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ointments and incenses, and countless external delights, prepare a greater distraction for those who are perishing. Then as the drinking progresses further, there are contests for the most, rivalries and competitions, as they ambitiously strive to surpass one another in drunkenness; and the one presiding over their contest is the devil, and the prize of victory is sin. For he who pours out the most unmixed wine, this one carries off the prizes of victory over the others. Truly, *Their glory is in their shame*. For they contend with one another, but they injure themselves. What word can reach the shamefulness of what happens? Everything is full of irrationality, everything of confusion; the defeated are drunk, the victors are drunk, the servants laugh scornfully. The hand has given up, the mouth does not receive, the stomach is bursting, and the evil does not let up. The wretched body, paralyzed from its natural vigor, is flowing from every direction, not enduring the violence from the lack of measure. A pitiful sight for the eyes of Christians: a man in the prime of his life, vigorous in body, distinguished in the military rolls, being carried home on a litter, unable to stand upright or to walk away on his own feet. A man who ought to be fearsome to his enemies is an occasion of laughter for the children in the marketplace; without a sword he has been struck down, without enemies he has been slain. An armed man, in the very flower of his age, has become the consumption of wine, ready to suffer whatever his enemies wish. Drunkenness: destruction of reason, corruption of strength, premature old age, a short-lived death. For what else are the drunkards than the idols of the gentiles? They have eyes, and see not; they have ears, and hear not; their hands are paralyzed, their feet are deadened.

Who has plotted these things? Who is the cause of these evils? Who has mixed for us the potion of madness? O man, you have made the banquet a battle 31.460 line. You cast out the young men being led by the hand, like wounded men from a war; you have deadened the prime of youth with wine; and you invite one as a friend to the dinner, but you cast him out as a corpse, having extinguished his life with wine. But when they are thought to be sated with wine, then they begin to drink, and they drink in the manner of beasts, as from a makeshift fountain, which sends forth spouts equal in number to those reclining. For as the drinking is already progressing, a certain youth comes in to them, noble in his shoulders, not yet drunk, carrying a large bowl of chilled wine; who, having pushed aside their wine-pourer, standing in the middle, through crooked pipes distributes the drunkenness equally to the fellow-drinkers. This is a new measure of immoderation, so that they might act licentiously with one another in equal share, with no one surpassing another in drinking. For having divided the water-channels, and each having received the one turned toward himself, just as from some reservoir they drink without taking a breath like oxen, hastening to draw down with their throats as much as the cooler sends down to them from above through the silver conduits. Bend down to your wretched stomach; learn the size of the receiving vessel; that it has the capacity of a single *kotyle*. Do not look to the wine-jar, when you will empty it, but to your own belly, that it has long been filled. Because of this, *Woe to those who rise early in the morning and pursue strong drink, who stay up late, and spend the day in drunkenness; so as to give themselves no time to look upon the works of the Lord, and to consider the works of his hands*. For wine will burn them up; because the heat from the wine, generated in the flesh, becomes kindling for the fiery darts of the enemy. For wine submerges reason and the mind; but it stirs up the passions and pleasures like a swarm of bees. For what chariot of colts is carried along so disorderly, having thrown off its charioteer? And what ship without a helmsman, carried by the waves, as chance may have it, is not safer than the drunkard? From such evils, men and women alike,

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μύρα καὶ θυμιάματα, καὶ μυρίαι τινὲς ἔξωθεν θυμηδίαι, πλείονα τὴν ἀσχολίαν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις παρασκευάζουσιν. Εἶτα πόῤῥω προϊόντος τοῦ πότου, ἅμιλλαι περὶ τοῦ πλείονος, φι λονεικίαι καὶ ἀγωνίσματα, ἀλλήλους ὑπερβάλλεσθαι φιλοτιμουμένων κατὰ τὴν μέθην· καὶ ὁ ἀγωνοθετῶν αὐτοῖς ὁ διάβολος, καὶ ἆθλον τῆς νίκης ἡ ἁμαρτία. Ὁ γὰρ πλείονα τὸν ἄκρατον ἐκχεόμενος, οὗτος φέρεται κατὰ τῶν ἄλλων τὰ νικητήρια. Ὄντως Ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ αἰσχύνῃ αὐτῶν. Φιλονεικοῦσι μὲν γὰρ ἀλλήλοις, ἀμύνονται δὲ ἑαυτούς. Ποῖος λόγος ἐφικέ σθαι τῆς αἰσχρότητος τῶν γινομένων δύναται; Πάντα ἀλογίας γέμει, πάντα συγχύσεως οἱ ἡττηθέντες μεθύουσιν, οἱ νικῶντες μεθύουσιν, οἱ ὑπηρέται καταγελῶσιν. Ἡ χεὶρ ἀπείρηκε, τὸ στόμα οὐχ ὑποδέχεται, ἡ γαστὴρ διαῤῥήγνυται, καὶ τὸ κακὸν οὐχ ὑφίησι. Τὸ ἄθλιον σῶμα, τοῦ φυσικοῦ τόνου παραλυθὲν, ἀπόῤῥυτόν ἐστι πανταχόθεν, τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἀμε τρίας βίαν μὴ ὑπομένον. Ἐλεεινὸν θέαμα Χριστιανῶν ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀνὴρ ἀκμάζων καθ' ἡλικίαν, σφριγῶν τῷ σώματι, στρα τιωτικοῖς καταλόγοις ἐμπρέπων, φοράδην οἵκαδε κο μιζόμενος, μὴ δυνάμενος ὀρθοῦσθαι, μηδὲ τοῖς ἰδίοις ποσὶν ἀπιέναι. Ἀνὴρ φοβερὸς εἶναι ὀφείλων τοῖς πολεμίοις, γέλωτός ἐστιν ἀφορμὴ τοῖς κατ' ἀγορὰν παιδίοις· ἄνευ σιδήρου καταβέβληται, ἄνευ πολεμίων πεφόνευται. Ἀνὴρ ὁπλίτης, αὐτὸ τῆς ἡλικίας ἄγων τὸ ἄνθος, οἴνου γέγονε παρανάλωμα, ἕτοιμος παθεῖν τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ὅσα βούλονται. Μέθη, λογισμῶν ὄλεθρος, ἰσχύος διαφθορὰ, γῆρας ἄωρον, ὀλιγοχρόνιος θάνατος. Τί γὰρ ἄλλο εἰσὶν οἱ μεθύοντες ἢ τὰ εἴδωλα τῶν ἐθνῶν; Ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχουσι, καὶ οὐ βλέπουσιν· ὦτα ἔχουσι, καὶ οὐκ ἀκούουσι· χεῖρες παραλέλυνται, οἱ πόδες ἀπενεκρώθησαν.

