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he was stained with the blood of the pious, a punishment sent from God pursued him, beginning from his very flesh and proceeding even to the 1.57.2 soul. For suddenly an abscess formed on him around the middle of the private parts of his body, then a deep fistulous ulcer, and of these an incurable gangrene upon his innermost bowels, from which an unspeakable multitude of worms swarmed and exhaled a deathly odor, since the entire mass of his body had been changed by over-eating into an excessive amount of fat, which then, being putrefied, presented an unbearable and most dreadful sight to those who came near, they say. 1.57.3 And so, wrestling with so many evils, he at last became conscious of what he had dared to do against the church, and then, after confessing to God, he stopped the persecution against the Christians, and by laws and imperial decrees he urged them to build their churches, and commanded them to perform their customary rites, making prayers on his behalf. 1.58.1 But he who began the persecution suffered such a penalty. But the one indicated by our account, having been an eyewitness of these things 1.58.2 and having known them accurately by experience, suddenly became forgetful of them all, calling to mind neither the punishment upon the first, nor the avenging penalty from the second. He indeed, as if priding himself in a contest of evils to surpass the first, gloried in the invention of newer punishments against us. For fire and sword and crucifixion were not enough for him, nor wild beasts and the depths of the sea, but now, in addition to all these, he himself invented some strange punishment, and legislated that the organs of sight should be destroyed. Then suddenly multitudes not only of men but also of children and women, having the sight of their right eyes and the sinews of their feet destroyed with iron and cautery, were delivered over to suffer hardship in the mines. 1.58.3 On account of which things the righteous judgment of God also pursued this man not long after, when, confident in the hopes of demons, whom he supposed to be gods, and in countless myriads of hoplites, he arrayed himself for war. For then, stripped of hope in God, he took off the royal attire that did not befit him, and cowardly and unmanly, slipping into the crowd, he devised his safety in flight, and then, hiding in the fields and villages in the guise of a servant, he thought to escape notice. 