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| To Hermammon.
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Epistle XI.—To
Hermammon.875
| 875
Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., vii. 1, 10, 23. Eusebius
introduces this extract thus: “In an epistle to Hermammon,
Dionysus makes the following remarks upon Gallus” the
Emperor. |
————————————
1. But Gallus did not understand the
wickedness of Decius, nor did he note beforehand what it was that
wrought his ruin. But he stumbled at the very stone which was
lying before his eyes; for when his sovereignty was in a prosperous
position, and when affairs were turning out according to his
wish,876
| 876
κατὰ
νοῦν is the reading in the Codices Maz.,
Med., Fuk, and Savil., and adopted by Rufinus and others. But
Robertus Stephanus, from the Codex Regius, gives κατὰ ῥοῦν,
“according to the stream,” i.e., favourably. | he oppressed
those holy men who interceded with God on behalf of his peace and his
welfare. And consequently, persecuting them, he persecuted also
the prayers offered in his own behalf.
2. And to John a revelation is made in like
manner:877
| 877
Eusebius prefaces this extract thus: “Gallus had not held
the government two full years when he was removed, and Valerian,
together with his son Gallienus, succeeded him. And what
Dionysius has said of him may be learned from his Epistle to Hermammon,
in which he makes the following statement.” |
“And there was given unto him,” he says, “a mouth
speaking great things, and blasphemy; and power was given unto him, and
forty and two months.”878
| 878
ἐξουσία καὶ
μῆνες
τεσσαρακονταδύο.
Rev. xiii. 5. Baronius expounds the
numbers as referring to the period during which the persecution under
Valerian continued: see him, under the year 257 a.d., ch. 7. [See Introductory Note, p. 78,
supra. Here is a quotation from the Apocalypse to be noted
in view of our author’s questionings, part i., i. 5, p. 83,
supra.] | And one finds both things to
wonder at in Valerian’s case; and most especially has one to
consider how different it was with him before these events,879
| 879 The
text is, καὶ
τούτων
μάλιστα τὰ
πρὸ αὐτοῦ ὡς
οὕτως ἔσχε
συννοεῖν·
ἕως ἤπιος, etc.
Gallandi emends the sentence thus: καὶ αὐτοῦ
τὰ μάλιστα
πρὸ τούτων,
ὡς οὐχ οὕτως
ἔσχε,
συννοεῖν, ἔως
ἤπιος, etc. Codex Regius gives
ὡς
μὲν
ἤπιος. But Codices Maz. and Med.
give ἕως ἤπιος, while Fuk.
and Savil. give ἔως γὰρ
ἤπιος. | —how mild and well-disposed he was
towards the men of God. For among the emperors who preceded him,
there was not one who exhibited so kindly and favourable a disposition
toward them as he did; yea, even those who were said to have become
Christians openly880
| 880
He means the Emperor Philip who, as many of the ancients have
recorded, was the first of the Roman emperors to profess the Christian
religion. But as Dionysius speaks in the plural number, to Philip
may be added Alexander Severus, who had an image of Christ in the
chapel of his Lares, as Lampridius testifies, and who favoured and
sustained the Christians during the whole period of his empire.
It is to be noted further, that Dionysius says of these emperors only
that they were said and thought to be Christians, not that they
were so in reality.—Gallandi | did not
receive them with that extreme friendliness and graciousness with which
he received them at the beginning of his reign; and his whole house was
filled then with the pious, and it was itself a very church of
God. But the master and president881
of the Magi of Egypt882
| 882
Baronius thinks that this was that Magus who, a little
while before the empire of Decius, had incited the Alexandrians to
persecute the Christians, and of whom Dionysius speaks in his Epistle
to Fabius. What follows here, however, shows that Macrianus is
probably the person alluded to. | prevailed on him to abandon that
course, urging him to slay and persecute those pure and holy men as
adversaries and obstacles to their accursed and abominable
incantations. For there are, indeed, and there were men who, by
their simple presence, and by merely showing themselves, and by simply
breathing and uttering some words, have been able to dissipate the
artifices of wicked demons. But he put it into his mind to
practise the impure rites of initiation, and detestable juggleries, and
execrable sacrifices, and to slay miserable children, and to make
oblations of the offspring of unhappy fathers, and to divide the bowels
of the newly-born, and to mutilate and cut up the creatures made by
God, as if by such means they883
| 883
εὐδαιμονήσοντας.
