“Eusebius of Caesarea - Persecution under Nero and the martyrdom of Peter and Paul - original Greek Text with English translation”

From Historia Ecclesiastica, 2.25.

 

Amazon Kindle Reading Device Click on picture for more details. For UK click here. -------------- Relevant books available at Amazon TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS History of the Church Andrew Louth ed. -----   Cameron and Hall ----- In Praise of Constantine: Historical Study and New Translation of Eusebius' Tricennial Orations (University of California publications, classical studies ; v. 15) ----- W. J. Ferrar ----- Eusebii Pamphili Evangelicae Praeparations, Tomus I (Greek Edition) Edwin Hamilton Gifford ----- Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea - the Ecclesiastical History and the Martyrs of Palestine. Two Volumes ----- Eusebius ... On the Theophania Or Divine Manifestation of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Tr. with Notes: To Which Is Prefixed a Vindication of the ... of That Distinguished Writer, by S. Lee ----- Notley and Safrai ----- STUDIES   Eusebius, Christianity and Judaism Harold W. Attridge -----   Constantine and Eusebius Timothy Barnes -----   Glenn Chesnut -----   Robert Grant -----   Eusebius of Caesarea Against Paganism Aryeh Kofsky -----  Eusebius of Caesarea and the Arian Crisis C. Luibheid -----   Christ as Mediator: A Study of the Theologies of Eusebius of Caesarea, Marcellus of Ancyra, and Athanasius of Alexandria Jon M. Robertson -----  Eusebius of Caesarea Wallace-Hadrill

When the government of Nero was now firmly established, he began to plunge into unholy pursuits, and armed himself even against the religion of the God of the universe. To describe the greatness of his depravity does not lie within the plan of the present work. As there are many indeed that have recorded his history in most accurate narratives, every one may at his pleasure learn from them the coarseness of the man’s extraordinary madness, under the influence of which, after he had accomplished the destruction of so many myriads without any reason, he ran into such blood-guiltiness that he did not spare even his nearest relatives and dearest friends, but destroyed his mother and his brothers and his wife, with very many others of his own family as he would private and public enemies, with various kinds of deaths. But with all these things this particular in the catalogue of his crimes was still wanting, that he was the first of the emperors who showed himself an enemy of the divine religion. The Roman Tertullian is likewise a witness of this. He writes as follows: “Examine your records. There you will find that Nero was the first that persecuted this doctrine, particularly then when after subduing all the east, he exercised his cruelty against all at Rome. We glory in having such a man the leader in our punishment. For whoever knows him can understand that nothing was condemned by Nero unless it was something of great excellence.” Thus publicly announcing himself as the first among God’s chief enemies, he was led on to the slaughter of the apostles. It is, therefore, recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and that Peter likewise was crucified under Nero. This account of Peter and Paul is substantiated by the fact that their names are preserved in the cemeteries of that place even to the present day. It is confirmed likewise by Caius, a member of the Church, who arose under Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome. He, in a published disputation with Proclus, the leader of the Phrygian heresy, speaks as follows concerning the places where the sacred corpses of the aforesaid apostles are laid: “But I can show the trophies of the apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian way, you will find the trophies of those who laid the foundations of this church.” And that they both suffered martyrdom at the same time is stated by Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, in his epistle to the Romans, in the following words: “You have thus by such an admonition bound together the planting of Peter and of Paul at Rome and Corinth. For both of them planted and likewise taught us in our Corinth. And they taught together in like manner in Italy, and suffered martyrdom at the same time.”

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Migne Greek Text
Patrologiae Graecae Cursus Completus
Patrologia Graeca

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