Capitolina and Eroteis

ON SS. CAPITOLINA AND EROTEIS, MARTYRS AT CAESAREA IN CAPPADOCIA,

IN THE YEAR 304.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Capitolina, martyr in Cappadocia. (S.)

Eroteis, handmaid, martyr in Cappadocia. (S.)

BY H. M.

§ Single. The cult of the martyrs. The site and fortunes of their church near Constantinople. The trustworthiness of the Acts is weighed.

That SS. Capitolina and Eroteis, notable martyrs of Cappadocia, have been honoured with public cult at Constantinople at least from the 10th century, Mention of the saints in the martyrologies and menaea, is attested by two monuments which take us back to that same century Compare Ann. Græco-Slavicus, pages 2 and 6.: namely the Menology of Basil and the Slavonic Calendar attached to the Ostromir Gospel-book; from which the other announcements of the martyrologies and menologies are derived. For from the former the Greeks borrowed the names of the holy martyrs, when they inserted them in all the Menaea, manuscript and printed, and also in those books which present to us parts or abridgements of the Menaea, such as the Synaxarion of Sirmond, the vernacular Lives written by Maximus Margunius, bishop of Cythera, and the metrical Ephemerides of Siber. Indeed by the Basilian Monks of Grottaferrata too St. Capitolina was inscribed in the Fasti of the Saints whom they venerated, as we understand from the recent book of Teodoro Toscani; later, however, she yielded place to St. Nestor, martyr Ad typica Græcorum animadversiones, Rome, 1864, pages 40 and 80.. That the memory of the holy martyrs passed from the Greeks to the Armenians we learn from two calendars, the one of the menology or Aismavourk, the other of the Ritual or Donazoiz; which, made public by Assemani Bibl. Or., volume III, pages 648 and 653., we correct here as in very many other places with the help of the lives written in Armenian by J. B. Aucher. For Assemani announces St. Capitolina with companions, which how erroneous it is appears from the work just cited Aucher, Vitæ Sanctorum, volume XII, page 226.. As to the Slavs, having before our eyes both monuments which we praised a moment ago, they entirely agree with the Greeks. Last of all the noble martyrs of Christ became known to the Latins, through the work of Pietro Galesini and also of Sirleto, who, having communicated his papers to Baronius, is to be held the author of the announcement in the Roman Martyrology.

[2] in the more recent of which St. Eroteis is commemorated twice But when thereafter a second commemoration of St. Eroteis had been admitted into the Menaea of the Greeks (on what occasion we do not know), Baronius, relying on the authority of Sirleto, himself too entered the name of this holy martyr twice in his Fasti, although he does not seem to have recognized that one and the same is St. Erotis, separately praised on the 6th day of October, and St. Erotheis, who is read to have suffered martyrdom with St. Capitolina on the 27th of the same month. For the name is written differently in him, her death is reported in other words, and in no way, even in the annotations, is it hinted that the same woman is venerated on two different days. But when our predecessors treated of St. Eroteis on the sixth day of October Acta SS. volume III of October, page 378., they suspected that it was not one woman and another who was recorded on the 6th and the 27th of this month. Ivan Martinov, however, in the Greco-Slavic year, with no appearance of doubt Annus Græco-Slavicus, page 242., rightly referred her from the 6th to the 27th of October, although on the earlier day he did not write the name of St. Erotheis so well.

[3] is proved by various reasons For who would remain in doubt, when the name Ἐρωτηίς is very rare and in this form met with in no other documents that I know, and further this commemoration was recently added to the calendar of the Greeks? For it is absent from the manuscript Menaeon of the Dominicans at Florence, from the Ambrosian ones, from the Mazarin and from the Sirmond Synaxarion, whose indices the Bollandists once wove, now deposited in the royal library of Brussels: on all of which go to Ivan Martinov, at the place cited, page 3; but correct his note on the Menaeon of the Friars Preachers at Florence, which runs not from March to September, but from September to March. To this is added that on the sixth day two verses are reported about the holy martyr, which agree most fittingly with the acts of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis, except perhaps for the name of virgin, which I think was applied to St. Eroteis by conjecture, Ἐρωτηΐδα πυρπολοῦσι παρθένον, Ἔρωτι Χριστοῦ τὴν προπυρπολουμένην,

Eroteis the virgin they consume with flames,

Already consumed before by the Love of Christ.

To these indeed the distich is not opposed which is read about both martyrs on the 27th:

Κτείνουσι δούλην ἐκ Ξίφους καὶ Κυρίαν, Δούλας Τριάδος τῆς ἀληθοῦς Κυρίας,

They slay by the sword the servant and the mistress,

Servants of the Trinity, the true Mistress.

For St. Eroteis, first given over to the flames, and preserved from them in wonderful fashion, at length ended her life by the sword. Let it remain certain, then, that the name of only one Eroteis is found in the sacred Fasti. To these last verses the Menaea of the year 1592 add, Εἰκάδι Αμφίπολον τάμον ἑβδόμη ἤδε Κυρίαν,

On the twenty-seventh they slew the servant and the mistress.

[4] The probable origin of their cult at Constantinople Thus from the city of Constantinople the memory of the holy martyrs passed to the neighbouring Slavic and Armenian churches, and then to the Latin. But in what way did those who were slain for Christ and buried at Caesarea become known to the imperial city, although nothing is read of their martyrdom in the ancient writers, and they accordingly do not belong to that glorious band of martyrs who have been celebrated through the whole church from a long time? Certain words in the Synaxarion of Sirmond, added to the eulogy of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis, open up for us a path for thoroughly investigating the history of their cult: Τελεῖται δὲ ἡ αὐτῶν σύναξις ἐν τῷ ἁγιωτάτῳ αὐτῶν μαρτυρίῳ τῷ ὄντι πέραν πλησίον τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Φωκᾶ Their feast day is kept in their most holy church, beyond the harbour, near that of the holy martyr Phocas. The holy martyrs had therefore a church of their own not far from the city, around those places which have kept until now the name Pera, long since used by the Byzantines. Hence it is natural to conjecture that this special cult is owed to relics at some time translated from Caesarea to the imperial city. Certainly, when Cappadocia lay open to the invasions of the Persians and Saracens, haters of the empire no more than of the faith, and indeed the city of Caesarea itself came more than once into the power of the enemy, we suspect that that took place which is narrated in the history of St. Euphemia as having happened at Chalcedon Acta SS. volume V of September, page 258.. And it may suffice, to support this opinion, to have recalled to memory that Caesarea was captured and sacked in the year 603 by the Persians, and in 718 by the Saracens Theophan. Chronogr. pages 251 and 338, Paris edition.. Let it be allowed, then, to assume that the bones of the martyrs, with war threatening, were carried away by the people of Caesarea to the imperial city, so that they might be safe from the insults with which the barbarians were accustomed to visit whatever was sacred to Christians. Hence the names known to the people of Constantinople, hence the cult shown and finally the church which took its title from these our martyrs. For no one can doubt that from a solemnity held somewhere within the city or not far from it in honour of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis there arose the mention in the Calendars and Menaea, which certainly existed already in the tenth century. For the Menology of Basil Porphyrogenitus, which was written at the end of this century, and the Ostromir Calendar, to whose writer an older monument, different from Basil's work Annus Græco-Slavicus, page 6., supplied the list of saints venerated at Constantinople, make us certain of this thing. But another document too is supplied to us at the cited place of the Sirmond Synaxarion, with whose help we may trace further back the history of this church situated near St. Phocas, and accordingly the cult of the holy martyrs. For the monastery of St. Phocas, of which the Sirmond codex treats, is very well known; and from its fortunes it may be deduced with greater likelihood what befell the church of our martyrs.

[5] [and fortunes, connected with the history of the monastery of St. Phocas, which, built by Basil] In the time of Theophilus I there lived a certain patrician, brother of John VII, patriarch of Constantinople, by name Arsavir or Ἀρσαβήρ: This man had a suburban villa at the left side as one sails out to the Euxine, near the monastery of St. Phocas (this is certainly said by anticipation), furnished with very large buildings and splendid porticoes, baths and also cisterns. There the patriarch, who often used to stay there, is said to have built a certain underground dwelling, not unlike that of Trophonius Theophanes Continuatus, book IV, page 97, Paris edition.. That place John had given over to shameful pleasure and at the same time to sorceries, a most abominable man and most unworthy of sacred honours: At some time, however, this impure dwelling, sold by his brother (Arsavir, namely) to Basil, then chamberlain (afterwards emperor), passed into a sacred monastery, and not only this but also the other things which belonged to it: and the monastery of the holy great martyr Phocas was erected from the foundations Ibid. page 98.. These words, written as it were at the dictation of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, grandson of this Basil, agree entirely with what Constantine himself, in his life, or shall I say panegyric, of Basil the Macedonian, narrates in this way: In the Stenon as they call it, that is at the neck of the Euxine, he made the exceedingly venerable church of Phocas, piously and religiously built by himself, a company of most religious monks being gathered and the place being abundantly enriched with buildings and estates, into a monastery gathered by God's authorship and a healing workshop of souls Ibid. book V, page 209.. The villa acquired, therefore, and

the other things that belonged to it, Basil, who was raised to the dignity of Augustus and the royal diadem on the 26th of May of the year 865, and on the 24th of September of the next following year succeeded Michael III, changed into a monastery, which he abundantly enriched with buildings. Shall we not then suppose by a probable conjecture that the relics of many saints were added to the monastery, and churches and chapels added too? that the Μαρτύριον of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis was added too? This certainly befits that emperor who, in regard to sacred buildings and their care and repair (by which piety towards God and holiness are designated), held himself among emperors of famous memory Ibid. page 210.. So indeed it is easily understood how the name of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis was so celebrated in the tenth century that it was entered in that Calendar which the writer of the Ostromir codex had before his eyes.

[6] lasted for many centuries, Now, however, it remains to set out in a few words the fortunes of this monastery and accordingly of the church sacred to our martyrs, as far as the documents available to us allow. Mention of the monastery of St. Phocas is made in the 11th century, copying, except for the name of the emperor, the place previously cited from the continuation of Theophanes, by George Cedrenus or John Scylitzes (for this is not the place to pass judgement on the author of that compendium of Histories) G. Cedrenus, page 537, Paris edition.. But since the name of Basil is passed over in silence in this work, Du Cange seems to have stumbled, who in his notes to the Alexiad Anna Comnena, book VIII, note on page 343, Paris edition. speaks of the chamberlain (or accubitor) and of Basil as if one and the same man were not designated by this double appellation. But in his Constantinopolis Christiana Book V, page 188, number XXXVIII. he corrected the error, namely by keeping silent about the chamberlain and speaking of Basil alone. There follows later, towards the end of the 11th century, the Anonymous author of the Antiquities of Constantinople Banduri, Imperium Orientale, volume I, book III, number 164., on which place Banduri, using Du Cange with too little care, wrongly noted that John Scylitzes disagrees with the others in assigning the founder of the monastery of St. Phocas. In the 12th century Anna Comnena speaks of Theodore Gabras, received by the emperor Alexius in a suburban house built with magnificent elegance, near the church of the great martyr Phocas situated on the Propontis Alexias, book VIII, page 241, Paris edition.; and says that the forces of the Franks, under the leadership of Godfrey, were placed about the Propontis with such a circuit of camps that they stretched from the bridge situated near Cosmidion (that is from the end of the harbour) to St. Phocas Ibid. book X, page 293.. In which places beware of understanding the Propontis in a less widely extended sense: for there is no doubt that the Bosphorus is here meant. After Anna Comnena I find no author who indicates that this monastery was seen by him. Indeed in George Codinus, who survived the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, I have read in his book on buildings the following words: The church of St. Phocas across the strait Basil the Macedonian built Codinus, page 58, Paris edition., but Codinus piled up his work from various books, with almost no change made [Compare Fabricius, Biblioth. græca, Harles's edition, volume VII, page 795 and following.], and therefore it may not be inferred from this that the church of St. Phocas still existed at that time. This argument indeed no one will deny, who has noticed that certain buildings cited by him had most certainly long been overthrown, for example as the churches dedicated to Mocius the martyr, to the forty martyrs, to all the saints Work cited, pages 37, 45 and 62, Paris edition., which, as is clearly evident from the Byzantine history of Ducas Historia Byzantina, chapter XIII, pages 24 and 25, Paris edition., were pulled down by John I Palaeologus in the year 1391, that he might procure stones for building the walls of the imperial city.

