advantage might arise from this reference.1554 Moreover, by the people general supplica- tions1555 were sent up to the Merciful God; imploring that He would save the remnants of the city; and not suffer it entirely to be razed from its foundations. Nor could one see any one joining in this cry but with tears. Nevertheless, none of these things then moved the judges within, although they heard. One thing only they considered, that there might be a rigid enquiry into the deeds that had been perpetrated. 6. At last having loaded the culprits with chains, and bound them with iron, they sent them away to the prison through the midst of the forum. Men that had kept their studs of horses, who had been presidents of the games,1556 who could reckon up a thousand different offices of distinction which they had held, had their goods confiscated, and seals might be 428 seen placed upon all their doors. Their wives also being ejected from their parents’ home, each had literally to play the part of Job’s wife. For they went “wandering1557 from house to house and from place to place, seeking a lodging.”1558 And this it was not easy for them to find, every one fearing and trembling to receive, or to render assistance in any way to the relatives of those who were under impeachment. Nevertheless, though such events had happened, the sufferers were patient under all; since they were not deprived of the present life. And neither the loss of wealth, nor dishonour, nor so much public exposure, nor any other matter of that nature, caused them vexation. For the greatness of the calamity, and the circumstance of their having expected still worse things, when they suffered these, had prepared the soul for the exercise of a wise fortitude. And now they learnt, how simple a thing is virtue for us, how easy and expeditious of performance, and that from our neglect only it seems to be laborious. They who before this time could not bear the loss of a little money with meekness, now they were subject to a greater fear, although they had lost all their substance, felt as if they had found a treasure, because they had not lost their lives. So that if the sense of a future hell took possession of us, and we thought of those intolerable 1554 Or. “delay.” ὑπ™ρθεσις. But ὑπερτίθεμαι is “to refer” in Herodotus, as i. 8, and elsewhere. 1555 λιταὶ. The term was originally used of any kind of prayer, but about this time was beginning to be applied to a special kind of penitential prayer. St. Basil, A.D. 375, ep. 207 (al. 63), writes to the Neocæsareans in defence of λιτανεῖαι, to which they objected as newly introduced; and the prayers here mentioned seem to be something distinct from the common service. See Bingham, b. xiii. c. 1, sec. 10. The passage he quotes from St. Augustin, Hom. CLXXII. de Temp. is attributed by the Benedictine editor to Cæsarius, after some mss. 1556 ‡γωνοθ™τας. Those who bore this office were men of distinction, and of wealth, as they usually furnished the spectacles at their own expense. Such were the Asiarchs, mentioned Acts xix. 31, and Mart. of St. Polycarp, c. 12. See note in ed. Jacobson. 1557 Chrysostom here alludes to the history of Job as given in the Septuagint. Job’s wife is there made to address him in a long speech, of which the words, “wandering from house to house,” &c., are a part. 1558 Job. ii. 9, LXX. 623 Homily XIII