[302:3] Cyprian, Epist. 82, ad Successum.
[302:4] Cyprian, who seems to have been much respected personally by the high officers of government at Carthage, was, when taken prisoner, granted as great indulgence as his circumstances would permit; but Gibbon, who describes his case with special minuteness, most uncandidly represents it as affording an average specimen of the style in which condemned Christians were treated. As an evidence of the social position of the bishop of Carthage we may refer to the testimony of Pontius his deacon, who states that "numbers of eminent and illustrious persons, men of rank and family and secular distinction, for the sake of their old friendship with him, urged him many times to retire." "Life," § 14.
[303:1] Euseb. vii. 13.
[303:2] See Bingham, ii. p. 451.
[304:1] "De Mortibus Persec." c. 10.
[304:2] Euseb. viii. 2; "De Mort. Persec." c. 13. See also "Neander," by Torrey, i. 202, note.
[305:1] Eusebius, "Martyrs of Palestine," c. 4.
[305:2] Eusebius, "Martyrs of Palestine," c. 9.
[305:3] The Vatican Manuscript, the oldest in existence, was probably written shortly after this persecution. It possesses internal evidences that its date is anterior to the middle of the fourth century. See Horne, iv. 161, 10th edition.
[306:1] Eusebius, viii. 6, 9, 10, 12.