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SCILLITAN MARTYRS

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 404 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SCILLITAN MARTYRS , a See also:

company of See also:early See also:North See also:African Christians who suffered under See also:Marcus Aurelius in A.D. 18o, and whose Acta are at once the earliest documents of the See also:Church of See also:Africa and the earliest specimen of See also:Christian Latin. The martyrs take their name from Scilla (or Scillium), a See also:town in See also:Numidia. Their trial and See also:execution took See also:place in See also:Carthage under the See also:Pro-See also:consul Vigellius See also:Saturninus, whom See also:Tertullian declares to have been the first persecutor of the Christians in Africa. The date of their martyrdom is the 17th of See also:July A.D. 180. It is thus the concluding See also:scene of the persecution under Marcus Aurelius, which is best known from the sufferings of the churches of See also:Vienne and See also:Lyons in See also:South See also:Gaul. Marcus Aurelius died on the 17th of See also:March of the See also:year in question, and persecution ceased almost immediately upon the See also:accession of See also:Commodus. A See also:group of sufferers called the Madaurian martyrs seems to belong to the same See also:period: for in the See also:correspondence of St See also:Augustine, Namphamo, one of their number, is spoken of as " archimartyr," which appears to mean protomartyr of Africa. We have in this martyrdom an excellent example of "Acts of Martyrs " properly so called. The document is in brief legal See also:form, beginning with the date and the names of the accused, and giving the actual See also:dialogue between them and their See also:judge. It closes with the See also:sentence, based on " obstinate " persistency in an illicit cult, and with the See also:proclamation by the See also:herald of the names of the offenders and the See also:penalty.

All this may quite well be a transcript of the Acta, or See also:

official See also:report of the proceedings. A Christian appends the words: " And so they all together were crowned with martyrdom; and they reign with the See also:Father and the Son and the See also:Holy See also:Ghost, for ever and ever. See also:Amen." The Scil itan sufferers were twelve in all--seven men and five See also:women. Two of these See also:bear Punic names (Nartzalus, Cintinus), but the See also:rest Latin names. Six had already been tried: of the See also:remainder, to whom these Acta primarily relate, Speratus is the See also:principal spokesman. He claims for himself and his companions that they have lived a quiet and moral See also:life, paying their dues and doing no wrong to their neighbours. But when called upon to swear by the See also:genius of the See also:emperor, he replies: " I recognize not the See also:empire of this See also:world; but rather do I serve that See also:God whom no See also:man hath seen, nor with these eyes can see." Here he uses the See also:language of 1 Tim. vi. 16; and it is interesting also to See also:note that in reply to the question, " What are the things in your satchel ? " he says, " Books and letters of See also:Paul, a just man." The martyrs are offered a delay of See also:thirty days to reconsider their decision, but this they all alike refuse. These'Acts have been See also:long known in an See also:expanded form, or rather in a variety of later recensions. The fame of the martyrs led to the See also:building of a See also:basilica in their See also:honour at Carthage; and their See also:annual See also:commemoration required that the brevity and obscurity of their Acts should be supplemented and explained, to make them suitable for public recitation. The See also:historical questions connected with these martyrs are treated by See also:Lightfoot, See also:Ignatius (1889, 2nd ed.), i.

524 if. The Latin See also:

text, together with later recensions and a See also:Greek version, is published in Texts and Studies, i. 2 (See also:Passion of Perpetua, 1890) ; see also Analecta Bollandiana (1889), viii. 5; H. M. Gwatkin, Selections from Early Christian Writers, where, as in Ante-Nicene Fathers, ix. 285, there is an See also:English See also:translation. U. A.

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