Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension)

It was the nineteenth year of Diocletian's reign, in the month Xanthicus, which would be called April among the Romans, in which, as the feast of the Saviour's passion was approaching, while Flavian was governing the province of Palestine, letters were suddenly published everywhere ordering that the churches be razed to the ground and the Scriptures destroyed by fire, and proclaiming that those who held honours should be degraded, and that those in households, if they persisted in the profession of Christianity, should be deprived of liberty.

Such was the force of the first edict against us. Not long after, other letters arrived, and it was ordered that all the presidents of the churches everywhere should first be put in chains, and afterwards be compelled by every means to sacrifice.

The first, then, of the martyrs in Palestine was Procopius. Before he had any experience of prison, as soon as he was first brought before the governor's court and ordered to sacrifice to the so-called gods, he said he knew only one, to whom it was fitting to sacrifice as he himself wishes. When he was ordered to pour a libation at least to the four emperors, he uttered a saying not pleasing to them and was at once beheaded, having quoted that line of the poet: "The rule of many is not good; let there be one ruler, one king."

This first sign was accomplished at Caesarea in Palestine on the seventh of the month Daesius, which among the Romans would be called the seventh day before the Ides of June, on the fourth day of the week.

After this, in the same city, very many rulers of the churches of the region, contending eagerly under terrible tortures, displayed to those who looked on a record of great contests. Others, their souls numbed beforehand by cowardice, readily gave way at the first assault. Of the rest, each went through different kinds of tortures: now countless scourgings, now the rack and the scraping of the sides, and unbearable bonds, by which some even had their hands disabled.

Nevertheless they bore the outcome that befell them in keeping with the hidden judgments of God. For one, while others held his hands and brought him to the altar and thrust the foul and polluted sacrifice into his right hand, was dismissed as though he had sacrificed. Another, who had not touched it at all, when others said that he had sacrificed, went away in silence. Another, carried off half-dead, was thrown out as though already dead and released from his bonds, counted among those who had sacrificed. Another, shouting and protesting that he would not obey, was struck on the mouth, silenced by the many hands of those appointed for this, and thrust out by force, even though he had not sacrificed.

So important was it to them by all means to seem to have succeeded. Out of so many, then, only Alpheus and Zacchaeus were counted worthy of the crown of the holy martyrs. After scourgings and scrapings, harsh bonds and the pains that followed them, and various other examinations, they were stretched by their feet over four holes of the stocks for a night and a day, and on the seventeenth of the month Dius (which among the Romans is the fifteenth day before the Kalends of December), because they confessed only one God and Christ Jesus as king, as though they had uttered something blasphemous, they were beheaded like the earlier martyr.

Worthy of remembrance too are the things done to Romanus at Antioch on the same day. He was a Palestinian, a deacon and exorcist of the community at Caesarea. Having come there at the very time of the destruction of the churches, and seeing many men together with women and children going up in crowds to the idols and sacrificing, he thought the sight unbearable, and in zeal for godliness went up and rebuked them with a loud cry.

He himself was arrested for his boldness and proved, if anyone ever did, a most noble martyr for the truth. For when the judge pronounced sentence of death by fire against him, he welcomed the sentence with a radiant face and a most eager disposition and was led away. Then he was bound to the stake, and when the wood had been heaped around him and those who were to light the pyre were waiting for the decision of the emperor, who was present, he cried out, "Where is the fire for me?"

While saying this he was recalled to the emperor, to be subjected to a stranger punishment of the tongue. He endured its cutting out most bravely, and showed by his deeds to all that a divine power is present with those who endure any hardship whatever for godliness, lightening their pains and strengthening their eagerness. When he learned of the novel punishment, the noble man was not dismayed, but gladly put out his tongue, most eagerly offering it ready to those who were cutting it off.

After this punishment he was thrown into prison and suffered there a very long time. At last, when the twentieth anniversary of the emperor's reign arrived and, by what was considered an act of grace, freedom was proclaimed everywhere for all who were in bonds, he alone, stretched with both feet over five holes in the very stocks in which he lay, was strangled with a noose, and so, as he had longed, he was adorned with martyrdom.

Although he died abroad, yet since he was a Palestinian he deserves to be counted among the Palestinian martyrs. These things were done in this way in the first year, when the persecution was directed only against the presidents of the church.

In the course of the second year, when the war against us was intensified more violently, and Urbanus was then governing the province, imperial letters first reached him in which, by a general order, all the people in every city were commanded to sacrifice and pour libations to the idols. Timothy, in Gaza, a city of Palestine, after enduring countless tortures, was finally given over to a slow and gentle fire; by his endurance in everything he gave the most genuine proof of a most genuine godliness toward God, and carried off the crown of the victorious athletes of godliness. At the same time Agapius and our own Thecla, showing a most noble firmness, were condemned to be food for wild beasts.

Who that saw what followed did not marvel, or that learned it by hearing was not astonished? For when the pagans were holding a public festival and the customary shows, there was much talk that, along with the other entertainments they were eager for, those lately condemned to the beasts would also be displayed in the contest.

As the report grew and spread among all, six young men (one of them of Pontic race, named Timolaus; another from Tripolis in Phoenicia, called Dionysius; another, a subdeacon of the community at Diospolis, whose name was Romulus; besides these two Egyptians, Paesis and Alexander; and another of the same name, Alexander, from Gaza) first bound their own hands, to show their great eagerness for martyrdom, and ran up to Urbanus as he was about to go up to the wild-beast hunt, confessing themselves Christians and showing by their readiness for every terror that those who glory in godliness toward the God of the universe do not cower even before the attacks of wild beasts.

