An Account of the Death of the Aforementioned Martyrs

Numerius Maximus, Proconsul of Cilicia, summoned Terentian, the man who provided the public sacrifices and theatrical performances held in Cilicia, and ordered him to prepare the dramas for the next day. The next day a great number of men and women gathered in the amphitheater, which stood about a mile, or one thousand paces, from the city. When the amphitheater was filled with people, Maximus also came to watch the play, and in its first act, when many wild beasts were let out at once, many human bodies were devoured. We Christians kept ourselves hidden and waited in great fear for the martyrs to be brought out. Suddenly the Proconsul ordered the soldiers to bring in the Christian martyrs, namely, Tharacus, Probus, and Andronicus. The soldiers forced some to carry the Christian martyrs on their shoulders, for they were torn and lacerated to such a degree that they could not walk. We then saw them carried, so disfigured, into the amphitheater; and seeing how they had been abused, we turned our faces away and wept bitterly. So the martyrs were thrown down into the middle of the arena, as the offscouring or refuse of this world; and when the crowd saw them, they were all frightened, and the people murmured greatly against Maximus for tormenting them so, and then still sentencing them to be thrown to the beasts; indeed, many left the amphitheater, criticizing Maximus for his inhuman cruelty. When Maximus saw this, he ordered the soldiers standing near him to take note of those who murmured against him and were leaving, so that he might question them about it afterward. Meanwhile he commanded that the wild beasts be let out to tear the martyrs. In Scriptura Christianorum Fratrum.

To avoid being long-winded, we will sum up what follows here in the aforementioned account of the Christian brothers, in these words: "The wild beasts were let out, above all a frightful bear, and then a lioness. Both of them roared terribly and made a dreadful noise, so that even the spectators were frightened by it; but they did not harm the martyrs, much less tear or devour them. The Proconsul in his rage ordered the spearmen to run the bear through; the lioness, however, because of the fear of the people, was let out by a back door, which was broken in pieces. Then Maximus ordered Terentian to let in the gladiators, who were first to kill the Christians and then fight one another for their lives. When these came in, they first ran the martyrs through; this happened on the 11th day of October, in the year 290, at Tarsus in Cilicia." When the drama was over and the Proconsul was about to go home, he left ten soldiers in the amphitheater, charging them to mix the dead bodies of the martyrs with those of the heathen gladiators, so that the Christians would not be able to tell them apart. However, the account above states that the Christians took away their dead bodies and buried them in a cave in a rock.