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strengthened for Pythagoras and Plato from the time they began until the Macedonian times and Xerxes the king of the Persians, after the 1.183 first capture of Jerusalem and the captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, and Darius, and the time of Alexander the Macedonian. For Plato was known at that time, and before him Pythagoras, and Epicurus who came after. Whence indeed, as I said before, it took its pretext and the writings among the Greeks came into existence, and after this time the notorious sects of the philosophers, agreeing with one another in their error and weaving together a corresponding knowledge of idolatry and impiety and atheism, but in the same error being twisted back upon themselves, they differ from one another. Against the Stoics, from the heresy of Hellenism 3, and in the sequence 5. And the Stoics indeed think this concerning divinity: they say that god is the mind or of the whole visible vessel, I mean of heaven and earth and the other things, as a soul in a body. And the same ones divide the one divinity into many partial substances, into sun and moon and stars, into soul and air and the other things; and transfusions of souls * and reincarnations from body to body, with souls being purified from bodies and then again entering and being born in reverse, weaving this impiety through their great error. And they consider the soul a part of god and immortal. And they had Zeno as the founder of the Stoa, concerning whom there is much talk. For some said he was of a certain Cleanthes * hailing from Tyre, but others say he was a Cypriot islander from Citium, and had lived for a time in Rome, but later in Athens, having established 1.184 this very doctrine in the so-called Stoa, and some say that there were two Zenos, both the Eleatic and the aforementioned; nevertheless both perhaps held the same doctrines, even if there were two. Therefore this one also says that matter is coeternal with God, equally with the other heresies, and that fate and generation exist, from which all things are ordered and suffer. How much power, then, does this our brief account have, to go through an antidote * against his wickedness, and will I not rather drive the security of the treatise into a great bulk; but superficially, so that I may not be in passing, I will speak against this one. 2. From where have you received, o you, the exposition of your teaching? Or what holy spirit from heaven has spoken to you concerning your error? For you forcibly say that two things are coeternal, matter and God; for your argument will fall and will be inconsistent. For you confess that there is a certain creator, whom you also call all-powerful, but you divide him into polytheism. Of what would he be creator, if matter were coeternal? For it will be, in and of itself, its own master, not having received its beginning from any cause and not being subject. But if the creator takes from this, having found this emanation, it would be a kind of weakness and a contribution out of poverty for the one who provides not from his own things but from foreign underlying things, so that he might establish his own creation. And concerning the transfusion of souls, great is the wickedness of your forged thinking, you who wish to be a philosopher and promise knowledge to men. For if it is a part of God and immortal, but you join it, which according to you possesses its substance from God, to wretched bodies I would not only say, but * of beasts and reptiles and ignoble creatures in its formation, what could be more wicked than this? 3. But you introduce fate, as if from it happen the things that befall man and others. But from one saying, by a summary of the argument, your myth-making will be overthrown. For if it is of fate to be wise, to be intelligent, to be born rational and irrational, and 1.185 all the other things, let the laws cease; it prevails

