7.21.1
ΧΧΙ. Ἐπιλαβούσης δὲ ὅσον οὔπω τῆς εἰρήνης, ἐπάνεισι μὲν εἰς τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν, πάλιν δ’ ἐνταῦθα στάσεως καὶ πολέμου συστάντος, ὡς οὐχ οἷόν τε ἢν αὐτῷ τοὺς κατὰ τὴν πόλιν ἅπαντας ἀδελφούς, εἰς ἑκάτερον τῆς στάσεως μέρος διῃρημένους, ἐπισκοπεῖν, αὖθις ἐν τῆ τοῦ πάσχα ἑορτῇ, ὥσπερ τις ὑπερόριος, ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς διὰ γραμμάτων αὐτοῖς ὡμίλει. καὶ Ἱέρακι δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα τῶν κατ’ Αἴγυπτον ἐπισκόπῳ ἑτέραν ἑορταστικὴν ἐπιστολὴν γράφων, τῆς κατ’ αὐτὸν τῶν Ἀλεξανδρέων στάσεως μνημονεύει διὰ τούτων·
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XXI. Peace had all but arrived, when he returned to Alexandria. But when faction and war broke out there once more, since it was not possible for him to discharge his oversight over all the brethren in the city, separated as they were into one or other part of the faction, he again at the festival of the Pascha communicated with them by letter, as if he were someone in a foreign country, from Alexandria itself. And to Hierax, after this, a bishop of those in Egypt, he writes another festal letter, mentioning in the following terms the faction prevailing among the Alexandrians in his day:
7.21.2
“Ἐμοὶ δέ, τί θαυμαστὸν εἰ πρὸς τοὺς πορρωτέρω παροικοῦντας χαλεπὸν τὸ κάν δι’ ἐπιστολῶν ὁμιλεῖν, ὅτε καὶ τὸ πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν αὐτῷ μοι διαλέγεσθαι καὶ τῇ ἰδίᾳ ψυχῇ συμβουλεύεσθαι καθέστηκεν ἄπορον; πρὸς γοῦν τὰ ἐμαυτοῦ σπλάγχνα, τοὺς ὁμοσκήνους καὶ συμψύχους ἀδελφοὺς καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς πολίτας ἐκκλησίας, ἐπιστολιμαίων δέομαι γραμμάτων, καὶ ταῦθ’ ὅπως διαπεμψαίμην, φαίνεται. ῥᾷον γὰρ ἄν τις οὐχ ὅπως τὴν ὑπερορίαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπ’ ἀνατολῶν ἐπὶ δυσμὰς περαιωθείη, ἢ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν ἀπ᾿ αὐτῆς τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας ἐπέλθοι. τῆς γὰρ ἐρήμου τῆς πολλῆς καὶ ἀτριβοῦς ἐκείνης ἢν ἐν δυσὶν γενεαῖς διώδευσεν ὁ Ἰσραήλ, ἄπειρος μᾶλλον καὶ ἄβατός ἐστιν ἡ μεσαιτάτη τῆς πόλεως ὁδός· καὶ τῆς θαλάσσης ἢν ἐκεῖνοι ῥαγεῖσαν καὶ διατειχισθεῖσαν ἔσχον ἱππήλατον καὶ ἐν τῆ λεωφόρῳ κατεποντίσθησαν Αἰγύπτιοι, οἱ γαληνοὶ καὶ ἀκύμαντοι λιμένες γεγόνασιν εἰκών, πολλάκις φανέντες ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς φόνων οἷον ἐρυθρὰ θάλασσα· ὁ δ᾿ ἐπιρρέων ποταμὸς τὴν πόλιν ποτὲ μὲν ἐρήμου τῆς ἀνύδρου ξηρότερος ὤφθη καὶ μᾶλλον αὐχμώδης ἐκείνης ἣν διαπορευόμενος ὁ Ἰσραὴλ οὕτως ἐδίψησεν, ὡς Μωσῆ μὲν καταβοᾶν, ῥυῆναι δ᾿ αὐτοῖς παρὰ τοῦ θαυμάσια ποιοῦντος μόνου ἐκ πέτρας ἀκροτόμου πότον· ποτὲ δὲ τοσοῦτος ἐπλήμμυρεν ὡς πᾶσαν τὴν περίχωρον τάς τε ὁδοὺς καὶ τοὺς ἀγροὺς ἐπικλύσαντα, τῆς ἐπὶ Νῶε γενομένης τοῦ ὕδατος φορᾶς ἐπαγαγεῖν ἀπειλήν· ἀεὶ δὲ αἵματι καὶ φόνοις καὶ καταποντισμοῖς κάτεισιν μεμιασμένος, οἷος ὑπὸ Μωσῆ γέγονεν τῷ Φαραώ, μεταβαλὼν εἰς αἷμα καὶ ἀποξέσας. καὶ ποῖον γένοιτ᾿ ἂν τοῦ πάντα καθαίροντος ὕδατος ὕδωρ ἄλλο καθάρσιον; πῶς ἂν ὁ πολὺς καὶ ἀπέραντος ἀνθρώποις ὠκεανὸς ἐπιχυθεὶς τὴν πικρὰν ταύτην ἀποσμήξαι θάλασσαν; ἢ πῶς ἂν ὁ μέγας ποταμός, ὁ ἐκπορευόμενος ἐξ Ἐδέμ, τὰς τέσσαρας ἀρχὰς εἰς ἃς ἀφορίζεται, μετοχετεύσας εἰς μίαν τοῦ Γηών, ἀποπλύναι τὸν λύθρον; ἢ πότε ὁ τεθολωμένος ὑπὸ τῶν πονηρῶν πανταχόθεν ἀναθυμιάσεων ἀὴρ εἰλικρινὴς γένοιτο; τοιοῦτοι γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἀτμοὶ καὶ ἀπὸ θαλάσσης ἄνεμοι ποταμῶν τε ἁδραὶ καὶ λιμένων ἀνιμήσεις ἀποπνέουσιν, ὡς σηπομένων ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις στοιχείοις νεκρῶν ἰχῶρας εἶναι τὰς δρόσους. εἶτα θαυμάζουσιν καὶ διαποροῦσιν, πόθεν οἱ συνεχεῖς λοιμοί, πόθεν αἱ χαλεπαὶ νόσοι, πόθεν αἱ παντοδαπαὶ φθοραί, πόθεν ὁ ποικίλος καὶ πολὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὄλεθρος, διὰ τί μηκέτι τοσοῦτο πλῆθος οἰκητόρων ἡ μεγίστη πόλις ἐν αὐτῇ φέρει, ἀπὸ νηπίων ἀρξαμένη παίδων μέχρι τῶν εἰς ἄκρον γεγηρακότων, δάους ὠμογέροντας οὓς ἐκάλει, πρότερον ὄντας ἔτρεφεν· ἀλλ’ οἱ τεσσαρακοντοῦται καὶ μέχρι τῶν ἑβδομήκοντα ἐτῶν τοσοῦτον πλέονες τότε, ὥστε μὴ συμπληροῦσθαι νῦν τὸν ἀριθμὸν αὐτῶν, προσεγγραφέντων καὶ συγκαταλεγέντων εἰς τὸ δημόσιον τῶν ἀπὸ τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα ἐτῶν μέχρι τῶν ὀγδοήκοντα, καὶ γεγόνασιν οἷον ἡλικιῶται τῶν πάλαι γεραιτάτων οἱ ὄφει νεώτατοι. καὶ οὕτω μειούμενον ἀεὶ καὶ δαπανώμενον ὁρῶντες τὸ ἐπὶ γῆς ἀνθρώπων γένος, οὐ τρέμουσιν, αὐξομένου καὶ προκόπτοντος τοῦ παντελοῦς αὐτῶν ἀφανισμοῦ.”
