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58. For besides his other acts, he also envied the athletes the honour of the martyrs; and for this reason he contrives both to use compulsion himself, and not to seem to do so, and for us to suffer, and not to have honour as sufferers for Christ. O, the simplicity! Firstly, if he thought that the reason for the dangers was hidden, and that he would conceal the truth with his sophistries, but would he not, by as much as he plotted against the honours, make them greater and more glorious?

59. Secondly, if he supposed that we court danger from a desire of glory, and not for the sake of the truth; let such men as Empedocles, and Aristaeus, and certain Empedotimuses, and Trophoniuses, and a number of such unfortunates, play these games among them; one of whom, having made himself a god, as he supposed, in the craters of Sicily, and having sent himself up from among us to his better destiny, was informed against by his dearest sandal, thrown up by the fire; and he was shown to be not a god after being a man, but a vainglorious man, and unphilosophical after death, and not even sensible in common matters; while the others, having hidden themselves in certain sanctuaries from the same disease and self-love, and then being found out, were not so much honoured by their trickery as they were disgraced by their failure to remain hidden.

60. But for Christians it is sweeter to suffer for piety, even if they escape the notice of all, than for others to be glorified with impiety; for we take little account of pleasing men; but all our desire is for the honour that comes from God; or rather, even beyond this, those who are truly philosophers and lovers of God, loving the kinship with 35.584 the good for its own sake, not for the honours laid up for it; for this is a second class of praiseworthy things, to do something for a reward and for a recompense; just as it is a third class to flee from wickedness for fear of punishment. Such then are our principles, and so they stand; and it is easy to demonstrate this from many examples to those who wish it.

61. But he, as though about to deprive Christians of a great honour (for most men judge others' affairs by their own feelings), pursues this before all other things: reputation. And not even magnanimously, like the other persecutors, does he openly profess his impiety; nor, if not in a kingly manner, does he at least think of us in a completely tyrannical way, so that his act of impiety might be magnificent—to compel a people of the whole world, and to tyrannize over a doctrine that has risen above all doctrines; but in a very slavish and ignoble manner he does evil to piety, and has introduced into the persecution against us intricate and double reasonings. Therefore, since power is divided into these two things, persuasion and compulsion, that which was more inhuman, the tyranny, he committed to the peoples and cities, whose madness is even more ungovernable because of their irrationality and their inconsiderate rush to everything; and this not by public decree, but by not restraining their impulses, setting forth his own wish as an unwritten law.

62. But that which is gentler and more kingly, persuasion, he pretends to take upon himself; yet he has not preserved this completely; for it was not in his nature either for a leopard to put off its spots, or an Ethiopian his blackness, or fire its burning, or the evil one his 35.585 misanthropy, being a murderer from the beginning, or for him to put off the wickedness from which he has set out against us; but just as the chameleon is said to become all things easily, and to take on all colours except one, whiteness (for I pass over Proteus, the Egyptian sophist of the myth), so also he was and became all things to Christians, except gentleness, and his humanity was very inhuman, and his persuasiveness violent, and his kindness an apology for his savagery; so that he might seem to be using force with good reason, when he failed to persuade.

63. And this is clear from the fact that with him persuasion was a small thing, but violence a greater thing that immediately followed; so that, as in hunts, we might be caught either in the snares or by the pursuit, and one way at least might certainly subdue us. Having thus both thought and

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ΝΗʹ. Καὶ γὰρ πρὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις καὶ τῆς τῶν μαρ τύρων τιμῆς ἐφθόνει τοῖς ἀθληταῖς· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μηχανᾶται αὐτὸς μὲν καὶ βιάζεσθαι, καὶ μὴ δοκεῖν, ἡμᾶς δὲ καὶ πάσχειν, καὶ μὴ τιμὴν ἔχειν ὡς ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ πάσχοντας. Ὢ τῆς εὐηθείας! Πρῶτον μὲν εἰ λανθάνειν ἐνόμισεν ὑπὲρ τίνος οἱ κίνδυνοι, καὶ συγκαλύψειν τὴν ἀλήθειαν τοῖς σοφίσμασιν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὅσῳ κατὰ τῶν τιμῶν ἐπενόει, τοσούτῳ μείζους αὐτὰς ποιήσειν καὶ λαμπροτέρας.

