Bellum Avaricum

On the Barbarian Attack and Their Failure. If some painter wishes to display the trophies of battle, he would first set forth the Mother who bore without seed and paint her image; for she alone always knows how to conquer nature, first by birth and second by battle. For it was necessary that she, just as she then gave birth without seed, should now give birth to salvation without arms, so that through both she might be found both virgin and unshaken in battle as in childbirth. But I, gathering small words of the contests like roses from the thorns of battle, have chosen to bring these to you, the planter of mind-sown words, fittingly, so that long time may not wash away the movements of the wonders among us. Already, like ignoble offshoots, wild branches torn from the Turks, and inserted into the most noble places among us like grafts, they have sprouted fruits in the cultivated plants, nurturing a wild nature. But since the root of the branches, stretched out, has seized the boundaries of the earth, and has become a forest of many barbarians, the harm was not bearable to the neighbors; but like torches falling upon the earth, the flame of that race kindled devoured the pleasant flower of the places. Yet the Hister, neighbor of the Pontus, barely had strength to check such wildness as a flowing counter-wall and a new wall; for the waves stood against them as a wall, and a barrier fixed in a perpetually flowing nature.

At first, then, the stream by unwritten judgment set these boundaries between them, fixing them in the middle. But as for the rest of the harm which the state suffered from the lawless barbarians—from those who always wish to shake the fixed boundaries, while the power of the Romans barred their entrances against us—it was written earlier in a clear and orderly manner for others, as many as time, creeping along, revealed, securely confirming the suspicion of those who had gone before. But I, encountering the recent times, lay hold of events in person, if indeed some divine grace might grant us the means to provide a garment of artistic measure for the immensity of so many deeds. With difficulty, then, was the tyrant’s ungovernable and life-destroying serpent extinguished, which led many to harm, more than that fabled Hydra’s necks; and even now, though cut, they twitch and sprout again, for the ichor still dripping gives birth to new harm. And these things happen often, though many have been cut by the pious Heracles among us. Yet this disease, taking its start from our own affairs, made many divisions of the parts, and the whole body, befouled with its own blood, was fed by its labors. From this, the barbarians, like bees, surrounding us in a circle like gnats, had every zeal to destroy the city, and first of all Anthousa, as the first city. As long, then, as the root of the offshoot in the seized lands of the Scythians was emboldened by the old man’s boldness, the City necessarily bore a burden, but the pain seemed defined; for even the weight of harm is lightened if it knows a measure in evils that is defined.

Thus we bore the appointed burden as long as old age kept the Scythian in check. But when the dust raised its mound and he journeyed to the house of burial, and as he drew the earth from that one, he was himself drawn away, then the branch of his fallen savagery returned again to its wild life. For nature knows how to flow back, like the Euripus, into its own channels, even if someone by force compels its stream to run contrary to itself. From this, what speech will suffice for us, what sinews of voice, what ten-tongued mouth through which I might tell of the strange-sown monster, the ungovernable offspring of the old man, or the thunderbolt, or the living surge to which a tongue is attached—a tongue cut short, a bitter breath, a confused speech, and hands groping at random for the sword, and a spirit darting like the memory of drunkenness? For what deed or love of gain, what faith in word and deed did the master, who does everything expediently, omit or defer, wishing to soften the faithless nature by the bond of reasonings, by the promise of gifts, by persuasion first and by argument second? What lyre of his inner music did he not set in motion, by which even beasts are often persuaded, and the common boldness is tamed, which a man with countless Orpheuses could not soften? For it is more difficult to draw a man than to soften beasts. Yet the barbarian mind prevailed by the judgment of the worse, holding its evil victory. For one sought to cleanse his darkened mind of hostile deeds, while the other became a double Ethiopian.

But when, like a fox, he crept into his deceptions, putting on evil faithlessness, fashioning his outward appearance as for peace, while raging within so as to steal the battle, and came to the wall as for agreements, to conceal his treachery with perjured arts, and while for him bows and battle were prepared, for us there were gifts and words of peace, it was not the barbarian's deceit that overcame us, but our own congenital sin. Yet most of the suffering must be passed over in silence; for even spoken grief knows how to cause pain. But I now proceed to the trophies of the more recent battle, and again, with the words drawing on the aid of your prayer as on a familiar and well-disposed passage, they guide the speaking vessel toward you. O you who do everything so as never to pass by a barren soul, but always sowing and begetting children for God day by day, while remaining a virgin and even more a mother—for now especially you alone are in labor with all, and every land and the City is swaddled by you, this City having been saved through you by God—hail, general of practical vigilance! For you, standing with a ready heart, speaking nothing, gave orders, and your very stance immediately became a fall for the enemy. Hail, general of the armed tears that set the barbarian's boldness ablaze! For as much as you pour forth the streams of your eyes, so much do you check the streams of blood.

