Saint Timolaus and five companions, according to the historian of the early Christian church Eusebius in his Martyrs of Palestine, were young men who, having heard that the Roman authorities in Caesarea, Palestine, in 303 AD, had condemned a number of Christians to die by being thrown to wild beasts in the public arena, came before the governor of their own volition with their hands tied behind their backs and demanded to join their fellow Christians in that martyrdom.

Eusebius was present in Caesarea during the persecutions, part of the empire-wide campaign to suppress Christianity.

Those who refused to do so in Caesarea, according to Eusebius, were interrogated and tortured if necessary to try to force them to apostasize, and if nothing would convince them to perform the sacrifices, they were executed.

[1] The governor of Caesarea, Urban, had already had two Christians thrown to wild beasts in the public arena for refusing to perform the sacrifices to the Roman gods.

[2] Hearing of this, a young man, Timolaus from Pontus (on the Black Sea, in modern-day Turkey), along with five others, "went in haste" to the governor, having tied their own hands behind their backs, declared themselves Christians, and demanded also to be thrown to the beasts.