34. He expostulates with Constantius.

Now when such enormities as these were again perpetrated by the Arians, I surely was not wrong in complying with the direction of Holy Scripture, which says, ‘Hide thyself for a little moment, until the wrath of the Lord be overpast104    Is. xxvi. 20, LXX..’ This was another reason for my withdrawing myself, Augustus, most beloved of God; and I refused not, either to depart into the desert, or, if need were, to be let down from a wall in a basket105    2 Cor. xi. 33.. I endured everything, I even dwelt among wild beasts, that your favour might return to me, waiting for an opportunity to offer to you this my defence, confident as I am that they will be condemned, and your goodness manifested unto me. O, Augustus, blessed and most beloved of God, what would you have had me to do? to come to you while my calumniators were inflamed with rage against me, and were seeking to kill me; or, as it is written, to hide myself a little, that in the mean time they might be condemned as heretics, and your goodness might be manifested unto me? or would you have had me, Sire, to appear before your magistrates, in order that though you had written merely in the way of threatening, they not understanding your intention, but being exasperated against me by the Arians, might kill me on the authority of your letters, and on that ground ascribe the murder to you? It would neither have been becoming in me to surrender, and give myself up that my blood might be shed, nor in you, as a Christian King, to have the murder of Christians, and those too Bishops, imputed unto you.

34 Τοιούτων δὲ πάλιν καὶ τοσούτων γενομένων παρὰ τῶν Ἀρειανῶν, οὐκ ἐσφάλην ἄρα πεισθεὶς τῇ θείᾳ Γραφῇ λεγούσῃ· «Ἀλλ' ἀποκρύβηθι μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον, ἕως παρέλθῃ ἡ ὀργὴ Κυρίου». Καὶ αὕτη γάρ μοι πάλιν πρόφασις γέγονε τῆς ἀναχωρήσεως, θεοφιλέστατε Αὔγουστε, καὶ οὐ παρῃτησάμην οὔτε εἰς τὴν ἔρημον ἀπελθεῖν, οὔτε, εἰ ἀνάγκη γένοιτο, διὰ σαργάνης ἀπὸ τείχους χαλασθῆναι. Πάντα γὰρ ὑπέμεινα, καὶ θηρίοις συνῴκησα, καὶ ὑμᾶς περιελθεῖν, ἐκδεχόμενος τούτων τῶν λόγων καιρόν, καὶ θαρρῶν ὅτι οἱ μὲν διαβάλλοντες καταγνωσθήσονται, ἡ δὲ σὴ φιλανθρωπία δειχθήσεται. Ὦ μακάριε καὶ θεοφιλέστατε Αὔγουστε, τί ἐβούλου; ἐλθεῖν με φλεγμαινόντων καὶ ζητούντων ἀποκτεῖναι τῶν συκοφαντούντων ἡμᾶς, ἢ κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, ἀποκρυβῆναι μικρόν, ἵνα ἐν τῷ τοσούτῳ διαστήματι οἱ μὲν συκοφάνται καταγνωσθῶσιν αἱρετικοί, ἡ δὲ σὴ φιλανθρωπία δειχθήσεται; Τί δέ, ὦ βασιλεῦ, ἐβούλου με ὀφθῆναι τοῖς σοῖς δικασταῖς, ἵνα, εἰ καὶ σὺ μέχρι μόνης ἀπειλῆς ἔγραψας, ἐκεῖνοι μὴ νοοῦντες τὴν σὴν διάνοιαν, ἔχοντες δὲ τοὺς Ἀρειανοὺς παροξύνοντας αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῶν γραμμάτων σου ἀποκτείνωσι καὶ εἰς σὲ τὸν φόνον ἀναθῶνται διὰ τὰ γράμματα; Οὐκ ἔπρεπεν οὔτε ἐμὲ αὐτομολεῖν, καὶ εἰς αἵματα ἐμαυτὸν ἀποδιδόναι, οὔτε σε φιλόχριστον ὄντα βασιλέα ἐπὶ φόνοις Χριστιανῶν, καὶ ταῦτα ἐπισκόπων, ἐπιγράφεσθαι.