The Acts of the Martyrdom of Cyprian

When Cyprian, the holy martyr, chosen by the Lord, had returned from the city of Curubis, in which he had been given over to exile, by command of Aspasius Paternus, then proconsul, a most distinguished man, by means of a sacred rescript specially and personally issued for this purpose, he was staying in his gardens; and he was expecting in every way that men would come for him, as had been shown to him.

While he was remaining there, suddenly on the Ides of September, in the consulship of Tuscus and Bassus, two officers came to him: one a strator of the staff of Galerius Maximus the proconsul, a most distinguished man, who had succeeded Aspasius Paternus, and another equestrian officer who was in charge of the custody of the staff of that same most distinguished man; and they placed him in a carriage, and both held him, and brought him to the estate of Sextus, where that same Galerius Maximus, proconsul, a most distinguished man, on another day, that is the following day, ordered him to be presented; and so that same Cyprian withdrew with the officer and strator of the staff of Maximus the proconsul, a most distinguished man, and stayed in his lodging, with him, in the district of Saturn, between the Venerea and the Salutaria. There before the door the entire people of the brethren remained.

And when Cyprian had learned this, he ordered that the young women be kept in order, because in the district they were all lying before the door of the lodging of the officer. And so on the following day, that is the seventeenth day before the Kalends of October, very early in the morning, he was brought to the estate of Sextus, according to the command of Galerius Maximus the proconsul, a most distinguished man, who was sitting in the hall of Sauciolus. When he had been brought forward, that same Galerius Maximus the proconsul, a most distinguished man, said to Cyprian: You have presented yourself as father to men of sacrilegious mind? Cyprian said: I have.

Galerius Maximus the proconsul, a most distinguished man, having conferred with his council, pronounced sentence with difficulty and reluctance, in words of this kind: You have long lived with a sacrilegious mind, and have gathered to yourself very many men of wicked conspiracy, and have set yourself as an enemy of the Roman gods and of the sacred rites, nor have our dutiful and most holy emperors Valerian and Gallienus the Augusti, and Valerian the most noble Caesar, been able, through the indulgence of their most blessed times, to call you back, hardened in your furious obstinacy, to the observance of the ceremonies and to the holding of a sound mind for so long a time. And therefore, since you have been found to be the author and standard-bearer of a most wicked crime, you shall perish by the very means by which you have taught your wickedness, so that, since sacrilegious contumacy has hardened through your effort, discipline may be ratified by your blood.

And he read out the decree from the tablet: It is our pleasure that Thascius Cyprianus be executed by the sword.