At once, having thrown the governor himself and those about him into no ordinary amazement, they were shut up in prison. Not many days later two others were added to them: one, who before them had already contended in terrible and varied tortures in earlier confessions, was also named Agapius; the other, who served them in their bodily needs, was also named Dionysius. All eight together were beheaded on one day, again at Caesarea itself, on the twenty-fourth day of the month Dystrus, which is the ninth day before the Kalends of April.

Meanwhile a change took place among the rulers: the highest of all and the one second after him withdrew to private life, and public affairs began to go badly for them.

A little later, when the Roman Empire was divided against itself, an implacable war was stirred up among them; and the division and the disturbances that followed it did not settle down until peace toward us had been secured throughout the whole world under Roman rule.

For as soon as this peace dawned on all like light, as it were out of a gloomy and darkest night, the public affairs of the Roman government were again stable, friendly and peaceful, recovering the goodwill toward one another inherited from their forefathers. But of these things we will give a fuller account at the proper time; now let us go on to the order of what followed.

Maximin Caesar, coming to power at once, as though displaying to all the tokens of his innate hostility to God and impiety, girded himself for the persecution against us more vigorously than those before him.

When no small confusion hung over all, and people were scattered in different directions, trying to escape the danger, and grievous agitation held everything, what words could suffice us for a worthy account of the divine love and of the boldness in confessing God of the blessed and truly innocent lamb, the martyr Apphianus, I mean, who was set forth before the gates as a spectacle for all the people of Caesarea, a wonderful example of godliness toward the only God?

He was not yet twenty years of age. At first, for the sake of secular Greek education (for he was among those in the world who abounded greatly in wealth), he spent most of his time at Berytus; and, marvellous to say, in such a city he rose above youthful desires, and, corrupted in character neither by the vigour of his body nor by the company of young men, he embraced self-control, living decently, soberly and piously according to the Christian teaching he had chosen, and governing his own life.

If, in remembering him, we ought to honour his homeland too because of the noble athlete of godliness who came from it, we shall do this also with good reason.

If anyone knows Pagae, a not undistinguished city of Lycia, the young man came from there. After his return from his education at Berytus, while his father held the first place in their homeland, he could not bear living with his father and his relatives, since they did not think fit to live according to the laws of godliness. Possessed as it were by a divine spirit, and by a natural, or rather an inspired and true, philosophy, thinking more highly than the conventional glory of life and despising the pleasures of the body, he secretly ran away from his household; and, without thought even for his daily expenses, in hope and faith in God, he was led by the hand of the divine Spirit to the city of Caesarea, where the crown of martyrdom for godliness had been prepared for him.

Having come to live with us, he gathered as much as possible from the divine words in a short time, and prepared himself most earnestly with fitting disciplines; and then the end he displayed, who again that saw it was not amazed?

And who, hearing of it in turn, would not rightly marvel at his courage, his boldness, his firmness, and above all at his daring and the act itself, which gave proofs of a zeal for godliness and of a spirit truly beyond human?

For when a second attack was made against us by Maximin, in the third year of the persecution against us, and letters of the tyrant were first circulated that all the people without exception should sacrifice with the care and diligence of the city magistrates, and heralds throughout the whole city of Caesarea were summoning men with women and children to the temples of the idols by the governor's order, and in addition the tribunes were calling each one by name from a list, and an unspeakable flood of evils was poured out everywhere, the man of whom we speak, fearlessly, with no one knowing what he was about to do, slipping away from us who lived with him in the house and from the whole military band around the governor, went up to Urbanus as he was pouring a libation, and, fearlessly taking hold of his right hand, at once stopped him from sacrificing, and with a divine composure urged him very persuasively to cease from his error; for it was not right to abandon the one and only true God and to sacrifice to idols and demons.

This, it seems, was undertaken by the youth because the divine power that led him on to it all but cried out through the deed that Christians, those who are truly such, are so far from abandoning the godliness toward the God of the universe of which they have once been counted worthy, that they not only rise above threats and the punishments that follow them, but speak still more boldly, speak freely with noble and fearless tongue, and, if possible, urge even their persecutors to turn from their ignorance and acknowledge the only true God.

Upon this the one of whom we speak was at once, as was to be expected for so daring a deed, torn like wild beasts by those around the governor, and after enduring most bravely countless blows over his whole body, he was immediately handed over to prison for the time.

There, after being stretched by both feet in the torturing stocks for a night and a day, he was brought before the judge the next day. Then, when the judge tried to force him to sacrifice, he showed every endurance in pains and terrible agonies, his sides being scraped not once or twice but many times, to the bones and the very inward parts, and receiving so many blows on the face and neck that, because his face was swollen, he could no longer be recognized even by those who had known him well for a long time.

But since he did not give way even under so much, the torturers by order wrapped his feet in linen soaked in oil and set fire to them. What pains the blessed man bore under this, I think, exceeds all description. The fire reached through, melting his flesh and his bones, so that the moisture of his body melted and dripped like wax.

