Church History 5.1.14 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:186

συνελαμβάνοντο δὲ καὶ ἐθνικοί “τινες οἰκέται τῶν ἡμετέρων, ἐπεὶ δημοσίᾳ ἐκέλευσεν “ὁ ἡγεμὼν ἀναζητεῖσθαι πάντας ἡμᾶς· οἳ καὶ κατʼ ἐνέ- “δραν τοῦ σατανᾶ, φοβηθέντες τὰς βασάνους ἃς τοὺς “ἁγίους ἔβλεπον πάσχοντας, τῶν στρατιωτῶν ἐπί τοῦτο “παρορμώντων αὐτοὺς κατεψεύσαντο ἡμῶν Θυέστεια “δεῖπνα καὶ Οἰδιποδείους μίξεις καὶ ὅσα μήτε λαλεῖν “μήτε νοεῖν θέμις ἡμῖν, ἀλλἀ μηδὲ πιστεύειν, εἴ τι τοι- “οῦτο πώποτε παρὰ ἀνθρώποις ἐγένετο.

English · Claude translation

Some pagan household slaves of our people were also arrested, since the governor had publicly ordered that all of us be sought out. By the snare of Satan, fearing the tortures they saw the saints suffering, and urged on to this by the soldiers, they falsely accused us of Thyestean feasts and Oedipodean intercourse and things we may neither speak nor think of, nor even believe that such a thing ever happened among human beings.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:186 · 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

Ep. Lugd. (Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

Quotation from the Letter of Vienne and Lyons. “Thyestean feasts” (cannibalism) and “Oedipodean intercourse” (incest) were the standard slanders against Christians.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.1.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/1/14/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.1.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/1/14/).