Martyrdom of Polycarp 18.1

Anonymous · Martyrdom of Polycarp · ca. 156–160 · Smyrna · Read in context

Summary: The centurion had Polycarp's body burned.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:336

Ἰδὼν οὖν ὁ κεντυρίων τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων γενομένην φιλονεικίαν, θεὶς αὐτὸν ἐν μέσῳ, ὡς ἔθος αὐτοῖς, ἔκαυσεν.

So the centurion, seeing the contentiousness of the Jews, placed the body in the middle, as is their custom, and burned it.

Source: Lake, LCL 25:336 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 312–345 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Translation: Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 25, 1913); made independently of existing English translations.
Topics: Martyrdom

“As is their custom” probably refers to the Roman practice of burning the bodies of the condemned.

Mart. Pol. 18.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/18/1/).

Plain text

Mart. Pol. 18.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/18/1/).