Book Nine, Part One.
CHAPTERS ONE THROUGH EIGHT.
Book Nine, Chapter One.
The Pretended Relaxation.
Instead of sending the above-quoted decree to the governors under him, gave them
verbal commands to relax the war against us.
For since he could not in any other way oppose the decision of his superiors,
keeping the law which had been already issued secret, and taking care that it
might not be made known in the district under him, he gave an unwritten order to
his governors that they should relax the persecution against us.
They communicated the command to each other in writing.
Sabinus, at least, who was honored with the highest official rank among them,
communicated the will of the Emperor to the provincial governors in a Latin
epistle, the translation of which is as follows.
With continuous and most devoted earnestness their majesties, our most
divine masters, the emperors, formerly directed the minds of all men to follow
the holy and correct course of life, that those also who seemed to live in a
manner foreign to that of the Romans should render the worship due to the
immortal gods.
But the obstinacy and most unconquerable determination of some went so far that
they could neither be turned back from their purpose by the just reason of the
command, nor be intimidated by the impending punishment.
Since, therefore, it has come to pass that by such conduct many have brought
themselves into danger, their majesties, our most powerful masters, the emperors,
in the exalted nobility of piety, esteeming it foreign to their majesties'
purpose to bring men into so great danger for such a cause, have commanded their
devoted servant, myself, to write to thy wisdom, that if any Christian be found
engaging in the worship of his own people, thou shouldst abstain from molesting and
endangering him, and shouldst not suppose it necessary to punish anyone on this
pretext.
For it has been proved by the experience of so long a time that they can in no way
be persuaded to abandon such obstinate conduct.
Therefore it should be thy care to write to the curators and magistrates and
district overseers of every city, that they may know that it is not
necessary for them to give further attention to this matter.
Thereupon the rulers of the provinces, thinking that the purpose of the things
which were written was truly made known to them, declared the imperial will to the
curators and magistrates and prefects of the various districts in writing.
But they did not limit themselves to writing, but sought more quickly to
accomplish the supposed will of the emperor in deeds also.
Those whom they had imprisoned on account of their confession of the deity they set
at liberty, and they released those of them who had been sent to the mines for
punishment, for they erroneously supposed that this was the true will of the
emperor.
And when these things had thus been done, immediately, like a light shining forth in
a dark night, one could see in every city congregations gathered and assemblies
thronged, and meetings held according to their custom.
And every one of the unbelieving heathen was not a little astonished at these
things, wondering at so marvellous a transformation, and exclaiming that the
God of the Christians was great and alone true.
And some of our people, who had faithfully and bravely sustained the conflict of
persecution, again became frank and bold toward all, but as many as had been
diseased in the faith and had been shaken in their souls by the tempest,
strove eagerly for healing, beseeching and imploring the strong to stretch out to
them a saving hand, and supplicating God to be merciful unto them.
Then also the noble athletes of religion, who had been set free from their
sufferings in the mines, returned to their own homes.
Happily and joyfully they passed through every city, full of unspeakable pleasure
and of a boldness which cannot be expressed in words.
Great crowds of men pursued their journey along the highways and through the
marketplaces, praising God with hymns and psalms.
And you might have seen those who a little while before had been driven in bonds from
their native countries under a most cruel sentence, returning with bright and joyful
faces to their own firesides, so that even they who had formerly thirsted for our
blood, when they saw the unexpected wonder, congratulated us on what had taken
place.
But the tyrant who, as we have said, ruled over the districts of the Orient,
a thorough hater of the good and an enemy of every virtuous person, as he was,
could no longer bear this.
And, indeed, he did not permit matters to go on in this way quite six months,
devising all possible means of destroying the peace he first attempted to restrain
us under a pretext from meeting in the cemeteries.
Then through the agency of some wicked men he sent an embassy to himself against us,
inciting the citizens of Antioch to ask from him a very great favor that he would
by no means permit any of the Christians to dwell in their country, and others were
secretly induced to do the same thing.
The author of all this in Antioch was Theoteknus, a violent and wicked man who
was an imposter and whose character was foreign to his name.
He appears to have been the curator of the city.
After this man had carried on all kinds of war against us and had caused our people
to be diligently hunted up in their retreats as if they were unholy thieves,
and had devised every sort of slander and accusation against us and become the cause
of death to vast numbers, he finally erected a statue of Jupiter Filius with
certain juggleries and magic rites.
