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should some of them perceive that among Christians there are some men so hostile towards virtue and philosophy, that they not only abstain from the labors for its sake, but do not even endure discourses about these things, and their madness does not stop here, but even if another advises and discusses these things, they drive this one away from all sides; if they should perceive these things, I fear they may think us not to be men, but beasts and man-shaped monsters, and some avenging demons, and enemies of our common nature, and that they may pass this judgment not only concerning those who are responsible, but also concerning our whole nation. And he laughed and said, You are joking in saying these things; for I will now tell you something more opportune than this, if indeed you fear that they might learn from your words what everyone learned long ago from their deeds. For just as if some wicked spirit had filled the souls of all, so the mouths of all are full of these words; and if you enter the marketplace, you will see, and in the physicians' offices, and in every part of the city, where those who wish to do nothing are accustomed to assemble, great laughter being stirred up by all. And the subject of this laughter and comedy is the narratives of the things done to the holy men. For just as some warriors, having fought through many battles and set up trophies, rejoice in recounting their own feats of valor, so indeed these men too exult in their own audacious deeds; and you will hear one saying, 'I was the first to lay hands on such-and-such a monk, and I inflicted blows;' and another, 'I myself found his lodging before the others;' 'But I provoked the judge more than the others,' says another; another considers the prison and the terrible things in the prison, and the dragging of those holy men through the marketplace as a matter of praise; and another, something else. Then they all burst out laughing at these things. And these things happen in the assemblies of the Christians; but the Greeks laugh both at these men, and at those laughed at by them; the former for what they did, the latter for what they suffered; and everything is filled with a kind of civil war, or rather, these things are much worse than that. For in that case, those who fought the war, whenever they later remember it, heap curses upon those who started it, and attribute all that happened in it to some wicked demon; and those who took part are more ashamed than others, in proportion as they did more in it than others; but these men even take pride in their audacious acts. And not only this, that this war is more accursed than that one, nor only that it is waged against holy men who have done no wrong, but that it is also against men who know not how to do evil to anyone, but are prepared only to suffer it.

3. Stop, I said, stop; for we have had enough of these narratives, unless I am to expire completely; but let me go with at least some little strength remaining. For what you have commanded will surely come to pass; only add no other narrative for us, but go and pray that the cloud of my despondency may be scattered, and 47.323 that I may receive from the God who is warred against some impetus for the healing of those who war against him; and he will surely grant it, being a lover of mankind, and not desiring the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live. Having thus sent him away, I took up these discourses. For if this alone were the terrible thing, that those holy and wonderful men of God should be dragged and torn while being hauled into courts, and be beaten, and suffer the other things which I have just now related, and no harm from these things was turned upon the head of those who dared them, I would have been so far from grieving at what was happening that I would even have laughed very sweetly and abundantly at them; since even little children, when they strike their mothers without any danger, stir up much laughter in the very ones being struck, and the more they do this out of anger, so much the more for them