1.58.4 But he did not escape the great eye of universal providence. For when he hoped that his life was henceforth secure, struck by a fiery arrow of God he lay prostrate, his whole body consumed by a divinely-sent fire, so that the entire form of his old appearance vanished, with only dry bones and the likeness of skeletal figures left of him. 1.59.1 And as the blow of God was intensified, his eyes leaped out, and falling from their proper sockets left him blind, having endured by the most just decree of God the very punishments he first invented against the martyrs of God. And indeed, while still breathing amid so many sufferings, at last he too confessed to the God of the Christians and declared his own battles against God, and he himself, like the former, composed recantations, confessing by written laws and decrees his own error concerning those whom he supposed to be gods, and testifying that he had come to know by experience only the God of the Christians. 1.59.2 Licinius, having learned these things by deeds and not by hearing from others, grew attached to the same things, as if covering his mind with a certain darkness. 2.t.1 BOOK II 2.1.1 Thus, therefore, the one mentioned was hurled down into the abyss of the God-fighters, and of whose ruin in impiety he had seen with his own eyes, pursuing their zeal to his own harm, he rekindled the persecution against the Christians like some long-extinguished height of fire, igniting a more terrible flame of impiety than those before him. 2.1.2 And indeed, like some terrible beast or crooked serpent writhing about himself, breathing rage and God-fighting threat, he did not yet dare to war openly against the churches of God under him for fear of Constantine, but concealing the venom of his wickedness

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θεοσεβῶν ἐνέφυρεν αἵμασι, θεόπεμπτος αὐτὸν μετήρχετο τιμωρία ἐξ αὐτῆς αὐτοῦ καταρξαμένη σαρκὸς καὶ μέχρι τῆς 1.57.2 ψυχῆς προελθοῦσα. ἀθρόα μὲν γὰρ αὐτῷ περὶ τὰ μέσα τῶν ἀπορρήτων τοῦ σώματος ἀπόστασις γίνεται, εἶθ' ἕλκος ἐν βάθει συριγγῶδες καὶ τούτων ἀνίατος νομὴ κατὰ τῶν ἐνδοτάτων σπλάγχνων, ἀφ' ὧν ἄλεκτόν τι πλῆθος σκωλήκων βρύειν θανατώδη τε ὀδμὴν ἀποπνεῖν, τοῦ παντὸς ὄγκου τῶν σωμάτων ἐκ πολυτροφίας εἰς ὑπερβολὴν πλήθους πιμελῆς μεταβεβληκότος, ἣν τότε κατασαπεῖσαν ἀφόρητον καὶ φρικτοτάτην τοῖς πλησιάζουσι παρέχειν 1.57.3 τὴν θέαν φασί. καὶ δὴ τοσούτοις παλαίων κακοῖς ὀψέ ποτε συναίσθησιν τῶν κατὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τετολμημένων αὐτῷ λαμβάνει, κἄπειτα τῷ θεῷ ἐξομολογησάμενος τὸν κατὰ Χριστιανῶν ἀποπαύει διωγμόν, νόμοις τε καὶ διατάγμασι βασιλικοῖς τὰς ἐκκλησίας αὐτῶν οἰκοδομεῖν ἐπισπέρχει, τά τε συνήθη πράττειν αὐτοὺς εὐχὰς ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ ποιουμένους διακελεύεται. 