" In the rage of the persecutors, he was roasted
to death on bars of iron over a fire. St. Cyprian, the great Bishop of
Carthage, was beheaded; and one hundred and fifty martyrs at Utica
were thrown alive into a pit of quick-lime. At Antioch one man failed;
Sapricius, a priest, was being led out to die, when a Christian named
Nicephorus, with whom he had a quarrel, came to beg his forgiveness ere
his death. Sapricius would not pardon, and Nicephorus went on humbly
entreating, amid the mockery of the guards, until the spot of execution
was reached, and the prisoner was bidden to kneel down to have his bead
cut off. Then it appeared that he who had not the heart to forgive, had
not the heart to die; Sapricius's courage failed him, and he promised to
sacrifice to the idols; and Nicephorus was put to death, receiving the
crown of martyrdom in his stead. The persecuting Valerian himself came
to a miserable end, for he was made prisoner in a battle, in 258, with
the Persians, and their king for many years forced the unhappy captive
to bow down on his hands and knees so as to be a step by which to climb
on his elephant, and when he died, his skin was taken off, dyed red, and
hung up in a temple.
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