunderings and massacres, and making
them their slaves; little by little they grew and multiplied, and
covered that land by their multitude. X. And when this crafty and
malignant fox became his brother's heir (which he was not!), which
means of intriguing did he not try against us? And on the other
hand what did our emperor not do to try to alleviate his spite?
Which forms of kindness did he not show towards this dog? But
apparently there is no end to the spite of this wild beast, and
there is nothing so strong and capable which can soften his low and
barbarian intentions. So who does not know of his devastating
invasion that it dared to carry out a few years ago, when the pious
and good emperor left to meet him, according to certain treaties,
to greet him from the Long Walls. At the same time the emperor gave
orders to surround him with every care and courtesy, hoping by this
to reconcile and appease this savage. Who doesn't know the plot and
the trick of this serpent, and that his unexpected trickery seized
a mass of men, and made them captives? With the men, women, old men
and children also were chained and removed in great number to the
enemy land. But he did not put an end to his spite, even there, and
spread himself with threats that he would devastate this city,
reigning over the other cities, unless he received half of all the
treasures and goods in the city. But it is inappropriate on this
occasion to recount now all the events then. In short, he received
enough money and property to fill even the hands of Briaraeus, and
would have improved the cruelty of Phalaris also, but all that did
not satisfy this leech; on the contrary, the payment of treasure
became the stimulant to still greater faithlessness for this dog.
He received all that in consequence of the earlier peace treaty,
and he reinforced the terms of the treaty also with an ancient
formula on oath, given by his emissary. But neither the ancient
oath, nor the payment of so much treasure, nor the imperial
treatment, nor the wisdom and the influence of so powerful an
emperor were effective to change his perfidy. XI. However, when the
most pious emperor left, as was told earlier, against the Eastern
enemies of God, he did not leave this proud and boastful man
without making peace with him. But he entrusted the city, his
imperial children and the palace to God and the Virgin, and in the
unquestionable hope, flowing from what he had done, he left
courageously on campaign, supposing at the same time that he would
succeed in appeasing this wild beast by a reasonable subsidy; he
thought this since he had already earlier entrusted to this
barbarian the city, his children and the palace 8. For a good man
is to be able to conclude his business reasonably, and the
judicious king makes the prosperity of his people and his city, as
the wise kings, David and Solomon say in the Holy Scriptures. But
even this did not make the spite of this dragon more moderate,
though even demons would have been ashamed. On the contrary, when
he was informed that the emperor had gone on campaign against the
Persians, when he learned that his
benefactor and his father as he called him had left the city, at
once the preparations started: the concentration of the barbarian
peoples, better called the wild beasts, the preparation of arms and
helepoles, the gathering of the monoxyles on the sea which can
travel the sea by oar, while transporting the tribes. There they
devised all kinds of tricks, even manufactured engines, to make the
town of God, protected by the Virgin, the booty of this deer. All
this was premeditated and carried out by him; he concentrated all
the barbarian armed forces subjected to him, he covered land and
sea with the wild tribes whose element of life is war. XII. The
most pious emperor, after having heard all this, stimulated to
action the guardian of public affairs (this was Bonos, a man known
by all), directed him by letters, and helped him with all things
necessary. While raising his hands towards the sky, he protested
thus to the Lord: "You, Lord, you see all, and you know all, and
you know that I had entrusted to you and your Immaculate Mother my
children, the city and your people living there. I believed that
the Khagan, this barbarian savage, would quieten down, and based on
this opinion, I entrusted my business to him; I believed that thus
this beast would change, perhaps. Even so I could not achieve a
result, and I did not succeed in dominating the insatiability of
his spirit. However you see what great things he devises against
your people trusting in your name. Therefore you, Lord of the
Universe, to whom I entrusted my heart, my life and the children
that you gave me, just as the city given by you to my care, keep
your pledge intact. Because you gave the law to Moses, your servant
on pledges, when you ordered that a deposit or a pledge was to be
kept intact and without fault. So keep now, according to your own
law, safe and well, the city which I entrusted to the force of your
power and the mother of your kindness, to the Mother of God." XIII.
Is it thus that the powerful emperor beseeched God? balancing up
this and that, weighing up his care and plans, finding himself
between two distresses. While the children of the emperor, in the
oratory of the Mother of God, being attached to the palace, offered
their ingenuous innocence and their heart, just as the virginity
and the purity of their bodies, as an entreaty and an aromatic
incense, and they exclaimed all in tears: "All-Powerful Lady! our
father had entrusted to you your city and us, your servants who are
still children, as you see it, very Holy Lady, and he had given us
to you; then, raising his cross, he went against these wolves which
were ravaging the sheep of the sheep-fold of your son. So save us,
save the city and its inhabitants, save us from the snake who
attacks us." The Preceptor of the city, spending his nights in
prayer and speeches, was the worthy archpriest, our Isaiah who knew
himself the concentration of the troops and their armament. The
fact that they raised their hands to God, and asked the Virgin for
assistance and protection, was a weapon, sabre and shield for all
the inhabitants of the city, because our archpriest gathered
everyone, if he were a priest or clerk, living as a monk or among
the people, of the men of any age, from the child to the old man,
and by the following words, as if he armed them, he harangued them
to be brave and not discouraged. "Come, and let us prostrate
ourselves before the only son of God the Father, because it is him,
our God. Come and cry before the Lord who created us; and because
he holds the fate of the war in his hands, except by the will of
God the multitude cannot be saved, even by unequalled power the
emperor cannot be saved, nor will the city remain intact, if the
Lord does not keep it. The enemy attacks us on horse and with war
engines, with an enormous multitude, but we will overcome by the
holy name of our Lord God. Because the Lord himself fights for us,
and because the Virgin Mother of God will also be protective of
this city, if we ourselves turn all
our heart toward them with all our heart and a devoted soul." So
saying, and so teaching the city, the archpriest prayed to God, day
and night, unceasingly. XIV. However, the man that the wise and
powerful emperor left to manage and supervise the affairs of the
city did not neglect at all his duties; he showed his ingenuity in
various ways in accomplishing everything that depends on the effort
and diligence of man. Because God himself delights in such men,
because he does not wish that those who have confidence in him to
be saved, be lazy and impotent. It was thus that Joshua, son of
Nun, in the past gave the order in which he drew up an ambush
against the town of Hal; and he made Gideon arm his men with jugs
and torches against the Midianites. The guardian of the affairs of
the emperor thus examined everything with a very vigilant eye,
reinforced the walls, and made provision for all that was necessary
for the battle. He was motivated to this by fear of the mighty
emperor, and by his letters, arriving unceasingly from afar, and
containing instructions, because even in his absence the struggle
was led by the servant of God: the emperor, teaching his duty, and
motivating his most faithful guardian. XV. At the same time at all
the western doors of the city, from which left even the revenge of
darkness, the holy archpriest, after having painted on icons the
holy features of the Virgin carrying in her arms that which she had
given birth to, the Lord, and these icons were like the most
brilliant sun, driving out the darkness by its rays, the
archpriest, I say, shouted in a comprehensible and reasonable voice
to the masses of barbarians and the demons leading them: "Oh
foreign people and diabolical hordes, you have undertaken the whole
war against these. But the Mother of God will put an end to all
your boldness and pride by its only call, because she is really the
mother of He which drowned Pharaoh and all his army in the middle
of the Red Sea, and discouraged and weakened all the diabolical
horde." This was done and said by the archpriest, then he beseeched
God and the Virgin to keep the city, the lighthouse of the law of
the Christians, intact, because it is to be feared that with her
even the lessons of the mystery of Christ could run into extreme
danger. XVI. The enemy tribes thus encircled the city on the East
and on the West, by sea and on the North. A poet named what he saw
on one side Scylla, on the other side Charybdis. But the city
begged in tears the Virgin by the words of the inspired mouth of
the archpriest: "Save me, oh Lady, save me, because I will perish.
