[Sidenote:  Revolt of Procopius, Sept. 365.]

Meanwhile the plans of Valens were interrupted by the news that Constantinople had been seized by a pretender.  Procopius was a relative of Julian who had retired into private life, but whom the jealousy of Valens had forced to become a pretender.  For awhile the danger was pressing.  Procopius had won over to his side some of the best legions of the Empire, while his connexion with the house of Constantine secured him the formidable services of the Goths.  But the great generals kept their faith to Valens, and the usurper’s power melted away before them.  A decisive battle at Nacolia in Phrygia (May 366) once more seated Valens firmly on his throne.

[Sidenote:  Baptism of Valens by Eudoxius (367).]

Events could scarcely have fallen out better for Eudoxius and his friends.  Valens was already on their side, and now his zeal was quickened by the mortal terror he had undergone, perhaps also by shame at the unworthy panic in which he had already allowed the exiles to return.  In an age when the larger number of professing Christians were content to spend most of their lives as catechumens, it was a decided step for an Emperor to come forward and ask for baptism.  This, however, was the step taken by Valens in the spring of 367, which finally committed him to the Homoean side.  By it he undertook to resume the policy of Constantius, and to drive out false teachers at the dictation of Eudoxius.

[Sidenote:  Interval in the controversy (366-371).]

The Semiarians were in no condition to resist.  Their district had been the seat of the revolt, and their disgrace at court was not lessened by the embassy to Rome.  So divided also were they, that while one party assembled a synod at Tyana to welcome the return of the envoys, another met in Caria to ratify the Lucianic creed again.  Unfortunately however for Eudoxius, Valens was entangled in a war with the Goths for three campaigns, and afterwards detained for another year in the Hellespontine district, so that he could not revisit the East till the summer of 371.  Meanwhile there was not much to be done.  Athanasius had been formally restored to his church during the Procopian panic by Brasidas the notary (February 366), and was too strong to be molested again.  Meletius also and others had been allowed to return at the same time, and Valens was too busy to disturb them.  Thus there was a sort of truce for the next few years.  Of Syria we hear scarcely anything; and even in Pontus the strife must have been abated by the famine of 368.  The little we find to record seems to belong to the year 367.  On one side, Eunomius the Anomoean was sent into exile, but soon recalled on the intercession of the old Arian Valens of Mursa.  On the other, the Semiarians were not allowed to hold the great synod at Tarsus, which was intended to complete their reconciliation with the Western Nicenes.  These years form the third great break in the Arian controversy, and were hardly less fruitful of results than the two former breaks under Constantius and Julian.  Let us therefore glance at the condition of the churches.