Sophia Scriptura

Church History 4.15.13

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

Summary: Polycarp came down to his captors so serene that they marvelled at the effort spent to arrest such an old man.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:156

Καὶ δὴ μαθὼν πα– ρόντας, ὡς ὁλόγος φηςὶ, καταβὰς αὐτοῖς διελέξατο, εὖ μάλα φαιδρῷ καὶ πραοτάτῳ προσώπῳ, ὡς καὶ θαῦμα δοκεῖν ὁρᾶν τοὺς πάλαι τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀγνῶτας, ἐναποβλέποντας τῷ τῆς ἡλικίας αὐτοῦ παλαιῷ καὶ τῷ σεμνῷ καὶ εὐσταθεῖ τοῦ προσώπου, καὶ εἰ το– σαύτη γένοιτο σπουδὴ ὑπὲρ τοῦ τοιοῦτον συλληφθῆ– ναι πρεσβύτην.

English · Claude translation

And learning that they were there, as the account says, he came down and talked with them, with a very cheerful and gentle face, so that those who had not known the man before seemed to see a marvel, looking at his great age and the dignity and steadiness of his face, and wondering whether there was so much eagerness to arrest such an old man.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:156 · 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
  • Mart. Pol. 7.2 (Martyrdom of Polycarp) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Paraphrase of Mart. Pol. 7.2.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.15.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/15/13/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.15.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/15/13/).

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