Do not remain dumb, inactive, silent any longer, because I know
that you are powerful. See, my adversaries thunder and say: 'Come
let's cut it off from the nations so that no-one will remember the
name of Israel. 'Have they conspired there, with one heart, Moab
and Agaranians, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek and all the Philistines?
even Assur has joined them. But treat them like a straw blown in
the wind, when a fire devours a forest, so that they can never say:
'She has no refuge in her God.' " The city was in this state and
did what it did, because there are not human words which took to
tell what was done and said in their houses and publicly in this
city entrusted to the government and direction of the most holy
shepherd. XVII. The barbarian of the East, camped with all his army
close to the town of Chalcedon, was the first to start fires. The
enemy of the West at once put himself in contention with him, as if
they were responding to each other and wanted to increase their
zeal on both sides; they set ablaze and razed to the ground the
sanctuaries of God and all the imperial buildings and all the
private buildings. Moses, when he led in Israel to war against
Amalek, lifted his arms towards
the sky (his form thus showing the shape of the cross), while
Aaron and Hur supported the hands of the legislator on the two
sides, because they were tired. That means the loss of the power of
the Law, because it dealt too much with the flesh, it is for this
reason that God sent his Son into the world. However, our Moses
raised with his own innocent hands the effigy of the only son of
God whom even the demons fear and of whom it is said that He was
not created by human hands. He did not need corporeal support,
because, according to the Gospel of Christ-God, He died, crucified,
for the world. He passed, pouring tears, around all the ramparts of
the city, and he showed the effigy, as an invincible weapon,
towards the nebulous troops of darkness and the phalanxes of the
West. And in a low voice, like the first Moses, when he had the Ark
of the Covenant carried before of the people, said to the Lord:
"Arise, Lord! let your enemies be scattered! Let those who hate you
flee before you!" and he added to it again the words of king David:
"As smoke is dissipated, they are dissipated; as wax melts before a
fire, so perish the foreign tribes opposing our God who comes from
the west to help us." XVIII. So it was the first day of the siege
of the peoples come from the west, when things happened thus. And
it was the third day of the week 9. The archpriest, like a second
Moses, instead of going up the mountain, went up on the Western
wall, preceded and followed by a procession of priests, all
selected. The guardian of the affairs of the emperor, on the other
hand, ordered the soldiers and a selected part of the people to
make a fierce rsistence, like Gideon once, who faced tens of
thousands with a limited number of soldiers. The barbarian tribes
lined up opposite, from sea to sea, like swarms of wasps, and
filled all the earth with their weapons. At the same time, on the
side of the sea, the barbarian army was not yet prepared for
battle. On the other hand, the view from the side of the land was
most terrible, and the aspect of the enemies was such as to almost
drive one mad. Because for each of our soldiers there was a hundred
or even more barbarians, each one was covered in armour, they all
wore a helmet and they carried all kinds of military machines. The
sun which reflected on them, on the side of the East, refleced its
rays on their steel, and showed them still more terrible, making
those who looked at them shiver with fear. But so far the barbarian
only wanted, so to speak, to show his power and numbers; then ---
yielding to the night --- he withdrew into his camp. The following
day, the barbarian prepared all that was necessary for war, and
covered the ground, in front of the army, with turrets, so called.
But this voracious and greedy dog did not restrain himself even
then, and demanded food from the city. This the son of the emperor
gave him, with a generosity of an emperor, while letting the
barbarian dog know what follows: "Even if you hate me, I treat you
with friendship, and all while preparing myself for war, my goal is
peace. This is because I am raised thus by my God and my very pious
father." The other, though he accepted the food and listened to the
remarks of the monarch, remained the mad and barking dog that he
had been before, and continued to behave like a voracious dog. XIX.
