Church History 2.25.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:81

τούτου δὲ πάλιν ὁ Ῥωμαῖος Τερτυλλιανὸς ὧδέ πως λέγων μνημονεύει “ ἐντύχετε τοῖς “ὑπομνήμασιν ὑμῶν. ἐκεῖ εὑρήσετε πρῶτον Νέρωνα τοῦτο τὸ δόγμα, ἡνίκα μάλιστα ἐν Ῥώμῃ τὴν ἀνατολὴν “πάσαν ὑποτάξας ὠμὸς ἦν εἰς πάντας, διώξαντα. “τοιούτῳ τῆς κολάσεως ἡμῶν ἀρχηγῷ καυχώμεθα. ὁ γὰρ εἰδὼς ἐκεῖνον νοῆσαι δύναται, ὡς οὐκ “ἂν, εἰ μὴ μέγα τι ἀγαθὸν ἦν, ὑπὸ Νέρωνος κατακριθῆναι.“

English · Claude translation

The Roman Tertullian again mentions him, speaking as follows: “Consult your records. There you will find that Nero was the first to persecute this doctrine, especially when, having subdued the whole East, he was cruel to all in Rome. We boast of such a man as the author of our punishment. For whoever knows him can understand that nothing would have been condemned by Nero unless it were something greatly good.”

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:81 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

Quotation from Tertullian, Apology 5.3, in the Greek translation used by Eusebius; Tertullian's Apology is not yet among this site's texts and is not tagged.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.25.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/25/4/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.25.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/25/4/).