But since he did not give way even to this, and his adversaries were now defeated and all but exhausted before his superhuman endurance, he was shut up in bonds; and when he was brought before the judge again on the third day and confessed the same resolve, although he was by now half-dead, he was cast into the depths of the sea.

What happened immediately after this, when told, will probably not be believed by those who did not see it. Yet although we know this well, reason does not allow us not to hand on the account in full, since, simply put, all the inhabitants of Caesarea are witnesses of what happened; indeed no age was absent from this marvellous sight.

For as soon as they seemed to have cast that truly holy and thrice-blessed man into the boundless depths in the middle of the sea, a sudden and extraordinary commotion and surging convulsed the sea itself and all the surroundings, so that the land and the whole city were shaken by what happened. And together with this marvellous and sudden earthquake, the sea, as though unable to bear him, cast up the body of the divine martyr before the gates of the city. Such were the events concerning the godly Apphianus, accomplished on the second of the month Xanthicus, which would be the fourth day before the Nones of April, on the day of preparation.

About the same time and in those very days, in the city of Tyre, a young man named Ulpian, after terrible tortures of his own and most severe scourgings, was wrapped in a raw ox-hide together with a dog and an asp, the venomous serpent, and cast into the sea. For this reason I think he too should be remembered by us in connection with the martyrdom of Apphianus.

A little later Aedesius, brother of Apphianus not only according to God but also in the body, born of the same father, suffered things akin to Apphianus. After countless confessions and long ill-treatment in bonds, and sentences of the governor by which he was handed over to the mines of Palestine, and after conducting himself throughout all these in the philosophic manner, in the garb of the philosopher's cloak (for he had acquired more education than his brother and had set out from philosophical studies),

at last, in the city of Alexandria, seeing the judge there trying Christians and behaving outrageously beyond all bounds, now insulting venerable men in various ways, now handing over women of the highest chastity and even consecrated virgins to brothel-keepers for shameful outrage, he made the same attempt as his brother. Since what was being done seemed unbearable to him, he went up with bold composure, covered the judge with shame and disgrace by words and deeds, and after enduring very steadfastly the many kinds of tortures that followed, he met the same end as his brother, being cast into the sea. But the things concerning him, as I said, happened in this way a little later.

In the fourth year of the persecution against us, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of December, which would be the twentieth of the month Dius, on the day before the Sabbath, in the same Caesarea, a thing truly worth recording was done, while the tyrant Maximin himself was present and providing shows for the crowds on what was called his birthday.

It had been the custom formerly in the presence of emperors, more than at other times, to offer the spectators more lavish shows, with novel and foreign spectacles replacing the usual ones for their delight, animals being brought in from India or Ethiopia or elsewhere, or men displaying marvellous entertainments to the onlookers by skilled bodily feats; and certainly then too, since an emperor was giving the shows, there had to be something greater and more marvellous in the display.

What, then, was this? A martyr of our teaching was brought into the midst, contending for the only true godliness. This was Agapius, who was mentioned a little earlier as the second, with Thecla, to be given as food to the beasts. He had been led out from prison in procession through the stadium with criminals three times and more, but each time the judge, after his threats, whether from pity or in hope that he would change his resolve, put him off for other contests. Now, with the emperor present, he was brought out, as though deliberately kept for that moment, so that the saving word which the Saviour in divine foreknowledge had told his disciples, that they would be brought even before kings for the sake of their witness to him, might be fulfilled in him too.

So he was brought into the middle of the stadium together with a certain criminal, who, they said, was guilty of murdering his master.

Then the murderer of his master, though thrown to the beasts, was granted mercy and kindness, almost like that Barabbas in the Saviour's time. At this the whole theatre resounded with shouts and acclamations, as though the bloodstained man had been kindly saved by the emperor and granted honour and freedom.

But the athlete of godliness was first called up by the tyrant, then asked to deny his resolve on the promise of freedom. He declared with a loud voice that it was not for any base cause, but for godliness toward the Creator of the universe, that he would nobly bear, eagerly and with pleasure, whatever might be inflicted on him.

And having said this, he matched the deed to the word: he ran straight to meet a bear let loose against him and most gladly gave himself to it to be devoured. After this he was carried, still breathing, to the prison. He survived there one day, and on the next, stones were fastened to his feet and he was sunk in the middle of the sea. Such was the martyrdom of Agapius.

When the persecution had now extended into its fifth year, on the second of the month Xanthicus, which is the fourth day before the Nones of April, on the very Lord's day of our Saviour's resurrection, again at Caesarea, Theodosia, a virgin from Tyre, a faithful and most modest girl, not yet fully eighteen years old, went up to some prisoners who were themselves confessing the kingdom of Christ and were sitting before the court, both to greet them kindly and, as was natural, to ask them to remember her when they came before the Lord.

When she had done this, soldiers seized her as though she had committed something unholy and impious, and brought her to the governor. He at once, like a madman and most savage in temper, tormented her with terrible and most horrible tortures on her sides and breasts, even to the very bones; and while she was still breathing, yet standing through it all with a joyful and radiant face, he ordered her to be thrown into the waves of the sea. Then, passing from her to the rest, he handed them all over to the copper mines at Phaeno in Palestine.

After this, on the fifth of the month Dius, which according to the Romans is the Nones [of November], in the same city, the same man sentenced to the labours of the same copper mine Silvanus and those with him, who had shown a most noble firmness for godliness. Silvanus was then still a presbyter who had confessed; not long after it was his lot to be honoured with the episcopate and perfected by martyrdom. The governor first ordered the sinews of their feet to be disabled with branding irons.

