Sophia Scriptura

Church History 8.13.11

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

Summary: Diocletian fell ill, lost his reason, and abdicated with Maximian, after which the empire was divided in two.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:370–371

νόσου γὰρ οὐκ αἰσίας τῷ πρωτοστάτῃ τῶν εἰρημένων ἐπισκηψάσης, ὑφʼ ἧς δὴ καὶ τὰ τῆς διανοίας εἰς ἔκστασιν αὐτῷ παρήγετο, σὺν τῷ μετʼ αὐτὸν δευτερείοις τετιμημένῳ τὸν δημώδη καὶ ἰδιωτικὸν ἀπολαμβάνει βίον· οὔπω δὲ ταὐτʼ αὐτῷ οὕτω πέπρακτο, καὶ διχῆ τὰ πάντα τῆς ἀρχῆς διαιρεῖται, πρᾶγμα μηδʼ ἄλλοτέ πω πάλαι γεγονὸς μνήμῃ παραδεδομένον.

English · Claude translation

For an ill-omened sickness fell upon the chief of those we have mentioned, by which his mind too was driven to derangement, and together with the one honored with the second place after him he took up the ordinary life of a private citizen. Scarcely had he done this when the whole empire was divided in two, a thing never recorded to have happened before.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:370–371 · 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
Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

  • The chief emperor is Diocletian, the second Maximian; both abdicated on 1 May 305.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.13.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/13/11/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.13.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/13/11/).

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