So Codices Maz., Med., Fuk. and Savil. read: others give
εὐδαιμονήσαντας.
It would seem to require εὐδαιμονήσοντα,
“as if he would attain;” for the reference is evidently to
Valerian himself. | would attain to
blessedness.
3. Afterwards he subjoins the
following:—Splendid surely were the thank-offerings, then,
which Macrianus brought them884
| 884 By
the αὐτοῖς some understand
τοῖς
βασιλεῦσι; others
better, τοῖς
δαίμοσι. According to
Valesius, the sense is this: that Macrianus having, by the help
and presages of the demons, attained his hope of empire, made a due
return to them, by setting Valerian in arms against the Christians. | for that empire which was the object
of his hopes; who, while formerly reputed as the sovereign’s
faithful public treasurer,885
| 885
ἐπὶ τῶν
καθόλου
λόγων. The Greeks gave this name
to those officials whom the Latins called rationales, or
procuratores summæ rei. Under what emperor Macrianus
was procurator, is left uncertain here. |
had yet no mind for anything which was either reasonable in itself or
conducive to the public good,886
| 886
οὐδὲν
εὔλογον οὐδὲ
καθολικὸν
ἐφρόνησεν.
There is a play here on the two senses of the word καθολικός ,
as seen in the official title ἐπὶ
τῶν καθόλου
λόγων, and in the note of character in
οὐδὲ
καθολικόν.
But it can scarcely be reproduced in the English. | but subjected himself to that curse of
prophecy which says, “Woe unto those who prophesy from their own
heart, and see not the public good!”887
| 887
οὐαὶ
τοῖς
προφητεύουσιν
ἀπὸ καρδίας
αὐτῶν καὶ τὸ
καθόλου μὴ
βλέπουσιν.
The quotation is probably from Ezek. xiii. 3, of which Jerome gives
this interpretation: Vae his qui prophetant ex corde suo et
omnino non vident. | For he did not discern that
providence which regulates all things; nor did he think of the judgment
of Him who is before all, and through all, and over all.
Wherefore he also became an enemy to His Catholic Church; and besides
that, he alienated and estranged himself from the mercy of God, and
fled to the utmost possible distance from His salvation.888
| 888
Robertus Stephanus edits τῆς ἑαυτοῦ
ἐκκλησίας,
“from his Church,” following the Codex Medicæus.
But the best manuscripts give σωτηρίας. | And in this indeed he
demonstrated the reality of the peculiar significance of his
name.889
| 889 A
play upon the name Macrianus, as connected with μακράν, “at a
distance.” [This playfulness runs through the section.] |
4. And again, after some other matters,
he proceeds thus:—For Valerian was instigated to these acts
by this man, and was thereby exposed to contumely and reproach,
according to the word spoken by the Lord to Isaiah:
“Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their own abominations
in which their souls delighted; I also will choose their
mockeries,890
and will
recompense their sin.”891
But this man892
| 892
Christophorsonus refers this to Valerian. But evidently the
οὗτος
δέ introduces a different subject in Macrianus; and
besides, Valerian could not be said to have been originally unworthy of
the power which he aspired to. | (Macrianus), being maddened with his
passion for the empire, all unworthy of it as he was, and at the same
time having no capacity for assuming the insignia of imperial
government,893
| 893
τὸν
βασίλειον
ὑποδῦναι
κόσμον. | by reason of
his crippled894
body,895
| 895
Joannes Zonaras, in his Annals, states that Macrianus was
lame. | put forward his two sons as the bearers,
so to speak, of their father’s offences. For unmistakeably
apparent in their case was the truth of that declaration made by God,
when He said, “Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the
children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate
me.” For he heaped his own wicked passions, for which he
had failed in securing satisfaction,896
| 896
ὧν ἠτυχει. So
Codex Regius reads. But Codices Maz., Med., and Fuk. give
ηὐτύχει, “in
which he succeeded.” | upon the heads of his sons, and thus
wiped off897
upon them his
own wickedness, and transferred to them, too, the hatred he himself had
shown toward God.
