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to declare, sparing nothing that he thought he needed for this. But since he had employed all his own devices, and had nothing left that he could further devise, it had fallen silent in a like and natural manner, speaking no more than it had before. At that point, being asked by Julian why on earth it was silent, and this after all the customary rites among them had been performed for it, he said that Babylas was the principal cause of its silence and that of the other statues, since he was lying in Daphne, as the gods detested his corpse, and for this reason did not tolerate visiting their own shrines. For he did not wish to state the truest cause, though he was not entirely unaware of it, that it was a greater power that had fettered the activities of the demons; especially since the demon impersonating Apollo had, as it is said, clearly and explicitly told him that he was unable to respond because of Babylas. 54. For this Babylas is said to have become bishop of Antioch, and when the emperor Numerian wished to enter the church of the Christians during a certain festival, he stood before the doors and prevented him from entering, saying that he would not, so far as he was able, overlook a wolf entering the flock. The emperor was immediately repulsed from the entrance, either because he suspected that there would be some uprising from the crowd, or because he had otherwise changed his mind. Nevertheless, taking the bishop’s resistance badly, when he had departed to his own palace, he ordered him to be brought before the tribunal to defend himself, and when he was brought forth, he first accused him of the audacity of the prohibition, and then ordered him to sacrifice to the demons, if he wished to escape the punishment for the crime. But he defended himself against the accusation and refused the challenge; the former, by saying that it befitted him as a shepherd to be zealous in all things for the flock, the latter, by not undertaking, having departed from the truly existing God, to sacrifice to falsely-named and destructive demons. Then, when he saw that he was not persuaded, he commanded that he be bound with chains and fetters, and led away to death by beheading. But he, when he was being led away to die, took these up and sang the words of the psalm: Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 55. They say also that three boys, brothers by birth and very young, who were being raised under him, were also seized by the emperor; and since they too were unwilling to sacrifice, although every kind of compulsion was brought to bear on them, the emperor ordered them also to be beheaded. When they came to the appointed place, Babylas placed them before himself and brought them forward to the sword first, lest any of them, being tender, should shrink from death, and as they were being beheaded he would have said this utterance: Behold, I and the children whom God has given me. Then he too stretched out his own neck to the sword, having instructed those who would take up his body to bury the chains and the fetters with him. “That these,” he says, “may be an adornment for me as I lie.” And so he still happens to lie with them, as they say. This Babylas, when Julian heard from Eusebius that he was an obstacle to the statues giving oracles, he immediately ordered that he be moved from Daphne, coffin and all (it is made of a large stone), by those whom this concerned, far away somewhere else, so that they might relocate him wherever they wished. Immediately, therefore, the crowd of the city poured forth as for a great cause, and surrounding it, they drew the coffin. And as it was drawn not so much by men as by a greater power moving it, it went forth with an attendant zeal. Indeed, on that same day, having carried it more than fifty stadia, they laid it in the place called the cemetery. And there is in the city a house

