Theodota and Socrates

ON SS. THEODOTA AND SOCRATES, MARTYRS AT NICAEA IN BITHYNIA,

ABOUT THE YEAR 230.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Theodota, virgin and martyr at Nicaea in Bithynia. (S.)

Socrates, presbyter and martyr at Ancyra in Galatia. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ sole. The cult of the holy martyrs at Constantinople. The churches and monasteries of SS. George, Theodota and Mamas. The credibility of the Passion of these martyrs. Martyrs in the time of Alexander Severus.

Whoever casts his eyes on a map or plan of Constantinople [The site of the Xylocircus at Constantinople; the monastery of St. George and the church of St. Theodota.] must see that the form of this city comes nearest to the geometrical figure called a sector. The shore of the Propontis stands in the place of one radius; the bay of the sea that divides Constantinople to the north from the suburb of Galata, and which bears the name of the Golden Horn or Chrysokeras, is the other radius; while the arc of the circle is represented by the wall, drawn from the Propontis as far as the Golden Horn and girding the city toward the Caurus or summer West. Now near the place where this wall reaches the Golden Horn, and not far from the palace and monastery of Blachernae, there was formerly a gate designated by several names, one of which was the gate of the Xylocircus. This name was given to it because by that way one went to the Xylocircus, situated a little further to the north, that is, opposite the bridge of the emperor Leo built over the bay of Chrysokeras; and the Xylocircus was distant about five hundred paces from Blachernae, and communicated its name, which was more often written Xerocercus, to the neighbourhood. At the beginning of the sixth century the monastery of St. George most certainly existed there, since Eugenius, abbot of the monastery of the holy and eminent martyr George in the Xerocercus, ἀββας μονης του ἁγιου μεγαλομαρτυρος Γεοργιου ἐν τῃ Ξηροκερκῳ, subscribed the petition of the monks to the synod under Pope Hormisdas; and in the middle of the following century it still endured, inasmuch as its abbot Cyriacus took part in the council of Constantinople held under the patriarch Menas [Du Cange, Constantinopolis christiana, book IV, § VI, no. 46, page 85, Venetian Byzantine edition.]. I should suppose that this monastery had already ceased by the middle of the eleventh century: at least in later times I find no further record of it. That the Xylocircus was part of the Hebdomon, Du Cange has well demonstrated [De Hebdomo Constantinopolitano disquisitio topographica, no. 12, page 16, Venetian edition.]; but whether the said Xylocircus was ever situated in the Field of the Hebdomon, which was more or less the Campus Martius of Constantinople, is wholly unknown to me. However that may be, in the Hebdomon Field there was a church which, as Du Cange reports from Procopius, book 1 of the De Aedificiis, chapter 4, Justinian I had built under the title of St. Theodota. But this is not our martyr; she was instead a Nicaean by nation, contemporary with St. Anastasia the martyr, and celebrated in the Menaea on the 29th of July [Cf. Du Cange, Constantinopolis christiana, book IV, § VII, no. 31; De Hebdomo Constantinopolitano, no. 19.].

[2] [The holy martyrs were venerated not in these, but in the church of the monastery of St. Mamas.] Therefore one should think neither of the monastery and church of St. George in the Xylocircus, nor of St. Theodota in the Hebdomon Field, when on this day in the Menology of Sirmond, after the common praise of SS. Theodota and Socrates, these words occur: Τελειται δε ἀγιων συναξις ἐν τῃ ξυλοκιρκῳ; their festival is kept in the Xylocircus; for that name was proper to the suburban monastery of St. Mamas. The anonymous investigator of the antiquities of Constantinople edited by Banduri, when he is about to treat of this monastery, prefixes this title: On the monastery of Xylocercus or St. Mamas; Περι της μονης τα Ξυλοκερκου, ὁ ἁγιος Μαμας;; and then begins thus Banduri, Imperium Orientale, volume I, part III, page 54, Paris edition of 1721.: Ἡ δη μονη Ξυλοκερκος, ὁ ἁγιος Μαμας, παρα της ἀδελφης Μαυρικιου ἐκτισθη;; The monastery of Xylocircus or of St. Mamas was founded by the sister of Maurice. So that there can be no doubt that this is the monastery indicated in the Sirmond Menology. In the commentary on St. Mamas our predecessor John Pinius spoke at length of this monastery Acta Sanctorum, volume III of August, page 431., from which I shall transfer a few things here. Leo I, surnamed Macelas, who reigned from the year 457 to 475, seems to have been the first to build a church of St. Mamas at Constantinople. A full century later, while Maurice held the reins of government (which he did from the year 582 until the year 602, in which he was killed by Phocas together with his sons), his sister added a monastery in the same place, in which she had her brother and his children buried; about which time the eunuch Pharasmanes seems to have restored the church. At the beginning virgins inhabited this monastery; whether men did also, so that it was a double monastery, is uncertain; but later certainly men lived there, one of whom has a famous name among the Symeons: this is Symeon the Younger, called the Theologian, in the time of the emperor Alexius Comnenus, father of the Hesychasts of Thessalonica or Palamites; on him Leo Allatius De Symeonum scriptis diatriba, pages 72, 143, 151, 161, 168, 172 and following., Fabricius Bibliotheca graeca, volume X, pages 323 and 324., Combefis Auctarium novissimum, volume II, page 119 and following., Morcelli Calendarium Constantinopolitanum, volume I, page 126. and others will give more. There also survives at Vienna and at Moscow a Life of this man, by Nicetas Stethatus, with this title: Του ἐν ἁγιοις πατρος ἡμων Συμεων του νεου, θεολογου πρεσβυτερου και ἡγεμονου της μονης του ἁγιου Μαμαντος της Ξηροκερκου. The Life of our blessed father Symeon the new theologian, presbyter and hegumen of the monastery of St. Mamas in the Xerocercus. The monastery of the Xylocircus or of St. Mamas still endured in the middle of the fourteenth century, as can be gathered here and there from the histories of John Cantacuzenus; yet it must have been destroyed before Constantinople was taken by storm in the fifteenth century: for it stood outside the walls, and indeed in that very part at which, in the drawing of Constantinople made in the year 1422 by Christopher de Bondelmontibus, these words are read See this map in Banduri, Imperium Orientale, after page 348, Venetian edition.: Here the Turks always attack, because the place is weaker.

[3] [The synaxarium on the holy martyrs in the Basilian Menology and in the Menaea at the 21st and 23rd of October;] Now how it came about that SS. Theodota and Socrates were venerated with singular devotion in the Xylocircus or church of St. Mamas wholly escapes me: I suspect that the relics of those heavenly citizens were carried there, chiefly because in ancient times she was venerated not on the 17th of September, on which St. Theodota gave her life for Christ, but only on the 23rd of October. For in the Menology of Basil Porphyrogenitus, who governed the eastern empire from the year 976 to 1025, these words are read at this latter day Menologium Graecorum, volume I, page 136.: Saint Theodota, born of noble parents in the Pontic region, lived under the emperor Alexander. While she was leading a quiet life in the monastery to which she had withdrawn, she was recognized, and was seized by the governor for the sake of Christ. Raised on the rack once and again she is scraped, and is thrown into a burning furnace; but being rescued from it by the kindness of Christ, she is led by the governor toward Byzantium: soon she came to Ancyra; where, while the gentiles were venerating demons with a public festival and worshipping idols , Socrates the presbyter, a pious man and confessor of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the ardour of his zeal overturned the altar, and for that reason, his head being cut off, gave up his spirit. But Saint Theodota, being ordered to sacrifice to the idols and refusing to do what was commanded, was cast into a frying pan of boiling oil; but when by God's favour she had come out of it unharmed , she too ended her life by the sword. Closest to this narrative, or rather the same with it, is the brief history of those martyrs which is read in the Menaea, both printed and manuscript. Of the printed I pronounce according to the Venetian edition of the year 1843 and the version of Rader, likewise prepared from the printed Menaea; and of the manuscript according to the Ambrosian, Chiffletian and Sirmondian exemplars, so often cited by our predecessors. I have not therefore thought it worth the labour to transfer this narrative here, since it most certainly differs from the Basilian Menology only so far as more or less corrupt copies differ from a better exemplar. The principal variants, moreover, I have noted in the margin, so that it might the more appear that the reading which the Greeks recite even now on the 23rd, or rather now on the 21st of October, is originally the same as that which is read in the Basilian Menology.

[4] [It was taken from an older Passion, with the omission of St. Theodota's contest, which took place at Nicaea in Bithynia.] This synaxarium, then, is read in all the menologies and synaxaria, printed as well as manuscript, which at least I have been able to see, on the 21st or 23rd of October; specifically, in the manuscript books and the Basilian Menology on the 23rd of October, and in the printed and therefore more recent Menaea (to which group the Menology of Sirleto belongs) on the 21st of October; and since in these alone, but not in those, another festival with another and fuller synaxarium is indicated at the 17th of September, no doubt can exist

that the feast of SS. Theodota and Socrates was originally kept at Constantinople on the 23rd of October; and since this day is a whole month distant from the 17th of September, the day honoured by the death of the holy martyrs, and since the festival which was kept on that day was celebrated with more solemnity in the one suburban church of St. Mamas, everyone sees how natural it is to conjecture that some relics of SS. Theodota and Socrates were once received there on this day. But this is not the only thing to be observed concerning the Basilian synaxarium. In it, that is to say, the martyrdom of SS. Theodota and Socrates is narrated as if both had been beheaded at Ancyra; but in the Passion, which we shall publish below and of which an epitome exists in the printed Menaea at the 17th of September, Socrates indeed is said to have been slain at Ancyra, whereas Theodota was led from there to Nicaea in Bithynia and was beheaded there. From this difference arises the question where in the end St. Theodota underwent martyrdom; then, which history is the older, that of the Basilian Menology or that of the fuller Passion; and if the latter is to be held the more recent, whether all those things which St. Theodota is said to have spoken and done at Nicaea are so many fabrications. But if anyone has before his eyes the method by which the Basilian Menology was compiled, the fount and origin of the synaxaria on SS. Theodota and Socrates that are written or printed in the Menaea at the 21st or 23rd of October; if anyone, I say, reflects that nearly that whole book contains nothing other than summaries of longer Passions, and that these have been so made that nearly all have the same length; he cannot but think that the writer, hastening too much toward the end, omitted St. Theodota's journey to Nicaea, and after indicating the death of St. Socrates at once narrated the bloody death of his companion. I for my part cannot doubt that this is so, chiefly because at the end of that longer Passion the burial of St. Theodota is recorded, arranged by Sophronius, bishop of Nicaea, in a district of the city. From which it follows that nothing prevents that Passion from being older than the Basilian Menology, that is, than the beginning of the eleventh century; indeed, it seems certain that the synaxarium of that Menology on our martyrs was excerpted from that very Passion.

[5] The author of this Passion was not Simeon Metaphrastes. But who was the writer of this Passion, and what is its authority? I find written in the hand of Rosweyde on the translation which we shall give, that the author of the Greek Passion is Simeon Metaphrastes. But that is hardly credible: for the style is altogether different; next, this composition is not listed by Allatius among the Lives and Passions which were really written by Metaphrastes De Simeonum scriptis diatriba, page 124 and following.; and thirdly and finally, the writings of Metaphrastes are by no means rare, but are found in many places, whereas the Passion of SS. Theodota and Socrates exists in so few libraries that I have nowhere met it in the catalogues. And the copy which Rosweyde had translated he had received from Paris, from the Medici manuscript of the king of France, as he noted in the same place: and where in the world that codex has now gone is wholly uncertain to me; assuredly I do not find this Passion noted in the Parisian catalogues. Nor at Brussels does there exist a Greek exemplar taken from the Parisian; nor do our predecessors seem to have had it after Rosweyde's death, since no mention is made of it in their catalogues. Without doubt, however, exemplars must have survived in Greece or at Constantinople when the Menaea were printed: for what is read in them at the 17th of September is partly taken word for word, partly abridged, from this very Passion.

[6] The difficulties that it contains, It scarcely seems open to doubt, then, that the Passion of SS. Theodota and Socrates was ascribed to Simeon Metaphrastes in keeping with that common opinion by which any Greek acts of Saints lacking the title of an author are said to be his work: on which matter Allatius may be consulted Ibid., pages 79 and 80.. But from this the authority of this writing neither grows nor shrinks. And why should I deny that I have been most anxious about it, and inclined now to one side, now to the other? Yet after I had diligently examined, once and again, everything that seemed to tell for or against it, I at length determined with myself that there was no reason for its being counted among the apocryphal writings, and that there were many things that urge that it is genuine. There seem to be four chief difficulties in this Passion: of which the first is that in it the emperor Alexander is said to be the author of the impious decree and to have commanded idols to be worshipped by all; the second, that St. Theodota was preserved from every kind of torment by nearly continuous miracles; the third, that the holy virgin rather often uses passages of Sacred Scripture in the course of speaking; and the fourth and last, that her speeches are rather long. But, to begin with these last and more difficult points, in the speeches of St. Theodota a twofold kind must be distinguished, the one of answers, the other of prayers to God; the former is generally brief and similar to the answers that occur in the governors' Acts; the latter has nothing that seems unusual or unseasonable. No more can the passages of Sacred Scripture that St. Theodota recites stand in the way: for these are nearly all to a one drawn from the book of Psalms, which everyone knows that many of the faithful in the beginning of the Church held in memory and sang at home and in the country. More serious is what can be objected concerning the continuous miracles. But see how barely and simply these things are narrated; further, there is none that is not read in other Passions, even of the best stamp: as we shall explain more fully in the annotations.

