When Tharacus ceased to speak, the Proconsul said to his hangmen: “Smite him on the mouth, and make him speak.”
Tharacus replied: “My cheeks are knocked to pieces; how can I answer any longer?”
Maximus said: “And wilt thou, madman, not yet consent to worship, and sacrifice to the gods?”
Tharacus answered: “Although thou hast deprived me of my voice, so that I cannot cry aloud, thou shalt nevertheless not injure my soul; but thou hast in this hour greatly strengthened me in my opinion.”
Maximus said to his servants: “Bring fire! stretch out his hands, and put fire on them.”
Tharacus replied: “I do not fear thy temporal fire; but I would have to fear the eternal fire, if I should obey thee.”
When the glowing fire was laid upon his hands, the President said: “See, the fire is consuming thy hands; desist, therefore, from thy folly and sacrifice to the gods.”
Tharacus answered: “Thou speakest to me, as though because of thy cruelty I had already yielded to thy wish; however, but through the grace of God I am, in all my sufferings, as strong as ever.”
The Proconsul said: “Tie his feet together, and hang him up by his heels, and make a thick smoke under his face.”
Tharacus replied: “I neither regard thy fire, nor do I fear thy smoke.”