The third day arrived, and the enemy attacked the walls, like a
hail accompanied by lightnings, because he thought that he would
subjugate all, with a single blow. But the AllPowerful Virgin,
after having made known to him her own power by experience,
revealed to him the presages of the fall which quickly awaits the
sinner. Because she attracted a great number of soldiers of the
Khagan into a trap before of one of her churches, being in front of
the wall of the city. This place bore the name of a healing spring
which was there. The Virgin, by massacring the barbariabs at the
hands of the Christian soldiers, struck the pride of the Khagan
down to the ground, and weakened all his army. The crafty man did
not show his fear then, but
all this gave courage to our men who knew on the one hand by
experience the power of the Virgin, and on the other hand believed
that the Mother of God really hastened to fight for the interest of
her city. Because then, throughout the day, unceasingly, different
local skirmishes took place and shooting with bow and sling, all
along the wall. The Virgin was present everywhere, overcame without
being overcome, spread fear and horror on the enemy, while giving
strength to her servants. She preserved her subjects safe and
sound, and devastated the enemy masses. The third day of the
presence of the barbarians proceeded thus, as we said, when all
this occurred. XX. On the fourth day, this imbecile started to draw
up the helepoles and the catapults; in addition, he built
siege-towers out of wood. The construction of all that was a very
easy task for him, and did not require much time; all this was done
almost more quickly than the pronunciation of the orders, on the
one hand, because a whole multitude of barbarians worked there, on
the other hand, because the wooden material was within his range,
since he used the waggons, on which he travelled here, and at the
same time material from the houses destroyed by him. But God made
fun of him, and in his fury he addressed sarcastic words to him,
terrifying him in his rage, he and all his people. On the fifth
day, the very young monarch, having taken men on his side, those
naturally which were his companions in all the plans and his
support in the execution of the decisions: the archpriest himself
and the best of the senate, --- he sent gifts and a delegation, to
again summon the tyrant to a armistice. So he sent Somnas, Eliakim
and Joach; I overlook the fourth legate 10, because Hezekiah in the
past also sent only three men to the Babylonian Rabshakah who in
the past wanted to devastate Jerusalem. XXI. But the legates
returned without result, though they had handed over the gifts
willing or not; then they said to those which had sent them: "We
saw a terrestrial Proteus, a demon in human form whose word is
unstable, his appearance and character terrible. Ah! the filth of
his body and clothing --- which we saw --- ah! his words --- which
we heard ---, we feel sick to speak to you about him and we are
afraid of him. Like a second Salmoneus, he tattoos his skin below,
thinks nothing of the future, and never reasons justly. But, since
it is absolutely necessary that we tell you the essence of the
words that he said to us, the tyrant, this depraved monster said to
us what follows: 'Let your God not mislead you. You trust him by
saying that you will not hand over the city, to me and to the
people which are with me Tomorrow I will occupy the city in any
case, and I will render it uninhabited. I will make by my kindness
a gift of their lives to the inhabitants, and I will make possible
for them to leave the city completely naked, but in mercy I will
leave to each one a chiton, to hide their shame. I will summon
Shahrbaraz to them and the Persian troops so that they cause you no
loss. So leave, right now as I said, the city, but do not ask
anything humanitarian of me!' These are the words that he said to
us, and he threatened us with still more serious things. He added
further: if we do not leave early, we will see that tomorrow the
mass of Persians will fight beside the tyrant in front of the
ramparts of the city. And, indeed, we saw also the Persian legates
sent by Shahrbaraz who brought him gifts. We understand again that
they have concluded an alliance, to send the Slavic monoxyles, to
transport the Persian army from Chalcedon, by sea." XXII. These
were the words of the legates. Of course the barbarian did not ask
for an army of Perses, as if he was short of allies, because the
firm ground and the sea were both full of wild people under his
command, but he wanted to make known to us his alliance with the
Persians,
who moved against us. When night fell, the monoxyles were
launched; there were a multitude of Slavs who directed them to
transport the advancing army of the allied Persians. Because the
Slavs had already great experience with regard to bravery at sea,
since the time when they also attacked the territories of the
Romans. The monarch, the archpriest and guardian of the affairs of
the emperor, after listening to the words of the legates, sighed
seriously, raised their hands with all those which lived the city
towards the sky, and said: "Mighty Lord --- you who bring low every
proud man, you who can decide according to your will everything
that happens in the world, whose force is incomparable and whose
power can be neglected by none, because all the Universe is suject
to you --- hear all the words of Sennacherib that he transmitted,
to blaspheme you, the Master of the Universe. For our hope does not
reside in our arrows, and we do not have a sword to save us. It is
you, our strong bastion, even against these so powerful enemies.
And for this reason thus, you, omnipotent and all-mighty --- who is
seated on the Cherubins, and it is from there that you look at the
Hells --- throw a glance from the throne of the Master on the
masses of the peoples who do not know each other, and who have
surrounded us from the east and the west. XXIII. Our Lord, it is in
your power to save small and great, because you have the power to
do so, when you wish. And so who could face the strength of your
arm, our Lord God? Do not give the sceptre of your glory to those
which do not even exist! 11 Do not let these men overcome you.
Because, see, see that this Rezin and the son of Remaliah were
allied, fell into agreement, and concluded a contract, in order to
abolish the tabernacle of your glory, and to choke the voice of
those who glorify you, 'Let them fall into their own traps, our
Lord, because under the pride of the impious people your unhappy
people is consumed.' Who is it that by his will alone conquered the
Ethiopian Zare who led formerly his army with a thousand times a
thousand men against king Asa? Who killed the enemy peoples whose
number was innumerable, when Josaphat, deprived of any human help,
lifted his hands towards you? Since you are able, now also, to do
everything, by your pure will, save then the city of your heritage,
and save the people who are called by your name, so that no-one can
say 'Where is their God?' On the contrary: Let these people
understand that they are only men." Thus they the monarch, the
archpriest, the head of the army and the city prayed constantly.
XXIV. But God put an obstacle in the passing of the Persians to
this dog, preparing an ambush for them, and by killing some of
those which were sent by the tyrants to each other. The fight did
not cease, neither on the sixth, seventh, nor eighth day and
continued with shootings and local brawls. For the barbarian, it
was a very tiring and extremely serious task, on the one hand, to
draw up on the land the siege-engines, to build helepoles against
the bastions, and on the other hand, to prepare on the sea the
monoxyles of the Slavs, so that they could start the siege at the
same time, at the same hour, by land and sea, against the city.
Because he had already transformed earlier, using the monoxyles
filled with foreign tribes, the bay of the Horn into firm ground.
He thought that to approach the city this was the best place. But
he did not know, the devil, what he knew later, by experience, that
the invincible guard of the city was the holy house of the Mother
of God, being at Blachernae, close to the bay of Horn, and this is
what safeguarded the city and all its inhabitants. It is there,
that it was necessary that all the army of this Pharaoh perish in
the sea, and so the bay was named Red Sea after the event. While
this nutcase prepared the fight by land and sea, he advanced some
armoured riders, selected as well as he could --- this happened in
the areas where those who were sailing towards the Euxine Sea took
to sea --- to
show himself to the Persian army and to Shahrbraz which showed
themselves in their turn. Because on the other side, he did the
same, and filled all the opposite bank with heavy cavalry. The
latter attacked the part of the city in Asia, and the former that
in Europe, like mad beasts, thinking that she would be surely their
booty. XXV. When the ninth day came, on firm ground, the most
violent fighting burst out, all along the wall, and consequently
the enemy perished in heaps, carrying off his dead in the sight of
all our men. Some of ours were also wounded. Even the following
night did not put an end to the fight, and the combat continued on
both sides throughout the night, without rest. The foreign tribe,
in its combat against us, did not have men who would have been
worthy of ours. Our army overcame the enemy everywhere with great
courage. There came the tenth day of the stay of this dog. It was
the fifth day of the week, and the seventh of the month, that the
Romans call August. But who has the strength to tell the miraculous
deeds of God, and who is able to show the power of the Virgin?
Glory to he that names holy the chosen day which was the day of the
most and most miraculous deeds, of the divine love, shown towards
us. Because even the fifth, but the seventh also, and especially
the tenth proved --- one for certain things, the other for others
--clearly such days which showed us all the miracles of our rescue,
of divine origin. The fifth day, by its effect, fills with divine
happiness all our senses which are at the center of the spiritual
combats. The seventh on the other hand, like a virgin and without
mother, was worthy of the grace of the Eternal Virgin, the Mother
of God. Finally the tenth, which completes all, brought to us, by
God and the Virgin, total freedom.12 XXVI. I believe that even
Zachariah, one of the twelve minor prophets, prophesied by his
prophetic heart that day, and he named it that of happiness and of
divine exaltation, in the words that he says to us: "The fast of
the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth will
become for the house of Judah happiness, joy and merry feastdays."
