everus. Rufinus says that she
was a disciple of Origen. We are also informed by Palladius that she was
a slave, and that her condemnation originated in the passion of her
master. Angered by her steadfast refusal to submit to his desires, he
accused her to the judges as a Christian, and bribed them to endeavor to
break her resolution and afterward return her to himself; but their
tortures proved as ineffectual as his persuasions. At last, being
sentenced to death, she was given in charge of Basilides, an officer of
the army, to be led to the place of execution. On the way thither, when
the people sought to annoy her by insult and abuse, Basilides drove them
back, and, probably more by his actions than by words, manifested for
her much kindness and pity. Eusebius says that Potamiana, "perceiving
the man's sympathy for her, exhorted him to be of good courage, for she
would supplicate her Lord for him after her departure, and he would soon
receive a reward for the kindness he had shown her. Having said this,
she nobly sustained the issue, burning pitch being poured, little by
little, over various parts of her body, from the soles of her feet to
the crown of her head. Such was the conflict endured by this famous
maiden."

Shortly after this, Basilides, being requested by his fellow soldiers to
take an oath, refused; and he gave it as his reason that it was not
lawful for him to swear, he being a Christian. At first they thought he
was jesting; but as he persistently affirmed it, they took him before
the judge, with the result that the next day he was beheaded. He was
reported to have said that for three days after her martyrdom Potamiana
stood by him night and day, and that she placed a crown upon his head,
telling him that she had besought the Lord for him and had obtained what
she asked, which was that he should soon be with her.

In the year 250 the Emperor of Rome was Decius. During his brief reign
he instituted one of the severest persecutions that the Church was
called upon to endure. Yet there is reason to believe that this emperor
was a man of superior character and high principles. Alarmed at the
corruption that prevailed in the empire, he sought to restore the
ancient customs and to strengthen the primitive religion. As a means
deemed by him necessary to this end, he endeavored to extirpate
Christianity. This was the first persecution in which the attempt was
universally made to destroy the Church. This persecutio