Church History 9.10.12 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Within a year the same tyrant who had outlawed and killed Christians acknowledged their religion and restored their rights.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:443

αὗται τοῦ τυράννου φωναὶ, οὐδʼ ὅλον ἐνιαυτὸν τῶν κατὰ Χριστιανῶν ἐν στήλαις ἀνατεθειμένων αὐτῷ διαταγμάτων ὑστερίσασαι. καὶ παρʼ ᾧ γε μικρῷ πρόσθεν δυσσεβεῖς ἐδοκοῦμεν καὶ ἄθεοι καὶ παντὸς ὄλεθροι τοῦ βίου, ὡς μὴ ὅτι γε πόλιν, ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ χώραν οὐδʼ ἐρημίαν οἰκεῖν ἐπιτρέπεσθαι, παρὰ τούτῳ διατάξεις ὑπὲρ Χριστιανῶν καὶ νομοθεσίαι συνετάττοντο, καὶ οἱ πρὸ βραχέος πυρὶ καὶ σιδήρῳ, θηρίων τε καὶ οἰωνῶν βορᾷ πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτοῦ τοῦ τυράννου διαφθειρόμενοι, καὶ πᾶν εἶδος κολάσεως καὶ τιμωρίας, ἀπαλλαγῆς τε βίου οἰκτρότατα ὡσὰν ἄθεοι καὶ δυσσεβεῖς ὑπομένοντες, οὗτοι νῦν πρὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ θρησκεύειν ὁμολογοῦνται θρησκείαν, καὶ ἐπισκευάζειν κυριακὰ ἐπιτρέπονται, καὶ δικαίων τινῶν αὐτοῖς μετεῖναι αὐτὸς ὁ τύραννος μαρτυρεῖ καὶ ὁμολογεῖ.

English · Claude translation

These are the words of the tyrant, coming not even a full year after the decrees against the Christians set up by him on tablets. And the very man in whose eyes, a little before, we seemed impious and godless and a pestilence to all life, so that we were not permitted to live, not to say in a city, but not even in the countryside or the desert, now drew up ordinances and laws on behalf of the Christians. Those who shortly before were being destroyed by fire and sword, and as food for beasts and birds, before the eyes of the tyrant himself, and who endured every kind of punishment and chastisement and the most pitiable departure from life as godless and impious, are now acknowledged by him to practice a religion, are permitted to rebuild their Lord's houses, and the tyrant himself testifies and confesses that they have some rights.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:443 · 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

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.10.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/10/12/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.10.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/10/12/).