Miscellanies 4.8.56

Clement of Alexandria · Miscellanies · ca. 198–203 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Pagans too endured torture bravely: Spartans, Zeno of Elea, who spat his bitten-off tongue at the tyrant, Pythagoreans, the Roman Postumus, and Anaxarchus, who mocked his torturer.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

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Greek text · Stählin 2:274

ἐπεὶ οὐ μόνον † Αἰσώπιοι καὶ Μακεδόνες καὶ Λάκωνες στρεβλούμενοι ἐκαρτέρουν, ὥς φησιν Ἐρατοσθένης ἐν τοῖς Περὶ ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ Ζήνων ὁ Ἐλεάτης ἀναγκαζόμενος κατειπεῖν τι τῶν ἀπορρήτων ἀντέσχεν πρὸς τὰς βασάνους οὐδὲν ἐξομολογούμενος, ὅς γε καὶ τελευτῶν τὴν γλῶσσαν ἐκτρώγων προσέπτυσε τῷ τυράννῳ, ὃν οἳ μὲν Νέαρχον, οἳ δὲ Δημύλον προσαγορεύουσιν. ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Θεόδοτος ὁ Πυθαγόρειος ἐποίησεν καὶ Πραΰλος ὁ Λακύδου γνώριμος, ὥς φησι Τιμόθεος ὁ Περγαμηνὸς ἐν τῷ Περὶ τῆς τῶν φιλοσόφων ἀνδρείας καὶ Ἀχαϊκὸς ἐν τοῖς Ἠθικοῖς. ἀλλὰ καὶ Πόστουμος ὁ Ῥωμαῖος ληφθεὶς ὑπὸ Πευκετίωνος οὐχ ὅπως τι τῶν κεκρυμμένων οὐκ ἐδήλωσεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν χεῖρα ἐπὶ τοῦ πυρὸς θεὶς καθαπερεὶ χαλκὸν κατέτηκεν ἀτρέπτῳ πάνυ τῷ παραστήματι. τὰ γὰρ Ἀναξάρχου σιωπῶ πτίσσε ἐπιβοῶντος τὸν Ἀναξάρχου θύλακον· Ἀνάξαρχον γὰρ οὐ πτίσσεις, ὁπηνίκα πρὸς τοῦ τυράννου ὑπέροις σιδηροῖς ἐπτίσσετο.

English · Claude translation

For not only did the … and the Macedonians and Spartans endure when racked, as Eratosthenes says in his work On Good and Evil Things; but also Zeno of Elea, forced to reveal some secret, held out against the tortures, confessing nothing, and even at his death bit off his tongue and spat it at the tyrant, whom some call Nearchus and others Demylus. Theodotus the Pythagorean did likewise, and Praylus, the pupil of Lacydes, as Timotheus of Pergamum says in his work On the Courage of Philosophers, and Achaicus in his Ethics. And Postumus the Roman, captured by Peucetion, not only did not reveal any of the secrets, but also, placing his hand on the fire, melted it like bronze with a completely unmoved composure. For I pass over the words of Anaxarchus, who cried out, “Pound the bag of Anaxarchus; for you do not pound Anaxarchus,” when he was being pounded with iron pestles by the tyrant.

About this passage

Source: Stählin 2:274 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 2, Stromata Buch I–VI, GCS 15 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906); vol. 3, Stromata Buch VII und VIII, GCS 17 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 2–3 (GCS 15, 17, 1906–1909), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0
Text: As printed in Stählin, GCS 15, 17. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
Translation: Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1906–1909); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Book 3 is left partly untranslated (in Latin) there.
Topics: Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

A name is corrupt (dagger). These stories are also in Diogenes Laertius (9.26–27, 59). The Postumus story resembles that of Mucius Scaevola.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (accent: grave on ληφθεὶς): Πόστουμος ὁ Ῥωμαῖος ληφθείς ὑπὸ → Πόστουμος ὁ Ῥωμαῖος ληφθεὶς ὑπὸ.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.8.56 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/8/56/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.8.56 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/8/56/).

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