Section 431
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400 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. fidels and profane persons, these very same are now acknow ledged by him as worshippers having religion, and are allowed to rebuild their churches ; moreover, the tyrant himself confesses and testifies that certain rights belong to them. Having, there fore, made these confessions, as if he had actually obtained some positive benefit, on this very account, he suffered less than was properly his due, and being smitten with a sudden visitation of God, he died in the second campaign of the war. But his end was not like that of generals and military commanders, who bravely and heroically expose their lives, and encounter a glorious death for gk)ry and their friends ; but as one hostile to God and religion, whilst his army was drawn up for battle in the field, he himself remained at home, concealing himself, and received the punish ment that he deserved, being smitten with a sudden judgment of God over his whole body ; so that he was harassed by dreadful pains and torments, and prostrated on the ground, was wasted away by hunger, whilst his whole flesh dissolved by an invisible fire and burning, sent from God. So that this being wasted away, the whole aspect of his former shape was destroyed, and there was only left of him a kind of image, reduced by length of time to a skeleton of dry bones. Indeed, all present could regard his body as nothing but the tomb of his soul, buried in one that was already dead, and completely dissolved. And as the heart began to burn still more violently in the very recesses of his marrow, his eyes burst forth, and falling from their sockets they left him blind. After this he still continued to breathe, ac knowledging many things to the Lord, and invoking death. At length, however, after confessing that he justly suffered these judgments for his wanton excesses against the Christians, he breathed his last.