Together with the sentence against them, he gave over to the punishment by fire a man distinguished in countless other confessions, Domninus, who was best known to all in Palestine for his exceptional freedom of speech. After him the same judge, a terrible contriver of wickedness and an innovator in schemes against the teaching of Christ, devised punishments against the godly never heard of before: three he condemned to fight as boxers in single combat; Auxentius, a venerable and holy old man, he gave as food to the beasts; others again, men of full age, he made eunuchs and condemned to the same mines; still others, after severe tortures, he shut up in prison. Among these was Pamphilus, of all my companions to me at least the dearest, the most illustrious for every virtue of the martyrs of our time.

Urbanus first made trial of his learning in rhetoric and philosophical studies; then afterwards he tried to compel him to sacrifice; and when he saw him refusing and taking no account at all of his threats, he finally grew savage and ordered him to be tormented with more severe tortures.

And the most savage man, having all but glutted himself with the persistent and relentless scrapings of his sides, and yet covering himself with shame in all of it, enrolled him too among the confessors in the prison.

What reward he will receive from divine justice for his cruelty against the saints, after behaving so outrageously toward the martyrs of Christ, is easy to judge from the preludes here. Soon, not long after his crimes against Pamphilus, while he was still holding the governorship, divine justice overtook him. The man who only yesterday was judging on a high tribunal, guarded by a band of soldiers, governing the whole province, the intimate and table-companion of the tyrant himself as a dearest friend, it stripped in a single night and left bereft of all those honours; it poured dishonour and shame on him before those who had formerly been awed by him as a ruler; it showed him cowardly and unmanly, uttering womanish cries and supplications to the whole people over whom he had ruled; and it made Maximin himself, in whom he had formerly gloried and prided himself, as though Maximin loved him especially for what he did against us, a harsh and most cruel judge against him in Caesarea itself, so that he passed the sentence of death against him after much shame for the crimes of which he was convicted.

But let this be said by us in passing. There will be a fitting time when our account will take in at leisure the ends of the impious who most warred against us, of Maximin himself and those about him, and the overthrow of their lives.

As the storm against us blew steadily into the sixth year, the mine in the Thebaid called after the porphyry stone produced there had held a very great multitude of confessors of godliness. Of these, ninety-seven men, together with women and quite small children, were sent to the governor of Palestine. When they confessed the God of the universe and Christ, Firmilian, who had been sent there as governor in succession to Urbanus, ordered, as though by imperial command, that the sinews of their left feet be cut by branding irons, and further that their right eyes first be cut out with swords, membranes and pupils together, and then be utterly destroyed to the roots by fire with branding irons; and then he handed them over to the mines of the province to suffer hardship in toil and affliction.

Nor was it enough to deprive of their eyes only these who had suffered so much; the same was done to the Palestinians too, mentioned a little earlier as condemned to fight as boxers, since they would accept neither food from the imperial treasury nor the training appropriate to boxing.

For this reason these men were brought not only before procurators but also before Maximin himself, and after showing a most noble firmness of confession through endurance of hunger and scourging, they suffered the same as those mentioned, together with other confessors of Caesarea itself who were added to them.

Immediately after them others were arrested in the city of Gaza while gathered for the reading of the divine Scriptures. Some endured the same sufferings as these in their feet and eyes; others underwent still greater ones, the most dreadful tortures on their sides.

Of these, one, a woman in body but a man in mind, would not bear the threat of being given over to sexual immorality and spoke a word against the tyrant for entrusting the government to such cruel judges; she was first scourged, then raised on the rack and her sides were tortured.

As those appointed for this were applying the tortures persistently and violently at the judge's order, another woman, who like the first had chosen the aim of virginity, could not bear the merciless, cruel and inhuman things being done. She was, to all appearance, quite insignificant in body and contemptible in looks, but otherwise strong in soul and holding in her breast a mind greater than her body, surpassing those fighters for freedom celebrated among the Greeks. From the middle of the crowd she cried out to the judge, "How long will you torture my sister so cruelly?" He was more bitterly provoked and at once ordered the woman to be seized.

Then she was dragged into the midst, and having enrolled herself under the venerable name of the Saviour, she was first urged with words to sacrifice; and when she refused, she was dragged by force to the altar. But she, acting like her sister and keeping her former eagerness, with an unshaken and bold foot kicked the altar and overturned it, with the fire burning on it.

At this the judge, his rage sharpened like a wild beast's, first inflicted on her more tortures on her sides than on anyone ever, all but longing to glut himself on her raw flesh. When his madness had had its fill, he bound both together, this woman and the one she had called her sister, and condemned them to death by fire. Of these, the first was said to be from the district of Gaza; the other, one should know, came from Caesarea, and was known to many: her name was Valentina.

How could I worthily describe the martyrdom that followed, of which the thrice-blessed Paul was counted worthy? He was condemned to death at the same hour as these women, under one sentence; and at the very moment of his perfecting he begged the man who was just about to behead him to grant him a short time.

Having obtained it, with a clear and ringing voice he first sought from God in prayer reconciliation for his own people, imploring that freedom be granted them as soon as possible; then he asked for the Jews' approach to God through Christ; then, going on in order, he prayed for the same for the Samaritans too; and he besought that those of the nations who were in error and ignorance of God might come to knowledge of him and take up true godliness; nor did he leave unregarded the mixed crowd then standing around.

