Church History 3.33.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:126–127

εἴληπται δ ἡμίν ἡ ἱστορία ἐξ ἧς ἀνωτέρω δεδηλώκαμεν τοῦ Τερτυλλιανοῦ ‘Ρωμαϊκῆς ἀπολογίας, ἧς ἡ ἑρμηνεία τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τρόπον “καίτοι ηὑρήκαμεν καὶ τὴν εἰς “ἡμᾶς ἐπιζήτησιν κεκωλυμένην. Πλίνιος γὰρ Σε- “κοῦνδος ἡγούμενος ἐπαρχίου, κατακρίνας Χριστια- “νούς τινας καὶ τῆς ἀξίας ἐκβαλὼν, ταραχθεὶς τῷ “πλήθει ἠγνόει τί αὐτῷ λοιπὸν εἴη πρακτέον. Τραϊ- “ανῷ οὖν τῷ βασιλεῖ ἀνεκοινώσατο λέγων ἔξω τοῦ “μὴ βούλεσθαι αὐτοὺς εἰδωλολατρεῖν οὐδὲν ἀνόσιον ‘ἐν αὐτοῖς ηὑρηκέναι. ἐμήνυε δὲ καὶ τοῦτο, ἀνίστα- “σθαι ἔωθεν τοὺς Χριστιανοὺς καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν “θεοῦ δίκην ὑμνεῖν, καὶ πρὸς τὸ τὴν ἐπιστήμην αὐ- “τῶν διαφυλάσσειν κωλύεσθαι φονεύειν, μοιχεύειν, “πλεονεκτεῖν, ἀποστερεῖν καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια. πρὸς “ταῦτα ἀντέγραψε Τραϊανὸς τὸ τῶν Χριστιανῶν φῦ- “λον μὴ ἐκζητεῖσθαι μὲν, ἐμπεσὸν δὲ κολάζεσθαι.” καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐν τούτοις ἠν.

English · Claude translation

The account has been taken by us from Tertullian's Latin Apology, mentioned above, the translation of which runs thus: “And yet we have found that even search for us has been forbidden. For Plinius Secundus, governor of a province, having condemned some Christians and removed them from their rank, was troubled by their number and did not know what remained for him to do. So he communicated with the emperor Trajan, saying that apart from their unwillingness to worship idols he had found nothing unholy in them. He reported this too, that the Christians rose at dawn and sang hymns to Christ as to a god, and that to preserve their discipline they were forbidden to murder, commit adultery, defraud, rob, and the like. To this Trajan replied that the tribe of Christians should not be sought out, but punished if they fell in the way.” Such were the events of this time.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:126–127 · 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)

Extrabiblical texts

Pliny the Younger, Ep. 10.96–97 (Pliny the Younger, Letters) · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Persecution, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

Quotation from Tertullian, Apology 2.6–7 (Greek translation; not tagged, since Tertullian's Apology is not on this site), summarizing Pliny, Ep. 10.96–97.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.33.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/33/3/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.33.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/33/3/).