Τίς ὁ ταῦτα ἐπιβουλεύσας; τίς ὁ τῶν κακῶν τούτων αἴτιος; τίς ὁ τὸ τῆς μανίας ἡμῖν φάρμακον ἐγκεράσας; Ἄνθρωπε, παρά 31.460 ταξιν ἐποίησας τὸ συμπόσιον. Ἐκβάλλεις τοὺς νεανίσκους χειραγωγουμένους, ὡς τραυματίας ἀπὸ πολέμου· ἐνέκρωσας τὴν ἀκμὴν τῆς νεότητος ἀπὸ οἴνου· καὶ καλεῖς μὲν ὡς φίλον ἐπὶ τὸ δεῖπνον, ἐκβάλλεις δὲ νεκρὸν, οἴνῳ τὴν ζωὴν αὐτοῦ κατασβέσας. Ὅταν δὲ νομισθῶσι διακορεῖς εἶναι τοῦ οἴνου, τότε τοῦ πίνειν ἄρχονται, καὶ πίνουσι τὸν τῶν κτηνῶν τρόπον, ὡς ἀπὸ κρήνης αὐτοσχεδίου, ἰσαρίθμους τοῖς ἀνακειμένοις τοὺς κρουνοὺς ἀφιείσης. Προϊόντος γὰρ ἤδη τοῦ πότου, ἐπεισέρχεταί τις αὐτοῖς νεανίας, γενναῖος τοὺς ὤμους, οὔπω μεθύων, φιάλην φέρων εὐμεγέθη οἴνου κατεψυγμένου· ὃς, τὸν οἰνοχόον αὐτῶν παρωσάμενος, καταστὰς εἰς τὸ μέσον, διὰ σκολιῶν σωλήνων ἴσην τοῖς συμπόταις διανέμει τὴν μέ-θην. Καινὸν τοῦτο τῆς ἀμετρίας τὸ μέτρον, ἵνα κατ' ἰσομοιρίαν ἀλλήλοις συνασελγαίνωσι, μηδένα ὑπερβάλλειν ἐν τῷ πίνειν τὸν ἕτερον. ∆ιελόμενοι γὰρ τὰς ὑδροῤῥόας, καὶ τὴν πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἕκαστος τετραμμένην ὑποδεξάμενοι, ὥσπερ ἀπό τινος δεξαμενῆς ἀπνευστὶ πίνουσιν ὡς οἱ βόες, τοσοῦτον ὑφέλκειν ἐπειγόμενοι τοῖς λαιμοῖς, ὅσον αὐτοῖς ἄνωθεν ὁ ψυκτὴρ διὰ τῶν ἀργυρέων ὀχετῶν ἐπαφίησι. Κατά-κυψόν σου πρὸς τὴν ἀθλίαν γαστέρα· κατάμαθε τοῦ ὑποδεχομένου ἀγγείου τὸ μέγεθος· ὅτι μιᾶς κοτύλης ἔχει κοιλότητα. Μὴ πρὸς τὴν οἰνοχόην ἀφόρα, πότε κενώσῃς, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν σεαυτοῦ κοιλίαν, ὅτι πάλαι πεπλήρωται. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο, Οὐαὶ οἱ ἐγειρόμενοι τὸ πρωῒ καὶ τὸ σίκερα διώκοντες, οἱ μένοντες τὸ ὀψὲ, καὶ διημερεύοντες ἐν τῇ μέθῃ· ὡς μηδένα καιρὸν ἑαυτοῖς παρέχειν εἰς τὸ τὰ ἔργα Κυρίου ἐμβλέπειν. καὶ τὰ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοῦ κατανοεῖν. Ὁ γὰρ οἶνος αὐτοὺς συγκαύσει· διότι τὸ ἐκ τοῦ οἴνου θερμὸν, ἐγγινόμενον τῇ σαρκὶ, ἔξαμμα γίνεται τῶν πεπυρωμένων βελῶν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ. Τὸν μὲν γὰρ λογισμὸν καὶ τὸν νοῦν ὁ οἶνος καταβαπτίζει· τὰ δὲ πάθη καὶ τὰς ἡδονὰς ὥσπερ τι σμῆνος μελισσῶν ἐπεγείρει. Ποῖον γὰρ ἅρμα πώλων οὕτως ἀτάκτως φέρεται, ἀποβαλὸν τὸν ἡνίοχον; Ποῖον δὲ πλοῖον ἀκυβέρνητον, ὑπὸ τῶν κυμάτων, ὡς ἂν τύχῃ, φερόμενον, οὐκ ἀσφαλέστερόν ἐστι τοῦ μεθύοντος; Ἀπὸ τοιούτων κακῶν, ἄνδρες ὁμοῦ καὶ γυναῖκες,