Domninus and Companions

ON ST. DOMNINUS AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS IN PALESTINE,

IN THE YEAR 307

Domninus, martyr in Palestine. (S.)

Companions, martyrs in Palestine.

BY P. P.

[1] Eusebius The histories of the saints who are said in the Roman Martyrology to have suffered today together with St. Domninus must be separated, as far as can be done; their source is plainly single, the twin little book of Eusebius Pamphili on the martyrs of Palestine.

[2] reports very little about St. Domninus; The synaxarium of the church of Constantinople calls St. Domninus ἱερομάρτυρα either with no meaning or with a false one P. 195.. In the Syriac Acts indeed he is praised as excellently learned, which glosses, if they were to be understood more strictly, would signify the discipline of medicine, as in fact William Cureton interpreted them, rendering word for word [History of the Martyrs in Palestine, by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea (London, 1861), p. 24.]. That by them, however, there is in some way represented τὴν διδασκαλίαν τῆς σωτηρίας [This was excellently perceived by the learned Bruno Violet; who, however, while he understands these words of Christian doctrine (wohlbekannt mit der Heilslehre well acquainted with the doctrine of salvation), grasps the sense of the Greek archetype rather than following the Syriac discourse. Die palästinischen Märtyrer des Eusebius von Cäsarea, Texte und Untersuchungen, vol. XIV, fasc. 4 (Leipzig, 1896), p. 58.], is evident if only from the fact that the holy martyr is said to have been snatched away in the very flower of youth, after he had spent perhaps several years, condemned to the mines, far from schools and studies. It cannot, however, be computed with certainty how long he was held in these mines. Certainly Eusebius designates the judge who relegated him there in such a way that he seems to have in mind a man other than Urban the prefect, against whom in this place he inveighs as if deliberately. If this is so, Domninus must be thought to have been first condemned in the year 303. For in the following year, which was the second of the persecution, Urban was substituted for Flavian, prefect of Palestine, who was departing from the province [De martyribus Palaest., III, 1, ed. Wilhelm Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis opera, vol. IV (Leipzig, 1890), p. 386; cf. Cureton, pp. 8–9; Violet, pp. 15–16.]. But such great indications betray either the carelessness or the ignorance of the Syriac translator that in his style the finer distinctions of words are of almost no weight at all. Through this negligence too it came about that the passion of St. Domninus, which in the Greek little book is clearly said to have taken place Δίου μηνὸς πέμπτῃ κατὰ δὲ τοὺς Ῥωμαίους νώνναις νοεμβρίαις, is assigned in the Syriac translation to the first day of the same month; unless perhaps was miswritten by some copyist for , which seems hardly probable.

[3] Theotimus, Philotheus and Timothy, their names passed over in silence, In the notice of the Roman Martyrology Theotimus and Philotheus are added to Domninus, to whom the liturgical books of the Greeks add Timothy. In neither of the recensions of the little book of Eusebius, as they now exist, are these names read. Moreover, this elogium of the synaxarium of Constantinople fits most aptly into the narrative of Eusebius: Θεότιμον δὲ … καὶ Τιμόθεον καὶ Φιλόθεον, τὴν ἀκμὴν τοῦ σώματος φέροντας καὶ ὡραίους καὶ καλοὺς τῇ ὄψει ὑπάρχοντας ἐπὶ πυγμῇ μονομαχίας καταδικάζει ὁ τύραννος Synaxarium of the Church of Constantinople, p. 196.. These certainly did not suffer on the same day as St. Domninus, as will be evident to one reading the rest of the history. And in very truth, in the following narrative, Eusebius, before he reported the confession of SS. Paul, Valentina and Ennatha, whom the judge Firmilian condemned to death in the city of Diospolis in the year after the death of St. Domninus, set first these words, which certainly concern our men [Cureton, l. c., p. 30; cf. P. Bedjan, Acta martyrum et sanctorum, vol. I (Paris, 1890), pp. 245–46; in English in Cureton, l. c., p. 28; in German in Violet, p. 62.].

