Historia Ecclesiastica

XII. why need I now mention the rest by name, οr number the multitude of the men, or picture the varied tortures inflicted upon the wonderful martyrs? Sometimes they were slain with the axe, as was the case with those in Arabia; at other times they had their legs broken, as happened to those in Cappadocia; on some occasions they were suspended on high by the feet, head-downwards, while a slow fire was kindled beneath, so that when the wood was alight they were choked by the rising smoke—a

Why need one rekindle the memory of those at Antioch, who were roasted οn heated gridirons, not unto death, but with a view to lengthy torture; and οf others who put their right hand into the very fire sooner than touch the aecursed sacrifice? Some of them, to escape such trials, before they were caught and fell into the hands of those that plotted against them, threw themselves down from the tops οf lofty houses, regarding death as a prize snatched from the wickedness of evil men.

Αnd a certain holy person,1 admirable for of soul yet in body a woman, and famed as well by all that were at Antioch for Wealth, birth and sound judgement, had brought up in the precepts of piety her two unmarried daughters, distinguished for the full bloom of their youthful beauty. Much envy was stirred up on their account, and busied itself in tracing in every manner possible where they lay concealed; and when it discovered that they were staying in a foreign country, of set purpose it recalled them to Antioch. Thus they fell into the soldiers’ toils. When, therefore, the woman that herself and her daughters were in desperate straits, she placed before them in conversation the terrible things that awaited them from human hands, and the most intolerable thing of all these terrors—the threat of fornication. she exhorted both herself and her giris that they ought not to submit to listen to even the least whisper of such a thing, and said that to surrender their souls to the

thus were these their own executioners. But another pair of maidens, also at Antioch, godly in every respect and true sisters, famous by birth, distinguished for their manner of life, young in years, in the bloom of beauty, grave οf soul, pious in their deportment, admirable in their zeal, the worshippers of demons commanded to be cast into the sea, as if the earth could not endure to bear such excellence.

Thus it happened with these martyrs. Αnd others in Ρontus suffered things terrible to hear: sharp reeds were driven through their fingers under the tips of the nails; in the case of others, lead was melted down by fire, and the boiling, burning stuff poured down their backs, roasting the most essential parts of their body; others endured in their privy parts and bowels sufferings that were disgraceful, pitiless, unmentionable, which the noble and lawabiding judges devised with more than usual eagerness, displaying their cruelty as if it were some great stroke of wisdom ; striving to οutdo one another by ever inventing novel tortures, as if contending for prizes in a contest.

But the end οf these calamities came when they were now worn out with their excessive wickedness, and were utterly weary of killing and surfeited and sated with shedding blood, and so tumed to what they considered merciful and humane conduct; so that they no longer thought that they were doing any harm to us. For it was not fitting, they said, to pollute the cities with the blood of their own people, or to involve in a charge of cruelty the supreme government of the rulers, a govemment that was well-disposed and mild towards all; but rather that the beneficence of the humane and imperial authority should be extended to all, and the death penalty no longer innicted. For [they declared] that this their punishment of us had been stopped, thanks to the humanity of the rulers. Then orders were given that their eyes should be gouged out and one of their legs maimed. For this was in their opinion humanity and the lightest of punishments inflicted upon us. Hence, because of this humanity on the part of gomess men, it is now no longer possible to tell the incalculable number οf those who had their right eye first cut out with a sword and then cauterized with fire, and the left foot rcndered useless by the further application οf branding irons to the joints, and who after this were condemned to the provincial copper mines, not so much for serrice as for ill-usage and hardship, and withal fell in with various other trials, which it is not possible even to recount; their brave and good deeds surpass all reckoning.

In these conflicts verily the magnificent martyrs οf Christ were conspicuous throughout all the world,

XIII. Of those rulers of the churches who were martyred in well-known cities, the first name that we must record on the monuments to holy men, as a martyr or the kingdom οf Christ, is that of Anthimus, bishop of the city οf the Nicomedians, who was beheaded. Of the martyrs at Antioch the best in his entire life was Lucian, a presbyter of that community; the same who in Nicomedia, where the emperor was, proclaimed the heavenly kingdom of Christ, nrst by word οf mouth in an Apology, and afterwards also by deeds. Of the martyrs in Phoenicia the most famous would be the pastors of the spiritual flocks of Christ, beloved of God in all things, Tyrannion, bishop of the church at Tyre, and Ζenοbius, presbyter of the church at Sidon, and, moreover, Silvanus, bishop οf the churches about Εmesa. The last-named became food for wild beasts, along with others, at Emesa itself, and so was received up into the choirs of martyrs; the other two glorified the word οf God at Αntiοch by their endurance unto death; one of them, the bishop, being committed to the depths of the sea, while that best of physicians, Ζenobius, died bravely under the tortures that were applied to his sides. Of the martyrs in Palestine, Silvanus, bishop οf the churches about Gaza, was beheaded at the copper mines at Phaeno,

