21

half-dead, and what is this new report? But when he said, "Because you offered incense over the fire," and taught that this was the denial, immediately leaping up from the banquet, as if mad and frenzied, boiling with zeal and anger, they ran through the marketplace, shouting and saying: We are Christians, Christians in our souls; let every man hear, and above all, God, for whom we both live and shall die. We have not been false to you, Savior Christ; we have not denied the blessed confession. If our hand has transgressed in anything, yet our mind did not follow. We were outwitted by the emperor, we have not been wounded by gold. We cast off impiety, we are cleansed by blood. Then running up to the emperor, and throwing the gold before him very manfully: "We have not received gifts, O Emperor," they cried, "but have been condemned to death; we were not called to honor, but have been sentenced to dishonor. Grant a favor to your soldiers; slaughter us for Christ, by whom alone we are ruled; give us fire for fire; make us ashes for those ashes. Cut off the hands, which we wrongly stretched out; the feet, with which we wrongly ran. Honor others with the gold, who will not regret receiving it; but for us Christ is sufficient, whom we have instead of all things." They said these things together, and urged the others to recognize the deceit, to become sober from their drunkenness, to make their defense to Christ through blood. At this the emperor was indignant, but he avoided killing them openly, lest he should make martyrs of those who were, as far as they wereconcerned, martyrs, but handed them over to exile, thus to defend himself, and confer a very great benefit, that they should be placed far from his own pollutions and devices. 35.613

45. And although he was of such an impulse, and used his malice for many things; nevertheless, for the man's mind had no stability, and was not more his own reasoning than the impulse of the demon, he did not maintain his resolution to the end, nor did he preserve the secret of his wickedness; but just as the Aetnaean fire is said to be hidden in the foundations of Aetna, flooding up from below and violently restrained, whether it be something else, or the breath of a punished giant, for a time it rumbles terribly, and smoke, the herald of evil, is belched from the summit; but if it should happen to increase and become uncontrollable, boiling out from its own depths, being carried upward and poured out over the craters, it destroys some parts of the land below with an incredible and terrible stream; so also it is possible to find him, for a time controlling himself and his sophistical doctrine, and evilly disposing our affairs by deceit; but if somewhere the lack of control of his anger should overflow, he could not even hide his malevolence, but used open persecution against our divine and pious order.

86. For to pass over the commands against the holy houses, both publicly proposed and privately fulfilled, and the plunder of votive offerings and money, not more from impiety than from greed, and the seizure of sacred vessels, being outraged by profane hands, and those who for these things were led away and tortured, both priests and rulers, and the columns full of blood being encircled by their hands, and girt about, while they were flayed with scourges, and the archers running through cities and countries, more savage and more zealous than he who commanded these things, as if they would present themselves instead of Persians and Scythians and the other barbarians; that I may not mention these things, who does not know the inhumanity of the Alexandrians? who, in addition to many other things, in which they behaved insolently against us, using the opportunity immoderately, being a people seditious and mad by nature, are said to have added this also to their impieties, to fill our sacred house with twofold blood, both of sacrifices and of men; 35.616 and to have done these things, while one of the imperial philosophers was general, named only from these things? Who is ignorant of the conspiracy of the Heliopolitans? who the madness of the Gazaeans, who were admired and honored by him, because well of his magnificence

