Martyrs of Palestine

The shorter version of Martyrs of Palestine was probably a revision of the longer recension.

[1] The long recension was composed sometime after 311, when the persecutions in Caesarea had ceased, and published in 315–316.

[3] The cruelty of the persecutors, the endurance and suffering of the martyrs, are entered into in greater detail in the longer version.

[4] Eusebius openly states that he is not going to discuss anything that does not "vindicate the divine judgement" and will relate only those things "which may be useful first to ourselves and afterwards to posterity", which caused 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon to distrust the work altogether.

[5] However, in the 19th century, historian Joseph Barber Lightfoot commended Eusebius in such passages for his honesty.