After this trial they (that is, the Egyptian confessors of whom there was talk before), cauteries having been applied to their hams, maimed them in the left foot; then their right eye was gouged out with the sword and finally destroyed with fire. These things were suffered not only by men but by quite a number of boys and women. Afterwards they were sent to the copper mines, to experience (to see) hardships. After a short time three Palestinian men, whom we said a little before had been destined for the circus games, also suffered things like theirs, because they refused to receive food from the public administration (ταμεῖον) and would not give themselves up to the exercise and training leading to the gladiatorial art. Having suffered evils which we are unequal to describing, at length, after all their pains, they endured this cruel sentence.

[4] reports that they suffered on another day; On what day of the year these things were done may be disputed. It seems, however, that the confession of the blessed boxers preceded for some time the martyrdom of SS. Paul, Valentina and Ennatha, who suffered on the 25th of July; which day Eusebius indicated most clearly in the Tyrian and at the same time the Latin style: μηνὸς Πανέμου πέμπτῃ καὶ εἰκάδι, ἣ λέγοιτο ἂν πρὸ ὀκτὼ καλανδῶν αὐγούστων De martyr. Palaest., VIII, 12.. It is helpful to note too that the memory of SS. Paul, Valentina and Ennatha is kept on the 10th of February Synaxarium of the Church of Constantinople, p. 455. and again on the 15th or 16th of July Ibid., pp. 822–23..

[5] nor, besides St. Silvanus of Gaza, To the elogium of these confessors there is continued in the synaxarium of Constantinople Ibid., p. 196. this very brief mention: τὸν δὲ Σιλβανὸν τοῖς κατὰ Φανὼν μετάλλοις ἐγκρίνει ὁ τύραννος. He who wrote this seems not to have remembered St. Silvanus, bishop of Gaza and martyr, whose memory is had in the same synaxarium at the fourth day of May Ibid., p. 657.. Yet no one reading the Eusebian narrative attentively will think these two notices must be separated. For the history of this Silvanus the priest, whom Urban the prefect relegated to the mines of Phaeno on the very day on which he condemned St. Domninus to death, agrees in all parts with the Passion of St. Silvanus, who with thirty-nine companions, in the last year of the persecution, was beheaded with the sword in the same mines on the fifth day of May; at which day Henschen set out his Acts Acta Sanctorum, May vol. I, pp. 468–69.. Yet, so as not to bid the reader go so far away, and so as not to let that older commentary lack a useful complement, for which there will no longer be any other place in this work, we copy from the Syriac recension of the little book of Eusebius the pericope which

pertains to St. Silvanus From Wm. Cureton, op. cit., pp. 50–51; cf. P. Bedjan, vol. cited, pp. 274–75..

The confession of Silvanus and his companions, in the eighth year of the persecution which took place in our time.

