From the kandys and the torc I will know, and the croaking raven from its blackness. Near the precinct of the wisdom of God a splendid house had been built by the emperors of old, a delicate garden, one might say, of book-bearing trees, a brightly planted grove of all kinds of wisdom; for books had been treasured up in it, reaching to thirty thousand plus another three thousand, reaching to three thousand plus five hundred. And so great a garden and so large a grove had been entrusted to a divine man, preeminent in wisdom and shining more than all with the rays of knowledge, another Adam, one might say, a divinely-inspired gardener, delighting in the fair-sprouting branches of Eden, and a husbandman of plants that do not wither. With him were other men and they lived together, just as lieutenants with a noble general, truly bright stars and torch-bearers of the night. And they filled the number of the life-bearing circle. And they were unpaid teachers to the lovers of learning; for they removed the veil of obscure speech, both of all the Hellenic trickery and rottenness, and of all our own most holy learning. But he himself shone among them all like the sun, like a giant. And so great was their surplus of virtue that it was not permitted even for the emperors themselves to innovate or to do anything novel and beyond the customary, unless those men took part in the council and the decision. Such men, then, being venerable and living venerably and overflowing like a sea with all kinds of graces, the emperor thirsted to catch in his nets, and to have them too as partners in his godless madness. But when, having set all his engines in motion, he was repulsed (for neither by frightening nor by threatening was he strong enough to persuade them, and having used gold, an invincible ally, he realized he was chasing an eagle or shooting at the stars), at last, despairing—but how can I speak of it?—he devised a brutish, monstrous, unholy plan, such as not even a savage Scythian, nor even a Massagete would devise. He heaps up a pile of material in a circle around the house, dry, flammable material, of pine-wood, of brushwood, and he lights a greasy fire, and burns down all the men, alas, the holy ones, and with them the books. Ah, ah, beauty-hating soul! Alas, beastly mind! From his claws the terrible Lion was certainly known. There were the finest of all learned works, and one extraordinary volume made from a dragon's intestine, bearing the Homeric books inscribed, I mean both the Iliad and the Odyssey. And when for twenty years, plus another five, the evil-plotting beast, the flesh-eating Lion, had impiously enjoyed power, or rather, had acted as tyrant (for evils are long-lived and flow away with difficulty), and he was