[7] and at length, we judge, it was destroyed before the year 1453. As nothing prevents us from admitting that the church of St. Phocas lasted until the times of the Turkish invasions, so too many things persuade us that the demolition of this church, as of all the others which lay along the Bosphorus, preceded the overthrow of the empire of Constantinople. For from the time of Bayezid I, who reigned from the year 1389 to 1402, the European shore of the Bosphorus was continually laid waste by the Turks. That Sultan had ordered to be built on the shore of Asia, from which the passage into Europe was easier and more ready, a fort which now has the name among the Turks of Anadoli hissar or fort of Asia, or Gyzel hissar or beautiful fort, but among Europeans vieux chateau d'Asie. To complete this work, and at the same time to control the navigation of the whole Bosphorus at his pleasure, and at length to pave the way for the capture of the imperial city itself, Sultan Mehmed II (and not Murad or Amurath II as some erroneously write) ordered another fort to be built opposite the first (they now call it Rumili hissar, fort of Europe, or vieux chateau d'Europe), employing to this end among other things the rubble of the church of St. Michael in Sosthenion, on the shore of Europe in the year 1452 [Compare Von Hammer, Geschichte des Osman. Reiches, volume I, pages 195, 385 and 386; Leunclavius, Pandectæ Hist. Turc. pages 445 and 446, Paris edition.]. Since on the one side the Greek emperors, and on the other the sultans of the Turks, were assigning the stones and materials of churches to military works, it is easy to divine what was the fate of a Christian building which lay between the new fort of Europe and Galata. But the monastery left its name to the place: for we learn from P. Gyllius, who in the following century travelled through the city and the Bosphorus, that a certain village, a league distant from Constantinople, and agreeing entirely with the places of the Byzantines cited above, was called by the Greeks Agion Phocan [De Bosph. Thracio, book II, chapter IX, Paris edition; and chapter 8, in C. Müller, Geogr. minores, volume II.]; which Pitton de Tournefort confirms Voyages, Lyons 1717, volume II, page 447., adding that the harbour has the name Agion Phocan, but the village Ortacui. Further in all geographical maps we find Ortakeui Guides Joanne, Itin. de l'Orient, page 391. Compare the geographical map., whose Turkish name we can interpret as middle village or janissaries' village; for we understand that Orta signifies a legion of janissaries from Bianchi's Turkish lexicon.

[8] The eulogy of the saints in the Menology of Basil, We must now proceed to elucidating the history itself of the holy martyrs. And first of all the eulogy which is read as usual in the Menology of Basil must be put first, since it is perhaps an older document than the acts such as we have to hand. The contest of the holy martyr Capetolina and of Eroteis her handmaid. Capetolina, martyr, in the reign of the emperor Diocletian, was from the region of Cappadocia, most illustrious by birth; and being seized and brought before the Governor, she was questioned about her name, homeland and parents. I, she says, am called a Christian: and I have as homeland the Jerusalem which is above: and my parents are the Doctors of the Christians, with whom also the great Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Therefore when she had nobly preached Christ, and refuted the false superstition of idols, she was bound and thrust into prison. When Eroteis her handmaid learned of this, she entered the prison and kissed her mistress's chains. Then Saint Capetolina was beheaded. But Eroteis, first cast into the fire and coming out from it unharmed; when she was urged to sacrifice to idols and could not be induced to it, was struck with the sword and herself fell. To this summary of the Passion it is pleasing to subjoin the few words which the Ostromir Calendar has on the same saints at the 27th day of October, since in naming the emperor under whom the holy martyrs suffered it agrees not with the Acts to be edited, but with the Menology of Basil. We read therefore in the edition of Bartholomaeus Kopitar: The Passion of the holy Martyr Capetulina and of Perotis her handmaid under the emperor Diocletian. The less correct manner of writing here creates no difficulty: for someone put the letter H at the beginning of the word; in whose place, on account of the likeness of the letters, there was at length written the letter II. The other Slavic monuments, as I hear from Father Ivan Martinov, following the Menology of Basil as usual, give the name of Diocletian.

[9] which, more than the printed Menaea, departs from the Acts, Nevertheless since in not a few places, and those most weighty in our history, the Acts about to be edited and the printed Menaea disagree with Basil's, we shall transcribe what is read at the present day in the Menaea of the years 1592 and 1843, after the distichs which we brought forward above. They lived under the emperor Diocletian and Zilicinthius, governor of Cappadocia. Capitolina indeed, a noble and rich woman, having distributed all her goods among the poor and given liberty to her slaves, boldly approaches the judge. First consigned to prison, at dawn she undergoes the penalty of the sword. But Eroteis, the handmaid of this saint, after she had attacked the judge with stones, is beaten with rods. And since by the power of Christ she remained untouched, she is beheaded with the sword. All these things, which the reader will see were taken from the Acts, except for the name of the emperor, we shall without difficulty reconcile with the Menology of Basil: for they are different, not contrary. On the name of the governor Zilicinthius or Zelicinthius, however, as by iotacism it is indiscriminately written, or even Zolicinthius, which I find in the lives of Maximus Margunius Vitæ Sanctorum, page 62, folio verso, edition of 1656., and also on the boldness of Eroteis, attacking the judge not with words only, doubts will occur to any prudent person. If we add to these other things met with in the Acts, namely the name of the emperor Licinius, the kinship of race between St. Capitolina and St. Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea, whereas on the contrary the Basilian speaks of a certain spiritual sonship, long prayers to God drawn from very many places of Holy Scripture, the cult of Serapis which the judge sets before St. Capitolina, the difficulty is so increased that it becomes necessary to discuss with greater care the trustworthiness of the Menology and of the Acts.

[10] whose character is described, and so suspect These Acts are very rare, being said (unless I am mistaken) to exist only in the Coislin library [Fabricius, Bibl. græca, 1st edition, volume IX, page 64; Harles's edition, volume X, page 208.], from which Tillemont had a copy made for himself Mémoires ecclésiastiques, 2nd edition, volume V, page 184., besides whom no one has discussed them. Montfaucon briefly describes the codex in these words: Codex CX, formerly CXL, of parchment, consists of 221 leaves. It contains lives of the Saints for the latter half of October, it is of about the XI century Bibl. Coislin., page 184.. Leaf 181 of this codex begins with the Acts of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis, which end abruptly with the reverse side of leaf 186, a few certainly having been lost. These were sent to us, copied with the greatest care in his own hand, by a man as most courteous as he is most learned, J. H. Nolte. What we learn from his observations on the writing of the codex we shall report below in the annotations. Here, however,

what we ourselves think of the trustworthiness of the author we shall candidly disclose. On the whole, certainly, I think, first of all if you look to the facts themselves narrated in this document, if you weigh the words said to have been uttered by the martyrs or by the pagans, there will surely be nothing that greatly lowers its credit. For the style, very simple, indeed rude, coloured by no art, smells of piety and sincerity, which even Tillemont himself, although inclined to severer judgements, freely acknowledges Mémoires ecclésiastiques, volume V, page 648.. The questions and answers on the whole are not far from those which are read in the genuine acts of the martyrs.

[11] which, in regard to the Acts of St. Theogenes, about whom a few words here, But what prevents us from giving full credit to the Acts, wherever they disagree with the Menology of Basil, is their studied accommodation to the pattern of the Acts of Theogenes, martyr of Parium. Since this matter is such as to afford the means of distinguishing the certain from the uncertain or doubtful in the history of our saints, it demands of us a fuller account. At the 3rd day of January the Hieronymian martyrologies have this: In the Hellespont, in the city of Paretia, of Cyricus, Primus, Theogenes. Of these the memory of the last was preserved among the Greeks, and a eulogy abridged from ancient Acts was inserted in the Menology of Basil. But these Acts, as they did not escape what is almost the common lot of such documents, I suspect were already in a bad state in Greek before the composition of the printed Menaea. Of this thing testimony is supplied to us by the name of the tribune Zelicinthius, of whom nothing is found in the Basilian. But their corruption did not stop here. For when the Acts of Theogenes came to the Latins, already known through the Hieronymian Calendars, a surprising confusion arose. From a bishop of Parium Theogenes was made the son of a bishop from Phrygia; to which the mention Fili episcopi in the Hieronymian lists contributed notably. Hence the Acts were corrupted, and in the martyrologies of the ninth century all things were mixed together which belong to Theogenes, to Marcellinus, a Christian boy, and to the bishop whose name lies hidden under the word Fili. For read in the martyrologists of that same century what they narrate at the 4th, 3rd and 2nd days before the Nones of January, and you will at once understand that the same things are repeated twice, the matter or rather the words being varied a little; except that Usuard, striving for brevity, kept a few things in the history of Marcellinus on the 2nd day of January, and on the following day outdid the simplicity of the Hieronymian lists, omitting in the announcement of Theogenes and his companions the name of the city of Parium or Paretia. Baronius followed close behind Usuard, and in the Roman Martyrology kept this fringe from the Acts of St. Theogenes, stitched onto the name of Marcellinus, the Christian boy. Since therefore, while doing something else, I seemed to myself to have detected an error in this place, I judged it would not be beside the point if, turning aside from the road for a moment, I pointed out the true for the erroneous. The names of Theogenes, martyr of Parium, and of Marcellinus, the Christian boy, being thus vindicated, I return to the Acts of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis.

[12] were less skilfully, though in good faith, accommodated. Now if anyone diligently compares the Acts of St. Theogenes with those which we are about to edit, he will by no means doubt that the Passion of St. Capitolina was altered to fit the ancient and fully trustworthy Acts of the holy martyr of Parium [Compare Christian Wolf (Lupus), Diss. de antiqua discipl. christ. militiæ, chapter III, Works volume XI, page 105.]. The Acts of St. Theogenes begin thus: Many martyrs have conquered the devil and all his devices in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who crowned them: among whom he deigned to number Theogenes, the most blessed martyr, who thus conquered the enemy made a mockery. We must remember that the original Greek copy has perished, and that the longer periods were more likely divided into clauses by the Latin translator, before those Acts are compared with the beginning of the Passion of St. Capitolina. It must then be observed that the names of Zelicinthius and Licinius, common to both Acts, were inserted into the Acts to be edited against the authority of the Basilian and Ostromir codices; the tribune and provost Acts of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis, number 8. also seem to have been taken from the Acts of St. Theogenes. Nor must the words of the angry optio be passed over: If I had the power, he says almost alike in both, I would have you cut to pieces with swords, and would throw you to the dogs Ibid. at the place cited.. Besides, Christ appears to St. Theogenes in prison, as also to St. Eroteis; Theogenes, who had first been given over to the punishment of hunger, refuses by the Lord's command the food offered. In the same way St. Eroteis, to whom the judge had forbidden food to be brought, rejects the bread and water set before her out of pity. In both Acts angels sing psalms in the prison, the commander of the soldiers wondering with his men; who orders the door to be unlocked, thinking that Christians are present there. I omit more things which will occur to one considering. But what shall we conclude from this? That the Acts of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis were thoroughly corrupted, one could only rashly assert. For the agreement of the Menology of Basil with the Acts in most things proves that there existed in the tenth century entirely genuine Acts, which do not depart from those about to be edited so much that we should hesitate to assign a common source to both histories. We shall act wisely, however, if we place faith in our Acts only in those places in which they agree with the Basilian, or at least do not disagree with it. Let us except also those things which seem to be taken from the Acts of St. Theogenes; not however because we believe that the author acted in bad faith. For I would rather judge that the man, more pious than learned, went astray through conjectures imprudently drawn, through books faultily written, through the traditions of the common people and through the appearance of a certain likeness.