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αἴσθωνταί τινες ἐκείνων ὅτι παρὰ Χριστιανοῖς εἰσί τινες ἄνθρωποι οὕτω πρὸς ἀρετὴν καὶ φιλοσοφίαν ἐκπεπολεμωμένοι, ὡς μὴ μόνον τῶν ὑπὲρ ταύτης ἀφίστασθαι πόνων, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ τοὺς ὑπὲρ τούτων ἀνέχεσθαι λόγους, καὶ οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθα στῆναι τῆς μανίας ἀνέχονται, ἀλλὰ κἂν ἕτερός τις ταῦτα συμβουλεύῃ καὶ διαλέγηται, καὶ τοῦτον πάντοθεν ἐλαύνουσιν· ἂν ταῦτα αἴσθωνται, δέδοικα μή ποτε οὔτε ἀνθρώπους ἡμᾶς εἶναι νομίσωσιν, ἀλλὰ θηρία καὶ τέρατα ἀνθρωπόμορφα, καὶ δαίμονάς τινας ἀλάστορας, καὶ τῆς κοινῆς φύσεως ἐχθροὺς, καὶ ταύτην οὐ περὶ τῶν ὑπευθύνων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ παντὸς ἡμῶν τοῦ ἔθνους τὴν ψῆφον ἐνέγκωσι. Καὶ γελάσας ἐκεῖνος, Παίζεις, ἔφη, ταῦτα λέγων· ἐγὼ γὰρ νῦν τούτου σοι εὐκαιρότερον ἐρῶ, εἴ γε δέδοικας μὴ παρὰ τῶν σῶν λόγων μάθωσιν ἃ διὰ τῶν ἔργων ἔμαθον ἅπαντες πάλαι. Ὥσπερ γάρ τινος πονηροῦ πνεύματος τὰς ἁπάντων πεπληρωκότος ψυχὰς, οὕτω τὰ πάντων στόματα τούτων γέμει τῶν λόγων· κἂν εἰς ἀγορὰν ἐμβάλῃς, ὄψει, καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἰατρείοις, κἂν ἐν παντὶ μέρει τῆς πόλεως, ἔνθα συνεδρεύειν εἰώθασιν οἱ πράττειν οὐδὲν ἐθέλοντες, πολὺν γέλωτα παρὰ πάντων κινούμενον. Ἡ δὲ τοῦ γέλωτος τούτου καὶ τῆς κωμωδίας ὑπόθεσις, τῶν εἰς τοὺς ἁγίους ἄνδρας εἰργασμένων ἐστὶ τὰ διηγήματα. Καθάπερ γάρ τινες πολεμισταὶ πολλὰς ἠνυκότες μάχας, καὶ τρόπαια στήσαντες, τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἀριστείας διηγούμενοι χαίρουσιν, οὕτω δὴ καὶ οὗτοι γάννυνται ἐπὶ τοῖς τολμήμασι τοῖς ἑαυτῶν· καὶ ἀκούσῃ τοῦ μὲν λέγοντος ὅτι, Ἐγὼ πρῶτος καὶ χεῖρας ἐπέβαλον ἐπὶ τὸν δεῖνα τὸν μοναχὸν, καὶ πληγὰς ἐνέτεινα· ἑτέρου δὲ ὅτι, Τὸ καταγώγιον πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων εὗρον αὐτός· Ἀλλὰ τὸν δικαστὴν ἐγὼ μᾶλλον τῶν ἄλλων παρώξυνα, φησὶν ἕτερος· ἄλλος τὸ δεσμωτήριον καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ δεινὰ, καὶ τὸ διὰ τῆς ἀγορᾶς ἑλκύσαι τοὺς ἁγίους ἐκείνους ἐν ἐγκωμίου τίθεται μέρει· καὶ ἄλλος ἄλλο. Εἶτα πάντες ἀνακαγχάζουσιν ἐπὶ τούτοις. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐν τοῖς τῶν Χριστιανῶν συνεδρίοις· οἱ δὲ Ἕλληνες καὶ τούτους γελῶσι, καὶ τοὺς ὑπ' αὐτῶν γελωμένους· τοὺς μὲν, ἐφ' οἷς ἔδρασαν, τοὺς δὲ ἐφ' οἷς ἔπαθον· καὶ πολέμου τινὸς ἐμφυλίου τὰ πάντα ἐμπέπλησται, μᾶλλον δὲ ταῦτα ἐκείνου πολλῷ χαλεπώτερα. Ἐκεῖνον μὲν γὰρ οἱ πολεμήσαντες τὸν πόλεμον, ὅταν ποτὲ ὕστερον ἀναμνησθῶσιν αὐτοῦ, τοῖς τε κεκινηκόσιν αὐτὸν ἐπαρῶνται πολλὰ, καὶ δαίμονί τινι πονηρῷ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ γενόμενα ἅπαντα ἀνατιθέασι· κἀκεῖνοι μὲν πλέον τι τῶν ἄλλων αἰσχύνονται, ὅσῳπερ ἂν ἐν αὐτῷ πλέον τι τῶν ἄλλων ἐργάσωνται· οὗτοι δὲ καὶ ἐγκαλλωπίζονται τοῖς τολμήμασι. Καὶ οὐ τοῦτο μόνον, ὅτι ἐναγέστερος οὗτος ἐκείνου ὁ πόλεμος, οὐδὲ ὅτι πρὸς ἁγίους καὶ οὐδὲν ἠδικηκότας γίνεται μόνον, ἀλλ' ὅτι καὶ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ποιεῖν μὲν οὐδένα εἰδότας κακῶς, πάσχειν δὲ παρεσκευασμένους μόνον.

γʹ. Ἐπίσχες, ἔφην, ἐπίσχες· καὶ γὰρ καὶ τούτων ἡμῖν ἅλις τῶν διηγημάτων, εἴ γε μὴ παντελῶς με ἐκπνεῦσα. δέοι· ἀλλὰ μικρὰν γοῦν τινα ἔχοντα ἰσχὺν, ἀπελθεῖν ποίησον. Σὺ μὲν γὰρ πάντως ὅπερ ἐπέταξας γενήσεται· μόνον μηδὲν ἕτερον ἡμῖν προσθῇς διήγημα, ἀλλ' ἀπελθὼν εὔχου σκεδασθῆναί μοι τῆς ἀθυμίας τὸ νέφος, καὶ 47.323 λαβεῖν τινα παρὰ τοῦ πολεμουμένου Θεοῦ ῥοπὴν εἰς τὴν ἰατρείαν τῶν πολεμούντων αὐτόν· δώσει δὲ πάντως φιλάνθρωπός τε ὢν, καὶ τὸν θάνατον μὴ βουλόμενος τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ, ὡς τὸ ἐπιστρέψαι αὐτὸν καὶ ζῇν. Οὕτως ἀποπέμψας ἐκεῖνον, τῶν λόγων ἡπτόμην τούτων. Καὶ γὰρ εἰ μὲν τοῦτο μόνον ἦν τὸ δεινὸν, τὸ τοὺς ἁγίους τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ θαυμαστοὺς ἄνδρας ἐκείνους ἕλκεσθαι καὶ σπαράσσεσθαι συρομένους εἰς δικαστήρια, καὶ τυπτομένους, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάσχοντας, ἅπερ διηγησάμην ἄρτι, μηδεμία δὲ ἀπὸ τούτων εἰς τὴν τῶν ταῦτα τολμώντων κεφαλὴν ἐτρέπετο βλάβη, τοσοῦτον ἀπέσχον ἀλγῆσαι τοῖς γινομένοις, ὅτι κἂν ἐγέλασα σφόδρα ἡδὺ, καὶ δαψιλὲς ἐπ' αὐτοῖς· ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ παιδία τὰ μικρὰ, ὅταν μὲν ἀκινδύνως πλήττῃ τὰς μητέρας, πολὺν κινεῖ τὸν γέλωτα ταῖς πληττομέναις αὐταῖς, καὶ ὅσῳπερ ἂν ἐκ πλείονος τοῦτο ἐργάζηται τοῦ θυμοῦ, τοσοῦτον μᾶλλον αὐταῖς