From Anicius Julianus, Senator, to Procopius Caesariensis, Chronicler, Ave.
Dear ‘Regulus’, most loyal, courageous, and efficient of colleagues, I write in haste, a) to thank you for your sterling efforts on behalf of Libertas, b) alas, to inform you that Libertas itself is now dissolved, and c) to warn you to destroy instanter any correspondence relating to our Cause. My cover, as they say, is ‘blown’. Justinian’s agentes have at last caught up with me, and I am ordered to report to the monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, there to do penance for my ‘treason’ for the remainder of my days. I am as sure as I can be that your connection with Libertas is at present unsuspected and will probably remain so, provided you are circumspect.
Before the net closed in on me (and my senior lieutenants), I was able to honour the pledges you had made to our friends in Africa and Rome. Good Fortune attend you always. We may have failed, but at least we struck a blow for Roman values. Vale.
Written at Ancona, Nones Februarii, A.R.U.C., the two hundred and eighteenth.*
Post Scriptum
We shall not meet again, dear friend. The climate on Mount Sinai I suspect I’d find most disagreeable, and the monastic life insufferably tedious. So, in the best Roman tradition, I intend to open my veins in the bath (no doubt while reading some uplifting stanzas of Horace or Catullus).
* 542.
* The Asinarian Gate was opened on 17 December 546.
** Now Porto, at the mouth of the Tiber.
† 20 December 546.
* 5 February 547.
TWENTY-SIX
There are two natures of Christ united in respect of His one hypostasis*
The triple calamity of pestilence, the phenomenon that was Totila, and insurgency in Africa had put on hold that other aspect of Justinian’s Grand Plan — the establishment of religious uniformity throughout the Empire. But, with Belisarius now back in Italy, thanks to the resumption of (no doubt temporary) Eternal Peace with Persia,** General John ‘the Troglite’ — Anastasius’ successor — beginning to turn the tide of insurrection in Africa, and the plague having spent itself, the now fully recovered emperor looked forward with relish to confronting the challenge (thus far unresolved) of bridging the gulf between the rival creeds of Chalcedonian Orthodoxy and Monophysitism.
In his mind, Justinian reviewed the field of battle as it looked at present. The successful machinations of Theodora and Antonina had secured the throne of Peter for Vigilius, a Monophysite sympathiser,† thus ‘planting’ a potentially heretical pontiff in the ultra-Chalcedonian West! In the East, apart from Constantinople (where the Patriarch, Menas, was staunchly Chalcedonian), much of the Empire, especially the wealthy and important dioceses of Egypt and Oriens, the latter comprising Syria and Palestine, were passionately Monophysite. To an emperor more cynical and less idealistic than Justinian (a man, say, of Khusro’s stamp), this potentially schismatic situation might have been shrugged off — a tiresome but essentially unimportant dichotomy. But Justinian was no cynic, and he was nothing if not idealistic. If the situation were allowed to drift, the Empire, in his opinion, was in danger of splitting into two mutually irreconcilable camps. It was his duty, as both emperor and Christ’s vicegerent upon earth, to ensure this did not happen. To help him in his search for a solution, he sent for Theodore Ascidas, Metropolitan of Caesarea, an ambitious, worldly, and intelligent cleric, who loved nothing better than the cut-and-thrust of intellectual debate. .
‘You’re in a fix, Serenity,’ chuckled Ascidas, pouring himself a chaliceful of communion wine from the flagon on the altar. The two men were in Saint Irene’s in the capital, consecrated a dozen years before. ‘In Africa and Italy,’ went on the bishop, a well-fleshed individual with a pleasant, lived-in face, ‘- especially Italy, what with Totila making things hard for Belisarius, you can’t afford not to keep the Romans on side. Not if you hope to hold the West, once you’ve reconquered it — again. And to keep those West Romans on side, you’ve got to be seen to be the champion of Chalcedonian Orthodoxy. For which you absolutely have to have the support of the Roman Church establishment, an institution that has largely filled the power-vacuum created by the absence of a Western emperor. Let the Romans of the West suspect you for a moment of going soft on the Monophysites — ’ Ascidas took a swig from the jewelled, silver cup and beamed at the emperor. ‘Then your credibility’s gone. I trust I’m making myself clear, Serenity.’
‘Only too clear,’ confirmed Justinian glumly. ‘I hear what you say, Ascidas, but unfortunately I can’t afford to crack down too hard on the Monophysites. Not since this firebrand priest, Jacob Baradaeus, has stirred up the Monophysite majority in Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor to defy the Chalcedonian hierarchy. Why, in Alexandria alone, demonstrations against Zoilus, the Orthodox Patriarch, forced the man to flee. And there’s not a thing I can do about it; not unless I want a revolution on my hands. And, to make my position even more invidious, this wretched Jacob has the backing of my wife.’ The emperor paced the nave distractedly, before sitting on the lowest tier of concentric stone benches that formed the nether portion of the church’s apse. ‘But I asked you here to help me find some answers,’ he went on, with a reproachful glance at Ascidas, ‘not just present me with a string of problems.’
‘Patience, Serenity. Diagnosis comes before the cure. What we must do is find some common ground on which both Chalcedonians and Monophysites can unite.’
‘Common ground?’ The emperor laughed bitterly. ‘Something I’ve been searching for since I put on the diadem. If you can find that for me, I’ll be forever in your debt.’
‘Think, Serenity,’ invited the bishop with a reassuring smile. ‘The Blues and Greens are even more divided than are Rome and Alexandria, yet once they did make common cause.’
‘You mean, during the Nika riots — against myself? Don’t bother to spare my feelings, will you?’
‘Apologies, Serenity — nothing personal intended. But you take my point. The most effective way of uniting opponents is to find a common enemy. Allow me therefore to explain the Ascidas Plan — something which could be fittingly entitled, “The Condemnation of the Three Chapters”. .’
In an auditorium of Rome’s Lateran Palace, hard by the Asinarian Gate,* Stephen, the Pope’s apocrisiarius or legate, a tall, commanding figure with a great eagle’s beak of a Roman nose, stood to address the mass of clergy he had hastily convoked. In his hand he held an Edict, just arrived from Constantinople.
‘His Holiness, Pope Vigilius, is unable to attend,’ announced the legate, ‘because he is en route to Constantinople, by invitation of the emperor.’ He glared sternly round the assembly. ‘The reason for the summons, I suspect, is so that Justinian can exert direct pressure on Vigilius to get him to agree to this.’ Angrily, Stephen waved the Edict in the air. ‘This is the emperor’s latest trick to force us to compromise with the Monophysites.’ He paused, then went on, his voice rising to a shout, ‘Well, he must imagine that we’re idiots, to think we’re going to fall for it! The content is: a condemnation of certain century-old writings — ‘Chapters’ he calls them — by Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theoderet of Cyrus, and Ibas of Edessa.’