Sophia Scriptura

Church History 8.14.16

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

Summary: Many women endured torture rather than be violated, but the most admirable was a noble woman at Rome whom Maxentius tried to abuse.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:376

μυρίαι δʼ ἄλλαι πρὸς τῶν κατʼ ἔθνος ἀρχόντων πορνείας ἀπειλὴν μηδʼ ἀκοῦσαι δεδυνημέναι πᾶν εἶδος βασάνων καὶ στρεβλώσεων καὶ θανατηφόρου κολάσεως ὑπέστησαν. θαυμασταὶ μὲν οὖν καὶ αὗται, ὑπερφυῶς γε μὴν θαυμασιωτάτη ἡ ἐπὶ Ῥώμης εὐγενεστάτη τῷ ὄντι καὶ σωφρονεστάτη γυνὴ πασῶν, αἷς ἐμπαροινεῖν ὁ ἐκεῖσε τύραννος Μαξέντιος τὰ ὅμοια Μαξιμίνῳ δρῶν ἐπειρᾶτο.

English · Claude translation

Countless other women, unable even to hear a threat of sexual violation from the provincial governors, underwent every kind of torture, racking, and deadly punishment. These too are admirable; but most surpassingly admirable was the woman at Rome, truly the noblest and most chaste of all those whom Maxentius, the tyrant there, acting like Maximin, attempted to abuse.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:376 · 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
Persecution, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • πορνεία here means the forced violation threatened by the governors.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.14.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/14/16/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.14.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/14/16/).

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