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taking you into his multi-ruled praetorium, and striking the back with scourges, Maximus and Anastasius and Anastasius, the instrument of your, Maximus' and Anastasius' and Anastasius', licentiousness, that is, to cut out from within your blasphemous tongue. And then, also to cut off with a sword the most wicked right hand that served your blasphemous reasoning, while you are being led around, deprived of these same abominable parts, parading through the twelve districts of this queen of cities, and in addition to these things, to deliver you over to perpetual exile and imprisonment, so that afterward and for all the time of your life you may lament your own blasphemous errors, with the curse devised against us being turned upon your own head.

The prefect, therefore, having taken and punished them, cut off their members, and having led them around the whole city, exiled them to Lazica.

NARRATIVE OF THE MOTION * THAT TOOK PLACE, BETWEEN THE LORD ABBA MAXIMUS, AND THOSE WITH HIM,

AND THE MAGISTRATES AT THE SECRETUM

1. 15Γ_070 On the day on which they were brought to anchor in this reigning city, both the

lord Maximus and those with him, around sunset, two *mandatores* with ten *excubitores* came and took them from the ship, naked and unshod; and having separated them from each other, they guarded them in different *excubita*. And after some days they brought them up to the palace, and they lead in the elder, to the place where the senate and a great crowd of others was assembled; and they place him in the middle of the seated magistrates, and the *sakellarios* says to him with much anger and fury:

Are you a Christian? And he said: By the grace of Christ the God of all, I am a Christian. And that one says: It is not true. The servant of God answered: You say I am not; but God says that I am, and remain a Christian. And how, he says. If 0112 you are a Christian, do you hate the emperor? The servant of God, answering, said: And from where is it clear? For hatred is a hidden disposition of the soul, just as is indeed

love. 15Γ_072 And he says to him: From what you have done, you have become manifest to all, that you hate the emperor and his

state; for you alone have handed over Egypt and Alexandria and Pentapolis and Tripolis and Africa to the Saracens.

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παραναλαμβάνοντα ὑμᾶς ἐν τῷ κατ' αὐτόν πολυαρχικῷ πραιτωρίῳ, καί νεύροις τά μετάφρενα τύπτοντα, Μάξιμον καί Ἀναστάσιον καί Ἀναστάσιον, τό ὄργανον τῆς ὑμῶν Μαξίμου καί Ἀναστασίου καί Ἀναστασίου ἀκολασίας, τουτέστι τήν βλάσφημον ὑμῶν γλῶσσαν ἔνδοθεν ἐκτεμεῖν. Εἶτα δέ, καί τήν διακονήσασαν τῷ βλασφήμῳ ὑμῶν λογισμῷ σκαιοτάτην δεξιάν σιδήρῳ διατεμεῖν, περιαχθησομένων ἅμα στερήσει τῶν αὐτῶν βδελυκτῶν μερῶν, τά δύο καί δέκα τμήματα ταύτης τῆς κυρίας τῶν πόλεων περινοστεύσας, ἀειφυγίᾳ τε καί φυλακῇ πρός ἐπί τούτοις διηνεκεῖ παραδοῦναι ὑμᾶς, πρός τό μετέπειτα ὑμᾶς καί εἰς τόν ἅπαντα τῆς ζωῆς ὑμῶν χρόνον τά οἰκεῖα οἰμώζειν βλάσφημα σφάλματα, τῆς ἐπινοηθείσης καθ' ἡμῶν ἀρᾶς περιτραπείσης τῇ ὑμῶν κεφαλῇ.

Παραλαβών οὖν αὐτούς ὁ ἔπαρχος καί κολάσας, ἔτεμε τά μέλη αὐτῶν, καί περιαγαγών ὅλην τήν πόλιν ἐξώρισεν αὐτούς ἐν Λαζικῇ.

ΕΞΗΓΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΚΙΝΗΣΕΩΣ * ΓΕΝΟΜΕΝΗΣ, ΜΕΤΑΞΥ ΤΟΥ ΚΥΡΙΟΥ ΑΒΒΑ ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ, ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΑΥΤΩ,

ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΑΡΧΟΝΤΩΝ ΕΠΙ ΣΕΚΡΕΤΟΥ

Α'. 15Γ_070 Τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ προσωρμίσθησαν ταύτῃ τῇ βασιλευούσῃ πόλει, ὅ τε

κύριος Μάξιμος, καί οἱ σύν αὐτῷ, περί δυσμάς ἡλίου, ἐλθόντες δύο μανδάτωρες μετά δέκα ἐκσκουβιτώρων, ἐπῆραν αὐτούς ἐκ τοῦ πλοίου γυμνούς, καί ἀνυποδέτους· καί μερίσαντες αὐτούς ἀπ' ἀλλήλων, ἐφύλαξαν εἰς διάφορα ἐκσκούβιτα. Καί μεθ' ἡμέρας τινάς ἀναφέρουσιν αὐτούς ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ, καί εἰσάγουσι τόν γέροντα, ἐν ᾧ τόπῳ συνήχθη ἡ σύγκλητος, καί πολύς ἄλλος ὄχλος· καί παριστῶσιν αὐτόν μέσον τῶν ἀρχόντων καθημένων, καί λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ σακελλάριος μετ' ὁργῆς πολλῆς καί μανίας·

Χριστανός εἶ; Καί εἶπε· Χάριτι Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῶν ὅλων, Χριστανός εἰμι. Καί λέγει ἐκεῖνος· Οὔκ ἔστιν ἀληθές. Ἀπεκρίθη ὁ δοῦλος τοῦ Θεοῦ· Σύ λέγεις. Οὔκ εἰμί· ἀλλ' ὁ Θεός λέγει εἶναί με, καί διαμένειν Χριστιανόν. Καί πῶς, φησίν. Εἴπερ 0112 Χριστιανός εἶ, μισεῖς τόν βασιλέα; Ἀποκριθείς ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ δοῦλος, ἔφη· Καί πόθεν δῆλον; τό γάρ μῖσος ψυχῆς ἐστι κεκρυμμένη διάθεσις, ὥσπερ οὖν

καί ἡ ἀγάπη. 15Γ_072 Καί λέγει αὐτῷ· Ἐξ ὧν ἐποίησας, πᾶσιν ἐγένου φανερός, ὅτι μισεῖς τόν βασιλέα, καί τήν

πολιτείαν αὐτοῦ· σύ γάρ μόνος Αἴγυπτον καί Ἀλεξάνδρειαν καί Πεντάπολιν καί Τρίπολιν καί Ἀφρικήν Σαρακηνοῖς παρέδωκας.