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and of long-standing custom and ancestral doctrines, unless they had admired the truth of the one, and hated the fabulous nature 9.31 of the other. Why indeed do you not recall the ancient wars of the church? For you will very easily dispel this opinion by means of those. For if so many and so great kings, having arrayed themselves with all their might against piety and having brought to bear all sorts of devices, did not work even a slight tremor in its walls, then foolish indeed and utterly crazed is the one who does not suppose the power of the fishermen to be divine, but thinks that it has been magnified by royal authority. 9.32 But that this might become clearer to you, consider what is now being dared by the Persians. For what kind of slaughter has not been devised by them against the pious? Are there not flayings, not amputations of hands and feet, and mutilations of ears and noses, and bonds invented for excessive pain, and pits meticulously prepared, but teeming with the largest of mice feasting on the bound? But nevertheless, having devised so many and many times more punishments than these against the pious, they torture and mutilate their bodies and utterly destroy them, but 9.33 they do not plunder the treasure of faith. And while they compel all their subjects to submit to their other laws, they do not persuade those who have believed to deny the laws of the fishermen. But the Persians, long ago living according to the laws of Zarades, mingling with impunity with mothers and sisters, and indeed with daughters too, and considering lawlessness a lawful law, when they heeded the legislation of the fishermen, they trampled on the laws of Zarades as lawlessness, and loved the evangelical temperance; and having learned from him to expose the dead to dogs and birds of prey, those who have believed now do not endure to do this, but hide them in the earth and do not heed the laws forbidding this, nor do they shudder at the cruelty of their punishers; for surely they fear more the judgment seat of Christ; and laughing at things seen, they dream of and dread things unseen. And these laws they received from 9.34 Galilean men; and they did not fear the power of the Romans, but they submitted to the kingdom of the crucified one; and neither Augustus nor Trajan, who overthrew their rule, forced them to live according to the laws of the Romans, but the writings of Peter and Paul and John and Matthew and Luke and Mark they honor as if brought from heaven, and the natives have submitted to the laws of foreigners and newcomers. 9.35 And the Massagetae, who long ago considered thrice-wretched those who died in any other way than by slaughter, and for this reason made it a law to sacrifice and feast upon the aged, when they hearkened to the laws of fishermen and cobblers, they abhorred this 9.36 loathsome food and slaughter. And the Tibareni, accustomed to pushing their elders down the deepest cliffs, abolished this most wicked law, having hearkened to the evangelical laws. No longer do either the Hyrcanians or the Caspians rear their dogs on the bodies of the dead, nor do the Scythians bury the living with the deceased whom they loved. Such a change did the laws of the fishermen work among the nations. 9.37 And these men persuaded even the barbarian nations to live according to their own laws; but Plato, the best of the philosophers, having written laws, did not persuade even the Athenians, his own fellow citizens, to regulate their state according to these precepts. And quite 9.38 rightly; for they are very laughable. And lest anyone suppose that I am slandering the philosopher, hear, O men, what he has legislated. For having commanded the women, not only the young, but also the old, to exercise naked, then seeing his interlocutors laughing, he took them up and said: "The man who laughs at naked women exercising for the sake of what is best, plucking an unripe fruit of wisdom from the ridiculous, does not even know, 9.39 it seems, at what

