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differing from the opposite Charybdis. Or will you blame the arrows of the archers and the stones of the slingers, but not the slingers and the archers? And further, the dogs of the hunters, and the poisons of the poisoners, and the horns of goring oxen and the claws of rending beasts; but will those who use these things stand aside and not share in the blame for what they dare? This is great foolishness, and truly in need of a sophist, who pleads for his own evils, and with the power of speech conceals the truth. But it is not so; how he will hide himself, not even if he twists much and becomes all things in his devices, nor if he puts on the cap of Hades, as they say, or using the ring of Gyges, and the turn of its bezel, he should conceal himself; on the contrary, the more he attempts to flee and escape, the more he is convicted by judging truth, and by the wiser judges of these things, as one who both does and dares such things, for which not even he himself could plead as being justly done; so easily captured is wickedness, and on every side falling into itself.

5. And it was not that the things he was already doing were of such a kind and so far from royal nobility and magnificence; while the things he intended to do were gentler and more kingly. It would indeed have been worth much, if they were not much more inhuman than the things mentioned. For just as when a serpent moves 35.629 scales, some already bristle, others begin to bristle, and others are about to, and it is not possible for some not to be moved, even if they happen to be at rest for a time; or, if you will, as with a thunderbolt, some things are already struck, and others are darkened beforehand, until these too are reached by the prevailing evil, so also with him some things were already being transgressed, while others were being sketched out in his hopes and in his threats against us; and these things were so monstrous, and so far from the customary, as to belong to his mind alone, both to have devised these things, and to have been willing to put them into action, although there had been many persecutors and enemies of the Christians before him.

6. For what neither Diocletian, the first to insult the Christians, nor his successor and surpasser Maximian, ever conceived, nor Maximinus, the persecutor after them, and beyond them (of whose plague for this the images still bear the symbols, publicly displayed, and pillorying the mutilation of his body), these things that man intended, as those who were sharers and witnesses of his secrets testify; but he was restrained by the loving-kindness of God, and by the tears of Christians, which indeed were shed copiously and by many, as they had this alone as a remedy against the persecutor; and these things were that Christians should be deprived of all freedom of speech, and be barred from all assemblies, markets, festivals, and the law courts themselves for it was not permitted to make use of these, for anyone who would not burn incense upon the altars placed before them, and thus give a great price for so great a thing. O laws, and lawgivers, and kings, who just as the beauty of the sky, and the light of the sun, and the diffusion of the air, are set before all with a common and ungrudging philanthropy, so also have you set forth the participation in the laws for all free men, equal and of like honor! of which he intended to deprive Christians; so that it would not be permitted for those being tyrannized to receive justice, nor for those suffering financial loss, nor for those suffering any other thing small or great of the things forbidden to be aided by the laws; but to be exiles, and to be put to death, and to be almost deprived 35.632 of breath itself; which for those who suffered held greater honor and confidence toward God, but for those who did them, greater lawlessness and dishonor

. 7. And the reasoning, how all-wise, of the murderer and patron, and of the lawless one and lawgiver, or, that I may speak more appropriately, of the enemy and avenger, according to our doctrine; for it is of our law neither to defend ourselves, nor to go to law, nor to possess anything at all, nor to consider anything our own; but to live for another world, and of the

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διαφέρουσαι τῆς ἀντιθέτοι Χαρύβδεως. Ἢ καὶ τῶν τοξοτῶν σὺ καὶ τῶν σφενδονιτῶν τὰ βέλη καὶ τοὺς λίθους καταιτιάσῃ, ἀλλ' οὐ τοὺς σφενδονῶντας καὶ τοὺς τοξεύοντας; ἔτι δὲ τῶν κυνηγετῶν τοὺς κύνας, καὶ τῶν φαρμα κέων τὰ δηλητήρια, καὶ τῶν κεραττόντων βοῶν καὶ σπαραττόντων θηρίων τὰ κέρατα καὶ τοὺς ὄνυχας· οἱ δὲ χρώμενοι τούτοις ἐκτὸς στήσονται καὶ οὐ μεθέξουσι τῆς ὧν τολμῶσιν αἰτίας; Πολλῆς ταῦ τα τῆς ἀλογίας, καὶ ὄντως σοφιστοῦ δεόμενα, τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ συνηγοροῦντος κακοῖς, καὶ τῇ τοῦ λόγου δυ νάμει τὸ ἀληθὲς συγκαλύπτοντος. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἔστι· ὅπως ἑαυτὸν ἀποκρύψει, οὐδ' ἂν πολλὰ στραφῇ καὶ παντοῖος γένηται ταῖς ἐπινοίαις, οὐδ' εἰ τὴν Ἄϊδος κυνέην, ὃ δὴ λέγεται, περιθέμενος, ἢ τῷ δακτυλίῳ Γύγου, καὶ τῇ στροφῇ τῆς σφενδόνης χρησάμενος, ἑαυτὸν ἀποκλέψειε· τοὐναντίον μὲν οὖν, ὅσῳ φεύγειν ἐπιχειρεῖ καὶ διαδιδράσκειν, τοσού τῳ πλέον ἁλίσκεται παρὰ ἀληθείᾳ δικαζούσῃ, καὶ τοῖς συνετωτέροις τούτων κριταῖς, ὡς ταῦτα πράττων τε καὶ τολμῶν, οἷς οὐδ' ἂν αὐτὸς ὡς δικαίως πραττο μένοις ἔχῃ συνηγορεῖν· οὕτως εὐάλωτόν ἐστιν ἡ πονη ρία, καὶ πανταχόθεν ἑαυτῇ περιπίπτουσα.