ΝΘʹ. ∆εύτερον δὲ, εἰ δόξης ἐπιθυμίᾳ κινδυνεύειν ἡμᾶς, ἀλλὰ μὴ τῆς ἀληθείας, ὑπέλαβε· ταῦτα μὲν παιζέτωσαν παρ' ἐκείνοις Ἐμπεδοκλεῖς, καὶ Ἀρισταῖοι, καὶ Ἐμπεδότιμοί τινες, καὶ Τροφώνιοι, καὶ τοιούτων δυστυχῶν ἀριθμός· ὧν ὁ μὲν τοῖς Σικελικοῖς κρατῆρσιν ἑαυτὸν θεώσας, ὡς ᾤετο, καὶ εἰς τὴν κρείττονα λῆξιν ἀφ' ἡμῶν ἀναπέμψας, τῷ φιλτάτῳ σανδάλῳ κατεμηνύθη παρὰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐκβρασθέντι· καὶ οὐ θεὸς ἐδείχθη μετ' ἄνθρω πον, ἀλλ' ἄνθρωπος κενόδοξος, καὶ ἀφιλόσοφος μετὰ θάνατον, καὶ οὐδὲ τὰ κοινὰ συνετός· οἱ δὲ ἀδύ τοις τισὶν ἑαυτοὺς ἐγκρύψαντες ὑπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς νόσου καὶ φιλαυτίας, εἶτ' ἐλεγχθέντες, οὐ μᾶλλον ἐκ τῆς κλοπῆς ἐτιμήθησαν ἢ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ λαθεῖν καθυβρί σθησαν.

Ξʹ. Χριστιανοῖς δὲ ἥδιον ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας τὸ πάσχειν, κἂν πάντας λανθάνωσιν, ἢ ἄλλοις τὸ εὐδο ξεῖν μετὰ τῆς ἀσεβείας· τοῦ μὲν γὰρ ἀνθρώποις ἀρέ σκειν βραχὺς ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος· τῆς δὲ παρὰ Θεοῦ τιμῆς ἡ πᾶσα ἔφεσις· μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ὑπὲρ ταύτην, ὅ γε ἀληθῶς φιλόσοφοι καὶ φιλόθεοι, τὴν πρὸς τὸ κα 35.584 λὸν οἰκείωσιν ἀγαπῶντες δι' αὐτὸ τὸ καλὸν, οὐ τὰς ἀποκειμένας ἐντεῦθεν τιμάς· δευτέρα γὰρ αὕτη τάξις τῶν ἐπαινετῶν, τὸ μισθοῦ τι πράττειν καὶ δι' ἀντίδοσιν· ὥσπερ τρίτη τῷ φόβῳ κολάσεως φεύγειν τὴν μοχθηρίαν. Τὰ μὲν οὖν ἡμέτερα τοιαῦτα καὶ οὕτως ἔχοντα· καὶ ῥάδιον τοῦτο ἐκ πλειόνων ἐπιδεῖ ξαι τοῖς βουλομένοις.

