''On the Martyrs of Palestine'' is a work by church historian and Bishop of Caesarea,

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...

(AD 263 – 339), relating the persecution of Christians in Caesarea under Roman Emperor Diocletian. The work survives in two forms, a shorter

recension Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from Latin ''recensio'' ("review, analysis"). In textual criticism (as ...

which formed part of his ''

Ecclesiastical History __NOTOC__ Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritua ...

'', and a longer version, discovered only in 1866. Eusebius was present in Caesarea at the time of the persecutions he recounts.

Background

The shorter version of ''Martyrs of Palestine'' was probably a revision of the longer recension. It is possible that both extant versions are only fragments of a now lost longer work. The long recension was composed sometime after 311, when the persecutions in Caesarea had ceased, and published in 315–316.

Short recension

Although shorter than the other version, there are accounts of martyrdoms in Caesarea that are not contained in the long recension, such as the voluntary martyrdoms of Timolaus and Companions.

Long recension

The cruelty of the persecutors, the endurance and suffering of the martyrs, are entered into in greater detail in the longer version.

Reliability

Eusebius openly states that he is not going to discuss anything that does not "vindicate the divine judgement" and will relate only those things "which may be useful first to ourselves and afterwards to posterity", which caused 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon to distrust the work altogether. However, in the 19th century, historian

Joseph Barber Lightfoot Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889), known as J. B. Lightfoot, was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham. Life Lightfoot was born in Liverpool, where his father John Jackson Lightfoot was an accountant. His mo ...

commended Eusebius in such passages for his honesty.

References

{{Reflist Works by Eusebius of Caesarea History of Rome 310s in the Roman Empire 4th-century Christian martyrs