84. Shall I join with this a yet more painful sting than what is told above? It is reported that some of those thus unwittingly taken in, after they had been thus treated, and were returned home, they gave an entertainment to their messmates. After the meal, when the drinking had advanced as far as the customary cold draught, they, as though no harm had happened, invoked the name of Christ over the bowl containing the liquor, casting their eyes upwards with the sign of the Cross. Some one of their messmates, wondering at it, said: "What means this? Do ye mention Christ, after renouncing Him?" "How have we renounced Him?" reply they, half dead with fright, "and what is this strange news we hear?" On his reply, "You have thrown incense on the fire," and informing them that was the renunciation,⁶⁸ they immediately, leaping up from the banquet like men out of their senses and frantic, boiling with zeal and fury, they rushed through the grand square, shouting out and calling, "We are Christians! Christians in our souls! Let every man hear it, and God above all, unto Whom we live and will die! We have not been false to Thee, O Saviour Christ; we have not denied the blessed Confession; if the hand has erred at all, the conscience has not gone with it. We have been cunningly entrapped by the Emperor, we have not turned traitors for gold. We cast off the impiety; we cleanse ourselves with our blood." Then running up to the Emperor, they cried out very boldly, "We have not received gifts, O Emperor, but have been condemned to death; we have not been summoned for honour, but have been sentenced to disgrace. Grant a favour to thy own soldiers: sacrifice us to Christ, of Whom alone we are the subjects: give us fire instead of the fire; make ashes of us instead of those ashes: cut off the hands which we so wickedly extended; the feet with which we so wickedly ran. Honour with thy gold others that will not repent of having taken it; Christ suffices us, Whom we have in the place of all things." Saying these words all with one voice, they also exhorted the rest to understand the fraud, to recover from their intoxication, to make excuse to Christ with their blood. The Emperor was exasperated at this, but avoided putting them to death openly, that he might not make martyrs out of them----they who, as far as depended on themselves at least, were true martyrs; he sentenced them to banishment,⁶⁹ and so took his revenge on them, thereby conferring on them the greatest benefit, that they should be stationed at a distance from his abominations and his stratagems.

ΠΔʹ. Μίξω τούτοις τι διήγημα τῶν εἰρημένων ἐλεεινότερον. Λέγονταί τοι τῶν ἁλόντων τινὲς ἐξ ἀγνοίας, ἐπειδὴ τοῦτο ἔπαθον καὶ ἀνεχώρησεν οἴκαδε, τοῖς συσσίτοις κοινωνεῖν τραπέζης: εἶτα τοῦ πότου προελθόντος εἰς τὴν συνήθη ψυχροποσίαν, ὡς οὐδενὸς ὄντος αὐτοῖς δεινοῦ, τῇ ψυχροφόρῳ κύλικι, Χριστὸν ἐπειπεῖν μετὰ τῆς σφραγῖδος ἄνω βλέψαντας. Τῶν δὲ συσσίτων τινὸς θαυμάσαντος, καί: Τί τοῦτο; εἰπόντος, Χριστὸν ἐπικαλεῖσθε μετὰ τὴν ἄρνησιν; Πῶς ἠρνήμεθα; φάναι τοὺς ἡμιθνῆτας, καὶ τί τὸ καινὸν τοῦτο ἄκουσμα; Τοῦ δὲ, Ὅτι κατὰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐθυμιάσατε, φήσαντος, καὶ τοῦτο εἶναι διδάξαντος τὴν ἄρνησιν, εὐθὺς ἀναπηδήσαντες τοῦ συμποσίου, καθάπερ ἐκμανεῖς καὶ παραπλῆγες, ζήλῳ καὶ θυμῷ ζέοντες, διὰ τῆς ἀγορᾶς θέειν βοῶντες καὶ λέγοντες: Χριστιανοὶ, Χριστιανοὶ τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμεῖς: ἀκουέτω πᾶς ἄνθρωπος, καὶ πρὸ πάντων Θεὸς, ᾧ καὶ ζῶμεν καὶ τεθνηξόμεθα. Οὐκ ἐψευσάμεθά σε, Σῶτερ Χριστέ: οὐκ ἠρνησάμεθα τὴν μακαρίαν ὁμολογίαν. Εἴ τι καὶ ἡ χεὶρ ἔπταισεν, ἀλλ' ἡ διάνοιά γε οὐκ ἠκολούθησεν. Βασιλεῖ κατεσοφίσθημεν, οὐ χρυσοῦ τραυματίαι γεγόναμεν. Ἀπεκδυόμεθα τὴν ἀσέβειαν, αἵματι καθαιρόμεθα. Εἶτα τῷ βασιλεῖ προσδραμόντες, καὶ τὸν χρυσὸν προσρίψαντες λίαν νεανικῶς: Οὐ δῶρα δεδέγμεθα, βασιλεῦ, βοᾷν, ἀλλὰ θάνατον κατακεκρίμεθα: οὐκ εἰς τιμὴν ἐκλήθημεν, ἀλλ' ἀτιμίαν κατεψηφίσθημεν. Δὸς χάριν τοῖς σοῖς στρατιώταις: Χριστῷ σφαγίασον ἡμᾶς, ᾧ μόνῳ βασιλευόμεθα: ἀντίδος πῦρ τοῦ πυρός: τέφραν ἀντὶ τῆς τέφρας ἐκείνης ποίησον. Ἀπόκοψον χεῖρας, ἃς κακῶς προὐτείναμεν: πόδας, οἷς κακῶς ἐδράμομεν. Ἄλλους τῷ χρυσῷ τίμησον, οἷς οὐ μεταμελήσει λαβοῦσιν: ἡμῖν δὲ ἀρκεῖ Χριστὸς, ὃν ἀντὶ πάντων ἔχομεν. Ταῦτα λέγειν τε ὁμοῦ, καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις διακελεύεσθαι γνῶναι τὴν ἀπάτην, ἀνανῆψαι τῆς μέθης, ἀπολογήσασθαι τῷ Χριστῷ δι' αἵματος: ἐφ' οἷς ἀγανακτήσαντα τὸν βασιλέα, τὸ μὲν φανερῶς κτεῖναι φυγεῖν, ἵνα μὴ μάρτυρας ἐργάσηται τοὺς ὅσον τὸ ἐπ' αὐτοῖς μάρτυρας, ἐξορίᾳ δὲ παραδόντα, οὕτως ἀμύνασθαι, καὶ μεγίστην εὐεργεσίαν καταθέσθαι, τὸ πόῤῥω στήσεσθαι τῶν ἑαυτοῦ μιασμάτων καὶ τεχνασμάτων.