Church History 9.10.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Maximin's army was destroyed; he threw off his imperial robes, fled in disguise, and hid in the countryside.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:440

ἀπόλλυσι δὴ πρῶτον τὸ ἐφʼ ᾧ πεποίθει ὁπλιτικὸν, τῶν τε ἀμφʼ αὐτὸν δορυφόρων γυμνὸν καὶ πάντων ἔρημον αὐτὸν καταλελοιπότων, καὶ τῷ τότε κρατοῦντι προσπεφευγότων, ὑπεκδὺς ὁ δείλαιος ὡς τάχιστα τὸν οὐ πρέποντα αὐτῷ βασιλικὸν κόσμον, δειλῶς καὶ δυσγενῶς καὶ ἀνάνδρως ὑποδύνει τὸ πλῆθος, κἄπειτα διαδιδράσκει, κρυπταζόμενός τε ἀνὰ τοὺς ἀγροὺς καὶ τὰς κώμας μόλις τῶν πολεμίων τὰς χεῖρας, τὰ τῆς σωτηρίας αὐτῷ προνοούμενος, διέξεισιν, ἔργοις αὐτοῖς εὖ μάλα πιστοὺς καὶ ἀληθεῖς τοὺς θείους ἀποφήνας χρησμοὺς, ἐν οἶς εἴρηται·

English · Claude translation

First the army in which he had trusted was destroyed; and when his bodyguards left him naked and deserted by all and fled to the victor, the wretch stripped off as quickly as possible the imperial dress that did not befit him, slipped cowardly, ignobly, and unmanfully into the crowd, and then ran away. Hiding in the fields and villages, he barely escaped the hands of his enemies while looking after his own safety, proving by his very deeds that the divine oracles are entirely faithful and true, in which it is said:

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:440 · 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. 9.10.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/10/4/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.10.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/10/4/).