Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
1| As for Diocletian, after the bloodshed of the persecution he passed sentence on himself. Without quite realizing it, he declared himself unfit and disowned his own rule, and he confessed the damage his folly had done by shutting himself up in a single contemptible dwelling.
2| What good, then, did it do him to make war on our God? Only this, I suppose: that he spent the rest of his life in dread of the thunderbolt. Nicomedia speaks of it, and those who witnessed it are not silent, and I myself happen to be one of them. For I saw him when his spirit had been brought low, afraid of every sight and every kind of noise, lamenting that the evils which surrounded him had been caused by his own folly, since he had called down upon himself the divine help that protects the just. His palace and his house were laid waste, as lightning struck and fire from heaven devoured them. Indeed, people of sound judgment had foretold how these things would end. They did not keep silent, nor did they hide their grief at what was being done so undeservedly; openly and in public they spoke their minds freely to one another:
3| "What madness is this? How great is the arrogance of power, that men, being only men, dare to make war on God, and choose to commit outrage against the purest and most just of religions, and contrive the destruction of so great a people, of righteous men, when no offense whatever had been committed first! And this at a time of prosperity, in private and in public, when all affairs were going well and the concord among those who rule remained firm. There will be a reckoning for these things; there will be vengeance for the blood unjustly shed; and perhaps the same calamity will engulf the guilty and the guiltless alike. For the divine power rightly visits its indignation on the wicked." And in saying this they were not guessing without reason, for they saw a cruelty enormous and beyond all bounds. When every torment that cruelty is able to devise had been used up, impiety moved on to shameful punishments. The emperor I have mentioned condemned chaste virgins and modest wives to be defiled by debauchery, inviting the young men to these pleasures by disgraceful decrees. And in this the self-control of the common people proved stronger than the licentiousness of the tyrant. No one gave himself up to that unholy enjoyment, and the emperor's decree could not overpower the people's chastity. What an excellent guardian of the laws! What a teacher of decency to all his subjects! What care the army showed for its own fellow citizens! Men who had never once in battle seen the backs of the enemy wounded the breasts of their own countrymen.
4| At last, at any rate, divine providence exacted vengeance for these unholy deeds, though not without harm to the public. So many were slaughtered that, had the slaughter been inflicted on barbarians, it would have been enough to secure lasting peace. For the whole army of the emperor I have mentioned, after it came under the authority of a worthless man who had seized the Roman empire by force, was destroyed in many wars of every kind, as the providence of God set the great city free.
5| But what clearer and more vivid proof of God's judgment could be brought forward? The world itself cries it aloud. The procession of the stars appears brighter and more vivid, rejoicing, I think, at the fitting vengeance taken for those unholy deeds; and the very times that have succeeded that savage and inhuman life are thought to rejoice in their own good fortune, and they show God's kindness toward humankind. And then there are the cries to God of those who were oppressed and longed for their native freedom, and the praises of thanksgiving to God after their release from those evils, when their freedom was restored to them and their dealings with one another were once again governed by justice. How can these fail, in every way, to display the providence of God and his affection for humankind?
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