The Idol at Antioch

This man waged war on us in every way. He took pains to hunt our people out of their hiding places like unholy thieves, contrived every kind of slander and accusation against us, and caused the deaths of countless people. At last he set up an idol of Zeus Philios with certain trickeries and sorceries. He invented unholy rites of initiation for it, ill-omened mysteries and abominable purifications, and displayed his marvel-working even to the emperor through the oracles he pretended to give. And this man too, by flattery that pleased the ruler, stirred up the demon against the Christians, and said that the god had commanded that the Christians, as his enemies, be driven out beyond the borders of the city and of the countryside around it. [a]