He Pleads with Constantius

Now when such outrages as these were committed again by the Arians, surely I was not wrong to follow the direction of Holy Scripture, which says, “Hide yourself for a little while, until the wrath of the Lord has passed.” This was another reason for my withdrawing, Augustus, most beloved of God. And I did not refuse either to go away into the desert or, if need be, to be let down from a wall in a basket. I endured everything; I even lived among wild beasts, so that your favor might return to me, waiting for an opportunity to offer you this defense of mine, confident as I am that they will be condemned and your goodness shown to me. [a]

O Augustus, blessed and most beloved of God, what would you have had me do? Come to you while my slanderers were inflamed with rage against me and were seeking to kill me? Or, as it is written, hide myself a little, so that in the meantime they might be condemned as heretics and your goodness shown to me? Or would you have had me, Sire, appear before your magistrates? Then, though you had written only by way of threat, they, not understanding your intention but stirred up against me by the Arians, might have killed me on the authority of your letters, and on that ground laid the murder at your door. It would not have been fitting for me to surrender and give myself up to have my blood shed, nor for you, as a Christian king, to have the murder of Christians, and of bishops at that, laid to your charge.