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This period produced divine and illustrious martyrs, above all whose
praises have ever been sung and who have been celebrated for courage,
whether among Greeks or barbarians, in the person of Dorotheus and
the servants that were with him in the palace. Although they received
the highest honors from their masters, and were treated by them as
their own children, they esteemed reproaches and trials for religion,
and the many forms of death that were invented against them, as, in
truth, greater riches than the glory and luxury of this life.
We will describe the manner in which one of them ended his life, and
leave our readers to infer from his case the sufferings of the others.
A certain man was brought forward in the above-mentioned city, before
the rulers of whom we have spoken. He was then commanded to
sacrifice, but as he refused, he was ordered to be stripped and raised
on high and beaten with rods over his entire body, until, being
conquered, he should, even against his will, do what was commanded.
But as he was unmoved by these sufferings, and his bones were already
appearing, they mixed vinegar with salt and poured it upon the mangled
parts of his body. As he scorned these agonies, a gridiron and fire
were brought forward. And the remnants of his body, like flesh
intended for eating, were placed on the fire, not at once, lest he
should expire instantly, but a little at a time. And those who placed
him on the pyre were not permitted to desist until, after such
sufferings, he should assent to the things commanded. But he held his
purpose firmly, and victoriously gave up his life while the tortures
were still going on. Such was the martyrdom of one of the servants of
the palace, who was indeed well worthy of his name, for he was called
Peter. The martyrdoms of the rest, though they were not inferior to
his, we will pass by for the sake of brevity, recording only that
Dorotheus and Gorgonius, with many others of the royal household,
after varied sufferings, ended their lives by strangling, and bore
away the trophies of God-given victory.
At this time Anthimus, who then prosided over the church in
Nicomedia, was beheaded for his testimony to Christ. A great
multitude of martyrs were added to him, a conflagration having broken
out in those very days in the palace at Nicomedia, I know not how,
which through a false suspicion was laid to our people. Entire
families of the pious in that place were put to death in masses at the
royal command, some by the sword, and others by fire. It is reported
that with a certain divine and indescribable eagerness men and women
rushed into the fire. And the executioners bound a large number of
others and put them on boats and threw them into the depths of the sea.
And those who had been esteemed their masters considered it necessary
to dig up the bodies of the imperial servants, who had been committed
to the earth with suitable burial and cast them into the sea, lest
any, as they thought, regarding them as gods, might worship them
lying in their sepulchers.
Such things occurred in Nicomedia at the beginning of the
persecution. But not long after, as persons in the country called
Melitene, and others throughout Syria, attempted to usurp the
government, a royal edict directed that the rulers of the churches
everywhere should lye thrown into prison and bonds. What was to be
seen after this exceeds all description. A vast multitude were
imprisoned in every place; and the prisons everywhere, which had long
before been prepared for murderers and robbers of graves, were filled
with bishops, presbyters and deacons, readers and exorcists, so that
room was no longer left in them for those condemned for crimes. And as
other decrees followed the first, directing that those in prison if
they would sacrifice should be permitted to depart in freedom, but that
those who refused should be harassed with many tortures, how could any
one, again, number the multitude of martyrs in every province, and
especially of those in Africa, and Mauritania, and Thebais, and
Egypt? From this last country many went into other cities and
provinces, and became illustrious through martyrdom.
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