21

ἡμιθνῆτας, καὶ τί τὸ καινὸν τοῦτο ἄκουσμα; Τοῦ δὲ, Ὅτι κατὰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐθυμιάσατε, φήσαντος, καὶ τοῦτο εἶναι διδάξαντος τὴν ἄρνησιν, εὐθὺς ἀνα πηδήσαντες τοῦ συμποσίου, καθάπερ ἐκμανεῖς καὶ παραπλῆγες, ζήλῳ καὶ θυμῷ ζέοντες, διὰ τῆς ἀγορᾶς θέειν βοῶντες καὶ λέγοντες· Χριστιανοὶ, Χριστιανοὶ τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμεῖς· ἀκουέτω πᾶς ἄνθρω πος, καὶ πρὸ πάντων Θεὸς, ᾧ καὶ ζῶμεν καὶ τε θνηξόμεθα. Οὐκ ἐψευσάμεθά σε, Σῶτερ Χριστέ· οὐκ ἠρνησάμεθα τὴν μακαρίαν ὁμολογίαν. Εἴ τι καὶ ἡ χεὶρ ἔπταισεν, ἀλλ' ἡ διάνοιά γε οὐκ ἠκο λούθησεν. Βασιλεῖ κατεσοφίσθημεν, οὐ χρυσοῦ τραυματίαι γεγόναμεν. Ἀπεκδυόμεθα τὴν ἀσέβειαν, αἵματι καθαιρόμεθα. Εἶτα τῷ βασιλεῖ προσδραμόντες, καὶ τὸν χρυσὸν προσρίψαντες λίαν νεανικῶς· Οὐ δῶρα δεδέγμεθα, βασιλεῦ, βοᾷν, ἀλλὰ θάνατον κατακεκρίμεθα· οὐκ εἰς τιμὴν ἐκλή θημεν, ἀλλ' ἀτιμίαν κατεψηφίσθημεν. ∆ὸς χάριν τοῖς σοῖς στρατιώταις· Χριστῷ σφαγία σον ἡμᾶς, ᾧ μόνῳ βασιλευόμεθα· ἀντίδος πῦρ τοῦ πυρός· τέφραν ἀντὶ τῆς τέφρας ἐκείνης ποίησον. Ἀπόκοψον χεῖρας, ἃς κακῶς προὐτείνα μεν· πόδας, οἷς κακῶς ἐδράμομεν. Ἄλλους τῷ χρυσῷ τίμησον, οἷς οὐ μεταμελήσει λαβοῦσιν· ἡμῖν δὲ ἀρκεῖ Χριστὸς, ὃν ἀντὶ πάντων ἔχομεν. Ταῦτα λέγειν τε ὁμοῦ, καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις διακε λεύεσθαι γνῶναι τὴν ἀπάτην, ἀνανῆψαι τῆς μέθης, ἀπολογήσασθαι τῷ Χριστῷ δι' αἵματος· ἐφ' οἷς ἀγα νακτήσαντα τὸν βασιλέα, τὸ μὲν φανερῶς κτεῖναι φυγεῖν, ἵνα μὴ μάρτυρας ἐργάσηται τοὺς ὅσον τὸ ἐπ' αὐτοῖς μάρτυρας, ἐξορίᾳ δὲ παραδόντα, οὕτως ἀμύ νασθαι, καὶ μεγίστην εὐεργεσίαν καταθέσθαι, τὸ πόῤῥω στήσεσθαι τῶν ἑαυτοῦ μιασμάτων καὶ τεχνασμάτων. 35.613

