ABSTRACT
WHEN he was short of money to pay his soldiers, Alexander, king of Syria, ordered a solid gold statue of Victory to be removed from the temple of Jupiter, glossing over his act of sacrilege with witty jokes, for he would say that he was obliged to Jupiter for his victory. Some days later he was again caught in a sacrilegious act; his men deserted him, and he was captured by bandits and led away to Grypos, his enemy, who put him to death. 2 These few examples, brought forward from the whole mass of sacrilegious persons, may serve as a proof that what the ungodly Dionysius of Sicily said in jest is not always true: ‘See how free from care sacrilegious men sail the ocean.’ 3 Certainly not all such men have up to now sailed with a fair breeze, either those who persecuted the Church or withdrew hands that might have helped it.
