Procopius, Byzantine church of St. Panteleimon. By zavar_vera – https://www.flickr.com/photos/139456657@N07/48626732142/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=179064947

And while he¹⁰³ was stirring up the evils of faction and of war for the Romans and fanning the flames, with the one thought in mind that the earth should by many a device be filled with human blood and that he should plunder more money, he contrived another massacre of his subjects on a large scale, in the following manner.

There are in the whole Roman Empire many rejected doctrines of the Christians, which they are accustomed to call “heresies.” … All these heretics he commanded to change their earlier beliefs, threatening many things in case of their disobedience, and in particular that it would be impossible for them in the future to hand down their property to their children or other relatives. Now the shrines of these heretics, as they are called, contained great wealth unheard of. … So the Emperor Justinian began by confiscating the properties of these sanctuaries, thus stripping them suddenly of all their wealth. From this it came about that thereafter most of them were cut off from their livelihood.

And many straightway went everywhere from place to place and tried to compel such persons as they met to change from their ancestral faith. And since such action seemed unholy to the farmer class, they all resolved to make a stand against those who brought this message. So then, while many were being destroyed by the soldiers and many even made away with themselves,¹⁰⁴ thinking in their folly that they were doing a most righteous thing, and while the majority of them, leaving their homelands, went into exile, the Montani,¹⁰⁵ whose home was in Phrygia,¹⁰⁶ shutting themselves up in their own sanctuaries, immediately set their churches on fire, so that they were destroyed together with the buildings in senseless fashion, and consequently the whole Roman Empire was filled with murder and with exiled men.

And when a similar law was immediately passed touching the Samaritans also, an indiscriminate confusion swept through Palestine, and the residents of my own Caesarea and of all the other cities, regarding it as a foolish thing to undergo any suffering in defense of a senseless dogma, adopted the name of Christians in place of that which they bore before, and by this pretense succeeded in shaking off the danger that was arising from the law. And all those of their number who were persons of any prudence and reasonableness showed no reluctance about adhering loyally to this faith, but the majority, feeling resentment that, not by their own free choice, but under compulsion of the law, they had changed from the beliefs of their fathers, instantly inclined to the Manichaeans¹⁰⁸ and to the Polytheists, as they are called.

And all the farmers, having gathered in great numbers, decided to rise in arms against the Emperor, putting forward as their Emperor a certain brigand, Julian by name, son of Savares. And when they engaged with the soldiers, they held out for a time, but finally they were defeated in the battle and perished along with their leader. And it is said that one hundred thousand men perished in this struggle, and the land, which is the finest in the world, became in consequence destitute of farmers. And for the owners of the land who were Christians this led to very serious consequences. For it was incumbent upon them, as a matter of compulsion, to pay to the Emperor everlastingly, even though they were deriving no income from the land, the huge annual tax, since no money was shown in the administration of this business.

102. Trans. Dewing, Procopius, vol. 6, pp. 135–9.

103. Emperor Justinian (527–65 C.E.).

104. Committing suicide.

105. Members of a Christian prophetic sect which believed that the New Jerusalem was soon to descend.

106. A region in Asia Minor, now Turkey.

107. The rest of this account seems to concern the Samaritans.

108. Adherents of a gnostic religion. Manichaeanism was founded by the Babylonian Mani (216–76 C.E.).