Church History 9.10.6

Summary: Back home, Maximin killed his priests and prophets, gave glory to the Christians' God, issued a law granting them freedom, and soon died painfully.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:440–441

οὕτω δῆτα αἰσχύνης ἔμπλεως ὁ τύραννος ἐπὶ τὰ καθʼ ἑαυτὸν ἐλθὼν μέρη, πρῶτον μὲν ἐμμανεῖ θυμῷ πολλοὺς ἱερεῖς καὶ προφήτας τῶν πάλαι θαυμαζομένων αὐτῷ θεῶν, ὧν δὴ τοῖς χρησμοῖς ἀναρριπισθεὶς τὸν πόλεμον ἤρατο, ὡσὰν γόητας καὶ ἀπατεῶνας καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσι προδότας τῆς αὐτοῦ γενομένους σωτηρίας ἀναιρεῖ, εἶτα δὴ δοὺς δόξαν τῷ τῶν Χριστιανῶν θεῷ, νόμον τε τὸν ὑπὲρ ἐλευθερίας αὐτῶν τελεώτατα καὶ πληρέστατα διαταξάμενος, δυσθανατήσας αὐτίκα, μηδεμιᾶς αὐτῷ χρόνου δοθείσης προθεσμίας τελευτᾷ τὸν βίον. ὁ δὲ καταπεμφθεὶς ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ νόμος τοιοῦτος ἦν· Ἀντίγραφον ἑρμηνείας τῆς τοῦ τυράννου ὑπὲρ Χριστιανῶν διατάξεως, ἐκ Ῥωμαϊκῆς γλώττης εἰς τὴν ἑλλάδα μεταληφθείσης.

English · Claude translation

So the tyrant, full of shame, came to his own region, and first in raging anger put to death many priests and prophets of the gods he had formerly admired, by whose oracles he had been stirred up to begin the war, as sorcerers and deceivers and, above all, betrayers of his safety. Then, giving glory to the God of the Christians and enacting a most perfect and complete law for their freedom, he at once died a painful death, no time of respite being granted him. The law he sent out was as follows: Copy of a translation of the tyrant's ordinance on behalf of the Christians, translated from the Latin language into Greek.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:440–441 · 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. 9.10.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/10/6/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.10.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/10/6/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:440–441

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Notes on the original text

Cite this passage