whose slaying he narrates below, That blessed Silvanus was born at Gaza. He was one of the veteran soldiers. But after his age had obtained its freedom, he wished to become a good soldier of Christ. For he was a man perfectly modest and outstanding in counsel, and he professed his faith simply and candidly. Made a priest of the church situated in the city of Gaza, he had conducted himself excellently there. And when the contest for life was proclaimed against the soldiers of Christ, the old man, venerable in age, went down into the stadium, and there in his first confession before the people of Caesarea came off victor and was tried with scourges. When he had borne these manfully, he fought a second contest, and, an old man, bore the lacerations of his sides like a young one. In the third contest he was condemned to the copper mines. In a long life he showed himself most approved, and, raised to the ministry of the episcopate [From what Eusebius reports in the Passion of St. Domninus too (below, pp. 49, 51), it seems that Silvanus was not created bishop before he was condemned to the mines. Yet in the Ecclesiastical History (VIII. 13, 5) he is called by the same Eusebius bishop of the city of Gaza: τῶν δ᾽ ἐπὶ Παλαιστίνης μαρτύρων Σιλβανὸς ἐπίσκοπος τῶν ἀμφὶ τὴν Γάζαν ἐκκλησιῶν, κατὰ τὰ ἐν Φαινοῖ χαλκοῦ μέταλλα σὺν ἑτέροις ἑνὸς δέουσι τὸν ἀριθμὸν τεσσαράκοντα τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀποτέμνεται (ed. Dindorf, l. c., p. 369).], he shone gloriously in his pontificate. And on the fourth day of the month Iyar the great gate of heaven was opened wide to him, and that blessed man ascended with a company of martyrs. Nor indeed did he alone, but a great troop of heroes joined themselves to him. Suddenly an atrocious mandate was issued, by which those who had been weakened in the mines by old age or sickness and who were not able for the work were ordered to be killed with the sword. Of these martyrs of God, forty in number, the heads were cut off together on one day. Most of them were from Egypt. Their leader, however, and director was that martyr and bishop of martyrs Silvanus, a man truly blessed and most acceptable to God.

[6] he narrates that another Silvanus was condemned with St. Domninus. Concerning St. Silvanus, whom Urban the prefect likewise relegated to the mines of Phaeno at the same time as he handed over St. Domninus to the fire, the testimony of Eusebius will be brought forward in its place. The similarity of the two narratives of itself shows that the feast of one and the same martyr, and so the martyr himself, was doubled both in the Greek and in the Latin church.

[7] St. Pamphilus wrongly commemorated on 5 Nov. From the companions of St. Domninus there must also be excluded St. Pamphilus, who is announced in the synaxarium of Constantinople on the 5th of November, as if this were his proper feast. Concerning this most celebrated martyr there is absolutely no reason for us to dispute in this place. His fuller Passion, published long ago from a Greek copy both in other places See BHG., p. 99. and in these Acts of ours Acta Sanctorum, June vol. I, pp. 64–70., has recently been reprinted more correctly in the Analecta Bollandiana [Vol. XVI, pp. 129–39. Variant readings from a London codex are brought forward in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. XXV, pp. 499–502.]. Since this source is by far the best and the richest, it renders the Syriac translation almost useless. And therefore we abstain here from reporting it.

[8] and Dorotheus substituted for St. Auxentius. On the other hand, among the martyrs of this day St. Auxentius especially was to be mentioned, whose name, preserved in the shorter narrative, the Greek synaxaria changed into Dorotheus.

[9] The names of SS. Carterius and Eupsychius uncertain. There are also announced in the synaxarium at the fifth day of November SS. Carterius and Eupsychius, whom Urban reduced to the condition of eunuchs. Who found out their names, and from what document, I cannot divine. From the history of Eusebius it cannot even be conjectured whether only two or more underwent this punishment. Moreover, in the Patmos codex of the synaxarium, at the sixteenth day of November, there is read a notice τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων Εὐψυχίου, Νεάρχου, Καρτερίου καὶ τῆς συνοδίας αὐτῶν Synaxarium of the Church of Constantinople, p. 227., from whose company that pair was perhaps separated by some copyist Ibid., p. 966..

[10] The Martyrology of Jerome. The memories of all these martyrs are embraced, in a manner of its own, by the Hieronymian Martyrology: At Caesarea of Cappadocia. Of Domninus Acta Sanctorum, November vol. II, 1, p. [139.].

THE FULLER PASSION

Domninus, martyr in Palestine. (S.)

Companions, martyrs in Palestine.

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA.

From the discourse of Eusebius of Caesarea on the martyrs of Palestine (Cureton, op. cit., p. [ ]; Bedjan, pp. 239–42).

The confession of Domninus, in the fifth year of the persecution which took place in our time, in the city of Caesarea.

