Глава III. О Тимофее, Агапие, Фекле и других восьми мучениках

At the onset of the second year, when the war against us flared up with greater force and royal letters were sent to the then governor of the region, Urban, which contained a district command to all residents of the cities to make sacrifices and pour libations to idols - at this very time Timothy suffered in the Palestinian city of Gaza. Having endured countless tortures and then being burned on a small and weak fire, in his patience he showed true proof of true piety towards God and received the crown of sacredly victorious ascetics of the faith. Together with him, Agapius and our Thekla also showed fearless firmness, and were condemned to be devoured by wild beasts. But what followed after this, is it possible to hear and not be amazed? Here the pagans celebrate a national holiday and give ordinary spectacles: suddenly they started talking everywhere that, in addition to other spectacles they loved, they would see the feat of Christians who had recently been condemned to sacrifice to wild animals. Meanwhile, as the rumor about this grew and spread, six young men, namely: one by birth, a Pontic, named Timothy, another native of Phoenician Tripolis, called Dionysius, the third subdeacon of the Diospolis church, whose name was Romilos, in addition, two Egyptians, Paisis and Alexander, and also Alexander, who was named after him, originally from Gaza - these six young men, first they tied their hands to show their complete readiness to accept martyrdom, then they ran to Urban, who was then preparing to go hunting, approached him, and, with their determination to face all horrors, letting them know that those who boast of faith in the God of all are not afraid of attacks from animals, they confessed themselves to be Christians. Having thereby caused considerable confusion both to the chief himself and to those around him, they were immediately imprisoned, and after a while, together with two more joined to them, one of whom, named Agapius, had already been tortured with cruel and various tortures for his confession, and the other, called Dionysius, served them regarding their bodily needs - after a while, all of them, eight people, on the same day, precisely the twenty-fourth of the month distras, nine days before the Kalends of April, were truncated at Caesarea. At that time, there was a change of reigning persons: one of them, who occupied the highest degree of power, and the other, who was second after him, entered the ranks of private citizens. From this, public affairs fell into confusion and, not much later, the internecine enmity of the Roman authorities ignited an irreconcilable war between the Romans. Such civil strife and the ensuing disturbances were not previously replaced by calm, as after the return of peace to us in the entire universe subject to the Romans; for when this peace, like the light of the sun, rose, as if from the depths of a dark and gloomy night, and illuminated everyone, affairs in the Roman Empire immediately became established again, began to take place in harmony and silence, and the Romans were again united by the feelings of the mutual goodwill of their ancestors. But we will talk about this in more detail in its place, and now let’s move on to the events that followed those events. You might be interested in: