.—Of Decius, Valerian, and Aurelian, who experienced a Miserable End in consequence of their Persecution of the Church.
thee, Decius, I now
appeal, who has trampled with insult on the labors of the righteous: to
thee, the hater of the Church, the punisher of those who lived a holy
life: what is now thy condition after death? How hard and wretched thy
present circumstances! Nay, the interval before thy death gave proof
enough of thy miserable fate, when overthrown with all thine army on
the plains of Scythia, thou didst expose the vaunted power of Rome to
the contempt of the Goths. Thou, too, Valerian, who didst manifest the
same spirit of cruelty towards the servants of God, hast afforded an
example of righteous judgment. A captive in the enemies’ hands, led in chains while yet arrayed in the purple and imperial attire, and at last thy skin stripped from thee, and preserved by command of Sapor the Persian king, thou hast left a perpetual trophy of thy calamity. And thou, Aurelian, fierce perpetrator of every wrong, how signal was thy fall, when, in the midst of thy wild career in Thrace, thou wast slain on the public highway, and didst fill the furrows of the road with thine impious blood!