[13] The name of Licinius being rejected Now then it is evident why, setting aside the testimony of the Acts, we refer the death of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis to the persecution of Diocletian. For already in the Ostromir Calendar we read that the passion of the blessed martyrs took place in the time of this emperor; and since this is confirmed by the authority of the Menology of Basil, there is nothing that should persuade us to adhere to the writing of the Acts. By this reason, then, we are led more than by the argument which pleases Tillemont Mémoires ecclésiastiques, volume V, page 649., that whatever is narrated in the Acts belongs to the persecution of Diocletian rather than of Licinius, namely that a general inquisition of Christians was decreed at that time, and that men were sent to find the faithful, and to drag those found to the tribunal, so that, unless they abjured the cult of the true God, they might be condemned to death according to the laws of the emperor. But, besides the fact that there is here no talk of any general edict, or of men assigned to the hunting out of Christians See below, Acts, number 1., it is impious to deny that the persecution under Licinius, in certain provinces of the East, was for some time general in very fact, although not by force of any law. He forbade the bishops to gather in synod, he expelled Christians from the palace, despoiled them of dignities, honours and goods Eusebius, On the Life of Constantine, book I, chapters 51 and 52.. And when he had seized the goods of all as some gain offered to him, at the last he threatened death also to those who should take to themselves the saving name of the Christian religion Ibid. chapter 52.. By many other decrees, of which we read mention in the cited book of Eusebius, he harried the faithful and all but tried to extirpate the religion Compare Ruinart, Acta MM. Amsterdam 1713, pages 513 and 514.. Let these things be said in passing, since in the name of the emperor we do not follow the Acts, but give our faith to the Menology of Basil.

[14] and the difficulties concerning the cult of Serapis being untied, The cult of Serapis in the city of Caesarea Tillemont notes not without surprise Work cited, page 648.. But let us not rashly carp at what is met with in other Acts of holy martyrs also. For of the idol of Serapis at Caesarea in Cappadocia, cast down in that very persecution of Diocletian by the prayers of St. Carterius, presbyter, there is treatment in the first volume of our work Acta SS. volume I of January, page 472.. The same cult is narrated to have existed at Patara in Lycia in the Acts of SS. Leo and Paregorius Acta SS. volume III of February, page 58.. The Italian Acts of St. Julian record a shrine of Serapis at Sora in Italy, which indeed call the god a goddess, led into error no doubt by the very ending of the name in the Italian language Acta SS. volume II of January, page 767.. Shall we say that those Christian authors who wrote the Acts listed, not sufficiently acquainted with the ancient divinities and the old superstition, went astray in their conjectures? Did they perhaps not name Serapis by guessing, because at the end of the 4th century that divinity had become famous through the overthrow of the temple of Alexandria, accomplished at the command of the emperor Theodosius? This may well have happened: but if anyone reflects that the foreign cults, which long since had invaded Rome, through the whole Roman world, and above all among the peoples of Asia, near whom lay the beginnings, monuments and ruins of most religions, had gained for themselves flocks of followers, such a one will surely, in prudence, refrain from disapproving those places of the Acts which present to us precious traces of antiquity [Compare Becker und Marquardt, Handbuch der Röm. Alterthümer, volume IV, page 82 and following; Döllinger, Paganisme et Judaïsme, book VIII, number 87, page 242, Brussels edition.]. Setting aside the very many inscriptions and titles adorned with the name of Serapis, which several archaeologists have collected here and there, no small value will here attach to what we hear about some emperors and as it were behold with our eyes by the testimony of coins. That the emperors Septimius Severus and Severus Alexander were devoted to Serapis we learn from Ae. Lampridius and Ae. Spartianus [Spartianus, on Severus, chapter XVII; Lampridius, on Severus Alexander, chapter XXVI.]. Serapis is present on coins of Caracalla at Amasea in Pontus Eckhel, volume II, pages 343 and 344., of Commodus at Aegae in Cilicia Mionnet, volume III, page 541., of L. Verus at Nicaea in Bithynia Ibid. Suppl. volume V, page 99., and, what is the head of the matter, of Macrinus Ibid. Suppl. page 691. and Severus Alexander Ibid. Suppl. volume IV, page 432; suppl. volume VII, page 698. struck at Caesarea in Cappadocia. Indeed that the cult of Serapis was Pontic in origin, which leads us to the borders of Cappadocia, the ancients have handed down [Tacitus, Histories, book IV, chapter 83; Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, chapter XXVIII.]; to whom however, as not sufficiently acquainted with the wonderful vicissitudes of the ancient religions, the more diligent investigators of the myths rightly deny credence [Parisot, Biographie Universelle, partie mythologique; Jablonski, Pantheon Ægypt.; Osann, Sylloge Inscripp. page 170 etc.], although Eckhel Volume II, page 344. and others In Becker, volume IV, page 85. agree with them. From there, however, no one will wonder that the cult of Serapis was more easily propagated through these regions, whence on account of a certain confusion of divinities it was believed to have arisen. We forbear from saying more on this subject, as being too foreign from our purpose and studies. Let it suffice to have noted these things, in order to vindicate, so far as may be done, the Acts of the noble Martyrs.

[15] and on the kinship with St. Firmilian, Finally there come to be weighed what is said of St. Firmilian's relationship with St. Capitolina,

as the Acts bring forward against the opposition of the Menology of Basil, for the other things that give trouble we shall shake out in the annotations. According then to the Menology, the older monument and the one in which the principal heads of the history of the holy martyrs are contained, St. Capitolina, asked about her name, parents and homeland, answered in a certain mystical sense that she was by name a Christian; her homeland that Jerusalem which is above; her parents those Christian doctors who instructed the people of Caesarea in the faith. These things cohere entirely with the Judge's threefold question, which the Acts themselves report, in other words, as turning on name, condition and homeland. I hold this narrative therefore as preferable: since otherwise it would be surprising that martyrs, masters of Christian doctrine, and Firmilian himself should have sprung from one and the same family, which had remained entirely unknown. I admit that the last part of the argument cannot stand by itself, yet it is of such a kind as thoroughly to move the mind, already inclined by what was said before to embrace the contrary side. The fathers, then, of whom the older Acts treated, from which the writer of the Menology drew his material, the author whose work has been preserved down to us will have understood as said of ancestors, and in this sense he set down in writing the questioning of St. Capitolina, otherwise full of piety and a certain genuine integrity. Nor is the trustworthiness of the Acts much undermined thereby. For in what way shall we suspect those documents to have been composed? A pious author copies old Acts, he unfolds the more obscure things more fully, he amplifies replies and prayers, just like those who treat history, not inventing the facts or the principal heads of the speeches, yet adding ornaments and changing the order of the words, in a more polished style. Errors gradually creep into a book of this sort, without however the trustworthiness of the author being lowered, or the work itself deserving the mark of falsity.

[16] the age of the martyrs and the glory of virginity are discussed. Further, since the holy martyrs suffered in the persecution of Diocletian, it is not necessary to inquire at length into the year of martyrdom. For the times of this principal war, which the pagan emperors waged against the Christian faith, are very well known. Talk of it recurs quite often in our Acta Compare Acta SS. volume X of October, page 629; ibid. volume XI, page 496.; and outside the volumes of our work not a few have treated of it, among whom I shall name Tillemont Mémoires ecclésiastiques etc. volume V, 2nd edition, 1702., Ruinart Acta Martyrum, page LX, and page 304 and following, Amsterdam edition 1713., Rivaz [Eclaircissements sur le martyre de la légion Thébéenne, Paris, 1779, page 253 and following.]. Go also, if you please, to the Ecclesiastical History of Johann Gieseler, in which you will find the principal places of the ancients cited in a brief survey Kirchengeschichte, volume I, page 217 and following.. In the year 304, then, was issued the last general edict καθολικὸν πρόσταγμα, to use the words of Eusebius, by which it was commanded that all men everywhere, of every place and nation, should publicly offer sacrifices and libations to the idols On the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter III.. And in this year the persecution began in the East. In the following year, however, Diocletian and Maximian, having abdicated the empire, left their place and their zeal for pursuing the Christians to Galerius and Maximinus. That the beginnings of the persecution should be placed in the principal cities, which a magistrate of greater authority governed, and that the first rage of the impious fury was turned on those who were strong in illustrious birth, authority and favour, who would call into doubt? The enemy attacked first of all the bishops and the more illustrious heads of the Christian flock, presuming an easier victory over the rest once the leaders were removed. To St. Capitolina therefore, who was reckoned a model of Christian life to the whole household, indeed to the whole city, the first-fruits were due. Her death is therefore certainly to be assigned to the year 304; and indeed to the 27th day of October, and the passion of St. Eroteis to the following day, if we give faith to the Acts. But whether the honour of virginity is to be given to her and her handmaid (I should rather say sister) along with the palm of martyrdom, I am not to say. This title is indeed attributed to St. Eroteis in the Greek verses brought forward above at number 3, but by no sufficiently ancient testimony; nor certainly does her servile condition favour it. Since this difficulty is absent from St. Capitolina, and nothing contrary is found in the Acts, and since virginity was held in great honour among Christians, but among the gentiles was rather turned into a disgrace, and finally since the noble martyr seems to have had and ruled a house of her own in which she lived with her slaves, no mention being made of any relation, son or parent, the honour of virginity seems more easily able to be claimed for her. Authority being lacking, however, I do not dare to call her a virgin, and I have thought that SS. Capitolina and Eroteis should be honoured in the title prefixed to this commentary with the title of martyrs only.

MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY MARTYRS CAPITOLINA AND EROTEIS

By an anonymous author, from Coislin Codex CX.

Capitolina, martyr in Cappadocia. (S.)

Eroteis, handmaid, martyr in Cappadocia. (S.)

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

Πολλῶν καὶ μεγάλων καὶ καλλινίκων μαρτύρων ἐκνικησάντων τὴν τοῦ ἀντικειμένου δύναμιν ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ Κυρίου, ὥστε μεγαλύνεσθαι αὐτοὺς ὑπὸ τῶν ἐλπιζόντων εἰς τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, ἐν τούτοις κατηξιώθησαν καταλογισθῆναι τοῖς ἀηττήτοις μάρτυσιν, καὶ ἡ ἁγία μάρτυς τοῦ Χριστοῦ Καπετωλίνα καὶ ἡ ταύτης δούλη Ἐρωτιῒς τῷ ὀνόματι, αἵτινες νομίμως ἀγωνισάμεναι κατεπάτησαν τῶν ἐχθρῶν τὴν δύναμιν. Κατὰ γὰρ τὸν καιρὸν ἐκεῖνον κρατηθεῖσα ἡ ἁγία Καπετωλίνα καταμηνύεται Ζηλικινθίῳ τινὶ, τῷ τηνικαῦτα ἄρχοντι Καππαδοκῶν καταστάντι, ἐπὶ τῶν χρόνων Λικιννίου τοῦ τῶν ἑώων μερῶν βασιλεύοντος. Καὶ συλληφθεῖσα παρὰ τῶν εἰς τοῦτο τεταγμένων, καὶ δεσμοῖς περιβληθεῖσα, τῷ δηλωθέντι ἄρχοντι Ζηλικινθίῳ προσάγεται ἐν τῷ σταδίῳ καθημένῳ καὶ τὴν τῶν ἵππων ἅμιλλαν θεωμένῳ. Τούτου δὲ γενομένου, οἶκτος εἰσήει εἰς τοὺς ἐκεῖσε συνημμένους ὡς ἐπ᾽ αὐτὴν ὀδύρεσθαι καὶ κοινὴν ἡγεῖσθαι ἀδοξίαν τὴν νομισθεῖσαν αὐτοῖς ἀτιμίαν τῆς μάρτυρος, διὰ τὸ κατὰ σάρκα αὐτῆς γένος, καθὼς ἦν παρὰ πάντας τοὺς ἐν τῇ πόλει ἔνδοξος. Καταστείλαντος τοίνυν τοῦ κήρυκος τὴν τοῦ δήμου οἰμωγὴν καὶ τὸν θόρυβον, καὶ πᾶσιν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν παρεγγυήσαντος, ὁ τὰς δίκας ἐμπεπιστευμένος, ἔφη πρὸς τὸν ἄρχοντα· Ἐπειδήπερ τῷ κρατίστῳ βασιλεῖ πᾶσαν ὑπὲρ τῆς θεραπείας τῶν θεῶν ποιουμένῳ πρόνοιαν, σπουδαίως ἡ σὴ μεγαλειότης συμπραττοῦσα, τῆς κατὰ τῶν λεγομένων χριστιανῶν ποιεῖται ἔρευναν, ταύτην εὑρόντες τοὺς μὲν θεοὺς ἀρνουμένην, Χριστὸν δὲ ὁμολογοῦσαν θεὸν καὶ κύριον, τῷ σῷ προσάγομεν βήματι, πρὸς τὸ κατὰ τόν βασιλικὸν νόμον δέξασθαι τὰ τῆς ἀπειθείας ἐπίχειρα.