Urban was prefect of Palestine. It was the first day See above, p. 46, num. 2. of the month of Latter Tishri That is, the month of November.. He was renewing his evil deeds daily and every year was contriving new plans against us. How many cruelties he practised on this one day which we have mentioned, we shall narrate.

On this day, then, of which we have spoken, (they brought) a certain man who had passed his whole life praiseworthily, and knew excellently the learning of medicine See above, p. 46.. He was a young man, tall of stature and handsome; and conspicuous for holiness of life, integrity of mind and chastity. Domninus was his name; and among all our contemporaries he was the best known of the martyrs. Before he was consummated by martyrdom, they had tortured him in the copper mines, and on account of the perseverance of his confession (Urban) ordered him to be punished with fire.

he condemns others to other punishments; When that judge, prudent in evil, had disposed of this martyr — for those who glory in their more powerful wickedness you would by no right call prudent — three young men, remarkable for stature of body and comely, whose minds were adorned with a most constant piety towards God, were, (brought before him) by chance, consigned to the circus games for the amusement of the people. These being sent off, he destined a renowned and holy old man [That his name was Auxentius we have learned from the Greek copies. See num. 8, pp. 48 and 51.] to be devoured by beasts. Then the raging man turned from this old man and betook himself to others; whom, their virile parts being cut off, he reduced to the condition of eunuchs. he relegates St. Silvanus with his companions to the mines; Then, dismissing these too, he turned to the companions of Silvanus That is, Silvanus and his companions (τοὺς ἀμφὶ Σιλβανόν)., who afterwards came to be a martyr of God, and condemned them to the mines of Phaeno [Eusebius: Φινών, σταθμὸς τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ ἐπὶ τῆς ἐρήμου· ἦν δὲ καὶ πόλις ἡγεμόνων Ἐδώμ. Αὕτη δὲ ἐστὶ Φαινὼν ἔνθα τὰ μέταλλα τοῦ χαλκοῦ μεταξὺ κειμένη Πέτρας πόλεως καὶ Ζωόρων. Jerome: Fenon, a camp of the children of Israel in the desert. It was once a city of the princes of Edom, now a little village in the desert where copper mines are dug by the punishment of the condemned, between the city of Petra and Zoara, of which we have also spoken above. E. Klostermann, Eusebius Werke, III, 1: Das Onomastikon der biblischen Ortsnamen (Leipzig, 1904), pp. 168, 169. That Phaeno, which in the Hebrew name was called Punon or Pinon, was situated in the place where now stands Kharbet Fenan () or the Ruins of Phaeno, in Idumaea between the village of Thana and the old castle of Montréal (Shobak), Fr. Lagrange, O.P., has recently discovered. See M. J. Lagrange, Phounon (Num. XXXIII, 42), Revue biblique, vol. VII (1898), pp. 112–15. On Phaeno and the martyrs who suffered there S. Vailhé has also written, Les martyrs de Phounon, Échos d'Orient, vol. II (1899), pp. 66–70.].

Again he withdrew from these and sought others whom he disfigured with tortures. Nor did his most wicked fury rest among men, but he threatened punishments to the female sex also, and handed over three virgins to debauchees, that they might make sport of their bodies. Others too he cast into prison. And all these things which we have written that raging judge accomplished in one hour.

And after the things which we have written had been completed, Pamphilus too — a name most dear to me — martyr of the God of heaven, who was holy in every respect and adorned with every praise, was proved in the contest of his confession. He was the most celebrated of all the martyrs of our age, inasmuch as his whole life had flowed by in philosophy and in the study of learning both divine and human. Urban first tested the prudence of this man, conspicuous for every praise, with questions and answers, and at length wished to compel him by threats to sacrifice to lifeless images. But when it was ascertained by him that he was not moved by words, and he saw that his threats were held of no account by him, he used savage tortures against him and ordered his sides to be cruelly torn. Nor could he harm him, as he had hoped. Then the unjust judge resolved to do violence to the unconquered martyr in this way, that he should (cast him into prison) together with those captive confessors of whom we have just written. But as for this powerless judge, what reward or what punishment he was to obtain for all the evil deeds which he practised against the confessors of God, it is easy to find out from what we shall now write.

