Gregory Nazianzen's First Invective Against Julian The Emperor.
32. In reality it seems a harder matter to retain good things, than to obtain
66. Moreover he shows his audacity against the great symbol , solace to toil, king
109. Dost thou wish me to ascend to the main article in thy madness, or rather infatuation? Whence come the very practice of initiating and being initiated, and religious ceremony? Do not they all proceed from the Thracians? Let the very appellation (θρησκεύειν) convince thee. As for sacrificing victims, does not that come from the Assyrians, or perhaps the Cyprians; the observation of the stars from the Chaldeans, the art of land-measuring from the Egyptians? Is not the science of magic a Persian invention? The interpretation of dreams, from whom else dost thou hear it but from the Telmessians? And augury, from whom else than the Phrygians, the first men to study the flying of birds and their various motions? And not to draw out the subject too far, whence dost thou get each single part? Is it not one part from each separate source? but out of all coming together into the same, there has grown up a single mystery of superstitious worship. What follows then: must we submit, when everything has thus reverted to the first inventors, to possess nothing of our own but vice and this new-fangled rule as regards the Deity? For thou art the first of the Christians that hast plotted rebellion against thy Master, just as the slaves did against the Scythians, as history tells us; and it had been a very good thing if thy wicked band also had been dispersed according to thy own 91 Scythian rulers and laws, in which case we had been delivered from troubles, and it would have been our lot to view the Roman realm in the enjoyment of its ancient happiness, and exempted from all intestine discord----a thing that is more to be shunned and dreaded than any war of foreigners, by so much as the devouring of one's own flesh is more to be shunned than the consuming that of others.
ΡΘʹ. Βούλει, τἄλλα παρεὶς, ἐπ' αὐτὸ τὸ κεφάλαιον ἀναδράμω τῆς σῆς ἐμπληξίας, εἴτ' οὖν θεοβλαβείας; αὐτὸ δὲ πόθεν σοι τὸ μυεῖσθαι, καὶ τὸ μυεῖν, καὶ τὸ θρησκεύειν; Οὐ παρὰ Θρᾳκῶν, καὶ ἡ κλῆσις πειθέτω σε; Τὸ θύειν δὲ οὐ παρὰ Χαλδαίων, εἴτ' οὖν Κυπρίων; Τὸ ἀστρονομεῖν δὲ οὐ Βαβυλώνιον; Τὸ δὲ γεωμετρεῖν οὐκ Αἰγύπτιον; Τὸ δὲ μαγεύειν οὐ Περσικόν; Τὴν δὲ δι' ὀνείρων μαντικὴν τίνων ἢ Τελμησέων ἀκούεις; Τὴν οἰωνιστικὴν δὲ τίνων; οὐκ ἄλλων ἢ Φρυγῶν, τῶν πρώτων περιεργασαμένων ὀρνίθων πτῆσίν τε καὶ κινήματα; Καὶ, ἵνα μὴ μακρολογῶ, πόθεν σοι τὸ καθ' ἕκαστον; οὐχ ἓν ἐξ ἑκάστων; ὧν πάντων εἰς ταυτὸ συνελθόντων, ἓν δεισιδαιμονίας συνέστη μυστήριον; Τί οὖν; δεξόμεθα, πάντων ἀποχωρησάντων εἰς τοὺς πρώτους τε καὶ τοὺς εὑρομένους, μηδὲν ἔχειν ἡμέτερον πλὴν τῆς κακίας, καὶ τῆς περὶ τὸ Θεῖον ταύτης καινοτομίας; Πρῶτος γὰρ Χριστιανῶν ἐπανάστασιν τῷ Δεσπότῃ, καθάπερ οἱ δοῦλοί ποτε τοῖς Σκύθαις, ὥς φασιν, ἐπενόησας. Πολλοῦ μέντ' ἂν ἄξιον ἦν, εἴ σοι διελύθη τὸ πονηρὸν τοῦτο σύνταγμα, κατὰ τοὺς σοὺς ὅρους καὶ νόμους, ἵν' ἡμεῖς ἦμεν πραγμάτων ἀπηλλαγμένοι, καὶ πάλιν ἐπὶ τῆς ἀρχαίας εὐδαιμονίας τὴν Ῥωμαϊκὴν ἀρχὴν ὁρᾷν ὑπῆρχε, πάσης ἀπηλλαγμένην ἐμφυλίου στάσεως: ὃ τοῦ παρὰ τῶν ἔξωθεν πολέμου πολλῷ φευκτότερόν ἐστι καὶ φοβερώτερον, ὅσῳ τὰς οἰκείας δαπανᾷν σάρκας τῶν ἀλλοτρίων φευκτότερον.