Gregory of Nazianzus, Against Emperor Julian I

an uprising? against the martyr not even martyrs? after Herod, a persecutor, and after Judas, a betrayer? except that you did not show repentance by a halter as he did; and a Christ-killer after Pilate, and after the Jews, a hater of God?

69. Did you not reverence the victims for Christ? nor fear the great combatants, that John, Peter, Paul, James, Stephen, Luke, Andrew, Thecla, those who after them and before them braved danger for the truth? who eagerly contended against fire, and sword, and beasts, and tyrants, and present and threatened evils, as if in others' bodies or without a body? For what reason? that they might not betray piety, not even by a word. Whose are the great honours and festivals; by whom demons are driven out, and diseases are healed; whose are the epiphanies, and whose the prophecies; whose very bodies have the same power as their holy souls, whether touched, or honoured; whose very drops of blood, and small tokens of their passion, have the same effect as their bodies.

70. These you do not reverence, but dishonour; you who admire the pyre of Heracles, which came from misfortune, and 35.592 his crimes concerning women; and the butchering of Pelops, the hospitable, or god-loving, from which the Pelopidae are distinguished by their shoulders and the ivory; and the castrations of the Phrygians, of those who are charmed by the flute, and after the flute are outraged; and the tortures and just burnings in the mysteries of Mithras; and the slaughter of strangers among the Tauri, and the sacrifice of the royal maiden at Troy; and the blood of Menoeceus for Thebes, and of the daughters of Scedasus at Leuctra afterwards; you who praise the Laconian youths torn by scourges, and the blood on the altar delighting a chaste and virgin goddess; you who extol the hemlock of Socrates, and the leg of Epictetus, and the bag of Anaxarchus, whose philosophy was of necessity rather than of free will; and the leap of Cleombrotus of Ambracia, philosophized by the discourse On the Soul; and the Pythagorean stand for the beans, and the contempt of death of Theano, or I know not whom of those initiated or philosophizing in his school. 35.593

71. But you, if not those things, at least admire the present things, O most philosophic and most noble, you who look for those Epaminondases and Scipios in endurance; you who march with the army, and choose simple foods, and praise a self-acting generalship. It is indeed the mark of a noble and philosophic soul not to dishonor even the virtue of enemies, and to attribute more to the nobility of enemies than to the baseness and softness of one's own people. Do you see these who are without living and without hearth, and almost without flesh and blood, and in this approaching God? Those with unwashed feet and who sleep on the ground, as your Homer says, in order to honor some of the deities with his fiction, those below and above the things below? those among men, and above human things? those bound, and free? those overcome, and unconquerable? whose is nothing in the world, and all things above the world? whose life is twofold, the one being despised, the other being eagerly sought? those who are immortal through mortification, those who through dissolution are united to God? those outside of desire, and with the divine and passionless love? whose is the fount of light, and whose already are the effulgences? whose are the angelic psalmodies, and the all-night standing, and the departure of the mind to God, being caught up beforehand? whose is purification, and whose the being purified, who know no measure of ascent and deification? whose are the rocks, and whose the heavens? whose is the being cast down, and whose the thrones? whose is the nakedness, and whose the garment of incorruption? whose is the solitude, and whose the festival from thence? whose is the tyranny over pleasures, and whose the enjoyment that is indissoluble and inexpressible? whose is the tear a deluge of sin, a purification of the world? whose stretching out of hands extinguishes flame, tames wild beasts, blunts swords,

ἐπανάστασιν; κατὰ τοῦ μάρ τυρος οὐδὲ μάρτυρας; μετὰ Ἡρώδην διώκτης, καὶ μετὰ Ἰούδαν προδότης; πλὴν ὅσον οὐκ ἀγχόνῃ τὴν μετάνοιαν ἔδειξας ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος· καὶ Χριστο κτόνος μετὰ Πιλᾶτον, καὶ μετὰ Ἰουδαίους μισό θεος;

