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Life of St Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza

Mark the Deacon, tr. Hill, 1913

Chapter 25

Now while we were taking counsel what should be done, the day dawneth; and lo! the public advocate¹ with the guardians of the peace² and the two chief councillors,³ Timotheus and Epiphanius, and many others come and begin to cry out against us and make a tumult, saying: ‘Why brought ye a corpse into the city, seeing that the laws of our fathers forbid this?’ And at the same time they spake despitefully of the blessed bishop. But we, hearing the tumult, came out, and seeing us they begin to beat me and Cornelius the deacon, beloved of God. But when we protested, calling the public officers to witness, the most holy bishop restrained us, exhorting and admonishing every one, that we should not be thus wroth without reason. But the godless men, the more they were exhorted, the more mad did they become, and spake despitefully of the holy man. So the tumult continued; but Barochas, beloved of God, is strengthened and filled with godly zeal, and riseth up and snatcheth a piece of wood, and beginneth to smite the bystanders; and fear falleth upon them all, and they begin to fall over each other in flight; and he continued pursuing them as far as the temple of Marnas that then was; and so our new Samson returneth again, having won a great victory, and himself laid low a thousand of the Gentiles. From that time therefore they of the idol-madness feared him, and could not endure to hear his name.

Now after a little time we were accounted worthy to be ordained deacons, I and Barochas, beloved of God, I indeed being greatly unworthy, but he full worthily and justly receiving this gift.

Notes

public advocate. δημεκδικῶν, generally assumed to be the same as the official otherwise called ἔκδικος τῆς πόλεως, defensor civitatis; ‘des Raths und gemeiner Bürgerschaft Schirmvogt’ (Draeseke). These officials are first heard of in the Augustan age, when they act as intermediaries between the government and the cities. They were elected by the citizens and confirmed by the praefectus praetorio. They held office for two years, and had jurisdiction in ordinary crimes and civil cases under 300 aurei. They are to be distinguished from the permanent σύνδικοι (Philippi in Rhein. Mus. viii. 508; art. ἔκδικος in Pauly-Wissowa- Kroll, Realencycl.; and cp. L. Mitteis u. V. Wilcken, Grundzüge u. Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde, I. i, p. 81). The Church had representatives called ἐκκλησιέκδικοι (Gelzer, op. cit. p. 122), whose duties were connected with church-discipline. It seems uncertain whether the δημεκδικῶν is quite the same as the ἔκδικος τῆς πόλεως; he may possibly be a representative of the δῆμος as distinct from the βουλή.
guardians of the peace. εἰρηναρχῶν. ‘Irenarchae quoque, qui disciplinae publicae et corrigendis moribus praeficiuntur,’ Dig. l. 4. 18. Cp. M. Gelzer, Studien zur byz. Verwaltung Ägyptens, p. 58.
councillors. πρωτευόντων. The Egyptian papyri provide some evidence about the corresponding authorities in Egyptian communities; in the villages the title πρωτεύοντες is, however, less commonly employed than πρωτοκωμῆται. Their special function was to act as local taxation authorities, but also, it would seem, they were responsible for the government of the village. They formed a κοινότης, a sort of ‘parish council’, with an acting committee called the κωμάρχαι. Thus in Pap. Cairo 67006 recto, 3, the πρωτεύοντες wish to impose on a woman state-services to which she is not liable; in Pap. Lond. 1073, the comes of Arcadia is asked to instruct the πρωτοκωμῆται to protect some persons engaged in building. In the case of a city with a βουλή, the term πρωτεύοντες, according to Maspero, is sometimes used for the βουλευταί or decurions. See Mitteis u. Wilcken, op. cit. I. i, p. 84; Maspero in Bull. de l’Inst. franç. d’Archéologie orientale, vi, p. 42; and, for older evidence, Ducange, Gloss. Graec.
In this biography the term appears again in c. 27 and in c. 95. In the latter instance Sampsychus is supported by ‘the rest of the council’; but in the former Mark speaks as if there were no more than three πρωτεύοντες altogether. It is possible then that he uses the word in a sense corresponding to the Egyptian κωμάρχαι, as a committee of the council.