A Rich Man's Martyrdom

Qualiter autem Adrumentinae civitatis civem Victorianum, tunc proconsulem Carthaginis, praedicem, nescio, deficientibus verbis. Quo in Africae partibus nullus ditior fuit, qui etiam apud impium regem pro rebus semper sibi comissis fidelissimus habebatur. Mandatur ei a rege familiariter, diciturque quod eum habiturus esset prae omnibus domesticum, si ejus precepto facilem commodasset assensum. Sed ille vir Dei missis ad se tale dedit cum fiducia magna responsum: Securus ego sum de Christo Deo et Domino meo. Haec regi dicatis: Subrigat ignibus, adigat bestiis, excruciet generibus omnium tormentorum. Si consensero, frustra sum in Ecclesia catholica baptizatus. Nam si haec praesens vita sola fuisset, et aliam, quae vere est, non speraremus aeternam, nec ita facerem ut ad modicum atque temporaliter gloriarer, et ingratus existerem ei qui suam fidem mihi contulit, creditori. Ad quod tyrannus excitatus, quantorum temporum, et quantis eum afflixit peoneis, humanus sermo non poterit explicare. Qui tripudians in Domino, feliciterque consummans, martyrialem coronam accepit. Victor Vitensis, Historia Persecutionis Africae Provinciae, Liber V Source: Migne PL 58 244a-b

Likewise I do not know, lacking the words, how to commend Victorianus, a citizen of the city of Hadrumetum and then proconsul of Carthage. No one in Africa was richer than him, and even the business of the wicked king Huneric was faithfully committed to him. A command was issued by the king that he should be more closely associated with him, and that he would be preferred above all his servants if he acceded with easy assent to his instruction. 1 But that man of God, giving attention to himself, gave this response of great faith: 'I am safe with Christ and my Lord. Say this to the king: stoke fires, rouse beasts, torment with every kind of torture, if I consent then I have been baptised in the Catholic Church in vain. For if there were only this present life and we did not hope for another eternal one, which truly is life, I would not thus scorn mediocre and temporal glory and live ungrateful to him who bestowed his own faith on me, and to whom I am indebted.' The tyrant was enraged by this and afflicted him with many punishments over a long time, such that human speech is not able to recount it. He who, exulting in the Lord, happily reaching his end, received the crown of martyrdom. Victor Vitensis, History of the Persecution of the African Province, from Book 5 1 To adopt Arianism