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sharing 12.6 (for because of the abundant supply of necessities which we mentioned, the people of the neighboring lands and cities were changing their habitation to this one, and especially as many as were left on the islands already captured beforehand by the raid of the ill-omened Hagarenes, fled to this one, intending, as they supposed, to have no care for enemies in it for the future), 12.7 or again whether because of the relaxedness of our luxury and carelessness and the variety of need and suitability for every pleasure, we suffered a kind of forgetfulness of God, wandering a long and pathless wandering, and as the apostle says, each of us went according to his own desires, proceeding fearlessly in every sin and taking no care for the path that leads to virtue. 13.1 For what kind of evil, if the truth must be told, was not practiced among us? Fornications, adulteries, impurities, hatreds, lies, thefts, strifes, rivalries, railings, angers, greeds, injustices; and envy, the leader of evils, was a common and public practice every day. 13.2 For it was not a matter of concern for any of us to do good to his neighbor, but rather who might insanely contrive to bring upon him some undesired thing; 13.3 nor was there anyone who wished to share from his own possessions with one in need, fulfilling compassion, but rather one who strove against his countryman to increase his own from what was another's, dissembling against one another, striking one another, slandering one another, devising every possible evil among themselves, oppressing orphans, encroaching on the boundaries of widows, forming enmities, weaving deceits. 13.4 And what was the end of all these things? I hesitate indeed to apply my tongue to the magnitude of the events, and I would not have endured to be reminded again of those painful things which we have already suffered. 13.5 But since it is not possible to avoid the memory of such narratives, through which we have been left as a new and terrible report to the world, I come to speak of the magnitude of the danger, so that you yourself may know what are the wages of sin. 13.6 For while we were living luxuriously, while we were living wantonly and passing our lives in all unseemly practices, when, according to what is sung in the psalm, all had turned aside, together they had become worthless, and there was none who sought after God, then we experienced that terrible threat, or rather destruction, to speak more properly, or a just retribution. 14.1 And consider here too the loving-kindness of God, who desires not the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live. 14.2 For knowing the unrestrained and wicked character of our mind and that our thought is intently set on evil things, what does he devise to check the impulse of wickedness and to provide us with causes for repentance? 