ON SS. CARTERIUS AND COMPANIONS: STYRIACUS, TOBIAS, EUDOXIUS, AGAPIUS, AND OTHERS, MARTYRS AT SEBASTE,
UNDER THE EMPEROR LICINIUS.
CommentaryCarterius, martyr at Sebaste. (S.)
Styriacus, martyr at Sebaste. (S.)
Tobias, martyr at Sebaste. (S.)
Eudoxius, martyr at Sebaste. (S.)
Agapius, martyr at Sebaste. (S.)
Companions, martyrs at Sebaste
BY G. V. H.
Of the holy martyrs whose triumph is celebrated today, the following elogium is had in the Roman martyrology: [These saints are treated in the martyrologies and in the menologies of the Greeks] At Sebaste, of the holy martyrs Carterius, Styriacus, Tobias, Eudoxius, Agapius and companions under the emperor Licinius. Galesini writes out a longer elogium of them in these words: At Sebaste, of the holy martyrs Carterius, Stiriacius, Tobias and Nicopolitanus, who, while serving as soldiers under Licinius, the enemy of the Christian name, took this resolve, that throughout the whole of their military service they would remain in the faith of Christ. Therefore, by order of the commander Marcellus, they were punished with clubs and thrust into prison. Afterwards led out from there, beaten with raw sinews, and subjected to other punishments, at last cast into the flame, the noble and distinguished athletes of God are crowned. The Menology of Basil recounts the contest of the same martyrs as follows. We subjoin the variant readings of the Milan manuscript codex D. 74 sup.
Ἄθλησις τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων Ἀττικοῦ, Εὐδοξίου, Ἀγαπίου, καὶ τῆς συνοδίας αὐτῶν [Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων Ἀττικοῦ, Εὐδοξίου, Ἀγαπίου, Μαρίνου, Ὠκεανοῦ, Εὐστρατίου, Καρτερίου, [Ν]ικοπολιτιανοῦ, Στυρακίου, Τωβία καὶ τῆς συνοδίας αὐτῶν.] . Οὗτοι οἱ ἅγιοι στρατιῶται ὑπῆρχον ἐν τῇ πόλει Σεβαστείᾳ Σεβαστίᾳ. , ἐπὶ Λικιννίου Λικινίου. τοῦ βασιλέως. Οἵτινες συνεβούλευον πάσῃ τῇ στρατιᾷ στρατείᾳ. ἐμμένειν τῆ πίστει τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Διὸ βασανίζονται ὑπὸ Μαρκέλλου τοῦ δουκός καὶ αὐξάνονται τοῦ τῆς πόλεως Σεβαστείας ἄρχοντος adds . Εἶτα ἐμβάλλονται εἰς φυλακήν. Ἐκβληθέντες δὲ τύπτονται κατὰ τοῦ adds νώτου καὶ τῆς adds . κοιλίας βουνεύροις ὠμοῖς. Εἶτα ἐκριζοῦνται τοὺς ὀδόντας. Τιμωρουμένων δὲ τῶν ἁγίων adds ἔλεγεν ὁ δοὺξ προς τὸν ἅγιον Καρτέριον ὅτι Σὺ μόνος ἀπέστησας τὸν λαὸν τῆς τοῦ βασιλέως ὑποταγῆς; Ὁ δὲ ἔλεγεν ὅτι Οὐ συνεβούλευσα τῷ λαῷ ἐπαναστῆναι τῷ βασιλεῖ, ἀλλὰ προσελθεῖν τῷ ἀθανάτῳ βασιλεῖ Χριστῷ. Μετὰ ταῦτα μετ᾽ αὐτοὺς. ἄγεται Στυράκιος καὶ ὁμολογεῖ τὸν Χριστόν· καὶ αὖθις Τωβίας· εἶτα omits Νικοπολιτιανός ὁ Νικοπολίτης. . Καὶ κατακρίνονται πάντες adds ξύλοις συντριβῆναι. Καὶ μετὰ ταύτην τὴν βάσανον καὶ ἑτέρας πλείονας ἀλγηδόνας ὑπομείναντες, μετὰ καὶ ἄλλων πολλῶν τῶν πιστευσάντων εἰς Χριστὸν τέλος τὴν διὰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἀπόφασιν ἔλαβον (μετὰ καὶ-ἐλαβον) ταύτης τῆς βασάνου γενομένης ἔλαβον τὴν διὰ πυρὸς ἀπόφασιν. . Καὶ οὕτως ἐτελειώθησαν.
