The Martyrs of Palestine, Part One, from Eusebius' Church History.
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Church History by Eusebius of Caesarea.
Translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert.
The Martyrs of Palestine, Part One, Introduction through Chapter Five.
The following also we found in a certain copy in the eighth book.
It was in the 19th year of the reign of Diocletian, in the month Xanthicus,
which is called April by the Romans, about the time of the feast of our
Savior's Passion, while Flavianus was governor of the province of Palestine,
that letters were published everywhere, commanding that the churches be leveled to
the ground, and the scriptures be destroyed by fire, and ordering that those
who held places of honor be degraded, and that the household servants,
if they persisted in the profession of Christianity, be deprived of freedom.
Such was the force of the first edict against us.
But not long after other letters were issued, commanding that all the bishops of
the churches everywhere be first thrown into prison, and afterward, by every
artifice, be compelled to sacrifice.
Chapter One.
The first of the martyrs of Palestine was Procopius, who, before he had received the
trial of imprisonment, immediately on his first appearance before the governor's
tribunal, having been ordered to sacrifice to the so-called gods, declared that he
knew only one to whom it was proper to sacrifice, as he himself wills.
But when he was commanded to offer libations to the four emperors,
having quoted a sentence which displeased them, he was immediately beheaded.
The quotation was from the poet, The rule of many is not good, let there be
one ruler and one king.
It was the seventh day of the month Decius, the seventh before the Ides of
June, as the Romans reckon, and the fourth day of the week, when this first example
was given at Caesarea in Palestine.
Afterwards, in the same city, many rulers of the country churches readily endured
terrible sufferings, and furnished to the beholders an example of noble conflicts.
But others, benumbed in spirit by terror, were easily weakened at the first onset.
Of the rest, each one endured different forms of torture, as scourgings without
number, and rackings, and tearings of their sides, and insupportable fetters,
by which the hands of some were dislocated.
Yet they endured what came upon them, as in accordance with the inscrutable
purposes of God.
For the hands of one were seized, and he was led to the altar, while they
thrust into his right hand the polluted and abominable offering, and he was
dismissed as if he had sacrificed.
Another had not even touched it, yet when others said that he had
sacrificed, he went away in silence.
Another, being taken up half dead, was cast aside as if already dead,
and released from his bonds, and counted among the sacrificers.
When another cried out, and testified that he would not obey, he was struck in the
mouth, and silenced by a large band of those who were drawn up for this purpose,
and driven away by force, even though he had not sacrificed.
Of such consequence did they consider it, to seem by any means to have accomplished
their purpose.
Therefore, of all this number, the only ones who were honored with the
crown of the holy martyrs were Alpheus and Zacchaeus, after stripes, and scrapings,
and severe bonds, and additional tortures, and various other trials, and after having
their feet stretched for a night and day over four holes in the stocks,
on the seventeenth day of the month Dias, that is, according to the Romans,
the fifteenth before the calends of December, having confessed one only God
and Christ Jesus as King, as if they had uttered some blasphemy, they were beheaded
like the former martyr.
Chapter 2.
What occurred to Romanus on the same day at Antioch is also worthy of record.
For he was a native of Palestine, a deacon and exorcist in the parish of
Caesarea, and being present at the destruction of the churches, he beheld
many men, with women and children, going up in crowds to the idols and
sacrificing.
But through his great zeal for religion he could not endure the sight, and rebuked
them with a loud voice.
Being arrested for his boldness, he proved a most noble witness of the
truth, if there ever was one.
For when the judge informed him that he was to die by fire, he received the
sentence with cheerful countenance and most ready mind, and was led away.
When he was bound to the stake, and the wood piled up around him,
as they were awaiting the arrival of the emperor before lighting the fire,
he cried, Where is the fire for me?
Having said this, he was summoned again before the emperor, and subjected to the
unusual torture of having his tongue cut out.
But he endured this with fortitude, and showed to all by his deeds that the
divine power is present with those who endure any hardship whatever for the sake
of religion, lightening their sufferings and strengthening their zeal.
When he learned of this strange mode of punishment, the noble man was not
terrified, but put out his tongue readily, and offered it with the greatest alacrity
to those who cut it off.
After this punishment he was thrown into prison, and suffered there for a very long
time.
At last the twentieth anniversary of the emperor being near, when, according to an
established gracious custom, liberty was proclaimed everywhere to all who were in
bonds, he alone had both his feet stretched over five holes in the stocks,
and while he lay there was strangled, and was thus honored with martyrdom as he
desired.