ΞΑʹ. Ὁ δὲ, ὡς μεγάλης τιμῆς ἀποστερήσειν μέλλων Χριστιανοὺς (κρίνουσι γὰρ οἱ πολλοὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων τοῖς ἰδίοις πάθεσι), τοῦτο διώκει πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων τὴν εὐδοκίμησιν. Καὶ οὐδὲ μεγαλοψύχως, τοῖς ἄλλοις διώκταις ὁμοίως, ἀπογράφεται τὴν ἀσέ βειαν· οὐδ', εἰ μὴ βασιλικῶς, τυραννικῶς γε παντά πασι διανοεῖται περὶ ἡμῶν, ἵν' ᾖ μεγαλοπρεπὲς αὐτῷ τὸ ἀσέβημα βιάζεσθαι λαὸν οἰκουμένης, καὶ τυραννῆσαι δόγμα πάντων δογμάτων ὑπερ ανεστηκός· δουλοπρεπῶς δὲ λίαν καὶ ἀγεννῶς κακουργεῖ τὴν εὐσέβειαν, καὶ τὰς περὶ τοὺς λογισμοὺς πλοκὰς καὶ διπλόας τῷ καθ' ἡμῶν διωγμῷ φέρων ἐπεισήγαγε. Τοιγαροῦν εἰς δύο ταῦτα διῃρη μένου τοῦ κρατεῖν, τὸ πείθειν καὶ τὸ βιάζεσθαι, ὃ μὲν ἦν ἀπανθρωπότερον, δήμοις ἐφῆκε καὶ πόλεσι τὸ τῆς τυραννίδος, ὧν καὶ μᾶλλον ἄληπτος ἡ ἀπόνοια διὰ τὴν ἀλογίαν, καὶ τὴν ἀπερίσκεπτον ἐπὶ πάντα φοράν· καὶ τοῦτο οὐ προστάγματι δημοσίῳ, τῷ δὲ μὴ ἀνακόπτειν τὰς ὁρμὰς ἄγραφον προθεὶς νόμον τὸ βούλεσθαι.

ΞΒʹ. Ὃ δὲ ἡμερώτερον καὶ βασιλικώτερον, εἰς ἑαυ τὸν δῆθεν φέρει, τὸ τῆς πειθοῦς· οὐ μὴν εἰς τὸ παν τελὲς τοῦτό γε διεσώσατο· οὐδὲ γὰρ εἶχε φύσιν ἢ πάρδαλιν ἀποθέσθαι τὸ κατάστικτον, ἢ Αἰθίοπα τὸ μέλαν, ἢ πῦρ τὸ καίειν, ἢ τὸν πονηρὸν τὴν 35.585 μισανθρωπίαν ἀπαρχῆς ἀνθρωποκτόνον τυγχάνοντα, ἢ ἐκεῖνον τὴν πονηρίαν, ἀφ' ἧς καθ' ἡμῶν ὥρμησεν· ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τὸν χαμαιλέοντα λόγος παντοῖον γίνεσθαι ῥᾳδίως, καὶ πάσας μὲν ἀναλαμβάνειν χρόας, πλὴν μιᾶς τῆς λευκότητος, τὸν γὰρ Πρωτέα παρίημι τὸν τοῦ μύθου τὸν Αἰγύπτιον σοφιστὴν, οὕτω κἀκεῖ νος πάντα ἦν καὶ ἐγίνετο Χριστιανοῖς, πλὴν ἡμερό τητος, καὶ ἦν λίαν ἀπάνθρωπον αὐτῷ τὸ φιλάνθρω πον, καὶ τὸ πιθανὸν βίαιον, καὶ ἀπολογία τῆς ἀγριότη τος ἡ χρηστότης· ἵν' εἰκότως δοκῇ βιάζεσθαι, τοῦ πείθειν ἀποτυγχάνων.

ΞΓʹ. Καὶ τοῦτο δῆλον ἐξ ὧν βραχὺ μὲν παρ' αὐτῷ τὸ τῆς πειθοῦς, πλεῖον δὲ τὸ τῆς βίας εὐθὺς ἑπόμενον ἦν· ἵν', ὥσπερ ἐν ταῖς θήραις, ἢ ταῖς πάγαις ἁλῶμεν, ἢ τοῖς διώγμασι, καὶ εἷς γε τρόπος πάντως ἡμᾶς χειρώσηται. Οὕτω δὲ διανοηθείς τε καὶ