Εʹ. Καὶ οὐχ ἃ μὲν ἔπραττεν ἤδη, τοιαῦτα καὶ οὕτω πόῤῥω βασιλικῆς εὐγενείας καὶ μεγαλοπρεπείας· ἃ δὲ διενοεῖτο πράξειν, ἡμερώτερά τε καὶ βασιλικώτερα. Πολλοῦ μέντ' ἂν ἄξιον ἦν, εἰ μὴ πολὺ τῶν εἰρημένων ἀπανθρωπότερα. Ὥσπερ γὰρ δράκοντος κινουμένου 35.629 φολίδες, αἱ μὲν ἤδη φρίσσουσιν, αἱ δὲ ἐπιφρίσσουσιν, αἱ δὲ μέλλουσι, τὰς δὲ οὐκ ἔστι μὴ κινηθῆναι, κἂν ἠρεμοῦσαι τέως τυγχάνωσιν· εἰ βούλει δὲ, ὥσπερ κεραυνῷ, τὰ μὲν ἤδη κατέχεται, τὰ δὲ προμε λαίνεται, μέχρις ἂν καὶ ταῦτα ἐπέλθῃ τοῦ κακοῦ δυναστεύοντος, οὕτω κἀκείνῳ τὰ μὲν ἤδη παρηνομεῖτο, τὰ δὲ ὑπεγράφετο ταῖς ἐλπίσι καὶ ταῖς καθ' ἡμῶν ἀπειλαῖς· καὶ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔκτοπα, καὶ πόῤῥω τῶν εἰθισμένων, ὡς τῆς ἐκείνου διανοίας εἶναι μόνης, ταῦτα καὶ βουλεύσασθαι, καὶ εἰς ἔργον ἀγαγεῖν ἐθε λῆσαι, καίτοι πολλῶν πρὸ αὐτοῦ γεγενημένων διωκτῶν καὶ πολεμίων Χριστιανοῖς.

ςʹ. Ἃ γὰρ μήτε ∆ιοκλητιανὸς, ὁ πρῶτος ἐνυβρίσας Χριστιανοῖς, μήτε ὁ τοῦτον ἐκδεξάμενος καὶ ὑπερβαλὼν Μαξιμιανὸς ἐνεθυμήθη πώποτε, μήτε Μαξιμῖνος, ὁ μετ' ἐκείνους, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἐκείνους διώ κτης (οὗ τὰ σύμβολα τῆς ἐπὶ τούτῳ πληγῆς αἱ εἰκόνες φέρουσιν ἔτι δημοσίᾳ προκείμεναι, καὶ στη λιτεύουσαι τὴν λώβην τοῦ σώματος), ταῦτα ἐκεῖνος διενοεῖτο μὲν, ὡς οἱ τῶν ἀποῤῥήτων ἐκείνου κοινω νοὶ καὶ μάρτυρες· ἐπεσχέθη δὲ τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ φι λανθρωπίᾳ, καὶ τοῖς Χριστιανῶν δάκρυσιν, ἃ πολλὰ δὴ καὶ παρὰ πολλῶν ἐχέθη, τοῦτο μόνον ἐχόντων κατὰ τοῦ διώκτου φάρμακον· ταῦτα δὲ ἦν πάσης μὲν παῤῥησίας ἀποστερεῖσθαι Χριστιανοὺς, πάντων δὲ αὐτοὺς εἴργεσθαι συλλόγων, ἀγορῶν, πανηγύρεων, τῶν δικαστηρίων αὐτῶν μὴ γὰρ ἐξεῖ ναι κεχρῆσθαι τούτοις, ὅστις μὴ κατὰ τῶν βωμῶν θυμιάσειεν ἔμπροσθεν κειμένων, καὶ μισθὸν δοίη μέγαν οὕτω καὶ τοσούτου πράγματος. Ὦ νόμοι, καὶ νομοθέται, καὶ βασιλεῖς, οἳ καθάπερ οὐρανοῦ κάλλος, καὶ ἡλίου φῶς, καὶ ἀέρος χύσις, ἅπασι πρόκεινται φιλανθρωπία κοινή τε καὶ ἄφθονος, οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὴν τῶν νόμων μετουσίαν προθέντες ἅπασιν ἐλευθέροις, ἴσην τε καὶ ὁμότιμον! ἧς ἐκεῖνος ἀποστερήσειν διενοεῖτο Χριστιανούς· ὡς μήτε τυραννουμένοις δίκας ἐξεῖναι λαβεῖν, μήτε ζημιουμένοις εἰς χρήματα, μήτε ἄλλο τι πάσχουσι μικρὸν ἢ μεῖζον τῶν ἀπηγορευμέ νων ἐπικουρεῖσθαι τοῖς νόμοις· ἀλλ' ἐξορί στους εἶναι, καὶ ἀναιρεῖσθαι, καὶ μικροῦ τῶν ἀνα 35.632 πνοῶν εἴργεσθαι· ἃ τοῖς μὲν πάσχουσι πλείω φιλοτι μίαν εἶχε καὶ τὴν πρὸς Θεὸν παῤῥησίαν, τοῖς δρῶσι δὲ μείζω τὴν παρανομίαν καὶ ἀδοξίαν

. Ζʹ. Καὶ ὁ λόγος ὡς πάνσοφος τοῦ φονευτοῦ καὶ προστάτου, καὶ παρανόμου καὶ νομοθέτου, ἢ, ἵν' οἰκειότερον εἴπω, τοῦ ἐχθροῦ καὶ ἐκδικητοῦ, κατὰ τὸν ἡμετέρον λόγον· εἶναι γὰρ τοῦ ἡμετέρου νόμου μήτε ἀμύνεσθαι, μήτε δικάζεσθαι, μήτε κεκτῆσθαί τι τὴν ἀρχὴν, μήτε νομίζειν ἴδιόν τι· ἀλλὰ ζῇν ἑτέρωθι, καὶ τῶν