Although he was outside of his country, yet, as he was a native of Palestine,
it is proper to count him among the Palestinian martyrs.
These things occurred in this manner during the first year, when the
persecution was directed only against the rulers of the church.
Chapter Three.
In the course of the second year, the persecution against us increased
greatly, and at that time Urbanus, being governor of the province,
imperial edicts were first issued to him, commanding by a general decree that all
the people should sacrifice at once in the different cities, and offer libations to
the idols.
In Gaza, a city of Palestine, Timotheus endured countless tortures, and afterwards
was subjected to a slow and moderate fire.
Having given, by his patience in all his sufferings, most genuine evidence of
sincerest piety toward the deity, he bore away the crown of the victorious
athletes of religion.
At the same time, Agapius and our contemporary Thecla, having exhibited most
noble constancy, were condemned as food for the wild beasts.
But who that beheld these things would not have admired, or if they heard of them by
report, would not have been astonished.
For when the heathen everywhere were holding a festival and the customary
shows, it was noised abroad that besides the other entertainments, the public
combat of those who had lately been condemned to wild beasts would also take
place.
As this report increased and spread in all directions, six young men, namely
Timoleus, a native of Pontus, Dionysius from Tripolis in Phoenicia, Romulus,
a subdeacon of the parish of Diospolis, Pisas and Alexander, both Egyptians,
and another Alexander from Gaza, having first bound their own hands,
went in haste to Urbanus, who was about to open the exhibition, evidencing great zeal
for martyrdom.
They confessed that they were Christians, and by their ambition for all terrible
things, showed that those who glory in the religion of the God of the universe do not
cower before the attacks of wild beasts.
Immediately, after creating no ordinary astonishment in the governor and those who
were with him, they were cast into prison.
After a few days, two others were added to them.
One of them, named Agapius, had in former confessions endured dreadful torments of
various kinds.
The other, who had supplied them with the necessaries of life, was called Dionysius.
All of these eight were beheaded on one day at Caesarea, on the 24th day of the
month Distrus, which is the ninth before the calends of April.
Meanwhile, a change in the emperors occurred, and the first of them all in
dignity, and the second retired into private life, and public affairs began to
be troubled.
Shortly after, the Roman government became divided against itself, and a cruel war
arose among them.
And this division, when the troubles which grew out of it, was not settled until
peace toward us had been established throughout the entire Roman empire.
For when this peace arose for all, as the daylight after the darkest and most
gloomy night, the public affairs of the Roman government were re-established,
and became happy and peaceful, and the ancestral goodwill toward each
other was revived.
But we will relate these things more fully at the proper time.
Now let us return to the regular course of events.
Chapter 4 Maximinus Caesar, having come at this time into the government,
as if to manifest to all the evidences of his reborn enmity against God,
and of his impiety, armed himself for persecution against us more vigorously
than his predecessors.
In consequence, no little confusion arose among all, and they scattered here and
there, endeavoring in some way to escape the danger, and there was great commotion
everywhere.
But what words would suffice for a suitable description of the divine love
and boldness in confessing God of the blessed and truly innocent Lamb,
I refer to the martyr Apphianus, who presented in the sight of all,
before the gates of Caesarea, a wonderful example of piety toward the only God.
He was at that time not twenty years old.
He had first spent a long time at Beratus, for the sake of a secular Grecian
education, as he belonged to a very wealthy family.
It is wonderful to relate how, in such a city, he was superior to
youthful passions, and clung to virtue, uncorrupted neither by his bodily vigor
nor his young companions, living discreetly, soberly, and piously,
in accordance with his profession of the Christian doctrine and the life of his
teachers.
If it is needful to mention his native country, and give honor to it as producing
this noble athlete of piety, we will do so with pleasure.
The young man came from Pagi, if anyone is acquainted with the place, a city in Lycia
of no mean importance.
After his return from his course of study in Beratus, though his father held the
first place in his country, he could not bear to live with him and his relatives,
as it did not please them to live according to the rules of religion.
Therefore, as if he were led by the Divine Spirit, and in accordance with a natural
or rather uninspired and true philosophy, regarding this preferable to what is
considered the glory of life and despising bodily comforts, he secretly left his
family.
And because of his faith and hope in God, paying no attention to his daily needs,
he was led by the Divine Spirit to the city of Caesarea, where was prepared for
him the crown of martyrdom for piety.
Abiding with us there, and conferring with us in the Divine Scriptures diligently for
a short time, and fitting himself zealously by suitable exercises,
he exhibited such an end as would astonish anyone should it be seen again.
