Sophia Scriptura

Church History 8.4.2

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

Summary: When persecution began quietly in the army, many Christian soldiers gladly left the service rather than deny God.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:353

ἄρτι γὰρ ἄρτι πρῶτον ὥσπερ ἀπὸ κάρου βαθέος ὑποκινουμένου τοῦ τὴν ἐξουσίαν εἰληφότος, κρύβδην τε ἔτι καὶ ἀφανῶς μετὰ τὸν ἀπὸ Δεκίου καὶ Οὐαλεριανοῦ μεταξὺ χρόνον ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ἐπιχειροῦντος, οὐκ ἀθρόως τε τῷ καθʼ ἡμῶν ἐπαποδυομένου πολέμῳ, ἀλλʼ ἔτι τῶν κατὰ τὰ στρατόπεδα μόνων ἀποπειρωμένου — ταύτῃ γὰρ καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἁλῶναι ῥᾳδίως ᾤετο, εἰ πρότερον ἐκείνων καταγωνισάμενος περιγένοιτο —, πλείστους παρῆν τῶν ἐν στρατείαις ὁρᾶν ἀσμενέστατα τὸν ἰδιωτικὸν προασπαζομένους βίον, ὡς ἂν μὴ ἔξαρνοι γένοιντο τῆς περὶ τὸν τῶν ὅλων δημιουργὸν εὐσεβείας.

English · Claude translation

For when he who had received the authority was only just beginning to stir, as though from a deep stupor, and was attacking the churches still secretly and covertly, in the time after Decius and Valerian, and was not arming himself all at once for the war against us but was still making trial only of those in the camps (for in this way he thought he would easily capture the rest too, if he first overcame and mastered them), one could see very many in the army most gladly embracing private life, so that they might not deny their piety toward the Creator of the universe.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:353 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • “He who had received the authority” is not named; probably Galerius or the commander mentioned in 8.4.3.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/4/2/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/4/2/).

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