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Πυθαγόρᾳ καὶ Πλάτωνι ἐξ οὗπερ ἤρξαντο χρόνου κρατυνθείσας ἕως τῶν Μακεδονικῶν χρόνων καὶ Ξέρξου τοῦ βασιλέως τῶν Περσῶν μετὰ τὴν 1.183 ἅλωσιν τῶν Ἱεροσολύμων τὸ πρῶτον καὶ Ναβουχοδονόσορ αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ Λαρείου καὶ τῶν κατὰ Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν Μακεδόνα χρόνον. Πλάτων γὰρ κατ' ἐκεῖνον τὸν καιρὸν ἐγνωρίζετο καὶ οἱ πρὸ αὐτοῦ Πυθαγόρας τε καὶ Ἐπίκουρος ὁ μετέπειτα. ὅθεν δὴ ὡς προεῖπον τὴν πρόφασιν εἴληφεν καὶ εἰς κατάστασιν ἦλθε τὰ παρ' Ἕλλησι συγγράμματα καὶ μετὰ τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον αἱ βοώμεναι αἱρέσεις τῶν φιλοσόφων, πρὸς ἀλλήλας τῇ μὲν πλάνῃ συνᾴδουσαι καὶ ὁμόστοιχον γνῶσιν συνυφαίνουσαι εἰδωλολατρείας τε καὶ ἀσεβείας καὶ ἀθεΐας, τῇ δὲ αὐτῇ πλάνῃ εἰς ἑαυτὰς συγκλώμεναι διαφέρονται ἑτέρα πρὸς τὴν ἑτέραν. Κατὰ Στωϊκῶν, ἀπὸ Ἑλληνισμοῦ αἱρέσεως ˉγ, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉε. Καὶ Στωϊκοὶ μὲν φρονοῦσι περὶ θεότητος τοῦτο· φάσκουσιν εἶναι νοῦν τὸν θεὸν ἢ παντὸς τοῦ ὁρωμένου κύτους, οὐρανοῦ δέ φημι καὶ γῆς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων, ὡς ἐν σώματι ψυχήν. μερίζουσι δὲ οἱ αὐτοὶ τὴν μίαν θεότητα εἰς πολλὰς μερικὰς οὐσίας, εἰς ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ ἄστρα, εἰς ψυχὴν καὶ ἀέρα καὶ τὰ ἄλλα· μεταγγισμούς τε ψυχῶν * καὶ μετενσωματώσεις ἀπὸ σώματος εἰς σῶμα, καθαιρομένων ψυχῶν ἀπὸ σωμάτων ἠδ' αὖ πάλιν εἰσδυουσῶν καὶ ἀνάπαλιν γεννωμένων, διὰ πολλῆς αὐτῶν πλάνης ταύτην τὴν ἀσέβειαν παρυφαίνοντες. μέρος δὲ θεοῦ καὶ ἀθάνατον τὴν ψυχὴν ἡγοῦνται. ἔσχον δὲ Ζήνωνα ἀρχηγὸν τῆς Στοᾶς, περὶ οὗ πολὺς θρυλεῖται λόγος. οἱ μὲν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἔφασαν Κλεάνθους τινὸς * τοῦ ἀπὸ Τύρου ὁρμωμένου, ἄλλοι δὲ φάσκουσιν αὐτὸν Κιτιέα τῆς Κύπρου νησιώτην, ἐν Ῥώμῃ δὲ βεβιωκέναι χρόνον, ὕστερον δὲ ἐν Ἀθήναις προστησάμενον 1.184 τουτὶ τὸ δόγμα ἐν τῇ Στοᾷ οὕτω καλουμένῃ, τινὲς δέ φασι δύο Ζήνωνας εἶναι, τόν τε Ἐλεάτην καὶ τὸν προειρημένον· ὅμως οἱ ἀμφότεροι ἴσως ἐδογμάτισαν, εἰ καὶ δύο εἶεν. φάσκει οὖν καὶ οὗτος τὴν ὕλην σύγχρονον εἶναι τῷ θεῷ, ἴσα ταῖς ἄλλαις αἱρέσεσιν, εἱμαρμένην τε εἶναι καὶ γένεσιν, ἐξ ἧς τὰ πάντα διοικεῖται καὶ πάσχει. πόσα τοίνυν ἰσχύει ἡ σύντομος ἡμῶν αὕτη σύνταξις, πρὸς τὴν τούτου φαυλότητα ἀλεξητήριον φάρμακον * διεξιέναι καὶ οὐχὶ μᾶλλον εἰς ὄγκον πολὺν ἐλάσω τῆς πραγματείας τὸ ἐχέγγυον· ἀκροθιγῶς δέ, ἵνα μὴ ἐν παραδρομῇ γένωμαι, πρὸς τοῦτον ἐρῶ. 2. Πόθεν εἴληφας, ὦ οὗτος, τὴν τῆς διδασκαλίας ὑφήγησιν; ἢ ποῖον πνεῦμα ἅγιον οὐρανόθεν λελάληκέ σοι περὶ τῆς σοῦ πλάνης; δύο μὲν γὰρ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ σύγχρονα, ὕλην καὶ θεόν, βεβιασμένως λέγεις· πεσεῖται γάρ σου ὁ λόγος καὶ ἀσύστατος ἔσται. ὁμολογεῖς μὲν γάρ τινα εἶναι δημιουργόν, ὃν καὶ παντοκράτορα φῄς, τοῦτον δὲ μερίζεις εἰς πολυθεΐαν. τίνος δ' ἂν εἴη δημιουργός, εἰ σύγχρονος εἴη ἡ ὕλη; ἔσται γὰρ καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἑαυτῆς δεσπόζουσα ἡ μὴ ἀπὸ αἰτίου τινὸς λαβοῦσα τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ οὐχ ὑποτασσομένη. εἰ δὲ ὁ δημιουργὸς παρὰ ταύτης λαμβάνει, προβολὴν ταύτην εὑράμενος, ἀδράνειά τις ἂν εἴη καὶ ἔρανος δι' ἀπορίαν τῷ προσπορισαμένῳ οὐκ ἀπὸ τῶν ἰδίων ἀλλ' ἐξ ὑποκειμένων ἀλλοτρίων, ὅπως τὸ ἴδιον ὑποστήσεται δημιούργημα. καὶ περὶ τοῦ τῶν ψυχῶν μεταγγισμοῦ πολλή τις ἡ φαυλότης τῆς παραπεποιημένης σου διανοίας, ἐθελόσοφε καὶ γνῶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐπαγγελλόμενε. εἰ γὰρ μέρος θεοῦ ὑπάρχει καὶ ἀθάνατος, σώματα δὲ οἰκτρὰ οὐ μόνον εἴποιμι * θηρίων δὲ καὶ ἑρπετῶν καὶ κνωδάλων δυσγενῶν τῇ πλάσει αὐτῆς συνάπτεις τῇ ἀπὸ θεοῦ κατὰ σὲ τὴν οὐσίαν κεκτημένῃ, καὶ τί ἂν γένοιτο τούτου μοχθηρότερον; 3. Εἱμαρμένην δὲ παρεισάγεις, ὡς ἐξ αὐτῆς γίνεσθαι τὰ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ συμβαίνοντα καὶ ἄλλοις. ἐξ ἑνὸς δὲ ῥητοῦ δι' ἐπιτομῆς τοῦ λόγου ἀνατραπήσεται ἡ σὴ μυθοποιία. εἰ γὰρ εἱμαρμένης τὸ σοφίζεσθαι τὸ συνετίζεσθαι τὸ λογικὸν γεννᾶσθαι καὶ ἄλογον καὶ τὰ 1.185 ἄλλα πάντα, παυσάσθωσαν νόμοι· ἐπικρατεῖ