In the year 1061 from the founding of the City, Constantine, the thirty-fourth, took over the helm of empire from his father Constantius, and held it most prosperously for thirty-one years.
1 Anno ab urbe condita MLXI Constantinus tricensimus quartus gubernacula imperii a Constantio patre suscepit, quae uno et triginta annis felicissime tenuit.
Suddenly I am confronted and mocked with a kind of triumphal dancing. “Ha!” they say. “At last, long awaited, you have come into our pits. Here we were waiting for you to run down; here we overwhelm you as you slip; here we hold you confounded. We have borne with you thus far, as you fitted, in a way artfully and cunningly, the chance changes of the times to vengeances for the Christians.
2 Occuritur mihi subito et tripudiis quibusdam insultatur: Eia, inquiunt, tandem in foueas nostras, diu expectate, uenisti. hic te decursurum opperiebamur, hic delapsum opprimimus, hic confusum tenemus. sustinuimus te hactenus, artificiose quodammodo et callide fortuitas temporum mutationes Christianorum ultionibus coaptantem.
And at times indeed, moved by the appearance of probability, being men ignorant of divine secrets, we grew pale with fear; but now our Maximian has emptied the whole stage-play of your fable, and the antiquity of our religion has shone forth as an impregnable pillar.
3 et interdum quidem uerisimilium specie permoti, utpote homines ignari diuinorum secretorum, timore palluimus, sed nunc euacuauit Maximianus noster omnem scaenam fabulae tuae nostraeque religionis antiquitatem columna inexpugnabilis fulsit.
For ten years your churches were overthrown, as even you admit; throughout the whole world Christians were torn apart by tortures and wiped out by deaths. We hold your own plain testimony that no earlier persecution was either so heavy or so long.
4 per annos decem euersae sunt ecclesiae uestrae ut etiam tu fateris; dilacerati cruciatibus, exinaniti mortibus toto orbe Christiani. tenemus euidens testimonium tuum, nullam superiorem persecutionem adeo uel grauem uel diuturnam fuisse.
And yet, look: amid the most peaceful blessings of the times there was also the unheard-of good fortune of the very emperors who did these things — no famine at home, no pestilence, no war abroad except by choice, in which their strength might be exercised but not endangered;
5 et tamen ecce inter tranquillissima temporum bona ipsorum quoque imperatorum, qui ista fecerunt, inusitata felicitas: nulla domi fames, nulla pestilentia, nullum foris bellum nisi uoluntarium, quo exerceri uires non periclitari queant;
there was, moreover, a thing hitherto unknown to the human race: a forbearing partnership of many rulers at once, with great concord, and a common power which at no other time, but now, looked to the common good.
6 res praeterea humano generi hucusque incognita: multorum simul regum patiens consortium et magna concordia potestasque communis, alias numquam, nunc in commune prospiciens.
Then, too — a thing until then beyond all mortal knowledge — those emperors, the greatest of all and the persecutors besides, laid down their high office and took up repose as private men, which men judge the most blessed state and the highest good of a good life; and this the authors of the persecution obtained, as though by way of reward, at the very time when the persecution they had kindled was raging at its height throughout the world.
7 deinde etiam, quod absque ulla hactenus mortalium notitia est, imperatores illi maximi quippe et persecutores, honore deposito et adsumpta quiete, priuati, quod beatissimum homines et summum bonum uitae bonae iudicant, et hoc tunc uelut praemii loco auctores persecutionis adepti sunt, quando accensa persecutio medio sui tempore toto orbe saeuiebat.
Or do you assert that even this blessedness befell them in those times by way of punishment, and are you trying to frighten us with this too?”
8 an etiam hanc beatitudinem illis temporibus poenaliter accidisse adseris et nos hinc quoque terrere moliris?
To them I would humbly reply that, girded with the greatest care for godliness, I am warning them of what is true, not frightening them with what is false. The Church of Christ suffered ten persecutions from Nero to Maximian. Nine vengeances, as I have called them — calamities, as they themselves do not deny — followed hard on their heels. Nor do I press the point about the word, whether they seem to have been deserved vengeances or chance changes; by their testimony and mine alike they were disasters.
9 Quibus humiliter responderim, me plurima cura pietatis accinctum commonere de ueris, non terrere de falsis. decem persecutiones a Nerone usque ad Maximianum Ecclesia Christi passa est: nouem, ut ego dixi, ultiones, ut ipsi non negant, calamitates e uestigiis consecutae sunt. nec in uerbo premo, utrum debitae ultiones an fortuitae permutationes fuisse uideantur, quae tamen meo suoque testimonio clades fuerunt.
In the tenth, the wretched and blind suppose that there was a hitch, not seeing that it was all the heavier for them the less it was understood; for the ungodly man is scourged and does not feel it. [And] when this has been set out, they will confess, however unwillingly, because of the very truth of the facts, that from that greatest punishment for the Maximian persecution come these wounds from which even now they suffer — and suffer so much that they even cry out and provoke us to cry back, so that we are made anxious how they may be brought to silence.
10 in decima haesitatum putant miseri et caeci, non uidentes tanto eam ipsis fuisse grauiorem quanto minus intellecta est. impius enim flagellatur et non sentit. [et] quod cum expositum fuerit, inuiti licet propter ipsam rerum fidem fatebuntur, quia ex illa Maximianae persecutionis maxima punitione ista sunt uulnera, quibus etiam nunc isti dolent et in tantum dolent, ut etiam clament nosque ad reclamandum lacessant: sollicitos fieri, qualiter conticescant.