Church History 8.14.11 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Maximin's drunkenness and debauchery corrupted his army and officials, whom he encouraged to plunder their subjects.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:374–375

παροινίας γε μὴν καὶ μέθης εἰς τοσαύτην ἠνέχθη φορὰν ὡς ἐν τοῖς πότοις παρακόπτειν καὶ τῶν φρενῶν παρεξίστασθαι, τοιαῦτά τε μεθύοντα προστάττειν οἷα ἀνανήψαντα αὐτὸν τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ εἰς μετάμελον ἄγειν· κραιπάλης δὲ καὶ ἀσωτίας μηδενὶ καταλιπὼν ὑπερβολὴν, κακίας διδάσκαλον τοῖς ἀμφʼ αὐτὸν ἄρχουσί τε καὶ ἀρχομένοις ἑαυτὸν καθίστη, θρύπτεσθαι μὲν τὸ στρατιωτικὸν διὰ πάσης τρυφῆς τε καὶ ἀκολασίας ἐνάγων, ἡγεμόνας δὲ καὶ στρατοπεδάρχας διʼ ἁρπαγῶν καὶ πλεονεξίας χωρεῖν κατὰ τῶν ὑπηκόων, μονονουχὶ συντυραννοῦντας αὐτῷ, προκαλούμενος.

English · Claude translation

He was carried to such excess of drunken violence and intoxication that at his drinking bouts he became deranged and out of his mind, and when drunk gave orders that he repented of the next day when sober. Leaving to no one any possibility of surpassing him in debauchery and profligacy, he made himself a teacher of wickedness to rulers and subjects alike around him: he led the army to grow soft through every luxury and licentiousness, and he encouraged governors and generals to proceed against their subjects with plunder and greed, as almost fellow tyrants with him.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:374–375 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.14.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/14/11/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.14.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/14/11/).