ΞΘʹ. Οὐκ ᾐδέσθης τὰ ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ σφάγια; οὐδὲ ἐφοβήθης τοὺς μεγάλους ἀγωνιστὰς, τὸν Ἰωάν νην ἐκεῖνον, τὸν Πέτρον, τὸν Παῦλον, τὸν Ἰάκωβον, τὸν Στέφανον, τὸν Λουκᾶν, τὸν Ἀνδρέαν, τὴν Θέκλαν, τοὺς ἐπ' ἐκείνοις τε καὶ πρὸ ἐκείνων τῆς ἀληθείας προκινδυνεύσαντας; οἳ πυρὶ, καὶ σιδήρῳ, καὶ θηρσὶ, καὶ τυράννοις προθύμως ἀντηγωνίσαντο, καὶ παρ οῦσι κακοῖς καὶ ἀπειλουμένοις, ὥσπερ ἐν ἀλλοτρίοις σώμασιν ἢ ἀσώματοι; τίνος ἕνεκεν; ἵνα μὴ προ δῶσι μηδὲ μέχρι ῥήματος τὴν εὐσέβειαν. Ὧν αἱ μεγάλαι τιμαὶ καὶ πανηγύρεις· παρ' ὧν δαίμονες ἑλαύνονται, καὶ νόσοι θεραπεύονται· ὧν αἱ ἐπιφά νειαι, καὶ ὧν αἱ προῤῥήσεις· ὧν καὶ τὰ σώματα μόνον ἴσα δύνανται ταῖς ἁγίαις ψυχαῖς, ἢ ἐπ αφώμενα, ἢ τιμώμενα· ὧν καὶ ῥανίδες αἵματος μόνον, καὶ μικρὰ σύμβολα πάθους ἴσα δρῶσι τοῖς σώ μασι.

Οʹ. Ταῦτα οὐ σέβεις, ἀλλ' ἀτιμάζεις· ὁ τὴν Ἡρα κλέους θαυμάζων πυρὰν τὴν ἐξ ἀτυχήματος, καὶ 35.592 τῶν περὶ γυναῖκας ἀδικημάτων· καὶ τὴν Πέλοπος κρεουργίαν, τὴν φιλόξενον, ἢ φιλόθεον, ἐξ ἧς ἐπίση μοι Πελοπίδαι παρὰ τῶν ὤμων καὶ τοῦ ἐλέφαντος· καὶ τὰς Φρυγῶν ἐκτομὰς, τῶν ὑπ' αὐλοῦ κηλου μένων, καὶ μετὰ τὸν αὐλὸν ὑβριζομένων· καὶ τὰς ἐν Μίθρου βασάνους καὶ καύσεις ἐνδίκους τὰς μυστικάς· καὶ τὴν ἐν Ταύροις ξενοκτονίαν, καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ Τροίας θυσίαν τῆς βασιλικῆς κόρης· καὶ τὸ Μενοικέως ὑπὲρ Θηβῶν αἷμα, καὶ τῶν Σκεδάσου θυγατέρων ἐν Λεύκτροις ὕστερον· ὁ τοὺς Λακωνικοὺς ἐπαινῶν ἐφήβους ξαινομένους ταῖς μάστιξι, καὶ τὸ ἐπιβώμιον αἷμα τέρπον θεὰν ἁγνὴν καὶ παρθένον· ὁ τὸ Σωκράτους ἐπαίρων κώνειον, καὶ τὸ Ἐπικτήτου σκέλος, καὶ τὸν Ἀναξάρχου θύλακον, ὧν ἀναγκαία μᾶλλον ἢ ἑκούσιος ἡ φιλοσοφία· καὶ τὸ Κλεομβρότου πήδημα τοῦ Ἀμ βρακιώτου, τῷ Περὶ ψυχῆς λόγῳ φιλοσοφηθέν· καὶ τὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν κυάμων Πυθαγορικὴν ἔνστασιν, καὶ θανάτου περιφρόνησιν Θεανοῦς, ἢ οὐκ οἶδ' οὗτινος τῶν τὰ ἐκείνου τετελεσμένων ἢ φιλοσο φησάντων. 35.593

