CONCERNING THE HOLY MARTYRS ANATOLIUS, AMMO, STATIANUS, NEPOTIANUS, LUCIUS, SATURNINUS, SATURNUS, or SATURNA.
[3] Rufinus, Now indeed, who would dare to pass over in silence that which was done in Phrygia, in which both the common rights of humanity and the proper laws of the Roman empire were violated? Where they commanded a certain city of Christian citizens to be surrounded by soldiers -- in which the entire people, and the men of rank, and the Curator, and the Magistrates confessed that they were Christians and would not consent to sacrifice -- and all to be burned together, men with women, the elderly with little children, the citizens with their city, fire having been cast in, so that no one at all from that city departed, even though a choice was given to those willing. And this was perpetrated against citizens; if it had been done against enemies, it would have borne the mark of cruelty. But the author and leader of this blessed and numerous martyrdom, undertaken by the entire city together, was a man distinguished for his piety and religion and every kind of benevolence, Adauctus by name, an Italian by fatherland and lineage, who had discharged the honors of the palace through each successive grade up to the Mastership of the Offices: also administering at that time the accounts of the highest departments, and residing in the above-mentioned city. The entire people followed his constancy in the confession of Christ, and by the example of this good Leader, having truly attained to the highest ranks, obtained the palm through martyrdom.
[4] Thus Rufinus, among other things alluding to a passage of Firmianus Lactantius, who -- after he had, as St. Jerome testifies in his work On Illustrious Men, chapter 80, Lactantius, taught Rhetoric at the royal city of Nicomedia in Bithynia, contiguous to Phrygia, under Diocletian, and on account of the scarcity of students (evidently because it was a Greek city) had devoted himself to writing -- in his Divine Institutes against the Gentiles, addressed to the Emperor Constantine, book 5, which he entitled "On Justice," chapter 11, reproves the cruelty against Christians, stirred up by a beast rather than a man: "By whose command," he says,
"Dark blood is poured forth everywhere, everywhere cruel Mourning, everywhere terror, and many an image of death."
"No one can worthily describe the savagery of this beast: which, reclining in one place, nevertheless rages with iron teeth throughout the whole world... For each man, having received power, raged according to his own character: some, out of excessive timidity, dared more than they were ordered: others out of their own private hatred against the righteous; some from the natural ferocity of their disposition; others to please their masters and by this service to pave their way to higher things: some were headlong in their rush to kill, just as one man in Phrygia burned the entire people together with their very place of assembly." Thus Lactantius, an author contemporary with the Martyrs.
Section II. The rank of St. Adauctus. The commemoration of his companions: the time of the martyrdom.
[5] Later writers followed generally: among the Greeks especially Nicephorus Callistus, book 7 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 10: for whom in Greek he is Adaukos, Martyrs, as also for Eusebius; but for the translator Johannes Langus, as for Rufinus, Adauctus: and this in the same Cramoisy editions, St. Adauctus, or Adaucus, with which the remaining Latin editions agree. His rank, according to Eusebius, is "the administration of the Mastership and the Generalship of accounts": according to Christopherson, the office of Master of the Offices and General Quaestor: according to Rufinus, the Mastership of the Offices Master of the Offices and the Administration of accounts: according to Nicephorus, "the dignity of Masters": according to Langus, the Eminence of the Master of the Offices, without any mention of the General Quaestorship or Administration of accounts, so that for him the word katholikotes, being neglected, seems to be referred to the Mastership, and to indicate that a universal commission throughout the Empire had been entrusted to him. Now katholikos, according to the Lexicon of Cyril, means Rationalis, and Quaestor, that is, one who manages the accounts of the public treasury: thus Cassiodorus in book 6 of the Variae: "The Comitiva of private affairs is reported to have formerly governed the private substance of the Princes through the care of the Rationales." Hence katholikotes is rightly rendered by Rufinus as the "administration of accounts," and by Christopherson as the "office of General Quaestor." What the dignity of Master of the Offices was in those times, we gather from Zosimus, book 2, where he treats of the civil wars between the Emperors Licinius and Constantine the Great, and relating that Licinius landed at Chalcedon by ship (which occurred in the year 324 after his various defeats), he writes thus: of illustrious rank: "Choosing as his partner in danger Martinianus, who was then leader of the ranks at the palace (the Romans call him Master of the Offices), he creates him Caesar, and sends him with an army to Lampsacus." Hence they were held above Patricians, and kinsmen, brothers, and sons of Emperors were adorned with this title. Evagrius, book 3 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 29, writes that a similar Master of the Offices was Longinus, brother of the Emperor Zeno.
