Section 194
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 163 done at least in a proper way. For a just ruler should never form unjust decrees. We, indeed, cheerfully bear the reward of such a death, but we only urge upon you this request, that you yourself would first take cognisance of these plotters of mischief, and justly judge, whether they deserve death and punishment, or safety and security. But if this decree, and this unheard of or dinance, which ought not be tolerated even against barbarous enemies, have not proceeded from you, so much the more do we entreat you not to overlook us in the .midst of this lawless plun der of the populace." After a few other remarks, he adds, " The philosophy which we profess, first indeed, flourished among the barbarians, but afterwards, when it grew up, also among the na tions under your government ; under the glorious reign of Augus tus your ancestor, it became, especially to your reign, an auspi cious blessing. For since that time, the Roman power has grown in greatness and splendour. Whose desired successor you have become, and will be, together writh your son, if you preserve that philosophy which has been nurtured with the empire, which com menced its existence W7ith Augustus, and which also your ances tors did honour, with other religions ; and one of the greatest evidences, that our doctrine flourished, to the advantage of a reign so happily begun, is this : that there has nothing disastrous occurred to the empire, since the reign of Augustus ; on the con trary, all things have proceeded splendidly and gloriously accord ing to the wishes of all. Nero, and Domitian, alone, stimulated by certain malicious persons, showed a disposition to slander our faith. From whom it has happened, also, that this falsehood re specting Christians has been propagated by an absurd practice of waylaying and informing. But your pious fathers corrected what was done by the ignorance of those, by frequently reproving many in writing, as many as dared to attempt any innovations against those of our religion. Your grandfather Adrian, evidently wrote, among others, to Fundanus the proconsul of Asia. But your father, also, when you held the government with him, wrote to the cities, forbidding jgpy strange movements against us. Among these were the ordinances to the Larissasans, to the Thessalonians, and Athenians, and all the Greeks, But as you cherish the