After all these (O the great and unspeakable forbearance!) he prayed to the God of the universe also for the judge who had sentenced him to death, and for the highest rulers, and even for the man who was about to cut off his head, in the hearing of that man and of all present, beseeching that their sin against him might in no way be counted against them.

Having prayed these and similar things with a loud voice, and having moved almost everyone to pity and tears as one being unjustly put to death, he composed himself as the custom is, offered his bare neck to the stroke of the sword, and was adorned with divine martyrdom, on the twenty-fifth of the month Panemus, which would be called the eighth day before the Kalends of August. Such was the end of these.

Not much time had passed when again, from the land of Egypt, the wonderful athletes of the confession of Christ, a hundred and thirty, after suffering in Egypt itself by Maximin's order the same injuries to their eyes and feet as the former ones, were sent away, some to the mines in Palestine already mentioned, others condemned to those in Cilicia.

After so many brave deeds of the magnificent martyrs of Christ, the blaze of persecution had abated and was, as it were, being quenched by their holy blood; relief and freedom had already been granted to those toiling for Christ's sake in the mines of the Thebaid; and we were about to breathe a little pure air again, when, I know not how, from some stirring, the one who had been allotted the power to persecute was inflamed against the Christians anew.

Suddenly, then, Maximin's letters against us were again circulated everywhere, province by province; and governors, and besides them the man appointed to command the armies, by proclamations, letters and public decrees urged the curators in all the cities, together with the magistrates and the registrars, to carry the imperial command into effect. It ordered that with all diligence they should rebuild the ruined temples of the idols; that they should see to it that all the people, men together with women and servants and even infants at the breast, should sacrifice and pour libations and actually taste of the accursed sacrifices; that the goods for sale in the market should be defiled with libations from the sacrifices; and that guards should be posted before the baths, so as to defile with the utterly foul sacrifices those who were washing themselves in them.

While these things were being carried out in this way, and our people, as was natural, were again gripped by the greatest anxiety, and even the unbelieving pagans were blaming the harshness of what was done as now excessive and absurd (for these things seemed to them too wearisome and burdensome), and the greatest storm hung over all everywhere, on the contrary the divine power of our Saviour breathed such courage into his athletes that, though no one was drawing or dragging them, they trampled on the threats of such great powers.

Three of the faithful, having joined together, rushed upon the governor as he was sacrificing to idols, crying out to him to cease from his error, for there is no other God but the Maker and Creator of the universe. When asked who they were, they boldly confessed themselves Christians.

At this Firmilian was more sharply provoked, and without even tormenting them with tortures he gave them over to capital punishment. Of these, the elder was named Antoninus; another was called Zebinas, from Eleutheropolis; and the third bore the name Germanus. Their martyrdom was accomplished on the thirteenth of the month Dius, the Ides of November.

On the same day a woman from Scythopolis, Ennathas, became their companion on the journey, she too adorned with a crown. She had not done the same as they, but had been dragged by force and brought before the judge.

After scourgings and terrible outrages, which one of the tribunes stationed in the neighbourhood dared to inflict on her even without the consent of the higher authority, a man named Maxys, worse than his name, foul in other respects, exceedingly violent in character, truly terrible in every way and in ill repute with all who knew him, this man stripped the blessed woman of all her clothing, so that she was covered only from the waist to the feet and the rest of her body was bare; and he made a great point of leading her around the whole city of Caesarea and having her beaten with thongs as she was dragged through all the market-places.

After all this, when she had shown a most daring firmness at the very tribunal of the governor, the judge gave her over alive to the fire. He also, intensifying his inhuman rage against the godly, went beyond the laws of nature, and was not ashamed to grudge burial to the lifeless bodies of the holy men.

He ordered that the corpses be guarded carefully night and day in the open air as food for beasts. And for many days one could see no small number of men serving this beastly and barbarous decision. Some kept watch from a lookout, as though it were something worth their zeal, so that the corpses should not be stolen; while wild beasts and dogs and carrion birds tore the human limbs here and there.

And the whole city round about was strewn with human entrails and bones, so that nothing ever seemed more terrible and horrifying even to those who had formerly been hostile to us; they lamented not so much the misfortune of those to whom this was done as the outrage against themselves and against the common nature of all.

For close to the gates there lay a sight beyond all description and tragic report: human flesh devoured not in one place but scattered everywhere. Some said they had seen limbs and whole pieces of flesh and parts of entrails even inside the gates.

When this had gone on for very many days, a marvellous thing happened. The sky was clear, the air bright, and the state of the atmosphere most serene. Then suddenly most of the columns throughout the city that supported the public porticoes let fall drops like tears, and the market-places and streets, though no drop of rain had come from the air, became wet, sprinkled with water from I know not where; so that at once it was reported to all that the earth had wept in an inexpressible way, not bearing the impiety of what was then done, and that, to rebuke the hard and unfeeling nature of human beings, stones and lifeless matter had wept over what had happened.

To those after us the account may well seem nonsense and fable, I know; but not to those to whom the time itself confirmed its truth.

