A Mother's Martydom

In civitate vero Culusitana non valeo quae gesta sunt nuntiare, quia et ipsam quantitatem martyrum vel etiam confessorum impossibile est homini supputtare. Ubi quaedam matrona, auctrix sui nominis Victoria, dum in conspectu vulgi continuato suspendio cremaretur, a marito jam perdito filiis praesentibus taliter rogabatur: Quid pateris conjunx? Si me despicis, vel horum miserere quos genuisti, impia, parvulorum. Quare oblivisceris uteri tui, et pro nihilo ducis quos cum gemitu peperisti? Ubi sunt foedera conjugalis amoris? ubi societatis vincula, quae inter nos dudum honestatis jure tabulae conscriptae fecerunt? Respice, quaeso, filios ac maritum, et regiae jussionis implere festina praeceptum, ut et imminentia adhuc tormenta lucreris, simul et mihi doneris et liberis nostris. Sed illa nec filiorum fletus, nec serpentis audiens blandimenta, affectum multo altius elevans a terra, mundum cum suis desideriis contemnebat. Quam cum jam continuatione suspendi avulsis humeris, etiam qui cruciabant conspicerent mortuam, deposuerunt prorsus omni parte exanimatam. Quae postea retulit quamdam sibi virginem astitisse, atque tetigisse membra singula, et illico fuisse sanatam. Victor Vitensis, Historia Persecutionis Africae Provinciae, Liber V Source: Migne PL 58.243b-244a

However I cannot tell all that happened in the city of Culusitana, because it is impossible for any man to recount even the amount of martyrs or confessors. But I shall say that there was a certain woman, a mother by the name of Victoria, who having been hung up to burn in the presence of the crowd, was asked by her husband, a man who was already ruined, with their children present: 'Why do you suffer, O wife? If you scorn me, at least have mercy on these to whom you have given birth, wicked woman. Why have no care for the fruit of your womb and reckon as nothing these whom you bore amid groans? Where are the bonds of conjugal love? Where that bond of association between us that the honourable written tablets once rightly made? I beseech you, look on your children and your husband, and make haste to fulfill the command of the king, 1 so that you may yet acquire relief from your imminent torment and give a gift to me and your children.' But that woman wept not for her children, nor listened to the charms of the serpent, but with as much passion as she hung above the earth, so she condemned the world and its desires. Then when her shoulder bones had been wrenched out by continual suspension, and those who were torturing her suspected she had expired, they took her down and found that she was indeed dead. It is told that afterwards a certain virgin was brought near and healed by touching every member of her body. Victor Vitensis, History of the Persecution of the African Province, Book 5 1 King Huneric, who commanded adoption of Arianism