[6] Others among these Martyrs distinguished in rank were, according to Eusebius, the Logistes and the Strategus, and Logistes, prefect of the treasury, according to Christopherson the Curator and Prefect of the garrison, according to Rufinus only the Curator, according to Nicephorus only the Strategus, whom Langus interprets as Prefect. But since, according to Moschopulus and the Grammar published under the name of Basil, and other authors, Logistes is the same as Logariastes, he will more correctly be called Prefect of the treasury, Master of the accounts of the fiscus, superintendent of accounts or of the chamber of accounts. In the Catalogues of the Officials of the Palace of Constantinople, published by Jacques Goar to chapter 11 of George Codinus, one reads "the Logistes of the palace," who was the superintendent or censor of the accounts of the palace: so that a similar Prefect of the common treasury of a city or province should be understood. That the word Strategus signifies an illustrious man placed in charge of the military garrison of the city is sufficiently established. Finally, when Lactantius reports that the entire people was burned together with their very place of assembly, he rather indicates a sacred place, was the Clergy also killed? to which the multitude had flocked to the Bishop and other Presbyters and ministers of the Church.
[7] The Greeks consecrate the memory of these Martyrs in the Menaia on February 7, in these words: The commemoration of all these in the Menaia, "On the same day the holy Martyrs from Phrygia are perfected by fire.
Not having shuddered at the strength of fire, the six Phrygians -- Not the land of the Phrygians -- they are a tower of strength."
On the same day, the holy Martyrs from Phrygia, burned by flames, are initiated into martyrdom. But those who in the verse are called "six Phrygians," are rather indicated as "from Phrygia" or "those who did not shudder," in this manner: "The Phrygians, not shuddering at the force of fire (not the land of the Phrygians), became a tower of the greatest strength." The Latins also record the same on this February 7. In the Roman Breviary promulgated by Paul III and composed and revised by Cardinal Quignonez, and the Roman Breviary: the Ecclesiastical office is performed for St. Adauctus and his companion Martyrs, and this
Lesson III is recited at Matins: "In the time of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, when the persecution was raging against the Christians, a certain city of Phrygia, which publicly and by the great consent of all its citizens professed the faith of Christ, since it could by no means be induced to worship foreign gods, was besieged by the army of the impious and entirely burned without any distinction of sex or age, with such cruelty of the impious that no citizen at all survived this calamity of the city. The author and leader of this blessed and numerous martyrdom, undertaken simultaneously by the entire city, was a man distinguished for piety and religion and greatness of soul, Adauctus by name, Italian by nation. Having discharged many public offices, he was also at that time administering a public charge in that city. For the entire people followed his constancy in the confession of Christ, and under his leadership obtained the palm of most glorious martyrdom on the seventh day before the Ides of February."
[8] This slaughter occurred under Diocletian and Maximian Herculeus, Galesini, Maurolycus, Canisius, and Molanus also treat of the same, and these call him Adauctus; Galesini calls him Adaucus. Molanus is silent about the persecution under which they were crowned: others establish with the Breviary of Paul III that it occurred under Diocletian and Maximian; namely, in the last years of their reign: which Nicephorus Callistus confirms, narrating from the beginning of book 7 of his history the more illustrious Martyrs of the East in the time of these Emperors, and having set forth the martyrdom of Saints Phileas and Philoromus (concerning whom see February 4) in chapter 9, he immediately adds in chapter 10 that an entire city of Phrygia underwent martyrdom; and finally in chapter 20 he reports that Diocletian and Maximian, having laid down their Imperial power, lived and died as private citizens. Rufinus conducts his history in the same manner, and appends these Martyrs after the martyrdom of Saints Phileas and Philoromus: both being excellent interpreters of Eusebius, while the latter joins the punishments inflicted on the Saints also by their successors on the occasion of the same passage, they better assign them to the time of each individual Emperor. Nor does Eusebius disagree: for when he had related in chapter 22 the martyrdoms endured during eight years in Palestine, in the following chapter, making a transition to the Phrygians, he reports "already then," "long ago," "formerly," (indicating the beginning of the persecution) that a city of Phrygia was burned.
