Church History 10.8.11 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Licinius forbade anyone to feed or pity prisoners, on pain of sharing their punishment.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:484

τί δεῖ τούτων τὰ καθέκαστα καὶ κατὰ μέρος τῷ θεομισεῖ πεπραγμένα μνημονεύειν, ὅπως τε νόμους ἀνόμους ὁ παρανομώτατος ἐξηῦρε; τούς γέ τοι ἐν ταῖς εἱρκταῖς ταλαιπωρουμένους ἐνομοθέτει μηδένα μεταδόσει τροφῆς φιλανθρωπεύεσθαι, μηδʼ ἐλεεῖν τοὺς ἐν δεσμοῖς λιμῷ διαφθειρομένους, μηδʼ ἁπλῶς ἀγαθὸν εἶναι μηδένα, μηδʼ ἀγαθόν τι πράττειν τοὺς καὶ πρὸς αὐτῆς τῆς φύσεως ἐπὶ τὸ συμπαθὲς τῶν πέλας ἑλκομένους. καὶ ἦν γε νόμων οὗτος ἄντικρυς ἀναιδὴς καὶ ἀπηνέστατος, πᾶσαν ἥμερον ὑπερεξάγων φύσιν, ἐφʼ ᾧ καὶ τιμωρία προσέκειτο, τοὺς ἐλεοῦντας τὰ ἴσα πάσχειν τοῖς ἐλεουμένοις, δεσμοῖς τε καὶ φυλακαῖς καθείργνυσθαι, τὴν ἴσην τοῖς καταπονουμένοις ὑπομένοντας τιμωρίαν, τοὺς τὰ φιλάνθρωπα διακονουμένους.

English · Claude translation

Why need we mention in detail and one by one what the God-hater did, and how the most lawless man invented lawless laws? He decreed that no one should show kindness to those suffering in prison by giving them food, nor pity those in chains perishing of hunger; that no one should be good at all, nor do any good, even those drawn by nature itself to sympathy with their neighbors. And this law was openly shameless and most cruel, exceeding every gentle nature, and a penalty was attached to it: those who showed pity were to suffer the same as those they pitied, and those who performed acts of kindness were to be shut up in chains and prisons, undergoing the same punishment as the sufferers.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:484 · 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, Ethics

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.8.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/8/11/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.8.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/8/11/).