For shortly and suddenly, with no long delay interposed, on account of these shameful deeds, overwhelmed by the just judgement of God, he paid bitter and heavy penalties. For he who sat lofty and exalted on the tribunal and gloried in the crowd of attendants, who stood above the whole people of Palestine, in one night (by this judgement) was stripped of all his splendour and all his honours, and reduced as it were to solitude. And in this very city of ours, Caesarea, in which he had committed all the crimes that have been described above, by the sentence of Maximin, a man of equal perversity with him, he was handed over to an evil death. Insults first and reproaches worse than any death were heaped upon him, so that womanly scoldings, abuse and outcries were poured from every mouth into his ears before he was killed It is wonderful how much these things depart from the Greek narrative.. Whence we can understand that this foretaste was given him in advance of the divine vengeance which had been prepared for him at the last on account of his savagery and cruelty towards the servants of God.

Eusebius will narrate it more fully in its place. These things we have narrated hastily, as to the faithful, some of whom have been preserved from those times until now. In this narrative we have omitted to report the many torments which were applied to him, so as to describe these things precisely and briefly as a testimony to those who will come after us. And there will be a time when the end and destruction of the perverse

men who insulted our race we shall relate in our books.

THE SHORTER PASSION

Greek text only in the Acta; the English here is translated from the Greek.

Domninus, martyr in Palestine. (S.)

Companions, martyrs in Palestine.

Eusebius, On the martyrs of Palestine, book VII, 3–8 (Dindorf, op. cit., pp. 396–98).

On the same day St. Silvanus and his companions were condemned to the mines, Ἐπὶ τούτοις Δίου μηνὸς πέμπτῃ κατὰ δὲ Ῥωμαίους νώναις νοεμβρίαις, ἐπὶ τῆς αὐτῆς πόλεως τοὺς ἀμφὶ Σιλβανόν, ἔτι δὴ τότε ὄντα πρεσβύτερον ὁμολογήσαντα, ὃν οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν ὕστηρον ἐπισκοπῇ τιμηθῆναί τε καὶ μαρτυρίῳ συνέβη τελειωθῆναι, γενναιοτάτην ἔνστασιν τὴν ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας ἐπιδειξαμένους τοῖς εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ χαλκοῦ μέταλλον πόνοις ὁ αὐτὸς ἐγκρίνει, καυτῆρσι πρότερον τῶν ποδῶν τὰς ἀγκύλας αὐτοῖς ἀχρειωθῆναι προστάξας.

After these things, on the fifth of the month Dios, that is, according to the Romans, on the nones of November, in the same city, the same man consigns to the labours in the same copper mine the companions of Silvanus, who was still at that time a priest and had made his confession, whom it befell not long afterwards both to be honoured with the episcopate and to be perfected by martyrdom, they having displayed a most noble resistance on behalf of piety; having first ordered the joints of their feet to be disabled with cauteries.