Now as concerns the state of the Roman government before the war against us, during all the periods [*](1 The reference is probably to the account of Pamphilus iven given in the Martyrs of Palestine. Eusebius’s Pamphilus was, apparently, already written. 2 See c. 17. 3-10.)

But as their authority thus increased without let or hindrance and day by day waxed greater, all at once they departed from their peaceful attitude towards us and stirred up a relentless war. Αnd the second year2 of this kind οf movement οn their part had not fully expired, when a sort of revolution affecting the entire principate took place and threw the whole of public life into confusion. For a disease fell upon him who stood first among those οf whom we spoke,3 which caused his mind to deranged; and, along with him who had been honoured with the second place after him,4 he resumed the ordinary life of a private citizen. Αnd this had not yet taken place, when the whole principate was rent in twain, a thing that had never even been recorded as having happened at any time in days gone by.5

But after no very great interval of time the Εmperor Constantius, who all his hfe long was most mildly and favourably disposed toward his subjects, and most friendly towards the divine word, died6 according to the common law of nature, leaving his lawful son Constantine Εmperor and Αugustus in his [*](divided ἰn respect of its treatment of Christians: persecution οntinued in the East, while it ceased in the West. 6 A.D. 306.)

Ηis son Constantine from the very hrst was proclaimed by the armies most perfect Emperor and Αugustus, and, long before them, by God Himselfe, the King supreme; and he set himself to be an emulator of his father’s piety toward our doctrine.

Sueh was he. And afterwards Licinius was declared Emperor and Augustus by a common vote of the rulers. 2 These things caused great vexation to Maximin, since up to that time he was still entitled only Caesar by all. Therefore, being above all things a tyrant, he fraudulently seized the honour for himself, and became Αugustus, appointed such by him- [*](2 The reference seems to be to the Congress of Carnuntum, Νov. 307, when Licinius, who appears to have been already Caesar, was given the tltle of Augustus. )

XIV. Ηis son Maxentius, Who seeured for himself the tyranny at Rome, at the beginning counterfeited our faith in order to please and fawn upon the Roman populace; and for this reason ordered his subjects to give over the persecution against Christians; for he was feigning piety and endeavouring to appear favourable and very mild above his predecessors. Yet his dees have not shown him to be such as it was hoped he would be. Οn the eontrary, he drove headlong into every form of wickedness, and there is not a single abominable and dissolute aet that he has left undone, committing adulteries and all kinds of rape. In fact he used to separate from their husbands lawfully married women, insult them with the utmost dishonour, and send them back again to their husbands; and he made it his business thus to assail persons neither undistinguished nor obseure, but the most eminent of those who had attained the highest rank in the assembly of the Roman senate were the very and especial objects of his offensive behaviour. Αll cowered before him, people and rulers, famous and obscure, and were worn out by his terrible tyranny; and even though they remained quiet and endured the bitter servitude, srill there was no escape from the tyrant’s murderous cruelty. for example, on a small pretence he gave the people

Indeed, οne cannot even mention the kind of things that this tyrant at Rome did to enslave his subjects; so that they were actually reduced to such extreme scarcity and lack of even necessary food, as has never been known, according to οur contemporaries, either at Rome or elsewhere.