The contest of the holy martyrs Atticus, Eudoxius, Agapius, and companions.
These holy men were soldiers in the city of Sebaste, under the emperor Licinius. They gave counsel to the whole cohort to remain in the faith of Christ. For this reason they are tortured by the commander Marcellus. Then they are sent into custody. Sent forth, they are struck on the back and belly with raw ox-sinews. Then their teeth are torn out. As they were being subjected to punishments, the commander said to St. Carterius: Have you alone drawn the people away from subjection to the emperor? But he answered: I was not the author for the people that they should rise up against the emperor, but that they should approach the immortal king Christ. After this Styracius is brought forth and confesses Christ, and then Tobias, finally Nicopolitianus, and sentence is given that they be beaten with cudgels. And after this torment they endured several other tortures also, and with many others who had believed in Christ they finally received the sentence of fire. And so they were consummated.
[2] the menologies; The Menology of Sirleto has the following: On the same day the heavenly birthday of the holy martyrs Eudoxius, Agapius and eight others, who at Sebaste, under the emperor Licinius, when Auxo, Marcellus and Mark Agricolaus were governors, being cast into the fire commended their souls to God. Which seem nearly taken from the Menæon of the month of November, where these things are read at this day:
Μνήμη τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων Εὐδοξίου, Ἀγαπίου καὶ λοιπῶν ἁγίων ὀκτώ. Οὗτοι ὑπῆρχον στρατιώται ἐν Σεβαστείᾳ ἐπὶ Λικινίου βασιλέως. Ἐξετασθέντες δὲ ὑπὸ Αὐξανίου ἄρχοντος τῆς πόλεως καὶ Μαρκέλλου δουκὸς καὶ Μαρκου τοῦ Ἀγρικολάου, καὶ ἀνυπερβλήτοις βασάνοις ὑποβληθέντες πυρὶ παραδίδονται· ἐν ᾧ καὶ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχὰς τῷ Θεῷ παρέθεντο.
The memory of the holy martyrs Eudoxius, Agapius
and of the eight other saints.
These were soldiers in the city of Sebaste, under the emperor Licinius. Being examined by Auxanius, governor of the city, and by Marcellus the commander and Mark Agricolaus, and subjected to insuperable torments, they are delivered to the fire, in which they also gave up their souls to God.
The Greek metrical Martyrology sets down the following verses:
Τὸ πῦρ ἀριστεῖς καρτερήσαντες δέκα Πρὸς τὴν ἀρίστην λῆξιν ἧκον οἱ δέκα.
Ten, bravest of all, enduring the fire, Went to the best lot, the ten.
[3] but no Acts survive. Nor is there certainty about the number of the martyrs It is indeed to be regretted that longer Acts of these martyrs do not survive or, if they exist, have escaped our diligence. As it is, apart from those documents we have brought forward, we know nothing about these holy martyrs. From which various questions arise. And first it is asked how many saints make up this fellowship of martyrs. Ten are numbered by the metrical martyrology, ten by the Menæon and the menology of Sirleto; the Milan codex cites ten names in the title, but adds companions; the printed Menology of Basil gives three names in the title, four others in the text, and adds companions; Galesini four, the companions omitted; the Roman martyrology lists five names of martyrs and adds companions in martyrdom. The most ancient of these documents will give light to the rest. And these are the two copies of the Menology, whose texts, although they do not say the same thing word for word, yet in substance agree quite suitably. For although the printed menology of Basil in the title mentions the names of only three martyrs, namely Atticus, Eudoxius and Agapius, yet in the text it adds four others, namely Carterius, Styracius, Tobias and Nicopolitianus, and besides many others. The Milan text in the title names ten martyrs, Atticus, Eudoxius, Agapius, Marinus, Oceanus, Eustratius, Carterius, Nicopolitianus, Styracius, Tobias, to whom it joins other companions. From which flows the conclusion that to the ten martyrs listed by name several others are to be added. Of all of whom the leader and chief seems to have been Carterius. For Marcellus the commander addresses him, saying: Have you alone drawn the people away from subjection to the emperor? And the martyr Carterius himself professes himself the leader, answering: I was not the author for the people that they should rise up against the emperor, but that they should approach the immortal king Christ. Perhaps this Carterius was a tribune of the soldiers, at whose instance the pious soldiers had most piously joined together to contend bravely for the Christian faith. To whose name the author of the verses seems to allude, since the martyrs are called by him καρτερήσαντες. For this reason I think that Carterius in the Roman martyrology and in Galesini is named in the first place.
