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Works Athanasius of Alexandria (295-373) Historia Arianorum History of the Arians

68.

But what wonder is it if, after he has been led into impious errors, he is so cruel towards the Bishops, since the common feelings of humanity could not induce him to spare P. 296 even his own kindred. His uncles 1 he slew; his cousins he put out of the way; he commiserated not the sufferings of his father-in-law, though he had married his daughter, or of his kinsmen; but he has ever been a transgressor of his oaths towards all. So likewise he treated his brother in an unholy manner; and now he pretends to build his sepulchre, although he delivered up to the barbarians his betrothed wife Olympias, whom his brother had protected till his death, and had brought up as his intended consort. Moreover he attempted to set aside his wishes, although he boasts to be his heir 2; for so he writes, in terms which any one possessed of but a small measure of sense would be ashamed of. But when I compare his letters, I find that he does not possess common understanding, but that his mind is solely regulated by the suggestions of others, and that he has no mind of his own at all. Now Solomon says, ‘If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked 3.’ This man proves by his actions that he is such an unjust one, and that those about him are wicked.


  1. [See above, p. 134, note 8, and ref. there; also Gibbon, ch. xviii. vol. ii. p. 364sqq.]  ↩

  2. Cf. §60, note 6.  ↩

  3. Prov. xxix. 12 .  ↩

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Geschichte der Arianer. (BKV) Compare
History of the Arians

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Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

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