But the tyrant in the Εast, Maximin, secretly forming a friendly alliance with the tyrant at Rome, as with a brother in wickedness, for a very long time thought that it was unknown. Αs a matter of fact, afterwards he was detected1 and paid the just It was marvellous how he acquired a family likeness and kinship with the villainy of the tyrant at Rome, nay rather, carried off the first prize for wickedness and the reward of victory over him. For it was the principal charlatans and magicians who were deemed [*](1 when Constantine entered Rome after the battle of the Milvian Bridge (ix. 9. 2-7). )

These indeed were wonderful, yet most surpassingly wonderful was that woman at Rome, 1 truly the most noble and chaste of all those towards whom the tyrant there, Maxentius, in conduct like Maximin, attempted to act offensively. For when she learnt that at her house were those who ministered to the tyrant in such deeds (and she also was a Christian), and that her husband, and he too a prefect of the Romans, through fear had permitted them to take and lead her off, she begged to be excused for a brief space, as if forsooth to adorm her person, entered her chamber, and when alone transfixed herself with a sword. Αnd straightway dying she left her corpse to her procurers; but by deeds that themselves were more eloquent than any words she made it known to all men, both those present and those to come herearter, that a Christian's virtue is the only possession that cannot be conquered or destroyed. To such an extent, in truth, did the two tyrants, who had divided among them Εast and West, carry the wickedness that they wrought at one and the same time. But who is there, in search for the reason of such evils, who would be at a loss to find it in the persecution against us ? Especially as there was no cessation of this [*](1 Sophronia, according to Runfinus.)

XV. in fact, during the whole period of ten of persecution there was no respite in their plotting and warfare against each other. The seas were unnavigable, and none, no matter whence they sailed, could escape being subjected to all kinds of torments: stretched on the rack and having their sides torn, and being examined under all sorts οf tortures in case they should possibly be coming from the enemy of the contrary part, and in the end subjected to crucifixion οr punishment by fire. Moreover, every place was busy with the preparation of shields and armour, the getting ready of darts and spears and other warlike accoutrements, and of triremes and naval gear; and no one expected anything but an enemy attack all day long. Αnd subsequently the famine and pestilence broke out among them, about which we shall recount what is necessary at the proper time.

XVI. Such was the state of affairs that continued throughout the whole persecution; which came completely to an end, by the grace of God, in the tenth year, 1 though indeed it began to abate after the eighth year. For when the divine and heavenly grace showed that it watched over us with kindly and propitious regard, then indeed our rulers also, those very persons who had long time committed acts οf war against us, changed their mind in the most marvellous manner, and gave utterance to a recantation, quenching the fire of persecution that had blazed so furiously, by means of merciful edicts and the most humane ordinances. But this was not due to any human agency nor to the pity, as one [*](1 A.D. 313. )

XVII. Αnd wrestling with such terrible misfortunes he was conscience-stricken for the cruel deeds he had perpetrated agninst the godly. collecting, therefore, his thoughts, he first openly confessed to the God οf the universe; then he called those around him, and commanded them without delay to cause the persecution against Christians to cease, and by an imperial law and decree to urge them to build their churches and to perform their accustomed rites, offering prayers on the Εmperor’s behalf. Action immediately followed his word, and imperial ordinances were promulgated in each city, containing the recantation οf the [persecution edicts] of οur time, after this manner: “The Emperor Caesar Galerius Valerius Maximianus Invictus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Germanicus Maximus, Aegyptiacus Maximus, Thebaicus Maximus, Sarmaticus Maximus five times, PErsicus Maximus twice, Carpicus Maximus six times, Armeniacus Maximus, Medicus Maximus, Adiabenicus Maximus, holding the Tribunician Power for the twentieth time, Emperor for the nineteenth time, 1 Consul for the eighth, Father of his country, Proconsul: 2 . . . Αnd the Emperor Caesar Flavius Valerius Constantinus Pius Felix Invictus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, holding the Tribunician Power, Εmperοr for the fifth time, Consul, Father οf his country, Proconsul: [And the Εmperor Caesar Valerius Licinianus Licinius Pius Felix Invictus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, holding the Tribunician [*](names and titles, here omitted, must have appeared in the original where the lacuna is indicated. Similarly, some mss. omit the reference to Licinius, which is here placed in brackets. Both Maximin and Licinius persecuted the Christians subsequently, and this fact may have Ied to the omission of their names.)

