The Caesars and the Rule of One

And God gladly accepts and welcomes this sacrifice, and honors the one who presents so majestic and noble an offering by lengthening his reign over many years, giving greater proofs of his kindness in proportion to the emperor’s holy services to him. So he lets him celebrate each successive festival amid great and general prosperity throughout the empire, and at the return of each ten-year period he raises one of the emperor’s sons to a share in his imperial power. [a] The eldest, who bears his father’s name, the emperor received as his partner in the empire about the end of the first ten years of his reign; the second, next in age, at the second; and the third likewise at the third ten-year period, the occasion of this present festival of ours. And now that the fourth period has begun, and the length of his reign is extended still further, he wants to widen his imperial authority by calling still more of his family to share his power. By appointing the Caesars he fulfills the predictions of the holy prophets, as they spoke them ages before: “And the saints of the Most High will take the kingdom.” [b] So the Almighty Sovereign himself grants our most godly emperor more years and more children, and keeps his rule over the nations of the world fresh and flourishing, as though it were only now springing up in its first strength. It is he who appoints him this present festival, since he has made him victorious over every enemy that disturbed his peace; it is he who shows him to the human race as an example of true godliness. And so our emperor, like the radiant sun, lights up the most distant subjects of his empire through the presence of the Caesars, as with the far-reaching rays of his own brightness. To us who live in the eastern regions he has given a son worthy of himself, and a second and a third to other parts of his empire, to be, as it were, brilliant reflectors of the light that comes from himself. Then, having harnessed the four most noble Caesars under one yoke, as it were, like horses to the imperial chariot, he sits on high and directs their course with the reins of holy harmony and concord. Present everywhere himself, and watching every event, he in this way travels through every region of the world. [d]

Lastly, clothed as he is with a likeness of the heavenly sovereignty, he lifts his gaze upward and shapes his earthly government after the pattern of that divine original, drawing strength from its likeness to the monarchy of God. And this likeness the universal Sovereign has granted to man alone of the creatures of this earth; for he alone is the author of sovereign power, and he decrees that all should be subject to the rule of one. And surely monarchy far surpasses every other constitution and form of government, for the democratic equality of power that is its opposite might better be called anarchy and disorder. That is why there is one God, and not two, or three, or more: to claim that there are many gods is plainly to deny that God exists at all. There is one Sovereign, and his Word and royal Law is one. It is not a law expressed in syllables and words, or written or carved on tablets and so exposed to the ravages of time. It is the living Word, who exists in his own right, who is himself God, and who governs his Father’s kingdom on behalf of all who come after him and are subject to his power.

His attendants are the heavenly hosts, the tens of thousands of God’s angelic servants, the armies above the earth in numbers beyond counting, and those unseen spirits within heaven itself whose work is to keep this world in order. The ruler and chief of all these is the royal Word, who acts as Regent for the Supreme Sovereign. The oracles of the sacred writers give him the names Captain, and great High Priest, Prophet of the Father, Angel of Mighty Counsel, Brightness of the Father’s Light, Only Son, and a thousand other titles. And the Father, having established him as the living Word, and Law, and Wisdom, the fullness of every blessing, has given this best and greatest gift to all who are the subjects of his kingdom. [f] And he himself, who pervades all things and is present everywhere, unfolding his Father’s gifts to all with an unsparing hand, has given even the reasoning creatures of this earth a sample of his sovereign power. For he has furnished the mind of man, who is made in his own image, with divine faculties, and so it is able to have other virtues too, which flow from the same heavenly source. For he alone is wise, who alone is God; he alone is good in his very being; he alone is mighty in power, the Parent of justice, the Father of reason and wisdom, the Fountain of light and life, the Giver of truth and virtue: in a word, the Author of empire itself, and of all rule and power.