Gregory Nazianzen's Second Invective Against Julian The Emperor.

 1. THUS, then, the first portion of my task has now been completed and brought to an end for I have shown up the wickedness of that personage, both i

 2. Diseases justly sent upon the impious, rendings that cannot be concealed, plagues and scourges of divers kinds, corresponding to the atrocities the

 3. He [Julian] was daily growing more infuriated against us, as though raising up waves by other waves, he that went mad first against himself, that t

 4. And when he had formed this plan, and made them believe it (for whatever suits one's wishes is a ready engine for deceiving people), they began to

 5. What will those gentlemen say of these events----they who are wise, as this world goes, and make a fine show of their own cause, smoothing down the

 6. Thus much is taken from things celestial and sympathizing with our fortunes, in accordance with the mighty harmony and disposition of the universe.

 7. Was it then only earth and heaven, and did not air likewise give a sign on that occasion, and was hallowed with the badges of the Passion? Let thos

 8. So passed that affair but he, infatuated and urged on as he was by his furies in detail, advances to meet the finishing stroke of his crimes: for,

 9. But, as already said, such was his determination----and he was full of eagerness, bringing into one every jugglery of divination, of imposture, of

 10. From this point, however, like sand slipping from beneath the feet, or a great wave bursting upon a ship, things began to go back with him for Ct

 11. For a man, one of no little consideration amongst the Persians, following the example of. that Zopyrus employed by Cyrus in the case of Babylon, o

 12. And when he had said this, and gained credence to his story (for rashness is credulous, especially when God drives it on), everything that was dre

 13. Up to this point, such is the universal account but thenceforward, one and the same story is not told by all, but different accounts are reported

 14. One action of this person deserves not to be passed over in silence, as it contains, to wind up many others, the strongest exemplification of his

 15. When that man had received the imperial power immediately after him, who was elected for his successor in the very camp, and in the extremity of d

 16. What then remained but for the corpse of the impious one to be carried home by the Romans, although he had closed his career in this manner? For w

 17. We, however, more commonly out of regard for his father (who had laid the foundation of the imperial power and the Christian religion) as well as

 18. But as for the other, the circumstances attending his departure to the war were disgraceful (for he was pursued by mobs and townsfolk with vulgar

 19. And these things I have related as forming the greatest and most important of the charges against him, though I am not ignorant that to two or thr

 20. What shall I say of his revisals and alterations of sentences, frequently changed and upset at midnight, like the tides? For my fine fellow though

 21. That part, too, is certainly to be commended in the training of our philosopher, that he was so very free from anger, and superior to all the pass

 22. But the puffings and blowings of the fire (in which this wonderful man, who reviles our rites, set an example to all old ladies) when he was kindl

 23. This character of his was made known by experience to others, and by his coming to the throne which gave him free scope to display it. But it had

 24. Why should I go into particulars? I saw the man before his actions exactly what I afterwards found him in

 25. These are the tales of us Galileans----of us, the vile and abject these are told by us who worship the Crucified One, the disciples of the uned

 26. Now the King of Judah, Hezekiah, when a certain king of the foreigners had come against him with a great force, and had encompassed Jerusalem with

 27. Is this the recompense from thee to the Christians, in return for having been saved (unluckily) by their means? Didst thou thus repay the Lord thy

 28. These things therefore did I think and cry aloud unto God, but now for what expressions, and in place of what, do I exchange them? Henceforth, I b

 29. Let these things therefore take their course in what way soever is well-pleasing to God! Who knows whether He who looseth those that be bound, an

 80. Give me thy reasons, both as an emperor, and as a sophist, thy conclusive arguments and syllogisms: let us see what our own fishermen and vulgar f

 31. Let thy herald hush his disgraceful proclamation let my

 32. No more does the Oak speak no more does the Cauldron thou is

 33. Men and women, young and old, all ye that have been admitted to this tribunal, and all ye that are set in the lower place, all ye whom the Lord ha

 34. Wherefore let us be really corrected by this divine correction let us show ourselves deserving, not only of what we have suffered at first, but o

