The Death of Hermogenes

News of these proceedings reached the ears of the emperor Constantius, who was then living at Antioch. So he ordered his general Hermogenes, who had been sent to Thrace, to pass through Constantinople on his way and drive Paul out of the church. When Hermogenes arrived at Constantinople, he threw the whole city into confusion by trying to cast out the bishop, for the people rose at once in their eagerness to defend him. When Hermogenes kept trying to drive Paul out by military force, the people grew furious, as usually happens in such cases. They made a desperate attack on him, set his house on fire, dragged him through the city, and at last put him to death. This happened in the consulship of the two emperors, the third consulship of Constantius and the second of Constans. At that time Constans had defeated the Franks and forced them to make a peace treaty with the Romans. [a]

When the emperor Constantius heard of the murder of Hermogenes, he set out on horseback from Antioch, and on reaching Constantinople he immediately expelled Paul. Then he punished the people by taking away more than 40,000 measures of the daily allowance of wheat that his father had granted to be given out free among them. For before this disaster nearly 80,000 measures of wheat brought from Alexandria had been given to the citizens. He hesitated, however, to confirm Macedonius as bishop of that city. He was angry with him, not only because he had been ordained without the emperor’s consent, but also because Hermogenes his general and many other people had been killed in the struggles between him and Paul. But he gave him permission to minister in the church in which he had been consecrated, and returned to Antioch.