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About the same period, Macedonius, Theodulus, and Tatian, who
were Phrygians by birth, courageously endured martyrdom. A temple of
Misos, a city of Phrygia, having been reopened by the governor of
the province, after it had been closed many years, these martyrs
entered therein by night, and destroyed the images. As other
individuals were arrested, and were on the point of being punished for
the deed, they avowed themselves the actors in the transaction. They
might have escaped all further punishment by offering sacrifices to
idols; but the governor could not persuade them to accept acquittal on
these terms. His persuasions being ineffectual, he maltreated them in
a variety of forms, and finally extended them on a gridiron, beneath
which a fire had been lighted. While they were being consumed, they
said to the governor, "Amachus (for that was his name), "if you
desire cooked flesh, give orders that our bodies may be turned with the
other side to the fire, in order that we may not seem, to your taste,
half cooked." Thus did these men nobly endure and lay down their life
amid the punishments.
It is said that Busiris also obtained renown at Ancyra, a city of
Galatia, by his brilliant and most manly confession of religion. He
belonged to the heresy denominated Eucratites; the governor of the
province apprehended and designed to maltreat him for ridiculing the
pagans. He led him forth publicly to the torture chamber and commanded
that he should be elevated. Busiris raised both hands to his head so
as to leave his sides exposed, and told the governor that it would be
useless for the executioners to lift him up to the instrument of torture
and afterwards to lower him, as he was ready without this to yield to
the tortures as much as might be desired. The governor was surprised
at this proposition; but his astonishment was increased by what
followed, for Busiris remained firm, holding up both hands and
receiving the blows while his sides were being torn with hooks,
according to the governor's direction. Immediately afterwards,
Busiris was consigned to prison, but was released not long
subsequently, on the announcement of the death of Julian. He lived
till the reign of Theodosius, renounced his former heresy, and joined
the Catholic Church.
It is said that about this period, Basil, presbyter of the church of
Ancyra, and Eupsychius, a noble of Caesarea in Cappadocia, who
had but just taken to himself a wife and was still a bridegroom,
terminated their lives by martyrdom. I believe that Eupsychius was
condemned in consequence of the demolition of the temple of Fortune,
which, as I have already stated, excited the anger of the emperor
against all the inhabitants of Caesarea. Indeed, all the actors in
this transaction were condemned, some to death, and others to
banishment. Basil had long manifested great zeal in defense of the
faith, and had opposed the Arians during the reign of Constantius;
hence the partisans of Eudoxius had prohibited him from holding public
assemblies. On the accession of Julian, however, he traveled hither
and thither, publicly and openly exhorting the Christians to cleave to
their own doctrines, and to refrain from defiling themselves with pagan
sacrifices and libations. He urged them to account as nothing the
honors which the emperor might bestow upon them, such honors being but
of short duration, and leading to eternal infamy. His zeal had
already rendered him an object of suspicion and of hatred to the
pagans, when one day he chanced to pass by and see them offering
sacrifice. He sighed deeply, and uttered a prayer to the effect that
no Christian might be suffered to fall into similar delusion. He was
seized on the spot, and conveyed to the governor of the province.
Many tortures were inflicted on him; and in the manly endurance of
this anguish he received the crown of martyrdom.
Even if these cruelties were perpetrated contrary to the will of the
emperor, yet they serve to prove that his reign was signalized by
martyrs neither ignoble nor few.
For the sake of clearness, I have related all these occurrences
collectively, although the martyrdoms really occurred at different
periods.
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