it began immediately, as the common reason of all men was just then being fulfilled, but it visited then for the first time. Which indeed is no small thing, and though not long ago, at least now as I reflect, I consider this coincidence so numbered by the years a symbol of the sacred and wonderful providence concerning me; so that all things preceding this age, whatever were works of error, might be given over to infancy and irrationality, and the sacred word might not be delivered in vain to a soul not yet rational, but to one that had now become rational, and if not of divine and pure reason, at least might not be devoid of fear according to this reason, but rather that both human and divine reason might begin in me together, the one helping with a power unspeakable to me but proper to itself, the other being helped. Reflecting on this fills me with both gladness and fear, being exalted by the advancement, but fearing lest, having been deemed worthy of such things, I should likewise fail of the end. But I know not how my discourse has lingered on this part, wishing to narrate in order the wonderful dispensation towards this man, yet hastening beforehand and speaking briefly on what follows, not as rendering praise due to him who so dispensed, or thanksgiving and piety (let us not be burdensome by so naming things, while saying nothing worthy); but as making a narrative and confession, or some of these more modest names. It seemed good to my mother, the only one of my parents left to care for us, that we, being educated in other things, as children supposedly not ignobly born and raised, should also attend a rhetorician, as we were to be rhetoricians. And so we attended, and those who judged so at that time said that we would soon be rhetoricians; I myself neither know how to say this, nor would I wish to; but there was no account of these things, nor yet any foundation of the causes able to bring us here. But the divine tutor and true guardian, being vigilant, when neither my family intended it nor I myself was eager, came and met with one of my teachers, who was otherwise entrusted with teaching me the Roman tongue (not that I would become an expert, but so that I might not be entirely unacquainted with this tongue; and he happened not to be unacquainted with the laws); putting this into his mind, He urged me through him to learn the Roman laws. And that man did this insistently; and I, for my part, obeyed, more to please the man than being a lover of the art. And he, taking me as a pupil, began to teach ambitiously; and he uttered something which has turned out for me to be the truest of all things: that the learning of the laws would be for me a very great resource (for that is the name