The Delegates Burned at Sea

The Arians, growing more insolent with success, as prosperous people usually do, persecuted without mercy all Christians whose religious views were opposed to their own. [a] These Christians suffered bodily harm, were handed over to magistrates and to prison, and were gradually impoverished by repeated fines, until at last they were forced to appeal to the emperor for justice. The emperor was extremely angry, but he did not show his anger openly. Instead he secretly ordered the prefect to seize the whole deputation and put them to death. The prefect, however, feared that the whole people would rise in revolt if he put so many good and devout men to death without any form of justice. So he pretended that they were to be sent into exile, and on this pretext he made them board a ship, which they did with perfect resignation. When they had sailed to about the middle of the bay called Astacius, the sailors, following the orders they had been given, set fire to the ship and jumped into its small boat. A wind sprang up and drove the ship along to Dacibiza, a place on the coast of Bithynia; but as soon as it came near the shore, it burned up completely, with all the men on board. [b]