Church History 8.3.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Many church leaders endured torture bravely, many others gave way at once, and some died under the rack and scourge.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:352

Τότε δὴ οὖν, τότε πλεῖστοι μὲν ὅσοι τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ἄρχοντες, δειναῖς αἰκίαις προθύμως ἐναθλήσαντες, μεγάλων ἀγώνων ἱστορίας ἐπεδείξαντο, μυρίοι δʼ ἄλλοι τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπὸ δειλίας προναρκήσαντες προχείρως οὕτως ἀπὸ πρώτης ἐξησθένησαν προσβολῆς, τῶν δὲ λοιπῶν ἕκαστος εἴδη διάφορα βασάνων ἐνήλλαττεν, ὁ μὲν μάστιξιν αἰκιζόμενος τὸ σῶμα, ὁ δὲ στρεβλώσεσι καὶ ξεσμοῖς ἀνυπομονήτοις τιμωρούμενος, ἐφʼ οἷς ἤδη τινὲς οὐκ αἴσιον ἀπηνέγκαντο τοῦ βίου τέλος.

English · Claude translation

Then indeed, then, very many rulers of the churches contended eagerly under terrible tortures and displayed histories of great contests; but countless others, their souls numbed beforehand by cowardice, readily grew weak at the very first assault. Of the rest, each underwent different kinds of torture: one had his body mangled with scourges, another was punished with the rack and unendurable scrapings, in which some already met an unhappy end of life.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:352 · 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, Martyrdom, Church office

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.3.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/3/1/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.3.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/3/1/).