It is true, we know that the sons of the Hebrews interpreted
differently the words of prophecy, by saying that the fact that
Jerusalem would pass into the hands of strangers in the days
mentioned, and what would follow: the disastrous humiliation and
the austere fasting, would become joy and happiness for Judah. What
I do not know, it is the date when the Jews hope for that, the Jews
which are always precisely in mourning, because they condemned
innocent blood. It is God whom they nailed on the cross, and it is
very right which they wear mourning for that. Moreover nobody
prevents them from understanding, and believing in the words of
Zachariah, as they wish. In any case for us the fifth, the seventh
and the tenth days became absolutely identical, because they
carried in themselves the love of God and the Virgin towards us.
XXVII. The tenth day has also another mystery about which I cannot
keep silent, because doing so, in my opinion, would be a sin
against justice itself. Because Nabuzardan, the commander of the
guard of the Babylonian Nabuchodonosor, set fire to the Temple of
Jerusalem on the tenth day of the fifth month of the Hebrews, and
conquered the city by assault. The infallible witness is Jeremiah
who is wisest in the things of God, and who was crowned already in
the belly of his mother by the Lord; he writes in his book these
words: "This happened in the fifth month, the ten of the month.
Nabuzardan, commanding the guard, one of the immediate entourage of
the king of Babylon, made his entry into Jerusalem. He set fire to
the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and he set fire to all
the houses of the city and all the palaces. The army of Chaldaeans
which
was with the commander of the guard, threw down all the ramparts
which surrounded Jerusalem. Nabuzardan left part of the ordinary
people of the country, as vine growers and ploughmen." XXVIII.
These words of the prophet tell us that the fifth month of the
Hebrews was in its tenth day, when the Persians set fire to the
Temple and the capital of the Jews. Among the Hebrews the fifth
month is named Ab, because God had ordered that they hold and call
Nisan the first among the months newly named. And thus we find the
month Ab is the fifth starting from Nisan. Nisan among Hebrews is
usually what is among Romans April. Among the Romans we find that
the fifth month is August, starting from April. And if the Hebrews
learned how to count the months according to the changes of the
moon, then it is clear --- as anyone could say --- that the months
and the days of the Hebrews are not harmonized exactly with the
days and the months of the Romans, but they agree only in general:
thus the month of Nisan often falls in April. As the commander of
the guard thus occupied Jerusalem on the tenth day of the fifth
month of the Hebrews, the Khagan hoped to occupy Constantinople, on
the tenth day of his arrival. XXIX. Because even the Roman emperor
who carried out the punishment of the Jews, for their sin against
our Saviour, set fire to the Temple of Jerusalem and destroyed the
city, on the tenth day of the fifth month. Josephus, a writer
worthy of trust, writes thus in the sixth book of the History of
the Fall of the Jews:13 "God already condemned beforehand the
Temple to be delivered to the flames; and by the passage of time,
the tenth day of the month Loos arrived, on which day the monarch
of Babylon had formerly made it burn. Therefore everyone can admire
the punctuality of the flow of time: because fate fixed the same
month and the same day when Babylonians had set fire to the Temple
formerly." However, Josephus correctly wrote that the tenth day of
the month of Ab, where according to divine Jeremiah, the king of
Babylon had occupied the Temple and Jerusalem, is identical with
the tenth day of the month of Loos, when Titus devastated the same
city; it is thus proof that Josephus knew himself that the months
of the Hebrews show, from time to time, several times a
simultaneity; and it happens that the fifth month of the Hebrews is
at the same time as August of the Romans. XXX. All that is true,
even if it is a digression. Our history shows that Nabuzardan
demolished the Temple and Jerusalem, on the tenth day of the fifth
month. Titus destroyed them in the same way, on the tenth day of
the fifth month. The Khagan also, this sinful tyrant, spread out
against the city so great a mass of enemies, from the east, from
the west, by land and sea, exactly in the fifth month, and on the
tenth day of his stay, if we count the first month in the series of
the months lately established in accordance with the law of God.
But God and the Virgin covered him with shame, him and those who
were gathered, in order to show their divine kindness towards us,
who were unworthy of rescue, and to show that before God the
worship which is pure and without cruelty of the Christians is much
more valuable and much better received than that which is according
to the law. This last includes all the fatty and bloody sacrifices
that the people of Israel, according to the flesh, had to carry
out. Our worship is better received, even if we, so to speak, are
not afraid to approach boldly, very many of the divine sacraments,
with sinful conscience and hands which were not washed. XXXI. That
which is to be told about the tenth day, was not hidden by me; but
with regard to the numerical coincidence with the tenth day, I
believe that I did not understand it until the end. As for the
devastation of Jerusalem, it; was accomplished by the devastators
on the tenth of the
month. And the tyrant thought, even now, that he was going to
take the city on the tenth day after his arrival. Because the
months did not differ much from the other, since the Jewish Ab, the
Macedonian Loos and the month named August among the Romans, often
coincide completely, even if they differ in their names. That is
allowed, and that will surely be it, because it is really thus.
That is to say August the fifth month, and the day the tenth, even
if we do not count it from the beginning of the month, but of the
arrival of this enemy criminal. Both the two dates coincide with
the former ones. But with regard to the care of God towards us, our
case is very differ from the others. It is about this that we will
speak in the continuation. XXXII. Now it is time to tell, if
possible, the miraculous deeds of God and the Virgin, accomplished
that day. It was the fifth day of the week, as we mentioned
earlier, the seventh of August, the tenth day of the attack against
us by this ravaging dog. He began the battle, on land and sea, at
the same time against the city. Strong clamours were heard and a
great noise of war all along the wall and over all the sea; the
bugles sounded the signs of the attack everywhere and all the city
was filled with noises and clamours all around. The tyrant prepared
so that the catapults were put in motion and a multitude of
projectiles was launched, at a single gesture, all along the wall;
he had everything prepared that he wanted for the attack against
the city. In the bay of Horn he filled the monoxyles with the Slavs
and other wild peoples, which he had brought with him; and he gave
the order that the barbarians with the heavy weapons, being
transported in an innumerable mass in the monoxyles, should start
to row against the city with terrible cries. Because he had tested
and planned: while the besiegers from the land were going to
destroy the walls of the city, those who attacked from the sea, in
the bay of Horn, could easily approach the city. God and the Lady
Virgin, on the other hand, showed him that his hopes were
unrealizable and were overcome on all sides. Because on each point
of the wall a so great number of corpses lay, and the enemy fell
unceasingly that the barbarians were no longer in a position to
take away and to burn their dead. XXXIII. The Mother of God, in the
sea battle, in front of her holy church of Blachernae, made the
monoxyles with their men sink. If this expression were not serious,
one could have said that all the bay could have been passed on dry
foot because of the corpses lying there, and the monoxyles tossing
randomly quite empty and moving without a goal. The fact that the
Virgin herself won this fight, and won this victory, was shown
clearly by the following facts: those who fought on the sea, on our
vessels, turn around at the first attack of the enemy force and
they failed to beat a retreat, and by that they would have made
almost possible attacks by the enemy, if the pity of the Virgin had
not prevented this misfortune, refusing to endure such a spectacle.
She put in action her own force and power. Not like Moses, dividing
and uniting again the floods of the Red Sea by his staff, but only
by her gesture and her pure will she made the chariots of Pharaoh
and his army to sink. Everyone sank there, with the sailors and
their instruments. Some say that ours were not withdrawn from the
fear of the enemy, but that it is the Virgin itself which ordered
ours to pretend to retire, because she wanted to achieve a miracle.
In consequence of that, the barbarians sank completely, in front of
her holy church, in the bridge of our rescue, our calm harbour,
because all that was the church of the Mother of God in Blachernae.
And this sight and astonishing and mighty miracle could be seen:
while all the bay became firm ground, covered in blood, because of
the corpses and abandoned monoxyles, some of the barbarians who ---
as good swimmers --- succeeded in escaping from the dead and
devastation at sea, and to reach the north bank, fled into the
mountains, not being pursued by anybody.
XXXIV. It is said that even the wicked tyrant was an eyewitness
of his own shame, courtesy of the Virgin, and at the same time he
was the minister of his own loss. After having contemplated his own
defeat from a hill, sitting on a horse and surrounded by his
men-at-arms, he returned shaken to his camp, drawn up in front of
the walls of the city, while beating his chest and his cheeks with
his hands. Many days passed during which our men succeeded, on the
one hand to collect with weariness the corpses of the barbarians
floating in the water, on the other hand to fish out their
monoxyles so that they could be burned. When those who fought on
the walls against the enemy, learned the happy news of the loss of
the barbarians at sea, and still more admired the multitude of the
heads splitted on the lances that our men carried slowly towards
the man to whom the mighty emperor had entrusted the management of
the affairs of state, encouraged by the power of God and protected
by the strength of the Virgin, they opened wide the doors of the
ramparts and --- making noise and cries, indicating confidence and
victory --poured outside for a hand- to- hand fight against the
enemy and his engines. Our men were full of such happiness and
strength, while the barbarians felt grief and despair to such a
state that even the children and the women marched against them,
arriving in the camp of the enemy. One could see how one can drive
out a thousand, and two pursue ten thousand in an attack, as Moses
said formerly. XXXV. The Mother of God, the Virgin, the Lady gave
such strength to those which did not have any and such power to the
weak, only by her goodwill. It is also obvious that the Mother of
God did this so that our men could burn the siege-engines of the
enemy, and she wanted to show by that also a greater sign of her
love for us. Because very wisely she influenced the guardian of the
affairs of the state, to justly prevent those who were leaving with
all enthusiasm, to have care for a greater security, and prevent
the exit of our men, and recall at the same time those which were
running outside of the walls. And he did it, not by bugles sounding
the retirement, but by cries, by running, by gesticulating and by
exhorting with words our men with sure and reasonable words. That
was affirmed as a safety measure and an precautionary act by the
head of the army. The Virgin Mother of God reached and ensures that
these orders are carried out by the barbarians themselves, because
she trusted them to destroy by fire their own siege-engines. The
course of the events proves it too. At sunset, when the night fell,
these devils lit and burned, along the wall, the tortoises, the
caltrops, the helepoles, assault-towers on wheels, all the machines
of war and the catapults, all that was there, or had been
transferred onto chariots, or had been manufactured on the spot. So
they started the similar fire which does not die out and which will
absorb them. In consequence of that, during all the night, in the
Western part of the city, all the air was lit by the light of the
burning. For most of the following day, we could see neither the
city nor the sea, because of widespread smoke. The archpriest, the
General and a considerable multitude of townsmen, being outside the
door whom we call, in accordance with reality, the Gilded Door, and
looking at the fire and the smoke of the barbarian engines, raised
their hands towards heaven, and uttered cries and tears of
gratitude: "Your law, Lord, was shown by its strength; your right
hand, Lord, cut the enemy in pieces, and by the excess of your
glory, you have defeated the adversaries." XXXVI. Since the
impudent dog thus received the reward of his own baseness, he
withdrew to his own lands. In his retreat, he was to see thousands
of corpses of the men and animals which he had brought with him; he
was about to leave even more as casualties; the fugitives reported
to us that these soon died. This fool could thus learn, by
experience, that there is no god more
powerful than our God, and that there is no power which could
oppose the very Blessed Virgin. Thus the enemy of the west returned
empty-handed and ashamed, the son of darkness; and as it is said,
he blamed extremely those which had instigated him to this
boldness, and that with true title, though he never needed a Master
in spite. XXXVII. The other enemy, the tyrant of Babylon who camped
in the surroundings of Chalcedon, seeing the smoke of the fire,
caused by the burning of the engines by the barbarians of the west,
thought, it is said, that the city burned (God keep us!), was
delighted at this, but at the same time he was saddened. He was
delighted, because he thought in error that the capital of the
Romans was already vanished; but he sighed and was saddened at the
same time as it was not him, but --- as he believed --- the other
tyrant who had devastated the city. Because this Holophernes had
promised to his king Nabuchodonosor that he would succeed, either
by fighting, or trickery; and that this scumbag would be the Master
of the city. This is why he still camped several days at Chalcedon,
even after the departure of the Western enemies, and the unlucky
one hoped for the execution of his own foolish plan. Finally when
God and the Virgin also reversed his hopes, he himself withdrew,
ashamed and rightly humiliated, as he had made him his companion
and accessory to turpitude. XXXVIII. The two ends of smoking
firebrands thus appeared, according to wise Isaiah: Rezin, the king
of Syria and son of Remaliah, Phaceus, the monarch of Samariah,
this one because of the flame and smoke of the fire which he had
lit himself, the other because of the darkness and the sadness of
his sinful conscience. They were in no state either to harm
Jerusalem, either to strip the son of David of his power or to make
the son of Tabeel monarch, --- plans in which they agreed and that
they concluded at the time of their alliance. On the contrary:
their lot became opprobrium and eternal shame before each people
and nation. It became obvious to us that very holy Isaiah depicted
in the figure and example of the old Jerusalem the miracles
accomplished today, and now he spoke to the descendant of David
reigning in our time; "Do not fear a allied attack of these two
ends of smoking firebrands which they have organised against you,
against my city and my people." According to what I know, all this
also occurred as divine Isaiah had predicted, in the figure and
example in connection with Jerusalem and Achaz, of the then king of
the two tribes. XXXIX. However, we all were eyewitnesses of the
fact that the Virgin and Mother of God put to flight with a single
blow the armed strength of both enemies; she did not do it with a
blow of a lance, like Phineas who transfixed a Midianite and an
Israelite. She did that by her voice and will only, terrifying and
pursueing this one and that one at the same time. Because it is not
only the tyrant of the west who withdrew shamefully, but the
Persian also returned humiliated, as he was to ruminate in these
words, himself: " If so strong peoples of which the number can be