[4] nor about the names of the individual martyrs There arises a second question, whether Nicopolitianus is a proper name, or a patronymic of the martyr Tobias. For in the text of the printed menology of Basil and in the title of the Milan text Nicopolitianus is indeed clearly written separately from Tobias, but in the Milan text itself Tobias is called Τωβίας ὁ Νικοπολίτης, Tobias of Nicopolis. For which reason no slight suspicion arises of a fault committed by a scribe. It is nevertheless worthy of note that where this name is written out separately from the rest, in both places, both in the title of the Milan text and in the text of the printed menology, there is not Νικοπολίτης but Νικοπολιτιανός. For which reason it may with right and reason be called the proper name Nicopolitianus. So Galesini understood it, but he wrote Nicopolitanus, not Nicopolitianus, whom however he separates from Tobias. The Roman martyrology prudently omitted this name, and names Tobias.
[5] and of the judges, A third question is raised about the names of the governors. The menology of Sirleto lists Auxo, Marcellus and Mark Agricolaus as governors. The Menæon knows Auxanius the governor of the city, Marcellus the commander and Mark Agricolaus. The Menology of Basil names only Marcellus the commander. For which reason a doubt arises whether Marcellus alone, or with Marcellus Auxanius or Auxo and Mark Agricolaus, presided over the martyrdom of these soldiers. The authority of the menology of Sirleto and of the Menæon itself is not so great that it ought to move us of itself. Nevertheless it can be believed that these compendia were put together from longer and perhaps authentic Acts of these martyrs, and that there the name of Auxanius could have been read, and the name of Mark Agricolaus. Which is confirmed from the variant reading of the Milan text, which seems to be a corruption of the name of Auxanius or Auxo. After these words: Μαρκέλλου τοῦ δουκὸς, there is added in the Milan text: καὶ αὐξάνονται τοῦ τῆς πόλεως Σεβαστείας ἄρχοντος, which has no sense. I should think that there was written καὶ Αὐξάνοντος τοῦ τῆς πόλεως Σεβαστείας ἄρχοντος and of Auxanon, governor of the city of Sebaste. We have therefore Marcellus the commander, Auxanius or Auxanon or Auxo the governor of the city of Sebaste, and besides these Mark Agricolaus. The name of Agricolaus is notorious in the Acts of the martyrs. In the Acts of St. Hieron in Metaphrastes there is read: Of whom (Diocletian and Maximian) they ordered one to preside over Armenia: he was Agricolaus; and the other to govern the region of the Cappadocians: his name was Lysias Migne, P. G., vol. CXVI, p. 110.. And in the Acts of St. Eustratius with companions in the same Metaphrastes Diocletian is read to have ordered Lysias to have the care of all those on the frontier; the other, who was called Agricolaus, to administer the rule of the whole prefecture. And a little later: The commander Lysias therefore, staying at Sateleon, if he found any holy men and holy women of this region, after many interrogations and tortures sent them bound under the safest custody to Agricolaus at the metropolis of the Sebastenes, that they might be put out of the way by him … Ibid., p. 470.. The prefecture of this Agricolaus lasted down to Licinius, under which emperor Acta SS., vol. II March, p. 12., with Agricolaus as prefect, there suffered the most celebrated soldier martyrs, forty in number, whose encomium St. Basil celebrated. Under the same emperor, with Agricolaus as prefect Acta SS., vol. I Feb., p. 337., St. Blaise, bishop of Sebaste, suffered. We have therefore, besides so many other victims of Agricolaus, this phalanx of martyrs also crowned with the laurel of martyrdom under the same prefect, with a certain Marcellus as commander of Armenia, and Auxanon or Auxo as governor of the city of Sebaste.
[6] nor about the year of the martyrdom. Finally it may be asked in what year these holy martyrs received the crown? This question cannot be satisfied by an exact answer from me. It is established, however, that this martyrdom did not take place before the year 319: for it was then that the persecution of Licinius boiled up; he will not stray far from the truth, I think, who assigns it to the year 320.