[7] [and the chief of which is the decree of persecution ascribed to Alexander Severus,] Finally, the fact that a decree of persecution is attributed to the emperor Alexander Severus ought not to prevent us either from holding this Passion genuine. In truth that prince, born of Mammaea, a Christian woman Lampridius, Alexander Severus, chapter 15., when he had come as a boy to the empire, did everything with his mother, so that she too seemed to rule, and to the end of his life he used the counsels of his excellent mother Ibid., chapter 66.; he often cried out what he had heard from certain … Christians and retained…: "What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to another Ibid., chapter 51.;" when the Christians had occupied a certain place (namely a tavern for hire) which had been public, and had raised there the church of Blessed Mary across the Tiber, and the cook-shop keepers maintained in opposition that it was owed to them, he replied by rescript that it was better that God should be worshipped there in any manner whatever than that it should be given over to cook-shop keepers Ibid., chapter 49.; if he had not lain with his wife, he would perform a divine service daily in the morning hours in his lararium, in which he had both deified princes, but only the best and chosen ones, and holier souls, among whom were both Apollonius and, as a writer of his own times says, Christ, Abraham and Orpheus and others of this kind, as well as images of his ancestors Ibid., chapter 29.; he wished to build a temple to Christ and to receive him among the Gods; … but he was prevented by those who, consulting the sacred rites, had found that all would become Christians if this should come about as he wished, and that the other temples would have to be abandoned Ibid., chapter 43.; so it was far from Alexander to hold the Christians in hatred, or that he who studied to be mild, fair and courteous toward all should have been violent and cruel toward them; on the contrary, he valued them greatly and held it certain that their priests were all the best of men; to the point that when governors were to be given to provinces, and prefects to be appointed and receivers to be ordained, he himself followed the practices by which the Christians set such good masters over themselves Ibid., chapter 45.. Therefore, although he did not abolish the former decrees by which the Christians were proscribed, yet he did not wish their force and authority to be heavy; in a word, he suffered Christians to exist Ibid., chapter 22.; indeed, there were even many of the faithful and Christians in his household of servants Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book VI, chapter 21..

[8] [They do not harm its authority; for Ulpian, the guardian of the youthful Alexander, gathered together all the earlier decrees.] But in very truth he held in great honour Paul and Ulpian, whom some say were made prefects by Heliogabalus, others by himself. For Ulpian too is said to have been both counsellor of Alexander and master of the bureau; both of whom, however, are reported to have been assessors of Papinian. So says Aelius Lampridius Alexander Severus, chapter 26.: who in many other places Ibid., chapters 15, 31, 67, 68 and others. shows that the authority of Ulpian with Alexander was supreme, so that he held him as his guardian, at first with his mother resisting, afterward with her giving thanks Ibid., chapter 51.; and that, on the testimony of Dio Cassius Roman History, book LXXX, at the beginning., he not only gave him the praetorian prefecture, but also entrusted to him the other matters that pertain to the administration of the empire. For at the beginning Alexander, since he took up the empire in the fourteenth year of his age, could not govern the commonwealth himself. But hear now how Ulpian, a most tenacious keeper of the former laws, used this power of his against the Christians. Moreover, says Lactantius Divine Institutes, book V on justice, chapter 11., the most wicked murderers (for Ulpian was held guilty of many, of the slaughter of Chrestus and Flavian) established impious laws against the pious. For both sacrilegious constitutions and unjust disputations of jurists are read. Domitius, in the seventh book On the Office of the Proconsul, collected the wicked rescripts of the princes, in order to teach by what penalties those ought to be afflicted who professed themselves worshippers of God. This part of that book is lost, or rather was destroyed, when the Christian religion conquered together with Constantine; but when it came into the hands of the governors of the provinces, who will wonder that there were some of them who determined to execute those wicked rescripts in the name of the youthful emperor? For from the fact that under the emperor Alexander harsh action was not taken against the Christians through all the provinces, it by no means follows that they were spared everywhere. The governors were chiefly led by their own temper: For having received power, says Lactantius, speaking generally of times past, each raged according to his own character. Some through excessive timidity dared more than was commanded; others through their own hatred of the just; certain ones through a natural savagery of mind; some in order to please, and by this service to pave for themselves the way to higher things. Some were headlong in killing, like one in Phrygia, who burned up a whole people together with their very meeting-house. And perhaps that renewal of the old decrees was the chief reason why Mammaea at first bore with Ulpian reluctantly. On that head, therefore, the Passion of SS. Theodota and Socrates would be assailed in vain.

[9] Many things urge that this Passion is genuine and good. Now if we inquire into what in it commends it and urges that it is genuine, there comes first to be considered the manner of questioning and answering, which is altogether the same as that which in the genuine

strikes the eye in the Acts of all martyrs; next, nowhere do you find general statements, but everything is accurately specified, men, places and other things of the kind; third, there is nothing that does not agree with the customs and events of that age: which is the sure rock of nearly all fabulists; fourth, there is a certain passage in it such as you will nowhere detect in fabulous Passions; here it is: The virgin came forth into the midst, and she appeared such that the prefect supposed she had been fed with choicer foods on the journey. Having therefore summoned the keeper of the records to him he says: Tell me, pray: what foods has Theodota used? Then the other: Lord, Tatian, the assistant of the records, should answer this. Then the prefect: Let Tatian be here at once. Tatian, being present, was asked in this manner: Tell us what kind of foods the virgin took? Tatian says: Lord, when she was bound with chains on the journey, etc. But let the reader rather judge for himself, not led by preconceived opinions, but having before his eyes the best Acts of the martyrs, which even the more severe critics list among good historical monuments. We shall add more in the annotations to the Acts. At the end of this commentary, finally, I shall append the verses which are inscribed in the Menaea of the Greeks. At the 17th of September, on which day the memory of St. Theodota alone is celebrated, you have these:

Την Θεοδοτην προς ξυρος τεθηγμενην, * Ποιει προθυμον ἡ Θεοσδοτος χαρις.