compared only with the grains of sand of the sea, camped so many
days under the walls of the city, reaching without a battle the
edge of the sea, but could do nothing against this city and were
lost despite every apparent advantage, then why I do remain still
here, on the beach, ready, in vain, for the fight, and why I still
nourish in myself these vain hopes? It is obvious that a divine and
superhuman power guard this city and have kept it safe and sound;
it is impossible for anyone to harm it." This said, and apparently
very astonished, he took the road of retreat, the murderer. Because
disappointment in their hopes usually determines even the
barbarians to hold the power of God as invincible. This was the
experience of the Egyptians also who, after having tried the
divine power at sea, were constrained to say: " Let us run, run
because God fights against the Egyptians for Israel." XL. I believe
that the words and the visions of the prophet Ezechiel who saw
great things, are fulfilled now. In these, instigated by the
prophetic inspiration, he gave a prophecy in the Holy Scriptures on
Gog. There are some who say that in Hebrew "Gog" means "assembly of
the people" because they believe that no-one was ever called by
this name. It appears obvious that what Ezechiel said was
prophesied about the land of the people of Israel according to the
flesh, but neither the date of what the prophet condescended to
predict, nor the events of war against Judah which followed, make
it acceptable to us to think that the things said concern the land
of Israel and the people which mark themselves by the circumcision
of the flesh. Because the prophet Ezechiel wrote what has been said
before the deportation of the people to Babylonia; after this time,
on the other hand, the people which marched against Judah did not
withdraw empty-handed, and did not become, as the prophet says, the
spoils of the wild beasts and the birds of prey. Because did not
the Romans and Titus attack Judah after the activity of the prophet
Ezechiel, and burn the Temple by fire and the city to the ground,
and killed the majority of the population, by famine and sword?
those who remained, men and the holy objects, became their
property, as booty. But before that, Titus and the Romans, when
Mattathias and his sons had to face the attack of the peoples
neighbouring Judah which wanted to exterminate the remainder of the
people, the enemy often fell, but, in these wars, we do not find
anything similar to what the prophet wrote. Since neither time, nor
the events make it possible for us to accept prophecy as relating
to the land of Israel, it must be that we seek that which the
prophet names Israel, and what he names his land, against which Gog
led his armies, then it became the grazing ground of the birds of
prey and the wild beasts. XLI. But so that what I say become clear
and quite comprehensible, it is reasonable and suitable to quote
words of the prophet, finding the place given; but the prophetic
words will not be complete and continual; I restrict myself to what
is relevant because the length of the place quoted: "The word of
the Lord was addressed to me in these terms: Son of man, turn to
Gog and prophesy against him and say to him: Thus speaks the Lord
God: Here, I declare myself against you, Prince de Rosh, Mesoch and
Thobel; and I will make you go out, with all your army, horses and
riders, all perfectly armoured, many troop, all bearing shields and
helmets. The Persians, the Ethiopians and the Libyans are with them
and you. Many peoples will come from the extreme north with you.
That day, thoughts will be born in your spirit and you will utter
evil designs: I will go up against a country without defense, march
against the quiet people which live in the land in safety where
there are no ramparts, nor bolts, nor doors. I will plunder them
and make booty of them. I will go up against those which live on
the navel of the earth. They are Sheba, Dedan and the traffickers
of Chalcedon 14. You will get under way and you will leave your
residence in the extreme north and of the many people with you, all
will be mounted on horses. You will go up against Israel, my
people. You will be like a cloud which covers the earth. And I will
bring you against my country so that all the nations know me, when
I express my holiness, on your subject, Gog, in their eyes. Thus
speaks the Lord God to Gog: My anger will go up and my jealousy in
the heat of my fury, and I will express my greatness and holiness
and glory and I will make myself known to the eyes of the many
nations, and they will know that I am the Lord. I will break your
bow in your left hand, and I will make your arrows fall from your
right hand. I will drive you over the mountains of Israel and you
will succumb, and all your army and the
people with you will be given to the multitude of the birds of
prey. I give you like pasture to the wild beasts of the earth; and
people will live in the islands in safety; and the day will arrive,
says the Lord God, when I will give a famous place for his burial
to Gog, in Israel, the common grave of the Passers- by which is on
the sea; and the people of Gog will be buried there. Says the Lord
God. XLII. So, you have heard the words of the prophet. Can anyone,
by clear reasoning, form an opinion, which examines whether the
prophecies quoted relate to the old Israel and its land, and if
they can be accomplished on them? The date excludes the
accomplishment of the prophecy in Israel, and even the places where
according to the words of the prophet all that should be
accomplished do not lead us to think of the land of Israel,
according to the flesh. Because the prophet had said that for the
people marching against the land of Israel their common grave will
be in the sea, and by their fall, the islands will be delivered
from their terror. My attention is not diverted from the fact that
the prophet has predicted that with the people Gog himself would
fall to earth and would subside, and thus time could come when
somebody will set out again and say that if this assassin did not
fall with those who perished, then we cannot well relate the
prophetic predictions to the events of today. However, everyone who
knows the Holy Scriptures well, knows that the verb "to fall" into
the divine writings has several senses and several meanings. It can
be interpreted in several fashions and in various ways. The verb
"to fall" is used in one of its meanings and senses: to break down
in certain foolish hopes. The divine Ezechiel prophet declared
rightly in this sense that the wicked tyrant falls, and his fall
can be also noted by that the part armed with his people fell
indeed and really. But if the sons of the Hebrews wish to interpret
the words of the prophet in another way, and not of this one, they
can understand them as they wish. But what other common grave, to
be found at sea and pertaining to the people travelling with Gog
against the land of Israel, can they show? When and how were the
islands lived in in safety after Gog, fighting against Israel, had
vanished? XLIII. And if after the deportation of the Jews, when
Ezechiel did prophesy, nothing accomplishes the words of the
prophet in the land of Israel, according to the flesh, what then
must we think? Because the Romans, as we have just said, undertook
their attack only after these events against the land of Israel;
they devastated all the landd, they returned with booty, they
killed the majority of the people by a terrible famine and the
murderous sword, and they put in prison those which remained. At
the time of Hasmonaeans, the sons of Mattathias heroically fought
against the neighbouring peoples, threatening Israel; however, from
the words of the prophet nothing occurred with the people which
went on campaign against the land of Israel. It remains after that
to examine whether in the times which follow, the words of the
prophet could have been accomplished. The fact that the Jews live
today all dispersed, among all the peoples, and Israel, according
to the flesh, does not have its own land, against which Gog could