14.3 First, he caused the neighboring city already mentioned, I mean Beroea, to be shaken down upon its inhabitants so as to destroy many of those captured there, what was he arranging by this? 14.4 So that we all, having received the perception of the things threatened to others, might at least late make a cessation of our own evils and direct our actions toward virtue. 14.5 Then, since when this had happened we did not yield from the old habit that held sway in us, he moves to another kind of contrivance, having shown beforehand in others the calamity that was to befall us too who were acting without repentance. 14.6 For Demetrias, another city of Greece so called, situated not far from us, surpassing the nearest cities in its great number of inhabitants and in the other things in which cities take great pride, not long before our own capture became the work of the barbarians. 14.7 For having been besieged so that almost all those under its rule fell by the sword, it allowed us to think nothing else than that, persisting in our evils, we should expect a similar trial of events and, as if on a living pillar, read in it the sufferings owed to us. 15.1 But let no one think that I, in saying these things, am declaring that it was on our account that these cities received the experience of terrible things. For the danger was owed to them, I think, also on account of their own wickedness, as

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μεταδιδόντων 12.6 (καὶ γὰρ δι' ἣν εἴπομεν ἄφθονον τῶν χρειῶν χορηγίαν οἱ τῶν πλησίον χωρῶν καὶ πόλεων ἄνθρωποι ἐν ταύτῃ τὴν οἴκησιν μετηλλάττοντο, καὶ μάλισθ' ὅσοι ταῖς ἤδη προαλωθείσαις νήσοις ἐκ τῆς τῶν δυσωνύμων Ἀγαρηνῶν ἐπιδρομῆς ὑπελείφθησαν, ἐπὶ τήνδε προσέφευγον, μηδεμίαν, ὡς ὑπελάμβανον, ἐν αὐτῇ πολεμίων φροντίδα τοῦ λοιποῦ ποιησόμενοι), 12.7 εἴτε δὲ πάλιν διὰ τὸ ἀνειμένον τῆς τρυφῆς καὶ ἀφρόντιστον καὶ πρὸς πᾶσαν ἡδονὴν ποικίλον τῆς χρείας καὶ ἐπιτήδειον ὥσπερ τινὰ λήθην πεπόνθαμεν τοῦ θεοῦ, μακράν τινα καὶ ἀδιεξόδευτον πλανώμενοι πλάνην, καὶ καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, ἕκαστος ταῖς ἰδίαις ἐπιθυμίαις ἐπορευόμεθα, ἀδεῶς κατὰ πάσης ἁμαρτίας χωροῦντες καὶ τῆς πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἀγούσης μηδεμίαν ποιούμενοι ἐπιμέλειαν. 13.1 Ποῖον γὰρ εἶδος κακίας, εἰ δεῖ τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ἐν ἡμῖν οὐκ ἐπράττετο; πορνεῖαι, μοιχεῖαι, ἀκαθαρσίαι, μίση, ψεύδη, κλοπαί, ἔριδες, φιλονεικίαι, λοιδορίαι, θυμοί, πλεονεξίαι, ἀδικίαι· καὶ ὁ ἀρχηγὸς τῶν κακῶν φθόνος κοινὸν ἐμμελέτημα καθ' ἑκάστην καὶ ἀγοραῖον ἦν. 13.2 οὐ γὰρ ὅστις ἡμῶν τῷ πλησίον πράξει καλῶς διὰ σπουδῆς εἶχεν, ἀλλ' ὅστις αὐτῷ τῶν ἀβουλήτων ἐπενεγκεῖν τι φρενοβλαβῶς ἐτεκταίνετο· 13.3 οὐδ' ὅστις ἐκ τοῦ οἰκείου μεταδοῦναι τῷ χρῄζοντι τὸ συμπαθὲς πληρῶν ἐβεβούλητο, ἀλλ' ὅστις ἐκ τοῦ ἀλλοτρίου τὸ οἰκεῖον πλεονάσαι πρὸς τὸν ὁμόφυλον διεμάχετο, κατ' ἀλλήλων εἰρωνευόμενοι, ἀλλήλους πλήττοντες, ἀλλήλους ἐνδιαβάλλοντες, πᾶν ὁτιοῦν κακὸν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἐξευρίσκοντες, ὀρφανοὺς ἄγχοντες, ὁρίοις χηρῶν ἐπεμβαίνοντες, ἔχθρας συνάπτοντες, δόλους συρράπτοντες. 