he called it), whether I wished to be a rhetorician pleading in the courts, or anyone else. He spoke thus, directing his words to human affairs; but to me it seems that he was simply inspired by some diviner influence than his own thought. For when I was being taught these laws, willing and unwilling, bonds had in a way already been cast, and the cause and occasion of the journey to this place was the city of the Berytians; a city not far distant from the cities here, somewhat more Roman, and entrusted to be a school of these laws. But this sacred man from Egypt, from the city of the Alexandrians, where he happened to have his home before, other matters moved him and made him migrate to this place, as if to meet us. I for my part do not know how to explain these things, and I will willingly pass them over. Nevertheless, there was not yet anything so necessary for my arrival here and my encounter with the man, as far as our laws were concerned, since it was possible to go abroad to the city of the Romans. How then was this also brought about? The then-governor of the Palestinians, suddenly taking my brother-in-law, my sister's husband, alone, unwilling and separated from his wife, brought him here, to assist and share in the labors of the governor of the province; for he was a lawyer, and perhaps still is; who, having come with him, was soon to receive his wife, summoned to join him, who was grievously

ἤρξατο εὐθύς, οἷα δὴ ἄρτι πληρουμένου τοῦ κοινοῦ πάντων ἀνθρώπων λόγου, ἐπεδήμει δ' ὅμως τότε πρῶτον. Ὃ δὴ καὶ οὐ μικρόν, εἰ καὶ μὴ πάλαι, νῦν γοῦν ἀναλογιζόμενος ἐγὼ σύμβολον τίθεμαι τῆς ἱερᾶς καὶ θαυμαστῆς περὶ ἐμὲ προνοίας, τὴν συνδρομὴν ταύτην οὕτως τοῖς ἔτεσι διηριθμημένην· ἵνα τὰ μὲν φθάνοντα πάντα τήνδε τὴν ἡλικίαν, ὅσα πλάνης ἦν ἔργα, νηπιότητι καὶ ἀλογίᾳ παραδεδομένα ᾖ, μὴ μάτην δὲ ὁ ἱερὸς παραδοθῇ λόγος ψυχῇ οὐδέπω λογικῇ, λογικῇ δὲ ἤδη γενομένῃ, εἰ καὶ μὴ λόγου θείου καὶ καθαροῦ, φόβου γοῦν τοῦ κατὰ τὸν λόγον τόνδε μὴ ἔρημος ᾖ, ἀλλ' ὁμοῦ ὅ τε ἀνθρώπινος καὶ ὁ θεῖος ἄρξηται ἐν ἐμοὶ λόγος, ὁ μὲν βοηθῶν τῇ ἀλέκτῳ μὲν ἐμοὶ οἰκείᾳ δὲ αὐτῷ δυνάμει, ὁ δὲ βοηθούμενος. Ὃ δὴ λογιζόμενον εὐφροσύνης ὁμοῦ καὶ δέους ἀναπίπλη σί με, μεγαλυνόμενον μὲν τῇ προαγωγῇ, φοβούμενον δέ, μή πη καὶ τοιούτων ἀξιωθεὶς τοῦ τέλους ὁμοίως σφαλῶ. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως ἐνεβράδυνέ μοι τῷδε τῷ μέρει ὁ λόγος, τὴν θαυμαστὴν οἰκονομίαν πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα τόνδε ὁδῷ διηγήσασθαι θέλων, σπεύδων δὲ ὅμως πρότερον καὶ βραχυλογούμενος ἐπὶ τάδε τὰ ἑξῆς, οὐχ ὡς εὐφημίαν ὀφειλομένην τῷ οὕτως οἰκονομήσαντι ἀποδιδοὺς ἢ εὐχαριστίαν καὶ εὐσέβειαν (μὴ φορτικοὶ ὦμεν οὕτως ὀνομάζοντες μέν, ἄξιον δὲ λέγοντες οὐδέν)· ἀλλ' ὡς διήγησιν καὶ ὁμολογίαν ἤ τι τῶν ἐπιεικεστέρων