Church History 8.12.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:365–366

τί δεῖ τῶν ἐπʼ Ἀντιοχείας ἀναζωπυρεῖν τὴν μνήμην, ἐσχάραις πυρὸς οὐκ εἰς θάνατον, ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ μακρᾷ τιμωρίᾳ κατοπτωμένων, ἑτέρων τε θᾶττον τὴν δεξιὰν αὐτῶν πυρὶ καθιέντων ἢ τῆς ἐναγοῦς θυσίας ἐφαπτομένων; ὧν τινὲς τὴν πεῖραν φεύγοντες, πρὶν ἁλῶναι καὶ εἰς χεῖρας τῶν ἐπιβούλων ἐλθεῖν, ἄνωθεν ἐξ ὑψηλῶν δωμάτων ἑαυτοὺς κατεκρήμνισαν, τὸν θάνατον ἅρπαγμα θέμενοι τῆς τῶν δυσσεβῶν μοχθηρίας.

English · Claude translation

Why need we revive the memory of those at Antioch, who were roasted on gridirons, not to death but for prolonged punishment, and of others who thrust their right hands into the fire sooner than touch the polluted sacrifice? Some of them, to escape the trial, before being caught and falling into the hands of those who plotted against them, threw themselves down from high houses, regarding death as a prize snatched from the wickedness of the impious.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:365–366 · 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

Martyrdom, Persecution

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (doubled letter in the digital text; line-break hyphen left in the digital text): Ἀντιοχείαας → Ἀντιοχείας; κατοπτω- μένων → κατοπτωμένων.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.12.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/12/2/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.12.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/12/2/).