Appendix. Passio S. Cypriani

Appendix. The Passion of Saint Cyprian from the Manuscript of Saint Victor, and also from the Bodleian. When Cyprian, the holy martyr, chosen by the Lord, had returned from the city of Curubis, where he had been sent into exile, by order of Aspasius Paternus, then proconsul, a man of clarissimus rank, by a sacred rescript issued specifically and personally for this purpose, he was staying in his gardens; and he was expecting to be summoned on any day, in every way, as had been shown to him. While he was staying there, suddenly on the Ides of September, in the consulship of Tuscus and Bassus, two principes came to him: one a strator of the officium of Galerius Maximus, proconsul, a man of clarissimus rank, who had succeeded Aspasius Paternus, and the other an equistrator who was from the custodies of the officium of the same clarissimus man; and they placed him in a carriage, and both held him, and brought him to Sextus, where the same Galerius Maximus, proconsul, a man of clarissimus rank, ordered him to be presented to him on the next day, that is, the following day. And so the same Cyprian withdrew with the princeps and the strator of the officium of Maximus the proconsul, a man of clarissimus rank, and stayed in his lodging with him, in the Vicus Saturni, between the Veneria and the Salutaria. There, before the door, the entire crowd of the brethren remained. And when Cyprian learned of this, he ordered the girls to be chastised, because in the street they were all lying before the door of the lodging of the princeps.

And so on the next day, that is the seventeenth day before the Kalends of October, early in the morning, at the Sextian estate, according to the order of Galerius Maximus, the proconsul, a most distinguished man, while he was sitting in the court at Sauciolum, Cyprian was brought before him. When he had been brought, the same Galerius Maximus, proconsul, a most distinguished man, said to Cyprian: "Have you presented yourself to men of a sacrilegious mind as the pope?" Cyprian said: "I have." Galerius Maximus, proconsul, a most distinguished man, having consulted with his council, pronounced sentence with difficulty and reluctance, in these words: "You have long lived with a sacrilegious mind, and you have gathered many men of a nefarious conspiracy to yourself, and you have made yourself an enemy of the Roman gods and of the sacred religions, nor could our pious and most sacred emperors Valerian and Gallienus, the Augusti, and Valerian, the most noble Caesar, in the observance of the most fortunate times of their reigns, recall you from your hardened fury to perform the ceremonies and to have a right mind for so long a time. And therefore, since you have been caught as the author and standard-bearer of a most wicked crime, by which very example you have taught, you will perish; so that, since sacrilegious obstinacy has persisted through your support, discipline may be sanctified by your blood." And he read the decree from the tablet: "It is my decision that Thascius Cyprianus be punished by the sword.