That is, in Latin: Divine grace makes Theodota ready (to receive) the sharp sword; and at the 21st of October, on which St. Socrates is venerated together with her:

Την Θεοδοτην ἐκ ξυρους τετμημενην Θεῳ δοτην ἐγνωμεν ἁγνην θυσιαν. Ὁ Σωκρατης ἐσπευδεν ὀφθηναι, Λόγε, Τετμημενος σοι Σωκρατης στεφοκρατης.

We know that Theodota, slain by the sword, was given or made a pure victim to God. O Christ, Word of God, Socrates hastened to appear before you as Socrates stephocrates, that is, crowned.

* The printed Menaea and Rader add "of Cappadocia"; "by Simplicius" the manuscript.

* The printed Menaea omit δευτερον or ἐκ δευτερου.

* The manuscript has θυοντων only.

* The printed Menaea and Rader omit "into a frying pan … had come out."

* τεθηγμενον

THE CONTEST OR MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY, GLORIOUS AND VICTORIOUSLY RENOWNED MARTYR THEODOTA,

From the Greek Medici manuscript of the king of France, translated by William Gratius of Bruges, presbyter of the Society of Jesus.

Theodota, virgin and martyr at Nicaea in Bithynia. (S.)

Socrates, presbyter and martyr at Ancyra in Galatia. (S.)

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

Simplicius, sent by Alexander Severus to press the worship of the gods, Alexander in the time of his reign, the author of an impious doctrine, ordered the servants of God to worship idols of empty name, which obtain the mere appellation of gods ^b. He had been accustomed to take with him certain magi, who urged him to persecute the true mystery of the Christian faith ^c. He established such a decree through the whole world, that those who refused to overturn vain mysteries of this kind should be subject to a certain Simplicius, an enemy of all truth, to whom he had given every licence of command ^d. To him was also granted the absolute right of putting to death those who refused to show honour to the idols. Simplicius accordingly, setting out from the East, travelled through the whole world in the worship of the idols. He offered sacrifice chiefly to Apollo, visiting dire punishments on the Christians. Entering Cappadocia ^e, he ordered that same god to be worshipped and incense to be burned to him. There was at that time in that place a numerous practice of Christians.

[2] He meets in Cappadocia St. Theodota the virgin, boldly professing the faith. Among the others there was outstanding a certain Theodota from the Pontic region and a leading matron, Anicia by name; abounding in great means, she was held in veneration by others, because she had already dedicated herself to God ^f. When most impure sacrifices were being offered to Apollo, Simplicius compelled the Christians from every side to be present. Theodota, openly showing herself and appearing publicly for the worship and knowledge of the one God, disclosed herself first to Simplicius, saying: Is there something you require, prefect? Simplicius says: That the decree of the emperor be carried out without delay. Theodota says: Of what emperor? or what decree? Again Simplicius: Of the emperor Alexander, who has subjugated the world to himself, whose rule is venerable, and [who] decreed that victims be offered everywhere to the gods and, in consequence ^g, willed that sacrifice be made to Apollo. Theodota says: See that you are not deluded, Simplicius. For the almighty God, who created the universal world, dwells in the heavens, and forbade idols and false gods to be made. Learn diligently that the God of the Christians has said through the prophet: Let the gods who did not make heaven and earth perish! Again another prophet says: The gods of the nations are demons. How then shall a Christian, receiving commandments in no way false to be kept and entering upon an eternal inheritance by the testament of Christ, turn his back? and falling away from the incorruptible, obtain a corruptible life, incurring the punishments of eternal death?

[3] [She was called Candida at Rome, with Acacius for her father, sprung from the Anician family, and she pants for martyrdom.] To this Simplicius the prefect said: Who are you, who dare to blurt out such rash things? Theodota says: What is first and greatest, I am a Christian, who desire to attain salvation through Christ. Second, I am a matron, with Acacius as my father. Third, I am at Rome Candida ^h of the Anecian family ⁱ. Simplicius says: You who are of such great dignity, take care that you do not urge many on to a foreign knowledge or science. Rather, in compliance with the emperor, sacrifice to the gods at once. Then Theodota: Speak consistently and I will bear with you. You forbid me to incite many to a foreign knowledge; and on the other hand you say: Sacrifice to Apollo. Recognize destruction from the very name, when you name Apollo ^k. If he himself has perished, then all who cling to him go with their souls lost. Then Simplicius: Take care, woman, that you do not get round us with womanish trifles, so that you do not incur a cruel death. Again Theodota: The stadium of Christ embraces not only men but also women, and Christ is the giver of the prizes; and he anoints not only men but also women against the devil, thinking it glorious for them to contend with the enemy for victory, so that being crowned they may say: Where, O death, is your sting? where, O hell, is your victory? Then Simplicius again: I will consume you with heavy punishments, unless you sacrifice. Then Theodota: Order me to become the heir of the fathers. For my father David set out in the testament: For I am ready for scourges, and I have not turned away my face from the reproach of those who spit. Wherefore I shall follow the inheritance of the fathers. Do with me what you will; you will see me shaken by no fear. For I have Christ, who does not cease to arm me against your father the devil.

[4] [Simplicius orders her to be hung up and her cheeks to be scraped; the martyr does not feel the torments, and bravely resists the exhortations of Simplicius.] Simplicius, angered, had various kinds of tortures brought into the midst and prepared, and presently said: By the gods, unless you sacrifice immediately, I will torture you without delay with all these torments, so that with them I may in a brief time consume your flesh. To which Theodota: All these things you have and offer from the inheritance of your father Satan; for you, who are the son of a perverse father, also work perverse things. Simplicius presently orders her to be hung up, and her cheeks to be scraped in her face ^l. She, hung up and scraped, said in a raised voice: Glory to you, O God, because through the impure Simplicius you have awakened in me a pure and eloquent understanding, and you have opened my mouth and I have drawn in the spirit. For I sat bound and unknown to all. But now, almighty God, by these scourges you have opened the mouth of my heart, and you have declared to all the grace of your divinity. While she, now scraped and in no way feeling the injury, was glorifying God, the ministers of the devil grew weary ^m. Then Simplicius orders her to be seized and questioned; and while she is being brought near, he says: Tell me, pray, Theodota, whether you have changed your mind. See, all the spectators together with me take it most indignantly that you are afflicted with these torments. For since you are noble, and venerable by your first lineage and your knowledge, recognize that you can[not] lightly brand yourself with a mark of infamy. For the best and greatest gods keep you, though scraped, yet safe, awaiting you for the sacrifice. Venerate and honour your family in all things, and do not allow the beauty of your body to be without glory, and as a prudent woman offer sacrifice to Apollo. Theodota says: O the iniquity of the thing! What verbal sophistries you bring forward to us, Simplicius! Surely your words are bitterer than wormwood. Your admonition is like a deadly snare, hiding death. Your face resembles a gentle and pliant lamb, but one secretly cursing. Far be it that you should be able with your deceitful counsels to overthrow my mind. The seal of Christ ⁿ has added sinews and strength to my soul, and has confirmed my thoughts, so that, having made profession of the intelligible divinity, I may be able to overcome the tricks and inventions of your torments.

