The President said: “Call the ungodly Christians in.” Demetrius, the centurion, answered: “Here I am.”
Tharacus brought forth first.—When he had brought forth Tharacus, the Proconsul said: “Dost thou still despise imprisonment, bonds, punishments, and tortures? Follow my advice, O Tharacus, and abandon this confession, which profits thee nothing. Rather sacrifice to the gods, by whom all things exist.”
Tharacus answered: “Woe shall come upon them. Thou thinkest that the world is governed by them; whereas they are destined for eternal fire; and not they only, but all those also who serve them.”
The President said: “And dost thou not yet desist, thou impious blasphemer! or thinkest thou not that for thy rash words I should cause thee to be instantly beheaded?”
Tharacus replied: “Then I would not die a lingering death, but a short one. But let me have a long conflict, that in the meantime my faith in the Lord may grow and increase.”
The President said: “Thou and thy fellow-prisoners must die according to the laws.”
Tharacus answered: “What thou sayest is an evidence of thy ignorance; for those who do evil die justly; but we who know of no evil, that is, who have committed nothing worthy of death before men, but suffer for the Lord, expect with confident hope the heavenly reward from the Lord.”
The Proconsul said: “Thou accursed miscreant! what reward have ye to expect, seeing you die for your wickedness?”
Tharacus replied: “It is not lawful for thee to inquire into, or to ask, what reward the Lord has laid up for us in heaven; and therefore we patiently suffer the wrath of thy madness.”
The President said: “Darest thou thus address me, thou accursed [one], as though thou wert mine equal?”