The Arians Riot at Constantinople

While the emperor was busy with this campaign, the Arians stirred up a great riot at Constantinople by means like these. People love to make up stories about things they know nothing of. And whenever they are given an opening, they swell rumors about what they want to happen to enormous size, since they are always eager for change. This was plainly seen at Constantinople on this occasion. Each person invented news about the war being fought far away to suit his own fancy, always assuming the most disastrous outcome. Before the fighting had even begun, they spoke of events in it, of which they knew nothing, as confidently as if they had been watching on the very spot. So it was confidently claimed that “the usurper had defeated the emperor’s army,” even the number of men killed on each side being given, and that “the emperor himself had nearly fallen into the usurper’s hands.” [a]

Then the Arians, who were bitterly angry that the people they had once persecuted had been given the churches inside the city, began to add to these rumors with inventions of their own. As these stories spread and grew more exaggerated, in time even those who had made them up came to believe them. For those who had passed them on from hearsay assured the very authors of these falsehoods that the reports they had heard from them had been fully confirmed elsewhere. Then indeed the Arians grew bold enough to commit acts of violence, and among other outrages they set fire to the house of Nectarius the bishop. This was done in the second consulship of Theodosius Augustus, which he held with Cynegius.