[5] [She is most cruelly scourged, feeling no pain; and placed in the inner prison she is visited by an angel;] Simplicius says: Let her again, as before, be hung in the air and struck, until her entrails flow out ^o. Then she again: My God, who are almighty and the bestower of invisible treasures, who are the creator of the ages, who pass over every fault committed through ignorance by a soul serving you with a sincere heart, who forget all malice and do not remember sins, but without delay snatch from the mouth of the wolf those who hope in you, free me also from the butchery of the malignant demon, so that serving you I may fully perceive the help of your right hand. When these prayers had been duly poured out, the scourges penetrated to the inmost bones, yet such as brought no pain at all [p]. Then the prefect again had her cast into prison, where she began to sing in this manner: Remove from me the way of iniquity, and in your law have mercy on me. Again Simplicius orders that she, having been led away to the inner custody [q], be diligently kept there by his men, so that no one should by chance enter and teach her cunning words. The servants at this, struck with fear, for the space of three days closed to all the way of approaching her. After three days, the doors of the prison having opened of themselves, the guards, shaken with trembling, entered at a quick run and saw the virgin with a cheerful and full countenance, carrying writing-tablets [r] in her arms and at the same time saying: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready. I will sing and play in my glory. As they were about to ask why she stood thus, behold they suddenly catch sight of a young man bringing bread and water. Then at once, the doors being closed, they ran and reported to Simplicius the wonderful things they had seen in the prison [s].

[6] And, as she confesses before Simplicius, her wounds are healed. Simplicius, giving them no credit whatever, and thinking the matter should be set aside for that day, on the following day ordered her to be brought to him, and again to give a reason why she refused to sacrifice to the gods. She, coming out of prison and now unrecognized because of the soundness and wholeness of her body, thus spoke out: I have chosen the way of truth; I have not forgotten your judgments. And when Simplicius did not recognize her standing before the tribunal, he said: I entirely perceive that I have been altered or bewitched. Then to her: Who are you? To which she thus: Your thoughts grow dark and your mind is prepared for destruction. For if you were washed and purged by the truth, you would easily know that I am the same Theodota, who have obtained salvation through the mercy of Jesus Christ. Simplicius the prefect says: Who at last

taught you to bewitch us so, that we do not see the blows of the scourges [t]? To which Theodota: Hater of good, craftsman of depravity, enemy of the heavenly victory, do you not know that I bore your scourges as if in another's body? For it does not belong to a corruptible man to heal so quickly; but by the help of God, and the support of Christ, and finally by the operation of the Holy Spirit I have been cured. Wherefore begin again; for that is why I stand before you with a sound body, that you may strike me anew with scourges; so that, the body being exercised by pains, the soul, thereby the more aroused, may fly away to God and say: The snare is broken and I am set free. My help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

[7] Thrown into the flames, by which seventy soldiers are burned, On hearing this the prefect orders her to be cast forthwith into a burning furnace. Then she at once: I am ready; I in no way fear your threats; for Christ is my helper. When the furnace, furnished with fire, was now burning, she further said, singing to God: You, Lord, who are the God of all, who are both served in the heavens and glorified by the companies of the heavenly angels, who are worshipped through all the earth and known by those who keep your commandments in truth, direct your eyes downward from the heavens; and as you have taken pleasure in those who serve you worthily, and have freed them from every way of the devil, so may I also, lowly as I am, now please you: grant me prompt help from heaven; and bedew the flame prepared for me by this wicked one; but consume the adversaries with fire, so that they may know that you are God, who receive living and persevering souls. Meanwhile the servants announce to their master that the furnace is burning and is wholly fiery. Hearing this the prefect, descending from the throne, went on to the place, to which St. Theodota too was presently led. Scarcely had the servants seized her to be burned, when the creeping flame scorched seventy soldiers [u]. Meanwhile the virgin enters the furnace praying; the door is strongly barred until the following day, so that no one should try to bring her out.

[8] The next day she comes out from there healthy and praises God. The prefect, entering the basilica [v] at first light, orders Lampadius the priest of Jupiter [x], and Malacius the priest of Apollo [y], to be summoned to the place in order to view the furnace: for he thought that the virgin had already been consumed and reduced to ashes. The priests came with a huge multitude of the people, to open the door of the furnace. To whom Simplicius: Take up and scatter the burnt ashes, so that no persons collecting the ashes may hold them in place of a god and proclaim a martyrdom. Scarcely was the mouth of the furnace unsealed, when the priests caught sight of two young men scattering the flames, and in their midst the virgin standing; by whom they were at once burned up. The virgin came out of the oven as from a bridal chamber, unharmed and untouched, saying: O Christ, who are my saviour and that of the whole world, who both kindle the light and with the substance of the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of the angels, scatter the flame, who crush those estranged from the truth and crown your heralds in the truth, who extend the torches and lights of the Holy Spirit for the illumination of those who keep your commandments, who calm the storms of the waves, who by your divine look change your servant Peter from an unbeliever into a pillar of faith and preserve him from the dangers of the sea, who have made this day known to the world for your glorification and for the help of believers, do you, Lord, as God, keep my course perfect. Simplicius, hearing this and seeing at the same time that his soldiers had met death, says: By her various incantations this woman comes out the winner; let her go, therefore, to prison, until I see by what means she may be removed from our midst.

[9] [While she returns to prison, she is refreshed by a heavenly voice, and on the journey toward Byzantium she is visited by an angel.] As she was now going off, a voice was heard from heaven, saying [z]: Rejoice and be glad in my name, Theodota, I will free you from all the torments that are brought upon you because of my name. After she had been seven days in prison, Simplicius set out for Byzantium [aa] together with the holy virgin. On the journey an angel, appearing to her about the ninth hour, was accustomed to loose her chains; at which time she made her prayers; then she was bound again. After twenty days he came to Ancyra [bb], where all the slaves of the devil, bound by chains as it were of Bacchic frenzy, were sacrificing to Jupiter and Apollo.

