Section 354
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 323 in the city, the first of whom was the eldest and chief of all : and the other held the fourth grade of the imperial dignity after him. But this man, as the first that was distinguished there in this manner, after enduring what was likely to follow an act so daring, preserved his mind calm and serene until the moment when his spirit fled. CHAPTER VI. Those that were in the palace. BUT of all those that were celebrated, or admired for their courage, whether among Greeks or barbarians, these times pro duced noble and illustrious martyrs, in the case of Dorotheus and his associates, domestics, in the imperial palace. These though honoured with the highest dignity by their masters, and treated by them with not less affection than their own children, esteem ed the reproaches and trials in the cause of religion, as of much more real value than the glory and luxuries of life ; and even the various kinds of death that were invented against them were preferred to these, when they came into competition with reli gion. We shall give an account of the end of one, leaving it for our readers to conjecture what must have been the character of the sufferings inflicted on the others. He was led into the middle of the aforesaid city, before those emperors already mentioned. He was then commanded to sacrifice, but as he refused, he was ordered to be stripped and lifted on high, and to be scourged with rods over his whole body, until he should be subdued in his reso lution, and forced to do what he was commanded. But as he was unmoveable amid all these sufferings, his bones already ap pearing bared of the flesh, they mixed vinegar with salt, and poured it upon the mangled parts of the body. But as he bore these tortures, a gridiron and fire was produced, and the rem nants of his body, like pieces of meat for roasting and eating, were placed in the fire, not at once, so that he might not expire soon, 30