167

being much wiser than the others, prevented them, saying that the Romans, by occupying themselves with these things, neglect the wars. This man, having promoted Aurelian to the kingship, dies. Quintilianus, the brother of Claudius, reigned for 7 days. For when he knew that Aurelian was about to take the rule of the Romans, he removed himself from life, having the vein of his hand cut by a certain physician, until he fainted and died. 1.455 Aurelian reigned for 5 years, but was killed by soldiers between Heraclea and Byzantium, in what is called the New Fort, which is locally called Kenophrurion. For Aurelian had a certain eavesdropper, who reported to him everything that was done and said. Therefore, having been threatened by him once for some reason and being afraid, he forged the hand of the emperor, and having made in writing a list of names of powerful men as if they were to be led to death, these men, being afraid, killed him. In his time Saint Chariton confessed, and Paul of Samosata is deposed from the throne of Antioch. In his time Manes the defiled and thrice-cursed arose, fashioning himself as Christ and the Holy Spirit, and culling whatever evil from every heresy, he rushed in from Persia into the land of the Romans by the permission of God. This mad Manes, then, who is also called Scythianus, was a Brahman by race, and had as a teacher Buddas, formerly called Terebinthus, who, having been taught by Scythianus who held the opinions of the Greeks, loved the heresy of Empedocles, who spoke of two principles opposed to one another. And having entered Persia, he claimed to have been born of a virgin and to have been raised in the mountains. and having written four books, he named one "Of the Mysteries," another "The Gospel," another "Of the Treasures," and another "Of the Chapters." And Buddas, also known as Terebinthus, was crushed by an unclean spirit and perished, 1.456 but a certain woman with whom he had lodged and was buried, having inherited his money and his profane books, buys a seven-year-old boy named Cubricus, whom she both taught letters and set free, she establishes as heir to all her possessions. But he, having taken the books of Buddas and the money, went through Persia, calling himself Manes, and becoming an accomplice of the error of Buddas, and said that the books were his own works. whom the king of the Persians flayed alive as having been the cause of death to his son. For when the king's son was sick and enjoying much medical care, Manes promised to raise him without medicine, and thus having dismissed the physicians, he caused the death of the child through neglect and monstrous talk, and for this he rightly receives a worthy reward: the flaying of his all-wretched body. This thunderstruck Manes, therefore, rejecting the old testament, and all creation and the constitution of man, blaspheming that it was not made by any good god, since it is subject to corruption and change, accepts the new as if from a good god, and monstrously claims that Christ existed by fantasy and appearance. And in addition to these things, having practiced certain profane immersions and nocturnal rites and unlawful mixings and unspeakable acts, and having prattled on and taught about fate and reincarnation and many other things, he, the God-hated and God-driven, 1.457 was eager to strengthen the wicked and vain dogmas of the Greeks. concerning whom Theodore the presbyter of Raithu also says: "Manes, the inventor of the opposing darkness, or rather a fabrication of the power of darkness, imagined and dreamed that the Lord was made manifest by a mere fantasy and an empty form of a human body, so that he says He seemed to suffer and to do the things which He did and suffered for our sake, but that none of these things existed in truth and reality, but rather by appearance and deceit He deluded men, with whom it is supposed He associated." for this reason he also rejects two natures, saying concerning the