[10] [At Ancyra St. Socrates the presbyter, having overturned the altar, is beheaded, and St. Theodota appears in good health before Simplicius.] At this a certain presbyter Socrates approached, with the intent of overturning the altar of Apollo, saying: Every demon, loving blood and the smoke of sacrifice, is foreign to me. Therefore if he to whom you offer sacrifice is foreign to Christ, these impure victims too are foreign to him; whose seat or chair is pestilence. On these words Simplicius orders the presbyter to be beheaded without delay, and the virgin to be called anew to the questioning, so that, led by repentance, she might as a noble and pure woman proceed to sacrifice. The virgin came forth into the midst, and she appeared such that the prefect supposed she had been fed with choicer foods on the journey. Having therefore summoned the keeper of the records to him he says: Tell me, pray: what foods has Theodota used? Then the other: Lord, Tatian, the assistant of the records [cc], should answer this. Then the prefect: Let Tatian be here at once. Tatian, being present, was asked in this manner: Tell us what kind of foods the virgin took. Tatian says: Lord, when she was bound with chains on the journey, she walked about freely with them until the ninth hour. At the ninth hour, at whatever place we had reached, all the chains were loosed and she poured out prayers; and when she came back, she was again in other chains, and we walked on. This I know and am aware of, and nothing else besides.

[11] She is ordered to be placed on a pyre, Having heard this Simplicius says to the virgin: Tell me, pray, Theodota; have you at last changed your opinion? Then the virgin: Again you desire to know why I refuse to sacrifice to this god; because he is not a god, but a dumb demon. Do you think that, being beaten with scourges, I have become another and more slack in my purpose? Far from it; rather it is my intention to become better known to God by more numerous and unaccustomed torments and pains. Go on, therefore, accomplishing the will of your father Satan; for to me let it be given to be crowned for the confession of Christ through celebrated torments. Again Simplicius orders a pyre to be built, so that she might be cast into it and end her life. The torturers being ready, the sacred martyr was dragged to the fire and prayed in this manner: Enlightener of justice, O Christ, who, bringing help to the lawgiver Moses and strengthening the people, sank his adversaries in the sea; who broke the rudder of him who lies in wait for human life, and showed a tranquil harbour to the saints, deign now to look on me with your divine countenance, and do not be slow to send to my aid the angel of the holy virgin Thecla [dd], who may scatter the flame of the kindled fire, so that the threats of Simplicius, the enemy of the true Christ, may be subjected to me as I persevere in the confession of your name.

[12] [And in the forum, urged again in vain to offer to the idols, she asks that some pagan priest may come with her into the flames.] At these words the attendants drag her to the forum; and when she came there, Simplicius said again: How long now, Theodota, shall we be unable to persuade you to offer to Apollo? Theodota says: O senseless man, to what end do you vainly urge me to sacrifice to an impure demon? Why do you rave so? O malicious one, do you not yet know sufficiently the impotence of this impure spirit? Do you not see that the demon is dumb and blind? Recognize how absurd it is to serve one so impure, who has power to help no one; but others, partly undone, partly burned up by the flame prepared for my destruction, by the great power of Christ through his attendants, those, I say, consumed by fire, he can in no way free. Any penalty is fitting. And you also go on asking why I do not sacrifice. Shall I then indeed desert Christ my healer? and die away in the sacrifice of this one*? Apollo Go on, O most estranged enemy of the truth, go on, I say, practising the arts of your father. But if you long to know who, in the end, it is that helps me, give me your libellensis [ee], through whom the knowledge of your emperor, and your frail and empty power, and the name of the false god, who took his appellation from destruction or ruin, shall become known to all. Let him go down with me into the prepared pyre, and if he comes out of it safe, let all your people believe in Apollo. Then Simplicius: Dorotheus, you who honour the memory of the great gods Jupiter and Apollo, go down with this woman into the pyre.

[13] She herself comes out from it unharmed, the priest Dorotheus being burned up. Dorotheus, keeper of the oracles of Apollo, said: Go first; I follow. Then the holy virgin: I, she said, shall enter first; and standing at the same time before the place of the fire, she says: O Christ, who are the lawgiver of the truth, who divided the depth of the Red Sea, and fencing it on this side and that as with a wall displayed your faith, and punished the temerity of the enemies by the power of your divinity with drowning, do not delay to fortify me also in this state and to go into the contest with me. For you are the Lord, who just as you disperse the counsels of rulers, so you are able to scatter the burnings of the flames. Having said these things, first arming herself with the sign of the cross, she went down, and stood in the fire-chamber as in a lofty bridal room. Dorotheus likewise went down, and standing before the place, burst out in these words: Greatest gods, benevolent and propitious, unconquerable Jupiter and invincible Apollo, grant me safety of body, scattering the sparks of the fire by your supreme favour. So saying, binding himself with the diadem of Apollo, he went on to the hearth; and the flame leaping out at once burned him up and reduced him to ashes. At this all cried out with great fear, taking the wages of iniquity indignantly; but others said: Great is the God of Theodota. Simplicius, not bearing the sudden destruction of Dorotheus, gazes with fixed eyes on the virgin standing in the midst of the fire, saying: You bring this about by your tricks and drugs, not only so as to conquer, but you even deceive the gods themselves and dazzle their eyes by your art. But there are not yet punishments enough; greater punishments are to be brought upon you. So saying, he ordered her to return to prison, and rising he proceeded to the praetorium.

[14] St. Theodota is led to Nicaea, and there she is in vain ordered to be sawn. But on the following day, full of grief for the death of Dorotheus, he hastens his journey into Bithynia; and Theodota follows him. When he had reached the city of Nicaea, he raged heavily, anxious as to what punishment to inflict on the virgin. Taking with him followers of the demons [ff], and having convened a council, it is decreed that she be publicly cut in two by a saw in the forum. To carry this out, on the following day the tyrant comes forth like a forest beast, dragging the innocent woman to punishment before the statues of the idols: and he said to her: Your tricks will help you no further, see, here are those ready who are to divide you in two. The virgin says: I have aimed at this hour, so that approaching Apollo I may sacrifice. The bystanders, hearing this, rejoiced and said: What great thanks shall we return to the propitious gods! She, however, turning, approached the altar of Apollo, addressing words to God in this manner:

