Sophia Scriptura

Church History 3.6.20

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

Summary: Josephus (quoted) prepares to tell an unheard-of deed, which he reports only because it had many witnesses.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:93–94

καὶ τί δεῖ τὴν ἐπʼ ἀψύχοις ἀναίδειαν ‘τοῦ λιμοῦ λέγειν; εἶμι γὰρ αὐτοῦ δηλώσων ἔργον, “ὁποῖον μήτε Ἕλλησι μήτε παρὰ βαρβάροις ἱστό- “ρηται, φρικτὸν μὲν εἰπεῖν, ἄπιστον δʼ ἀκοῦσαι. καὶ “ἔγωγε μὴ δόξαιμι τερατεύεσθαι τοῖς αὖθις ἀνθρώ- “ποις, κἂν παρέλιπον τὴν συμφορὰν ἡδέως, εἰ μὴ “τῶν κατʼ ἐμαυτὸν εἶχον ἀπείρους μάρτυρας· ἄλλως τε καὶ ψυχρὰν ἂν καταθείμην τῇ πατρίδι χάριν κα- ‘θυφέμενος τὸν λόγον ὧν πέπονθε τὰ ἔργα.

English · Claude translation

But why speak of the shamelessness of the famine toward inanimate things? I am going to relate a deed of it such as is recorded neither among Greeks nor barbarians, horrible to tell, incredible to hear. For my part, lest I should seem to posterity to be telling marvels, I would gladly have passed over this calamity, if I did not have countless witnesses among my contemporaries. Besides, I would do my country a cold favour if I suppressed the account of what it suffered.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:93–94 · 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
  • Josephus, J.W. 6.199–200 (Josephus (works)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from Josephus, J.W. 6.199–200.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.6.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/6/20/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.6.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/6/20/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage