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OF ATHENAGORAS THE ATHENIAN, A PHILOSOPHER

AND A CHRISTIAN, AN EMBASSY CONCERNING CHRISTIANS To the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, conquerors of Armenia and Sarmatia, and, what is greatest, philosophers. In your empire, greatest of kings, different people use different customs and laws, and no one is prevented by law and fear of punishment from cherishing his ancestral ways, however ridiculous they may be, but the man of Ilium calls Hector a god and worships Helen, understanding her to be Adrasteia, and the Lacedaemonian venerates Agamemnon as Zeus, and Phylonoe the daughter of Tyndareus, and Tennedia, and the Athenian sacrifices to Erechtheus as Poseidon, and the Athenians also celebrate rites and mysteries [Athenians] to Agraulus and Pandrosus, who were deemed to have acted impiously by opening the chest, and, in a word, throughout nations and peoples they perform such sacrifices and mysteries as they wish. And the Egyptians even consider cats and crocodiles and snakes and asps and dogs to be gods. And all these you and the laws permit, having judged it to be impious and unholy to believe in no god at all, but necessary for each to worship those he wishes as gods, so that by their fear of the divine they might abstain from wrongdoing. [But as for us—and do not be misled like the multitude by hearsay—our name is hated; for names are not worthy of hatred, but an unjust act is worthy of judgment and punishment.] Therefore, while admiring your gentleness and mildness, and your peaceful and benevolent disposition towards all, individuals enjoy equal rights, and the cities according to their rank share in equal honor, and the whole world through your wisdom enjoys profound peace. But as for us who are called Christians, because you have not taken thought for us, but allow us, though we do no wrong, but are, as will be shown as the argument proceeds, most piously and righteously disposed both towards the divinity and your kingdom, to be driven about and plundered and persecuted, while the multitude makes war on us for our name alone, we have dared to make known our affairs to you (and you will be taught by this account that we suffer without cause and contrary to all law and reason) and we beg you to take some thought for us as well, that we may at last cease from being slaughtered by the sycophants. For the damage from our persecutors is not to our money, nor the disgrace to our civic standing, nor the harm to any other of the lesser things (for we despise these, though they seem important to the multitude, having learned not only not to strike back at one who strikes us, nor even to go to law with those who drag us away and plunder us, but to those who, even if they treat us with insolence on the cheek, to offer the other part of our head to be struck as well, and to those who, if they should take away our tunic, to give our cloak as well), but they plot against our bodies and our souls, when we are destitute of property, scattering against us a host of accusations, which for us have no existence, not even in suspicion, but which are attached to the babblers and to their sort

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AΘHΝAΓOΡOΥ AΘHΝAIOΥ ΦIΛOΣOΦOΥ