ΠΕʹ. Καίπερ δὴ οὕτως ἔχων ὁρμῆς, καὶ πρὸς πολλὰ τῇ κακονοίᾳ χρησάμενος· ὅμως, οὐ γὰρ εἶχε πῆξιν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἡ διάνοια, οὐδὲ τῶν οἰκείων λογι σμῶν μᾶλλον ἦν ἢ τῆς φορᾶς τοῦ δαίμονος, οὐ δι εφύλαξεν εἰς τέλος τὴν γνώμην, οὐδὲ τὸ τῆς πονηρίας ἀπόῤῥητον διεσώσατο· ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τὸ Αἰτναῖον πῦρ λόγος τοῖς πυθμέσι τῆς Αἴτνης ἐγκρύπτεσθαι, κάτωθεν πλημμυροῦν καὶ βίᾳ κρατούμενον, εἴτε τι ἄλλο τοῦτό ἐστιν, εἴτε ἆσθμα κολαζομένου γίγαντος, τέως μὲν φοβερὸν ὑπηχεῖν, καὶ καπνὸν τοῦ κακοῦ μήνυμα τῆς κορυφῆς ἀπερεύγεσθαι· εἰ δέ που πλεο νάσαν τύχοι καὶ δυσκάθεκτον γένοιτο, τῶν οἰκείων κόλπων ἀποβρασθὲν, ἄνω φερόμενον καὶ ὑπὲρ τοὺς κρατῆρας χεόμενον, ἔστιν ἃ καὶ τῆς ὑποκειμένης γῆς φθείρειν ἀπίστῳ καὶ φοβερῷ ῥεύματι· οὕτω κἀ κεῖνον ἔστιν εὑρεῖν, ἄχρι μέν τινος ἐαυτοῦ κρα τοῦντα καὶ τοῦ σοφιστικοῦ δόγματος, ἀπάτῃ τε διατι θέντα κακῶς τὰ ἡμέτερα· εἰ δέ που τὸ ἀκρατὲς τῆς ὀργῆς ὑπερβλύσειε, μηδὲ κρύπτειν δύνασθαι τὸ κακόηθες, ἀλλὰ γυμνῷ χρῆσθαι τῷ διωγμῷ κατὰ τοῦ θείου καὶ εὐσεβοῦς ἡμῶν συντάγματος.

Πςʹ. Ἵνα γὰρ ἐάσω τὰ κατὰ τῶν ἁγίων οἴκων προστάγματα, δημοσίᾳ τε προτιθέμενα καὶ ἰδίᾳ πληρούμενα, καὶ σύλησιν ἀναθημάτων τε καὶ χρημά των, οὐ μᾶλλον ἐξ ἀσεβείας ἢ ἀπληστίας, καὶ σκευῶν ἱερῶν ἁρπαγὴν, χερσὶ βεβήλοις ὑβριζομένων, τούς τε ὑπὲρ τούτων ἀγομένους καὶ στρεβλου μένους, ἱερεῖς τε καὶ ἀρχομένους, καὶ τοὺς πλήρεις αἱμάτων κίονας ταῖς τούτων χερσὶ κυκλουμένους, καὶ ζωννυμένους, ξαινομένων ταῖς μάστιξι, τούς τε δια θέοντας τοξότας κατὰ πόλεις καὶ χώρας ὠμοτέ ρους, καὶ θερμοτέρους τοῦ ταῦτα ἐπιτάττοντος, ὡς ἂν ἀντὶ Περσῶν καὶ Σκυθῶν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων βαρβάρων παραστήσωνται· ἵνα μὴ ταῦτα λέγω, τίς οὐκ οἶδε τὴν Ἀλεξανδρέων ἀπανθρωπίαν; οἳ πρὸς πολλοῖς ἄλλοις, οἷς ἐνεανιεύσαντο καθ' ἡμῶν ἀμέτρως τῷ καιρῷ χρησάμενοι, δῆμος ὄντες στασιώδης φύσει καὶ μανικὸς, ἔτι καὶ τοῦτο λέγονται προσθεῖναι τοῖς ἀσεβήμασιν, αἵματος διπλοῦ τὸν ἱερὸν οἶκον ἡμῶν ἐμπλῆσαι, ὅσος τε θυσιῶν καὶ ὅσος ἀνθρώπων· 35.616 καὶ ταῦτα ἐργάσασθαι, στρατηγοῦντός τινος ἐνὸς τῶν βασιλικῶν φιλοσόφων, ἐκ τούτων μόνον ὀνομα σθέντος; Τίς ἀγνοεῖ τὴν Ἡλιουπολιτῶν συστροφήν; τίς τὴν Γαζαίων ἀπόνοιαν, τῶν ὑπ' ἐκείνου θαυμαζο μένων καὶ τιμωμένων, ὅτι καλῶς αὐτοῦ τῆς με γαλοπρεπείας