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was of the truth, nor should this cause fear for women, but for all Christians the highest limit of good reputation is to suffer something incurable for this hope; and he said he was grieved only that there is one death in nature and he finds no device by which he might be able to die many deaths in contending for the truth. 1.1.136 And so, as he braced himself against those threats and regarded all the pomp of that power as nothing, just as on a stage suddenly in the changing of masks one is shown after another, in the same way the bitterness of the threats suddenly was transformed into flattery, and he who before was severe and intimidating in spirit, changing his tone, used gentle and submissive words: "But you," he says, "do not consider it a small thing for the great emperor to be mingled with your people, but accept also to be called his teacher and do not oppose his will; for he wishes this to be done, with some small thing written in the faith being taken away, 1.1.137 that is, the word ‘consubstantial’." But the teacher answers in turn that for the emperor to partake of the church is among the greatest things. "For it is a great thing," he says, "to save a soul, not because it is an emperor's, but because it is a human's at all; but as for the faith, I am so far from making a subtraction or addition, that I would not even change the order 1.1.138 of what is written." These things 20the coward and unmanly one, the one startled at the sound of a door20, both said in word to one so great in dignity and confirmed what was said through his deeds; who stopped in himself and turned back the destruction of the churches at that time, which was flowing like a torrent through the powers, alone sufficing for the assault of the evil, just as some great and unshakable rock in the sea, in place of a great and large wave, shattering the assault of the terrible things against himself. 1.1.139 And his struggles did not stop at these things, but again the emperor himself undertakes the test, being vexed that he did not achieve his pleasure in the first assault. Just as, then, the Assyrian once accomplished the destruction of the temple of the Israelites in Jerusalem through the cook Nebuzaradan, so also this man, having commanded such a service to a certain Demosthenes, the one appointed over the dishes and chief of the cooks, as being more reckless than the others, thought he would master the whole enterprise. 1.1.140 So then, while that man was stirring up everything, and a certain one of the God-fighters from Illyricum was holding a tablet in his hands and was gathering all those in authority for this purpose, and Modestus again kindled his anger more fiercely than his previous attack, everyone was moved by the emperor's anger, sharing in his indignation as he raged and indulging the wrath of power, but all were prostrated beforehand by fear of what was 1.1.141 expected. For again that prefect, again assaults more vehement than the former ones, and additions to the threats, and a sharper anger, and the drama around the tribunal: heralds, ushers, lictors, railings, curtains, by which easily even the spirits of the very well-prepared are terrified; and again the athlete of God in the second contests and 1.1.142 surpassing even the glory from the previous ones. But if you seek the proofs of these things, look at the facts themselves. For what place did the destruction of the churches at that time not overrun? What nation remained untouched by the supervision of the heretics? Which of those held in high esteem in the churches was not shaken from his labors? What people escaped 1.1.143 such abuse? Was not all Syria and Mesopotamia up to the borders with the barbarians, not Phoenicia and Palestine and Arabia and Egypt and the nations of Libya to the end of our inhabited world, not all these regions here, Pontus and Cilicia, Lycia, Lydia, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Caria, the Hellespont, the islands as far as the Propontis itself, not all the parts of Thrace as far as Thrace extended and the nations around it as far as the Ister

