to distribute a most sufficient [supply] to the inhabitants, and to establish lavishly the other ornament of the state in it, so as to be sufficient for a rival glory to the former Rome. 2.10 And when Alexander, the high priest of this city, died, he says that Eusebius of Nicomedia was transferred to the archepiscopal throne of the newly founded city. 2.11 That this impious instrument of falsehood, when Alexander of Alexandria had died and votes were being cast for different people, and some time was being extended for this, says that the divine Athanasius, having rushed late in the afternoon into the church called of Dionysius, and having found two of the Egyptian bishops, and having most securely locked the gates with his fellow conspirators, thus underwent ordination; while those ordaining were refusing many things, but the force brought against them having become greater than their will and power, what seemed good to Athanasius was accomplished. And how the other group of bishops present for such a reason delivered him over to anathema. But Athanasius, having secured his own position, wrote to the emperor as from the community of the city about his proclamation to the high priesthood. But he, thinking the letter was of the common council, ratified his possession of the throne. But later, having learned what had been done, he sent him away to Tyre of Phoenicia, to give an account of what he had done to the council there. And so Athanasius yielded with difficulty to the royal threats. But having yielded and arrived at Tyre, he did not enter into the trial; but having hired a certain courtesan, who already by the swelling of her belly was making public her licentiousness, he contrived to set her upon Eusebius, who was considered the leader of the council there; intending by the uproar and confusion that naturally arose from the slander both to steal away from the trial and to escape the judgment. But the friend of falsehood records that the plot was detected by the same method by which the pious say the little prostitute hired by the impious against the great Athanasius was refuted. For Eusebius asked the courtesan if she knew her seducer; and when she strongly affirmed it, he asked further if the present company included him. And she said: "Speak no ill, O master; for I would not be so mad as to accuse such men of enslavement to shameful pleasure." Then, when the truth began from this to be laid bare, the whole plot was uncovered. And Eusebius was seen to be superior to all slander; but Athanasius, instead of escaping the trial, was convicted of a double charge, his unholy ordination having added to it a most accursed slander. Therefore a vote of deposition was passed unanimously against him. He, however, was further shameless, and said that the council members had carried out the deposition out of hatred just as they did the slanders, because he would not endure to undergo the episcopal laying on of hands from them. Therefore the emperor permitted the matters concerning Athanasius to be examined again by another synod. And they also gathered together other charges; For Callinicus the confessor, bishop of Pelusium, he had bound in iron fetters and put in prison, and did not cease insulting him until he drove him from life, they added to the accusations. Indeed, the hand of Arsenius was also brought forth then, and the Mareotes and Ischyras and the mystic cup, and things similar to these, on account of which the council both banished him and appointed Gregory from Cappadocia in his place. These things, then, the falsehood-loving Cacostorgius monstrously alleges concerning the holy Athanasius. 2.12 That, he says, the mother of the emperor Constantine, Helen, built a city at the mouth of the gulf of Nicomedia, naming it Helenopolis; and that she cherished the place for no other reason, but that Lucian the martyr happened to be there after the martyrdom

