Church History 8.9.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The killings went on for years, sometimes ten, twenty, thirty, sixty, or even a hundred in a day.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:360

καὶ ταῦτά γε πάντα ἐνηργεῖτο οὐκ ἐπʼ ὀλίγας ἡμέρας ἢ χρόνον τινὰ βραχὺν, ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ μακρὸν ὅλων ἐτῶν διάστημα, ὁτὲ μὲν πλειόνων ἢ δέκα, ὁτὲ δὲ ὑπὲρ τοὺς εἴκοσι τὸν ἀριθμὸν ἀναιρουμένων· ἄλλοτε δὲ οὐχ ἧττον καὶ τριάκοντα, ἤδη δὲ ἐγγύς που καὶ ἑξήκοντα, καὶ πάλιν ἄλλοτε ἑκατόν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ ἄνδρες ἅμα κομιδῆ νηπίοις καὶ γυναιξὶν ἐκτείνοντο, ποικίλαις καὶ ἐναλλαττούσαις τιμωρίαις καταδικαζόμενοι.

English · Claude translation

And all these things were carried out not for a few days or a short time, but over a long space of whole years, sometimes more than ten, sometimes more than twenty being put to death; at other times no fewer than thirty, and again nearly sixty; and at other times a hundred men, together with very young children and women, were killed in a single day, condemned to various and changing punishments.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:360 · 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, Persecution

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.9.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/9/3/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.9.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/9/3/).