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The customary rains and showers of the winter season ceased to fall in
their wonted 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 twenty-five
hundred Attic drachms. 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 mined their constitutions. And some of
the high-born women in the cities, driven by want to shameful
extremities, went forth into the market-places 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 market-places 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 market-place 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 all 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.
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