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Chapter XXIV.—Letter written by the Emperor Constantine to Sapor, the King of Persia, respecting the Christians.; original source section: Chapter 24

1 complete historical source paragraphs and 4 editorial footnotes. Author and edition credits are shown for each record; original wording is retained.

English translation and editorial credits: Blomfield Jackson.

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1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Sapor II. (Shapur) Postumus, the son of Hormisdas II., was one of the greatest of the Sassanidæ. He reigned from a.d. 310 to 381, and fought with success against Constantius II. and Julian, “augendi regni cupiditate supra homines flagrans.” Amm. Marc xviii. 4.

Editorial footnote · Ecclesiastical History, Chapter XXIV.—Letter written by the Emperor Constantine to Sapor, the King of Persia, respecting the Christians.; original source section: Chapter 24, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source

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Chapter XXIV.—Letter written by the Emperor Constantine to Sapor, the King of Persia, respecting the Christians.

1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

The reading of Basil. Gr. and Lat., and Pini Codex, ἐπῳδῆ for γεώδη, is approved by Schulze, and may indicate a side-hit at the Magian fire-worship. But the adjectival form ἐπῳδής for ἐπῳδός is doubtful.

Editorial footnote · Ecclesiastical History, Chapter XXIV.—Letter written by the Emperor Constantine to Sapor, the King of Persia, respecting the Christians.; original source section: Chapter 24, editorial note cite_note-2 · Original source

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“The God I reverence is He whose emblem my dedicated troops bear on their shoulders, marching whithersoever the cause of justice leads them, and rewarding me by their splendid victories. I confess that I reverence this God with eternal remembrance. Him, who dwelleth in the highest heavens, I contemplate with pure and unpolluted mind. On Him I call on bended knees, shunning all abominable blood, all unseemly and ill-omened odours, all fire of incantation, and all pollution by which unlawful and shameful error has destroyed whole nations and hurled them down to hell.

1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

The imperial writer may have had in his mind Tiberius, whose miserable old age was probably ended by murder; Caius, stabbed by his own guard; Claudius, poisoned by his wife; Nero, driven to shameful suicide; Vitellius, beaten to death by a brutal mob; Domitian, assassinated by his wife and freedmen; Commodus, murdered by his courtiers, and Pertinax by his guards; Caracalla, murdered; Heliogabalus, murdered; Alexander Severus, Maximinus, Gordianus, murdered; Decius, killed in war; Gallus, Æmilianus, Gallienus, all murdered; Aurelianus, Probus, Carus, murdered. On the other hand Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Diocletian, who persecuted the Church with less or more severity, died peaceful deaths.

Editorial footnote · Ecclesiastical History, Chapter XXIV.—Letter written by the Emperor Constantine to Sapor, the King of Persia, respecting the Christians.; original source section: Chapter 24, editorial note cite_note-9 · Original source

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“I know that I am not in error, my brother, when I confess that this God is the Ruler and the Father of all men, a truth which many who preceded me upon the imperial throne were so deluded by error as to attempt to deny. But their end was so dreadful that they have become a fearful warning to all mankind, to deter others from similar iniquity. Of these I count that man one whom the wrath of God, like a thunderbolt, drove hence into your country, and who made notorious the memorial of his shame which exists in your own land. Indeed it appears to have been well ordered that the age in which we live should be distinguished by the open and manifest punishments inflicted on such persons. I myself have witnessed the end of those who have persecuted the people of God by unlawful edicts. Hence it is that I more especially thank God for having now, by His special Providence, restored peace to those who observe His law, in which they exalt and rejoice.

1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Valerianus, proclaimed Emperor in Rhœtia, a.d. 254, was defeated in his campaign against the Persians, and treated with indignity alive and dead. After being made to crouch as a footstool for his conqueror to tread on when mounting on horseback, he was flayed alive, a.d. 260, and his tanned skin nailed in a Persian temple as a “memorial of his shame.” Cf. Const. Orat. xxiv. Gibbon’s catholic scepticism includes the humiliation of Valerianus. “The tale,” he says, “is moral and pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called in question.” (Decline and Fall, Chap. X.). But the passage in the text, in which the allusion has not always been perceived, and the parallel reference in the Emperor’s oration, indicate the belief of a time little more than half a century after the event. Lactantius (de Morte Persecutorum V.), was probably about ten years old when Valerianus was defeated, and, if so, gives the testimony of a contemporary. Orosius (vii. 22) and Agathias (iv. p. 133) would only copy earlier writers, but the latter states that for the fact of Sapor’s thus treating Valerianus there is “abundant historical testimony.” Cf. Tillemont, Hist. Emp. iii. pp. 314, 315.

Editorial footnote · Ecclesiastical History, Chapter XXIV.—Letter written by the Emperor Constantine to Sapor, the King of Persia, respecting the Christians.; original source section: Chapter 24, editorial note cite_note-10 · Original source

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“I know that I am not in error, my brother, when I confess that this God is the Ruler and the Father of all men, a truth which many who preceded me upon the imperial throne were so deluded by error as to attempt to deny. But their end was so dreadful that they have become a fearful warning to all mankind, to deter others from similar iniquity. Of these I count that man one whom the wrath of God, like a thunderbolt, drove hence into your country, and who made notorious the memorial of his shame which exists in your own land. Indeed it appears to have been well ordered that the age in which we live should be distinguished by the open and manifest punishments inflicted on such persons. I myself have witnessed the end of those who have persecuted the people of God by unlawful edicts. Hence it is that I more especially thank God for having now, by His special Providence, restored peace to those who observe His law, in which they exalt and rejoice.

Date uncertain | Theodoret of Cyrus

“I know that I am not in error, my brother, when I confess that this God is the Ruler and the Father of all men, a truth which many who preceded me upon the imperial throne were so deluded by error as to attempt to deny. But their end was so dreadful that they have become a fearful warning to all mankind, to deter others from similar iniquity. Of these I count that man one whom the wrath of God, like a thunderbolt, drove hence into your country, and who made notorious the memorial of his shame which exists in your own land. Indeed it appears to have been well ordered that the age in which we live should be distinguished by the open and manifest punishments inflicted on such persons. I myself have witnessed the end of those who have persecuted the people of God by unlawful edicts. Hence it is that I more especially thank God for having now, by His special Providence, restored peace to those who observe His law, in which they exalt and rejoice.

Complete source paragraph · Ecclesiastical History, Chapter XXIV.—Letter written by the Emperor Constantine to Sapor, the King of Persia, respecting the Christians.; original source section: Chapter 24, source paragraph 5 · Original source