75. The government administered with moderation, ⁵⁸ the lowering of the taxes, the judicious choice of magistrates, the punishment of peculators, and all the other marks of a transient and momentary prosperity and illusion were, forsooth, likely to produce great benefit to the public, and our ears must needs be dinned with their praises; but populations and cities torn by faction, families torn asunder, households set at variance, marriages dissolved., and all else that it was natural should follow that mischievous step, and which really did follow it to a great extent ⁵⁹----were these things conducive either to that man's glory, or to the benefit of the public? and yet who is there either so warm a partisan of impiety (paganism), or so destitute of common sense, that he would assent to this? For, as in the case of the body, if one or two members are diseased, the rest may possibly endure it without harm, and the blessing of health be maintained in the entire person through which even the parts affected may again be set to rights; but when the greater part is at strife, and full of bitterness, there is no possibility for the whole to be well, and such a state of things is manifest danger; in the same manner in governments it happens that single infirmities are covered over by the well-being of the mass; but when the majority are in a rotten state, there is danger to the whole.⁶⁰ And this I think anyone else, even of those who hate us most, would have perceived; his bad temper, however, had darkened his reason, and he goes on weaving the snares of persecution for small and great alike.

ΟΕʹ. Ἢ δρόμος μὲν ἀνεκτῶς διοικούμενος, καὶ φόρων ἄνεσις, καὶ ἀρχόντων ἐκλογὴ, καὶ κλοπῶν ἐπιτίμησις, καὶ τἄλλα ὅσα τῆς προσκαίρου καὶ ἀκαριαίας μακαριότητος καὶ φαντασίας, μεγάλην ἔμελλε τῷ κοινῷ παρέξειν τὴν ὠφέλειαν, καὶ περιθρυλλεῖσθαι ἡμῶν ἔδει τὰ ὦτα τούτων ἐπαινουμένων: δῆμοι δὲ στασιάζοντες καὶ πόλεις, καὶ γένη ῥηγνύμενα, καὶ οἰκίαι διιστάμεναι, καὶ συζυγίαι σχιζόμεναι, ἃ τῷ κακῷ πάντα ἦν εἰκὸς ἀκολουθεῖν ἐκείνῳ, καὶ μέντοι καὶ ἠκολούθησε σφόδρα, ἢ πρὸς εὐδοξίαν ἐκείνῳ κάλλιστα εἶχεν, ἢ τῷ κοινῷ πρὸς ἀσφάλειαν; Καίτοι τίς οὕτως ἢ πρὸς ἀσέβειαν εὔκολος, ἢ τῶν κοινῶν ἔξω λογισμῶν, ὅστις ἂν ταῦτα συμφήσειεν; Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν τοῖς σώμασιν, ἑνὸς μὲν ἢ δυοῖν μελῶν ἀσθενέστερον διακειμένων, οὐ χαλεπῶς ἀναφέρει τὰ λοιπὰ, καὶ συντηρεῖται τὸ τῆς ὑγιείας ἀγαθὸν τῷ πλείονι, ᾧ τάχα ἂν κἀκεῖνα πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον ἐπανέλθοι: τοῦ δὲ πλείονος στασιάζοντος καὶ πικρῶς ἔχοντος, οὐδὲ μία μηχανὴ μὴ τὸ πᾶν ἔχειν κακῶς, καὶ κίνδυνος ἤδη τὸ τοιοῦτο σαφής: οὕτω κἀν τοῖς ἀρχομένοις τὰς μὲν καθ' ἕκαστον ἀῤῥωστίας συμβαίνει τῷ κοινῷ κρύπτεσθαι κρεῖσσον ἔχοντι: τῶν πλειόνων δὲ σαθρῶς ἐχόντων, τῷ παντὶ κίνδυνος. Ὅ μοι δοκεῖ ἄλλον μὲν ἂν ἰδεῖν, καὶ τῶν σφόδρα μισούντων ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ νῦν καιρῷ, καὶ τῇ τοσαύτῃ τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐπιδόσει. Τοῦ δὲ ἡ πονηρία τοῖς λογισμοῖς ἐπεσκότισε: καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μικροῖς τε ὁμοίως καὶ μείζοσι πλέκει τὸν διωγμόν.