Sophia Scriptura

Church History 3.18.4

Eusebius of Caesarea · Church History · ca. 300–325 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Pagan historians record that under Domitian Flavia Domitilla, niece of the consul Flavius Clemens, was banished for her witness to Christ.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:105–106

εἰς τοσοῦτον δὲ ἄρα κατὰ τοὺς δηλουμένους ἡ τῆς ἡμετέρας πίστεως διέλαμπε διδασκαλία, ὡς καὶ τοὺς ἄποθεν τοῦ καθʼ ἡμὰς λόγου συγγραφεῖς μὴ ἀποκνῆσαι ταῖς αὐτῶν ἱστορίαις τόν τε διωγμὸν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ μαρτύρια παραδοῦναι, οἴ γε καὶ τὸν καιρὸν ἐπʼ ἀκριβὲς ἐπεσημήνατο, ἐν ἔτει πεντεκαιδεκάτῳ Δομετιανοῦ μετὰ πλείστων ἑτέρων καὶ Φλαουίαν Δομέτιλλαν ἱστορη σαντες, ἐξ ἀδελφῆς γεγονυῖαν Φλαουίου Κλήμεντος ἑνὸς τῶν τηνικάδε ἐπὶ Ῥώμης ὑπάτων, τῆς εἰς Χρι ’στὸν μαρτυρίας ἕνεκεν εἰς νῆσον Ποντίαν κατὰ τιμο ρίαν δεδόσθαι.

English · Claude translation

So brightly at the times mentioned did the teaching of our faith shine that even writers remote from our doctrine did not hesitate to hand down in their histories the persecution and the martyrdoms in it. They also noted the time exactly, relating that in the fifteenth year of Domitian, with very many others, Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of a sister of Flavius Clemens, one of the consuls at Rome at that time, was banished to the island of Pontia as punishment for her witness to Christ.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:105–106 · 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, Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

  • Compare Dio Cassius 67.14, where Domitilla is Clemens's wife, banished for “atheism” and Jewish ways; whether she was a Christian is debated.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.18.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/18/4/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.18.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/18/4/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage