9

He boasted as if he were somebody in the city, shading his shoulders with his ever-dear locks, sending his thoughts with his tossed hair, bearing all his culture in his body.

This man, having gone through many wicked ways, as we hear—but what they were, let others care, for I have no leisure to inquire into everything; yet the books of the magistrates, however many, bear witness—at last settles in this city. For he had none of his usual food; but with a sharp eye and a wise sense of smell—for let even that which is bitterly composed be considered wise, and that is to cast us out from our chair, us who have nothing, nor are honored at all, except to guard and prepare the people; but more wisely, for he weaves the whole drama not through strangers, but from among ourselves, as a sophist and composer of evils, for those unused to these things and wholly strange to plotting, but accustomed to honor a different kind of cleverness: to say something wise and to marvel at the speaker, and to select the heart of the divine books.

I wish to say a new word amidst evils: there ought to be the same disposition for all, either inexperienced in evil or resourceful. For some would be less harmed by some with opposing or allied dispositions; but now the better are prey for the wicked. What is this great confusion of creation? How very unequally we have been yoked by God. Who will see the worst of ordinary men deceiving, scheming, contriving, concealing himself with a thousand twists? For the one quick to wickedness watches everything and sees the vital points; but the one ready for virtue is by nature slow and dull to suspect the worse. Thus goodness is easily caught.

How he does this and—consider—how craftily. You will see another Egyptian Proteus. He becomes one of the well-disposed and of the very faithful. Who was such a sharer as Maximus was for me in roof, table, doctrines, counsels? No wonder; for he was great; a dog, forsooth, barking at the evil-minded and a ready praiser of my words. And at the same time, having taken some disease of the pulpit, a remnant of his first disease, and that was unceasing zeal, an inborn evil— for wickedness is not easily bent—, arbitrating these things unequally, favorably to himself, using two accomplices in his bitterness, first and second murderers, he at last with difficulty broke forth the offspring of an asp. The first was Belias, once an angel, the second an elder of this people, a barbarian in mind rather than in body, who, not being overlooked, nor having suffered anything untoward, always holding the first places of honor and of seats— hear, O Christ, and unerring eye of Justice, if indeed it is worthy to call upon Christ here— was at once in labor with a wicked and ill-natured hatred. Woe is me; how shall I bewail? darkness from bright clear sky, and the contrived evil came upon us from afar, a cloud of Egypt.

First spies, whom the noble one once sent out from the chosen land of Israel; yet not Joshua nor Caleb the wise, but any insolence among young and old, Ammon, Apammon, Harpocras, Stippas, Rhodon—Anubis, Hermanubis, gods of Egypt, ape-formed and dog-like demons, wretched little sailors and corrupt, cheap, who for a small coin would most easily have betrayed many gods, if there were more.

Then a little later those who had sent them, worthy generals of the phalanx, or, to say something more fitting for the dogs, the shepherds. For I will say nothing more —although I am seething within with many words like a bound wineskin boiling with new wine or a smith's bellows full of air— out of respect for the one who sent them, even if they were light-minded, and for those men themselves, who perhaps had some share of pardon, having been drawn away from their rusticity, moved wherever the wicked might carry them, whom envy has crafted for us here. Wise ones, tell me the riddle—for this is not clear to me, unless one of the wise should explain it—: how Peter himself, the arbiter of the shepherds, formerly established us with letters so clearly free of duplicity, as the letters to us will themselves persuade, and honored us with symbols of installation, but now a hind has come to us instead of a virgin? These things are not clear, these things need an interpreter. Was anything ever seen more theatrical than these things of the many

9

ἐκόμπαζ' ὥς τι τῇ πόλει δοκῶν, ὤμους σκιάζων βοστρύχοις ἀεὶ φίλοις, πέμπων λογισμοὺς σφενδονωμέναις κόμαις, πᾶσαν φέρων παίδευσιν ἐν τῷ σώματι.

