but when eye met eye, his troops broke and fled, and the swords overtook them. ʿAliyanus escaped and moved from one village to the next until he reached a certain town, where he gathered the sorcerers, priests, and diviners he favored (wa-yaqbalu minhum) (1) and had them beheaded so that they would not fall into Constantine’s hands.

Constantine embraced Christianity and ordered churches to be built. He established them (2) in every province and commanded that money drawn (3) from the public treasury’s land tax be spent on constructing church buildings. He upheld the Christian faith until it became firmly entrenched in his time. After fifteen years of his reign, the Christians disputed over the matter of Christ and fell into confusion, so he convened a council in the city of Nicaea—the city in which the “Creed” was later formulated after that council, as will be mentioned. Arius sought to enter with them, but the Patriarch of Alexandria barred him, saying, “Peter told them that God has cursed Arius; therefore do not accept him and do not let him into the church.”

Over the city of Asyut in Egypt there was a bishop who followed Arius’s doctrine, and he too was anathematized. In Alexandria there stood a great temple dedicated to Saturn (4), inside which was a bronze idol called Michael. For twelve days of the month of Hathor—November—the people of Egypt and Alexandria used to hold a grand festival for that idol and offer it many sacrifices.

When Christianity gained ascendancy in Alexandria, its patriarch resolved to break the idol