fight in the intention to have profit and booty, is obvious to any
reasonable man. After all that, what goal could there be for
peoples attack the land of Israel? The goal of war is in general
the hope of booty, the removal of men, the seizure of goods; this
is why the barbarian peoples begin a war. On the land of Israel
there is nothing, neither today, nor in the future of any sort that
could be such a cause of war. If thus the words of the prophet,
neither in the past, nor in the future,
could not and cannot be fulfilled, it only remains to interpret
them in fact by the events of the present. XLIV. Thus, I have
reasoned carefully, if it is not inconsiderate to say so, that we
should interpret the word "Gog" for the assembly of these people
led against us by this mad dog. I have learned from other people
that the name Gog means the multitude and the assembly of the
people, but it is I who took this city for "the land of Israel"
where God and the Virgin is glorified with a holy piety, and where
the rite of the true piety of God is celebrated. Because the real
existence of the true Israel means that the Lord is glorified with
true heart and a devoted soul, and to live the innocent land of
Israel means to celebrate a sacrifice everywhere pure and without
bloodshed to God. What other but our city would rightly be that
which could be named infallibly and correctly, in its totality, the
place of sacrifice of God, and one can see that it is generally
speaking the only church which sings the glory and the anthems of
God and the Virgin. Thus, Gog, i.e. a multitude of people,
assembled against this land of Israel, saying: "So let us go up
against those who live on the navel of the earth where Sheba, Dedan
and the traffickers of Chalcedon are found, let us pillage plunder,
and get booty." Those who know the significance of the names,
existing among the Hebrews, say that Sheba and Dedan are people
subject to the Romans. However, so that I do not appear one who
deploys more zeal than one should, and who deals too much with
superfluous things, I pass over the circumstances which relate to
this. But if we must understand for traffickers of Chalcedon the
neighbours of this city, then my reasoning is on the right road and
is irrefutable. Even if somebody said that by the "Chalcedonians"
it is necessary to understand Libyan traffickers, even in this case
there is no possibility that the prophet spoke about the land of
Israel, according to the flesh. Because the Chalcedonian
traffickers never traded with that land of Israel. XLV. It is also
necessary to examine these words of the prophet, where he ensures
that Gog, in arranging his wicked plans, says: "I will go up
against a country without defense, march against quiet people which
live on the land in safety where there are no ramparts, bolts, or
doors. I will plunder them and make booty of them. I will go up
against the navel of the earth." Because the fool thinks that the
country is without defense, and the city without monarch, because
he had news of the departure of the powerful emperor. He supposed
that the people lived quietly and lived in the city in safety; he
believed that the people of the Christians were not expert in war,
and he missed men too. And when this most shameless dog advanced
against the Long Walls, and did all that he did, as a foolish man,
he said in his heart: "There is no God here, and as ramparts,
neither the Virgin, nor the arm of the divine power will save the
city. This is why I go up against the navel of the earth, and I
will plunder it and I will make booty of it. And there will be
nobody who can stop me." The insatiability and the greed of the
barbarian pushed him to think all that. XLVI. And what other place
could one name as "the navel of the earth" but this city where God
put the imperial residence of the Christians, and that He made, by
its central position, such that it can by itself be used as an
intermediary between the east and the west. It is against this city
that sovereigns, peoples and nations gathered, and it is their
strength which was overcome by the Lord who had said in Sion: "Be
without fear, Sion! Let not your hands weaken! See, your God is in
the midst of you, it is He which can save you." The gathering of
the peoples of the northern lands, of the horses and armoured
riders, and with them of Persians, presented themselves in
front of this city. That was said word for word by the prophet.
The strength of our God made their bows fall from their left hands
and from their right, it was the Virgin who broke their arrows.
They fell on the mountains of Israel and they became the pasture of
wild beasts and birds of prey. All that was prophesied by Ezechiel,
the divine prophet: "On that day, says the Lord God, I will give to
Gog a famous place for his burial in Israel, the common grave of
the Passersby which is on the sea, where all the people of Gog will
be buried." I think that that means another thing than the loss of
the foreign people, on the sea, the mass of whom was drowned by God
and the Virgin in the bay of Horn. This bay is named not only the
Bay of Horn, even if it is here that the Mother of God became the
"horn of safety" for the city, but also the common grave of Gog,
the place of burial of the people which is on the sea, and at the
same time the Red Sea, where the chariots of Pharaoh drowned, even
all its army. XLVII. Because the zeal of the Lord of armies, God
Almighty, did all that, and as the prophet says: "Our Lord God
manifested His greatness and His holiness and He became glorious in
the eyes of the nations and the people. And all the earth knew,
that he alone is the Lord. Because our enemies learned from all
that they had suffered, even if they wander in darkness, and the
sun of justice has not yet risen on them, that death carries out
them to feed and that their strength is lost in Hell, and that they
are banished from glory, and that they will be thus too in the
future." I thought that it is good, in this place, to quote the
words of the prophet Ezechiel, and my opinion which follows, though
I know indeed that it is possible to accuse me of verbosity. You
who judge rightly, it is for you to decide if you accept my
procedure, i.e. if it is necessary that I refer to this prophecy,
or indeed to correct me by saying that the prophecy did not
logically relate to my discourse. However, the fact of the achieved
rescue, in your interest, by the Lord, cannot be discussed, because
it is an indisputable fact. XLVIII. It is a beautiful and worthy
thing that the Deborah of today employs the words of the Deborah of
before, in singing the anthem of the victory against this Sisera.
This current Deborah is called by me the church of God who ---
raising his hands towards God --- pierced this Sisera with a lance.
However, the mother of this Sisera watched by the grilles of her
window, believing that her son already was distributing the spoils.
What does she say, then, our Deborah, singing a song of victory to
our Lord: "Kings, listen; princes, lend an ear; let us sing for the
Lord, God of Israel! How the great ones of the people praise the
Lord! Make heard the song of those who sing briskly, marching in
the middle of the road. May they do justice to the Lord! Lord!
Strengthen justice among the people of Israel, and humiliate those
who are stronger than your people!" The current Deborah, the church
of God, says this, and adds to it, in giving the example of
virginal purity, of the mortification of the flesh, and the sound
of drum also to its song, as the sister of Moses did. Let us sing
with the Lord because He was greatly glorified, because Bel has
bowed and Dagon broken down; and all those who adored the idols
were humiliated, and those who glorified images were covered with
shame. We others --- the people God saved with so much difficulty,
beyond hope, and that He saved, by the sttrength of His own arm,
from death and bitter and imminent slavery --- let us show by good
deeds our recognition of the Saviour. Because it is not those who
just say: My Lord, My Lord, who will be saved, but those who
fulfill the will of the Lord.