[2] Ὁ δικαστὴς ἔφη· Ἡ ἑστῶσα λεγέτω προσωνυμίαν καὶ τὴν τύχην καὶ τὴν πατρίδα ἐξ ἧς ὥρμηται. Ἡ δὲ μακαρία τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς πλησθεῖσα πνεύματος ἁγίου ἀπεκρίνατο· Τὸ μὲν ἐκ τῶν γονέων ἐπιτεθέν μοι ὄνομα * Καπετωλία λέγομαι· πόλις δέ μοι πρόσκαιρα ἡ παροῦσα γῆ· ἀληθινὸν δὲ ὄνομα ἐμοί τε καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τὸν Κύριον χριστιανοὶ κεκλήμεθα καὶ πόλις ὡσαύτως ἡμῖν μία, ἡ ἄνω Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἡ ἐκκλησία τῶν προτοτόκων τῶν ἀπογεγραμμένων ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. Ὁ ἄρχων εἶπεν· Ἀκήκοα λαμπροῦ σε καθίστασθαι γένους, καὶ τῶν πρώτων τοῦ Καππαδοκῶν ἔθνους· μὴ τοίνυν ἀφρόνως βουλευομένη τοῖς σοῖς προγόνοις προσάψῃς δυσγένειαν, ὡς ἀνάξιον αὐτῶν καρπὸν βλαστήσασιν· ἀλλὰ τοῖς νόμοις πειθομένη τῶν αὐτοκρατόρων τοῖς θεοῖς ἐπίθυσον. Ἡ δὲ ἁγία τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς ἀπεκρίνατο· Σὺ μὲν, ὦ δικαστὰ, τὰ γήἳνα φρονῶν τὸ κατὰ σάρκα μου γένος θαυμάζεις, καὶ τοὺς ἐμοὺς προγόνους νομίζεις με καταισχύνειν ἀγωνιζομένην ὑπὲρ τῆς εἰς Χριστὸν πίστεως· ἐγὼ δὲ τούτους ἐν τῷ μέρει τούτῳ ἐκπλήττομαι, ὅτι οὐ μόνον μάρτυρας ἀλλὰ καὶ τού θείου λόγου διδασκάλους καὶ κήρυκας καθάπερ εὐγενεῖς καὶ ὡραίους κλάδους ἐξήνθησαν. Ὅθεν καὶ ὁ μέγας Φιρμιλλιανὸς τὴν ὑμετέραν λυσσώδη πλάνην βδελυξάμενος καὶ τῷ εὐαγγελικῷ πιστεύσας κηρύγματι, ὁδηγὸς τῶν τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ τυφλῶν ὄντων πρὸς τὸ φῶς τοῦ ἡλίου τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἤγαγεν, καὶ τῆς ἐνταῦθα ποίμνης διδάσκαλος γέγονεν, ᾧ κἀγὼ κατακολουθοῦσα τὸν μὲν Κύριον καὶ Σωτῆρα Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσω βασιλέα βασιλευόντων, κεκτημένον τὸ κῦρος καὶ τὴν δεσποτείαν συναΐδιον· τῷ δὲ σῷ βασιλεῖ τῆς μὲν ζωῆς ἀφέλκοντι, ὁδηγοῦντι δὲ πρὸς θάνατον οὐ πειθήσομαι.

[3] Ὁ δικαστὴς εἶπεν· Καὶ μὴν ὁ παρὰ σοῦ ὁμολογούμενος Χριστὸς προξενεῖ σοι τὸν θάνατον τοὺς θεοὺς ἀρνουμένῃ, ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ τὴν σὺν ἡμῖν εὐδαιμονίαν καὶ ζωὴν πεισθείσῃ σοι παράσχομεν. Ἡ μάρτυς ἔφη· Ζωὰς δύο ἐκ τῆς θείας γραφῆς μεμαθήκαμεν καὶ δύο θανάτους, ὧν τὰ μὲν πρόσκαιρά ἐστι, τὰ δὲ αἰώνια. Καὶ οἱ μὲν ἀγαπῶντες τὴν πρόσκαιραν ζωὴν καὶ τῷ πόθῳ τῷ πρὸς αὐτὴν προσδεδεμένοι, μηδὲν δὲ γενναῖον ἢ πρὸς ἀρετὴν φέρον διαπραττόμενοι, τῷ αἰωνίῳ θανάτῳ, τοῦτ᾽ ἔστιν τῇ ἀπεράντῳ κολάσει παραδοθήσονται. Οἱ δὲ διὰ Χριστὸν καταφρονοῦντες αἰκισμῶν καὶ τὸν θάνατον ὑπὲρ θεοσεβείας αἱρούμενοι, τὸν αἰώνιον διαφεύξονται θάνατον, καὶ τὴν ὄντως ζωὴν κληρονομήσουσιν, ἔνθα οὐκ ἔστιν ὀδύνη καὶ λύπη καὶ στεναγμὸς· οὕτως τοίνυν ἐγὼ φρονοῦσα ψευδονύμῳ θεῷ, μᾶλλον δὲ ξοάνῳ, προσκυνεῖν οὐκ ἀνέξομαι· προσκυνῶ δὲ ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ καὶ τόπῳ τῷ μόνῳ ζῶντι Θεῷ.

[4] Ὁ ἄρχων εἶπεν· Οὐ δοκεῖ σοι ὁ Σέραπις * μέγας εἶναι θεός; Ἡ μάρτυς εἶπεν· Οὔτε μέγαν αὐτὸν ἡγοῦμαι, οὔτε μικρὸν, ἀλλ ἀὐτὸν μᾶλλον ἀλόγων ἁπάντων ἀτιμότερον κρίνω, καὶ ἀψύχων ἁπάντων ἀχρηστότερον· λίθοι μὲν γὰρ καὶ ξύλα, εἰς οἰκοδομὴν ἀνθρώποις παραλαμβάνονται· τὰ δὲ τῶν θεῶν ὑμῶν ξόανα, εἰς καταστροφὴν ψυχῶν καὶ ἀπώλειαν τῶν προσκυνούντων αὐτοῖς εἰσίν. Διὸ καὶ καλῶς περὶ ὑμῶν ὁ προφήτης ἔλεγεν· Ὅμοιοι αὐτῶν γένοιντο οἱ ποιοῦντες αὐτὰ, καὶ πάντες οἱ πεποιθότες ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς· ὅτι τὸν βασιλέα καὶ Κύριον τῆς θείας δόξης καταλιπόντες, ὀνόματα θεῖα ξύλοις καὶ λίθοις, ἔργοις ἀνθρωπίνων χειρῶν, προσάπτετε, καὶ τοῖς ἐναντίοις τὸν κτίστην καὶ δημιουργὸν ἀμείβεσθε· τούτου γὰρ δεδωκότος ἐξουσίαν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τέκνα Θεοῦ γένεσθαι τοῖς ἐλπίζουσιν εἰς αὐτὸν, ἵνα γενώμεθα θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως θεοί τε καὶ υἱοὶ ὑψίστου, κατὰ τὸ ψαλμικὸν λόγιον, εἰς τοσαύτην ὑμεῖς ἄνοιαν ἠλάσατε, ὥστε θείας δόξης ἀνταλλάξασθαι ξόανα, καὶ ἀκαθάρτοις δουλωθῆναι πνεύμασιν, διὰ λίθων καὶ ξύλων ἔλκουσιν ὑμᾶς εἰς ἀπώλειαν. Ἐγὼ δὲ μέχρις οὗ ἐστιν πνοὴ ἐν ῥισίν μου, τόν παντοκράτορα καὶ μόνον δημιουργὸν Θεὸν, καὶ τὸν τούτου μονογενῆ υἱὸν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν προσκυνεῖν οὐ παύσομαι, τὸν δωρησάμενόν μοι τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ τὸ ἅγιον, ἐν οἷς φωτίζομαι πρὸς τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ἐπίγνωσιν, καὶ ὁμολογίαν τῆς εἰς σωτηρίαν πίστεως. Τότε εἷς τῶν παρεστώτων ἔφη πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυρα· Ἰδοὺ κατὰ τὸν σὸν λόγον ὁ θεὸς υἱὸν ἔχει· πῶς τοίνυν ἕνα θεὸν ὁμολογοῦσα δύο προβάλλῃ, καὶ τρεῖς λέγεις προσκυνεῖν, τοὺς ἡμετέρους ἀρνουμένη θεούς.

Ἡ μάρτυς εἶπεν· Τὸ ἡμέτερον σέβας λίαν ἐστὶ τοῖς τὰς φρένας ὑγιαίνουσι καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς διανοίας καθαριεύουσιν ἀληθὲς· καὶ γὰρ Πατέρα καὶ Υἱὸν καὶ Πνεῦμα ἅγιον ὁμοούσιον Τριάδα ἐν μιᾷ θεότητι πιστεύομεν, πολυθείαν ἀποστρεφόμενοι. Ὑμῖν δὲ τοῖς κατὰ διάνοιαν τυφλοῖς οὖσιν καὶ τὰ ὦτα τῆς καρδίας βύουσιν, ἄπιστα ταῦτα καὶ μωρίας ἐχόμενα δοκοῦσιν· διὸ καὶ πλανώμενοι τοῖς εἰδώλοις λατρεύετε. Τότε ἐκκαυθεὶς ὁ δικαστὴς τῷ θυμῷ ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ εἱρκτῇ κατακλεισθῆναι· ἔμελλεν γὰρ παραυτίκα ἐκδημεῖν τῆς πόλεως, ἅμα τοῖς στρατιώταις τῆς λεγεῶνος, κατὰ τὴν βασιλικὴν πρόσταξιν. Ἀπαγομένη δὲ εἰς τὴν φρουρὰν ἡ μάρτυς τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἔψαλλεν λέγουσα· Ὡς ἀγαπητὰ τὰ σκηνώματά σου, Κύριε τῶν δυναμέων, ἐπιποθεῖ καὶ ἐκλείπει ἡ ψυχή μου εἰς τὰς αὐλὰς τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ τὰ τούτοις ἑπόμενα.

[5] Ἐν τούτοις δέ τις τῶν συμπαρόντων, τῇ ἐρωτήσει τῆς μακαρίας Καπετωλίνῆς, δραμὼν εἰς τὸν αὐτῆς οἶκον τῇ αὐτῆς θεραπαινίδι ὀνόματι Ἐρωτιΐδι τὰ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν ἀπήγγειλεν. Ἡ δὲ τὰ ἄλευρα φυροῦσα καὶ τὴν ζύμην τῇ τοῦ ἄρτου κατασκευῇ τῷ πυρὶ παραδίδοναι μέλλουσα, ἐάσασα πάντα σπουδαίως, πρὸς τὴν κυρίαν αὐτῆς ἔδραμεν ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ, τὴν ζύμην τῇ τροφῇ τῶν ἁπάντων καὶ Σωτῆρι καταπιστεύσασα. Καὶ περιπτυξαμένη τὰ τῆς ἁγίας μάρτυρος δεσμὰ ἔφη πρὸς αὐτὴν· Μακαρία εἶ, δέσποινά μου, ὅτι τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς καὶ προσκαίρου καταφρονήσασα, τῆς μελλούσης καὶ αἰωνίου ἐπεθύμησας· ἀλλ᾽ εὔξαι κἀμοῦ τῆς δούλης σου, ἵνα κἀγὼ τύχω τοῦ ἀγῶνος τούτου, καὶ κοινωνὸς τῶν παθημάτων Χριστοῦ γένωμαι. Ἠ δὲ ἁγία τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς ἔφη πρὸς αὐτὴ· Αὔριον παραγενοῦ ἐνταῦθα, ἵνα ἐπιστῇς τῇ τελειώσει μου· σπεῦσον δὲ καὶ σὺ τῶν μὲν παρόντων ὑπεριδεῖν, τῶν δὲ αἰωνίων τυχεῖν ἀγαθῶν· οὐ γὰρ χρὴ φοβεῖσθαι τοὺς ἀποκτείνοντας τὸ σῶμα, ψυχὴν δὲ μὴ δυναμένους ἀποκτεῖναι· ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον φοβεῖσθαι τὸν δυνάμενον καὶ ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα ἀπολέσαι ἐν γεέννῃ. Ταῦτα ἡ Ἐρωτιῒς ἀκούσασα παρὰ τῆς κυρίας αὐτῇς ἀνεχώρησεν, καὶ τοὺς ἄρτους ὀπτήσασα ἀπῆλθεν ἐν τῇ εἱρκτῇ πρὸς τὴν κυρίαν αὐτῆς, τὰ πρὸς τροφὴν αὐτῇ κομίζουσα. Ἡ δὲ ἁγία τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς ἀποδεξαμένη αὐτῆς τὴν προαίρεσιν, τὴν βρῶσιν οὐ προσήκατο λέγουσα· Οὐκ ἐπ᾽ ἄρτῳ μόνῳ ζήσεται ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν παντὶ ῥήματι ἐκπορευομένῳ διὰ στόματος Θεοῦ· ἔχουσα τοίνυν τὴν οὐράνιον τροφὴν τὸν ἄρτον τῆς ζωῆς, τούτων οὐκ ἐπιδέομαι· τούτους δὲ τοὺς ἄρτους παράσχου τοῖς χρείαν ἔχουσιν. Τὰ δὲ ὑπάρχοντά μου διαπωλήσασα τοῖς ἐνδεέσι διάνειμε, χρὴ γὰρ ἡμᾶς ἐντεῦθεν πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐκδημούσας ἐφόδια ταῦτα ἐπικομίσασθαι, ὅπως καὶ ἡμῖν ὁ Χριστὸς εἴτῃ· Δεῦτε οἱ εὐλογημένοι τοῦ Πατρός μου, κληρονομήσατε τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην ὑμῖν βασιλείαν ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου· ἐπείνασα γὰρ καὶ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν, ἐδίψησα καὶ ἐποτίσατέ με, καὶ τούτοις ὅμοια· ὅταν δὲ μάθῃς εἰσαγώγιμον τὴν δίκην γίνεσθαι τῆς ἐμῆς ἀθλήσεως, ἐπίστηθι ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τῆς ἐμῆς τελειώσεως.

