Such, then, were the things which the divine and heavenly grace of the manifestation of our Saviour bestowed upon us, and so great an abundance of good things was procured for all men through our peace. And thus the things among us were being accomplished in joys and festivals.
But the sight of what was seen was not, it seems, endurable to the envy that hates the good and to the demon that loves evil; just as, indeed, what had befallen the tyrants previously described did not suffice for Licinius unto a sober reckoning. He, while his rule was prospering, and while he had been deemed worthy of the honour of the second rank after the great Emperor Constantine, and of marriage-alliance and the highest kinship, forsook the imitation of good things, and emulated the depravity of the impious tyrants, and chose rather to follow in purpose those whose overthrow of life he had beheld with his very own eyes, than to abide in the friendship and disposition of the better one.
Indeed, having become envious of the all-benefactor, he carries on against Him a war unholy and most terrible, sparing neither the laws of nature, nor oaths, nor blood, taking no remembrance of covenants in his mind.
For he, like a wholly good emperor, offering tokens of true goodwill toward him, did not begrudge him kinship with himself, nor did he refuse him a share in a splendid marriage with his sister; but he also deemed him worthy to become a partaker of his ancestral nobility and of his imperial blood from of old, and, as to a kinsman by marriage and a co-emperor, he granted him the authority to enjoy a share in the rule over all, bestowing on him the governing and administration of no lesser portion of the nations under the Romans.
But he, on the contrary, did the very opposite of these things, day by day contriving all manner of devices against his better, and inventing every kind of plot, so that he might requite his benefactor with evils. At first, then, attempting to conceal the conspiracy, he pretended to be a friend, and by setting upon him repeatedly with guile and deceit, he hoped most easily to attain what he expected.
But to him God was a Friend, a Guardian and a Protector, who, bringing to light the plots devised in secret and in darkness, exposed them. So great is the strength of virtue—the mighty weapon of godliness—to ward off enemies and to keep safe one's own salvation; fenced about with this, our most God-beloved emperor escaped the manifold plots of that ill-named man.
And when he saw that his secret conspiracy was by no means proceeding according to his purpose—since God was making every guile and trickery manifest to the God-beloved emperor—being no longer able to conceal himself, he raised up open war.
Indeed, having resolved to wage war against Constantine at close quarters, he was already setting himself in battle-array even against the God of all, whom he knew that Constantine worshipped; and thereupon he set about, quietly and silently for the present, to besiege the godly subjects under his rule, who had never at any time done his government the least harm. And this he did, terribly compelled to blindness by his innate wickedness.
He therefore set before his eyes neither the memory of those who before him had driven out the Christians, nor of those whose destroyer and avenger he himself had become because of the impieties they pursued. But, turning aside from sound reason and going utterly mad in his mind, he resolved to make war on God Himself, as being the helper of Constantine, instead of on the one who was being helped.
And first he drives away every Christian from his household, thereby, wretched man, depriving himself of their prayer to God on his behalf, which they have it as an ancestral teaching to offer for all men. Then he commands that the soldiers in the cities be singled out and cast out from the dignity of their rank, unless they chose to sacrifice to the demons. And yet these were small things, compared with the array of greater ones.
What need is there to recount one by one and in detail the things done by this hater of God—and how that most lawless man devised lawless laws? For with regard to those afflicted in the prisons, he enacted that no one should show humanity by sharing food, nor pity those perishing of hunger in bonds, nor in short that anyone should be good, nor that those drawn by nature itself to compassion for their neighbours should do any good thing. And this law was outright shameless and most cruel, overriding every gentle instinct of nature; for to it was attached a penalty as well: that those who showed mercy should suffer the same as those they pitied, and that those who humanely ministered should be shut up in bonds and prisons, undergoing the same punishment as the afflicted.
Such were the ordinances of Licinius. Why need one enumerate his innovations concerning marriage, or his revolutions concerning those who depart this life, whereby—daring to set aside the ancient laws of the Romans, well and wisely established—he introduced in their place certain barbarous and savage laws, lawless in truth and contrary to law? He devised countless impositions against the subject nations, all manner of exactions of gold and silver, surveys of land, and a ruinous profit drawn even from men no longer living in the fields but long since deceased.
And what kinds of banishments this hater of mankind devised against those who had done no wrong, what arrests of well-born and notable men—whose lawful wedded wives he tore from them and handed over to certain vile servants for the outrage of shameful deeds; and how many married women and virgin maidens this man, decrepit with age, debauched, to satisfy the unbridled lust of his soul—why need one prolong these matters, when the excess of his last deeds proves the first to be small and as nothing?
At any rate, the consummation of his madness proceeded against the bishops. Already reckoning these, as servants of the God who is over all, to be opposed to what he was doing, he plotted against them—not yet openly, because of his fear of his better, but again secretly and craftily—and through the schemes of the governors he made away with the most approved among them. And the manner of their murder was something strange, such as was never heard of before.
The things done about Amasea and the rest of the cities of Pontus surpassed every excess of cruelty; there some of the churches of God were again cast down from on high to the ground, while others they shut up, so that none of the accustomed worshippers might assemble, nor render to God the worship that was due.
For he supposed that the prayers were not being offered on his behalf, reasoning this out of his evil conscience; but he was persuaded that we did all things and besought God on behalf of the God-beloved emperor. From this he was moved to vent his wrath against us.
And so the flatterers among the governors, persuaded that they were doing what pleased the impious man, surrounded some of the bishops with the punishments customary for malefactors; and those who had done no wrong were led away and punished without a pretext, like murderers. And already some endured a stranger form of death: their bodies hacked by the sword into many pieces, and after this cruel and most horrible spectacle, cast into the depths of the sea as food for the fishes.
Thereupon the flights of the godly men began again, and once more the fields, once more the wildernesses, the glens and the mountains received the servants of Christ. And when these things too went forward in this manner for the impious man, he then set his mind upon stirring up the persecution against all.
And he prevailed in his purpose, and there was nothing to hinder him from proceeding to action, had not God, the Champion of the souls that are His own, anticipating with all speed what was about to happen, caused to shine forth all at once, as in deep darkness and the most gloomy night, a great luminary and saviour to all, leading His servant Constantine by a lofty arm to these regions.