13.4 καὶ τί δὴ τὸ τέλος τούτων ἁπάντων; ὀκνῶ μὲν τὴν γλῶτταν τῷ μεγέθει τῶν πραγμάτων ἐπαφιέναι, καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἠνεσχόμην τῶν ἀλγεινῶν ἐκείνων ὧν ἤδη πεπόνθαμεν καὶ πάλιν ἐπιμνησθῆναι. 13.5 ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τῶν τοιούτων διηγημάτων οὐκ ἔστιν ὅπως ὑπεκκλῖναι τὴν μνήμην, δι' ὧν τῷ βίῳ καινόν τι καὶ φοβερὸν ὑπελείφθημεν ἄκουσμα, λέξων ἔρχομαι τοῦ κινδύνου τὸ μέγεθος, ἵν' εἰδῇς καὶ αὐτὸς ὁποῖα τῆς ἁμαρτίας εἰσὶ τὰ ὀψώνια. 13.6 ἐν ὅσῳ γὰρ ἐτρυφῶμεν, ἐν ὅσῳ ἐσπαταλῶμεν καὶ πᾶσιν ἀτόποις διεζῶμεν ἐπιτηδεύμασιν, ὅτε κατὰ τὸ ψαλμικῶς ᾀσθὲν πάντες ἐξέκλιναν, ἅμα ἠχρειώθησαν, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἐκζητῶν τὸν θεόν, τότε τῆς φοβερᾶς ἐκείνης ἐπειράθημεν ἀπειλῆς, μᾶλλον δὲ καταστροφῆς, ἵν' οἰκειότερον εἴπω, ἢ δικαίας ἀνταποδόσεως. 14.1 Καὶ σκόπει κἀνταῦθα τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ φιλάνθρωπον, τοῦ μὴ βουλομένου τὸν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ ὡς τὸ ἐπιστρέψαι καὶ ζῆν αὐτόν. 14.2 εἰδὼς γὰρ τὸ ἀκάθεκτον καὶ μοχθηρὸν τῆς γνώμης ἡμῶν καὶ ὅτι ἐπιμελῶς ἔγκειται ἡ διάνοια ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τὰ πονηρά, τί μηχανᾶται πρὸς τὸ τὴν ὁρμὴν ἐπισχεῖν τῆς κακίας καὶ ἐπιστροφῆς ἡμῖν ἐμβαλεῖν αἰτίας; 14.3 πρῶτον μὲν τὴν ἤδη λεχθεῖσαν γείτονα πόλιν, τὴν Βέρροιαν λέγω, ἐπικατασεισθῆναι πεποίηκε τοῖς περιοίκοις ὡς πολλοὺς τῶν ἐκεῖσε συλληφθέντων ἐξαναλῶσαι, τί διοικούμενος ἐκ τούτου; 14.4 ἵν' ἡμεῖς πάντας τῶν ἑτέροις ἀπειλουμένων τὴν αἴσθησιν λαβόντες, τῶν ἰδίων κακῶν ἀποχὴν κἂν ὀψὲ γοῦν ποιησώμεθα καὶ πρὸς ἀρετὴν τὰς πράξεις ἰθύνωμεν. 14.5 εἶτα ἐπειδὴ τούτου γενομένου οὐκ ἐνεδώκαμεν τῆς κρατούσης ἐν ἡμῖν παλαιᾶς συνηθείας, ἐφ' ἕτερον εἶδος μηχανῆς μεταβαίνει, τὴν καὶ ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς ἔσεσθαι μέλλουσαν ἀμεταμέλητα πράττουσι συμφορὰν ἐν ἄλλοις προϋποδείξας. 14.6 ∆ημητριὰς γὰρ οὕτω καλουμένη τῆς Ἑλλάδος ἑτέρα πόλις, οὐ μακρὰν ἡμῶν ἀπῳκισμένη, πολλῷ πλήθει τῶν οἰκητόρων καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις οἷς μέγα καυχῶνται πόλεις τῶν ἔγγιστα ὑπεραιρομένη, οὐ πρὸ πολλοῦ τῆς ἡμῶν ἁλώσεως ἔργον ἐγένετο τῶν βαρβάρων. 14.7 πολιορκηθεῖσα γὰρ ὡς μικροῦ δεῖν πάντας τῶν ὑπ' αὐτὴν ἐν μαχαίρᾳ πεσεῖν, οὐδὲν ἕτερον παρεῖχε νοεῖν ἢ τοῖς κακοῖς ἡμᾶς ἐπιμένοντας τὴν ὁμοίαν πεῖραν τῶν πραγμάτων ἐκδέχεσθαι καὶ καθάπερ εἰς ἔμψυχον στήλην ἐν αὐτῇ τὰ κεχρεωστημένα ἡμῖν ἀναγινώσκειν παθήματα. 15.1 Ἀλλὰ μηδεὶς ἀποφαινόμενόν με οἰέσθω ταῦτα λέγοντα ὅτι δι' ἡμᾶς αἱ πόλεις αὗται τῶν φοβερῶν τὴν πεῖραν ἐδέξαντο. ὠφείλετο γὰρ αὐταῖς, ὡς οἶμαι, καὶ δι' οἰκείαν μοχθηρίαν ὁ κίνδυνος, ὡς