Sophia Scriptura

Church History 3.6.19

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

Summary: Josephus (quoted): they ate belts, shoes, shield leather, and old hay.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:93

πάντα δʼ ὑπʼ ὀδόντας ἦγεν ἡ ἀνάγκη, καὶ τὰ μηδὲ τοῖς ῥυπαρωτάτοις τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων πρόσφορα συλλέγον- τες ἐσθίειν ὑπέφερον. ζωστήρων γοῦν καὶ ὑποδημάτων τὸ τελευταῖον οὐκ ἀπείχοντο, καὶ τὰ δέρματα τῶν θυρεῶν ἀποδέροντες ἐμασῶντο. τροφὴ δὲ ἦν καὶ χόρτου τισὶ παλαιοῦ σπαράγματα. τὰς γὰρ ἶνας ἔνιοι συλλέγοντες ἐλάχιστον σταθμὸν ἐπώλουν Ἀττικῶν τεσσάρων.

English · Claude translation

Necessity brought everything to the teeth, and they gathered and brought themselves to eat things unfit even for the filthiest of brute beasts. At last they did not keep from belts and shoes, and they stripped the leather off their shields and chewed it. For some, wisps of old hay were food; and some gathered the stalks and sold the smallest weight for four Attic drachmas.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:93 · 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)
Extrabiblical texts
  • Josephus, J.W. 6.197–198 (Josephus (works)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from Josephus, J.W. 6.197–198.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.6.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/6/19/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.6.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/6/19/).

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