CHAPTER XXIII

HOW HE DECLARED GOD TO BE THE AUTHOR OF HIS PROSPERITY: AND CONCERNING HIS WRITTEN LAWS

AND now that (through the powerful aid of God his Saviour), all nations owned their subjection to the emperor’s authority, he openly proclaimed to all the name of Him to whose bounty he owed all his blessings, and declared that He, and not himself, was the author of his past victories. This declaration, written both in the Latin and Greek languages, he caused to be transmitted through every province of the empire. Now the excellence of his style of expression may be known from a perusal of his letters themselves, which were two in number; one addressed to the churches of God; the other to the heathen population in the several cities of the empire. The latter of these I think it well to insert here, as connected with my present subject, in order on the one hand that a copy of this document may be recorded as matter of history, and thus preserved to posterity, and on the other that it may serve to confirm the truth of my present narrative. It is taken from an authentic copy of the imperial statute in my own possession; and the signature in the emperor’s own handwriting attaches as it were the impress of truth to the statement I have made.