And after inventing unholy forms of initiation and ill-omened mysteries in
connection with it, and abominable means of purification, he exhibited his jugglery
by oracles which he pretended to utter even to the emperor, and through a
flattery which was pleasing to the ruler he aroused the demon against the
Christians and said that the god had given command to expel the Christians as his
enemies beyond the confines of the city and the neighboring districts.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MEMORIALS AGAINST US The fact that this man, who took the lead in this
matter, had succeeded in his purpose was an incitement to all the other officials
in the cities under the same government to prepare a similar memorial, and the
governors of the provinces perceiving that this was agreeable to the emperor
suggested to their subjects that they should do the same.
And as the tyrant by a rescript declared himself well pleased with their measures,
persecution was kindled anew against us.
Priests for the images were then appointed in the cities, and besides them high
priests by Maximinus himself.
The latter were taken from among those who were most distinguished in public life and
had gained celebrity in all the offices which they had filled, and who were
imbued, moreover, with great zeal for the service of those whom they worshipped.
Indeed, the extraordinary superstition of the emperor, to speak in brief,
led all his subjects, both rulers and private citizens, for the sake of
gratifying him to do everything against us, supposing that they could best show
their gratitude to him for the benefits which they had received from him,
by plotting murder against us, and exhibiting toward us any new signs of
malignity.
CHAPTER V.
THE FORGED ACTS Having therefore forged acts of Pilate and our Savior full of
every kind of blasphemy against Christ, they sent them with the emperor's approval
to the whole of the empire subject to him, with written commands that they should be
openly posted to the view of all in every place, both in country and city,
and that the schoolmasters should give them to their scholars, instead of their
customary lessons, to be studied and learned by heart.
While these things were taking place, another military commander, whom the
Romans called dukes, seized some infamous women in the marketplace at Damascus in
Phoenicia, and by threatening to inflict tortures upon them, compelled them to make
a written declaration that they had once been Christians, and that they were
acquainted with their impious deeds, that in varied churches they committed
licentious acts, and they uttered as many other slanders against our religion as he
wished them to.
Having taken down their words in writing, he communicated them to the emperor,
who commanded that the documents also should be published in every place and
city.
Not long afterward, however, this military commander became his own murderer and paid
the penalty for his wickedness.
But we were obliged again to endure exile and severe persecutions, and the governors
in every province were once more terribly stirred up against us, so that even some
of those illustrious in the divine word were seized and had sentence of death
pronounced upon them without mercy.
Three of them in the city of Emesa, in Phoenicia, having confessed that they
were Christians, were thrown as food to the wild beasts.
Among them was a bishop Silvanus, a very old man, who had filled his office
full forty years.
At about the same time, Peter also, who presided most illustriously over the
parishes in Alexandria, a divine example of a bishop on account of the excellence
of his life and his study of the sacred scriptures, being seized for no cause and
quite unexpectedly, was, as if by command of Maximinus, immediately and without
explanation, beheaded, with him also many other bishops of Egypt suffered the same
fate.
And Lucian, a presbyter of the parish at Antioch, and a most excellent man in every
respect, temperate in life and famed for his learning in sacred things,
was brought to the city of Nicomedia, where at that time the emperor happened to
be staying, and after delivering before the ruler an apology for the doctrine
which he professed, was committed to prison and put to death.
Such trials were brought upon us in a brief time by Maximinus, the enemy of
virtue, so that this persecution which was stirred up against us seemed far more
cruel than the former.
CHAPTER VII.
THE DECREE AGAINST US WHICH WAS ENGRAVED ON PILLARS The memorials against us and
copies of the imperial edicts issued in reply to them were engraved and set up on
brazen pillars in the midst of the cities, a course which had never been followed
elsewhere.
The children in the schools had daily in their mouths the names of Jesus and Pilate
and the acts which had been forged in wanton insolence.
It appears to me necessary to insert here this document of Maximinus which was
posted on pillars, in order that there may be made manifest at the same time the
boastful and haughty arrogance of the God-hating man and the sleepless,
evil-hating divine vengeance upon the impious, which followed close upon him,
and under whose pressure he not long afterward took the opposite course in
respect to us and confirmed it by written laws.
The re-script is in the following words.