For seeing our thorny refuse from the fruitless malice of evils already hastening to burning and destruction, you anticipate the fire as if kindled against fuel, and the cutting set against the trees, and having opened the springs of your eyes, you water the dry lands and bedew the flame, and you transformed the fruitless hearts to bear fruit from a strange downpour. For you knew, you knew, as one cultivating minds, that a heart cannot bear well unless it is first cleansed like a vine, then pours forth its tear abundantly, and thus thereafter calls forth the unripe grapes. But not even this full fruitfulness is complete until the shoot, receiving the sun, *** and nothing raw is found in the vine. But the warmth of your faith compelled us, even before the customary unripe grapes came to be, to bear ripe fruit. I wish to recount to you the origins of these words, like the recent battle, but I shrink from the vividness of fear and am forced to say nothing as I wish. Nevertheless, the word, the painter of all things, will harmonize even these with technical meters, as the skilled scribe of every work. The surging storm of the enemies came upon us, like measureless waves, spitting out the sand of the barbarians. For the evil blast of all Thrace, gathered from many clouds, raised a winter for us by necessity in summer.

Since the boiling of your spirit then came near to your ship, and danger was everywhere seasoned—for the whole circuit of the vessel was being dipped—you yourself, standing before all the sailors, and stretching your neck upward earnestly, exhorted everyone that the useless refuse of sin should not delay the fleet, but that each should cast out from his heart the burdens of superfluous cargoes, lest the cosmic ship, dragged down by the terrible weight, should harm life. And while doing this for sleepless days—for every night had the work of a day—you alone turn such a savage cloud back to its own destruction. For the battle was not simple and single, but it leaped away into manifold and intricate beginnings, all mixed together. For a Slav with a Hun, and a Scythian with a Bulgar, and again a Mede, having conspired with a Scythian—though having divisions of tongues and places, and being separate and far apart—they stirred up one war against us, and deemed it right that their own faithlessness should hold against us a precise faith. On one side, then, the Scythian-nourishing Scylla boiled violently, and from the other side the Persian Charybdis resounded loudly; and between these, not a wanderer as of old, was that counselor of wiles. But you yourself, drawing an upright course and stretching white sails of reason, sailed together with the world-guiding vessel. And these things indeed, concerning the divine contrivances, show the divine arts against the maritime assault.

Then, as the ancient myths fashion the Earthborn, the false-sown, so the depth of the land gave birth to barbarians, and multitudes approached the walls of the Philoxenus Gate, as if they were eight gathered myriarchies. And there were present trumpet and missiles and swords, fire and tortoises and darting stones, and the engines and constructions of bastard towers. And for all, salvation was incredible, save for the hope you yourself held among us, which kept our fortune on a sphere. And I, wishing to conceal these things from you—for I knew that even now you wish to be silent—was about to keep quiet. But my mind blushed to steal away such things, seeing so many who knew. Therefore, bear with it; for it is naturally difficult to conceal common suspicion and escape notice. For you had, you had the Virgin who shared your mind, who foretold to you the future of your aim. Having her as your customary shield-bearer, you waged war from your immaterial heart against the counter-craft of the engines of the contests. For you had the hope of God as a bow, sharper than the speed of lightning; towers as faith; tears as missiles; and the Spirit as fire. And you fashioned tortoises by bending your knee and lowering your neck; and sending back groans as stones, you turned back the stone-throwers of the barbarians. And these things, indeed, a little later had a more evident outcome against the enemies. Nor did the most piercing nature overlook that the master was present in his labors while absent, but he was as near to the cares as he was distant from the places between.

For already he had spent three annual circuits outmaneuvering the lawless Persian realm, and had surrendered his mind to unmanageable tensions, which neither winter with its scorching heat persuaded him to grant idleness to his struggles, nor did a mother’s longing unnerve him to provide even a small respite of time, nor did the inborn force of so many children carry him away, nor did the body’s battle, demanding relief from labors, find any easing; but he was ceaselessly in the midst of the barbarians, like a rose entangled among thorns, and before, for our sake, he stirred up a Persian war, again, for our sake, he endured a spiritual war; and, constricted by assaults on both sides, he let go the near toil and held the far one. From there he kindled us with the momentum of letters, like fire compelling sluggish material to blaze into flame, repeatedly ordering that the foundations toward the wall be securely prepared, as was necessary, and that he build projecting towers, open-air barriers, and make fixed stakes, set them in opposition, and weave a new wall, and make plaited works of archers and stones, swift-running engines and constructions; and that he equip armed merchant vessels, which even long before, assembling, he had not neglected. For, not wishing to see the face of battle, he had battle ready of necessity, and he sent ahead a multitude of an army, and he neglected his own safety, considering the only safe salvation to be if the common good were found saved; and he almost redirected all his own cares into cares for us, as if he thought he had a spiritual danger unless he suffered every danger for us.

