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Maxentius his son, who obtained the government at Rome, at first
feigned our faith, in complaisance and flattery toward the Roman
people. On this account he commanded his subjects to cease persecuting
the Christians, pretending to religion that he might appear merciful
and mild beyond his predecessors. But he did not prove in his deeds to
be such a person as was hoped, but ran into all wickedness and
abstained from no impurity or licentiousness, committing adulteries and
indulging in all kinds of corruption. For having separated wives from
their lawful consorts, he abused them and sent them back most
dishonor-ably to their husbands. And he not only practiced this
against the obscure and unknown, but he insulted especially the most
prominent and distinguished members of the Roman senate. All his
subjects, people and rulers, honored and obscure, were worn out by
grievous oppression. Neither, although they kept quiet, and bore the
bitter servitude, was there any relief from the murderous cruelty of
the tyrant. Once, on a small pretense, he gave the people to be
slaughtered by his guards; and a great multitude of the Roman populace
were slain in the midst of the city, with the spears and arms, not of
Scythians and barbarians, but of their own fellow-citizens. It
would be impossible to recount the number of senators who were put to
death for the sake of their wealth; multitudes being slain on various
pretenses. To crown all his wickedness, the tyrant resorted to
magic. And in his divinations he cut open pregnant women, and again
inspected the bowels of newborn infants. He slaughtered lions, and
performed various execrable acts to invoke demons and avert war. For
his only hope was that, by these means, victory would be secured to
him. It is impossible to tell the ways in which this tyrant at Rome
oppressed his subjects, so that they were reduced to such an extreme
dearth of the necessities of life as has never been known, according to
our contemporaries, either at Rome or elsewhere.
But Maximinus, the tyrant in the East, having secretly formed a
friendly alliance with the Roman tyrant as with a brother in
wickedness, sought to conceal it for a long time. But being at last
detected, he suffered merited punishment. It was wonderful how akin
he was in wickedness to the tyrant at Rome, or rather how far he
surpassed him in it. For the chief of sorcerers and magi-clans were
honored by him with the highest rank. Becoming exceedingly timid and
superstitious, he valued greatly the error of idols and demons.
Indeed, without soothsayers and oracles he did not venture to move
even a finger, so to speak. Therefore he persecuted us more violently
and incessantly than his predecessors. He ordered temples to be
erected in every city, and the sacred groves which had been destroyed
through lapse of time to be speedily restored. He appointed idol
priests in every place and city; and he set over them in every
province, as high priest, some political official who had especially
distinguished himself in every kind of service, giving him a band of
soldiers and a body-guard. And to all jugglers, as if they were
pious and beloved of the gods, he granted governments and the greatest
privileges. From this time on he distressed and harassed, not one
city or country, but all the provinces under his authority, by extreme
exactions of gold and silver and goods, and most grievous prosecutions
and various fines. He took away from the wealthy the property which
they had inherited from their ancestors, and bestowed vast riches and
large sums of money on the flatterers about him. And he went to such
an excess of folly. and drunkenness that his mind was deranged and
crazed in his carousals; and he gave commands when intoxicated of which
he repented afterward when sober. He suffered no one to surpass him in
debauchery and profligacy, but made 'himself an instructor in
wickedness to those about him, both rulers and subjects. He urged on
the army to live wantonly in every kind of revelry and intemperance,
and encouraged the governors and generals to abuse their subjects with
rapacity and covetousness, almost as if they were rulers with him.
Why need we relate the licentious, shameless deeds of the man, or
enumerate the multitude with whom he committed adultery? For he could
not pass through a city without continually corrupting women and
ravishing virgins. And in this he succeeded with all except the
Christians. For as they despised death, they cared nothing for his
power. For the men endured fire and sword and crucifixion and wild
beasts and the depths of the sea, and cutting off of limbs, anti
burnings, and pricking and digging out of eyes, and mutilations of the
entire body, and besides these, hunger and mines and bonds. In all
they showed patience in behalf of religion rather than transfer to idols
the reverence due to God. And the women were not less manly than the
men in behalf of the teaching of the Divine Word, as they endured
conflicts with the men, and bore away equal prizes of virtue. And
when they were dragged away for corrupt purposes, they surrendered
their lives to death rather than their bodies to impurity.
One only of those who were seized for adulterous purposes by the
tyrant, a most distinguished and illustrious Christian woman in
Alexandria, conquered the passionate and intemperate soul of
Maximinus by most heroic firmness. Honorable on account of wealth and
family and education, she esteemed all of these inferior to chastity.
He urged her many times, but although she was ready to die, he could
not put her to death, for his desire was stronger than his anger. He
therefore punished her with exile, and took away all her property.
Many others, unable even to listen to the threats of violation from
the heathen rulers, endured every form of tortures, and rackings, and
deadly punishment.
These indeed should be admired. But far the most admirable was that
woman at Rome, who was truly the most noble and modest of all, whom
the tyrant Maxentius, fully resembling Maximinus in his actions,
endeavored to abuse. For when she learned that those who served the
tyrant in such matters were at the house , and that her husband,
although a prefect of Rome, would suffer them to take and lead her
away, having requested a little time for adorning her body, she
entered her chamber, and being alone, stabbed herself with a sword.
Dying immediately, she left her corpse to those who had come for her.
And by her deeds, more powerfully than by any words, she has shown to
all men now and hereafter that the virtue which prevails among
Christians is the only invincible and indestructible possession?
Such was the career of wickedness which was carried forward at one and
the same time by the two tyrants who held the East and the West. Who
is there that would hesitate, after careful examination, to pronounce
the persecu
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