On the fourteenth of the following month, Apellaeus, which would be called the nineteenth day before the Kalends of January, again some of those from Egypt were arrested by those who searched passers-by at the gates (they had been sent to minister to the confessors in Cilicia). Some received the same sentence as those whom they had come to serve, being disabled in eyes and feet; but three of them, at Ascalon, where they were held, showed a wonderful display of courage and won different ends of martyrdom: one of them, named Ares, was given over to the fire, while the others, whose names were Promus and Elias, were beheaded.

On the eleventh day of the month Audynaeus, which would be the third day before the Ides of January, in the same Caesarea, Peter the ascetic, also called Apselamus, from the village of Anea in the territory of Eleutheropolis, gave proof through fire, like purest gold, of his faith in the Christ of God with a noble mind. He disregarded the countless entreaties of the judge and those about him to have pity on himself and spare his own youth and vigour, and preferred to all things, even to life itself, his hope in the God of the universe.

With him a certain Asclepius, reputed to be a bishop of the error of Marcion, moved by zeal for godliness, as he thought, though not according to knowledge, nevertheless departed this life on one and the same pyre. But so much for these things.

The time now calls us to relate the great and famous spectacle of those who were perfected with Pamphilus, a name thrice dear to me. They were twelve in all, counted worthy of a prophetic, or rather apostolic, grace and number.

Their leader, and the only one honoured with the rank of presbyter at Caesarea, was Pamphilus, a man who throughout his whole life excelled in every virtue: in renunciation and contempt of the world, in sharing his property with the needy, in disregard of worldly hopes, in a philosophic life and discipline. But above all of our time he excelled in a most genuine zeal for the divine oracles, in tireless industry in what he undertook, and in helpfulness to his relatives and to all who came near him.

The rest of his virtuous achievements, which need a longer account, we have already set out earlier in a separate work on the subject of his life, in three books. Referring those who are eager to know them to that work, let us now keep to the sequence concerning the martyrs.

Second after Pamphilus came to the contest Valens, honoured with a venerable grey head, a deacon of Aelia, an old man most dignified in appearance, learned in the divine Scriptures if anyone was. He had stored up so much of them in memory that he did not need to consult books in order to recite from memory long passages of any part of Scripture he took up.

Third was known among them Paul from the city of Jamnia, most fervent in action and burning in spirit, who before his martyrdom had fought out the contest of confession through endurance of branding irons. After these men had spent two whole years in prison, the occasion of their martyrdom was the arrival again of Egyptian brothers, who were also perfected with them.

These had escorted the confessors in Cilicia as far as the mines there and were returning home. In the same way as the others, at the very entrance of the gates of Caesarea, they were asked by the guards (who were barbarous men in character) who they were and where they had come from; and hiding nothing of the truth, they were held as criminals caught in the act. They were five in number.

Brought before the tyrant and speaking boldly before him too, they were at once shut up in prison. On the next day, the sixteenth of the month Peritius, which according to the Romans is the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March, by order they were brought before the judge, these same men together with those around Pamphilus already mentioned.

He first made trial of the invincible firmness of the Egyptians with every kind of torture and the devices of strange and various machines. After exercising their spokesman in these contests, he first asked him who he was; and then, hearing a prophet's name instead of his own proper name (this was done by them, since in place of the idolatrous names given them by their fathers they had, it seems, changed their names for themselves; you would hear them calling themselves Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel, showing themselves the Jew inwardly and the genuine and pure Israel of God not only by deeds but by names properly pronounced), Firmilian, then, hearing some such name from the martyr, but not attending to the meaning of the word, asked him next what his homeland was.

He gave a second answer in keeping with the first, saying that Jerusalem was his homeland, meaning of course that city of which Paul said, "But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother," and, "You have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."

He meant that city; but the judge, casting his thought down to the earth, inquired closely what this city was and where on earth it lay, and then applied tortures to make him confess the truth. But the man, with his hands wrenched behind his back and his feet crushed by some strange machines, insisted that he had spoken the truth.

Then, when he asked again many times what and where the city was of which he spoke, he said that it was the homeland of the godly alone; for no others but these alone have a share in it; and it lies toward the very east and the rising sun.

Again he was philosophizing by these words according to his own meaning, paying no attention to those around him who were tormenting him with tortures, but, as though without flesh or body, he seemed not even to feel the pains. The judge, perplexed, grew restless, thinking that the Christians must surely be setting up a city hostile and at war with the Romans; and he was busy searching for it and inquiring about the region named toward the east.

When, after tearing the young man further with scourges and punishing him with every kind of torture, he found his firmness in what he had said before unchanged, he passed against him the capital sentence of death. Such was the drama played out in his case. And having exercised the others in similar contests, he dispatched them in the same manner.

Then, worn out and recognizing that he was punishing the men in vain, having had his fill of his desire, he went on to Pamphilus and those with him. Informed that they had already shown before, through tortures, an unchangeable zeal for the faith, he asked whether even now they would obey; and receiving from each one only the final word of his confession in martyrdom, he inflicted on them the same punishment as on the former.

When this had been carried through, a youth who belonged to Pamphilus's household servants, trained as he was by the genuine upbringing and instruction of so great a man, on learning of the sentence against his master, cried out from the middle of the crowd, asking that the bodies be given to the earth for burial.

But the judge, not a man but a beast, and if anything more savage than a beast, granting no pardon even to the youth of his age, as soon as he learned by questioning that he confessed himself a Christian, swelled with rage as though wounded by an arrow, and ordered the torturers to use all their strength against him.

