Maximin Flees in the Disguise of a Slave

Such was the punishment suffered by the man who had begun the persecution. But the one we are now speaking of had seen these things and knew them from his own experience, yet all at once he put them out of his mind. He gave no thought either to the punishment of the first persecutor or to the divine judgment carried out on the second. The second had indeed tried to outrun his predecessor in the race of crime, and he prided himself on inventing new tortures for us. Neither fire nor sword, nor piercing with nails, nor wild beasts, nor the depths of the sea was enough for him. On top of all these he discovered a new kind of punishment and issued an edict ordering that their eyesight be destroyed. So great numbers, not only of men but of women and children, were deprived of the sight of their eyes and of the use of the joints of their feet, by cutting or by burning, and in this state were sent off to the painful labor of the mines. That is why this tyrant too was overtaken not long afterward by the righteous judgment of God. He had trusted in the help of the demons he worshiped as gods and relied on the countless numbers of his troops, and he had ventured to go into battle. On that occasion he felt himself without any hope in God. He threw off the imperial robe that so ill became him, hid himself with cowardly fear in the crowd around him, and looked for safety in flight. [a] Afterward he hid in the fields and villages dressed as a slave, hoping in this way to stay well hidden. But he had not escaped the mighty and all-searching eye of God. For even while he was expecting to spend the rest of his days in safety, he fell to the ground, struck by God’s fiery dart, and his whole body was wasted away by the blow of divine vengeance. All trace of his former features was lost, and nothing was left of him but dry bones and the look of a skeleton.