Copy of a translation of the re-script of Maximinus in answer to the memorials
against us, taken from the pillar in Tyre.
Now at length the feeble power of the human mind has become able to shake off
and to scatter every dark mist of error, which before this besieged the senses of
men, who were more miserable than impious, and enveloped them in dark and destructive
ignorance, and to perceive that it is governed and established by the beneficent
providence of the immortal gods.
It passes belief how grateful, how pleasing, and how agreeable it is to
us that you have given a most decided proof of your pious resolution,
for even before this it was known to every one how much regard and reverence you were
paying to the immortal gods, exhibiting not a faith of bare and empty words,
but continued and wonderful examples of illustrious deeds.
Wherefore your city may justly be called a seat and dwelling of the immortal gods,
at least it appears by many signs that it flourishes because of the presence of the
celestial gods.
Behold therefore your city, regardless of all private advantages, and omitting its
former petitions in its own behalf, when it perceived that the adherents of
that execrable vanity were again beginning to spread, and to start the greatest
conflagration, like a neglected and extinguished funeral pyre when its brands
are rekindled, immediately resorted to our piety as to a metropolis of all
religiousness, asking some remedy and aid.
It is evident that the gods have given you this saving mind on account of your faith
and piety.
Accordingly that supreme and mightiest Jove, who presides over your illustrious
city, who preserves your ancestral gods, your wives and children, your hearths and
homes from every destructive pest, has infused into your souls this wholesome
resolve, showing and proving how excellent and glorious and salutary it is to observe
with the becoming reverence the worship and sacred rites of the immortal gods.
For who can be found so ignorant or so devoid of all understanding as not to
perceive that it is due to the kindly care of the gods that the earth does not refuse
the seed sown in it, nor disappoint the hope of the husbandmen with vain
expectation, that impious war is not inevitably fixed upon earth and wasted
bodies dragged down to death under the influence of a corrupted atmosphere,
that the sea is not swollen and raised on high by blasts of intemperate winds,
that unexpected hurricanes do not burst forth and stir up the destructive tempest,
moreover, that the earth, the nourisher and mother of all, is not shaken from its
lowest depths with a terrible tremor, and that the mountains upon it do not sink
into the opening chasms.
No one is ignorant that all these, and evils still worse than these,
have oftentimes happened hitherto.
And all these misfortunes have taken place on account of the destructive error of the
empty vanity of those impious men, when it prevailed in their souls and,
we may almost say, weighed down the whole world with shame.
After other words, he adds, let them look at the standing crops already flourishing
with waving heads in the broad fields, and at the meadows glittering with plants
and flowers, in response to abundant rains and the restored mildness and softness of
the atmosphere.
Finally, let all rejoice that the might of the most powerful and terrible Mars has
been propitiated by our piety, our sacrifices, and our veneration,
and let them on this account enjoy firm and tranquil peace and quiet, and let as
many as have wholly abandoned that blind error and delusion and have returned to a
right and sound mind rejoice the more, as those who have been rescued from an
unexpected storm or severe disease, and are to reap the fruits of pleasure for
the rest of their life.
But if they still persist in their execrable vanity, let them, as you have
desired, be driven far away from your city and territory, that thus, in accordance
with your praiseworthy zeal in this matter, your city, being freed from every
pollution and impiety, may, according to its native disposition, attend to the
sacred rites of the immortal gods with becoming reverence.
But that ye may know how acceptable to us your request respecting this matter has
been, and how ready our mind is to confer benefits voluntarily, without memorials
and petitions, we permit your devotion to ask whatever great gift ye may desire in
return for this your pious disposition.
And now ask that this may be done and that ye may receive it, for ye shall obtain it
without delay.
This, being granted to your city, shall furnish for all time an evidence of
reverent piety toward the immortal gods, and of the fact that you have obtained
from our benevolence merited prizes for this choice of yours, and it shall be
shown to your children and children's children.
This was published against us in all the provinces, depriving us of every hope of
good, at least from men, so that, according to that divine utterance,
if it were possible, even the elect would have stumbled at these things.
And now, indeed, when the hope of most of us was almost extinct, suddenly,
while those who were to execute against us the above decree had in some places
scarcely finished their journey, God, the defender of His own church,
exhibited His heavenly interposition in our behalf, well-nigh stopping the
tyrants' boasting against us.