1.58.1 Ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν τοῦ διωγμοῦ κατάρξας τοιαύτην ὑπεῖχε δίκην. τούτων δ' αὐτόπτης ὁ πρὸς τοῦ λόγου δηλούμενος γεγονὼς ταῦτά τ' ἀκριβῶς διεγνωκὼς τῇ πείρᾳ, λήθην ἀθρόως ἁπάντων ἐποιεῖτο, οὔτε τὴν κατὰ τοῦ προτέρου ποινὴν 1.58.2 ἀνενέγκας τῇ μνήμῃ οὔτε τὴν ἐκ τοῦ δευτέρου τιμωρὸν δίκην. ὃς δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπερβαλέσθαι τὸν πρῶτον ὡς ἐν κακῶν πεφιλοτιμημένος ἀγῶνι, καινοτέρων τιμωριῶν εὑρέσει καθ' ἡμῶν ἐκαλλωπίζετο. οὐκ ἀπήρκει γὰρ αὐτῷ πῦρ καὶ σίδηρος καὶ προσήλωσις οὐδέ γε θῆρες ἄγριοι καὶ θαλάττης βυθοί, ἤδη δὲ πρὸς ἅπασι τούτοις ξένην τινὰ κόλασιν αὐτὸς ἐφευρών, τὰ τοῦ φωτὸς αἰσθητήρια λυμαίνεσθαι δεῖν ἐνομοθέτει. ἀθρόα δῆτα πλήθη οὐκ ἀνδρῶν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ παίδων καὶ γυναικῶν, ὁράσεις δεξιῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ποδῶν τ' ἀγκύλας σιδήρῳ καὶ καυτῆρσιν ἀχρειούμενα, ταλαιπωρεῖσθαι μετάλλοις 1.58.3 παρεδίδοτο. ὧν εἵνεκα καὶ τοῦτον οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ δικαιοκρισία μετῄει, ὅτε δαιμόνων ἐλπίσιν, ὧν δὴ ᾤετο θεῶν, ὁπλιτῶν τε μυριάσιν ἀναρίθμοις ἐπιθαρρήσας πολέμῳ παρετάττετο. τηνικαῦτα γὰρ γυμνωθεὶς τῆς ἐκ θεοῦ ἐλπίδος ὑπεκδύεται τὸν οὐ πρέποντα αὐτῷ βασιλικὸν κόσμον, δειλῶς τε καὶ ἀνάνδρως ὑποδὺς τὸ πλῆθος δρασμῷ τὴν σωτηρίαν ἐπινοεῖ, κἄπειτα κρυπταζόμενος ἀνὰ τοὺς ἀγροὺς καὶ τὰς κώμας ἐν οἰκέτου σχήματι δια1.58.4 λανθάνειν ᾤετο. ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ τὸν μέγαν καὶ τῆς καθόλου προνοίας διαδέδρακεν ὀφθαλμόν. ὡς γὰρ ἐν ἀσφαλεῖ λοιπὸν κεῖσθαι αὐτῷ τὴν ζωὴν ἤλπισε, βέλει θεοῦ πεπυρωμένῳ πληγεὶς πρηνὴς ἔκειτο, θεηλάτῳ πυρὶ τὸ πᾶν δαπανώμενος σῶμα, ὡς τὸ πᾶν εἶδος αὐτῷ τῆς παλαιᾶς μορφῆς ἀφανισθῆναι, ξηρῶν ὀστέων καὶ κατεσκελετευμένων δίκην εἰδώλων περι1.59.1 λειφθέντων αὐτῷ μόνων. σφοδροτέρας δὲ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ πληγῆς ἐνταθείσης προπηδῶσιν αὐτῷ τὰ ὄμματα, τῆς τε οἰκείας λήξεως ἐκπεσόντα πηρὸν αὐτὸν ἀφίησιν, ἃ κατὰ τῶν τοῦ θεοῦ μαρτύρων πρῶτος ἐφεῦρε κολαστήρια, ταῦθ' ὑπομείναντα δικαιοτάτῃ τοῦ θεοῦ ψήφῳ. καὶ δὴ ἔτ' ἐμπνέων ἐπὶ τοῖς τοσούτοις ὀψέ ποτε καὶ οὗτος τῷ Χριστιανῶν ἀνθωμολογεῖτο θεῷ καὶ τὰς οἰκείας ἐξηγόρευε θεομαχίας, παλινῳδίας τε συνέταττεν ὁμοίως τῷ προτέρῳ καὶ αὐτός, νόμοις καὶ διατάγμασιν ἐγγράφοις τὴν οἰκείαν περὶ οὓς ᾤετο θεοὺς πλάνην ὁμολογῶν, μόνον δὲ τὸν Χριστιανῶν αὐτῇ πείρᾳ θεὸν ἐγνωκέναι μαρτυρόμενος. 1.59.2 Ταῦτ' ἔργοις μαθὼν ὁ Λικίνιος ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀκοῇ παρ' ἑτέρων πυθόμενος τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐπεφύετο, ὥσπερ τινὶ σκοτομήνῃ τὴν διάνοιαν ἐγκαλυπτόμενος. 2.t.1 ΛΟΓΟΣ Β 2.1.1 Ὧδε μὲν οὖν ὁ δηλωθεὶς ἐπὶ τὸν τῶν θεομάχων βυθὸν κατεκρημνίζετο, καὶ ὧν ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐπεῖδε τοὺς ἐπὶ τῆς δυσσεβείας ὀλέθρους, τούτων τὸν ζῆλον ἐπὶ κακῷ τῷ αὐτοῦ μετιών, τὸν κατὰ Χριστιανῶν διωγμὸν ὥσπερ τινὰ πάλαι κατεσβεσμένην πυρὸς ἀκμὴν ἀνερρίπιζε, δεινοτέραν ἢ οἱ πρόσθεν 2.1.2 τὴν τῆς δυσσεβείας ἐξάπτων φλόγα. καὶ δὴ οἷά τις θὴρ δεινὸς ἢ σκολιὸς ὄφις περὶ ἑαυτὸν ἰλυσπώμενος, θυμοῦ τε καὶ ἀπειλῆς θεομάχου πνέων, οὔπω μὲν ἐκ τοῦ προφανοῦς διὰ τὸν Κωνσταντίνου φόβον τὰς ὑπ' αὐτὸν ἐκκλησίας τοῦ θεοῦ πολεμεῖν ἐτόλμα, κρύπτων δὲ τῆς κακίας τὸν ἰὸν