The Martyrdom of Justin and His Companions

The text has the form of a court protocol. The prefect Rusticus asks Justin what he teaches and where the Christians meet, questions Chariton, Charito, Euelpistus, Hierax, Paeon and Liberianus in turn, orders them all to sacrifice, and on their refusal sentences them to be scourged and beheaded. Justin says that he lives “above one Martinus, at the Timiotinian Bath”, that this is his second stay in Rome, and that he taught anyone who came to him there.

The author is unknown, and so is the date at which the record was put into its present shape. Its plain style and lack of miracles have led most historians to accept it as close to the official minutes. The opening sentence about “wicked decrees” and the closing doxology are the editor’s. The text survives in more than one form; the translation linked here follows the one printed in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.