ΟΑ. Σὺ δὲ, εἰ μὴ ἐκεῖνα, τά γε παρόντα θαύμασον, ὦ φιλοσοφώτατε καὶ γενναιότατε, καὶ τοὺς Ἐπαμινώνδας ἐκείνους καὶ Σκιπίωνας τῇ καρτερίᾳ βλέπων· ὁ συμβα δίζων τῷ στρατῷ, καὶ σῖτα αἱρούμενος σχέδια, καὶ τὴν αὐτουργὸν ἐπαινῶν στρατηγίαν. Ἔστι τοι γενναίου καὶ φιλοσόφου ψυχῆς μηδὲ πολεμίων ἀρετὴν ἀτιμάζειν, καὶ πλεῖον νέμειν ἐχθρῶν γενναιότητι ἢ κακίᾳ τῶν οἰκειο τάτων καὶ μαλακίᾳ. Ὁρᾷς τοὺς ἀβίους τούτους καὶ ἀν εστίους, καὶ ἀσάρκους μικροῦ καὶ ἀναίμονας, καὶ Θεῷ κατὰ τοῦτο πλησιάζοντας; τοὺς ἀνιπτόποδας καὶ χα μαιεύνας, ὅ φησιν ὁ σὸς Ὅμηρος, ἵνα τινὰ δαιμό νων τιμήσῃ τῷ πλάσματι, τοὺς κάτω καὶ ὑπὲρ τὰ κάτω; τοὺς ἐν ἀνθρώποις, καὶ ὑπὲρ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα; τοὺς δεδεμένους, καὶ ἐλευθέρους; τοὺς κεκρατημένους, καὶ ἀκρατήτους; ὧν οὐδὲν ἐν κόσμῳ, καὶ πάντα τὰ ὑπὲρ κόσμον; ὧν διπλοῦν τὸ ζῇν, τὸ μὲν ὑπερορώμενον, τὸ δὲ σπουδαζόμενον; τοὺς διὰ τὴν νέκρωσιν ἀθανάτους, τοὺς διὰ λύσιν Θεῷ συνημμένους; τοὺς ἔξω πόθου, καὶ μετὰ τοῦ θείου καὶ ἀπαθοῦς ἔρωτος; ὧν ἡ πηγὴ τοῦ φωτὸς, καὶ ὧν ἤδη τὰ ἀπαυγάσματα; ὧν αἱ ἀγγελικαὶ ψαλ μῳδίαι, καὶ ἡ πάννυχος στάσις, καὶ ἡ τοῦ νοῦ πρὸς Θεὸν ἐκδημία προαρπαζομένου; ὧν ἡ κάθαρσις, καὶ ὧν τὸ καθαίρεσθαι, μηδὲν μέτρον εἰδότων ἀνα βάσεως καὶ θεώσεως; ὧν αἱ πέτραι, καὶ ὧν οἱ οὐρα νοί; ὧν τὸ ἐῤῥίφθαι, καὶ ὧν οἱ θρόνοι; ὧν ἡ γυμνό της, καὶ ὧν ἀφθαρσίας ἔνδυμα; ὧν ἡ ἐρημία, καὶ ὧν ἡ ἐκεῖθεν πανήγυρις; ὧν τὸ τυραννεῖσθαι τὰς ἡδονὰς, καὶ ὧν ἡ ἀπόλαυσις ἡ ἄλυτος καὶ ἀνέκφρα στος; ὧν τὸ δάκρυον ἁμαρτίας κατακλυσμὸς, κόσμου καθάρσιον; ὧν ἔκτασις χειρῶν φλόγα σβέννυσι, θῆρας κοιμίζει, ἀμβλύνει ξίφη,