PART ONE. The evil Rome as the real and the real false prophet revealed to me by our Lord Jesus Christ

Edward Gibbon, after lamenting the vagueness of Eusebius’ phrasing, made the first estimate of number martyred as follows: by counting the total number of persons listed in the Martyrs, dividing it by the years covered by Eusebius’ text, multiplying it by the fraction of the Roman world the province of Palestine represents, and multiplying that figure by the total period of the persecution.^[65] Subsequent estimates have followed the same basic methodology.^[66]

Eusebius’ aims in the Martyrs of Palestine have been disputed. Geoffrey de Ste Croix, historian and author of a pair of seminal articles on the persecution of Christians in the Roman world, argued, after Gibbon, that Eusebius aimed at producing a full account of the martyrs in his province. Eusebius’ aims, Ste Croix argued, were clear from the text of the Martyrs: after describing Caesarea’s martyrdoms for 310, the last to have taken place in the city, Eusebius writes, “Such was the martyrdoms which took place at Cæsarea during the entire period of the persecution”; after describing the later mass executions at Phaeno, Eusebius writes, “These martyrdoms were accomplished in Palestine during eight complete years, and this was a description of the persecution in our time.”^[67] Timothy Barnes, however, argues that Eusebius’ intent was not as broad as the text cited by Ste Croix implies: “Eusebius himself entitled the work ‘About those who suffered martyrdom in Palestine’ and his intention was to preserve the memories of the martyrs whom he knew, rather than to give a comprehensive account of how persecution affected the Roman province in which he lived.”^[28]:154 The preface to the long recension of the Martyrs is cited:

It is meet, then, that the conflicts which were illustrious in various districts should be committed to writing by those who dwelt with the combatants in their districts. But for me, I pray that I may be able to speak of those with whom I was personally conversant and that they may associate me with them – those in whom the whole people of Palestine glories because even in the midst of our land the Saviour of all men arose like a thirst-quenching spring. The contests, then, of those illustrious champions I shall relate for the general instruction and profit.— Martyrs of Palestine (L) pr. 8, tr. Graeme Clark^[68]