Valens Kills Men Whose Names Began with Theod

At this time a detestable demon took advantage of the emperor’s cruel disposition. It led certain curious people to inquire by necromancy who would succeed Valens on the throne. To their magical incantations the demon gave answers that were not clear and plain but, as is usual with such things, full of ambiguity. It displayed the four letters Th, E, O and D, and declared that the name of Valens’s successor began with these, and that it was a compound name. When the emperor was told of this oracle, instead of leaving the decision of the matter to God, who alone can see into the future, he acted against those Christian principles to which he claimed the most zealous loyalty, and put to death a great many people whom he suspected of aiming at the throne. So men named Theodore, Theodotus, Theodosius, Theodulus and the like were sacrificed to the emperor’s fears. Among the rest was Theodosiolus, a very brave man from a noble family in Spain. Many people, therefore, to escape the danger they were in, changed their names, giving up as dangerous the ones their parents had given them in infancy. That will be enough on this subject. [a]