167

κρεῖττον τῶν ἄλλων κατὰ πολὺ φρονῶν ἐκώλυσεν αὐτούς, εἰπὼν ὅτι περὶ ταῦτα οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι σχολάζοντες τῶν πολέμων ἀμελοῦσιν. οὗτος Αὐρηλιανὸν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν προαγαγὼν τελευτᾷ. Κυντιλιανὸς ἀδελφὸς Κλαυδίου ἐβασίλευσεν ἡμέρας ζʹ. ἐπει δὴ γὰρ ἔγνω Αὐρηλιανὸν ἐπιβῆναι μέλλοντα τῇ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῇ, ἑαυτὸν ὑπεξάγει τοῦ βίου, τὴν φλέβα τμηθεὶς τῆς χειρὸς ὑπό τινος ἰατροῦ, μέχρις οὗ λειποψυχήσας ἀπέθανεν. 1.455 Αὐρηλιανὸς ἐβασίλευσεν ἔτη ʹ, ἀνῃρέθη δὲ ὑπὸ στρατιω τῶν μεταξὺ Ἡρακλείας καὶ Βυζαντίου, ἐν τῷ καλουμένῳ καινῷ φρουρίῳ, ὅπερ ἐγχωρίως κενοφλώριον λέγεται. εἶχε γὰρ ὠτακου στὴν Αὐρηλιανός τινα, ὃς ἀνέφερεν αὐτῷ πάντα τὰ γινόμενα καὶ λεγόμενα. ἀπειληθεὶς οὖν ποτὲ παρ' αὐτοῦ διά τινα αἰτίαν καὶ φοβηθεὶς ἐμιμήσατο τὴν χεῖρα τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ ἐγγράφως ποιη σαμένου ὀνομασίας δυναστῶν ὡς ἐπὶ θάνατον ἀχθησομένων, οὗτοι φοβηθέντες ἀνεῖλον αὐτόν. ἐπὶ τούτου ὁ ἅγιος Χαρίτων ὡμολό γησε, καὶ Παῦλος ὁ Σαμοσατεὺς τοῦ θρόνου Ἀντιοχείας καθαι ρεῖται. ἐφ' οὗ Μάνης ὁ μιαρὸς καὶ τρισκατάρατος ἀνεφύη, Χρι στὸν ἑαυτὸν καὶ πνεῦμα ἅγιον μορφαζόμενος, καὶ ἐκ πάσης αἱρέ σεως εἴ τι κακὸν ἐρανιζόμενος, ἐκ Περσίδος εἰς τὴν Ῥωμαίων γῆν κατὰ θεοῦ συγχώρησιν εἰσέφρησεν. Οὗτος οὖν ὁ μεμηνὼς Μάνης, ὁ καὶ Σκυθιανὸς λεγόμενος, Βραχμάνης ἦν τὸ γένος, διδάσκαλον δὲ ἔσχε Βούδαν τὸν πρῴην καλούμενον Τερέβινθον, ὃς παιδευθεὶς ὑπὸ Σκυθιανοῦ τὰ Ἑλλή νων δοξάζοντος τὴν Ἐμπεδοκλέους ἠγάπησεν αἵρεσιν, δύο ἀρχὰς λέγοντος ἀντικειμένας ἀλλήλαις, εἰσελθὼν δὲ ἐν Περσίδι ἐκ παρ θένου ἑαυτὸν ἔφασκε γεγεννῆσθαι καὶ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν ἀνατραφῆναι. καὶ συγγραψάμενος βιβλία τέσσαρα τὸ μὲν ἐπωνόμασε τῶν μυστη ρίων, τὸ δὲ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, τὸ δὲ τῶν θησαυρῶν, τὸ δὲ τῶν κεφα λαίων. καὶ ὁ μὲν Βούδας ὁ καὶ Τερέβινθος ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἀκα 1.456 θάρτου συντριβεὶς ἀπώλετο, γυνὴ δέ τις παρ' ᾗ κατέλυσε καὶ κατετέθη, τὰ χρήματα καὶ τὰς βεβήλους βίβλους κληρονομήσασα ὠνεῖται παιδάριον ἐτῶν ἑπτὰ τοὔνομα Κούβρικον, ὃν καὶ διδάξασα γράμματα καὶ ἐλευθερώσασα κληρονόμον τῶν ἑαυτῆς πάντων καθίστησιν. ὁ δὲ λαβὼν τὰ βιβλία τοῦ Βούδα καὶ τὰ χρήματα διήρχετο τὴν Περσίδα, Μάνην ἑαυτὸν ὀνομάζων καὶ τῆς πλάνης τοῦ Βούδα συνίστωρ γενόμενος, καὶ τὰ βιβλία πονήματα ἴδια ἔλε γεν εἶναι. ὃν ὁ βασιλεὺς Περσῶν ἐξέδειρε ζῶντα ὡς θανάτου γενόμενον τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ πρόξενον· τοῦ γὰρ βασιλικοῦ παιδὸς νοσοῦντος καὶ πολλῆς ἰατρικῆς ἐπιμελείας ἀπολαύοντος, ἐπηγγεί λατο Μάνης χωρὶς ἰατρείας ἀναστῆσαι τοῦτον, καὶ οὕτω τοὺς ἰα τροὺς ἀποστήσας ἐθανάτωσε τὸν παῖδα ἀμελείᾳ καὶ τερατολογίᾳ, καὶ ὑπὲρ τούτου μισθὸν ἐπάξιον εἰκότως κομίζεται τὴν ἐκδορὰν τοῦ παναθλίου αὐτοῦ σώματος. ὁ τοίνυν ἐμβρόντητος οὗτος Μά νης ἀποβαλλόμενος τὴν παλαιὰν διαθήκην, καὶ τὴν κτίσιν πᾶσαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευὴν οὐκ ἀγαθοῦ τινὸς θεοῦ γεγονέ ναι βλασφημῶν, ὑπὸ φθορὰν καὶ ἀλλοίωσιν οὖσαν, τὴν νέαν ὡς ἀγαθοῦ δῆθεν προσίεται θεοῦ, καὶ κατὰ φαντασίαν καὶ δόκησιν τὸν Χριστὸν πεφυκέναι τερατεύεται. καὶ πρὸς τούτοις καταδύσεις τινὰς ἐναγεῖς καὶ νυκτερινὰς τελετὰς καὶ παρανόμους ἐπιτηδεύσας μίξεις καὶ ἀρρητοποιίας, καὶ εἱμαρμένας καὶ μετενσωματώσεις καὶ ἄλλα πλείονα φλυαρήσας καὶ διδάξας τὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων πονηρὰ καὶ μάταια δόγματα κρατύνειν ἐσπούδακεν ὁ θεομισὴς καὶ θεήλα 1.457 τος. περὶ οὗ φησὶ καὶ Θεόδωρος πρεσβύτερος ὁ τῆς Ῥαϊθοῦ "Μάνης ὁ τοῦ ἀντιθέτου σκότους ἐφευρετής, μᾶλλον δὲ τῆς ἐξου σίας τοῦ σκότους ἀνάπλασμα, φαντασίᾳ ψιλῇ καὶ σχήματι δια κένῳ σώματος ἀνθρωπείου πεφανερῶσθαι τὸν κύριον ἐφαντάσθη καὶ ὠνείρωξεν, ὥστε φησὶ καὶ πάσχειν μὲν δοκεῖν αὐτὸν καὶ πράτ τειν ἅπερ ἔδρα καὶ πέπονθε καθ' ἡμᾶς, μηδὲν δὲ τούτων ἀληθείᾳ καὶ πράγματι ὑπάρξαι, ἀλλὰ δοκήσει μᾶλλον καὶ ἀπάτῃ ἀποβου κολεῖν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, οἷς καὶ συνεστράφθαι νενόμισται." διὰ τοῦτο καὶ φύσεις δύο παραιτεῖται λέγων ἐπὶ τοῦ