the
genuine acts of the martyrs of the East, or of Persia, and of the West,
or Palestine, in two volumes, folio, at Rome. Those of the East were
written chiefly by St. Maruthus, a neighboring bishop of Mesopotamia:
the others seem to contain the entire work of Eusebius on the martyrs of
Palestine, which he abridged in the eighth book of his history. Both
parts were found in a Chaldaic manuscript, in a monastery of Upper
Egypt, and purchased by Stephen Evodius Assemani, archbishop of Apamea,
and his uncle Joseph Simonius Assemani, first prefect of the Vatican
library, at the charges of pope Clement XII., who had sent the former
into the East on that errand. The manuscripts are deposited in the
Vatican library. Joseph Assemani is known in the republic of letters by
his invaluable Oriental library, his _Italicae Historiae Scriptores_, his
_Kalendaria Ecclesiae Universae notis Ilustrata_, &c., and Stephen, by his
share in the publication of the works of St. Ephrem, and by the _Acta
Martyrum Orientalium et Occidentalium_. The learned Jesuits at Antwerp,
Bollandus and his continuators, have given us the _Acta Sanctorum_,
enriched with curious remarks and dissertations, in forty-one large
volumes in folio, to the 5th day of September. To mention other
monuments and writers here made use of, would be tedious and
superfluous. The authorities produced throughout the work speak for
themselves: the veracity of writers who cannot pretend to pass for
inspired, ought to be supported by competent vouchers.

The original authors are chiefly our guides. The stream runs clear and
pure from the source, which in a long course often contracts a foreign
mixture; but the lucubrations of many judicious modern critics have cast
a great light upon ancient historians: these, therefore, have been also
consulted and compared, and their labors freely made use of.

Footnotes:
1. Cicero, l. 2, de Orat. c. 9.
2. Voss. Ars Hist. cap. 5.
3. Voltaire's Annals of the Empire of Germany.
4. Some call in question the existence of certain saints, as SS.
Bacchus, Quirinus, Mercurius, Nilammon, Hippolytus, &c., because
these names are of pagan original. But that Christians often
retained those names is evident, not only from the oldest
Martyrologies, but from Eusebius, Theodoret, and other ancient
writers, who often mention Christians named Apollonius and
Apollinerius, from Apollo &c., and St. Paul speaks of a disciple
called