Church History 2.20.5

Eusebius of Caesarea · Church History · ca. 300–325 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Josephus (quoted): these assassins stabbed victims in festival crowds with hidden daggers and then joined in the outcry.

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

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Dindorf 4:73

μάλιστα γὰρ ἐν ταῖς ἑορταῖς μιγνυμένους τῷ πλή- θει, καὶ ταῖς ἐσθῆσιν ὑποκρύπτοντας μικρὰ ξιφίδια, τούτοις νύττειν τοὺς διαφόρους· ἔπειτα πεσόντων, μέρος γίνεσθαι τῶν ἐπαγανακτούντων αὐτοὺς τοὺς πεφονευκότας· διὸ καὶ παντάπασιν ὑπʼ ἀξιοπιστίας ἀνευρέτους γενέσθαι.

English · Claude translation

For especially at the festivals they mingled with the crowd, concealing small daggers under their clothes, and with these stabbed their enemies; then, when the victims fell, the murderers themselves joined in the indignation; so that because of their credibility they were never discovered at all.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:73 · 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; 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 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)

Extrabiblical texts

Josephus, J.W. 2.255 (Josephus (works)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

Quotation from Josephus, J.W. 2.255. These are the sicarii (“dagger-men”).

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.20.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/20/5/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.20.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/20/5/).

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