Who that hears of it would not justly admire his courage, boldness, constancy,
and even more than these the daring deed itself, which evidenced a zeal for
religion and a spirit truly superhuman.
For in the second attack upon us under Maximinus, in the third year of the
persecution, edicts of the tyrant were issued for the first time, commanding that
the rulers of the cities should diligently and speedily see to it that the people
offered sacrifices.
Throughout the city of Caesarea, by command of the governor, the heralds
were summoning men, women, and children to the temples of the idols.
And besides this, the ciliarchs were calling out each one by name from a row,
and an immense crowd of the wicked were rushing together from all quarters.
Then this youth fearlessly, while no one was aware of his intentions, eluded both
us who lived in the house with him and the whole band of soldiers that surrounded the
governor, and rushed up to Urbanus as he was offering libations, and fearlessly,
seizing him by the right hand, straightway put a stop to his sacrificing,
and skillfully and persuasively, with a certain divine inspiration,
exhorted him to abandon his delusion, because it was not well to forsake the one
and only true God, and sacrifice to idols and demons.
It is probable that this was done by the youth through a divine power which led him
forward, and which all but cried aloud in his act that Christians, who were truly
such, were so far from abandoning the religion of the God of the universe which
they had once espoused, that they were not only superior to threats and the
punishments which followed, but yet bolder to speak with noble and untrammeled
tongue, and, if possible, to summon even their persecutors to turn from their
ignorance and acknowledge the only true God.
Thereupon, he of whom we are speaking, and that instantly, as might have been
expected after so bold a deed, was torn by the governor and those who
were with him as if by wild beasts, and having endured manfully innumerable
blows over his entire body, he was straightway cast into prison.
There he was stretched by the tormentor with both his feet in the stocks for a
night and a day, and the next day he was brought before the judge.
As they endeavored to force him to surrender, he exhibited all constancy
under suffering and terrible tortures.
His sides were torn, not once or twice, but many times, to the bones and the very
bowels.
And he received so many blows on his face and neck that those who for a long time
had been well acquainted with him could not recognize his swollen face.
But as he would not yield under this treatment, the torturers, as commanded,
covered his feet with linen cloths soaked in oil and set them on fire.
No word can describe the agonies which the Blessed One endured from this,
for the fire consumed his flesh and penetrated to his bones, so that the
humors of his body were melted and oozed out and dropped down like wax.
But as he was not subdued by this, his adversaries, being defeated and unable
to comprehend his superhuman constancy, cast him again into prison.
A third time he was brought before the judge, and having witnessed the same
profession, being half-dead, he was finally thrown into the depths of the sea.
But what happened immediately after this will scarcely be believed by those who did
not see it.
Although we realize this, yet we must record the event, of which to speak
plainly, all the inhabitants of Caesarea were witnesses.
For truly there was no age but beheld this marvelous sight.
For as soon as they had cast this truly sacred and thrice-blessed youth into the
fathomless depths of the sea, an uncommon commotion and disturbance agitated the sea
and all the shore about it, so that the land and the entire city were shaken by
it.
And at the same time, with this wonderful and sudden perturbation, the sea threw out
before the gates of the city the body of the divine martyr as if unable to endure
it.
Such was the death of the wonderful Apphianus.
It occurred on the second day of the month Xanthicus, which is the fourth day before
the Nones of April, on the day of preparation.
Chapter 5.
About the same time, in the city of Tyre, a youth named Ulpianus, after dreadful
tortures and most severe scourgings, was enclosed in a raw ox-hide,
with a dog and one of those poisonous reptiles, an asp, and cast into the sea.
Wherefore, I think that we may properly mention him in connection with the
martyrdom of Apphianus.
Shortly afterwards, Edesius, a brother of Apphianus, not only in God but also in the
flesh, being a son of the same earthly father, endured sufferings like his,
after very many confessions and protracted tortures in bonds, and after he had been
sentenced by the governor to the mines in Palestine.
He conducted himself through them all in a truly philosophic manner, for he was more
highly educated than his brother, and had prosecuted philosophic studies.
6.
Finally, in the city of Alexandria, when he beheld the judge, who was trying
the Christians, offending beyond all bounds, now insulting holy men in various
ways, and again consigning women of greatest modesty and even religious
virgins to procurers for shameful treatment, he acted like his brother,
for as these things seemed insufferable, he went forward with bold resolve,
and with his words and deeds overwhelmed the judge with shame and disgrace.
After suffering in consequence many forms of torture, he endured a death similar to
his brother's, being cast into the sea.
But these things, as I have said, happened to him in this way a little
later.
End of The Martyrs of Palestine, Part 1