Church History 9.10.14 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:443–444

γίνεται δʼ αὐτῷ τὰ τῆς καταστροφῆς οὐχ οἷα στρατηγοῖς πολεμάρχαις, ὑπὲρ ἀρετῆς καὶ γνωρίμων πολλάκις ἀνδριζομένοις ἐν πολέμῳ, τὴν εὐκλεῆ τελευτὴν εὐθαρσῶς ὑπομεῖναι συνέβη, ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἅτε τις δυσσεβὴς καὶ θεομάχος, τῆς παρατάξεως ἔτʼ αὐτῷ πρὸ τοῦ πεδίου συνεστώσης, οἴκοι μένων αὐτὸς καὶ κρυπταζόμενος τὴν προσήκουσαν τιμωρίαν ὑπέχει, ἀθρόᾳ θεοῦ πληγεὶς καθʼ ὅλου τοῦ σώματος μάστιγι, ὡς ἀλγηδόσι δειναῖς καὶ περιωδυνίαις ἐλαυνόμενον πρηνῆ καταπεσεῖν λιμῷ φθειρόμενον, τάς τε σάρκας ὅλας ἀοράτῳ καὶ θεηλάτῳ πυρὶ τηκόμενον ὡς διαρρεύσαντα τὸ μὲν πὰν εἶδος τῆς παλαιάς μορφῆς ἀφανισθῆναι, ξηρῶν δʼ αὐτὸ μόνον ὀστέων οἶόν τι μακρῷ χρόνῳ κατεσκελετευμένον εἴδωλον ὑπολειφθῆναι· ὡς μηδʼ ἄλλο τι νομίζειν τοὺς παρόντας ἢ τάφον αὐτῷ τῆς ψυχῆς γεγονέναι τὸ σῶμα, ἐν ἤδη νεκρῷ καὶ παντελῶς ἀπορρεύσαντι κατορωρυγμένης.

English · Claude translation

His end was not like that of generals and commanders who often fight bravely in war for virtue and friends and courageously meet a glorious death. Rather, as an impious enemy of God, while his army was still drawn up in the field, he stayed at home in hiding and received the punishment he deserved. Struck suddenly by a scourge of God over his whole body, driven by terrible pains and torments, he fell on his face wasting with hunger, while all his flesh was consumed by an invisible fire sent by God, so that, dissolving, every trace of his former shape vanished, and only a sort of image of dry bones, like a skeleton wasted by long time, was left. Those present thought nothing else than that his body had become a tomb of his soul, which was buried in something already dead and wholly wasted away.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:443–444 · 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)

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (line-break hyphen left in the digital text; wrong accent in the digital text): στρατηγοἴς → στρατηγοῖς; κατα- πεσεῖν → καταπεσεῖν.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.10.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/10/14/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.10.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/10/14/).