Death of Athanasius

It should be said that as long as Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, was alive, the emperor, held back by the providence of God, refrained from troubling Alexandria and Egypt. He knew very well that the crowd of people devoted to Athanasius was very large, and for that reason he took care not to put public affairs at risk by stirring the Alexandrians, who are an excitable people, to revolt. But Athanasius, after fighting so many and such severe battles on behalf of the church, departed this life in the second consulship of Gratian and Probus, having governed that church amid the greatest dangers for forty-six years. He left as his successor Peter, a devout and eloquent man. [a]