[9] Rather than under Galerius Maximian. Baronius however in his Annals places the martyrdom of these Phrygians in the year of Christ 308, the fourth year after the purple was laid down by Diocletian and Maximian Herculeus. In the same manner also the corrected Roman Martyrology, in which the following is read: "In Phrygia, of St. Adauctus the Martyr, who, distinguished in birth from Italy and honored by the Emperors with nearly every grade of rank, while he was still discharging the office of Quaestor, was deemed worthy of the crown of martyrdom for the defense of the faith. Likewise, of very many holy Martyrs, citizens of a single city, whose leader was the same Adauctus, who, since they were all Christians and constantly persisted in the confession of the faith, were consumed by fire by the Emperor Galerius Maximian." Thus the Martyrology. This Galerius Maximian was created Augustus in the year 304, together with Constantius Chlorus.
[10] We have recorded on January 26 two other Martyrs beaten to death with clubs in Phrygia, whom Rader incorrectly confuses with these Martyrs.
Section III. Their martyrdom wrongly attributed to Spain.
[11] The fresh field of Phrygia is claimed by the Spaniards, on account of the Chronicle of Julian Peter, refuted by us many times: in which at number 127 the following is read: This martyrdom is attributed to Spain "On the seventh of February, under Diocletian, in Spain, in the city of Phrygia, which is now called Frias, among the Veterones, innumerable Martyrs under their leader Adauctus, a citizen, were, together with other citizens, horribly burned, among whom Virgins, Matrons, nobles, and the entire Senate and Clergy suffered." By Julian Peter, Thus in that Chronicle, which Johannes Tamayo Salazar followed, writing thus in the Spanish Martyrology: "On the 7th day before the Ides of February, at the city of Phrygia of Spain, among the Veterones, the passion of Saints Adauctus the leader, by Tamayo Salazar, with all the Clergy, Decurions, Nobles, Virgins, Matrons, and neighboring citizens of that city, who under the Emperor Diocletian were all martyred for the faith of Christ, and crowned in troops with purple garlands, entered into eternal blessedness." Thus Salazar, by whom Father Jeronimo Rom. de la Higuera is cited in his Spanish Martyrology, not yet published: whose words he thus translates into Latin: "At the city of Frias among the Veterones of Spain, formerly called Phrygia, by Higuera, so named from its Phrygian founders, of the innumerable Martyrs who were burned for Christ in the persecution of Diocletian." The same opinion, Salazar adds, was embraced by Martin Carillo, Annals of the Church, book 2, year 309, folio 115, by no means by Martin Carillo, and Father Camargo, his abbreviator, in the Theatre of the Church, year 309, folio 182. But Salazar is mistaken: for at the cited folio, Carillo treats of various Martyrs killed at Rome, in Palestine, in Egypt, at Alexandria, at Antioch, and in other places, and among them he counts these Martyrs in these words, thus translated into Latin: "In Phrygia a certain city together with its leader Adauctus, because all the citizens were Christians, was consumed by fire on February 7." In refuting Carillo, his abbreviator Camargo is simultaneously refuted, whom we have not seen.
[12] The town of Frias, where these Martyrs are said to have fallen, Where is the town of Frias situated? is on the river Ebro, on the borders of Biscay and Old Castile, under the diocese of Burgos, from which city Salazar says it is 48 miles distant. Gabriel Pennotus, book 2 of the History of the Canons Regular, chapter 31, section 6, mentions a college of Canons Regular which is called "de Frias," situated in the diocese of Palencia in the kingdom of Leon, contiguous to the said diocese of Burgos. But which of the ancient authors established a city of Phrygia or Frigia there? Is it Phrygia Who called those peoples Veterones? Ptolemy in book 2 of the Geography, chapter 6, recognized Berones, in Greek Berones, not far from there, and among the Veterones? as did Strabo in book 3, who thinks they were named from the Tyrians; and among the Spanish writers, Florianus de Campo, book 2 of the History of Spain, chapter 4, cited by Salazar, who in book 4, chapters 13 and 14, describes the Betulones, whom he reports are corruptly called Beterones by some -- peoples of Catalonia, whose city Betulo is now called Badalona, a league from Barcelona, past which the river Besos, or Beson, perhaps anciently Betulo, flows into the Mediterranean Sea: but how far these are from Biscay! And yet on account of a word which Florianus confesses is corruptly expressed, the learned man attempts to confirm his opinion.
