Sophia Scriptura

Church History 8.17.1

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

Summary: In his agony Galerius confessed to God and ordered the persecution stopped and the Christians allowed to rebuild churches and pray for the emperor.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:378–379

τοσούτοις παλαίων κακοῖς συναίσθησιν τῶν κατὰ τῶν θεοσεβῶν αὐτῷ τετολμημένων ἴσχει. συναγαγὼν δʼ οὖν εἰς ἑαυτὸν τὴν διάνοιαν πρῶτα μὲν ἀνθωμολογεῖτο τῷ τῶν ὅλων θεῷ, εἶτα τοὺς ἀμφʼ αὐτὸν ἀνακαλέσας, μηδὲν ὑπερθεμένους τὸν κατὰ ἀποπαῦσαι διωγμὸν, νόμῳ τε καὶ δόγματι βασιλικῷ τὰς ἐκκλησίας αὐτῶν οἰκοδομεῖν ἐπισπέρχειν τε καὶ τὰ συνήθη διαπράττεσθαι, εὐχὰς ὑπὲρ τοῦ βασιλείου ποιουμένους, προστάττει.

English · Claude translation

Wrestling with such evils, he came to a sense of what he had dared against the godly. Collecting his thoughts, he first made confession to the God of the universe, then called those around him and ordered them without delay to stop the persecution against the Christians, and by law and imperial decree to urge them on to build their churches and to perform their customary rites, offering prayers for the emperor.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:378–379 · 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, Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

  • The digital text reads τὸν κατὰ ἀποπαῦσαι διωγμόν, which lacks a word after κατά (presumably “the Christians”).

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.17.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/17/1/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.17.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/17/1/).

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