Πολλὰς διελθὼν οὗτος, ὡς ἀκούομεν, ὁδοὺς πονηράς-ἅστινας δ' ἄλλοις μέλοι, οὐ γὰρ τὰ πάντ' ἔμοιγε ἐκζητεῖν σχολή· βίβλοι δ' ὅμως φέρουσιν ἀρχόντων ὅσαι- ταύτῃ τελευτῶν ἐγκαθέζεται πόλει. οὐδὲν γὰρ εἶχε βρῶμα τῶν εἰωθότων· ὀξὺ βλέπων δὲ καὶ σοφῶς ὀσφρώμενος- σοφὸν γὰρ ἔστω καὶ τὸ πικρῶς συντεθέν, τὸ δ' ἐστὶν ἡμᾶς τῆς καθέδρας ἐκβαλεῖν τοὺς οὔτ' ἔχοντας, οὔθ' ὅλως τιμωμένους, πλὴν τοῦ φυλάξαι καὶ καταρτίσαι λεών· σοφώτερον δέ, καὶ γὰρ οὐ διὰ ξένων, αὐτῶν δ' ἀφ' ἡμῶν συμπλέκει τὸ δρᾶμ' ὅλον, ὡς ἂν σοφιστὴς τῶν κακῶν καὶ συνθέτης, τῶν ταῦτ' ἀήθων καὶ πλοκῆς πάντῃ ξένων, ἄλλην δὲ τιμᾶν δεινότητ' εἰθισμένων· εἰπεῖν σοφόν τι καὶ λέγοντα θαυμάσαι βίβλων τε θείων ἐκλέγειν τὴν καρδίαν. Καινόν τιν' εἰπεῖν ἐν κακοῖς λόγον θέλω· ἐχρῆν τὸν αὐτὸν πᾶσιν εἶναι δὴ τρόπον, ἢ τὸν κακῶν ἄπειρον ἢ τὸν ποικίλον. ἧττον γὰρ ἐβλάπτοντ' ἂν ἔκ τινών τινες ἀντιζυγούντων ἢ συνεστώτων τρόπων· νῦν δ' εἰσὶ θήρα τῶν κακῶν οἱ βελτίους. τίς ἡ τοσαύτη σύγχυσις τοῦ πλάσματος; ὡς σφόδρ' ἀνίσως ἐζύγημεν ἐκ θεοῦ. τίς τὸν κάκιστον ὄψεται τῶν μετρίων δολοῦντα, συμπλέκοντα, μηχανώμενον, κλέπτονθ' ἑαυτὸν μυρίαις ἀεὶ στροφαῖς; τὸ μὲν γὰρ εὐκίνητον εἰς μοχθηρίαν τηρεῖ τὰ πάντα καὶ βλέπει τὰ καίρια· τὸ δ' εἰς ἀρετὴν πρόχειρον εἰς ὑποψίαν τῶν χειρόνων ἀργόν τε καὶ νωθὲς φύσει. οὕτως ἁλίσκετ' εὐχερῶς ἡ χρηστότης. Πῶς τοῦτο ποιεῖ καί-σκοπεῖθ'-ὡς ποικίλως. Αἰγύπτιόν τιν' ἄλλον ὄψει Πρωτέα. τῶν εὐνοούντων γίνεται καὶ τῶν σφόδρα πιστῶν. τίς οὕτως ὡς ἔμοιγε Μάξιμος στέγης, τραπέζης, δογμάτων, βουλευμάτων κοινωνός; οὐδὲν θαῦμα· καὶ γὰρ ἦν μέγα· κύων ὑλακτῶν δῆθεν τοὺς κακόφρονας καὶ τῶν ἐμῶν πρόθυμος αἰνετὴς λόγων. ὁμοῦ δὲ ταῦτα, καί τι τῶν ἐν βήματι λαβὼν νόσημα, λεῖμμα τῆς πρώτης νόσου, τὸ δ' ἦν ἄπαυστος ζῆλος, ἔμφυτον κακόν- οὐ ῥᾳδίως γὰρ κάμπτεται πονηρία-, τούτοις βραβεύων ἀνίσως, αὑτῷ φίλως, δύω