τούτων ὀνομάτων ποιούμενος. Ἐδόκει τῇ μόνῃ ἐκ τῶν γονέων κήδεσθαι ἡμῶν παραλειπομένῃ μητρί τ' ἄλλα ἐκπαιδευομένους, οἷα παῖδας οὐκ ἀγενῶς δῆθεν καὶ φύντας καὶ τρεφομένους, φοιτᾶν καὶ ῥήτορι, ὡς δὴ ῥήτορας ἐσομένους. Καὶ δῆτα ἐφοιτῶμεν, καὶ ῥήτορας μὲν οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν ἔσεσθαι ἡμᾶς ἔλεγον οἱ τότε κρίνοντες οὕτως· οὐκ ἔγωγε τοῦτο λέγειν οὔτε οἶδα, οὔτ' ἂν θελήσαιμι· λόγος δὲ οὐδεὶς ἦν τούτων, οὐδέ τις καταβολὴ οὐδέπω τῶν τῇδε φέρειν ἡμᾶς δυναμένων αἰτιῶν. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἄγρυπνος ὢν ὁ θεῖος παιδαγωγὸς καὶ ἀληθὴς κηδεμών, οὔτε τῶν οἰκείων διανοουμένων οὔτε καὶ ἐμοῦ αὐτοῦ προθυμουμένου, ἐπῆν συμβαλών τινι τῶν ἐμῶν διδασκάλων, ἄλλως τὴν Ῥωμαίων φωνὴν ἐκπαιδεύειν με πεπιστευμένῳ (οὐχ ὡς ἐπ' ἄκρον ἥξοντα, ὡς δὲ μὴ ἄπειρος εἴην πάντη καὶ τῆσδε τῆς φωνῆς· ἔτυχε δὲ νόμων οὐκ ἄπειρος ὤν)· τοῦτο ἐπὶ νοῦν βαλών, προὐτρέψατό με δι' αὐτοῦ τοὺς Ῥωμαίων ἐκμανθάνειν νόμους. Καὶ λιπαρῶς γε τοῦτ' ἐποίει ὁ ἀνὴρ ἐκεῖνος· κἀγὼ μέντοι ἐπειθόμην, τἀνδρὶ μᾶλλον χαριζόμενος ἤπερ τῆς τέχνης ἐραστὴς ὤν. Ὁ δέ με λαβὼν ἀκροατήν, φιλοτίμως μὲν διδάσκειν ἤρχετο· ἐπεφθέγξατο δέ τι, ὅ μοι ἀληθέστατα πάντων ἀποβέβηκε· μέγιστον ἔσεσθαί μοι ἐφόδιον (τοῦτο γὰρ τοὔνομα ἐκεῖνος ὠνόμασεν), εἴτε τις ῥήτωρ τῶν ἐν τοῖς δικαστηρίοις ἀγωνιουμένων, εἴτε καὶ ἄλλος τις εἶναι θελήσαιμι, τὴν μάθησιν τῶν νόμων. Ὁ μὲν οὕτως ἀπεφθέγξατο, τείνων εἰς τὰ ἀνθρώπινα τὸν λόγον· ἐμοὶ δ' ἀτεχνῶς ὑπό τινι θειοτέρᾳ ἐπιπνοίᾳ ἀποφοιβάσαι δοκεῖ τῆς αὐτοῦ ὑπολήψεως. Ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἐξεπαιδευόμην ἑκὼν καὶ ἄκων τοὺς νόμους τούσδε, δεσμοὶ μέν πως ἤδη κατεβέβληντο, καὶ αἰτία καὶ ἀφορμὴ τῆς ἐπὶ τάδε ὁδοῦ ἡ τῶν Βηρυτίων πόλις· ἡ δὲ οὐ μακρὰν ἀπέχουσα τῶν ἐνταῦθα πόλις Ῥωμαϊκωτέρα πως, καὶ τῶν νόμων τούτων εἶναι πιστευθεῖσα παιδευτήριον. Τὸν δ' ἱερὸν τοῦτον ἄνδρα ἐκ τῆς Αἰγύπτου ἐκ τῆς Ἀλεξανδρέων πόλεως, ἔνθα τὴν ἑστίαν ἔχων ἔτυχε πρότερον, καὶ αὐτὸν ἐκίνει καὶ μετανίστη ἐπὶ τόδε τὸ χωρίον, ὥσπερ ἀπαντήσοντα ἡμῖν, ἕτερα πράγματα. Οὐκ ἔγωγε καὶ ταῦτα αἰτιολογεῖσθαι οὔτε οἶδα καὶ ἑκὼν παρήσω. Οὐ μὴν ἀλλ' οὔπω γε τῆς ἐνθάδε μοι ἀφίξεως καὶ τῆς πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα συμπλοκῆς οὐδὲν οὕτως ἀναγκαῖον ἦν, ὅσον ἐπὶ τοῖς νόμοις ἡμῶν, δυνατὸν ὂν καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἀποδημῆσαι πόλιν. Πῶς οὖν καὶ τοῦτο ἐξεπορίσθη; Κηδεστήν μου ἄνδρα ἀδελφῆς ἐμῆς ὁ τότε ἄρχων τῶν Παλαιστίνων, τοῦτον παραλαβὼν ἐξαίφνης ἄκοντα μόνον, κεχωρισμένον τῆς ὁμοκοίτου, ἤγαγεν ἐνταῦθα, συνεπιβοηθήσοντα καὶ κοινωνήσοντα τῶν τοῦ ἔθνους ἄρχοντος πόνων· νομικὸς γάρ τις ἦν, καὶ ἔστιν ἴσως ἔτι· ὃς δὴ ἐλθὼν ἅμα αὐτῷ ἔμελλε μὲν οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν μετάπεμπτον ἀπολήψεσθαι τὴν γυναῖκα, ἐπαχθῶς αὐτῆς