[6] Λαβοῦσα δὲ τὴν ἐντολὴν ταύτην ἡ μακαρία Ἐρωτιῒς παρὰ τῆς κυρίας αὐτῆς καὶ πάντα τὰ διατεταγμένα παρ᾽ αὐτῆς πληρώσασα, ἐβόα μετὰ δακρύων πρὸς τὸν Σωτῆρα Χριστὸν λέγουσα· Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστὲ, ὁ πᾶσιν οὐ μόνον ἀνδράσιν ἀλλὰ καὶ γυναιξὶν, οὐ δικαίοις ἀλλὰ καὶ ἁμαρτωλοῖς τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ἐπίγνωσιν δωρησάμενος, ὁ καὶ τὴν μακαρίαν καὶ ἁγίαν Θέκλαν ἀθλῆσαι καταξιώσας ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἁγίου ὀνόματός σου, καὶ ἐμὲ τὴν ταπεινὴν ἐνίσχυσον, καὶ θαρσοποιὸν δύναμιν παράσχου μοι, ὅπως ὁμολογήσω σε ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ δὸς κἀμοὶ ὑπομονὴν, δέσποτα Κύριε, ἐν ταῖς προσαγομέναις βασάνοις τῷ ἐμῷ σώματι· σὺ γὰρ εἶ ἡ ἐλπὶς τῶν ἀβοηθήτων βοηθὸς, καὶ σοὶ τὴν δόξαν ἀναπέμπομεν, εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν. Ταῦτα μετὰ κλαυθμοῦ προσευξαμένη, καὶ μικρὸν ἀφυπνώσασα, ὁρᾷ τὸν Κύριον ἐπιφανέντα αὐτῇ καὶ λέγοντα· Θαρσεῖ, γύναι, ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέν σε· ἔσομαι γάρ σοι ἀεὶ βοηθὸς ὡς προσηύξω μελλούσῃ πάσχειν πολλὰ ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματός μου. Διυπνισθεῖσα δὲ ἡ μακαρία Ἐρωτιῒς ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ τῷ Θεῷ εὐχαριστοῦσα ἔλεγεν· Μεγαλύνει ἡ ψυχή μου τὸν Κύριον καὶ ἠγαλλίασε τὸ πνεῦμά μου ἐπὶ τῷ Θεῷ τῷ Σωτῆρί μου.

[7] Τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον προκαθίσαντος τοῦ ἄρχοντος ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος, καὶ τὴν μακαρίαν Καπετωλίναν προσαχθῆναι κελεύσαντος, μαθοῦσα ἡ Ἐρωτιῒς ταύτην παραστᾶσαν τῷ δικαστικῷ βήματι, καταλιποῦσα πάντα τὰ ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῆς, πρὸς τὸν ἡγεμόνα ἔδραμεν καὶ λίθοις τοῦτον βάλλουσα ἔλεγεν· Ὁδηγὲ τοῦ σκότους καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθρὲ, πῶς οὐκ ἀναιδῇ τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ δούλην καὶ πρώτην τῆς πόλεως δημοσίᾳ ἐξετάζων, τὴν διὰ Χριστὸν βδελυξαμένην τὰ εἴδωλα, καὶ τῷ ἀληθινῷ Θεῷ προσδραμοῦσαν. Ὁ δὲ ἡγεμὼν ταύτην μὲν συλληφθῆναι ἐκέλευσεν, τὴν δὲ μακαρίαν τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυρα Καπετωλίναν τὴν διὰ τοῦ ξίφους τιμωρίαν δέξασθαι προστάττει. Δοθείσης οὖν τῆς ἀποφάσεως, ἐλθοῦσα ἡ ἁγία μάρτυς τοῦ Χριστοῦ Καπετώλίνα ἐπὶ τὸν προκείμενον αὐτῇ τῆς ἀθλήσεως τόπον, τὸ μακάριον τέλος ἐδέξατο σύντομον εὑραμένη τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον καὶ ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον. Ἐτελειώθη δὲ ἡ ἁγία μάρτυς τοῦ Χριστοῦ Καπετωλίνα μηνὶ ὀκτωβρίῳ ΚΖ· ἄνδρες δὲ εὐλαβεῖς εὑρεθέντες τὸ ἅγιον αὐτῆς λείψανον πρὸ τῆς πόλεως, ἔνθα καὶ ἀπετμήθη, κατέθεντο, ὅπως ὡς πύργος ἀῤῥαγὴς καὶ τεῖχος ἀνάλωτον πᾶσαν δαιμόνων πλάνην καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐπήρειαν ἀπώσηται. Τὴν δὲ μακαρίαν Ἐρωτιΐδα, προστάξει τοῦ ἄρχοντος δήσαντες οἱ στρατιῶται τῷ δικαστικῷ παρέστησαν βήματι. Ἐπηρώτησεν δέ αύτὴν ὁ ἡγεμὼν λέγων· Τί σοι τὸ ὄνομα καὶ ποία ἡ τύχη ἐστιν; Ἡ δὲ ἁγία τοῦ Χριτοῦ μάρτυς Ἐρωτιῒς ἀπεκρίνατο· Ἐκ μὲν τῶν ἐμῶν γονέων Ἐρωτιῒς καλοῦμαι· ἐκ δὲ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἐγώ τε καὶ πάντες οἱ πεπιστευκότες τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, χριστιανοὶ ὀνομαζόμεθα. Δούλη δὲ γέγονα τῆς μακαρίας καὶ ἁγίας Καπετωλίνης, ἤτις πρὸ μικροῦ καλῶς ἀγωνισαμένη καὶ τὸν ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν ἐκδικούμενον διάβολον νικήσασα, καὶ τὸν δρόμον τελέσασα, καὶ τὴν πίστιν τηρήσασα, καὶ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἐκδημήσασα, ἐν τόπῳ φωτεινῷ καὶ σκηναῖς δικαίων, ἔνθα φωνὴ ἀγαλλιάσεως καὶ σωτηρίας αὐλίζεται, ἧς εὔχομαι κἀγὼ κοινωνῆσαι τῷ πάθει, καὶ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς τοῖς ἐπηγγελμένοις τοῖς ἀθλήσασι μέχρις ἐκχύσεως αἴματος ἐν ἀπολαύσει γένεσθαι. Πατρὶς δέ μοι νῦν ἐστιν ἡ πόλις αὕτη· ἐπείγομαι δὲ ἀπελθεῖν, προς τὴν ἐν οὐρανοῖς μητρόπολιν. Ὁ δικαστὴς εἶπεν. Οἰκετικοῦ γένους ὑπάρχουσα, πῶς ἐτόλμησας ἀπειθῆσαι τῷ αὐτοκράτορι καὶ λίθοις κατὰ τῆς ἐμῆς ἐξουσίας χρήσασθαι; Ἡ μάρτυς τοῦ Χριστοῦ εἶπεν· Ἐν Χριστῷ Κυρίῳ μου οὐκ ἔνι δοῦλος οὐδὲ ἐλεύθερος· διὰ τοῦτο γὰρ ὁ λυτρωτὴς ἡμῶν Χριστὸς, πρὸς τὸ πάθος ἐρχόμενος, ὑπὸ δούλου ῥαπισθῆναι ἠνέσχετο ἵνα πάντας τοῦ ζυγοῦ τῆς δουλείας τῆς ἁμαρτίας καὶ τῶν παθῶν τῆς φθορᾶς ἐλευθερώσῃ, καὶ πᾶσιν ὁμοτίμως τὴν βασιλείαν δωρήσηται, καθὸ ἄν τις αὐτὸν ἠγάπησεν.

[8] Θυμωθεὶς δὲ ὁ δικαστὴς ἐπὶ τῇ παῤῥησίᾳ τῆς μάρτυρος ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὴν ἐκ τεσσάρων τανυσθεῖσαν βουνεύροις ὠμοῖς τύπτεσθαι. Πολλῆς δὲ διαδραμούσης ὥρας, καὶ τῆς μακαρίας Ἐρωτιΐδος πρὸς μὲν τὸν Κύριον δἰ ὃν ἔπασχεν ἐκτενῶς εὐχομένης, ἐν ὑπομονῇ δὲ φαιδρῷ τῷ προσώπῳ τοὺς αἰκισμοὺς δεχομένης, ἐκέλευσεν ὁ ἄρχων ῥαβδοῖς τὸν νῶτον αὐτῆς καταξαίνεσθαι. Ἐπιπολὺ δὲ τούτου γενομένου καὶ τῶν ῥαβδῶν εἰς πολλὰ συντριβέντων, οὐκ ἐπαύσατο ἡ γενναῖα μάρτυς τῷ φιλανθρώπῳ Θεῷ τὴν εὐχαριστίαν προσφέρουσα· ἀλλὰ καθάπερ ἀνδριὰς ὑπὸ σφύρας τυπτόμενος βόμβον ἔχει μέγιστον, οὕτως καὶ αὕτη μείζονι τῇ φωνῇ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἐκέχρητο λέγουσα· Ὑψώσω σε, Κύριε, ὅτι ὑπέλαβές με, καὶ οὐκ εὔφρανας τοὺς ἐχθρούς μου ἐπ᾽ἐμέ. Κύριε, ἀνήγαγες ἐξ ᾅδου τὴν ψυχήν μου, ἔσωσάς με ἀπὸ τῶν καταβαινόντων εἰς λάκκον, Κύριε ὁ Θεός μου, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἐξομολογήσομαί σοι. Παράσχου μοι, δέσποτα, τὴν ὑπομονὴν μέχρι τέλους, ἵνα κοινωνὸς γενομένη τοῦ σωτηρίου σου πάθους, καταντήσω εἰς τὴν χαρὰν τοῦ νυμφῶνός σου τὴν ἀΐδιον καὶ ἀνεκλάλητον. Οὐ γὰρ ἄξια τὰ παθήματα τοῦ νῦν καιροῦ, πρὸς τὴν μέλλουσαν ἀποκαλύπτεσθαι δόξαν τοῖς ἁγίοις σου. Ταῦτα τῆς μακαρίας Ἐρωτιΐδος προσευχομένης, παρεστῶτες ὅτε τριβοῦνος καὶ ὁ πραιπόσιτος παρεκάλουν τὸν δικαστὴν ὅπως ἐλέους τυχεῖν αὐτὴν ἀξιώσῃ καί ἀνέσεως. Ἡ δὲ μειζόνως ἐβόα ὡς ὑπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ ζωοποιοῦ Πνεύματος κινουμένη· Ἐγὼ χριστιανὴ εἰμὶ, καὶ τὰς προσαγομένας μοι παρ᾽ ὑμῶν μάστιγας τροφὴν ἡγοῦμαι καὶ εὐπροσύνης ὑπόθεσιν· εἰ τοίνυν μείζοσιν αἰκισμοῖς ὑποβάλλειν μοι βούλεσθε, τοῦτο διὰ τάχους πράξατε, αἱ γὰρ πρότεραι μάστιγες ἀνεπαίσθητοί μοι γεγόνασιν. Ὁ δὲ τριβοῦνος εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτὴν· Τί οὖν; οὔπω ἤσθου τῶν βασάνων; Ἡ δὲ μάρτυς εἶπεν· Οὐχί· οὐ γὰρ πάρεστιν ὑμῖν τοσαύτη δύναμις τοῖς μὴ ἄλγουσι τὸ σῶμα ὡς ἐμοὶ, παρὰ Χριστοῦ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ἰατροῦ τῶν ψυχῶν καὶ τῶν σωμάτων ἡμῶν, καταπέμπεται ἀντίληψίς τε καὶ παράκλησις τῇ δι᾽ αὐτὸν ἀθλούσῃ· μὴ τοίνυν ἀπατᾶσθε· οὐδενὶ γάρ με τρόπῳ τῆς πρὸς τὸν εὐεργέτην μου ἀγάπης ἀφελκύσαι δυνήσεσθε. Ὁ δὲ ὀπτίων τῶν ἐκεῖσε παρεστώτων στρατιωτῶν ἔφη· Εἰ ταύτης τὴν ἐξουσίαν ἔλαβον, κυσὶν ἂν τἂς αὐτῆς σάρκας ἐμέλιζον. Ἡ δὲ μακαρία μάρτυς τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἐρωτιῒς πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀπεκρίνατο· Ἡμεῖς μὲν εἴ τι δ᾽ἂν διὰ τὸν Χριστὸν πάθωμεν, ἐλπίδα ἀθανασίας καὶ ζωὴν αἰώνιον εὐφροσύνης γεμουσαν ἀπεκδεχόμεθα· ὑμεῖς δὲ οἱ τοῖς εἰδώλοις καὶ τοῖς πεπλανημένοις βασιλεῦσιν δουλεύοντες, καὶ ἐνταῦθα μὲν τοῦ ζῆν κακῶς ἀπαλλαγήσεσθε, κακεὶ δὲ τὸν θάνατον ἕξετε προοίμιον τῆς αἰωνίου κολάσεως, εἰς τὸν τόπον τοῦ κλαυθμοῦ καὶ τοῦ βρυγμοῦ τῶν ὀδόντων ἐκπεμπόμενοι.