“Among the other measures that we frame for the use and profit of the state, it had been our own wish formerly that all things should be set to rights in accordance with the ancient laws and public order of the Romans; and to make provision for this, namely, that the Christians also, such as had abandoned. the persuasion of their own ancestors, should return to a sound mind ; seeing that through some reasoning they had been possessed of such self-will and seized with such folly 2 that, instead of following the institutions of the ancients, which perchance their own forefathers had formerly established, they made for themselves, and were observing, laws merely in accordance with their own disposition and as each one wished, and were assembing various multitudes in divers places: Therefore when a command of ours soon followed to the intent that they should betake themselves to the institutions of the ancients, very many indeed were subjected to peril, while very many were harassed and endured all kinds of death; Αnd since the majority held to the same folly, and we perceived that they were neither paying the worship due to the gods of heaven nor honouring the god of the Christians; having regard to our elemene y and the invariable custom by which we are wont to accord pardon to all men, we thought it right in this [*](1 ἐπιστήμη is the usual translation of disciplina (the word in the original in this place) documents of this kind. The same word and translation occur again in § 9. 2 The words, “and . . . folly" are omitted in some important MSS of Eusebius, but are in the original Latin, given by Lactantius.)

such is the character of this edict in the Latin tongue, transhted into Greek as well as may be. Now it is time to consider carefully what happened subsequently.

But the author or the edict, arter such a confession, was immediately, though not for long, released from his pains, and so departed this life. It is reeorded that this same person was the prime author of the calamity of the persecution; since long before the movement of the other emperors he had used force to turn aside [from the faith] the Christians in the —and, first of all, those in his own house — degrading some from their military rank, and heaping the most shameful insults on others; and since he was already threatening others even with death, and, finally, had stirred up his partners in the principate to the general perseeution. Ιt is not possible to pass over the ends of these same emperors in silence. Four, then, had divided the supreme povwer between them. Those who were the more advanced in age and honour 2 retired from the principate not two whole years after the persecution began, as we have already stated, and passed the remainder of their existence like ordinary, private citizens. The end of their lives fell out thus. The one who had attained the chief place in honour and age 3 fell a victim to a prolonged and most painful infirmity of the body; while he who held the second place to him 4 ended his life by [*](2 Diocletian and Maximinian (viii. 13 10, 11).) [*](3 Diocletian. 4 Maximinian.)

CONTENTS OF BOOK IX

The Ninth Book of the Ecclesiastical History contains the follorning:

I. On the feigned relaxation.

ΙΙ. οn the change for the worse that ensued.

III. on the new-made idol at Αntiοch.

IV. On the petitions against us.

v. On the forged memoirs.

VI. On Those who were martvred at this time.

VII. On the document against us set up on tablets.

VIII. On the subsequent evcnts, the famine pestilence and wars.

IX. On the of of the tyrants᾿ lives, cxpressions they made use of before the end.

X. On the victory of the God-beloved Εmperors.

XI. On the final οn of the enemies οf godliness.

BOOK IX

Ι. THE recantation of the imperial will set forth above 1 was promulgated broadcast throughout Αsia and in the neighbouring provinces. Αfter this had thus been done, Maximin, the tyrant of the Εast, a monster οf imriety if ever there was one, who had been the bitterest enemy οf piety toward the God of the universe, Was by no means pleased with what was written, and instead οf making known the letter set forth above gave verbal commands to the rulers under him to relax the war against us. For since he might not otherwise gainsay the judgement of his superiors, he put in a corner the law set forth above ; and, taking measures how it might never see the light of day in the districts under him, by an οral direction he commanded the rulers under him to relax the persecution against us. Αnd they intimated to each other in writing the terms of the οrder. Sabinus, for instance, whom they had honoured with the rank of most excellent prefect, made known the Εmperοr’s decision to the provincial governors in a latin epistle. The translation of the same runs as follows :

“With a most eamest and devoted Ζeal the DirivInity οf our most divine masters, the Εmperors, has for a long time determined to lead all men’s [*](1 viii. 17.)

whereupon the rulers οf the provinces, having concluded that the purport οf what had been written [*](1 If the Greek here is a correct translation οf the Latin original, the words “that letter” must refer to some previous document ordering the persecution of Chffitians.)

II. This the tyrant could no longer endure, hater as he was of that which is good, and plotter against every virtuous man (he was the ruler, as we said, of the eastern parts) ; nor did he suffer matters thus to be carried on for six entire months. Sumerous, therefore, were his derivlees to overturn the peaee : at first he attempted on some pretext to shut us out from assembling in the cemeteries, 2 then through the medium of certain evil men he sent embassies to himself against us, having urged the citizens of Antioch to ask that they might obtain from him, as a very great boon, that he should in no wise permit any οf the Christians to inhabit their land, and to contrive that others should make the same suggestion. The originator of all this sprang up at Antioch itself in the person of Theotecnus, a clever cheat and an evil man, and quite unlike his name. 3 Ηe was accounted to hold the post of curator 4 in the city.