Church History 5.1.11 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:185–186

ἐντεῦθεν δὴ διεκρίνοντο οἱ λοιποὶ, καὶ φανεροὶ καὶ ἕτοιμοι ἐγίνοντο πρωτομάρτυρες, οἳ καὶ μετὰ πάσης προθυμίας ἀνεπλήρουν τὴν ὁμολογίαν τῆς μαρτυρίας, ἐφαίνοντο δὲ καὶ οἱ ἀνέτοιμοι καὶ ἀγύμναστοι καὶ ἔτι ἀσθενεῖς, ἀγῶνος μεγάλου τόνον ἐνεγκεῖν μὴ δυνάμενοι, ὧν καὶ ἐξέτρωσαν ὡς δέκα τὸν ἀριθμὸν, οἳ καὶ μεγάλην λύπην καὶ πένθος ἀμέτρητον ἐνεποίησαν ἡμῖν, καὶ τὴν προθυμίαν τῶν “λοιπῶν τῶν μὴ συνειλημμένων ἐνέκοψαν, οἳ καί “πάντα τὰ δεινὰ πάσχοντες ὅμως συμπαρῆσαν τοῖς “μάρτυσι καὶ οὐκ ἀπελείποντο αὐτῶν.

English · Claude translation

From then on the others were divided. Some were manifestly ready to be first martyrs and fulfilled with all eagerness the confession of martyrdom. But others appeared unready and untrained and still weak, unable to bear the strain of a great contest; of these about ten in number miscarried, and they caused us great grief and immeasurable mourning, and checked the eagerness of the rest who had not been arrested, who, though suffering every terror, nevertheless stood by the martyrs and did not abandon them.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:185–186 · 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

Ep. Lugd. (Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Martyrdom, Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

Quotation from the Letter of Vienne and Lyons. “Miscarried” renders ἐξέτρωσαν, a metaphor of abortive birth that the letter takes up again in 5.1.45–46.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.1.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/1/11/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.1.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/1/11/).