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ἀποφαίνειν, μηδενὸς ὧν εἰς τοῦτο προσδεῖν αὐτῷ νομίζοι φεισάμενον. Τῷ δ' ἐπειδὴ πάσας ἑαυτοῦ κεκινηκότι τὰς μηχανὰς, καὶ μηδὲν ὅ τι πλέον ἂν ἐπινοήσειεν ὑπολειπομένῳ, τὸν ὅμοιον ἐσεσιωπήκει καὶ κατὰ φύσιν τρόπον, οὐδέν τι μᾶλλον ἢ καὶ πρόσθε φθεγγόμενον, ἐνταῦθα ἤδη πρὸς τοῦ Ἰουλιανοῦ ἐρωτώμενος καὶ καθ' ὅ τι μάλιστα σιωπῴη, καὶ ταῦτα πάντων τελεσθέντων ἐπ' αὐτῷ τῶν νομιζομένων παρ' αὐτοῖς, Βαβύλαν ἔφη τῆς σιωπῆς τούτου τε καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἀγαλμάτων αἰτιώτατον εἶναι, αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ∆άφνῃ κειμένου, ὡς τῶν θεῶν τὸν νεκρὸν αὐτοῦ βδελλυττομένων, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τοῖς ἕδεσι σφῶν ἐπιφοιτᾷν οὐκ ἀνεχομένων. Οὐ γὰρ ἠβούλετο τὴν ἀληθεστάτην αἰτίαν εἰπεῖν, οὐ παντάπασί γε αὐτῆς ἀνεπαίσθητος γεγονὼς, ὅτι δὴ κρείττων δύναμις ἦν, ἡ τὰς τῶν δαιμόνων ἐνεργείας πεδησαμένη· ἄλλως τε καὶ τοῦ δαίμονος αὐτῷ τοῦ τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα ὑποκρινομένου σαφῶς, καὶ διαῤῥήδην, ὡς λέγεται, εἰρηκότος, μὴ δύνασθαι ἀποκρίνασθαι διὰ Βαβύλαν. νδʹ. Ὁ γὰρ δὴ Βαβύλας οὗτος λέγεται ἐπίσκοπος μὲν γενέσθαι τῆς Ἀντιοχείας, Νουμεριανῷ δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ εἰσελθεῖν βουλομένῳ ἐν τῇ τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐκκλησίᾳ κατὰ δή τινα ἑορτὴν, στὰς πρὸ τῶν θυρῶν διεκώλυσεν εἰσελθεῖν, φάσκων εἰς δύναμιν μὴ περιόψεσθαι λύκον τῷ ποιμνίῳ ἐπεισερχόμενον· τὸν δὲ παραυτίκα μὲν ἀποκρουσθῆναι τῆς εἰσόδου, εἴτε δὴ στάσιν τινὰ πρὸς τοῦ ὄχλου ἔσεσθαι ὑπειδόμενον, εἴτε καὶ ἄλλως αὐτῶν μεταβουλευθέν· ἐν χαλεπῷ μέν τοι τὴν ἀντίστασιν τοῦ ἐπισκόπου ποιησάμενον, ἐπειδὴ ὡς ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ τὰ βασίλεια ἀπηλλάγη, παραστήσασθαί τε αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος ἀπολογησόμενον ἐκέλευσε, καὶ δὴ παραστάντος αὐτοῦ, πρῶτα μὲν τὴν τόλμαν τῆς κωλύσεως ἐνεκάλει, ἔπειτα μέν τοι κελεύει αὐτὸν τοῖς δαίμοσι θύειν, εἰ βούλοιτό γε τὴν ἐπὶ τῷ ἐγκλήματι δίκην διαφυγεῖν· τὸν δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἔγκλησιν ἀπολογήσασθαι καὶ τὴν πρόκλησιν διακρούσασθαι, τὴν μὲν, φήσαντα ποιμένι ἑαυτῷ πάντα προσήκειν ὑπὲρ τοῦ ποιμνίου προθυμεῖσθαι, τὴν δὲ, μὴ ἀνελέσθαι, τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος ἀποστάντα Θεοῦ, ψευδωνύμοις καὶ ὀλετῆρσι δαίμοσι θύειν. Εἰθ' ὁ μὲν, ὡς ἑώρα μὴ πειθόμενον, προσέταξεν αὐτὸν ἀλύσεσι καὶ πέδαις ἐνδησαμένους, τὴν ἐπὶ θανάτῳ ἄγειν τῆς κεφαλῆς ἀφαιρήσοντας· ὁ δὲ, ἐπειδὴ ἤγετο τεθνηξόμενος, ταύτας ἀναλαβὼν ᾖδε τοῦ ψαλμοῦ τὰς ῥήσεις· Ἐπίστρεψον, ψυχή μου, εἰς τὴν ἀνάπαυσίν σου, ὅτι Κύριος εὐηργέτησέ σε. νεʹ. Φασὶ δὲ καὶ τρεῖς παῖδας ἀδελφοὺς τὸ γένος κομιδῇ νέους ὑπ' αὐτῷ ἀνατρεφομένους, ἁρπαγῆναί τε καὶ αὐτοὺς ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως· καὶ ὡς οὐδ' αὐτοὶ θύειν ἤθελον, καί τοι παντοίας ἀνάγκης αὐτοῖς προσαγομένης, καὶ αὐτοὺς κελεῦσαι τὸν βασιλέα τῶν κεφαλῶν ἀφαιρεῖν. Οὓς ἐπειδὴ ἧκον εἰς τὸ προκείμενον χωρίον, ὁ Βαβύλας ἑαυτῷ προστησάμενος, προτέρους προσῆγε τῷ ξίφει· τοῦ μή τινα τερέσαντα αὐτὸν ἀναδῦναι τὸν θάνατον, καὶ ἀποτεμνομένων ταύτην ἂν εἰπὼν τὴν φωνήν· Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ καὶ τὰ παιδία ἅ μοι ἔδωκεν ὁ Θεός. Ἔπειτα καὶ αὐτὸς προύτεινε τὸν οἰκεῖον αὐτοῦ αὐχένα τῷ ξίφει· ἐντειλάμενος τοῖς τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ἀναλεξαμένοις, τὰς ἀλύσεις καὶ τὰς πέδας αὐτῷ συνθάψαι, Ἵν' ᾖ μοι ταῦτα, φησὶ, κειμένῳ κόσμος· καὶ οὖν καὶ μετ' αὐτῶν ἔτι τυγχάνει κείμενος, ὡς φασί. Τοῦτον τὸν Βαβύλαν ὁ Ἰουλιανὸς, ἐπειδὴ πρὸς τοῦ Εὐσεβίου ἤκουσε κώλυμα τοῖς ἀγάλμασιν εἶναι τοῦ μὴ χρᾷν, αὐτίκα προσέταξεν, αὐτῇ θήκη, λίθου δ' ἐστὶ μεγάλου πεποιημένη, μετάγειν ἐκ τῆς ∆άφνης οἷς τί τοῦτο διαφέρει πόῤῥω ποῦ αὐτὸν ἀλλαχόσε, ἵνα ᾗ καὶ βούλωνται μεταστησαμένους. Εὐθὺς οὖν ὁ τῆς πόλεως ὄχλος προχυθέντες ὡς ἐπὶ μεγάλῃ αἰτίᾳ, καὶ περιβαλλόμενοι εἷλκον τὴν θήκην· ἡ δὲ ὡς οὐχ ὑπ' ἀνθρώπων ἑλκομένη μᾶλλον ἢ κρείττονος αὐτὴν κινούσης δυνάμεως, ἔφθανε προθυμίαν ἐφεπομένη· αὐθήμερον γέ τοι αὐτὴν σταδίους πλέον ἢ πεντήκοντα κομισάμενοι, ἐν τῷ καλουμένῳ κοιμητηρίῳ κατέθεσαν. Ἔστι δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει οἶκος