4. Ἅμα δὲ τῇ κατὰ τούτων ἀποφάσει ἄνδρα μυρίαις ἄλλαις ὁμολογίαις διαπρέψαντα, St. Domninus burned, Δομνῖνος ἦν οὗτος, ὁ διὰ περιττὴν ἐλευθερίαν τοῖς κατὰ Παλαιστίνην ἅπασι γνωριμώτατος, τῇ διὰ πυρὸς ἐκδίδωσι κολάσει· μεθ᾽ ὅν ὁ αὐτὸς δικαστής, δεινὸς ἐπινοητής τις ὢν κακίας καὶ τῶν κατὰ τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ διδασκαλίας ἐπιχειρημάτων καινουργός, others destined for the circus, τὰς μηδ᾽ ἀκουσθείσας πώποτε κατὰ τῶν θεοσεβῶν ἐπενόει τιμωρίας, καὶ τρεῖς μὲν εἰς τὸ μονομαχεῖν ἐπὶ πυγμῇ καταδικάζει, Αὐξέντιον δέ, St. Auxentius handed over to the beasts, σεμνὸν καὶ ἱερὸν πρεσβύτην, θηρίοις βορὰν παραδίδωσιν, ἄλλους δ᾽ αὖ πάλιν τελείων ἀνδρῶν φέροντας ἡλικίαν εἰς εὐνούχους ἐκτεμὼν τοῖς αὐτοῖς κατακρίνει μετάλλοις, others castrated, ἑτέρους δ᾽ αὖ πάλιν, μετὰ χαλεπὰς βασάνους δεσμωτηρίῳ καθείργνυσιν· ἐν οἷς καὶ ὁ πάντων ἐμοὶ γοῦν ποθεινότατος ἑταίρων Πάμφιλος ἦν, St. Pamphilus examined in various ways τῶν καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς μαρτύρων ἀνὴρ πάσης ἕνεκεν ἀρετῆς ἐπιδοξότατος.

4. And together with the sentence against these, a man who had been distinguished by countless other confessions, — this was Domninus, who on account of his abundant freedom of speech was very well known to all in Palestine, — he hands over to the punishment by fire; after whom the same judge, being a terrible deviser of wickedness and an innovator of attempts against the teaching of Christ, devised punishments never even heard of against the worshippers of God, and condemns three to fight in single combat at boxing, while Auxentius, a venerable and holy old man, he gives as food to the beasts; and others again, who bore the age of full-grown men, having made them eunuchs, he condemns to the same mines; and others again, after grievous tortures, he shuts up in prison; among whom was also Pamphilus, of all my companions to me at least the most dearly loved, a man of the martyrs of our time most glorious on account of every virtue.