O God, who are lofty and pure, true and foreign to every stain, true helper of those who call on you, who by intelligible power scatter the counsels of the contriver of men's ruin, who at the prayers of your excellent prophet, the dragon having been slain, overthrew Bel and shattered the silver image, come at this hour and show whether you are such as you have always been. Having said these things, she overturned the altar of Apollo, and reducing the statue to dust threw it down. Then to Simplicius: Where now are your gods, O Simplicius? He, blazing with anger, orders her to be bound to four timbers with her limbs stretched out, and sawn by four pairs of men [gg]. At this the sawyers went blind, and the more they drew, the greater the faintness that came over them. Then there was one voice of all the citizens, that the virgin had received aid not from drugs, but from God alone. Simplicius, seeing the uproar of the whole city, has her untied, and orders her to say by what art and whose power she had done these things. To this she, wholly undismayed: Men, lovers both of God and of Christ, be it known to you all, that I freely profess the God who helped Moses and led the people through the midst of the sea, and who once spoke in the bush; who also received the immaculate sacrifice of Isaac and who at this hour (breaking out in a cry) works together with us; he it is who not only stands by me, but also helps all who call on his name before men. Trusting in this name and persisting in the confession of him I have been freed from all these torments; and I firmly believe that, with God and Christ favouring, I shall be with peace an heir of eternal hope.

[15] At length she is beheaded and is buried by Sophronius the bishop. Then indeed Simplicius, struck with greater fear, and grieving chiefly for the death of Dorotheus, orders the virgin to be beheaded without delay, and immediately came down from the tribunal. As she was going on to seize the prize of justice, she said: O you are a wise shipmaster, who steer the soul in this murderer's tossing, who lead me to the anchorage of your heavenly harbour, who with the rudders of piety shatter the servants of the hater of all good; who have completed my course to the right and simple nod of your divinity! You yourself, Lord of mercies, hear me, and by your kindness refresh me, and make me worthy to have the portion of my fathers; to whom be all glory and strength through ages of ages. Amen. Immediately a voice was heard from heaven, saying [hh]: I have heard, virgin, your entreaty and I have glorified you in your contest. Enter at last with peace into the stadium of paradise; enjoy the crown of justice. When this utterance was finished, the torturers appointed for this beheaded her. Sophronius the bishop [ii], having received the body of St. Theodota, and having anointed it in the same district of the city with hymns and canticles and embalmed it with various spices, laid it with peace in a new tomb for the perpetual memory of her passion. The memory of St. Theodota is celebrated on the 17th of the month of September, to the praise and glory of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit through ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Even in the proconsular Acts there are found examples of martyrs who sometimes felt nothing of the torments; for instance St. Probus, twice burned with hot iron, said to Maximus the governor Ruinart, Acta sincera Martyrum, page 431, Amsterdam edition.: Your fire is lukewarm and does not touch me; and then, burned more sharply: Now your fire has truly become lukewarm. Your ministers laugh at you, etc. Likewise SS. Tryphon and Respicius, whose feet were pierced with nails; who, when they had been dragged in this state through the city of Nicaea, on being asked by the prefect Aquilinus: What is this? Do you not feel the torments? answered: No, because the nails are not fixed in our feet, but as it were in our shoes Ibid., page 163.. Compare the Acts of SS. Lucius and Montanus Ibid., page 237., and also of St. James Intercisus In Giorgi, De miraculis S. Coluthi, page 258..

q. This was the difference between the inner and the outer prison, that those who were held in the outer could deal rather freely with outsiders coming to them, whereas for those shut up in the inner prison it was permitted to admit no one. Martyrs commonly remained in the outer prison: from which it is understood how presbyters, deacons and the faithful so commonly and so easily came to them; sometimes, however, they were put into the inner prison, as SS. Paul and Silas themselves at Philippi, as is narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, XVI, 23, 24. See the commentators at this place, treating at length of the inner and outer prison.

r. Pugillares are writing-tablets, usually smeared with wax.

s. In the genuine Acts of SS. Tryphon and Respicius, which we have already employed a little above, these words are read Ibid., page cited.: The prefect, filled with anger, ordered hooks and torches to be applied to their sides. The torturers, approaching, carried out the orders. As they then applied the torches, there stood by the saints an Angel of the Lord, having in his hands crowns adorned with gems and flowers, which he placed on their heads, and he made them strong in the contest. When the ministers saw this, falling to the ground they became as dead men.

t. In the governors' Acts of SS. Tarachus, Probus and Andronicus, than which sacred antiquity has perhaps left us no more splendid document, a like prodigy is read, entered by the notary in the public records; here it is Ibid., page 433.: Maximus said: Turn him over and beat him on the belly, so that the former wounds may be aroused and go down to the marrow. Andronicus said: In my first confession also you tormented my body, and I was presented sound before your tribunal. He who heals and saves me is at hand now also. Maximus the governor said: Did I not command you, wicked soldiers, that no one should approach him or heal him; but that he should be such that his wounds might fester in themselves? Pegasius the keeper of the records said: By your magnificence, no one has healed him, nor has anyone gone in to him. He was kept in the inner custody in chains: and if you find me a liar, I have a head; you have the power. Maximus the governor said: How then are his wounds not visible? Pegasius the keeper of the records said: I do not know how he has been healed, by your nobility. Andronicus said: Our physician is great and pious, O fool. He applies no medicine or plaster, but by his word alone heals all who hope in him. For he dwells in heaven; he is present everywhere, he whom you do not acknowledge, senseless man.

u. Of the martyrdom of the three children we read in Daniel, III, 47, 48, 49, 50: The flame streamed out above the furnace forty-nine cubits: and it broke out and burned those of the Chaldeans whom it found near the furnace. But an Angel of the Lord went down with Azariah and his companions into the furnace: and he drove the flame of the fire out of the furnace, and made the midst of the furnace like a wind of dew blowing, and the fire did not touch them at all, nor grieve them, nor do them any harm. God did this for his friends under the old testament; and has his arm indeed been shortened, after he did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all and with him has given us all things?

v. In the basilicas there were tribunals.

x. At Caesarea in Cappadocia, under the reign of the Augusti, great honour was paid to Jupiter, whose image or symbol (namely an eagle sitting on Mount Argaeus, next to the city) is inscribed on many coins Belley, Mémoires de l'académie des inscriptions, volume XIV, page 139..

y. I do not find that Apollo was held in singular veneration at Caesarea; yet on many coins there are found laurel crowns, the prizes of the Pythian games Ibid., page 140.: these did not exist without the worship of Apollo.

z. Similarly in the genuine Acts of St. Polycarp one reads Ibid., pages 33 and 40.: When he had entered the arena, a voice sent from heaven at once sounded, crying: Polycarp, be strong. Those who were in the arena heard this voice; but of the others no one heard it.

