101

and at home we are both afflicted, for many years I sit here (as you see) begging, and whatever I can get, I also bring to my fellow sufferer for food. And let this be said sufficiently for my own affairs; for the rest, you are preventing the fulfillment of the promise to give the poison, so that I may give it to her who desires to die, and so that I too may be able (as you said) to depart from life. When the woman said these things, Peter seemed to stand in suspense under many thoughts. But I, coming up, said: For a long time I have been going about seeking you, and what are we doing now? And Peter ordered me to go on ahead and wait for him on the boat. And since it was not possible to contradict him when he commanded, I did what was ordered. But Peter, his heart beating with some small suspicion (as he himself later related everything to me), began to ask the woman, saying: Tell me, woman, your family and your city and the names of your children, and I will give you the poison now. But she, being under compulsion and not wanting to speak, but desiring to receive the poison, contrived to say other things instead of the truth, and so she said that she was an Ephesian, and her husband a Sicilian, and likewise she changed the names of her three children. And Peter, thinking she was telling the truth, said: Alas, woman; I thought to have some great joy this day, having suspected you to be someone whom I thought I knew, whose circumstances I know accurately from what I have heard. But she adjured him, saying: I beg you, tell me, that I may know if there is any woman more wretched than I. And Peter, not knowing how to lie, out of pity for her began to speak the truth: There is a certain young man who now follows me, who desires the words of godliness, being a Roman citizen, who related to me how, having a father and two twin brothers, he sees none of them; for his mother (he says), as his father related to me, having seen a dream, left the city of the Romans for a time with her twin children, so that she might not die an evil death, and having departed with them, she is not found. And her husband, who is his father, also having gone out in search of her, is not found. When Peter said these things, the woman stopped, as if from astonishment, and fainted. But Peter, approaching and taking hold of her, urged her to be sober, persuading her to confess what it was that she was suffering. But she, as if from drunkenness, with the rest of her body gone limp, recovered herself to be able to withstand the magnitude of the hoped-for joy, and rubbing her face, she said: Where is this young man? And he, now understanding the whole matter, said: You tell me first (for otherwise you cannot see him). But she, hastening, said: I am the mother of the young man. And Peter said: What is his name? And she says: Clement. And Peter said: It is he, and it was he who spoke to me a little while ago, whom I ordered to wait for me in the ship. But she, falling down before Peter, begged him to hasten to go to the ship. And Peter: If you keep the conditions for me, this too I will do. And she said: I will do everything, only show me my only-begotten child. for through him I shall seem to see my two who have died here.