[13] Finally, even if it were certainly established that the town of Frias was formerly called Phrygia and was the metropolis of the Veterones, nothing would thereby be proven against the most evident testimonies of Eusebius, Lactantius, Rufinus, Nicephorus, The true reading of Eusebius is attacked, and the Ecclesiastical records of the Churches of the East as well as the West, as is clear from the foregoing. The authority of Alphonsus de Madrigal, a light of the Church and an ornament of Spain in both sanctity and learning, Bishop of Avila, is opposed by Salazar, in his Observations on the said chapter 23 of Eusebius, extending the words of the latter according to the genuine reading of the ancient codices thus: "Already then the city of Christians, which is Phrygia." Where, with the preposition IN being mutilated, Phrygia remains as the name and title of a city, not a province. From which it is clear that the copyists of Rufinus, Nicephorus, and Lactantius, not knowing of a city decorated with the title of Phrygia, corrupted the autograph of Eusebius by adding the preposition IN, so that the sense would be, not that these Martyrs fell in a city named Phrygia, but that they completed their contest in a city in the province of Phrygia. Thus Salazar.
[14] But first, the Alphonsus de Madrigal who is adduced, commonly called Tostatus, born in the town of Madrigal in the diocese of Avila, did not write these Observations on Eusebius, which have never been published among all his works frequently edited; it is established, nor could he correct the words cited above "according to the genuine reading of the ancient codices," which are not those of Eusebius, a Greek author, but of the translator John Christopherson, who was a full century younger than the said Alphonsus Tostatus: from the agreement of the Greek and Latin editions, whose translation agrees with the Greek text of Eusebius published by Robert Estienne in the year 1544, and then with the translation of Christopherson printed at Cologne of the Allobroges in the year 1612, in these words: "Already then, soldiers surrounding a whole city of Christians near Phrygia, and setting fire to it, burned it, together with the infants and women who were crying out to Christ, the God over all." I would prefer to read Antandron instead of autandron, which was a city of Phrygia mentioned by Strabo, Ptolemy, and Virgil himself in Aeneid 3. The sense therefore is: "Already then, soldiers surrounding the city of Antandrus in Phrygia, entirely Christian, with a siege, and casting fire upon it, burned it, together with the very infants and women crying out to Christ, God above all." of the city of Antandrus, That Eusebius is otherwise treating of Phrygia is clear from his transition to this illustrious contest at the end of the preceding chapter: and of the places connected with it: "These then are the martyrdoms completed in eight whole years in Palestine." The words of the title of this chapter agree with these: "Concerning what was done in Phrygia." Which title would have had to be formed thus: "Concerning what was done in Spain" -- especially since the narrative would be deflecting from Palestine so far away to Spain, in the farthest West.
[15] Secondly, it is wrongly assumed that the autograph of Eusebius was corrupted by the copyists of Rufinus, Nicephorus, and Lactantius: since on the contrary the ancient reading of Eusebius is most certainly confirmed by their consistent agreement, as also of Rufinus, which for Rufinus is affirmed by Godefroy Boussard, Jean Scallus, and Beatus Rhenanus, who published his works from various manuscripts, the first in the year 1526, the second in 1479, the third in 1541. Nicephorus of Nicephorus, moreover called it "a certain city near Phrygia," that is, according to the translator Johannes Langus, and the editor Fronto Ducaeus in absolutely all editions, "a certain town of Phrygia, or within Phrygia, or in the region of Phrygia": thus the Greek phrase means approximately "in the vicinity of Phrygia." and of Lactantius, who is older than Eusebius. Finally Lactantius, older than Eusebius, whom the latter mentions in his Chronicle under the tenth year of the Emperor Constantine, resolves all controversy for us, when he reports that the entire people was burned in Phrygia, and immediately in the same chapter treats of Bithynia, which is contiguous to this Phrygia. We have inspected various editions of the works of Lactantius, such as the most ancient one made in the year 1465 at the monastery of Subiaco, the Aldine of 1535, the Basel edition by Xystus Betuleius of 1563, the Plantin edition of Michael Thomas of 1587, the Roman edition of Joseph Isaeus of 1650, and others published separately and in the Libraries of the Fathers on many occasions.
[16] Thirdly, in the Chronicle of Julian Peter the leader Adauctus of these Martyrs is reported to have been a citizen of the city of Frias, or Phrygia, St. Adauctus was not a Spaniard, but an Italian, together with the rest, who according to Eusebius, Rufinus, Nicephorus, and the Ecclesiastical records cited above, was distinguished in birth among the Italians: so that even from this alone we may gather that that Chronicle was compiled with little diligence.