The customary rains and showers of the winter season ceased to fall in their
wanted abundance upon the earth, and an unexpected famine made its
appearance, and in addition to this a pestilence, and another severe disease
consisting of an ulcer, which on account of its fiery appearance was appropriately
called a carbuncle.
This, spreading over the whole body, greatly endangered the lives of those who
suffered from it, but as it chiefly attacked the eyes, it deprived multitudes
of men, women, and children of their sight.
In addition to this, the tyrant was compelled to go to war with the Armenians,
who had been from ancient times friends and allies of the Romans.
As they were also Christians, and zealous in their piety toward the deity,
the enemy of God had attempted to compel them to sacrifice to idols and demons,
and had thus made friends foes and allies enemies.
All these things suddenly took place at one and the same time, and refuted the
tyrant's empty vaunt against the deity.
For he had boasted that, because of his zeal for idols and his hostility against
us, neither famine nor pestilence nor war had happened in his time.
These things, therefore, coming upon him at once and together, furnished a prelude
also of his own destruction.
He himself with his forces was defeated in the war with the Armenians, and the rest
of the inhabitants of the cities under him were terribly afflicted with famine and
pestilence, so that one measure of wheat was sold for 2,500 adik drachmas.
Those who died in the cities were innumerable, and those who died in the
country and villages were still more, so that the tax lists which formerly
included a great rural population were almost entirely wiped out, nearly all
being speedily destroyed by famine and pestilence.
Some, therefore, desired to dispose of their most precious things to those who
were better supplied, in return for the smallest morsel of food, and others,
selling their possessions little by little, fell into the last extremity of
want.
Some, chewing wisps of hay and recklessly eating noxious herbs, undermined and
ruined their constitutions.
And some of the high-born women in the cities, driven by want to shameful
extremities, went forth into the marketplaces to beg, giving evidence of
their former liberal culture by the modesty of their appearance and the
decency of their apparel.
Some, wasted away like ghosts and at the very point of death, stumbled and tottered
here and there, and too weak to stand, fell down in the middle of the streets.
Lying stretched out at full length, they begged that a small morsel of food
might be given them, and with their last gasp they cried out, Hunger!
having strength only for this most painful cry.
But others, who seemed to be better supplied, astonished at the multitude of
the beggars, after giving away large quantities, finally became hard and
relentless, expecting that they themselves also would soon suffer the same calamities
as those who begged, so that in the midst of the marketplaces and lanes,
dead and naked bodies lay unburied for many days, presenting the most lamentable
spectacle to those that beheld them.
Some also became food for dogs, on which account the survivors began to
kill the dogs, lest they should become mad and should go to devouring men.
But still worse was the pestilence which consumed entire houses and families,
and especially those whom the famine was not able to destroy because of their
abundance of food.
Thus men of wealth, rulers and governors and multitudes in office, as if left by
the famine on purpose for the pestilence, suffered swift and speedy death.
Every place, therefore, was full of lamentation.
In every lane and marketplace and street there was nothing else to be seen or heard
than tears, with the customary instruments and the voices of the mourners.
In this way death, waging war with these two weapons, pestilence and famine,
destroyed whole families in a short time, so that one could see two or three dead
bodies carried out at once.
Such were the rewards of the boasting of Maximinus and of the measures of the
cities against us.
Then did the evidences of the universal zeal and piety of the Christians become
manifest to all the heathen.
For they alone, in the midst of such ills, showed their sympathy and humanity by
their deeds.
Every day some continued caring for and burying the dead, for there were
multitudes who had no one to care for them.
Others collected in one place those who were afflicted by the famine, throughout
the entire city, and gave bread to them all, so that the thing became noised
abroad among men, and they glorified the God of the Christians, and, convinced by
the facts themselves, confessed that they alone were truly pious and religious.
After these things were thus done, God, the great and celestial defender of
the Christians, having revealed in the events which have been described His anger
and indignation at all men for the great evils which they had brought upon us,
restored to us the bright and gracious sunlight of His providence in our behalf,
so that in the deepest darkness a light of peace shone most wonderfully upon us from
Him, and made it manifest to all that God Himself has always been the ruler of our
affairs.
From time to time, indeed, He chastens His people and corrects them by His
visitations, but again, after sufficient chastisement, He shows mercy and favor to
those who hope in Him.