Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.10

Hippolytus of Rome · Refutation of All Heresies · ca. 222–235 · Rome · Read in context

Authorship disputed: The work names no author. Book 1 was long printed among Origen's works as the Philosophumena; after books 4–10 were found in a manuscript from Mount Athos (published 1851), it was assigned to Hippolytus, the usual view today, though some scholars ascribe it to another Roman writer of the same circle. Books 2 and 3 are lost, and book 4 lacks its beginning.

Summary: Marcia, Commodus's Christian-leaning concubine, asked Bishop Victor for the names of the confessors in Sardinia; he left out Callistus.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 454–456

Μετὰ χρόνον δὲ ἑτέρων ἐκεῖ ὄντων μαρτύρων, θελήσασα ἡ Μαρκία ἔργον τι ἀγαθὸν ἐργάσασθαι, οὖσα φιλόθεος παλλακὴ Κομόδου, προσκαλεσαμένη τὸν μακάριον Οὐΐκτορα, ὄντα ἐπίσκοπον τῆς ἐκκλησίας κατʼ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ, ἐπηρώτα, τίνες εἶεν ἐν Σαρδονίᾳ μάρτυρες. Ὁ δὲ πάντων ἀναδοὺς τὰ ὀνόματα, τὸ τοῦ Καλλίστου οὐκ ἔδωκεν, εἰδὼς τὰ τετολμημένα παρʼ αὐτοῦ.

English · Claude translation

After a time, when other martyrs were there, Marcia, being a God-loving concubine of Commodus and wishing to do some good work, summoned the blessed Victor, who was bishop of the church at that time, and asked him who the martyrs in Sardinia were. He gave her the names of all, but did not give that of Callistus, knowing what he had dared to do.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 454–456 · Ludwig Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, eds., S. Hippolyti episcopi et martyris Refutationis omnium haeresium librorum decem quae supersunt (Göttingen: Dieterich, 1859); section divisions from Paul Wendland, ed., Hippolytus Werke 3: Refutatio omnium haeresium, GCS 26 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1916) · Greek text: L. Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, Refutationis omnium haeresium (Göttingen, 1859), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library; section divisions from P. Wendland (GCS 26, 1916), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin); both CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Duncker–Schneidewin. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Duncker–Schneidewin; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Its chapter numbers differ from the standard (Wendland) numbering used here.
Topics
Martyrdom, Church office

Notes

Translation notes

  • Victor was bishop of Rome ca. 189–199; Commodus was emperor 180–192.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/10/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/10/).

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