[184] Inscripta CHRISTO pagina immortalis est, Excepit adstans angelus coram Deo. Et quæ locutus martyr, et quæ pertulit: Nec verbum solùm disserentis condidit, Omnis notata est sanguinis dimensio, Quæ vis doloris, quive segmenti modus: Guttam cruoris ille nullam perdidit.--_Peristeph._ [185] The pagans called the martyrs βιαθάνατοι, or self-murderers. [186] Tertul., _Apol._, c. 50. [187] As early as the middle of the second century Justin Martyr says, “There is not a nation, Greek or Barbarian, or of any other name, even of those that wander in tribes or live in tents, among whom prayers and thanksgiving are not offered to the Father and Creator of the universe in the name of the crucified Jesus.” The decree of Maximin states that almost all men had abandoned the worship of the gods and joined the Christian sect: Σχεδὸν ἅπαντας ἀνθρώπους, καταλειφθείσης τῆς τῶν τεῶν θρησκείας, τῷ ἔθνει τῶν Χριστιανῶν συμμεμιχότας.. Euseb., _Hist. Eccles._, ix, 9. Lucianus of Antioch says that before the last persecution the greater part of the world, including whole cities, had yielded allegiance to the truth--Pars pæne mundi jam major huic veritati adstipulatur; urbes integrae; etc.--Trans. of Euseb. by Rufinus. [188] Even the sanguine imagination of Tertullian cannot conceive the possibility of this event. “Sed et Cæsares credidissent super Christo,” he exclaims, “si aut Cæsares non essent seculo necessario, aut si et Christiani potuissent esse Cæsares.”--_Apol._, c. 21. [189] Οἷά τις ἡλίου βολή.--Euseb., _Hist. Eccles._, ii, 3. [190] _Ibid._, ix, 1; x, 9. [191] _Ibid._, x, 4. Literally, “They are no more because they never were.” In his eloquent oration on the renovation of the cathedral of Tyre Eusebius applies, with remarkable elegance and propriety, the promises of Scripture concerning the restoration of the exiled Jews from Babylon and the final establishment of the church of God (Psa. lxxx; xcviii; Isa. lii; liv) to the condition of Christianity in his day. The above citations are given almost in his very words. [192] A few years after the death of Constantine the Emperor Julian found at this celebrated shrine of Apollo, on the festival of the god, instead of the hecatombs of oxen and the crowds of worshippers which he expected, only a single goose, and a pale and solitary priest in the decayed and deserted temple.--Gibbon, ii, 448, Am. ed. [193] See a thoughtful essay on this topic in Froude’s _Short Studies on Great Subjects, First Series_.