275

those present. And to all he truly appeared to be mad, neither rushing towards the pyre nor backing away at all, but was fixed and motionless where he had first been seized. And as many words flowed and his marvels were carried on every tongue, the executioners, fearing lest perhaps the demons around Basil might perform some strange miracle, with God permitting it, and the villain might appear unharmed from the midst of so great a fire, having arrived at some very public place, and the last deception become worse than the first, decided to make a certain test. 15.10.4 For as he was performing wonders and boasting that he would appear unharmed from the midst of the fire, they took up his cloak and said: "Let us see if the fire will not touch your garments." And immediately they threw it into the middle of the furnace. Basil, therefore, was so exultant under the influence of the demon deceiving him, saying: "Do you see the cloak flying up into the air?" But they, having noticed the fabric from its fringe, lifted him and pushed him with his clothes and shoes into the middle of the furnace. And the flame, as if raging against him, so completely devoured the impious man that not even any smell of burning arose, nor any unusual kind of smoke, but only a thin wisp of smoke appeared in the middle of the flame. For indeed the elements themselves rise up against the impious; but they spare, to tell the truth, the God-loving, just as the fire once yielded and gave way to those God-loving youths in Babylon and encircled them like some golden chamber. But here, those who had lifted this avenging spirit Basil did not yet have a firm hold, and the flame seemed to rush out in order to snatch away the ungodly man. But the remaining number, as many as belonged to the perdition of Basil, while the crowd present was convulsed and forcing to throw them also into the fire, the emperor did not allow it, commanding them to be shut up in the porticoes and ambulatories of the great palaces; and when this was done, the spectacle was dissolved. And after these things, another most secure guard took charge of the godless, into which they were thrown and, having spent a very long time, they died in their impiety. 15.10.5 This then was the final deed and prize of those long labors and achievements of the emperor, and a certain innovation and extraordinary act of daring. And I think that he who was then present or with him marvels to this day and does not think he saw the events that happened then as real, but it seems to him a kind of dream and phantasm. For indeed from the time that the barbarians crossed the borders of the Roman empire, from the very proclamation of Diogenes, who did not sally forth against them successfully from the first starting-gate, as they say, the barbarian hand has not been restrained until the reign of my father, but both swords and spears were sharpened against Christians, and battles and wars and slaughters. Cities were being wiped out, lands were plundered, and all the Roman land was being stained with the blood of Christians. For some fell miserably by arrows and spears, while others, driven from their own lands as captives of the spear, were led away to the cities of Persia. And trembling seized them all as they hastened to hide from the terrible invasions in the caves and the groves and the mountains and the hills. Among these, some lamented what they suffered being led away to Persia, while others still surviving, if any remained within the Roman borders, groaning from the depths, one mourned a son, another a daughter; another bewailed a brother, another a nephew dying before his time, and like women they let fall hot tears. And there was then no condition without tears or groans. But the emperor except for a few, I mean both Tzimiskes and Basil the