Thus, by both commanding and writing each matter, he would first describe events in speech, and would paint the battle scene while not present, marshaling, strategizing, and engineering in writing through the technical subtlety of his reasonings. Nor were his orders neglected, but the letter was a deed fulfilled, with all eagerly—both citizens and foreigners, and those who had entered upon offices and the highest dignities—undertaking voluntary labors. For it was necessary, I think, that such a master should have so many servants under compulsion, who, learning the commands of his wise counsels, showed words to be deeds. Thus, being ever in motion, the master, by the speed of his reasonings and the insatiability of his mind, stood near the City from afar and was present everywhere with his cares, alone, as one reasoning sufficing for all. Yet the multitude of your labors, master, must be reserved for a fitting time for us, when, with calm present, the voyage through the abysses of words is opportune. Since the dread circumstance held fear, seeing the waves of battle, it seemed good to the rulers, the subjects, and the master of the armed regiments—for they have always been joined with you in everything, bearing the common burdens of labors with you, running daily like travelers and being present with the intricate battle through weapons of reasonings and tactical vigils, even though they do not labor at these from habit, which especially makes labors laborious for those for whom toiling in battle does not occur—nevertheless, it seemed good that men be sent to the barbarians, men dripping with great harmony of every deed and word, to announce that the battle be dissolved and a conclusion of common concerns be reached.

While these matters were being set in motion among us tactically, the Persian arrogance again with deceit sent thieves of the sea, messengers hastening like a whetted sword to sharpen the barbarian sword against us. But when the dispatched messengers, coming from obscurity from here and there, converged into one place from two locations, the barbarian, as if having received so many envoys together and being puffed up with pride, united both; this he did for the sake of glory, but the greater part was because he wished to frighten us. For the Persian servant kindled the barbarian's rage, as fire from fire, and promised a thousand allies, while disparaging us with terrible words, and he gathered and joined to the barbarian armed intentions and whetted speeches. Seduced by these words, the tyrant of the Scythians, the first calamity, took delight. Yet the safe Balancer of all things turned even this purpose of his, contrary to expectation, into a disaster against him; for he ought to have concealed the deceit in silence and hidden the messengers who had escaped detection, but he makes the hidden manifest, and the enemy becomes counselor and the friend accuser. For when those who had been well dispatched came, declaring that the barbarian's purpose was a speech for peace, but that the Persian deceit could not escape, the gate of the sea is guarded, closing the entrances to the exits, and the stolen goods are quickly captured, and the work of night brought forth the light of day; for the Persian and the barbarian race shared a common grief from one manner, expecting the returning messengers.

But when the decisive moment of battle came together for judgment according to the divinely inscribed decree, you again toil; for not without purpose were you appointed as the envoy of the community. Taking up the advocate's word swiftly and running to the wall of justice, you securely set forth against them the fearful form of the unwritten indictment. Anyone, I think, seeing this discernment would say that you craftily snatched away the judge; for by showing it directly to all the opponents, you raised up fear, and even before the proofs were brought forward, justice stood confounded for them. May your noble craft be well; for judging within yourself and discerning nature—that nothing is more compassionate to a child than a mother—you brought forward the Mother of the Judge with pity, entreaty, tears, fasting, and the distribution of flowing wealth. From there and here, giving much and scattering, you first persuade her; and she quickly persuades the Child, and almost before the trial, she proclaimed a judgment that gave us victory. Nevertheless, since the barbarians saw fit to resist the struggles of battle, the entire area before the wall, adorned as it was, was foolishly consumed by fire; and the flame, smoking, was hidden in the strange darkness from the mist. For the Persians arrayed beyond, as if against us, the smoke of the darkness served as a herald of battle; for there was a certain eagerness among the barbarians on both sides, not as to who would take up arms more swiftly, but who would first set fire to the innocent stones. And these matters were thus.