συνεργοῖς χρώμενος τῆς πικρίας, πρώτῳ τε δευτέρῳ τε ἀνθρωποκτόνοις, μόγις ποτ' ἐξέρρηξεν ἀσπίδος τόκον. ὁ πρῶτος ἦν Βελίας, ἄγγελός ποτε, ὁ δεύτερος δὲ τοῦδε λαοῦ πρεσβύτης τὸν νοῦν τι μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ σῶμα βάρβαρος, ὃς οὐ παροφθείς, οὐδὲν ἐκμελὲς παθών, τὰ πρῶτ' ἔχων τιμῆς τε καὶ θρόνων ἀεί- ἄκουε, Χριστέ, καὶ ∆ίκης ὄμμ' ἀπλανές, εἰ δὴ καλεῖν ἐνταῦθα Χριστὸν ἄξιον- μῖσος πονηρὸν καὶ κακότροπον ἀθρόως ὤδινεν. οἴ μοι· πῶς ἀποκλαύσω; σκότος αἰθρία λαμπρά, καὶ τὸ συντεθὲν κακόν πόρρωθεν ἦλθεν ἡμίν, Αἰγύπτου νέφος. Κατάσκοποι μὲν πρῶτον, οὓς τῆς ἐκκρίτου γῆς Ἰσραήλ ποτ' ἐξέπεμψ' ὁ γεννάδας· πλὴν οὐκ Ἰησοῦς οὐδὲ Χάλεβ οἱ σοφοί, ἀλλ' εἴ τις ὕβρις ἐν νέοις καὶ πρεσβύταις, Ἄμμων, Ἀπάμμων, Ἁρποκρᾶς, Στίππας, ῬόδωνἌνουβις, Ἑρμάνουβις, Αἰγύπτου θεοί, πιθηκόμορφοι καὶ κυνώδεις δαίμονες, δύστηνα ναυταρίδια καὶ παράφθορα, εὔωνα, μικροῦ κέρματος πολλοὺς θεούς ῥᾷστ' ἂν προθέντα, εἴπερ ἦσαν πλείονες. Ἔπειτα μικρὸν ὕστερον οἱ πεπομφότες τούτους, στρατηγοὶ τῆς φάλαγγος ἄξιοι ἤ, τῶν κυνῶν εἰπεῖν τι προσφυέστερον, οἱ ποιμένες. πλέον γὰρ οὐδὲν φθέγξομαι -καίπερ σφαδᾴζων ἔνδοθεν πολλοῖς λόγοις ὥσπερ τις ἀσκὸς δέσμιος γλεύκους ζέων ἢ καὶ φυσητὴρ χαλκέως γέμων πνοῆς- αἰδοῖ τε τοῦ πέμψαντος, εἰ καὶ κουφόνους, αὐτῶν τ' ἐκείνων, οἷς τι συγγνώμης τυχόν μετῆν ὑποσπασθεῖσιν ἐξ ἀγροικίας, ὅποι φέροιεν οἱ κακοί, κινουμένοις, οὓς ἐνθάδ' ἡμὶν ἐδημιούργησε φθόνος. σοφοί, τὸ πρόβλημ' εἴπατ'-οὐκ ἔμοιγε γάρ τοῦτ' εὐσύνοπτον, πλήν τις εἰ φράζοι σοφῶν-· πῶς Πέτρος αὐτός, ὁ βραβεὺς τῶν ποιμένων, πρώην μὲν ἡμᾶς ἐγκαθίστη γράμμασιν οὕτω προδήλως διπλόης ἐλευθέροις, ὡς αὐτὰ πείσει τὰ πρὸς ἡμᾶς γράμματα, καὶ συμβόλοις ἐτίμα τῆς ἱδρύσεως, νῦν δ' ἧκεν ἡμῖν ἔλαφος ἀντὶ παρθένου; ταῦτ' οὐ πρόδηλα, ταῦτα δεῖθ' ἑρμηνέως. Ὤφθη τι τούτων σκηνικώτερόν ποτε πολλῶν