ΧΡIΣΤIAΝOΥ ΠΡEΣΒEIA ΠEΡI ΧΡIΣΤIAΝΩΝ Aὐτοκράτορσιν Μάρκῳ Aὐρηλίῳ Ἀντωνίνῳ καὶ Λουκίῳ Aὐρηλίῳ Κομόδῳ Ἀρμενιακοῖς Σαρματικοῖς, τὸ δὲ μέγιστον φιλοσόφοις. Ἡ ὑμετέρα, μεγάλοι βασιλέων, οἰκουμένη ἄλλος ἄλλοις ἔθεσι χρῶνται καὶ νόμοις, καὶ οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν νόμῳ καὶ φόβῳ δίκης, κἂν γελοῖα ᾖ, μὴ στέργειν τὰ πάτρια εἴργεται, ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν Ἰλιεὺς θεὸν Ἕκτορα λέγει καὶ τὴν Ἑλένην Ἀδράστειαν ἐπιστάμενος προσκυνεῖ, ὁ δὲ Λακεδαιμόνιος Ἀγαμέμνονα ∆ία καὶ Φυλονόην τὴν Τυνδάρεω θυγατέρα καὶ τεννηνοδίαν σέβει, ὁ δὲ Ἀθηναῖος Ἐρεχθεῖ Ποσειδῶνι θύει καὶ Ἀγραύλῳ Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ τελετὰς καὶ μυστήρια [Ἀθηναῖοι] ἄγουσιν καὶ Πανδρόσῳ, αἳ ἐνομίσθησαν ἀσεβεῖν ἀνοίξασαι τὴν λάρνακα, καὶ ἑνὶ λόγῳ κατὰ ἔθνη καὶ δήμους θυσίας κατάγουσιν ἃς ἂν θέλωσιν ἄνθρωποι καὶ μυστήρια. οἱ δὲ Aἰγύπτιοι καὶ αἰλούρους καὶ κροκοδείλους καὶ ὄφεις καὶ ἀσπίδας καὶ κύνας θεοὺς νομίζουσιν. καὶ τούτοις πᾶσιν ἐπιτρέπετε καὶ ὑμεῖς καὶ οἱ νόμοι, τὸ μὲν οὖν μηδ' ὅλως θεὸν ἡγεῖσθαι ἀσεβὲς καὶ ἀνόσιον νομίσαντες, τὸ δὲ οἷς ἕκαστος βούλεται χρῆσθαι ὡς θεοῖς ἀναγκαῖον, ἵνα τῷ πρὸς τὸ θεῖον δέει ἀπέχωνται τοῦ ἀδικεῖν. [ἡμῖν δέ, καὶ μὴ παρακρουσθῆτε ὡς οἱ πολλοὶ ἐξ ἀκοῆς, τῷ ὀνόματι ἀπεχθάνεται· οὐ γὰρ τὰ ὀνόματα μίσους ἄξια, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀδίκημα δίκης καὶ τιμωρίας.] διόπερ τὸ πρᾶον ὑμῶν καὶ ἥμερον καὶ τὸ πρὸς ἅπαντα εἰρηνικὸν καὶ φιλ άνθρωπον θαυμάζοντες οἱ μὲν καθ' ἕνα ἰσονομοῦνται, αἱ δὲ πόλεις πρὸς ἀξίαν τῆς ἴσης μετέχουσι τιμῆς, καὶ ἡ σύμπασα οἰκουμένη τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ συνέσει βαθείας εἰρήνης ἀπολαύουσιν. ἡμεῖς δὲ οἱ λεγόμενοι Χριστιανοί, ὅτι μὴ προνενόησθε καὶ ἡμῶν, συγχωρεῖτε δὲ μηδὲν ἀδικοῦντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντων, ὡς προϊόντος τοῦ λόγου δειχθήσεται, εὐσεβέστατα διακειμένους καὶ δικαιότατα πρός τε τὸ θεῖον καὶ τὴν ὑμετέραν βασιλείαν, ἐλαύνεσθαι καὶ φέρεσθαι καὶ διώκεσθαι, ἐπὶ μόνῳ ὀνόματι προσπολεμούντων ἡμῖν τῶν πολλῶν, μηνῦσαι τὰ καθ' ἑαυτοὺς ἐτολμήσαμεν (διδαχθήσεσθε δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου ἄτερ δίκης καὶ παρὰ πάντα νόμον καὶ λόγον πάσχοντας ἡμᾶς) καὶ δεόμεθα ὑμῶν καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν τι σκέψασθαι, ὅπως παυσώμεθά ποτε ὑπὸ τῶν συκοφαντῶν σφαττόμενοι. οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰς χρήματα ἡ παρὰ τῶν διωκόντων ζημία οὐδὲ εἰς ἐπιτιμίαν ἡ αἰσχύνη ἢ εἰς ἄλλο τι τῶν μειόνων ἡ βλάβη (τούτων γὰρ κατα φρονοῦμεν, κἂν τοῖς πολλοῖς δοκῇ σπουδαῖα, δέροντα οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἀντιπαίειν οὐδὲ μὴν δικάζεσθαι τοῖς ἄγουσιν καὶ ἁρπάζουσιν ἡμᾶς μεμαθηκότες, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μέν, κἂν κατὰ κόρρης προπηλακί ζωσιν, καὶ τὸ ἕτερον παίειν παρέχειν τῆς κεφαλῆς μέρος, τοῖς δέ, εἰ τὸν χιτῶνα ἀφαιροῖντο, ἐπιδιδόναι καὶ τὸ ἱμάτιον), ἀλλ' εἰς τὰ σώματα καὶ τὰς ψυχάς, ὅταν ἀπείπωμεν τοῖς χρήμασιν, ἐπιβου λεύουσιν ἡμῖν κατασκεδάζοντες ὄχλον ἐγκλημάτων, ἃ ἡμῖν μὲν οὐδὲ μέχρις ὑπονοίας, τοῖς δὲ ἀδολεσχοῦσιν καὶ τῷ ἐκείνων πρόσεστι