Church History 8.9.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: In the Thebaid martyrs were torn with potsherds, and women were hung naked, head downward, in public view.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:359–360

Πάντα δʼ ὑπεραίρει λόγον καὶ ἃς ὑπέμειναν αἰκίας καὶ ἀλγηδόνας οἱ κατὰ Θηβαίδα μάρτυρες, ὀστράκοις ἀντὶ ὀνύχων ὅλον τὸ σῶμα μέχρις ἀπαλλαγῆς τοῦ βίου καταξαινόμενοι, γύναιά τε τοῖν ποδοῖν ἐξ ἑνὸς ἀποδεσμού μετέωρά τε καὶ διαέρια κάτω κεφαλὴν μαγγάνοις τισὶν εἰς ὕψος ἀνελκόμενα, γυμνοῖς τε παντελῶς καὶ μηδʼ ἐπικεκαλυμμένοις τοῖς σώμασι θέαν ταύτην αἰσχίστην καὶ πάντων ὠμοτάτην καὶ ἀπανθρωποτάτην τοῖς ὁρῶσιν ἅπασι παρεσχημένα.

English · Claude translation

But all words fall short of the outrages and pains that the martyrs in the Thebaid endured. Their whole bodies were torn with potsherds instead of hooks until they departed this life; women were tied by one foot and hoisted aloft by some machines into the air head downward, their bodies wholly naked and not even covered, presenting to all who looked on this most shameful, cruelest, and most inhuman spectacle.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:359–360 · 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

Martyrdom, Persecution

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.9.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/9/1/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.9.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/9/1/).