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Works Dionysius of Alexandria Epistula ad Germanum Against Bishop Germanus

1.

Now I speak also before God, and He knoweth that I lie not: it was not by my own choice, 1 neither was it without divine instruction, that I took to flight. But at an earlier period, 2 indeed, when the edict for the persecution under Decius was determined upon, Sabinus at that very hour sent a certain Frumentarius 3 to make search for me. And I remained in the house for four days, expecting the arrival of this Frumentarius. But he went about examining all other places, the roads, the rivers, the fields, where he suspected that I should either conceal myself or travel. And he was smitten with a kind of blindness, and never lighted on the house; for he never supposed that I should tarry at home when under pursuit. Then, barely after the lapse of four days, God giving me instruction to remove, and opening the way for me in a manner beyond all expectation, my domestics 4 and I, and a considerable number of the brethren, effected an exit together. And that this was brought about by the providence of God, was made plain by what followed: in which also we have been perhaps of some service to certain parties.


  1. houdemian ep' emautou ballomenos. In Codex Fuk. and in the Chronicon of Syncellus it is ep' emauto. In Codices Maz. and Med. it is ep' emauton. Herodotus employs the phrase in the genitive form--ballomenos eph' heautou pepreche, i.e., seipsum in consilium adhibens, sua sponte et proprio motu fecit. ↩

  2. halla kai proteron. Christophorsonus and others join the proteron, with the diogmou, making it mean, "before the persecution." This is contrary to pure Greek idiom, and is also inconsistent with what follows; for by the autes horas is meant the very hour at which the edict was decreed, diogmos here having much the sense of "edict for the persecution."--Vales. ↩

  3. There was a body of men called frumentarii milites, employed under the emperors as secret spies, and sent through the provinces to look after accused persons, and collect floating rumors. They were abolished at length by Constantine, as Aurelius Victor writes. They were subordinate to the judges or governors of the provinces. Thus this Frumentarius mentioned here by Dionysius was deputed in obedience to Sabinus, the praefectus Augustalis.--Vales. ↩

  4. oi paides. Musculus and Christophorsonus make it "children." Valesius prefers "domestics." ↩

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Against Bishop Germanus
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Elucidations - Epistles of Dionysus
Introductory Note to Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria

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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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