[9] Ταῦτα τῆς ἁγίας εἰπούσης, ὁ τριβοῦνος κελεύσει τοῦ ἄρχοντος ἐπέτρεψεν αὐτὴν εἰς τὴν εἱρκτὴν ἐμβληθῆναι, καὶ τὸν διὰ λιμοῦ ὑποστῆναι θάνατον. Ἄγγελοι δὲ Κυρίου λευχειμονοῦντες, ἐπιστάντες αὐτῇ νυκτὸς καὶ τὴν θείαν ὑμνωδίαν σὺν αὐτῇ ἐπιτελέσαντες, ἐνίσχυσαν αὐτὴν, ὥστε σωματικῇς μηκέτι δεηθῆναι βρώσεως. Ὅθεν τινὲς πλησίον ὄντες τῆς φυλακῆς, ἀκούσαντες τῆς τοιαύτης ψαλμωδίας, καὶ νομίσαντες τινὰς τῶν ὁμοπίστων αὐτῆς χριστιανῶν διὰ θυρίδος εἰσεληλυθότας συνψάλλειν αὐτῇ, τὰς θύρας ἀνοίξαντες, καὶ αὐτὴν μόνην ἑωρακότες πρὸς τὸν ἑαυτῆς δεσπότην προσευχομένην, τὸ παράδοξον θαῦμα τῷ ἡγεμόνι ἀνήγγειλαν. Ὁ δὲ, φησίν, θαυμάσας καὶ σπλαγχνισθεὶς πρὸς τὸ δελεάσαι τὴν μάρτυρα, ἐκέλευσεν αὐτῇ ἄρτον καὶ ὕδωρ δοθῆναι· ἡ δὲ μάρτυς οὐ προσεδέξατο τὴν τοιαύτην τροφὴν λέγουσα· Ἔλαιον ἁμαρτωλοῦ μὴ λιπανάτω τὴν κεφαλήν μου, μὴ οὐν ἀπατᾶσθε· ἐγὼ γὰρ τῆς παρ᾽ ὑμῶν τροφῆς οὐκ ἐπιδέομαι, οὐδὲ τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ μου ἀγάπης ἀφίσταμαι· αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐστιν ὁ ἄρτος

τῆς ζωῆς, ἡ ἀληθινὴ ἄμπελος, ἡ τῷ οἰκείῳ αἵματι τοὺς φιλοθέους εὐφραίνουσα. Ἐγνωκὼς οὖν ὁ τριβοῦνος τὴν ἀμετάθετον αὐτῆς ὁμολογίαν, καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὸν ἀληθινὸν Θεὸν πίστιν καὶ ἔνστασιν, ἀνήγαγεν τῷ ἄρχοντι. Ὁ δὲ ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὴν πρὸ τῆς πόλεως πυρὶ παραδοθῆναι, ὥστε μήτε τὸ λείψανον αὐτῆς δυνηθῆναί τινα τῶν ὁμοπίστων κομίσασθαι. Καὶ δὴ ἀναφθείσης τῆς καμίνου, ὑπερβαλλούσης τε φλογὸς ἀρθείσης, φερομένη ἡ μακαρία Ἐρωτιῒς τοῦ ἐμβληθῆναι ἐν αὐτῇ, παρεκάλεσεν τοῦς ἀπάγοντας αὐτὴν στρατιώτας καιρὸν αὐτῇ παρασχεῖν τοῦ προσεύξασθαι, καὶ στᾶσα κατὰ ἀνατολὰς, ἐκτενῶς τὴν εὐχὴν αὐτῆς τῷ Σωτῆρι Θεῷ προσέφερεν λέγουσα· Δέσποτα Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς, ὁ τῶν μαρτύρων στέφανος, ὁ τοὺς ἁγίους τρεῖς παῖδας συγκατελθὼν εἰς τὴν Βαβυλωνίαν κάμινον, κἀκείνους μὲν δροσίσας, τοὺς δὲ βασιλικοὺς ὑπηρέτας φλογίσας, πρὸς τὸ τὸν ἄθεον τύραννον καὶ τοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ ἐπιγνῶναι τὴν σὴν μεγαλειότητα, καὶ νῦν τῇ σῇ δούλῃσυνείσελθε καὶ ἄφλεκτόν με ἐν τῇ καμίνῳ ταύτῃ διαφύλαξον, πρὸς ἔνδειξιν καὶ δόξαν τοῦ παναγίου ὀνόματος τῆς μεγάλης καὶ ἀνεκφράστου σου δυνάμεως· ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν. Μετὰ οὖν τοῦ προσεύξασθαι τὴν ἁγίαν, κατηκόντισαν αὐτὴν οἱ στρατιῶται εἰς τὴν κάμινον· διαιρεθεῖσα δὲ ἡ φλὸξ οὐδὲ τριχὸς τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτῆς ἥψατο, ἀλλ᾽ ἔμεινεν καθόλου ἄφλεκτος. Καὶ τούτου τοῦ παραδόξου θαύματος γενομένου, θάμβος τοὺς στρατιώτας ἔλαβεν ἐπίγνοντας ἐπ᾽ αὐτῇ ἐνδειχθεῖσαν δύναμιν, καὶ ἀπελθόντες ἀπήγγειλαν τῷ ἡγεμόνι καὶ τοῖς τῆς πόλεως τὸ γεγενημένον θαῦμα· ὥστε πολλοὺς πιστεῦσαι τῷ Σωτῆρι Χριστῷ ὁμολογοῦντας καὶ λέγοντας, ὅτι μέγας ἐστὶν ὁ θεὸς τῶν χριστιανῶν, ὁ τοὺς οἰκείους δούλους ἐκ πάσης ἀνάγκης ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν ἀνθρωπίνην ἐλπίδα λυτρούμενος.

[10] Ἐγνωκὼς δὲ ὁ ἄρχων τὴν τῶν πολιτῶν ἀθρόαν μεταβολὴν, καὶ φοβηθεὶς, μήπως ἑτέραις παραδιδομένη βασάνοις, καὶ ἄλλας, θαυματουργίας ἐνδείξηται, καὶ πολλοὺς εἰς τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὁμολογίαν ἐπισπάσηται, ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὴν τὸν διὰ ξίφους ὑπομεῖναι θάνατον. Δεξαμένη δὲ ἡ ἁγία τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Ἐρωτιῒς τὴν τοσαύτην ἀπόφασιν, καὶ εἰς τὸν τόπον παραγενομένη τῆς αὐτῆς τελειώσεως, στᾶσα κατὰ ἀνατολὰς προσηύξατο πρὸς Κύριον λέγουσα· Εὐχαριστῶ σοι, δέσποτα Χριστὲ ὁ Θεός μου, ὅτι τὸ ἀσθενὲς τῆς ψυχῆς μου καὶ τοῦ σώματος ἐνίσχυσας, καὶ τιμῆς μαρτυρικῆς διὰ τῆς ὑπομονῆς κατηξίωσας. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ταύτην μου τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν πλήρωσον, ἵνα μὴ δὲ, μετὰ τὴν τοῦ βίου τούτου μέτάστασίν μου, χωρισθῶ τῆς ἁγίας δούλης σου Καπετωλίνης τῆς ἐμῆς κυρίας, ἥτις πρὸ ἐμοῦ νομίμως ἀθλήσασα τοῦ στεφάνου τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἠξίωται. Ἀλλὰ καὶ νῦν ἱκετεύω σε, δέσποτα Κύριε ὁ Θεός μου, κἀμὲ τῆς μερίδος τοῦ κλήρου τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ φωτί σου καταξίωσον, καὶ τοῖς τὴν μνήμην τῆς ἡμῶν τελειώσεως ἐπιτέλουσι δώρησαι ἐν μὲν τῇ παρούσῇ ζωῇ τὴν αὐτάρκειαν, πάντα διαβολικόν τε καὶ ἀνθρώπινον πειρασμὸν ἀποδιώκων ἐξ αὐτῶν, τοῦ σοῦ φόβου καὶ πόθου πλήρωσον· ἐν δὲ τῷ μέλλοντι αἰῶνι, κοινωνοὺς αὐτοὺς ἀνάδειξον τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων σου ἀγαθῶν· ὑπόδειγμα γὰρ τοῖς σὲ ποθοῦσιν τὸ ἑκούσιόν σου πάθος ἐν τῷ τιμίῳ σου σταυρῷ γέγονεν εἰς ἀνάστασιν ζωῆς αἰωνίου, ὅτι σὺ εἶ Θεὸς μόνος, καί σοι πρέπει ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν. Ταῦτα τοίνυν αὐτῆς προσευξαμένης καὶ τῷ ξίφει τμηθείσης τὴν κεφαλὴν, ταῖς τῶν ἁγίων ἀγγέλων χερσὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἐναπέθετο, οἵπερ καὶ παρέστησαν αὐτὴν τῷ ἀγωνοθέτῃ Χριστῷ. Ἐγένετο δὲ ἡ τελείωσις τῆς μὲν μακαρίας Καπετωλίνης μηνὶ ὀκτωβρίῳ ΚΖ, τῆς δὲ ἁγίας Ἐρωτιΐδος, τῷ αὐτῷ μηνὶ ΚΗ· ὧν ταῖς μνήμαις κοινωνοῦντες ἡμεῖς μέχρι τέλους φυλαττόμεθα πνευματικῆς χαρᾶς καὶ εὐφροσύνης πληρούμενοι κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον· Ἐμνήσθην τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ νὐφράνθην, καὶ πάλιν…

St. Capitolina is set before the judge, Since many great and triumphant martyrs, who conquered the forces opposed to them in the name of the Lord, so that they were magnified by those who hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, there are deservedly numbered among the unconquered bands the holy martyr of Christ Capitolina ^b and her handmaid by name Eroteis, who fighting faithfully ^c trampled down the forces of the enemies. For at that time the holy Capitolina, being seized, was denounced to a certain Zelicinthius, then governor of Cappadocia ^d, Licinius being emperor in the regions of the East. Captured then by those who had been sent for this, and bound with chains, she is brought before the governor as he sat in the stadium and watched the contest of the horses. When this was done, the whole assembly of the people resounded with groaning, as if they grieved for her lot, and counted it a common disgrace, that the ignominy brought upon the martyr, on account of her birth, illustrious above all others at Caesarea, was imputed to the whole city. But when the herald had repressed the clamour and tumult of the people, and had enjoined quiet on all, the accuser ^e addressed the governor: Since your greatness sedulously cooperates with the most mighty emperor, who has entire care for the cult of the Gods, and thus makes inquiry into those who are called Christians, we, having found that by this woman the Gods are denied, but Christ openly held as God, set her before your tribunal, that she may receive the rewards of obstinacy.

