This is an occasional series of readings from and brief notes
and commentary upon Eusebius of Caesarea’s The
Ecclesiastical History: Book 8, chapter 11-12.
Notes and Commentary:
These chapters continue to report
on the godly martyrs who laid down their lives during the Diocletian
persecution.
Chapter 11 begins by
describing an unnamed small town in Phyrgia, where, Eusebius, says all the
inhabitants were Christians, including the city officials. The Roman soldiers set
fire to the town and burned the inhabitants alive, including young children and
women.
It next notes the martyrdom of a
certain Audactus, “a man of illustrious Italian birth,” who at the time he was
put to death was serving as a magistrate and minister of finance in some
unnamed locality.
Chapter 12 traces the
gruesome sufferings of other Christians throughout the Roman world.
In Arabia they were slain with the
axe.
In Cappadocia, their legs were
broken.
In Mesopotamia, they were hung over
smoking fires.
In Alexandria, they were mutilated.
In Antioch, they were roasted on the
gridiron.
Eusebius notes that some in Antioch
took their own lives by jumping off lofty houses before they could be seized.
As another example of this he describes
a noble woman of Antioch and her two unmarried daughters who were captured in a
foreign country and were being transported back to Antioch. At risk of being
violated by the soldiers, in the midst of their journey, they threw themselves
into a river and drowned thus becoming “their own executioners.”
He also notes another pair of maidens
at Antioch who were also thrown into the sea.
In Pontus, Christians suffered
various cruel tortures, like having reeds driven under their finger nails, having
melted lead poured on their backs, and having their private parts abused. Eusebius
says it was as if the tormenters tried to outdo one another in the novelty of their
tortures.
Worn out with their bloodlust
against the Christians, Eusebius says they rulers determined to promote more
supposedly “humane” punishments, liking gouging out the right eye and crippling
the left foot of believers before sending them slave labor in the copper mines.
These martyrs, he concludes, were “conspicuous
throughout all the world.” To name each one would be impossible.
Conclusion:
This chapters note the universality
and brutality of the Diocletian persecution. It took place across the Roman
world and included a variety of unspeakable tortures. Eusebius even praises those
who took their own lives in these situations, without seeming to pass judgement
on the suicide as sinful. Many of those not to put to death were maimed and
enslaved. He stresses that the sufferings of the Diocletian persecution were
not only universal but incalculable.
JTR
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