aa. In the printed Menaea at the 17th of September one reads: Ἐπει δε ἐμελλεν ὁ Σιμπλικιος εἰς το Βυζαντιον ὁδευειν; in the Basilian Menology and the manuscript and printed Menaea at the 21st and 23rd of October: Ἀγεται παρα του ἀρχοντος ἐπι το Βυζαντιον, εἰτα ἐν Αγκυρᾳ κ. τ. λ. But St. Theodota was never led as far as Byzantium, seeing that she was killed on the journey. She was led from Cappadocia to Ancyra and from Ancyra to Nicaea, where at last she received the lethal stroke. It suffices, moreover, to cast one's eyes on a map in order to detect the error of the Menology and the Menaea (that is, of the commemoration which is read in the month of October). According to the Itinerary of Antoninus one went from Caesarea to Saccasena, thence to Osiana, thence to Nisa, thence to Parnassus, thence to Aspona, thence to Orsologiacum, thence to Grorbeum, and thence finally to Ancyra, a journey of 198 miles. Then one went from Ancyra to Nicaea through Manezardus, Mizinus, Baganeum, Juliopolis, Dadastana, Cenon Gallicanon, Dablis, Totaium and Moedus of the East, a journey of 216 miles.

bb. In annotation aa we said that Caesarea is distant from Ancyra 198 miles. Belley Ibid., volume XXXVII, page 391 and following. has written the history of Ancyra excellently. A church existed there from the apostolic age; but it partly returned to the former religions in the age of Julian. In the Passion of St. Basil the presbyter, who at that time underwent a splendid martyrdom there, only the worship of Hecate and of Aesculapius is mentioned Acta Sanctorum, volume III of March, page 382.; but since the city was sacred (for so it is called by Libanius), either then, or at least earlier, there must have been far more idols there.

cc. In Greek βοηθος κομεντων; which expression Prochorus also employs, on the acts of St. John the Evangelist. Adjutor commentariorum is read in the Second Conference of Carthage, and Adjutor commentariensis in book 5 of the Theodosian Code, on the custody of the accused. Du Cange in the Greek Glossary, under Κομεντον, may be consulted on these. The custody of the accused was entrusted to the commentarienses; and because they entered the names in the commentarii, registre d'ecrou prison register, from this they themselves received their name. They occur here and there in the Passions of the martyrs, sometimes called cornicularii, clavicularii, keepers of the prisons, etc. From this very place it is evident that the adjutores commentariorum were subordinate to the commentarienses and were of lower rank [See Du Cange, Greek Lexicon, under Βοηθος; Latin Lexicon, under Adjutor; Facciolati, Latin Lexicon, under Adjutor; Ét. Quatremère, Mémoires géographiques et historiques sur l'Égypte, volume I, page 302 and following.].

dd. St. Thecla, whose feast is kept by the Latins on the 23rd of September, was a disciple of the apostles and was wonderfully freed at Iconium from a pyre prepared for her.

ee. In Greek λιβελλησιον, from the Latin libellensis. The libellenses were those who in the palace and with the governors were put in charge of receiving the petitions presented to their lords; these were usually very dear men, since their lords were accustomed to confide in them entirely.

In the genuine Acts of SS. Bonosus and Maximilian, who underwent a glorious martyrdom under Julian the Apostate, you have similar things. For when these had been beaten with leaded scourges and had felt nothing, and then, being thrown into burning pitch, had come out from it safe and unharmed, the Jews and gentiles who had come to mock at their end began to cry out: These men are magi and sorcerers; so their Christ used to work his sorceries. And when these things had been announced to Secundus the prefect, stupefied with wonder he ran to see what had been done. And when he had seen it, he said: Give me the priests of the gods, and let us do likewise to them, and let us see if they can be saved as these were. And the priests of the idols being brought forward were censed, and they did according to their custom, as they were wont in their sacrifices. And when those priests had done everything according to their rite, they were thrown into the flame of pitch; and there their flesh remained In Ruinart, Acta sincera martyrum, page 594..

ff. Σχολασται was read in the Greek; which word is lacking in Du Cange's Glossary.

gg. So Gratius has translated; and, although the passage is difficult, he has not (as he is otherwise accustomed to do) written the Greek words in the margin. In the Greek Menaea at the 17th of September the whole passage reads thus: Μανεις οὐν ὁ ἀρχων ἐκελευσε ταθηναι ἐκ τεσσαρων την ἁγιαν και ταθεισαν πρισθηναι· και τουτου γενουμενου, ὁ μεν πριστηρ ἠμβλυνετο μη ἐχων το ἐνεργουν, οἱ δε δημιοι ἠτονουν, και ἡ ἁγια ἀνετος ἠν εὐχαριστουσα τῳ Θεῳ. Now ταθηναι ἐκ τεσσαρων is to be placed on a stock or a platform and to be bound to it with feet and hands stretched out to the corners, so that the body is indeed immobile, yet in no way dislocated, as is apt to happen to those tortured on the rack. Then in the Menaea one πριστηρ or sawyer appears with several δημιοις or executioners; in the manuscript Passion there are several sawyers, namely τεσσερα ζυγα ὑπερετων, four pairs of ministers or attendants: these seem to me to come to the same thing. Those attendants or executioners were lictors or, if you prefer, soldiers performing the office of lictors. For Lampridius says of Alexander Severus, chapter 52: Finally he suffered no attendants to exist: he wished only soldiers to go before tribunes or generals; and he ordered that four soldiers should walk before a tribune, six before a general, ten before a legate; and that these should be received into their homes; yet that this change was made at the beginning of the reign of Alexander, at which time St. Theodota seems to have suffered, is hardly credible. Justus Lipsius is held to have been the first to inquire with care into the number of the lictors who attended the magistrates Electorum book I, chapter 23.; but to pass over kings, consuls, dictators and others of that kind, who do not bear on the present point, he seems to have found nothing particularly certain concerning the other magistrates. Nor was the fortune of Spanheim better, who afterward again took up the same task De praestantia et usu numismatum antiquorum, volume II, page 93 and following.. This matter seems, like very many others, to have been at the discretion of the emperors, so that according to the greatness of the office they assigned more or fewer lictors or attendants to magistrates; and surely the number of eight lictors was suitable for the retinue of an extraordinary legate.

hh. See above annotation z. While St. Victor of Marseilles was being beheaded, a heavenly voice was heard saying: You have conquered, blessed Victor, you have conquered In Ruinart, Acta sincera martyrum, page 299..

ii. This Sophronius now becomes known for the first time. The catalogue of the bishops of Nicaea is very mutilated, even for the first times.