Against Celsus 1.30

Who, then, examining the nature of things with more than passing attention, would not be amazed at him, who conquered and was able to rise in glory above everything that produces obscurity, and above all who were ever famous? And yet those famous among human beings have rarely been able to win fame for many things at once. One was admired and became famous for wisdom, another for generalship, some barbarians for wonderful powers from incantations, and others for other things, not many at once. But he is admired, besides other things, for wisdom, for mighty works, and for his power to lead. For he persuaded some to revolt with him from the laws, not as a tyrant, nor as a robber, anointing his followers for combat against men, nor as a rich man, supplying those who came to him, nor as any of those admittedly blameworthy, but as a teacher of the doctrine about the God of the universe, of the worship due to him, and of every moral way of life that can bring whoever lives by it into close relation with the God over all. For Themistocles, or any other famous man, nothing arose to oppose his fame. But for this man, besides what has been said—which was enough to cover in obscurity the soul even of a very gifted man—his death by crucifixion, which seems dishonorable, was enough to wipe out the fame he had already gained, and to make those who, as those who do not assent to his teaching think, had been deceived beforehand abandon the deception and condemn the deceiver.