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having taken captives, departed, but they could not bear Abraham, the citizen of the desert, when he came against them; and very reasonably so; for he had a power much greater than the security of a multitude and of walls, namely, his piety. If you are a Christian, you have no city upon the earth; the architect and maker of our city is God; and even if we should take the whole world, we are strangers and sojourners 49.178 of all of it. We have been enrolled in heaven, there we have our citizenship; let us not, like little children, despising great things, admire small ones. Not the size of a city, but the virtue of the soul is its ornament and security. But if you think the dignity of a city is something, consider how many fornicators, how many effeminate and depraved men, and those full of countless evils share with you in this dignity, and at last despise this honor. But that city is not such; for it is impossible for one who has not displayed all virtue to have a share in it. Let us not therefore become foolish, but let us feel pain then, when someone takes away the dignity of our soul, when we commit sin, when we offend the common Lord of all; since the things that have now happened will not only not harm the city at all, but, if we are sober, will also benefit it in the greatest ways. For now our city resembles a respectable, free, and temperate woman; fear has made her more gentle and more solemn, and has delivered her from those vile men who dared to do what has been done. Let us not, therefore, wail with womanish lamentations; for I have heard many in the marketplace saying: ‘Woe to you, Antioch! what has happened to you? how you have been dishonored!’ and having heard this, I laughed at the childish mind of those saying these things. For it is not now that one ought to say these things; but when you see people dancing, getting drunk, singing, blaspheming, swearing, perjuring, lying, then recite this saying: ‘Woe to you, O city! what has happened to you?’ but if you see the marketplace with a few men who are gentle and temperate and moderate, bless that city. For fewness of numbers will never be able to harm it, when virtue is present, just as a multitude will never be of any benefit, when vice is present. If the number of the children of Israel, he says, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. The multitude will not be able to abash me, he says; so also Christ did; He pronounced woe upon cities not on account of fewness, not because they were not metropolises; and Jerusalem again for this very reason He pronounced woe upon, saying thus: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.’ For what benefit does the multitude bring me, tell me, if it lives in wickedness? On the contrary, rather, even harm comes from this. Now then, what else has wrought the evils that have happened? Was it not the indolence, and the negligence, and the wickedness of the inhabitants? Did the dignity of the city help at all, or the size of its buildings, or its being a metropolis? But if with the earthly emperor this was of no avail to it when it sinned, but all those things were taken away, much more with the Lord of the angels will this dignity be of no avail to it; for nothing will be able to help us on that day, to live in a metropolis, and one having wide porticoes and the other such dignities. And why do I say ‘on that day’? For in the present life what will it be able to help you that your city is a metropolis? Has anyone from this corrected a poorly managed house, or received any income, or from this dignity driven away despondency, or cured a bodily illness, or put away vice of the soul? Let us not trifle, beloved, nor let us look to the opinions of the many, 49.179 but let us learn what is the dignity of a city, what it is that makes a city a metropolis. I say these things while expecting that the city will again receive back this status, and will appear in its own presidency; for the emperor is both benevolent and God-loving; but I wish you, even if it should be restored, not to be proud of this nor to take pride in it, nor from these things to dignify our city. When you wish to speak an encomium of the city, do not to me

