Thus, then, Maximin being put out of the way—he who, remaining as the only one left of the enemies of godliness, had shown himself the worst of all—the work of the renewal of the churches from the foundations was raised up by the grace of God the Almighty; and the Word of Christ, shining forth to the glory of the God of all, recovered a greater boldness than before, while the affairs of the impiety of the enemies of godliness were filled with utmost shame and dishonour.
For first of all that very Maximin, having been proclaimed by the rulers the most hostile of all men, was publicly branded on pillars by public documents as a most impious and most ill-named and most God-hated tyrant; and as many pictures as had been set up in every city in honour of him and of his children, some, being cast down from on high to the ground, were shattered, while others had their faces defaced, being blackened over with a dark colour; and likewise as many statues as had stood erect in his honour, being in the same way cast down, were shattered, lying exposed as a laughing-stock and a sport to those who wished to insult and to play the wanton with them.
Then also all the honours of the rest of the enemies of godliness were stripped away; and all who held the mind of Maximin were slain, especially as many as, having been honoured by him with offices of authority, had in their flattery toward him insolently played the wanton against our Word.
Such was Peucetius, who beyond all others was most honoured and most revered by him, and his most genuine of comrades, who had been twice and thrice consul and had been appointed by him prefect of the general accounts; and likewise Culcianus, who had advanced through every office of authority—he too distinguished by the blood of countless Christians throughout Egypt; and besides these not a few others, through whom especially the things of Maximin's tyranny had been strengthened and increased.
And Justice summoned Theotecnus also, by no means consigning to oblivion the things he had done against the Christians. For when, in connection with the image he had set up at Antioch, he seemed to be prospering, he had even been deemed worthy of a governorship by Maximin.
But Licinius, having come upon the city of Antioch, and having made a search of the conjurers, kept torturing with tortures the prophets and priests of that newly-set-up image, enquiring by what device they had been counterfeiting the imposture. And when it was impossible for them, being driven hard by the tortures, to conceal it, but they declared that the whole mystery was an imposture contrived by the craft of Theotecnus, he inflicted upon all the fitting penalty, and delivered over to death—first Theotecnus himself, and then also the partners of his sorcery—after very many tortures.
To all these were added also the children of Maximin, whom he had already made partners of the imperial honour and of the dedication on panels and pictures; and the kinsmen of the tyrant too, who formerly had boasted and had been lifted up to lord it over all men, suffered the same things as those aforesaid, together with the utmost dishonour, since they had not received instruction, nor known nor understood the exhortation that says in the sacred words:
「Put not your trust in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. His breath shall go forth, and he shall return to his earth; in that day all their thoughts shall perish.」
Thus, then, the impious being purged away, the firm and unenvied possession of the kingdom that befitted them was preserved for Constantine and Licinius alone; who, having first of all purged the world of enmity against God, and being sensible of the good things dispensed to them by God, displayed their love of virtue and of God, and their piety and thankfulness toward the Deity, through the legislation on behalf of the Christians.