Evidence ID
E00279Saint Name
Anonymous Martyrs : S00060
Priskos, Malchos and Alexandros, martyrs in Caesarea Maritima, ob. 253/260 : S00240Saint Name in Source
ΠρίσκοςType of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)Evidence not before
311Evidence not after
325Activity not before
253Activity not after
325Place of Evidence - Region
Palestine with SinaiPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Caesarea MaritimaPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Caesarea Maritima
Caesarea Maritima
Καισάρεια
Kaisareia
Caesarea
Kayseri
Turris StratonisMajor author/Major anonymous work
Eusebius of CaesareaCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Composing and translating saint-related textsCult activities - Rejection, Condemnation, Scepticism
Acceptance/rejection of saints from other religious groupingsSource
Eusebius lived in Caesarea Maritima in Palestine between c. AD 260 and 340. He was a pupil and friend of the martyred Christian intellectual Pamphilus. Under Constantine, he emerged as one of the most influential Christian figures of the Roman Empire, and was ordained bishop of Caesarea.
Written between 311 and 325, Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History is the first literary work to employ the methodology and objectives of classical historiography – which, since Herodotus and Thucydides, had traditionally focused on military and political events – in a novel field, the history of the Christian community. The first paragraphs of the work outline its chronological framework and thematic range: it is a narrative of events in the life of the Christian community from the times of Christ and the Apostles to the times of Eusebius (c. AD 260-340); it records the leaders of the most important communities (i.e. successions of bishops in Alexandria, Antioch, Rome and Jerusalem); it records the most notable exponents of Christian doctrine and their works, and also the main heresies and their proponents; it finally records persecutions and people that suffered and were martyred during them.
The Ecclesiastical History is mostly a synthesis of quotations and summaries from other sources, for which Eusebius often gives concrete references. Thus his work preserves excerpts from early Christian texts which do not survive in their full form. Eusebius’ source material consists mostly of Greek texts, originating from Christian communities in Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. These areas constitute the main geographical range of his narrative, while his information about Christianity in the western provinces of the Roman Empire (except Rome) is very limited. The text survives in several Greek manuscripts, in a Latin translation by Rufinus, and in Syriac and Armenian translations.Discussion
Evidently recording local memory from his own city of Caesarea, Eusebius mentions here one of the few concrete martyrdom stories from the persecution of Valerian (253-260). It clearly was not an event experienced by Eusebius himself, but was very probably in the memory of the previous generation. Its early date explains why this story is not included in the Martyrs of Palestine, a text recounting events occurring during Eusebius' own lifetime, during the persecutions of the Tetrarchs. The story provides a good example of the practice of voluntary martyrdom. It is remarkable that Eusebius acknowledges also the martyrdom of the Marcionite woman, without naming her. This may suggest that, although the event was remembered, and the fact of the her being a martyr was acknowledged, the memory of this heterodox martyr was not kept within the Catholic community of Caesarea. This may also be related to the fact that the memory of martyrs very much centred on their tombs. Different denominations very probably maintained different cemeteries, thus affecting their access to information about the martyrs honoured by other religious communities.
These individuals are known only from this reference of Eusebius, and there has survived no hagiography about them.Bibliography
Edition:
Schwartz, E., Mommsen, T., and Winkelmann, F., Eusebius Werke II: Die Kirchengeschichte. 3 vols. (Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte NF 6/1-3; Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1999).
Translations:
Lake, K., Oulton, J.E.L., and Lawlor, H.J., Eusebius of Caesarea: The Ecclesiastical History. 2 vols. (Loeb Classical Library; London and Cambridge, MA: Heinemann and Harvard University Press, 1926).
Williamson, G.A., and Louth, A., Eusebius: The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine (London: Penguin, 1989).
Further reading:
Chesnut, G. The First Christian Histories: Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Evagrius. Atlanta: Mercer University, 1986.
Frend, W.H.C., Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Oxford: Blackwell, 1965), 421-429.
Ste. Croix, G.E.M. de, Christian Persecution, Martyrdom and Orthodoxy (ed. M. Whitby and J. Streeter) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 153-200.
