The orator commences by declaring that it is now the anniversary of the Passion. After this, his speech falls into three divisions, each with its own apologetic subject. The first part puts the case for monotheism: the pagan gods, with their diverse births and characters, cannot maintain the harmony of the cosmos, and their immoralities prove that they are either living demons or dead mortals. The notion that the world came into being through some automatic process is absurd, since an almighty and benevolent creator would be needed to appease the eternal conflict of the elements. Plato had an inkling of the truth, but no philosopher has fully understood how the world is governed by the Father through the offices of the second god, his Son.
Next he extols the majesty and voluntary abasement of this Son in his incarnation. A god in human form, replete with virtue and inalienable wisdom, Christ has opened up the path to heaven by his teaching. Having manifested his philanthropy by his willingness to suffer, he imitates his Father’s magnanimity by waiving his revenge for a certain interval, during which he enlightens every nation with the brilliance of his resurrected glory. His life and vindication were foretold by the Hebrew prophets, but the most persuasive arguments for pagans are a Sibylline acrostic which predicts the Day of Judgement, and the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil, which celebrates the birth of an unnamed infant as the prologue to a returning age of gold.
Finally the speaker declares his personal adherence to the Saviour. He apostrophizes Decius, Valerian, and Aurelian, the three persecuting emperors of the third century, and cites himself as witness to the calamitous effects of the Great Persecution initiated by his predecessor Diocletian in 303. He claims that those successors of Diocletian who have perished most conspicuously were those who had compounded their defiance of the imperial constitution with the oppression of the Church. He ends with the praise of Christ, whose wise and merciful dominion he will never cease to acknowledge and proclaim.