about to be hidden in a tomb and in the all-receiving earth, not ignoble hopes then fawned upon them that the successor to the rule would appear mild and more moderate in judgment and not blood-stained. But, as it seems, just like the Euripus, nature delights to turn back into its own channels; for as the Lion slept in the arms of the tomb the leopard sprang forth much more fierce, and when the bitter-juiced root was covered in the earth a much more bitter-fruited branch grew up from beneath, that Constantine of abominable, dungy name, a viper from the asp, as one might aptly say, hemlock from hellebore, a dragon from a scorpion, another shameless Belshazzar from Nebuchadnezzar. And so the abominable, blood-drinking wolf began to rule—O all-seeing sun, and emperors and laws!—a man who was a sorcerer, a magician, delighting in animal sacrifices and in the foul rites of liver-divination, openly a marsh-dwelling, filth-eating pig. What things able to afflict did this slave of the belly and of intemperance not devise, and what thing found by others did he not attempt to augment? The bride, adorned with gold and living delicately, whom Christ the pure bridegroom had espoused, he suddenly snatched, alas, from the very bridal chambers and rendered her a wrinkled widow, dressed in black. The vine burgeoning with beautiful clusters of grapes, a tusked boar leaping from some thicket dug up, root and all,

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τοῦ κανδύους καὶ τοῦ στρεπτοῦ γνωρίσω καὶ κόρακα τὸν κρωκτικὸν ἐκ τῆς μελαντηρίας. Τοῦ τεμενίσματος ἐγγὺς τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ σοφίας οἶκος λαμπρὸς δεδόμητο τοῖς πάλαι βασιλεῦσι, κῆπος ἂν εἴπῃ τις ἁβρὸς βιβλιοφόρων δένδρων, ἄλσος ἀγλαοφύτευτον παντοδαπῆς σοφίας· βίβλοι γὰρ ἦσαν ἐν αὐτῷ προτεθησαυρισμέναι εἰς τρισμυρίας φθάνουσαι πρὸς ἄλλαις τρισχιλίαις εἰς τρισχιλίους φθάνουσα πρὸς ταῖς πεντακοσίαις. τὸν τηλικοῦτον κῆπον δὲ καὶ τὸ τοσοῦτον ἄλσος θεῖος ἀνὴρ πεπίστευτο, προέχων ἐν σοφίᾳ καὶ πλέον πάντων ταῖς αὐγαῖς τῆς γνώσεως ἐκλάμπων, ἄλλος, ἂν εἴποι τις, Ἀδὰμ ἔνθεος δενδροκόμος, τοῖς τῆς Ἐδὲμ ἐπεντρυφῶν καλλιβλαστήτοις κλάδοις, καὶ φυτευμάτων γεωργὸς τῶν μὴ μαραινομένων. τούτῳ συνῆσαν ἕτεροι καὶ συνδιῆγον ἄνδρες, καθάπερ ὑποστράτηγοι γενναίῳ στρατηγέτῃ, ἀστέρες ἀντικρὺς φαιδροὶ καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς δᾳδοῦχοι. ἐπλήρουν δὲ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τοῦ ζῳοφόρου κύκλου. ἄμισθοι δ' ἦσαν παιδευταὶ τοῖς ἐρασταῖς τοῦ λόγου· ἀφῄρουν γὰρ τὸ κάλυμμα τῆς σκοτεινολογίας, ὁπόση τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς τερθρείας καὶ σαπρίας, ὁπόση τε τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἱεροπρεπεστάτης. αὐτὸς δ' ἐν πᾶσιν ἔστιλβεν ἥλιος ὥσπερ γίγας. τοσοῦτον δ' ἦν τὸ περιὸν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐκείνοις ὡς μηδ' αὐτοῖς τοῖς ἄναξι καινοτομεῖν ἐξεῖναι ἢ πράττειν τι καινοπρεπὲς καὶ πέρα τοῦ συνήθους, ἂν μὴ μετέσχον τῆς βουλῆς ἐκεῖνοι καὶ τῆς γνώμης. τοιούτους οὖν σεμνοπρεπεῖς ὄντας καὶ σεμνοβίους καὶ χύσει πελαγίζοντας παντοδαπῶν χαρίτων ἐντὸς ἀρκύων συλλαβεῖν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐδίψα, καὶ σχεῖν κἀκείνους κοινωνοὺς τῆς λύσσης τῆς δυσθέου. ὡς δὲ κινήσας μηχανὰς ἁπάσας ἀπεκρούσθη (οὐ γὰρ φοβῶν οὐκ ἀπειλῶν ἴσχυσε τούτους πεῖσαι, καὶ τῷ χρυσῷ χρησάμενος, συμμάχῳ δυσμαχήτῳ, ἔγνω διώκων ἀετὸν ἢ βάλλων εἰς ἀστέρας), τὸ τελευταῖον ἀπογνούς, ἀλλὰ γὰρ πῶς ἐξείπω; βουλὴν βουλεύεται σκαιὰν ἔκτοπον ἀνοσίαν, ἣν οὐδὲ Σκύθης ἄγριος, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ Μασσαγέτης. ὕλης σωρεύει φορυτὸν κύκλῳ περὶ τὸν οἶκον, ὕλην ξηράν, εὐέξαπτον, δᾳδῖτιν, φρυγανῖτιν, καὶ πῦρ ὑφάπτει λιπαρόν, καὶ καταφλέγει πάντας τοὺς ἄνδρας φεῦ τοὺς ἱεροὺς καὶ σὺν αὐτοῖς τὰς βίβλους. αἲ αἲ μισόκαλος ψυχή! φεῦ γνώμη θηριώδης! ἐκ τῶν ὀνύχων ὁ δεινὸς πάντως ἐγνώσθη Λέων. ἦσαν ἐκεῖ τὰ κάλλιστα πάντων τῶν παιδευμάτων, καὶ τόμος εἷς ἐξαίσιος ἐκ δράκοντος ἐντέρου, τὰς δέλτους τὰς Ὁμηρικὰς φέρων ἐγγεγραμμένας, τὴν Ἰλιάδα τέ φημι καὶ τὰ τῆς Ὀδυσσείας. Ὡς δ' ἐπὶ χρόνους εἴκοσι τοῦ κράτους ἀπολαύσας ὁ θὴρ ὁ κακομήχανος, ὁ κρεωβόρος Λέων σὺν ἄλλοις πέντε δυσσεβῶς, ἢ μᾶλλον τυραννήσας, (τὰ γὰρ κακὰ μακρόβια καὶ μόλις ἀπορρέει) ἔμελλε τάφῳ κρύπτεσθαι καὶ γῇ τῇ παντοδόχῳ, ἐλπίδες μὲν οὐκ ἀγεννεῖς ὑπέσαινον τοὺς τότε τὸν τῆς ἀρχῆς διάδοχον ἐπιεικῆ φανῆναι καὶ γνώμῃ μετριώτερον καὶ μὴ μιαιφονοῦντα. ἀλλὰ γὰρ ὥσπερ Εὔριπος, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἡ φύσις εἰς τοὺς ἰδίους ἀγωγοὺς ἀνθυποστρέφειν χαίρει· καὶ γὰρ ὑπνοῦντος Λέοντος ἀγκάλαις ἐνταφίοις ἡ πάρδαλις ἐξέθορε πολλῷ θυμικωτέρα, καὶ καλυφθείσης ἐπὶ γῆς τῆς ῥίζης τῆς δυσχύμου πολλῷ πικροκαρπότερος κλάδος ὑπανεφύη, ὁ μυσαροκοπρώνυμος ἐκεῖνος Κωνσταντῖνος, ἐκ τῆς ἀσπίδος ἔχιδνα, προσφόρως ἄν τις εἴποι, ἐξ ἑλλεβόρου κώνειον, ἀπὸ σκορπίου δράκων, ἄλλος Βαλτάσαρ ἀναιδὴς ἐκ Ναβουχοδονόσορ. Κατῆρξε γοῦν ὁ βδελυρὸς αἱματοπότης λύκος, ὦ πάντα βλέπων ἥλιε, καὶ βασιλεῖς καὶ νόμοι! ἄνθρωπος γόης, φαρμακός, ζωοσφαγίαις χαίρων καὶ τελεταῖς ταῖς μυσαραῖς τῆς ἡπατοσκοπίας, ἄντικρυς τελματόβιος βορβοροφάγος χοῖρος. οὗτος ὁ δοῦλος τῆς γαστρὸς καὶ τῆς ἀκολασίας τί μὲν οὐκ ἐπενόησε τῶν θλίβειν δυναμένων, τί δὲ παρ' ἄλλων εὑρεθὲν αὔξειν οὐκ ἐπεχείρει; νύμφην τὴν χρυσοκόσμητον καὶ τρυφερευομένην, ἥνπερ ἡρμόσατο Χριστὸς ὁ καθαρὸς νυμφίος, αἴφνης ἁρπάσας ἀπ' αὐτῶν φεῦ τῶν παστοπηγίων χήραν ῥυσσὴν ἀπέδειξε καὶ μελανειμονοῦσαν. τὴν ἄμπελον τὴν βρύουσαν βοτρύων καλλιράγων κάπρος ποθὲν ἀπὸ δρυμοῦ πηδήσας χαυλιόδους αὐτόρριζον ἐξώρυξεν,

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