101

καὶ ἡ κατ' οἶκον ἀμφότεραι ἐπισινεῖς τυγχάνομεν, ἐκ πολλῶν χρόνων ἐνταῦθα (ὡς ὁρᾷς) καθέζομαι προσαιτοῦσα καὶ ὧν ἂν εὐπορήσω, καὶ τῇ συνταλαιπώρῳ εἰς τροφὰς κομίζω. καὶ τὰ μὲν ἐμὰ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον αὐτάρ- κως εἰρήσθω· λοιπὸν σὺ κωλύεις τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν πληρῶσαι τοῦ δοῦναι τὸ φάρμακον, ὅπως κἀκείνῃ ἐπιθυμούσῃ θανεῖν δῶ καὶ οὕτως κἀγὼ τοῦ ζῆν (ὡς ἔφης) μεταλλάξαι δυνηθῶ. Ταῦτα τῆς γυναικὸς εἰπούσης ὑπὸ λογισμῶν πολλῶν ὁ Πέτρος μετέωρος ἐδόκει ἵστασθαι. ἐγὼ δὲ ἐπελθὼν ἔφην· Ἐκ πολλοῦ σε περιερχόμενος ζητῶ, καὶ τὰ νῦν τί ποιοῦμεν; ὁ δὲ Πέτρος προσέταξέν μοι προάξαντι μένειν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ σκάφους. καὶ ἐπειδὴ ἀντειπεῖν οὐκ ἦν αὐτῷ κελεύσαντι, ἐποίησα τὸ προσταχθέν. ὁ δὲ Πέτρος μικρᾷ τινι ὑποψίᾳ (ὡς αὐτός μοι πάντα ὕστερον διηγήσατο) παλλόμενος τὴν καρδίαν ἐπυνθάνετο τῆς γυναικὸς λέγων· Eἰπέ μοι, γύναι, τὸ γένος καὶ τὴν πόλιν καὶ τῶν τέκνων τὰ ὀνό- ματα, καὶ ἤδη δίδωμί σοι τὸ φάρμακον. ἡ δὲ βίαν πάσχουσα καὶ εἰπεῖν οὐ θέλουσα, τὸ δὲ φάρμακον λαβεῖν ἐπιθυμοῦσα, ἐσοφίσατο ἄλλα ἀντὶ ἄλλων εἰπεῖν καὶ ὁμῶς ἔφη αὐτὴν μὴν Ἐφεσίαν εἶναι, τὸν δὲ ἄνδρα Σικελόν, ὁμῶς καὶ τῶν τριῶν τέκνων ἤλλαξεν τὰ ὀνόματα. καὶ ὁ Πέ- τρος νομίσας αὐτὴν ἀληθεύειν ἔφη· Oἴμοι, γύναι· ἐνόμιζον μεγάλην τινὰ χαρὰν τὴν σήμερον ἄγειν ἡμέραν, ὑποπτεύσας σέ τινα εἶναι, ἣν ἐνόμιζον, ἧς τὰ πράγματα ἀκούσας ἀκριβῶς ἐπίσταμαι. ἡ δὲ ἐξώρκιζεν λέ- γουσα· ∆έομαι, εἰπέ μοι, ἵνα εἰδῶ εἰ ἔστιν τις ἐν γυναιξὶν ἀθλιωτέρα ἐμοῦ. καὶ ὁ Πέτρος ψεύδεσθαι οὐκ εἰδὼς ὑπὸ ἐλέους τοῦ πρὸς αὐτὴν τὸ ἀληθὲς λέγειν ἤρξατο· Ἐμοί τις λοιπὸν ἤδη νεανίας ὢν παρέ- πεται, τῶν τῆς θεοσεβείας ὀρεγόμενος λόγων, Ῥωμαίων ὑπάρχων πολί- της, ὅστις μοι διηγήσατο πῶς πατέρα ἔχων καὶ ἀδελφοὺς δύο διδύμους οὐδένα τούτων ὁρᾷ· ἥ τε γὰρ μήτηρ (φησίν), ὡς ὁ πατὴρ διηγεῖτό μοι, ὄνειρον ἰδοῦσα τὴν Ῥωμαίων πόλιν ἐπὶ χρόνον τινὰ ἐξῆλθεν μετὰ τῶν διδύμων αὐτῆς τέκνων, ἵνα μὴ κακῷ μόρῳ τελευτήσῃ, καὶ σὺν αὐτοῖς ἐκβᾶσα οὐχ εὑρίσκεται. ὁ δὲ ταύτης μὲν ἀνήρ, αὐτοῦ δὲ πατὴρ καὶ αὐτὸς εἰς ἐπιζήτησιν αὐτῆς ἐκβὰς οὐχ εὑρίσκεται. Ταῦτα τοῦ Πέτρου εἰπόντος ἐπιστήσασα ὡς ὑπὸ ἐκπλήξεως ἀπέψυξεν ἡ γυνή. ὁ δὲ Πέτρος προσελθὼν καὶ ἐπισχὼν νήφειν αὐτὴν παρεκελεύσατο, ὁμολογεῖν αὐτὴν πείθων τί ποτέ ἐστιν ὃ πάσχει. ἡ δὲ ὥσπερ ἐκ μέθης τὸ λοιπὸν τοῦ σώματος παρεθεῖσα ὑπέστρεψεν ἑαυτὴν ὑποστῆναι δυνηθῆναι τὸ μέγεθος τῆς ἐλπιζομένης χαρᾶς καὶ τρίψασα αὑτῆς τὸ πρόσωπον· Ποῦ ἐστιν, ἔφη, οὗτος ὁ νεανίας; ὁ δὲ ἤδη ὅλον συνιδὼν τὸ πρᾶγμα ἔφη· Eἰπέ μοι σὺ πρῶτον (ἄλλως γὰρ τοῦτον ἰδεῖν οὐκ ἔχεις). ἡ δὲ σπεύ- δουσα· Ἐγώ, φησίν, εἰμὶ ἡ τοῦ νεανίσκου μήτηρ. καὶ ὁ Πέτρος ἔφη· Τί τούτῳ ὄνομα; ἡ δέ φησιν· Κλήμης. καὶ ὁ Πέτρος εἶπεν· Aὐτός ἐστιν, καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ὁ πρὸ μικροῦ μοι λαλήσας, ᾧ ἀναμένειν με ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ προσέταξα. ἡ δὲ προσπεσοῦσα τῷ Πέτρῳ παρεκάλει σπεύδειν ἐπὶ τὸ πλοῖον ἐλθεῖν. καὶ ὁ Πέτρος· Eἴ μοι τηρεῖς τὰς συνθήκας, καὶ τοῦτο ποιήσω. ἡ δὲ ἔφη· Πάντα ποιῶ, μόνον μοι τὸ τέκνον τὸ μονογενὲς δεῖξον. δόξω γὰρ δι' αὐτοῦ τὰ δύο μου τὰ ἐνταῦθα τεθνηκότα ὁρᾶν