5. Τούτου τὴν ἐν ῥητορικοῖς λόγοις φιλοσόφοις τε μαθήμασιν ἀπόπειραν πρότερον ὁ Ὀυρβανὸς λαβών, εἰθ᾽ ὕστερον θύειν καταναγκάσας, ὡς ἀνανεύοντα καὶ μηδ᾽ ὅλως ἐν λόγῳ τὰς ἀπειλὰς ἑώρα τιθέμενον, τὸ πανύστατον ἀγριάνας, σφοδροτέραις αὐτὸν αἰκίζεσθαι προστάττει βασάνοις. and thrust into prison. 6. Καὶ δὴ ταῖς κατὰ τῶν πλευρῶν αὐτοῦ δι᾽ ἐπιμόνων καὶ φιλονείκων ξυστήρων ὁ θηριωδέστατος μονονουχὶ ἐμφορηθείς, αἰσχύνην γε μὴν ἐπὶ πᾶσι καταχεάμενος, τοῖς ἐν τῷ δεσμοτηρίῳ καὶ αὐτὸν ὁμολογηταῖς καταλέγει. 7. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῇ κατὰ τῶν ἁγίων ὠμότητι ὁποίας ἀμοιβῆς παρὰ τῇ θείᾳ δίκῃ τεύξεται, τοσαῦτα κατὰ τῶν Χριστοῦ μαρτύρων ἐμπαροινήσας, διαγνῶναι ῥᾴδιον ἐκ τῶν τῇδε προοιμίων δι᾽ ὧν εὐθὺς καὶ οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν τοῖς κατὰ τοῦ Παμφίλου τετολμημένοις, The sudden and terrible end of Urban the judge. αὐτὸν ἔτι τῆς ἡγεμονίας ἐχόμενον ἡ θεία μετῆλθεν δίκη, ἀθρόως οὕτως τὸν χθὲς ἄνω που ἐφ᾽ ὑψηλοῦ βήματος δικάζοντα καὶ πρὸς τοῦ στρατιωτικοῦ δορυφορούμενον στίφους, ὅλου τε τοῦ Παλαιστινῶν ἔθνους ἐπάρχοντα, ὁμοδίαιτόν τε οἷα φίλτατον καὶ ὁμοτράπεζον αὐτῷ τῷ τυράννῳ καθεστῶτα, διὰ μιᾶς γυμνώσασα νυκτὸς καὶ τῶν τοσούτων ἀξιωμάτων ἔρημον καταστήσασα, ἀτιμίαν τε καὶ αἰσχύνην ἐπὶ τῶν πρότερον ὡσὰν ἄρχοντα αὐτὸν τεθηπότων καταχέασα, δειλόν τε καὶ ἄνανδρον, γυναικώδεις τε προιέμενον φωνὰς καὶ ἱκεσίας ὅλῳ τῷ ἔθνει, οὗ δὴ καὶ ἦρχεν, ἐπιδείξασα, αὐτόν τε τὸν Μαξιμῖνον, ἐφ᾽ ᾧ τὸ πρὶν γαυριῶν ἐφρυάττετο, ὡσὰν διαφερόντως αὐτὸν τῶν δρωμένων αὐτῷ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς ἕνεκα στέργοντι, δικαστὴν ἀπηνῆ καὶ ὠμότατον ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς Καισαρείας καταστήσασα, ὡς καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ θανάτῳ κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ ψῆφον ἐξενεγκεῖν, μετὰ πολλὴν τὴν ἐφ᾽ οἷς ἐξηλέγχετο ἀτοπήμασιν αἰσχύνην. 8. Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ὁδοῦ πάρεργον ἡμῖν εἰρήσθω· γένοιτο δ᾽ ἂν προσήκων καιρός, ἐν ᾧ τῶν δυσσεβῶν, οἳ μάλιστα καθ᾽ ἡμῶν ἐστρατεύσαντο, αὐτοῦ τε τοῦ Μαξιμίνου καὶ τῶν ἀμφ᾽ αὐτὸν τὰ τέλη καὶ τῶν βίων τὰς καταστροφὰς ὁ λόγος ἡμῖν ἐπὶ σχολῆς περιλήψεται.

5. Urban, having first taken trial of him in rhetorical discourses and philosophical studies, then afterwards trying to compel him to sacrifice, when he saw him refusing and not taking the threats into account at all, at last, grown savage, orders him to be tormented with more violent tortures. 6. And indeed, the most bestial man having all but glutted himself with the tortures against his sides through persistent and contentious scrapers, but having in all this poured shame upon himself, he enrols him too among the confessors in the prison. 7. And what recompense he will obtain at the hands of divine justice for his cruelty against the saints, having played the drunkard in such outrages against the martyrs of Christ, it is easy to discern from the preludes here, through which at once and not long after the deeds dared against Pamphilus divine justice overtook him while he still held the governorship, thus all at once, in a single night, stripping the man who yesterday was judging somewhere on high on a lofty tribunal, guarded by a troop of soldiers, and governing the whole nation of the Palestinians, and established as the companion in life and table-fellow, as a dearest friend, of the tyrant himself, and leaving him bereft of so many dignities; pouring dishonour and shame upon him before those who formerly gaped at him as a ruler; showing him cowardly and unmanly, uttering womanish cries and supplications to the whole nation over which he had ruled; and setting up as a harsh and most cruel judge against him at Caesarea itself Maximin himself, in whom he formerly exulted and gave himself airs, as one who loved him especially on account of the deeds done by him against us; so that he even brought forth the sentence of death against him, after much shame for the outrages of which he was convicted. 8. But let this be said by us as a by-the-way; there may come a fitting time in which our discourse will comprehend at leisure the ends and the overthrows of the lives of the impious who campaigned most against us, of Maximin himself and those about him.