[2] The judge said: Let the accused state her name, condition and homeland. who, neither by flatteries, The blessed martyr of Christ, then, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered: By the name indeed laid on me by my parents I am called Capitolina; my temporal city is this very town; but in name I and all who love Christ are called Christians, and we all have one city, the Jerusalem above, Hebr. XII, 23 the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in the heavens. The governor said: I have heard that you were born of a noble house, and from among the foremost of Cappadocia: do not then by some insane counsel brand your ancestors with this disgrace, that you should seem to have sprouted as an unworthy fruit from that stock, but rather obey the laws of the emperors and sacrifice to the Gods. The holy Martyr of Christ answered: You indeed, O judge, thinking earthly things, look up to my fleshly race, and suppose that my ancestors are dishonoured by me because I contend for the faith of Christ; but I especially wonder at them for this, that they put forth not only martyrs, but also masters and heralds of the divine word, like certain noble and beautiful branches. Of whom ^f that great Firmilian, detesting your insane error, and giving faith to the Gospel preaching, as a leader of those whom unbelief makes blind showed the way to the light of the sun of justice, and became the shepherd of this flock; and I, keeping to his footsteps, will confess the Lord and Saviour Christ, King of kings, possessing everlasting authority and dominion. But your emperor, who draws away from life and leads to death, I will not obey.

[3] nor by threats conquered, The judge said: And yet the Christ whom you confess procures death for you as you fall away from the Gods, whereas I and the emperor give our happiness and life to you if you obey. The martyr says: We have learned from scripture that there are two lives, and again two deaths, the one temporal, the other eternal. Those who love this temporal life, and are carried away by desire of it, and do nothing that is noble or that leads to virtue, will be handed over to eternal death, that is to pains never to be ended. But those who for Christ's sake despise punishments, and for piety's sake meet death, will escape eternal death and inherit the true life, in which there is no pain, nor mourning, nor groaning. With this mind, therefore, I cannot adore a false God or rather an image, but at all times and in every place I adore the only living God.

[4] after a glorious confession of the faith, he orders her taken back to prison. The governor said: Does Serapis not seem to you a great God ^g? — Neither great nor small do I esteem him, said the martyr, but more ignoble than any brute, more useless than any lifeless thing: for stones and wood serve men for building houses; but images of the Gods bring ruin to souls and destruction to their worshippers. Finely then of them the prophet says: Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them Ps. CXIII, 8., since, the King and Lord of divine glory being abandoned, you fit divine names to wood and stones, works of the hands of men, and change creatures into the creator. For whereas he has given to the sons of men who hope in him to become sons of God, so that we are made partakers of the divine nature and sons of the most high, according to the oracle of the Psalms, you have come to such foolishness as to prefer images to the divine glory, and to serve unclean spirits, who through wood and stones thrust you into destruction. But I, as long as the spirit of life shall be in my nostrils, will not cease to adore the omnipotent and only Creator God, and his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, him I mean who has given me his Holy Spirit, by whose light I am led to the knowledge of the truth and the confession of the saving faith. Then one of those standing by, interrupting the martyr ^h, says: See, from your own words God has a Son: how then do you profess one God? You bring forward two and confess that you adore three, although you deny our gods. The martyr said: Our religion is altogether true for those who are of sound eyes and pure mind: we indeed, shrinking from a multitude of gods, believe in the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, a consubstantial [i] Trinity in one divinity. But to you, whose eyes are blind and whose ears are closed, the same things seem incredible and absurd: for which reason, erring, you show worship to idols. Then the judge, moved with anger, ordered her to be kept in custody; for he was about to set out from the city with the legion, by order of the emperor. The holy martyr, as she was being hurried to prison, cried out rejoicing: Ps. LXXXIII. How beloved are your tabernacles ^k, O Lord of hosts, my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord; and what is read thereafter.

[5] Warned of these things, St. Eroteis runs to her and her commands When these things had been so done, one of those who were present, humouring blessed Capitolina, ran to her house, and announced all to the handmaid Eroteis. She, when she was about to give to the fire the kneaded flour mixed with leaven, leaving everything in the midst ^l, ran to her mistress held in prison, committing the flour to the nourisher of all, the Lord himself. After she had kissed the chains of the holy martyr, she addressed her: Blessed are you, she said, O my lady, that you despise this temporal life and desire that future and eternal one: but pray for me your handmaid that I too may become a sharer of your contest and of the sufferings of Christ. The holy martyr of Christ said: Be here tomorrow, that you may be a witness of my death: and do you also with great zeal despise present goods,

and strive after eternal ones: for those are not to be feared Matth, X, 28. who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Having heard these things Eroteis returned home, and, the loaves being baked, came back to the prison with the food. But the holy martyr of Christ, praising her good will, yet refused to touch the nourishment ^m: Matth. IV, 5. Deut. VIII, 3. Not on bread alone, she says, shall man live, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God: having then the heavenly food, the bread of life, I have no need of these things: but distribute the loaves to the poor. Further, sell whatever I possess, and divide it among the needy ⁿ. For on the journey to heaven we must take away this provision, that Christ may say to us ^o: Matth. XXV, 34, 35. Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; and other things like these. But when you learn that the sentence of my contest is now to be carried out, be present at my death.

[6] returning home she carries out, soon strengthened by the Lord appearing to her, Blessed Eroteis, having carried out these commands, cried to the Lord: Lord Jesus Christ, who hast deigned to grant to all, not only men but also women, not only the just but also sinners, the knowledge of the truth, who hast granted blessed and holy Thecla [p] to contend for thy name, strengthen me too, thy humble servant, and add to me courage and strength, fortified by which I may confess thee before men; give me also fortitude that I may constantly bear the punishments inflicted on my body: for thou art the hope and help of those who are destitute of aid! we honour thee with praises for ever. Amen. Having poured forth this prayer with groaning she falls asleep for a little, and sees the Lord appearing to her and speaking: Take heart, woman! your faith has saved you: for I shall ever be, as you have asked, your helper in the many things which you are to suffer for my name. Blessed Eroteis, awakened, gives thanks to God with joy: My soul magnifies the Lord, she says, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my saviour.

[7] [she rebukes the judge, is seized, and, her mistress dead, answers the questioning bravely,] On the next day, when the judge had taken his seat and had ordered blessed Capitolina to be brought in, Eroteis, hearing that her mistress stood at the tribunal, leaving everything in the midst, ran to the judge and attacked him with stones [q]: Leader of darkness, she said, enemy of truth! are you not ashamed publicly to question a servant of God who is also the first citizen of the city? her who, cursing the cult of idols, has come to the true God. But the judge orders Eroteis to be seized, and the blessed martyr of Christ Capitolina to perish by the sword. The sentence having been pronounced, then, the holy martyr of Christ Capitolina, setting out to the place appointed for her contest, received a blessed death, having found a short road to heaven and life eternal. On the 27th day of October the holy martyr of Christ Capitolina suffered, and when pious men had found her body near the city, they laid it down in the very place of her martyrdom, that as a most unconquerable tower and impregnable wall it might break the forces of the demons and the insults of men. Afterwards by order of the governor blessed Eroteis, bound with chains by the soldiers, was dragged to the tribunal. And the judge questioned her in these words: What is your name, what your condition? The holy martyr of Christ Eroteis answered: From my parents indeed I received the name Eroteis, but from our Saviour J.-C. I and all followers of the truth are called Christians. Further I am the servant of blessed and holy Capitolina, who has lately fought well, and, having conquered that devil who rages through you, has finished the course, kept the faith and finally gone away to God into a place shining with light and into the tabernacles of the just, where the voice of exultation and salvation resounds; and I pray that I may become a sharer of her torments, that I may at length be able to enjoy the goods which are promised to those who have fought even to the shedding of blood. My homeland is this city, but I earnestly desire to pass to the heavenly metropolis. Then the judge: how is it that you, being of servile condition, have dared not to comply with the word of the emperor, and to attack me with stones? The martyr of Christ answered: In Christ Jesus my Lord there is neither slave nor free: for this reason our redeemer Christ, when he went to his passion, bore the slap of a slave that he might free all from the yoke of slavery and the passions of corruption, and might bestow on all alike, in proportion to their love for God, the glory of the kingdom.

[8] [soon tested with thongs and rods, she spurns the intercession of those standing by,] At length the judge, inflamed by the boldness of the martyr, orders her first to be stretched on four stakes and beaten on the shoulders with thongs [r]. After several hours, however, when blessed Eroteis continually prayed to the Lord for whose sake she was being tormented, and received the punishments constantly and with cheerful countenance, the governor commanded that her back should be worked on with rods [s]. When this had been done for a long time and the rods themselves had been broken to pieces, the noble martyr, far from ceasing to give thanks to the most loving God, rather, just as a statue struck by a hammer gives out a very great noise, she too poured out prayers to God with a louder voice [t]. Ps. XXX, 1, 3, 12. I will exalt thee, O Lord, because thou hast upheld me: and hast not made my enemies to rejoice over me. O Lord, thou hast brought forth my soul from hell, thou hast saved me from those who go down to the pit. O Lord my God, I will confess to thee for ever. Grant me, O Lord, fortitude to the end, that, made a sharer of thy saving passion, I may come to the joy of thy eternal and ineffable bridal chamber Rom. VIII, 18.. For the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in thy Saints. After which prayers, the tribune and provost standing by [v] urged the judge to have pity on her and release her. But she, as if driven by the divine and life-giving Spirit, cried out: I am a Christian, and I count the blows you inflict as delights and the foundation of my joy: if then you wish to assign me to greater torments, do your business quickly! for the first blows I have not felt at all. Then the tribune, interrupting her: Have you then not felt the torments? — Not at all, answered the martyr: for you, who suffer no pain in the body, have not such strength as is supplied to us, as consolation and help, by Christ the true God and physician of souls and bodies: do not then deceive yourselves: for you will never be able to take away my love towards my benefactor! The optio [x] of the soldiers who were present then cried out: If I held her in my power, I would throw her flesh to the dogs. To him the blessed martyr of Christ Eroteis answered: If we suffer anything for Christ, we certainly hope for immortality and life eternal and full of joy; you on the contrary, who serve idols and erring kings, will first of all leave this wicked life, and then undergo death, the forerunner of that eternal punishment, which you will pay when cast into the place of groaning and gnashing of teeth.

[9] [by night in prison she is refreshed by angels, and on the next day, unharmed by fire] When these things had been said, the tribune, by mandate of the governor, ordered blessed Eroteis to be taken back to prison and there killed by hunger [z]. But angels of the Lord clothed in white garments were present to her by night, and singing divine hymns so strengthened her that she more easily went without bodily food. Hence the keepers of the prison, when they heard the heavenly measures, and thought that some of the Christians had entered through the window and were singing psalms with her, opened the doors and, finding Eroteis alone, praying to the Lord, reported the wholly wonderful thing to their commander. When he wondered at it, moved with compassion he ordered bread and water to be set before the martyr. But the martyr refused the food offered: Ps. CXL, 5. Let the oil of the sinner, she says, not fatten my head: do not be deceived by vain hope: I have no need of your food, nor shall I ever depart from the love of my Christ, for he is the bread of life and the true vine which as it were with its own blood delights the pious. When the tribune therefore heard that the martyr's confession and her faith in God remained unchangeable, he brought her back to the governor, who decreed that blessed Eroteis should be burned with fire outside the city, in such a way that Christians could not carry off any relics of her. Soon a furnace was kindled [aa], and a huge flame rising: as blessed Eroteis was being hurried to the fire, she obtained from the soldiers leave to pray. Standing then with her face turned to the East, she implored God the saviour: Lord God! crown of martyrs, who didst go down into the Babylonian furnace with the three boys, and didst bedew them, but didst consume the king's servants with flame, that the impious tyrant and his followers might recognize thy power, come down now also to thy servant, and keep me untouched by the flame, that the holy name of thy great and ineffable power may be shown forth and praised, for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory of Father and Son and Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen. The prayer being finished, the soldiers thrust the martyr into the furnace with goads, and she, the flame being divided into two parts, and not even one hair being touched, remains wholly unharmed. At so great a portent fear seizes the soldiers, who, being made witnesses of the martyr's power, narrate the thing to their commander and the city. So it comes about that many openly profess Christ and break out into these words: great is the God of the Christians, who frees his servants from danger beyond all hope.