XLIX. However, let us not look only at the deeds committed
towards us by the barbarians, by burning the forsaken houses and by
devastating the best lands, so as not to reduce in this way our
recognition of the rescue and kindness of being delivered! It is
necessary that we consider also from what a powerful danger the
Lord delivered us! And at this point in time we will recognize the
greatness of the benefits with which God and the Virgin have filled
us. Because we already believed that we saw with our eyes, as an
immediate danger, priests, leaders, children --all who could
beforehand have fled from death and in exchange ensured a miserable
life, carried in a bitter servitude, in irons to foreign lands, to
a deplorable life to which even death is preferable. As if we had
seen women and children, - - women who were obscenely dishonoured
and who became toys of barbarian vice, and at the same time,
objects of mockery placed in the sight of their husbands who do not
dare to howl, even if they must endure such terrible things. As if
we had seen children who, because of their age cannot be useful
yet, massacred; those, on the other hand, which can be, are
deported in front of our eyes, by these foreign hands. Is there a
sight more miserable than this? It would be all as well as to
traverse, contemplate and count the holy churches, the palace, all
the city lying on the ground. L. Even if we have received
forgiveness now, because of the multitude of our sins, we could
have been the cause of the devastation of this great city, the
beautiful buildings and the brilliant houses, and we could have
become unworthy of all that. But now, that the Lord saved us of all
these dangers, what thanksgivings do we owe, in exchange for what
they did for us, to the Lord and the Virgin Mother of God? What
praise and what glorification should we sing for the benefits in
which we have taken part --- even unworthily? "Because the Lord has
rescued the poor, He did not scorn the prisoners! How the heavens
and the earth acclaim Him, the sea and all that is stirred up
there! Because the Lord God has saved Sion, and He comforted the
poor wretches of its people." It is necessary that we appear
neither good-for-nothings, neither lazy, nor inactive; each one
according to his possibilities must accomplish good deeds, and thus
he will glorify and praise the Saviour. LI. And while these
miraculous things took place by the love of God the merciful,
proven towards us, according to the envoys bringing the imperial
rescripts the faithful and mighty emperor who, himself held open
day and night his ears and eyes, and his spirit was vigilant, he
looked at and watched for every part of the roads and the sea; and
his spirit meditated ceaselessly, and he reflected during long
sleepless nights on the outcome of this complex concern: what news
would he receive on the rescue of this city by God. There when on
the other hand, as it is reported, the couriers arrived, announcing
the marvellous deeds of God, he did not ask them the news that they
brought. Beforehand he ran to the church of the Virgin and the
Mother of God, and prostrated himself on the ground, asking Her
that he would hear good news brought by the newly-arrived legates.
And when he found that the news corresponded to that which he
solicited, he knelt again on the ground, in the sight of the army
and the people present, and while pouring out tears, he prayed to
God and the Virgin: "I give you grace, he said, Divine Word, our
Saviour and king of all things visible and invisible, and you also
Virgin, Mother of God and Lady, because you did not denied anything
to the city which you condescended to entrust to me and the people
of whom you made me shepherd, and more precisely you have made them
praise you with myself, but you have carried them towards the
waters of saving baptism giving peace, you safeguarded them from
any distress and you made the herd inaccessible to the wolves."
Those which brought back the imperial rescripts, have said that
the
most wise emperor said and did all that, but this was proven by
the letters of the emperor also which he condescended to address in
imperial manner to several; all this shows, how it was in
cosideration of former pains taken, and what happened, at the
invitation of God, after these events. LII. At the same time, the
very worthy archpriest dedicated himself to God without ceasing,
like a favourable holocaust, on the one hand by the mortification
of his own flesh, on the other hand by the divine enthusiasm of his
heart. And he obtains for us safety for the future not by the blood
of sheep and goats, but by the sacrifice without bloodshed, offered
in favour of the delivery in the sacrosanct church of the Mother of
God, at Blachernae. He unceasingly celebrates the triumphal
festival of the delivery from evil with communal litanies and asks
that the city remain intact for the eternity of all time. Oh, very
wise Isaiah --- as you outlined to me at the beginning of my speech
in broad outline the delivery of this city ---, seal, yourself,
with your seal again the end of this sermon, and announce that the
city will be safeguarded, in the future also, from war. Speak thus
to this city: "Here is the oracle of the Lord, our God: I will
protect this city to save it, because of myself, and David, my
servant." Because by the devotion for God and tenderness for his
subjects, our emperor is also a David; and with the example of
David, that the Lord adorned him with victories, just as he makes
his son reigning with him a man distinguished for wisdom and love
of peace, with the example of Solomon, and that he is endowed with
devotion and the true faith, just like his father! Because the
devotion and the faith of Solomon was not to follow. Pray, prophet,
to God, and also beseech the Virgin whom you saw in your heart, in
advance, that she would be really the Mother of God, and you
announced it by your prophetic words. Thus beseech them that they
save always the city and its people which are sinners, but can
always escape thanks to God and to the Virgin. Because it is God
who has glory and strength in the centuries of the centuries.
Amen.
Notes 1. Heraclius (610-641 AD). 2. Sergius, Patriarch from
610-658 AD. 3. Cf. Hesiod, Theogony 185; also George of Pisidia,
Bellum Avaricum 215. 4. The references to Nabuchodonosor and
Holophernes are a reference to the apocryphal book of Judith. 5.
Khosrau II was restored to his throne by the emperor Maurice in 590
AD. After the murder of Maurice, Khosrau used the murder as a
pretext to throw off his obligation and wage war on the Eastern
Roman Empire. 6. Constantine, the 14-year old son of Heraclius. 7.
In Pannonia.
8. When Heraclius was preparing to campaign against the
Persinas, he addressed a letter to the Avar Khagan, reminding him
of the treaty agreed in 620, and appointing him tutor to his sons.
In April 622 the emperor left to campaign in the east against the
Persians. 9. 29th July 626 AD. 10. Theodore the Syncellus himself.
11. See Esther 4:17 and Deuteronomy 6:4. The gods of the pagans do
not really exist, nor their worshippers. 12. This numerology of 7
and 10 is discussed in Hierocles Alexandrinus, Commentarius in
Aureum Carmen 20, 45-48. Ed. Fr. G. A. Mullachius, Fragmenta
Philosophorum Graecorum, vol. 1. Paris (1883), pp. 464-465. 13.
Josephus, Jewish War, book 6, 4:8. 14. The Septuagint reads , so
the biblical reading may have been massaged here to fit the
interpretation. The whole passage is from Ezechiel 38-39.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2007.
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