Church History 8.4.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Offered the choice between their rank and their faith, many Christian soldiers chose to confess Christ.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:353

ὡς γὰρ ὁ στρατοπεδάρχης, ὅστις ποτὲ ἦν ἐκεῖνος, ἄρτι πρῶτον ἐνεχείρει τῷ κατὰ τῶν στρατευμάτων διωγμῷ, φυλοκρινῶν καὶ διακαθαίρων τοὺς ἐν τοῖς στρατοπέδοις ἀναφερομένους, αἵρεσίν τε διδοὺς ἢ πειθαρχοῦσιν ἧς μετῆν αὐτοῖς ἀπολαύειν τιμῆς, ἢ τοὐναντίον στέρεσθαι ταύτης, εἰ ἀντιτάττοιντο τῷ προστάγματι, πλεῖστοι ὅσοι τῆς Χριστοῦ βασιλείας στρατιῶται τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν ὁμολογίαν, μὴ μελλήσαντες, τῆς δοκούσης δόξης καὶ εὐπραγίας ἧς εἶχον ἀναμφιλόγως προυτίμησαν.

English · Claude translation

For when the commander of the camps, whoever he was, first undertook the persecution against the troops, sorting out and purging those enrolled in the camps and giving them a choice either to obey and enjoy the rank they held, or else to be deprived of it if they opposed the command, very many soldiers of Christ's kingdom without hesitation unquestionably preferred the confession of him to the seeming glory and prosperity they had.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:353 · 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, Martyrdom

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.4.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/4/3/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.4.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/4/3/).