When he saw him refusing to sacrifice at his command, he ordered him to be torn persistently, no longer as human flesh but as stones or wood or some other lifeless thing, to the very bones and the innermost recesses of the entrails. When this had gone on a long time, he recognized that he was trying in vain, since the young man's body, worn down by the tortures, was speechless and without feeling and all but wholly lifeless.

But persisting in his pitiless and inhuman temper, he at once sentenced him, just as he was, to be given over to a slow fire. And this youth, though the last to come forward to the contest, obtained release from the body before the perfecting of his master according to the flesh, while those concerned with the earlier men were still delaying.

One could see Porphyry, in the bearing of a victor at the sacred games who has won every kind of contest, his body covered with dust but his face radiant, walking to his death after so much with a bold and exultant spirit, truly full of the divine Spirit, clothed in the philosopher's garb alone, his cloak thrown about him like a shoulder-wrap, with a sober mind giving instructions and signs to his friends about what he wished, keeping his face still radiant on the very stake. And when the pyre was lit around him at a great distance, he snatched the flame into his mouth from this side and that, and endured most nobly in silence to his last breath, after the one cry he uttered when the flame first touched him, calling on Jesus the Son of God as his helper. Such was the contest of Porphyry.

The messenger of his perfecting to Pamphilus was Seleucus, one of the confessors from the army; and as the servant of such a message he was at once counted worthy of the same lot with them. For as soon as he had announced the end of Porphyry and greeted one of the martyrs with a kiss, some soldiers seized him and led him to the governor. And he, as though hurrying him to become a fellow-traveller with the former on the journey to heaven, at once ordered him to be punished with death.

He was from the land of Cappadocia, of the picked young men in military service, and had attained no small honour among Roman ranks; for in age and bodily strength, in size and might, he far surpassed his fellow soldiers, so that his appearance was famous among all and his whole form admirable for its stature and beauty.

At the beginning of the persecution he had distinguished himself in the contests of confession by enduring scourging; and after his release from military service he made himself an imitator of the ascetics of godliness, and was revealed as overseer and helper, like a father and guardian, of destitute orphans, widows without support, and those cast aside in poverty and sickness. Therefore, fittingly, he was counted worthy of the extraordinary call to martyrdom by God, who rejoices in such deeds more than in sacrifices offered with smoke and blood.

He was the tenth athlete, in addition to those already mentioned, perfected on one and the same day, on which, it seems, a very great gate was opened for the martyrdom of Pamphilus, worthy of the man, and an easy passage of entrance into the kingdom of heaven was made for others together with him.

Following in the steps of Seleucus came Theodulus, a venerable and godly old man, belonging to the governor's household, honoured by Firmilian more than all in the house, both for his age and because he was a father of three generations, and for the goodwill and most faithful conscience which he kept toward them. He did the same as Seleucus, was brought before his master, provoked him more than those before, and received, being given over to the cross, the same martyrdom as the Saviour's passion.

After these, as one was still lacking to complete the twelfth place in the number of the martyrs described, Julian came to complete it. He had just arrived from a journey and had not yet entered the city; learning of it on the road, he hurried at once, just as he was, to see the martyrs; and when he saw the tabernacles of the saints lying on the ground, he was filled with joy, embraced each one, and kissed them all.

While he was doing this, the ministers of the murders seized him again and brought him to Firmilian. He, acting consistently with himself, gave this man too over to a slow fire. So Julian, leaping and exulting, and thanking the Lord aloud for counting him worthy of such things, was counted worthy of the martyrs' crown.

He was a Cappadocian by race according to the flesh, and in character most devout, faithful and genuine, earnest in all else, and breathing the Holy Spirit himself. Such was the company of those counted worthy to enter martyrdom together with Pamphilus.

By the order of the impious governor, the sacred and truly holy bodies of these men were kept for four days and as many nights as food for carrion creatures. But when, marvellously, nothing approached them, neither beast nor bird nor dog, they were taken up unharmed by the dispensation of God's providence, received fitting funeral rites, and were given the customary burial.

While the stir over these men was still on everyone's lips, Adrian and Eubulus, from the district called Manganaea, came to Caesarea to the remaining confessors; they too were questioned at the gate about the reason for their coming. Then, having confessed the truth, they were brought before Firmilian. He, as before, postponing nothing, after very many tortures applied to their sides, condemned them to be food for wild beasts.

After two days had passed, Adrian, on the fifth of the month Dystrus, the third day before the Nones of March, on the day of the birthday of the so-called Fortune of Caesarea, was thrown to a lion and then slain by the sword and perfected. Eubulus, two days later, on the Nones of March themselves, which would be the seventh of Dystrus, though the judge urged him earnestly to sacrifice and obtain what they consider freedom, preferred to temporary life a glorious death for godliness, and having become a sacrifice after the beasts like the former, he sealed the contests as the last of the martyrs at Caesarea.

It is worth recalling at this point that not long after, heavenly providence overtook the impious rulers together with the tyrants themselves. For the very man who had raged so much against the martyrs of Christ, Firmilian himself, suffered the extreme penalty with the others and ended his life by the sword. Such were the martyrdoms accomplished at Caesarea during the whole period of the persecution.

