d for his liberal
accomplishments and his poetry; he was brought before the court without
having given any real ground for suspicion of any kind, and defended
himself so vigorously that he was acquitted.

12. There was also Demetrius, surnamed Chytras, a philosopher, of great
age, but still firm in mind and body; he, when charged with having
frequently offered sacrifices in the temple of his oracle, could not
deny it; but affirmed that, for the sake of propitiating the deity, he
had constantly done so from his early youth, and not with any idea of
aiming at any higher fortune by his questions; nor had he known any one
who had aimed at such. And though he was long on the rack he supported
it with great constancy, never varying in his statement, till at length
he was acquitted and allowed to retire to Alexandria, where he was born.

13. These and a few others, justice, coming to the aid of truth,
delivered from their imminent dangers. But as accusations extended more
widely, involving numbers without end in their snares, many perished;
some with their bodies mangled on the rack; others were condemned to
death and confiscation of their goods; while Paulus kept on inventing
groundless accusations, as if he had a store of lies on which to draw,
and suggesting various pretences for injuring people, so that on his
nod, it may be said, the safety of every one in the place depended.

14. For if any one wore on his neck a charm against the quartan ague or
any other disease, or if by any information laid by his ill-wishers he
was accused of having passed by a sepulchre at nightfall, and therefore
of being a sorcerer, and one who dealt in the horrors of tombs and the
vain mockeries of the shades which haunt them, he was found guilty and
condemned to death.

15. And the affairs went on as if people had been consulting Claros, or
the oaks at Dodona, or the Delphic oracles of old fame, with a view to
the destruction of the emperor.

16. Meantime, the crowd of courtiers, inventing every kind of deceitful
flattery, affirmed that he would be free from all common misfortunes,
asserting that his fate had always shone forth with vigour and power in
destroying all who attempted anything injurious to him.

17. That indeed strict investigation should be made into such matters,
no one in his senses will deny; nor do we question that the safety of
our lawful prince, the champion and defender of the good, and on whom
the safety of all other