How Licinius Oppressed the East

For he was told that in that region a savage beast was attacking both the church of God and the other people of the provinces. It was as though the evil spirit were working to produce results the very opposite of the devout emperor’s deeds. So the Roman Empire, divided into two parts, seemed to everyone like night and day: darkness covered the provinces of the East, while the brightest day shone on the people of the other part. And while the people of the West were receiving many blessings from the hand of God, the sight of these blessings was unbearable both to the envy that hates everything good and to the tyrant who was afflicting the other part of the empire. His government was prospering, and he had been honored with a marriage tie to so great an emperor as Constantine. Yet he did not care to follow in the steps of that devout ruler. Instead he tried to imitate the wicked aims and practices of the godless. He chose to follow the path of those whose shameful end he had seen with his own eyes, rather than to keep up friendly relations with the one who was his superior. [a]