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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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70 Pages
Page 70
Nor did matters stop even here: for after all this had happened, whosoever pleased broke open any door that he could, and searched, and plundered what was within. They entered even into those places which not even all Christians are allowed to enter. Gorgonius, the commander of the city force [1813] , knows this, for he was present. And no unimportant evidence of the nature of this hostile assault is afforded by the circumstance, that the armour and javelins and swords borne by those who entered were left in the Lord's house. They have been hung up in the Church until this time, that they might not be able to deny it: and although they sent several times Dynamius the soldier [1814] , as well as the Commander [1815] of the city police, desiring to take them away, we would not allow it, until the circumstance was known to all.
Now if an order has been given that we should be persecuted we are all ready to suffer martyrdom. But if it be not by order of Augustus, we desire Maximus the Prefect of Egypt and all the city magistrates to request of him that they may not again be suffered thus to assail us. And we desire also that this our petition may be presented to him, that they may not attempt to bring in hither any other Bishop: for we have resisted unto death [1816] , desiring to have the most Reverend Athanasius, whom God gave us at the beginning, according to the succession of our fathers; whom also the most religious Augustus Constantius himself sent to us with letters and oaths. And we believe that when his Piety is informed of what has taken place, he will be greatly displeased, and will do nothing contrary to his oaths, but will again give orders that our Bishop Athanasius shall remain with us.
To the Consuls to be elected [1817] after the Consulship of the most illustrious Arbaethion and Collianus [1818] , on the seventeenth Mechir [1819] , which is the day before the Ides of February.
[1813] strategou. There were two strategoi or duumvirs at the head of the police force at Alexandria; they are mentioned in the plural in Euseb. vii. 11, where S. Dionysius speaks of their seizing him. vid. Du Cange, Gloss. Graec. in voc.
[1814] strategou. There were two strategoi or duumvirs at the head of the police force at Alexandria; they are mentioned in the plural in Euseb. vii. 11, where S. Dionysius speaks of their seizing him. vid. Du Cange, Gloss. Graec. in voc.
[1815] ton tes taxeos, supr. S:61, stratiotou
[1816] Apol. Ar. 38.
[1817] Since the Consuls came into office on the first of January, and were proclaimed in each city, it is strange that the Alexandrians here speak in February as if ignorant of their names. The phrase, however, is found elsewhere. Thus in this very year the Chron. Aceph. dates Jan. 5 as 'post Consulatum Arbitionis et Loliani.' And in Socr. Hist. ii. 29, in the instance of the year 351, when there were no Consuls, and in 346, when there was a difference on the subject between the Emperors who were eventually themselves Consuls, the first months are dated in like manner from the Consuls of the foregoing year.
[1818] Lollianus.
[1819] Feb. 12, Leap year; see note below, at the end of Introd. to Letters.
The End
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/history-arians.asp?pg=70
