The Death of Justin

About this time Justin, whom we mentioned a little earlier, after presenting a second book in defense of our teachings to the rulers already named, was adorned with a divine martyrdom. The plot against him was contrived by the philosopher Crescens, a man who strove after the life and manners that fit the name of the Cynics. Justin had called him to account again and again in debates before an audience, and by his martyrdom he won the prize of victory, dying for the truth he championed. [a] And Justin himself, who was in truth the greatest of philosophers, clearly foretells in the Apology already mentioned that this was going to happen to him, as it very soon did. He writes these words: [c]

“So I too expect to be plotted against and put in the stocks by one of those I have named, or perhaps by Crescens, that boaster who is no lover of wisdom. For the man does not deserve to be called a philosopher, since he testifies in public against us about things he does not understand, saying that the Christians are atheists and ungodly, and he does it to win the favor and the pleasure of the many who have been led astray. [d] For if he attacks us without having read the teachings of Christ, he is utterly wicked, and much worse than the uneducated, who often take care not to discuss things they do not understand or to bear false witness about them. And if he has read them and has not understood the greatness in them, or has understood it and acts this way so as not to be suspected of being one of us, he is far more contemptible and utterly wicked, beaten by vulgar and unreasoning opinion and fear. For I want you to know that I put certain questions of this kind to him and examined him, and I learned and proved that he really knows nothing. To show that I am telling the truth, I am ready, if these exchanges have not been reported to you, to hold the questioning over again in your presence; and that would be a work worthy of an emperor. But if my questions and his answers have been made known to you, it is plain to you that he knows nothing of our affairs; or, if he does know, but does not dare to say so because of his hearers, then he shows himself, as I said before, to be no philosopher but a lover of reputation, a man who does not even honor the saying of Socrates, worthy of love as it is.” So much for Justin. [f]

That Justin was perfected as he had foretold, through the scheming of Crescens, is reported by Tatian. In his early life Tatian taught as a sophist in the learning of the Greeks and won no small fame in it, and he has left a great many monuments of himself in his writings. He records this in his work Against the Greeks, where he says: “And the most admirable Justin rightly declared that the people just mentioned were like robbers.” [g] Then, after saying some things about the philosophers, he goes on: “Crescens, for one, who made his nest in the great city, outdid everyone in his lust for boys, and was wholly given over to the love of money. [h] And he who advised others to despise death was himself so afraid of it that he set about bringing death on Justin, as though death were a great evil, because Justin, preaching the truth, had proved the philosophers to be gluttons and frauds.” Such was the cause of Justin’s martyrdom. [i]