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ἀληθείας ἐξῇ, μηδὲ γυναιξὶ τοῦτο φόβον παρέχειν, ἀλλ' εἶναι πᾶσι Χριστιανοῖς τὸν ἀνωτάτω τῆς εὐκληρίας ὅρον τὸ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐλπίδος τι ταύτης τῶν ἀνηκέστων παθεῖν· λυπεῖσθαι δὲ μόνον ἔλεγεν ὅτι εἷς ἐστιν ἐν τῇ φύσει ὁ θάνατος καὶ οὐδεμίαν μηχανὴν ἐξευρίσκει πολλοῖς δυνηθῆναι θανάτοις τῆς ἀληθείας προ αγωνίσασθαι. 1.1.136 Οὕτω δὲ αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὰς ἀπειλὰς ἐκείνας ἑαυτὸν ἀντεπαίροντος καὶ πάντα τὸν ὄγκον τῆς δυναστείας ἐκείνης ἀντ' οὐδενὸς παραβλέποντος, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ σκηνῆς ἀθρόως ἐν ταῖς τῶν προσώπων ὑπαλλαγαῖς ἀνθ' ἑτέρων ἕτερα δείκνυται, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἡ πικρία τῶν ἀπειλῶν ἐξαίφνης εἰς κολακείαν μετεσκευάζετο καὶ μεταβαλὼν ὁ τέως βαρὺς καὶ καταπληκτικὸς τῷ φρονήματι τοὺς ἐπιεικεῖς τε καὶ ὑφειμένους τῶν λόγων Σὺ δέ, φησί, μὴ μικρὸν ποιοῦ βασιλέα τὸν μέγαν τῷ σῷ καταμιχθῆναι λαῷ, ἀλλὰ δέξαι κἀκείνου κληθῆναι διδάσκαλος μηδὲ ἀντιβῇς τῷ βουλήματι· βούλεται δὲ μικροῦ τινος τῶν ἐν τῇ πίστει γεγραμμένων ὑφαιρεθέν 1.1.137 τος, τῆς τοῦ ὁμοουσίου λέξεως, τοῦτο γενέσθαι. ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν μετασχεῖν τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὸν βασιλέα τῶν μεγίστων εἶναι πάλιν ὁ διδάσκαλος ἀποκρίνεται. μέγα γάρ, φησί, τὸ ψυχὴν περισώσασθαι, οὐχ ὅτι βασιλέως, ἀλλ' ὅτι ὅλως ἀνθρώπου· τῆς δὲ πίστεως τοσοῦτον ἀπέχειν ὑφαίρεσιν ἢ προσθήκην ποιήσασθαι, ὡς μηδὲ τὴν τάξιν ἂν ὑπαλλάξαι 1.1.138 τῶν γεγραμμένων. ταῦτα 20ὁ δειλός τε καὶ ἄνανδρος. ὁ πρὸς τὸν ψόφον τῆς θύρας ἐπτοημένος20, πρὸς τὸν τοσοῦτον τῷ ἀξιώματι καὶ εἶπε τῷ λόγῳ καὶ διὰ τῶν ἔργων τὸ ῥηθὲν ἐπιστώσατο· ὃς τὴν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τότε καταστρο φὴν οἷόν τινα χειμάρρουν διὰ τῶν δυναστειῶν ῥέουσαν ἔστη σεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ ἀπέστρεψε, μόνος ἀρκέσας τῇ τοῦ κακοῦ προσβολῇ, καθάπερ τις ἐν θαλάσσῃ πέτρα μεγάλη καὶ ἄσειστος ἀντὶ κύματος πολλοῦ καὶ μεγάλου τὴν τῶν δεινῶν προσβολὴν ἐν ἑαυτῷ περιθρύψας. 1.1.139 Καὶ οὐ μέχρι τούτων ἔστη τὰ τῆς ἀγωνίας αὐτῷ, ἀλλ' ἐκδέχεται πάλιν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὴν πεῖραν αὐτός, ἀγανακτῶν ὅτι μὴ κατὰ τὴν πρώτην προσβολὴν τὰ καθ' ἡδονὴν κατ ειργάσατο. ὥσπερ τοίνυν διὰ τοῦ μαγείρου Ναβουζαρδὰν ἐπὶ τῶν Ἱεροσολύμων ποτὲ ὁ Ἀσσύριος τὴν τοῦ ναοῦ καθ-αίρεσιν τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν κατειργάσατο, οὕτω καὶ οὗτος ∆ημοσθένει τινὶ τῷ ἐπὶ τῶν ὄψων τεταγμένῳ καὶ τῶν μαγεί ρων ἄρχοντι ὡς ἰταμωτέρῳ τῶν ἄλλων τὴν τοιαύτην ὑπη ρεσίαν προστάξας κρατήσειν ᾤετο τοῦ παντὸς ἐγχειρήματος. 1.1.140 πάντα τοίνυν ἐκείνου διακυκῶντος καί τινος τῶν ἐκ τοῦ Ἰλλυρικοῦ θεομάχων πυκτίον ἔχοντος ἐν χερσὶ καὶ τοὺς ἐν τέλει πρὸς τοῦτο πάντας ἀθροίζοντος καὶ χαλεπώτερον τῆς προλαβούσης ὁρμῆς τοῦ Μοδέστου πάλιν τὴν ὀργὴν ἀναφλέ ξαντος, πάντες μὲν συνεκινοῦντο πρὸς τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ὀργὴν συναγανακτοῦντες αὐτῷ χαλεπαίνοντι καὶ τῷ τῆς ἐξουσίας θυμῷ χαριζόμενοι, πάντες δὲ τῷ φόβῳ τῶν προσ 1.1.141 δοκωμένων προκατεβέβληντο. πάλιν γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ὁ ὕπαρ χος, πάλιν [φόβων] ἐπαναστάσεις τῶν προτέρων σφοδρότεραι καὶ τῶν ἀπειλῶν προσθῆκαι καὶ ὁ θυμὸς ἀκμαιότερος καὶ ἡ περὶ τὸ δικαστήριον τραγῳδία, κήρυκες εἰσαγωγεῖς ῥα βδοῦχοι κιγκλίδες παραπετάσματα, δι' ὧν εὐκόλως καὶ τὰ τῶν σφόδρα παρεσκευασμένων καταπτοεῖται φρονήματα· καὶ πάλιν ὁ ἀθλητὴς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῖς δευτέροις τῶν ἀγώνων καὶ 1.1.142 τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς προλαβοῦσι δόξαν ὑπερβαλλόμενος. εἰ δὲ ζητεῖς τούτων τὰς ἀποδείξεις, εἰς αὐτὰ βλέπε τὰ πράγ ματα. ποῖον γὰρ οὐκ ἐπενείματο τόπον τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ἡ τηνικαῦτα καταστροφή; ποῖον ἔμεινεν ἔθνος τῆς τῶν αἱρετικῶν ἐπιστασίας ἀπείρατον; τίς τῶν κατὰ τὰς ἐκκλη σίας εὐδοκιμούντων οὐκ ἀπεσείσθη τῶν πόνων; ποῖος διέ 1.1.143 φυγε λαὸς τὴν τοιαύτην ἐπήρειαν; οὐ Συρία πᾶσα καὶ τῶν ποταμῶν ἡ μέση μέχρι τῶν πρὸς τοὺς βαρβάρους ὅρων, οὐ Φοινίκη καὶ Παλαιστίνη καὶ Ἀραβία καὶ Αἴγυπτος καὶ τὰ ἔθνη τῆς Λιβύης ἕως τοῦ τέρματος τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς οἰκου μένης, οὐ τὰ ἐπὶ τάδε πάντα, Ποντικοὶ καὶ Κίλικες Λύκιοι Λυδοὶ Πισίδαι Πάμφυλοι Κᾶρες Ἑλλησπόντιοι νησιῶται μέχρι τῆς Προποντίδος αὐτῆς, οὐ τὰ ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης πάντα ἕως ἦν ἡ Θρᾴκη καὶ τὰ περὶ αὐτὴν ἔθνη ἕως πρὸς τὸν Ἴστρον