Chapter 3

At the very festival of the child's birthday there came together to the king, chosen out, about fifty-five men who had devoted themselves to the star-gazing wisdom of the Chaldeans. Setting these very near him, the king asked each one to declare what the child born to him would become. They, after much deliberation, said that he would be great in wealth and in power, and would surpass all who had reigned before him. But one of the astrologers, the most distinguished of all who were with him, said: "From what the courses of the stars teach me, O king, the advancement of the child now born to you will not be in your kingdom, but in another, a better one and beyond all comparison surpassing it. And I think too that he will take hold of the religion of the Christians, which you persecute; nor do I suppose that he will be cheated of his aim and his hope." This the astrologer said, like Balaam of old — not because astrology spoke the truth, but because God set forth the things of the truth through its opposites, so that every pretext might be taken away from the impious.

When the king heard these things, he received the message heavily, and grief cut short his gladness. Nevertheless, in a city set apart he built a very beautiful palace and skillfully wrought splendid dwellings, and there he set the boy to live, after the completion of his early childhood; and he commanded that he should not go out, appointing for him tutors and attendants young in age and most comely to look upon, charging them to make none of the sorrowful things of life known to him — not death, not old age, not sickness, not poverty, nor anything else grievous and able to cut short his gladness — but to set before him all things delightful and enjoyable, so that his mind, taking pleasure and luxuriating in these, might be quite unable to reason about things to come, nor hear so much as a bare word concerning Christ and his teachings. For this above all things he was minded to hide from him, fearing the astrologer's prediction. And if any of those serving him happened to fall sick, he ordered that man to be cast out from there at once, and gave another in his place, vigorous and in good health, so that the boy's eyes might behold nothing whatever amiss. So the king devised and did these things; for, seeing, he did not see, and, hearing, he did not understand.

And learning that some of the monks still survived, of whom not even a trace had seemed to be left, he was filled to overflowing with rage and was moved most sharply against them; and he ordered heralds to run throughout the whole city and the country, crying aloud that after three days no one at all of the order of the monks should anywhere be found. And if any were found after the appointed days, let them be handed over to destruction by fire and sword; "for these," he said, "persuade the people to give heed to the crucified one as to God." Meanwhile something of this kind also happened, at which the king was the more harshly angered and enraged against the monks.