Athanasius on George’s Violence at Alexandria

What cruelties George committed at Alexandria at the same time can be learned from the account of Athanasius, who both suffered these events and saw them. In his Defense of His Flight he speaks of them as follows: [a]

“Moreover, they came to Alexandria, again seeking to destroy me, and this time their conduct was worse than before. The soldiers suddenly surrounded the church, and the din of war rose in place of the voice of prayer. Afterward George, sent from Cappadocia, arrived during Lent and added to the evil he had been instructed to do. “When Easter week was over, the virgins were thrown into prison, the bishops were led away in chains by the soldiers, and even the homes of orphans and widows were broken into and their food plundered. Christians were murdered by night; houses were sealed; and the relatives of the clergy were put in danger because of them. [b]

“These outrages were dreadful enough, but what followed was worse still. In the week after holy Pentecost the people, having fasted, went out to the cemetery to pray, because all of them refused communion with George. When that most wicked of men was told of this, he set on them Sebastian, an officer who was a Manichaean. At the head of a body of troops armed with drawn swords, bows and darts, Sebastian marched out to attack the people, even though it was the Lord’s day. He found only a few at prayer, since most had gone home because of the late hour, and he did the kind of things that might be expected of such men. “He lit a fire and set the virgins near it, to force them to say that they were of the Arian faith. When he saw that they stood their ground and despised the fire, he stripped them and beat them about the face so badly that for a long time afterward they could hardly be recognized. He also seized about forty men and flogged them in an extraordinary way. He tore their backs with rods freshly cut from the palm tree, with the thorns still on them, so that some had to go to the surgeons again and again to have the thorns taken out of their flesh, and others, unable to bear the agony, died under it. “All the survivors, along with one virgin, they banished to the Great Oasis. They would not even give up the bodies of the dead to their relatives. They denied them burial and hid them as they saw fit, so that the evidence of their cruelty would not appear. In this they acted like madmen. For while the friends of the dead rejoiced at their confession but mourned that their bodies lay unburied, the godless inhumanity of these acts was proclaimed all the more widely.

“Soon after this they sent the following bishops into exile out of Egypt and the two Libyas: Ammonius, Thmuis, Gaius, Philo, Hermes, Pliny, Psenosiris, Nilammon, Agatho, Anagamphus, Mark, Ammonius, another Mark, Dracontius, Adelphius and Athenodorus; and the presbyters Hierax and Dioscorus. They treated them so harshly on the way that some died on the journey and others in the place of exile. In this way they got rid of more than thirty bishops, for the Arians’ eager wish, like Ahab’s, was to wipe out the truth if they could.”

Such are the words of Athanasius about the atrocities George committed at Alexandria. Meanwhile the emperor led his army into Illyricum, for the urgent state of public affairs required his presence there, and above all the proclamation of Vetranio as emperor by the army. On reaching Sirmium he met Vetranio for a conference during a truce, and he managed things so that the soldiers who had earlier declared for Vetranio changed sides and hailed Constantius alone as Augustus and sole ruler. So in the acclamations no notice was taken of Vetranio. Vetranio, seeing himself abandoned, at once threw himself at the emperor’s feet. Constantius took from him his imperial crown and purple but treated him with great kindness, and advised him to spend the rest of his days quietly as a private citizen, remarking that a life of rest at his advanced age suited him far better than a high position that brought anxieties and cares. That is how Vetranio’s affairs ended, and the emperor ordered that he be given a generous allowance from the public treasury. Afterward, while living at Prusa in Bithynia, Vetranio often wrote to the emperor, assuring him that he had done him the greatest kindness by freeing him from the worries that always go with sovereign power. He added that the emperor himself was not acting wisely in depriving himself of the happiness in retirement that he had given to Vetranio. Let this be enough on this point. [h]

After these things the emperor Constantius made his relative Gallus a Caesar, gave him his own name, and sent him to Antioch in Syria, providing in this way for the defense of the eastern parts. As Gallus was entering that city, the Savior’s sign appeared in the East: a pillar in the form of a cross was seen in the sky, and it filled those who saw it with great amazement. The emperor sent his other generals against Magnentius with large forces, while he himself stayed at Sirmium, waiting to see how events would turn out.