Licinius Turns at Last to Persecution

For the final outbursts of his fury came in his open hostility to the churches. He aimed his attacks at the bishops themselves, whom he considered his worst enemies, and he bore a special hatred toward the men whom the great and devout emperor treated as his friends. So he poured out the full measure of his fury on us. Carried beyond the bounds of reason, he did not stop to think about the example of those who had persecuted the Christians before him, or of those whom he himself had been raised up to punish and destroy for their godless deeds. Nor did he pay attention to things he had witnessed himself, though he had seen with his own eyes the chief author of these calamities of ours, whoever he was, struck down by the blow of the divine scourge. [a]