αὐταρκεστάτην διανεῖμαι τοῖς οἰκήτορσι, καὶ τὸν ἄλλον ἐν αὐτῇ τῆς πολιτείας πολυτελῶς κόσμον καταστήσασθαι, ὡς ἀρκεῖν εἰς ἀντίπαλον κλέος τῇ προτέρᾳ Ῥώμῃ. 2.10 Τελευτήσαντος δὲ τοῦ ταύτης τῆς πόλεως ἀρχιερέως Ἀλεξάνδρου, τὸν Νικομηδείας φησὶν Εὐσέβιον εἰς τὸν τῆς νεοκτίστου πόλεως ἀρχιερατικὸν μεταστῆσαι θρόνον. 2.11 Ὅτι τὸ δυσσεβὲς οὗτος τοῦ ψεύδους ὄργανον, Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Ἀλεξανδρείας τελευτήσαντος καὶ ψήφων ἄλλων ἐπ' ἄλλους φερομένων, καὶ χρόνου τινὸς ἐπὶ τοῦτο παρατεινομένου, τὸν θεῖον Ἀθανάσιόν φησι περὶ δείλην ὀψίαν εἰς τὴν ∆ιονυσίου καλουμένην ἐκκλησίαν εἰσπηδήσαντα, καὶ δύο τινὰς τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἐπισκόπων εὑρόντα τὰς πύλας τε κατὰ ὀχυρώτατον μετὰ τῶν συστασιωτῶν ἐπικλεισάμενον, οὕτω τὴν χειροτονίαν ὑπελθεῖν· τῶν χειροτονούντων πολλὰ μὲν ἀνανευόντων, τῆς δὲ προσαγομένης αὐτοῖς βίας μείζονος τῆς βουλῆς καὶ τῆς δυνάμεως γεγενημένης, τὸ δοκοῦν Ἀθανασίῳ ἐπιτελεσθῆναι. καὶ ὡς ὁ παρὼν τῶν ἐπισκόπων ἄλλος ὅμιλος διὰ τὴν τοιαύτην αἰτίαν τῷ ἀναθέματι τοῦτον παρεπέμψαντο. τὸν δὲ Ἀθανάσιον κρατυνάμενον τὰ καθ' ἑαυτόν, ὡς ἀπὸ τοῦ κοινοῦ τῆς πόλεως πρὸς βασιλέα γράψαι τὴν εἰς τὴν ἀρχιερωσύνην ἀνάρρησιν αὐτοῦ. τὸν δὲ νομίσαντα κοινῆς βουλῆς εἶναι τὸ γράμμα, ἐπιψηφίσαι τὴν κατοχὴν τοῦ θρόνου. Ὕστερον δὲ μαθόντα τὰ πεπραγμένα, εἰς Τύρον τῆς Φοινίκης αὐτὸν ἐξαποστεῖλαι, τῷ ἐκεῖσε συνεδρίῳ λόγον ὧν ἔδρασεν δώσοντα. καὶ μόλις μὲν οὖν εἶξαι ταῖς βασιλείοις ἀπειλαῖς τὸν Ἀθανάσιον. εἴξαντα δ' οὖν καὶ παραγενόμενον εἰς Τύρον τὴν μὲν δίκην οὐκ εἰσέρχεσθαι· γύναιον δέ τι μισθωσάμενον ἑταιρικόν, ἤδη τῷ τῆς γαστρὸς ὄγκῳ τὴν ἀκολασίαν στηλιτεῦον, ἐπαφεῖναι διαμηχανᾶσθαι τῷ Εὐσεβίῳ, ὃς τοῦ ἐκεῖσε συνεδρίου κορυφαῖος ἐνομίζετο· τῷ διὰ τὴν συκοφαντίαν, ὡς εἰκός, ἐμπεσόντι θορύβῳ καὶ ταράχῳ τήν τε δίκην ὑπεκκλέψαι καὶ τὴν κρίσιν ἐκφυγεῖν διανοούμενον. Φωραθῆναι δὲ τὴν συσκευὴν ὁ τοῦ ψεύδους φίλος ἀναγράφει δι' ἧς μεθόδου φασὶν οἱ εὐσεβεῖς τὸ κατὰ τοῦ μεγάλου Ἀθανασίου μισθωθὲν παρὰ τῶν δυσσεβῶν πορνίδιον διελεγχθῆναι. τὸν μὲν γὰρ Εὐσέβιον διαπυνθάνεσθαι τῆς ἑταιρίδος εἰ γινώσκει αὐτῆς τὸν φθορέα· τῆς δὲ καὶ μάλα διατεινομένης, προσαναπυθέσθαι εἰ ἄρα γε τοῦτον ὁ παρὼν χορὸς ἔχει. τὴν δὲ φάναι· «εὐφήμει, ὦ δέσποτα· οὐ γὰρ ἔγωγ' ἂν μαινοίμην, ἀνδρῶν τοιούτων αἰσχρᾶς ἡδονῆς δουλείαν ὥστε καταγνῶναι». εἶτ' ἐντεῦθεν ἀρξαμένης παραγυμνοῦσθαι τῆς ἀληθείας, τὴν ὅλην συσκευὴν ἀνακαλυφθῆναι. καὶ τὸν μὲν Εὐσέβιον κρείττω συκοφαντίας πάσης ὀφθῆναι· τὸν δὲ Ἀθανάσιον, ἀντὶ τοῦ φυγεῖν τὴν δίκην, διπλῆς ἔνοχον ἀπελεγχθῆναι, προσλαβούσης τῆς οὐκ εὐαγοῦς χειροτονίας τὴν ἐναγεστάτην συκοφαντίαν. διὸ καὶ τὴν καθαιρετικὴν ψῆφον ὁμόφωνον κατ' αὐτοῦ ἐξενεχθῆναι. ἐκεῖνον μέντοι γε προσαναισχυντεῖν, καὶ λέγειν ἀπεχθείᾳ τὴν καθαίρεσιν τοὺς συνεδρεύσαντας διαπράξασθαι ὥσπερ καὶ τὰς συκοφαντίας, διότι μὴ παρ' αὐτῶν ἀνάσχοιτο τὴν ἀρχιερατικὴν χειροθεσίαν ὑποστῆναι. ∆ιὸ καὶ τὸν βασιλέα ἐπιτρέψαι πάλιν ἑτέρᾳ συνόδῳ τὰ κατὰ τὸν Ἀθανάσιον ἐτασθῆναι. τοὺς δὲ καὶ ἕτερα τῶν ἐγκλημάτων ἐπισυναθροῖσαι· Καλλίνικόν τε γὰρ τὸν ὁμολογητήν, ἐπίσκοπον τοῦ Πηλουσίου, πέδαις σιδηραῖς ἐνδυσάμενον εἱρκτῇ καταθέσθαι, καὶ μὴ διαλιπεῖν προπηλακίζοντα ἕως ἂν αὐτὸν τοῦ ζῆν ἀπελάσοι, προσετίθεσαν ταῖς κατηγορίαις. ναὶ δὴ καὶ ἡ Ἀρσενίου χεὶρ τηνικαῦτα προεκομίσθη, καὶ ὁ Μαρεώτης καὶ ὁ Ἰσχύρας καὶ τὸ μυστικὸν ποτήριον, καὶ τὰ παραπλήσια τούτοις, ἐφ' οἷς αὐτὸν καὶ ἐκκηρῦξαι τὸ συνέδριον καὶ ἀντ' αὐτοῦ προχειρίσασθαι τὸν ἐκ Καππαδοκίας Γρηγόριον. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ὁ φιλοψευδὴς Κακοστόργιος περὶ τοῦ ἁγίου τερατεύεται Ἀθανασίου. 2.12 Ὅτι, φησίν, ἡ τοῦ βασιλέως Κωνσταντίνου μήτηρ Ἑλένη ἐπὶ τῷ στόματι τοῦ τῆς Νικομηδείας κόλπου πόλιν ἐδείματο, Ἑλενόπολιν αὐτὴν ἐπονομάσασα· ἀσπάσασθαι δὲ τὸ χωρίον κατ' ἄλλο μὲν οὐδέν, ὅτι δὲ Λουκιανὸς ὁ μάρτυς ἐκεῖσε τύχοι μετὰ τὸν μαρτυρικὸν