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καὶ ἔθους μακροῦ καὶ πατρῴων δογμά των, εἰ μὴ τῶν μὲν ἐθαύμασαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν, τῶν δὲ τὸ μυθῶδες 9.31 ἐμίσησαν. Τί δήποτε δὲ μὴ τοὺς παλαιοὺς τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐνθυ μεῖσθε πολέμους; εὐπετῶς γὰρ μάλα ταύτην διαλύσετε δι' ἐκεί νων τὴν δόξαν. Εἰ γὰρ τοσοῦτοι βασιλεῖς καὶ τηλικοῦτοι, κατὰ τῆς εὐσεβείας παντὶ σθένει παραταξάμενοι καὶ μηχανὰς προσ ενεγκόντες παντοδαπάς, οὐδὲ βραχὺν τοῖς ταύτης περιβόλοις ἐνειργάσαντο κλόνον, ἠλίθιος ἄρα καὶ παντελῶς ἔμπληκτος ὁ μὴ θείαν ὑπολαμβάνων τῶν ἁλιέων τὴν δύναμιν, ἀλλ' ἐκ βασιλικῆς ταύτην ηὐξῆσθαι δυναστείας νομίζων. 9.32 Ἵνα δὲ τοῦτο ὑμῖν ἐκδηλότερον γένηται, τὰ παρὰ Περσῶν νῦν τολμώμενα καταμάθετε. Ποῖον γάρ τοι εἶδος σφαγῆς κατὰ τῶν εὐσεβούντων οὐκ ἐπινενόηται τούτοις; οὐκ ἐκδοραί, οὐκ ἐκτομαὶ χειρῶν καὶ ποδῶν, καὶ ὤτων καὶ ῥινῶν κολοβώσεις, καὶ δεσμοὶ πρὸς ὑπερβολὴν ὀδύνης ἐξευρημένοι, καὶ ὀρύγματα κεχριμένα μὲν εἰς ἀκρίβειαν, μυῶν δὲ τῶν μεγίστων ἀνάπλεα τοὺς δεδεμέ νους θοιναζομένων; ἀλλ' ὅμως τοσαύτας καὶ τούτων πολλαπλα σίας κατὰ τῶν εὐσεβούντων τιμωρίας ἐξευρηκότες, αἰκίζονται μὲν καὶ κολοβοῦσι τὰ σώματα καὶ παντάπασι διαφθείρουσι, τὸν δέ γε 9.33 τῆς πίστεως οὐ λῃστεύουσι θησαυρόν. Καὶ τοῖς μὲν ἄλλοις αὐτῶν νόμοις ἅπαντας ὑποκύπτειν τοὺς ὑπηκόους καταναγκά ζουσι, τοὺς δὲ τῶν ἁλιέων ἐξαρνηθῆναι τοὺς πεπιστευκότας οὐ πείθουσιν. Ἀλλὰ κατὰ τοὺς Ζαράδου πάλαι Πέρσαι πολιτευόμενοι νόμους καὶ μητράσι καὶ ἀδελφαῖς ἀδεῶς καὶ μέντοι καὶ θυγατράσι μιγ νύμενοι καὶ νόμον ἔννομον τὴν παρανομίαν νομίζοντες, ἐπειδὴ τῆς τῶν ἁλιέων νομοθεσίας ἐπήκουσαν, τοὺς μὲν Ζαράδου νόμους ὡς παρανομίαν ἐπάτησαν, τὴν εὐαγγελικὴν δὲ σωφροσύνην ἠγάπησαν· καὶ κυσὶ καὶ οἰωνοῖς τοὺς νεκροὺς προτιθέναι παρ' ἐκείνου μεμαθηκότες, νῦν τοῦτο δρᾶν οἱ πιστεύσαντες οὐκ ἀνέχονται, ἀλλὰ τῇ γῇ κατακρύπτουσι καὶ τῶν τοῦτο δρᾶν ἀπα γορευόντων οὐ φροντίζουσι νόμων οὐδὲ πεφρίκασι τὴν τῶν κολα ζόντων ὠμότητα· πλέον γάρ που δεδοίκασι τὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ δικαστήριον· καὶ τὰ ὁρώμενα γελῶντες ὀνειροπολοῦσι τὰ μὴ φαινόμενα καὶ δειμαίνουσιν. Καὶ τούσδε τοὺς νόμους παρ' ἀνδρῶν 9.34 Γαλιλαίων ἐδέξαντο· καὶ τὴν μὲν Ῥωμαίων δυναστείαν οὐκ ἔδεισαν, τῇ δὲ τοῦ σταυρωθέντος ὑπετάγησαν βασιλείᾳ· καὶ κατὰ μὲν τοὺς Ῥωμαίων πολιτεύεσθαι νόμους οὔτε Αὔγουστος αὐτοὺς κατηνάγκασεν οὔτε Τραϊανός, ὁ τὴν ἐκείνων καταλύσας ἀρχήν, τὰ δὲ Πέτρου καὶ Παύλου καὶ Ἰωάννου καὶ Ματθαίου καὶ Λουκᾶ καὶ Μάρκου ξυγγράμματα ὡς οὐρανόθεν κομισθέντα γεραίρουσι, καὶ οἱ ἰθαγενεῖς τοῖς τῶν ξένων καὶ ἐπηλύδων ὑπετάγησαν νόμοις. 9.35 Καὶ Μασσαγέται δέ, τρισαθλίους ἡγούμενοι πάλαι τοὺς ἄλλως πως καὶ μὴ διὰ σφαγῆς τελευτῶντας καὶ τούτου εἵνεκα τοὺς γεγηρακότας θύειν καὶ θοινᾶσθαι ποιησάμενοι νόμον, ἐπειδὴ τῶν ἁλιευτικῶν καὶ σκυτοτομικῶν ἐπήκουσαν νόμων, ἐβδελύξαντο τὴν 9.36 μυσαρὰν ταύτην ἐδωδὴν καὶ σφαγήν. Καὶ Τιβαρηνοὶ τοὺς πρεσβύ τας κατὰ κρημνῶν βαθυτάτων εἰθικότες ὠθεῖν, τὸν παμπόνηρον τοῦτον κατέλυσαν νόμον, τῶν εὐαγγελικῶν ἐπακούσαντες νόμων. Οὐκέτι δ' οὔτε Ὑρκανοὶ οὔτε Κάσπιοι τοὺς κύνας τοῖς τῶν τεθνεώτων ἐκτρέφουσι σώμασιν, οὔτε Σκύθαι τοῖς τετελευτηκόσι ξυγκατορύττουσι ζῶντας, οὓς ἠγάπων ἐκεῖνοι. Τοσαύτην εἰργά σαντο μεταβολὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν τῶν ἁλιέων οἱ νόμοι. 9.37 Καὶ οὗτοι μὲν καὶ τὰ βάρβαρα ἔθνη κατὰ τοὺς σφῶν ἔπεισαν πολιτεύεσθαι νόμους· Πλάτων δὲ τῶν φιλοσόφων ὁ ἄριστος, νό μους γεγραφώς, οὐδὲ Ἀθηναίους ἔπεισε τοὺς οἰκείους πολίτας κατὰ τὰς τούτων ὑποθήκας τὴν πολιτείαν ῥυθμίσαι. Καὶ μάλα γε 9.38 εἰκότως· μάλα γάρ εἰσι καταγέλαστοι. Καὶ ἵνα μή τις ὑπολάβῃ με συκοφαντεῖν τὸν φιλόσοφον, ἀκούσατε, ὦ ἄνδρες, ὧν ἐκεῖνος νενομοθέτηκεν. Κελεύσας γὰρ καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας, οὐ μόνον τὰς νέας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς γεγηρακυίας, γυμνάζεσθαι, εἶτα γελῶντας τοὺς προσδιαλεγομένους ἰδών, ὑπολαβὼν ἔφη· "Ὁ δὲ γελῶν ἀνὴρ ἐπὶ γυμναῖς ταῖς γυναιξὶ τοῦ βελτίστου ἕνεκα γυμναζομέ ναις, ἀτελῆ τοῦ γελοίου σοφίας δρεπόμενος καρπόν, οὐδὲ οἶδεν, 9.39 ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐφ'