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5.
51
And thus in grievous strait for breath and anguish of body he exclaimed, 'Glorious, O tyrant, glorious against thy will are the boons that thou bestowest on me, enabling me to show my fidelity to the Law through yet more honourable tortures.'
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5.
52
And when this man also was dead, the sixth was brought, a mere boy, who in answer to the tyrant's inquiry whether he was willing to eat and be released, said:
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5.
53
'I am not so old in years as my brethren, but I am as old in mind. For we were born and reared for the same purpose and are equally bound also to die for the same cause; so if thou chooseth to torture us for not eating unclean meat, torture.'
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5.
54
As he spake these words they brought him to the wheel, and with care they stretched him out and dislocated the bones of his back and set fire under him.
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5.
55
And they made sharp skewers red-hot and ran them into his back, and piercing through his sides they burned away his entrails also.
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5.
56
But he in the midst of his tortures exclaimed, 'O contest worthy of saints, wherein so many of us brethren, in the cause of righteousness, have been entered for a competition in torments, and have not been conquered!
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5.
57
For the righteous understanding, O tyrant, is unconquerable.
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5.
58
In the armour of virtue I go to join my brothers in death, and to add in myself one strong avenger more to punish thee, O deviser of the tortures and enemy of the truly righteous.
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5.
59
We six youths have overthrown thy tyranny. 'For is not thine impotence to alter our Reason or force us to eat unclean meat an overthrow for thee?
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5.
60
Thy fire is cool for us, thy engines of torture torment not, and thy violence is impotent.
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5.
61
For the guards have been officers for us, not of a tyrant, but of the Divine Law; and therefore have we our Reason yet unconquered.'
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