AI English cleanup, gpt-5.4-mini, 2026-05-27
But as for me, what wonder is it if I find it difficult to communicate even by letter with those who live at some distance, seeing that it has become impossible even for myself to converse with myself, or to take counsel with my own soul? Certainly, I have need to write by letter to my very heart, that is, the brethren that are of the same household and mind with me, and citizens of the same church; and there seems no possible way of getting this correspondence through. For it were easier for a man to pass, I do not say to a foreign country, but even from East to West, than to traverse Alexandria from Alexandria itself. For the street that runs through the very centre of the city is harder to traverse and more impassable than that great and trackless desert through which Israel journeyed for two generations. And our calm and waveless harbours have become an image of the sea, which, split up and made into a wall on either side, they had for a carriage road, and in the highway the Egyptians were drowned; and from the murders that take place in them they oftentimes appeared like a Red Sea. And the river that flows on past the city at one time appeared drier than the waterless desert, and more arid than that in whose crossing Israel so thirsted that Moses cried out, and there flowed to them, from Him who alone doeth wonders, drink out of the rock of flint. At another time it overflowed to such an extent that it submerged the whole neighbourhood, both the roads and the fields, threatening to bring upon us the rush of waters that took place in the days of Noah. And always its course is defiled with blood and murders and drownings, such as it became for Pharaoh by the hand of Moses, when it was turned to blood and stank. And what other water could there be to cleanse the water that cleanses all things? How could the great ocean that men cannot pass, if it were poured upon it, purge this horrid sea? Or how could the great river that goeth out of Eden, if it were to divert the four heads, into which it is parted, into one, the Gihon, wash away the gore? Or when might the air, made foul by the vile exhalations on all sides, become pure? For such are the vapours that are given off from the land, winds from the sea, breezes from the rivers and mists from the harbours, that the dews are discharges from corpses rotting in all their constituent elements. Yet men marvel and are at a loss as to whence come the constant plagues, whence the grievous diseases, whence the various forms of death, whence the manifold and great human mortality, why this greatest of cities no longer contains within it so great a multitude of inhabitants, from infant children up to those extremely advanced in years, as it used formerly to support, those known as men of green old age! Nay, those of forty years old and up to seventy were then so numerous, that the full total of their number is not to be reached now, when those from fourteen to eighty years have been registered and reckoned together for the public food ration; and the youngest in appearance have become of equal age, so to speak, with those who long ago were the oldest. And though the human race upon earth is thus ever diminishing and consuming away before their eyes, they do not tremble, as its total disappearance draws nearer and nearer.