Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
1| For my part, I credit your goodwill with my own good fortune and with that of everything that is mine. The outcome of all I prayed for bears witness to it: deeds of valor, victories, trophies raised over the enemy. The great city knows it too and praises it with acclamation, and the people of that dearest city want it as well, even if, deceived by its own precarious hopes, it once chose a champion unworthy of itself. He was caught at once, as was fitting and as his outrages deserved; of those outrages it is not right to make mention, least of all for me, who am speaking with you and taking every care to address you in words that are pure and of good omen.
2| Yet I will say something that is perhaps neither unseemly nor out of place. Once, O Piety, tyrants proclaimed against you and against all your most holy churches a war without truce, surpassing all bounds in madness and cruelty. There were some in Rome who rejoiced at such great public evils, and a field had even been made ready for the battle. But you came forward and gave yourself up, leaning on your faith in God. And the cruelty of impious mortals, which spread unceasingly like a fire, fastened upon you a glory that is wonderful and will be sung forever. For because of these things awe seized those who watched,
3| as they saw the very executioners, the men who racked the bodies of the godly, growing weary and faltering before their dreadful work; the bonds slackening, the tortures themselves losing their force, the burnings applied to the victims dying down; while the followers of God kept a firmness under their sufferings that nothing could bend, and did not give way even a little in their boldness of speech.
4| What, then, did you gain by daring all this, most impious of men? What was the cause of this derangement of your mind? You will say it was out of honor for the gods. Which gods are these? Or what notion do you form that is worthy of divinity? Do you suppose the gods are prone to anger, as you are? Even if they were such, you ought to have marveled at their choice, not obeyed shameless commands that unjustly called for the slaughter of just men.
5| Perhaps you will say it was because of what your ancestors held as custom, and because of men's opinion. I grant it. For what is held as custom is very like what is done; both belong to one and the same folly. Perhaps you supposed that some special power resided in the human-shaped figures fashioned by carpenters and craftsmen. That is why you tended them and took every care that they never be soiled, as though the greatest and most exalted gods needed human care
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