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λαβόντες αἰχμαλώτους ἀπῆλθον, τὸν δὲ τῆς ἐρήμου πολίτην Ἀβραὰμ οὐκ ἤνεγκαν ἐπελθόντα· καὶ μάλα εἰκότως· τῆς γὰρ ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους καὶ τῶν τειχῶν ἀσφαλείας πολλῷ μείζονα εἶχε δύναμιν, τὴν εὐσέβειαν. Εἰ Χριστιανὸς εἶ, πόλιν οὐκ ἔχεις ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· τῆς πόλεως ἡμῶν τεχνίτης καὶ δημιουργός ἐστιν ὁ Θεός· κἂν ἅπασαν λάβωμεν τὴν οἰκουμένην, ξένοι καὶ παρεπίδη 49.178 μοι πάσης ἐσμέν. Εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐνεγράφημεν, ἐκεῖ πολιτευόμεθα· μὴ κατὰ τὰ παιδία τὰ μικρὰ τῶν μεγάλων ὑπερορῶντες, τὰ μικρὰ θαυμάζωμεν. Οὐ μέγεθος πόλεως, ἀλλὰ ψυχῆς ἀρετὴ κόσμος ἐστὶ καὶ ἀσφάλεια. Εἰ δὲ ἀξίωμα εἶναι νομίζεις πόλεως, ἐννόησον πόσοι πορνοκόποι, πόσοι μαλακοὶ καὶ διεφθαρμένοι καὶ μυρίων γέμοντες κακῶν κοινωνοῦσί σοι τῆς ἀξίας ταύτης, καὶ καταφρόνησόν ποτε τῆς τιμῆς ταύτης. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐκείνη τοιαύτη· καὶ γὰρ ἀδύνατόν ἐστιν αὐτῆς μετασχεῖν τὸν μὴ πᾶσαν ἐπιδειξάμενον ἀρετήν. Μὴ τοίνυν ἀνόητοι γινώμεθα, ἀλλὰ τότε ἀλγῶμεν, ὅταν τὸ ἀξίωμα ἡμῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀφέληταί τις, ὅταν ἁμαρτίαν ἐργασώμεθα, ὅταν τῷ κοινῷ πάντων ∆εσπότῃ προσκρούσωμεν· ὡς τά γε νῦν γεγενημένα οὐ μόνον οὐδὲν παραβλάψει τὴν πόλιν, ἀλλ' ἐὰν νήφωμεν, καὶ ὠφελήσει τὰ μέγιστα. Καὶ γὰρ γυναικὶ νῦν ἔοικεν ἡμῖν ἡ πόλις εὐσχήμονι καὶ ἐλευθέρᾳ καὶ σώφρονι· ὁ φόβος ἐπιεικεστέραν αὐτὴν καὶ σεμνοτέραν ἐποίησε, καὶ τῶν μιαρῶν ἐκείνων τῶν τὰ γεγενημένα τολμησάντων ἀπήλλαξε. Μὴ τοίνυν γυναικώδεις θρηνῶμεν θρήνους· καὶ γὰρ ἤκουσα πολλῶν κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν λεγόντων· Οὐαί σοι, Ἀντιόχεια! τί σοι γέγονε; πῶς ἠτιμώθης; καὶ ἀκούσας κατεγέλασα τῆς παιδικῆς τῶν ταῦτα λεγόντων διανοίας. Οὐ γὰρ νῦν ταῦτα λέγειν χρή· ἀλλ' ὅταν ἴδῃς ὀρχουμένους, μεθύοντας, ᾄδοντας, βλασφημοῦντας, ὀμνύοντας, ἐπιορκοῦντας, ψευδομένους, τότε ταύτην ἐπίλεγε τὴν ῥῆσιν· Οὐαί σοι πόλις! τί σοι γέγονεν; ἐὰν δὲ ἴδῃς τὴν ἀγορὰν ὀλίγους ἔχουσαν ἄνδρας ἐπιεικεῖς καὶ σώφρονας καὶ μετρίους, μακάριζε τὴν πόλιν ἐκείνην. Οὐδὲν γὰρ ἡ ὀλιγότης αὐτὴν παραβλάψαι ποτὲ δυνήσεται, τῆς ἀρετῆς προσούσης, ὥσπερ οὖν τὸ πλῆθος οὐδὲν ὠφελήσει ποτὲ, κακίας οὔσης. Ἐὰν ᾖ ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, φησὶν, ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς θαλάσσης, τὸ κατάλειμμα σωθήσεται. Οὐδέν με τὸ πλῆθος δυσωπῆσαι δυνήσεται, φησίν· οὕτω καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς ἐποίησεν· ἐταλάνισε πόλεις οὐ δι' ὀλιγότητα, οὐ διὰ τὸ μὴ εἶναι μητροπόλεις· καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ πάλιν δι' αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐταλάνισεν οὕτω λέγων· Ἱερουσαλὴμ, Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἡ ἀποκτείνουσα τοὺς προφήτας, καὶ λιθοβολοῦσα τοὺς ἀπεσταλμένους πρὸς αὐτήν. Τί γάρ μοι τὸ πλῆθος ὄφελος φέρει, εἰπέ μοι, ἂν μετὰ κακίας ᾖ πολιτευόμενον; Τοὐναντίον μὲν οὖν καὶ βλάβος ἀπὸ τούτου γίνεται. Νῦν οὖν τὰ γεγενημένα κακὰ τί ἄλλο εἰργάσατο; οὐχ ἡ ῥᾳθυμία, καὶ ἡ ὀλιγωρία, καὶ ἡ μοχθηρία τῶν ἐνοικούντων; μή τι τὸ ἀξίωμα τὴν πόλιν ὠφέλησε, μή τι τὸ μέγεθος τῆς οἰκοδομῆς, μή τι τὸ μητρόπολιν αὐτὴν εἶναι; Εἰ δὲ παρὰ βασιλεῖ τῷ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς οὐδὲν αὐτῆς τοῦτο ἁμαρτούσης προέστη, ἀλλὰ πάντα ἐκεῖνα ἀφῄρηται, πολλῷ μᾶλλον παρὰ τῷ ∆εσπότῃ τῶν ἀγγέλων οὐδὲν αὐτῆς τὸ ἀξίωμα προστήσεται τοῦτο· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἡμᾶς ὠφελῆσαι δυνήσεται κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην, τὸ μητρόπολιν οἰκεῖν, καὶ στοὰς ἔχουσαν εὐρείας καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἀξιώματα τὰ τοιαῦτα. Καὶ τί λέγω κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην; εἰς γὰρ τὸν παρόντα βίον τί σε ὠφελῆσαι δυνήσεται τὸ μητρόπολιν εἶναί σου τὴν πόλιν; ἆρα οἰκίαν τις κακῶς διακειμένην ἀπὸ τούτου διώρθωσεν, ἢ πρόσοδόν τινα ἔσχεν, ἢ ἀπὸ τῆς ἀξίας ταύτης ἀθυμίαν ἀπεκρούσατο, ἢ σώματος ἀῤῥωστίαν ἔλυσεν, ἢ κακίαν ψυχῆς ἀπέθετο; Μὴ παίζωμεν, ἀγαπητοὶ, μηδὲ πρὸς τὰς τῶν πολλῶν ὑπολήψεις 49.179 βλέπωμεν, ἀλλὰ μάθωμεν, τί ποτέ ἐστι πόλεως ἀξίωμα, τί ποτέ ἐστι τὸ ποιοῦν πόλιν μητρόπολιν. Ταῦτα λέγω προσδοκῶν μὲν πάλιν ἀπολήψεσθαι καὶ τοῦτο τὴν πόλιν τὸ σχῆμα, καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκείας φανήσεσθαι προεδρίας· καὶ γὰρ φιλάνθρωπος ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ θεοφιλής· βούλομαι δὲ ὑμᾶς, εἰ καὶ ἀποδοθείη, μὴ μέγα ἐπὶ τούτῳ φρονεῖν μηδὲ ἐγκαλλωπίζεσθαι, μηδὲ ἐκ τούτων τὴν πόλιν ἡμῖν σεμνύνειν. Ὅταν ἐθέλῃς τῆς πόλεως εἰπεῖν ἐγκώμιον, μή μοι