Maximin’s Rescript to Tyre

In the very middle of the cities, a thing that had never happened before, resolutions of cities against us, and copies of the imperial rescripts answering them, were engraved on bronze pillars and set up; and in the schools the children had Jesus and Pilate, and the Memoirs forged as an insult, on their lips all day long. [a] It seems necessary to me at this point to insert this very document of Maximin set up on the pillars, so that there may be plain to see at once the boastful and haughty arrogance of the man’s hatred of God, and the sleepless hatred of evil of the sacred justice that followed hard on his heels against the impious. Driven by it, not long afterward he took the opposite course concerning us and laid it down in written laws.

“At last the feeble daring of the human mind has found strength to shake off and scatter every dimness and mist of error, which before this besieged the senses of people, not so much impious as wretched, wrapped in the destructive darkness of ignorance, and to recognize that it is governed and made steady by the good providence of the immortal gods. [b] It is beyond belief how welcome, how delightful and how pleasing it has been to us that you have given the greatest proof of your god-loving purpose, though even before this no one was unaware of the observance and reverence you showed toward the immortal gods, toward whom you have shown a faith not of bare and empty words, but of distinguished deeds, constant and wonderful. That is why your city may rightly be called a seat and dwelling of the immortal gods; at any rate, many examples make it plain that it flourishes because the heavenly gods dwell in it. [c] See, then: your city neglected all its private interests and passed over its earlier petitions about its own affairs. When it perceived that the followers of that accursed folly were beginning to creep about again, and, like a neglected and smoldering pyre whose brands are fanned to life, were raising the greatest blazes, at once and without any delay it took refuge with our godliness as with the mother city of all religion, asking for some cure and help. It is plain that the gods put this saving resolve into your minds because of your faithful godliness. That very one, then, the highest and greatest Zeus, who presides over your most splendid city, who rescues your ancestral gods, your wives and children, your hearth and homes from every destructive ruin, has breathed this wholesome purpose into your souls, showing and making plain how excellent and glorious and salutary it is to approach the worship and sacred rites of the immortal gods with due reverence. [d]

For who can be found so foolish or so wholly without understanding as not to perceive that it is by the kindly care of the gods that the earth does not refuse the seeds entrusted to it and cheat the farmers’ hope with empty expectation; that the sight of impious war is not planted on the earth beyond all hindrance, nor bodies parched by a corrupted climate dragged down to death; that the sea is not heaved up and crested by the blasts of violent winds; that unexpected hurricanes do not break out and stir up deadly storms; and further, that the earth, the nurse and mother of all, does not sink from her deepest hollows in fearful trembling, nor the mountains on her collapse as chasms open? No one is unaware that all these things, and things far worse still, have often happened before. And all these things happened because of the destructive error of the empty folly of those unholy men, when it held sway in their souls and, one might almost say, weighed down the whole world with shame.”

After other words he adds: “Let them look at the crops already flourishing in the broad plains and waving with ears of grain, at the meadows bright with plants and flowers thanks to good rains, and at the climate restored to mildness and gentleness. Finally, let all rejoice that through our godliness, our sacrifices and our veneration the most powerful and unyielding air has been appeased; and let them therefore delight in the firm enjoyment of the calmest peace in quiet. And let all who have been wholly rescued from that blind error and its round and have come back to a right and excellent mind rejoice all the more, as people snatched from an unexpected storm or a grave illness, who will reap the sweet enjoyment of life for the time to come. [e] But if they persist in their accursed folly, let them be separated and driven far away from your city and its territory, as you have asked, so that, in keeping with your praiseworthy zeal in this matter, your city, separated from every pollution and impiety, may follow its inborn purpose and attend to the sacred rites of the immortal gods with due reverence. But so that you may know how welcome your request about this has been to us, and how most eager our soul, which loves to do good, is to grant favors of its own free will, without resolutions and without petition, we permit your Devotion to ask whatever great gift you may wish in return for this god-loving purpose of yours. Ask now to have this done and to receive it, for you will obtain it without any delay. Once granted to your city, it will bear witness for all time to your god-loving reverence toward the immortal gods, and it will show your sons and descendants that you have received from our kindness prizes worthy of this choice of life.”

This was set up on pillars against us in every province, shutting us off from every good hope, at least as far as people were concerned; so that, according to that divine saying, ‘if possible, even the chosen ones themselves’ would have been made to stumble at these things. [g] Indeed, when the hope of most of us was almost dying away, suddenly, while those charged with carrying out the decree against us were still on their way in some regions, God, the champion of his own Church, all but muzzling the tyrant’s boasting against us, showed his heavenly alliance on our behalf.