Note 164 — Second Part. (continued 2)

Eusebius, Histor. Eccles. bk. VIII. 14., τί δεῖ τὰς ἐμπαθεῖς ἀνδρὸς αἰσχρουργίας μνημονεύειν; ἢ τῶν πρὸς αὐτοῦ μεμοιχευμένων ἀπαριθμεῖσθαι τὲν πληθύν; οὐκ ἦν γέ τοι πόλιν αὐτὸν παρελθεῖν, μὴ οὐχὶ ἐκ παντὸς φθορὰς γυναικῶν παρθένων τε ἁρπαγὰς εἰργασμένον.—cap. 16. μέτεισι γοῦν αὐτὸν θεήλατος κόλασις· ἐξ αὐτῆς αὐτοῦ καταρξαμένη σαρκὸς, καὶ μέχρι τῆς ψυχῆς παρελθοῦσα. ἀθρόα μὲν γὰρ περὶ τὰ μέσα τῶν ἀποῤῥήτων τοῦ σώματος ἀπόστασις γίγνεται αὐτῷ· εἶθ’ ἕλκος ἐν βάθει συριγγώδες καὶ τούτων ἀνιάτος νομὴ κατὰ τῶν ἐνδοτάτῳ σπλάγχνων· ἀφ’ ὧν ἀλεκτόν τι πλῆθος σκωλήκων βρύειν, θανατώδη τε ὀδμὴν ἀποπνέειν, τοῦ παντὸς ὄγκου τῶν σωμάτων ἐκ πολυτροφίας αὐτῷ καὶ πρὸς τῆς νόσου εἰς ὑπερβολὴν πλήθους πιμελῆς μεταβεβληκότος· ἣν τότε κατασαπεῖσαν, ἀφόρητον καὶ φρικτοτάτην τοῖς πλησιάζουσι παρέχειν τὴν θέαν, ἰατρῶν δ’ οὖν οἱ μὲν, οὐδ’ ὅλως ὑπομεῖναι τὴν τοῦ δυσώδους ὑπερβάλλουσαν ἀτοπίαν οἷοι τε, κατεσφάττοντο. οἱ δὲ διῳδηκότος τοῦ παντὸς ὄγκου καὶ εἰς ἀνέλπιστον σωτηρίας ἀποπεπτωκότος μηδὲν ἐπικουρεῖν δυνάμενοι, ἀνηλεῶς ἐκτείνοντο. (What need to recall the passions and abominations of the man? or to count the multitude of debaucheries done by him? Nay, he could not pass through a city without leaving behind him everywhere ruin of women and rape of virgins.—ch. 16. Yet heaven-sent punishment overtakes him, commencing with his very flesh and going on to assail the life. For an incessant suppurative inflammation attacks him in the region of the private parts of the body; then later on a wound penetrating deep in like a fistula and an incurable eating sore affecting these inmost intestines. Then from these an indescribable number of worms bred, and a corpse-like smell was given off, the whole bulk of the bodily parts having through high living and under the influence of the disease changed into an exaggerated superfluity of fat. Then this rotting away, displayed an intolerable and an appalling spectacle to his attendants; while among his physicians, some finding themselves utterly unable to endure the exceeding horribleness of the stench, put an end to their lives; while others, the whole bulk having gone to complete rottenness, and the patient in a condition that admitted no hope of recovery, being unable to afford any help, were cruelly put to death). This passage occurs as well, word for word, in Nicephorus, Histor. Eccles. VII. 22. Aur. Victor. Epit. ch. 40., Galerius Maximianus consumptis genitalibus defecit, (Galerius Maximianus died, the genital organs being destroyed).—Zosimus, Hist. II. 11. speaks merely of τραῦμα δυσίατον (a wound difficult to cure), and Paulus Diaconus, Hist. miscell. XI. 5., says: putrefacto introrsum pectore, et vitalibus dissolutis, cum ultra horrorem humanae miseriae etiam vermes eructaret, medicique iam ultra foetorem non ferentes, crebro iussu eius occiderentur etc. (the bosom having putrefied within, and the vitals rotted away, when exceeding the climax of human horror and suffering he began to bring up worms, and his physicians unable to bear the excessive foulness of the stench, were being executed at his frequent order, etc.). The same fate happened to Herod, of whom Josephus, Antiq. XVII. 6. says: τοῦ αἰδοίου σῆψις σκώληκας ἐμποιοῦσα (mortification of the genitals producing worms). Comp. Bochart, Hierozoicon, edit. Rosenmüller vol. III. p. 520.