Eighty Clergy Burned at Sea

Certain devout men of the clergy, eighty in number, led by Urbanus, Theodore and Menedemus, went to Nicomedia and there presented a petition to the emperor, telling him of the ill treatment they had suffered and complaining of it. The emperor was filled with rage, but he hid his anger in their presence and gave Modestus the prefect a secret order to arrest these men and put them to death. The way in which they were killed was unusual, and it deserves to be recorded. The prefect was afraid that he would stir up the people to riot against him if he tried to execute so many men publicly, so he pretended to be sending them into exile. They received the news of their fate with great firmness of mind. The prefect then ordered them to be put on board a ship, as if they were to be taken to their various places of banishment, having meanwhile instructed the sailors to set the ship on fire as soon as they reached open sea, so that the victims would be destroyed and even deprived of burial. This order was carried out. When they reached the middle of the Astacian Gulf, the crew set fire to the ship and then took refuge in a small boat that was following them, and so escaped. Meanwhile a strong east wind happened to blow, which drove the burning ship along at greater speed and kept it afloat until it reached a harbor called Dacidizus, where it burned up completely, together with the men shut up inside it. [a]

Many have said that this impious deed was not left unpunished. For immediately afterward so great a famine arose throughout all Phrygia that a large part of the inhabitants had to leave their country for a time and go, some to Constantinople and some to other provinces. For Constantinople, despite the vast population it feeds, always has plenty of the necessities of life, since provisions of every kind are brought into it by sea from many regions, and the Black Sea, which lies near it, supplies it with as much wheat as it may need.