 35. First, therefore, brethren, let us keep a festival, not with cheerfulness of face, nor changes and sumptuousness of apparel, nor with revellings a

 36. Secondly, the words I am about to utter will be unpleasant and hard of acceptation, I well know, to the generality (for man when placed in a posit

 37. Let us conquer those that have oppressed us, with clemency and above all let humanity be our director, and the force of that commandment which pr

 38. I pass over the inspired, and our own denouncements, and the punishments that, according to us, are in store in the world to come: turn, pray, to

 39. Here is a keepsake for thee in return for a kick, thou best and wisest of men! (to address thee in thy own words) this words, thy  

 40. For we two were not less courageous than the youths who were cooled with dew in the furnace and who overcame the wild beasts through Faith and w

 41. This is the meaning of the lies and ravings of thy Porphyry (of which ye all boast as divinely-inspired words), and of thy Misopogon, or rather

 42. Here is a pillar for thee, raised by our hands, more lofty and more conspicuous than the Pillars of Hercules for they this

40. For we two were not less courageous than the youths who were cooled with dew in the furnace; and who overcame the wild beasts through Faith; and who zealously faced danger along with the mother that bore them and the yet bolder priest----showing that Faith alone of all things is invincible; or than those youths in thy own time, one of whom having insulted thy "Mother of the gods," and pulled down her altar, was brought before thee as a criminal, but came before thee as a triumphant champion, and after casting much ridicule upon thy purple robe and thy speeches, as mere counters31 and things to be laughed at, went out again with greater confidence than one returning from a feast or splendid entertainment; whilst another, deeply lacerated over all his body with scourges, and having but little breath left in him from his wounds, was so far from giving in to his torments or making a hardship of his condition, that when he perceived any part of his body not marked by the lashes, he forthwith accused his torturers as defrauding him, and not conferring honour upon his whole body, but letting some part pass unlacerated and unhallowed----holding out his leg as the only part that had escaped the claws,32 and bidding them not spare that also.  

Μʹ. Οὐ γὰρ ἀγεννέστεροι τῶν νεανίσκων ἐκείνων ἡμεῖς, τῶν ἐν πυρὶ δροσισθέντων καὶ θῆρας νικησάντων ἐκ πίστεως, καὶ μητρὶ γενναίᾳ, καὶ ἱερεῖ γενναιοτέρῳ προθύμως συγκινδυνευσάντων, καὶ δειξάντων, ὅτι μόνον τῶν ἁπάντων πίστις ἀνάλωτον: ἢ τούτων δὴ τῶν ἐπὶ σοῦ νεανίσκων, ὧν ὁ μὲν τὴν μητέρα τῶν σῶν θεῶν καθυβρίσας, καὶ βωμὸν διασπείρας, προσήχθη μὲν ὡς κατάκριτος, εἰσῆλθε δὲ ὡς νικηφόρος, καὶ πολλά σου τῆς ἁλουργίδος καὶ τῶν λόγων καταγελάσας, ὡς ψηφολογικῶν καὶ γελοίων, μετὰ πλείονος ἐξῆλθε τῆς παῤῥησίας, ὡς εἴ τις ἀπὸ δείπνου ἐπαναστρέφων καὶ λαμπρᾶς ἑστιάσεως: ὁ δὲ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα δορκαλίσι καταξανθεὶς εἰς βάθος, καὶ μικρὰ πνέων ἔτι τοῖς τραύμασι, τοσοῦτον ἀπεῖχεν ἐνδιδόναι πρὸς τὰς βασάνους, ἢ δεινόν τι τῶν παρόντων νομίζειν, ὥστε, ἐπειδή τι τοῦ σώματος εἶδεν ἀνεπηρέαστον ταῖς πληγαῖς, καὶ προσῃτιᾶτο τοὺς βασανιστὰς, ὡς ὑβριστὰς, καὶ οὐ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα τιμήσαντας, ἀλλά τι παρέντας ἄξαντον καὶ ἀνίερον: παραδεικνὺς ἅμα τὴν κνήμην, ὡς μόνην διαφυγοῦσαν τοὺς ὄνυχας, καὶ μηδὲ ταύτης φείδεσθαι διακελευόμενος.