5.898
| 898
Eusebius introduces the extract thus: He (Dionysius) addressed
also an epistle to Hermammon and the brethren in Egypt; and after
giving an account of the wickedness of Decius and his successors, he
states many other circumstances, and also mentions the peace of
Gallienus. And it is best to hear his own relation as
follows. | That man,899
| 899 This
is rightly understood of Macrianus, by whose treachery Valerian came
under the power of the Persians. Aurelius Victor, Syncellus, and
others, testify that Valerian was overtaken by that calamity through
the treachery of his generals. | then, after he had betrayed the one and
made war upon the other of the emperors preceding him, speedily
perished, with his whole family, root and branch. And Gallienus
was proclaimed, and acknowledged by all. And he was at once an
old emperor and a new; for he was prior to those, and he also survived
them. To this effect indeed is the word spoken by the Lord
to Isaiah: “Behold, the things which were from the
beginning have come to pass; and there are new things which shall now
arise.”900
For as a cloud
which intercepts the sun’s rays, and overshadows it for a little,
obscures it, and appears itself in its place, but again, when the cloud
has passed by or melted away, the sun, which had risen before, comes
forth again and shows itself: so did this Macrianus put himself
forward,901
| 901 προστάς. But
Valesius would read προσστάς,
adstans. | and achieve
access902
| 902
προσπελάσας
is the reading of three of the codices and of Nicephorus; others give
προπελάσας. | for himself even to
the very empire of
Gallienus now established; but now he is that no more, because
indeed he never was it, while this other, i.e., Gallienus, is
just as he was. And his empire, as if it had cast off old age,
and had purged itself of the wickedness formerly attaching to it, is at
present in a more vigorous and flourishing condition, and is now seen
and heard of at greater distances, and stretches abroad in every
direction.
6. Then he further indicates the exact
time at which he wrote this account, as follows:—And it
occurs to me again to review the days of the imperial years. For
I see that those most impious men, whose names may have been once so
famous, have in a short space become nameless. But our more pious
and godly prince903
| 903
[Rom. xiii. 4; 6. St. Paul’s strong
expressions in this place must explain these expressions. A
prince was, quoad hoc, comparatively speaking, godly and pious,
as he “attended continually to this very thing.” So,
“most religious,” in the Anglican Liturgy.] | has passed his
septennium, and is now in his ninth year, in which we are to celebrate
the festival.904
| 904 Who ever
expressed himself thus,—that one after his seven years was
passing his ninth year? This septennium (επταετηρίς
) must designate something peculiar, and different from the time
following it. It is therefore the septennium of imperial power
which he had held along with his father. In the eighth year of
that empire, Macrianus possessed himself of the imperial honour
specially in Egypt. After his assumption of the purple, however,
Gallienus had still much authority in Egypt. At length, in the
ninth year of Gallienus, that is, in 261, Macrianus the father and the
two sons being slain, the sovereignty of Gallienus was recognised also
among the Egyptians. And then Gallienus gave a rescript to
Dionysius, Pinna, and Demetrius, bishops of Egypt, to re-establish the
sacred places,—a boon which he had granted in the former
year. The ninth year of Gallienus, moreover, began about the
midsummer of this year; and the time at which this letter was written
by Dionysius, as Eusebius observes, may be gathered from that, and
falls consequently before the Paschal season of 262 a.d.—Pearson, p. 72.
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