92. The rest of my tale, of what a kind, and how extensive is it! Would that someone would give me the leisure and the eloquence of Herodotus and Thucydides, that I may fitly deliver down to all time to come the wickedness of that man, and that the stories of that period may be posted up for those who come after us! I will say nothing about the Orontes and the nightly murders which the Orontes concealed at the emperor's command, its stream choked with corpses, and slaying without making a show; for here it would be more to the purpose to quote the lines of the "Iliad." I will hurry over the vaults and recesses of his place, and all that there was in the cisterns, in the wells, and in the conduits,⁷⁹ crammed as they were with wicked stores and mysteries----not only of boys and maidens cut into pieces for the purpose of raising ghosts, for divination, and for unlawful sacrifices, but also of persons who had perished for their religion. Let us put down all this to the account of those of whom even he was ashamed----in this at least acting rightly, for he showed by the attempt to conceal it that the abomination was not a seemly thing to be made public. The affair, however, of our friends at Caesarea, those that were so immoderate and hot in the zeal for religion, and were so harassed and insulted by him on that account, it is perhaps not reasonable to blame him for, as he appeared to be rightly exasperated on account of Dame Fortune's having come to grief in the moment of his good fortune----since we must make some allowance even to unrighteousness when it is in power.

ϞΒʹ. Τἄλλα δὲ οἷα καὶ ὅσα; Τίς ἄν μοι δοίη τὴν Ἡροδότου καὶ Θουκυδίδου σχολήν τε καὶ γλῶτταν, ἵνα καὶ τῷ μέλλοντι χρόνῳ παραδῶ τὴν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς πονηρίαν, καὶ στηλιτευθῇ τοῖς μετέπειτα τὰ τοῦ καιροῦ διηγήματα; Σιωπήσομαι τὸν Ὀρόντην καὶ τοὺς νυκτερινοὺς νεκροὺς, οὓς τῷ βασιλεῖ συνέκρυπτεν οὗτος στεινόμενος νεκύεσσι, καὶ κτείνων ἀδήλως: ἐνταῦθα γὰρ τὰ τοῦ ἔπους εἰπεῖν οἰκειότερον. Παραδραμοῦμαι καὶ τῶν βασιλείων τὰ κοῖλα καὶ ἀπωτάτω, ὅσα τε ἐν λάκκοις καὶ φρέασι, καὶ διώρυξι κακῶν γέμοντα θησαυρῶν τε καὶ μυστηρίων: οὐ μόνον τῶν ἀνατεμνομένων παίδων τε καὶ παρθένων ἐπὶ ψυχαγωγίᾳ καὶ μαντείᾳ, καὶ θυσίαις οὐ νενομισμέναις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας κινδυνευόντων. Συγχωρήσωμεν, εἰ δοκεῖ, ταῦτα, οἷς κἀκεῖνος ᾐσχύνετο, τοῦτό γε ποιῶν μέτριον: δῆλον δὲ τῷ κρύπτειν ἐπιχειρεῖν, ὡς οὐκ εὐπρεπὲς ὂν τὸ ἄγος δημοσιεύεσθαι: τὰ μὲν γὰρ Καισαρέων τῶν ἡμετέρων, τούτων δὲ τῶν μεγαλοφυῶν καὶ θερμῶν εἰς εὐσέβειαν, οὕτως ὑπ' αὐτοῦ περιεληλαμένων καὶ ὑβρισμένων, ἴσως οὐδὲν ὀνειδίζειν ἄξιον: ἐδόκει γὰρ ὑπὲρ τῆς τύχης ἐνδίκως ἀγανακτῶν ἐν καιρῷ τῆς εὐτυχίας ἀτυχησάσης, ἐπὶ ταύτην προεληλυθέναι τὴν ἀντίδοσιν: ἐπειδὴ δεῖ τι καὶ συγχωρεῖν καὶ ἀδικίᾳ κατακρατούσῃ.