After this, Celsus proceeding to speak of the Christians teaching and
practising their favourite doctrines in secret, and saying that they do
this to some purpose, seeing they escape the penalty of death which is
imminent, he compares their dangers with those which were encountered by
such men as Socrates for the sake of philosophy; and here he might have
mentioned Pythagoras as well, and other philosophers. But our answer to
this is, that in the case of Socrates the Athenians immediately
afterwards repented; and no feeling of bitterness remained in their
minds regarding him, as also happened in the history of Pythagoras. The
followers of the latter, indeed, for a considerable time established
their schools in that part of Italy called Magna Græcia; but in the case
of the Christians, the Roman Senate, and the princes of the time, and
the soldiery, and the people, and the relatives of those who had become
converts to the faith, made war upon their doctrine, and would have
prevented [its progress], overcoming it by a confederacy of so powerful
a nature, had it not, by the help of God, escaped the danger, and risen
above it, so as [finally] to defeat the whole world in its conspiracy
against it.