Now, as the barbarians were joining battle, they occupied the positions of judge and general, taking the inviolate Virgin as their shields, as it were, and demanded that those whom they had impiously outraged should serve as their allies under compulsion. Multitudes of Sklavs mingled with Bulgars, the barbarian mind having launched them in ships—for they had hollowed-out vessels carved like cups—and they mixed the battle of the sea with the land. And for me too a mixture and a battle have now come, and everywhere my purpose is confused and joins my words as if for battle: what shall I say first to begin the second? One man fell from a stone's cast, receiving both the throw and the tomb at once; another, conversing thoughtfully with his comrade, struck from above by an unseen archer, released his breath faster than his speech; and someone among them, thinking to arrange the ranks properly in the highest offices, stood slipping in among the shields, hastening to hide himself securely—but a swift stone's cast, arriving unexpectedly, cuts through the shields, pushes some aside, and becomes murder for him. The rest of them all, like locusts, fell utterly, meeting misfortune with accurate aim. Thus did divine judgment perfect the bows, the shooters, the stones themselves, so that nothing cast fell at random; but what was sent arrived accurately to the individual fate of each who was struck. And these things indeed the back of the earth bore with ease. But it was necessary next to take up the balanced judgment of the sea battles as well. And I have this to marvel at even more.

How, then, did the barbarians, seeing the vast substance of the sea spread out, and thinking themselves constricted by its breadth, straightway gather there where the house of the Virgin General was? For there, as if in a sea, they spread a net of carved ships, yoking them together. And when, all together, they advanced upon our merchant vessels with a shout, the visible battle became invisible from that point. For I think that only the Mother, who bore without seed, could stretch the bows and strike the shield, and, mingling in unseen combats, could strike, wound, send back the sword, overturn and cover the ships, and give the depths as a dwelling to all. For it is no wonder if a Virgin fights in the vanguard, through whom a sword, sent I know not how, passed into the reverence of the soul again. Yet it passed, or rather, it swiftly pierced the nature that is nowhere wounded. Thus those carved ships had their mooring, of necessity, in the storm. And great confusion, fear, and turmoil came upon the barbarians fighting at sea. And where could one of them, falling from his merchant vessel, be found improvising his craft? Another, imitating a corpse in the water, hoped to escape by seeming drowned. And one among them, taking the keel as a tower, slipped beneath it and, remaining a long time, endured in his misfortune out of necessity. Yet all of them, as a single fleet, the swell of the sea overwhelmed. Then the barbarian, who before had blazed and breathed a torch of fire from his fiery words, was suddenly charred, and at once became ash, as if he had kindled fire against innocent wood.

For one would send another messenger bearing to him calamities like sheaves, from land to sea, and again to land from the sea, a surge of misfortunes. Thus, then, he suffered the novel surge, thinking his wits were billowing onto land; for as of waves, a counter-running battle of calamities converged into one stream. *** For here the land, from the unburied barbarians, put forth a growth of material more than the trees, and there the sea, troubled and strewn with the drift of corpses, is reddened from the blood of foreigners; and now it is properly called Red, well-dyed with the dye of the barbarians. For it was necessary, I think, that the sea, seeing the second Pharaoh and you a new Moses, should depict the images of the Red Sea; and now the waves hold a watery memorial and an Egyptian burial in coffins; for it was not fitting that the new punishment should be seen as inferior to the old. Let us then sing the hymn, not beating out rhythmless sounds on drums, but from the instruments within us mystically attuned; and let us stretch sinews as living strings, and tongues as plectra, and lips as cymbals, and with the five-stringed composition of the senses let us sing the highest to the first note. For thus the vision of the eyes purges every harmful spectacle.

But the conceptual gate of hearing will not open its doors to disordered sounds, nor will the deceived sense of smell snatch away the seasoning of bitter pleasure, and taste will not be a cause of corruption, but prepared for incorruptible nourishment; and with touches free from flowing impressions, let us feel the Christ-brotherly limbs, so that the architect of all substance, the all-powerful support of visible things and the fixed foundation of the unseen, who pedagogically guides nature to advantage and frightens the childish disorder of passions with chastening teachers, and now having marshaled the fiery allies against the dark barbarians, and having shown the Tigris and the Ister river as before the Nile stream bloodied, so that the barbarian mind, having unfortunately tasted kindred blood, may be intoxicated; and may he increase your pious planting, the lord flourishing with divine branches; and may he open doors with many words, his victory everywhere over the barbarians. Here now the slow-tongued speech concludes the aim of my purpose; and for your child, the younger power, I prepare these words to address: Victory, appear! Now it is possible for you to take as bridegroom this one, to whom you have already given the gifts of marriage—the slaughter of the barbarians.