As for what happened besides these things in the intervening time to the presidents of the churches: how divine justice, condemning them as though worthy of it, set them, instead of shepherds of the rational sheep of Christ over which they presided not lawfully, as keepers of camels, an irrational animal and most crooked in the nature of its body; how it condemned them to the care of the imperial horses; how much they endured in insults, dishonours and tortures from the imperial procurators and rulers of the time over the sacred vessels and treasures of the church; besides these, the ambition of many, the rash and unlawful ordinations, the schisms among the confessors themselves, and all that the young agitators zealously devised against the remnants of the church, introducing innovations upon innovations, unsparingly adding to the calamities of the persecution and heaping evils on evils: all these I think I shall pass over, judging the account of them unsuitable to me, since I decline and avoid it, as I said also at the beginning. But whatever is venerable and of good report, according to the sacred word, and if there is any virtue and praise, these I consider most fitting to tell and write and offer to faithful ears in the history of the wonderful martyrs. And I think I shall adorn the close of the whole account with the peace that afterwards shone upon us from heaven.

The seventh year of the contest against us was being completed, and our affairs had somewhat quietly settled into calm, and continued so into the eighth year. A considerable crowd of confessors had gathered at the copper mines in Palestine and enjoyed great freedom, so much so that they even built houses for churches. The ruler of the province, a terrible and wicked man, as his deeds against the martyrs showed him to be, visiting the place and learning of the way of life of the people there, reported it to the emperor, writing what seemed to him likely to bring accusation.

Then the overseer of the mines arrived, divided the crowd of confessors as though by imperial command, assigned some to live in Cyprus and others on Lebanon, scattered still others in different districts of Palestine, and ordered them all to toil at various tasks.

Then he picked out four who seemed most to be their leaders and sent them to the commander of the armies there: Peleus and Nilus, Egyptian bishops, another, a presbyter, and besides these Patermuthius, best known to all for his zeal toward all. The general asked them to deny their godliness, and when he did not obtain it, he gave them over to perfecting by fire.

Others again had been allotted a place of their own there to live by themselves: those of the confessors who, because of old age or maimings or other bodily weaknesses, had been released from service in the works. Their leader was Silvanus, a bishop from Gaza, a devout man who bore a genuine pattern of Christianity.

He, one may say, had distinguished himself from the first day of the persecution and throughout the whole time in contests of confession of every kind, and had been kept until that time to be the final seal of the whole contest in Palestine.

With him were many from Egypt, among them John, who surpassed all of our time in the power of memory. He had already lost his sight before; yet in the confessions in which he distinguished himself, after his foot had been destroyed by branding irons like the others, he also received the same branding of fire on his eyes, though they no longer saw, the executioners carrying the cruelty and inhumanity of their character to merciless and unfeeling lengths.

Why should one admire in such a man his character and philosophic life, when they did not appear so extraordinary as his power of memory? He had whole books of the divine Scriptures written, not on tablets of stone, as the divine apostle says, nor even on skins of animals or papyrus destroyed by moths and time, but truly on fleshly tablets of the heart, in a luminous soul and the purest eye of the mind, so that he could bring out by mouth, whenever he wished, as from a treasury of words, now the Law and the Prophets, now the historical books, at other times the Gospels and the apostolic writings.

I confess that I was myself astonished when I first saw the man standing in the middle of a large congregation of the church and reciting some parts of divine Scripture. As long as I could only hear his voice, I thought someone was reading, as is the custom in the assemblies; but when I came close and saw what was happening, all the others standing round about with healthy eyes, and he using only those of the mind, and simply speaking out like a prophet, far surpassing those strong in body, I could not glorify God and marvel enough. And I seemed to see by the very facts a clear and firm proof that the true human being is not the one recognized in the visible body, but the one in soul and mind, who even with the body mutilated showed a virtue greater than its power.

But as those mentioned were living in the place set apart for them and carrying out their customary practices of fasting, prayer and the other disciplines, God himself counted them worthy to obtain the saving perfecting, extending to them a right hand that listened; while the hostile enemy, no longer able to bear them arming themselves against him most diligently through prayers to God, thought to kill them and remove them from the earth as troublesome.

God permitted him to do this too, when he attempted it, so that he might not be restrained from the wickedness of his own choice, and they might at last receive the prizes of their many contests. So thirty-nine of them were beheaded on one day at the nod of the most accursed Maximin.

These, then, are the martyrdoms accomplished in Palestine over eight whole years, and such was the persecution in our time. It began with the destruction of the churches and advanced greatly in the successive attacks of the rulers, in which the many and varied contests of those who contended for godliness produced a countless multitude of martyrs in every province, among those from Libya and throughout Egypt, Syria and the East, and round about as far as the regions of Illyricum.

For the lands beyond those mentioned, all Italy and Sicily, Gaul and all toward the setting sun, Spain, Mauretania and Africa, after enduring the war for two whole years at the beginning of the persecution, were very quickly counted worthy of God's visitation and peace, heavenly providence sparing the simplicity and faith of the people.

Something never recorded in all the past history of the Roman Empire has now happened for the first time in our day, beyond all hope: during the persecution against us the empire was divided in two, and the brothers living in the one part already mentioned enjoyed peace, while those throughout the rest of the world endured countless thousands of contests.

But when divine grace showed its kindly and gracious visitation toward us also, then indeed our rulers too, those very men through whom the wars against us had long been carried on, changed their minds most marvellously and sang a recantation, quenching the blaze against us with kindly proclamations and gentle decrees concerning us. This recantation too must be recorded.