[10] she at length consummates her martyrdom by the sword. But when the governor heard that so many citizens were being converted to the Christian faith, fearing lest perhaps the martyr, tried with new punishments, might work other prodigies, and thence draw not a few to Christ, he commanded that she should at last perish by the sword. Having received the sentence, then, the blessed martyr of Christ is led to the place of punishment, and with her face turned to the East she said: I give thanks to thee, O Lord my God, that thou hast sustained me, weak in soul and body, and through constancy hast also deemed me worthy of the honour of martyrdom. Fulfil then my desire, that after my departure from this life I may not be separated from thy holy servant Capitolina my mistress, who after a lawful contest has been held worthy of the crown of justice. But now, I implore thee, O Lord my God, call me also to a share in the inheritance of the saints in thy light, but to those who keep our memory [bb], grant in this life what is sufficient, and, every diabolic and human temptation being driven off, fill them with thy fear and love, and in the world to come make them partakers of all the goods thou hast promised. For to all who love thee thy voluntary passion has become an example of the resurrection of eternal life. For thou art the only God, and to thee is glory due for ever. Amen. Afterwards, her head being cut off, the martyr laid down her soul in the hands of the holy angels, who stood it before Christ the president of the contest. The death of blessed Capitolina took place on the twenty

-seventh of October, and that of blessed Eroteis on the twenty-eighth day, and we, sharing in their memory, keep it to the end [cc], full of spiritual gladness and joy, according to that saying: Ps. LXXVI, 4 I remembered God and was delighted and again…

ANNOTATIONS.

p. This most celebrated martyr is venerated on the 23rd day of September.

q. After such prolix prayers and the conversation with Christ, who would not stick at a thing of this sort? I know indeed that that deed could have seemed glorious to St. Eroteis, and could have been done without violation of any religion; nor does anything stand in the way of the noble woman's having accomplished at risk of her life what seemed right to her. Nevertheless, to say what I think, I would the more willingly suppose that this was added or changed by the writer, because the Menology of Basil is silent about this notable deed. Perhaps the ill-advised writer put deeds in place of words, stones in place of insults or reproofs.

r. St. Capitolina, a woman of noble condition, was condemned to beheading, no other punishment going before: St. Eroteis, however, as a slave, is treated more cruelly. She is beaten first with thongs, and then with rods. Of these punishments read Gallonio De SS Martyrum cruciatibus, chapter IV., Sagittarius De martyrum cruciatibus, Frankfurt 1796. and Ruinart Acta martyum, page 171 in the note, and following, edition of 1713.

s. The punishment of the rods is not narrated by the Menology of Basil; the Menaea, however, do not report the thongs first applied for the scourging, but on the other hand are entirely silent about the fire, which the Menology of Basil mentions together with the Acts. But since abridgements of the Acts, such as we find in the Menaea and in the Menology of Basil, cannot comprise everything, nothing can be deduced from this against the trustworthiness of the Acts. The Slavic Prologue, which treads in the footsteps of the Menaea, expresses in Slavonic, as I have heard from Father J. Martinov, iron rods for the Greek word ῥάβδοις.

t. See the annotation under the letter k.

v. The single scholium with which our Acts are adorned in the Coislin manuscript occurs in this place. For according to what was noted by the distinguished J. H. Nolte, above the word τριβοῦνος is written ὁ τοῦ βήματος, and above the word πραίπόσιτος first ἡγούμενος, over which again is written ἡγεμών. Whether by these explanations he wished to indicate the kinship of the word tribune with tribunal (in Greek βήμα), and the sense of the word provost, I simply do not know, though I suspect it. Further that the tribune, provost and optio, of whom below, migrated here from the Acts of St. Theogenes I have no doubt at all Acta SS. volume I of January, page 135..

x. The name and part of the sayings the writer has borrowed. Of the office of optio there has been frequent treatment: go, if you please, to Pitiscus in the Lexicon of Roman Antiquities, the word Optio, Ruinart Acta martyrum, page 112, page 87., and the much-praised work of Becker Röm. Alterthümer, volume III, part II, pages 420, 421..

z. You will note here many very doubtful things from the Acts of St. Theogenes, especially since in all these things we lack the authority both of the Menology of Basil and of the Menaea.

aa. The furnace is suspect to Tillemont Mémoires ecclésiastiques, volume V, page 648.; yet examples are not wanting for vindicating the Acts Compare Sagittarius, martyrum cruciatus, page 181., nor in torturing slaves were judges much hindered by laws or customs. For the rest, since the punishment of fire itself decreed against St. Eroteis is confirmed by the authority of the Menology of Basil, it is not worth the trouble to shake out the circumstances of the matter.

bb. More intolerable than all the other difficulties seems to Tillemont the prayer of St. Eroteis. Was that learned man unaware that the word αὐταρκείαν sufficiency, and the other things that regard diabolic temptations, in the same sense by the holy

martyr was uttered as it is written by St. Paul to Timothy I Tim. VI, 6. 8. 9.: Now piety with sufficiency is great gain … but having food and wherewith to be covered, let us be content with these. For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation. As for the words read in the same prayer about making memory of the martyrs at some time, we shall sacrifice them when we find anything of offence in them.

cc. From the last words of the Acts it is rightly concluded that they were written several years after the death of SS. Capitolina and Eroteis. But these things do not help to define the age of the earlier writer.

* read Καπετωλίνα

* more correctly Σάραπις

Notes

a. Coislin Codex CX is written in two columns, each of which consists of thirty lines. The title of the history of the holy martyrs, written in cinnabar: Μαρτύριον τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων γυναικῶν Καπετωλίνης καὶ Ἐρωτιΐδος. The punctuation in this codex is the same as in the Mazarin codex, containing the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, of which Valois discoursed at more length in the preface of that work. This, more or less, is what the distinguished J. H. Nolte wrote to us. We present the text as we received it, only the punctuation being changed.

b. The name Capitolina is met with everywhere in inscriptions and historical documents: everywhere in October volume XII. the Acts, rather in the Latin manner, it is written Καπετωλίνα, which we keep in the Greek, and which we judge should be restored in the holy martyr's reply, number 2, for Καπετωλία. Ερωτηΐς, or Ἐρωτιΐς (as by common itacism it is read in the Acts), is a very rare name, which we have found in no other document. Most names of this kind belong to the dialects or to the poetic language, and are derived from masculines in ευς [Compare Pott in Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung, volume IX, page 177 and following.]; and here I seem to myself to detect a dialectal form. For Ἐρωτηΐς stands for the known Ἐρωτίς [In Muratori, Inscriptiones, page MCCLXX, 7 and MDLXXXIX, 7.], just as in the inscriptions of Lycia we read Ναννίς and Ναννηΐς in Boeckh [Boeckh, Corpus Inscriptionum, volume III, numbers 4215 and 4244.].

c. Tillemont wonders at the word νομίμως, which also occurs below at number 9 [Mémoires ecclésiastiques, volume V, page 648.], because St. Eroteis, by presenting herself to the judge and attacking him with stones, did not keep the laws of the church. It would hardly need noting that that word, taken from 2 Tim. 2, 5, by no means refers to laws kept or not kept, but to the fortitude with which, endowed with it, the servant of God underwent martyrdom and kept the law or faith.

d. From what we said above on the kinship of the Acts of St. Theogenes and of St. Capitolina, it is evident that the governor Zelicinthius cannot be taken as a genuine name. And indeed, even if we should admit that former tribune Zelicinthius, who occurs in the Acts of St. Theogenes, the governor Zelicinthius would still give offence here. For if you say that both roles are played by one and the same man, who will accept that a governor was made into a military tribune? For Zelicinthius, of whom the Acts of St. Theogenes treat, died in the tribunate. If you judge that there were two men of the same name, everyone will conjecture that the second was fabricated on the pattern of the first. Leaving aside the name of the governor, then, let us now note a few things about the magistrate before whom St. Capitolina is here set. Cappadocia at that time had a consular legate, with the title of legatus Augusti pro praetore, who is accordingly rightly called in Greek ἄρχων [Compare Boecking, notitia dignitatum, volume II, page 147; Becker and Marquardt, Röm. Alterthümer, volume III, part I, pages 160 and 161.]. We, however, have everywhere used for ἄρχων the appellation of governor, since, by the witness of Macer, this is the general name, by which both proconsuls and legates of Caesar, and all ruling provinces, even if they are senators, … are called [Digest, book I, title XVIII.]. Besides this proper title of the dignity, he is called here and there in the Acts ἡγεμών, δικαστής. The mention of a single legion, however, towards the end of number 4 seems to me to have been taken by the later writer of the Acts from the Acts of St. Theogenes: for Vespasian had added two legions together with a consular legate to the province [Suetonius, on Vespasian, chapter 8.]. Finally of the emperor Licinius it has been said above at number 13.

e. Commentariensis was the proper name of the one who took charge of the accused, took down the acts, brought those to be examined to the tribunal, as is abundantly demonstrated from very many places in Pitiscus [Lexicon antiqq. romanarum, under the word Commentariensis.]. It may suffice to have brought forward the Acts of SS. Claudius and his companions [In Ruinart, page 266.], and Mark the deacon in the Acts of St. Porphyry [Acta SS. volume VI of February, page 660.]. The functions of this office do not seem to be much distinguished from those which are proper to the cornicularii. The commentariensis was a minister of the governor or of the prefect of the legion. The cornicularius, however, belonged rather to the administration of the legion itself [Compare Becker, Röm. Alterthümer, volume III, part II, pages 419 and 420.].

f. On the bond of relationship of Firmilian with St. Capitolina see what we said in the Preliminary Commentary, number 15.

g. Of the cult of Serapis we have treated in the Preliminary Commentary, number 14.

h. St. Capitolina's replies concerning the mystery of the Holy Trinity Tillemont judges too clear to have been written before the council of Nicaea. A glorious confession indeed is this: I believe in the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, a consubstantial Trinity in one divinity. None of these words, taken separately, certainly gives trouble. But that in so few and so aptly selected words, in the age of Diocletian, there should be stated a dogma known indeed to all from the beginnings of the church, but never before the fourth century so skilfully conceived in a scholastic formula, I too could scarcely believe. Let us admit then that certain things were added or changed in the confession of the Trinity by the writer after the Arian heresy. No detriment will thereby be suffered by the trustworthiness of the Acts, as far as concerns the main heads of the history and most of the words.

k. If anyone contends that this citation of the Psalm, as also a few others here and there not aptly brought into the discourses of the holy martyrs, was added by the last writer of the Acts in place of that sense of soul with which St. Eroteis was moved, I shall not greatly oppose him. But I should wish him who too severely disapproves of such places here and there to attend to how familiar to Christians in the first centuries were the prayers of the church and the readings of Sacred Scripture [Compare Honoré de Ste-Marie, Réflexions sur la critique. Dissertation IV, article VI, volume II, page 39 and following.]

l. St. Eroteis appears in several places of the Acts as of a fervid character and most prompt to bold action, with scarcely any time left for consideration. In what we read here, therefore, there is nothing that I would reject, except perhaps these words τῇ τροφῇ τῶν ἁπάντων which do not fit well here, and seem to have been taken from the words of St. Capitolina at number 6.

m. What the Acts have about the food rejected by St. Capitolina is doubtful to me, because of a similar place in the Acts of St. Theogenes, as I noted above in the Preliminary Commentary, number 12.

n. Of the goods divided among the needy the Menaea treat, while the Basilian is silent. The Menaea add besides that the slaves were given liberty, and whence they took this I do not know. For the rest, we regret that a thing entirely in keeping with Christian manners is not proved by a more ancient testimony. But the orders of her mistress St. Eroteis could carry out only in part, since on the next day she was thrown into chains.

o. This place is certainly of the kind that it would be impious to expunge from the acts.