Martyrdom of Polycarp 8.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:322

οἱ δὲ ἀποτυχόντες τοῦ πεῖσαι αὐτὸν δεινὰ ῥήματα ἔλεγον αὐτῷ καὶ μετὰ σπουδῆς καθῄρουν αὐτόν, ὡς κατιόντα ἀπὸ τῆς καρούχας ἀποσῦραι τὸ ἀντικνήμιον. καὶ μὴ ἐπιστραφείς, ὡς οὐδὲν πεπονθὼς προθύμως μετὰ σπουδῆς ἐπορεύετο, ἀγόμενος εἰς τὸ στάδιον, θορύβου τηλικούτου ὄντος ἐν τῷ σταδίῳ, ὡς μηδὲ ἀκουσθῆναί τινα δύνασθαι.

English · Claude translation

When they failed to persuade him, they said terrible things to him and pulled him down in such haste that, as he was getting down from the carriage, he scraped his shin. Without turning back, as though nothing had happened to him, he walked on eagerly and quickly as he was led into the stadium, where there was such an uproar that no one could even be heard.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:322 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 312–345 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Also in

PG 5:1036a–1036b (found by text match)

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 25, 1913); made independently of existing English translations.

Topics

Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

“Scraped his shin” (ἀποσῦραι τὸ ἀντικνήμιον): literally “tore the skin off his shin.” Some older translations say “dislocated his leg.”

Cite this passage

Mart. Pol. 8.3 (PG 5:1036a–1036b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/8/3/).

Plain text

Mart. Pol. 8.3 (PG 5:1036a–1036b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/mart-pol/8/3/).