Church History 6.5.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Basilides protected her from the crowd, and she promised to pray for him after her death.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:247

ἅμα δὲ λόγῳ τὸν τῆς ἀποφάσεως ὅρον καταδεξαμένην ὁ Βασιλείδης, εἶς τις ὢν τῶν ἐν στρατείαις ἀναφερομένων, ἀπάγει παραλαβὼν τὴν ἐπὶ θανάτῳ. ὡς δὲ τὸ πλῆθος ἐνοχλεῖν αὐτῇ καὶ ἀκολάστοις ἐνυβρίζειν ῥήμασιν ἐπειρᾶτο, ὁ μὲν ἀνεῖργεν ἀποσοβῶν τοὺς ἐνυβρίζοντας, πλεῖστον ἔλεον καὶ φιλανθρωπίαν εἰς αὐτὴν ἐνδεικνύμενος, ἡ δὲ τῆς περὶ αὐτὴν συμπαθείας ἀποδεξαμένη τὸν ἄνδρα θαρρεῖν παρακελεύεται· ἐξαιτήσεσθαι γὰρ αὐτὸν ἀπελθοῦσαν παρὰ τοῦ ἑαυτῆς κυρίου, καὶ οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν τῶν εἰς αὐτὴν πεπραγμένων τὴν ἀμοιβὴν ἀποτίσειν αὐτῷ.

English · Claude translation

No sooner had she spoken than she received the sentence, and Basilides, one of those serving in the army, took her and led her to death. When the crowd tried to annoy her and insult her with licentious words, he restrained them and drove away those who insulted her, showing her very great pity and kindness. She, accepting his sympathy toward her, bade the man be of good courage; for when she had departed she would ask her Lord for him, and before long would repay him for what he had done for her.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:247 · 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

Martyrdom, Prayer

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.5.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/5/3/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.5.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/5/3/).