Church History 8.6.10 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: A further edict freed prisoners who sacrificed and tortured those who refused; the martyrs of Africa, Mauretania, and Egypt were countless.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:357

αὖθις δʼ ἑτέρων τὰ πρῶτα γράμματα ἐπικατειληφότων, ἐν οἷς τοὺς κατακλείστους θύσαντας μὲν ἐᾶν βαδίζειν ἐπʼ ἐλευθερίας, ἐνισταμένους δὲ μυρίαις καταξαίνειν προστέτακτο βασάνοις, πῶς ἂν πάλιν ἐνταῦθα τῶν καθʼ ἑκάστην ἐπαρχίαν μαρτύρων ἀριθμήσειέ τις τὸ πλῆθος, καὶ μάλιστα τῶν κατὰ τὴν Ἀφρικὴν καὶ τὸ Μαύρων ἔθνος, Θηβαΐδα τε καὶ κατʼ Αἴγυπτον, ἐξ ἧς καὶ εἰς ἑτέρας ἤδη προελθόντες πόλεις τε καὶ ἐπαρχίας διέπρεψαν τοῖς μαρτυρίοις.

English · Claude translation

Again, when other letters followed the first, in which it was ordered that the prisoners, if they sacrificed, be allowed to go free, but if they resisted, be torn with countless tortures, how could anyone here again count the number of martyrs in each province, especially those in Africa and among the nation of the Moors, in the Thebaid and throughout Egypt, from which some had already gone to other cities and provinces and became illustrious by their martyrdoms?

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:357 · 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

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.6.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/6/10/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.6.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/6/10/).