Sophia Scriptura

Church History 4.26.7

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

Summary: Melito (quoted): Christianity, arising with Augustus, has brought blessing to the empire, which the emperor should protect.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:177

τούτοις αὖθις ἐπιφέρει λέγων ἡ γὰρ καθʼ ἡμὰς φιλοσοφία πρότερον μὲν ἐν βαρβάροις ἤκμασεν, ἐπανθήσασα δὲ τοῖς σοῖς ἔθνεσι κατὰ τὴν Αὐγούστου τοῦ σοῦ προγόνου μεγάλην ἀρχὴν, ἐγενήθη μάλιστα τῇ σῇ βασιλείᾳ αἴσιον ἀγαθόν. ἔκτοτε γὰρ εἰς μέγα καὶ λαμπρὸν τὸ Ῥωμαίων ηὐξήθη κράτος, οὗ σὺ διάδοχος εὐκταῖος γέγονάς τε καὶ ἔσῃ μετὰ τοῦ παιδὸς, φυλάσσων τῆς βασιλείας τὴν σύντροφον καὶ συναρξαμένην Αὐγούστῳ φιλοσοφίαν, ἣν καὶ οἱ πρόγονοί σου πρὸς ταῖς ἄλλαις θρησκείαις ἐτίμησαν.

English · Claude translation

To this he adds again: “For our philosophy first flourished among barbarians, but, having blossomed among your nations in the great reign of your ancestor Augustus, it became especially an auspicious good for your empire. For from then the power of the Romans grew great and splendid, to which you have become, and with your son will be, the longed-for successor, if you guard the philosophy which was nurtured with the empire and began with Augustus, which your ancestors also honoured besides the other religions.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:177 · 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
  • Melito of Sardis, Melito Apology (Melito of Sardis (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from Melito, Apology.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.26.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/26/7/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.26.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/26/7/).

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