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they have brought the evangelical laws to all men. And not only Romans and those who pay tribute under them, but also the Scythian and Sarmatian nations, and Indians and Ethiopians and Persians and Seres and Hyrcanians and Bactrians and Britons and Cimbri and Germans, and, in short, every nation and race of men they persuaded to accept the laws of the crucified one, not by using arms and many myriads of picked troops, nor by employing the violence of Persian cruelty, but by persuading and 9.16 showing the laws to be beneficial, and not even doing this without dangers, but enduring many drunken riots in every city, and receiving many scourgings even from common men, and being tortured and imprisoned and accepting every form of punishment. For though they were benefactors and saviors and physicians, some drove them out as conspirators and enemies, others stoned them, others bound them in fetters and stocks, and some of them they beat to death, others they crucified, and others they gave to wild beasts. But while they struck down the lawgivers, they did not destroy the power of the laws; for they were shown to be much stronger after their death. 9.17 For to Persians and Scythians and the other barbarian nations the laws crossed over after their death; and though all were at war, not only barbarians, but even Romans themselves, they remained having the same power; and though the Romans pulled every rope, so as to destroy the memory of the fishermen and the leather-worker, they made it more brilliant and more conspicuous; and while they ordered the laws of Lycurgus and Solon and Zaleucus and Charondas and Minos and the other lawgivers to be inactive, and no one of those who lived under them spoke against it, but the word became law; and the memory of the much-vaunted lawgivers was extinguished, the laws of the Romans govern the cities of the Greeks. And inactive among the Athenians is the Areopagus 9.18 and the Heliaea and the court at the Delphinium and the council of the five hundred and the eleven and the thesmothetae and the polemarch and the archon of the year—names otherwise known to very few who are willing to read what was written by the ancients; and among the Lacedaemonians one cannot see the expulsion of foreigners nor the slavery of the helots nor the neodamodeis nor the license for pederasty from the laws of Lycurgus nor the 9.19 lawful transgressions concerning marriage. For Lycurgus, the best of lawgivers, as it seems to the wise among the Greeks, proclaimed in his laws, as those who have written the constitution of the Lacedaemonians say, that it was permitted for both men and women who had already accepted the yoke of marriage, for women to have children by other men, and for men by women joined to other men, mixing without fear; and Plato admired these laws, and ordered 9. the city fashioned by him to be governed according to them. But let us save the philosopher for last, as a philosopher priding himself on being the best of lawgivers, but now of the Pythian laws—for it makes no difference to call them Pythian or Lycurgan—let us expose the weakness. For as soon as the Romans ordered these to be inactive and their own to prevail, the unconquerable power of Lycurgus was dissolved; but the laws of the fishermen and tax collectors and the tentmaker, not Gaius was strong enough, not Claudius to destroy, not Nero who came after them, and this though he had struck down two of the best lawgivers—for 9.21 he killed Peter and Paul, but he did not kill the laws along with the lawgivers—not Vespasian, not Titus, not Domitian, and this though he used many and varied devices against them; for he sent many who embraced them to their death, using all sorts of punishments. And Trajan and Hadrian also arrayed themselves vehemently against these laws; but Trajan destroyed the dynasty of the Persians and Armenians to the Romans

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ἅπα σιν ἀνθρώποις τοὺς εὐαγγελικοὺς προσενηνόχασι νόμους. Καὶ οὐ μόνον Ῥωμαίους καὶ τοὺς ὑπὸ τούτοις τελοῦντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ Σκυθικὰ καὶ τὰ Σαυροματικὰ ἔθνη καὶ Ἰνδοὺς καὶ Αἰθίοπας καὶ Πέρσας καὶ Σῆρας καὶ Ὑρκανοὺς καὶ Βακτριανοὺς καὶ Βρεττανοὺς καὶ Κίμβρους καὶ Γερμανοὺς καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς πᾶν ἔθνος καὶ γένος ἀνθρώπων δέξασθαι τοῦ σταυρωθέντος τοὺς νόμους ἀνέπει σαν, οὐχ ὅπλοις χρησάμενοι καὶ πολλαῖς μυριάσι λογάδων οὐδὲ τῇ τῆς Περσικῆς ὠμότητος χρώμενοι βίᾳ, ἀλλὰ πείθοντες καὶ 9.16 δεικνύντες ὀνησιφόρους τοὺς νόμους, καὶ οὐδὲ δίχα κινδύνων τοῦτο ποιοῦντες, ἀλλὰ πολλὰς μὲν κατὰ πόλιν ὑπομένοντες πα ροινίας, πολλὰς δὲ καὶ παρὰ τῶν τυχόντων δεχόμενοι μάστιγας καὶ στρεβλούμενοι καὶ καθειργνύμενοι καὶ πᾶσαν ἰδέαν κολαστη ρίων δεχόμενοι. Εὐεργέτας γάρ τοι ὄντας καὶ σωτῆρας καὶ ἰατρούς, ὡς ἐπιβούλους καὶ πολεμίους οἱ μὲν ἐξήλαυνον, οἱ δὲ καὶ κατέλευον, οἱ δὲ πέδαις καὶ ποδοκάκαις ἐδέσμουν, καὶ τοὺς μὲν αὐτῶν ἀπετυμπάνισαν, τοὺς δὲ ἀνεσκολόπισαν, τοὺς δὲ θηρίοις παρέδοσαν. Ἀλλὰ τοὺς μὲν νομοθέτας κατηκόντισαν, τὸ δὲ τῶν νόμων οὐ κατέλυσαν κράτος· πολλῷ γὰρ ἰσχυρότεροι μετὰ τὴν ἐκείνων ἀπεφάνθησαν τελευτήν. 9.17 Πρὸς γάρ τοι Πέρσας καὶ Σκύθας καὶ τἄλλα βάρβαρα ἔθνη μετὰ τὴν ἐκείνων οἱ νόμοι διέβησαν τελευτήν· καὶ πάντων πολε μούντων, οὐ μόνον βαρβάρων, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῶν γε Ῥωμαίων, διέμειναν τὸ ἴσον ἔχοντες κράτος· καὶ πάντα κάλων Ῥωμαῖοι κινήσαντες, ὥστε τῶν ἁλιέων καὶ τοῦ σκυτοτόμου καταλῦσαι τὴν μνήμην, λαμπροτέραν αὐτὴν καὶ περιφανεστέραν ἀπέφηναν· καὶ τοὺς μὲν Λυκούργου καὶ Σόλωνος καὶ Ζαλεύκου καὶ Χαρώνδου καὶ Μίνωος καὶ τῶν ἄλλων νομοθετῶν ἀργεῖν προσέταξαν νόμους, καὶ ἀντεῖπε τῶν ὑπ' ἐκείνοις πολιτευσαμένων οὐδείς, ἀλλ' ὁ λόγος ἐγένετο νόμος· καὶ ἀπέσβη μὲν τῶν πολυθρυλήτων νομο θετῶν ἡ μνήμη, οἱ δὲ Ῥωμαίων νόμοι τὰς τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἰθύνουσι πόλεις. Καὶ ἀργεῖ μὲν παρ' Ἀθηναίοις ὁ Ἄρειος 9.18 πάγος καὶ ἡ Ἡλιαία καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ ∆ελφινίῳ δικαστήριον καὶ ἡ τῶν πεντακοσίων βουλὴ καὶ οἱ ἕνδεκα καὶ οἱ θεσμοθέται καὶ ὁ πολέ μαρχος καὶ ὁ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ἄρχων-ὀνόματα ἄλλως ἐστὶν ὀλί γοις κομιδῇ γνώριμα τοῖς ἀναγινώσκειν ἐθέλουσι τὰ τοῖς πάλαι ξυγγεγραμμένα· παρὰ δὲ Λακεδαιμονίοις ξενηλασίαν οὐκ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν οὐδὲ τὴν τῶν εἱλώτων δουλείαν οὐδὲ τοὺς νεοδαμώδεις οὐδὲ τὴν ἐκ τῶν Λυκούργου νόμων τῆς παιδεραστίας ἄδειαν οὐδὲ τὰς 9.19 ἐννόμους εἰς τοὺς γάμους παρανομίας. Ὁ γάρ τοι Λυκοῦργος, τῶν νομοθετῶν ὁ ἄριστος, ὡς δοκεῖ τοῖς τῶν Ἑλλήνων σοφοῖς, διηγόρευσεν ἐν τοῖς νόμοις, ὡς οἱ τὴν Λακεδαιμονίων πολιτείαν ξυγγεγραφότες φασίν, ἐξεῖναι καὶ ἀνδράσι καὶ γυναιξὶν ἤδη δεξα μένοις τὸν τοῦ γάμου ζυγόν, ταῖς μὲν ἐξ ἄλλων ἀνδρῶν, τοῖς δὲ ἐκ γυναικῶν ἑτέροις ἀνδράσι ξυνεζευγμένων ποιεῖσθαι παῖδας ἀδεῶς μιγνυμένοις· καὶ τούτους τεθαύμακε τοὺς νόμους ὁ Πλά των, καὶ τὴν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ διαπλασθεῖσαν πόλιν κατὰ τούτους προσέ 9. ταξε πολιτεύεσθαι. Ἀλλὰ τὸν φιλόσοφον, ὡς φιλόσοφον καὶ τῶν νομοθετῶν εἶναι σεμνυνόμενον ἄριστον, φυλάξωμεν ἔσχατον, νῦν δὲ τῶν Πυθίων νόμων-οὐδὲν γὰρ διαφέρει Πυθίους ἢ Λυκουρ γείους καλεῖν-διελέγξωμεν τὴν ἀσθένειαν. Ἅμα τε γὰρ προσέταξαν οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι τούτους ἀργεῖν καὶ τοὺς σφετέρους κρατεῖν, καὶ διελύθη τῶν Λυκούργου τὸ ἄμαχον κράτος· τῶν δὲ ἁλιέων καὶ τελωνῶν καὶ τοῦ σκηνορράφου τοὺς νόμους οὐ Γάϊος ἴσχυσεν, οὐ Κλαύδιος καταλῦσαι, οὐ Νέρων ὁ μετ' ἐκείνους, καὶ ταῦτα δύο τῶν νομοθετῶν τοὺς ἀρίστους κατακοντίσας-καὶ γὰρ 9.21 τὸν Πέτρον ἐκεῖνος καὶ τὸν Παῦλον ἀνεῖλεν, ἀλλ' οὐ ξυνανεῖλε τοῖς νομοθέταις τοὺς νόμους-οὐκ Οὐεσπασιανός, οὐ Τίτος, οὐ ∆ομετιανός, καὶ ταῦτα πολλοῖς κατ' αὐτῶν καὶ παντοδαποῖς χρησάμενος μηχανήμασι· πολλοὺς γὰρ δὴ τούτους ἀσπαζομένους τῷ θανάτῳ παρέπεμψε, παντοδαπαῖς κολαστηρίων ἰδέαις χρησά μενος. Καὶ Τραϊανὸς δὲ καὶ Ἀδριανὸς σφόδρα κατὰ τῶνδε τῶν νόμων παρεταξάτην· ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν Περσῶν ὁ Τραϊανὸς δυναστείαν κατέλυσε καὶ Ἀρμενίους τῷ Ῥωμαίων