* Note: Gibbon altogether forgets that Trajan fully approved of the course pursued by Pliny.

That course was, to order all who persevered in their faith to be led to execution: perseverantes duci jussi .-- M.] [Footnote 69: In Metalla damnamur, in insulas relegamur.

Tertullian, Apolog.c.12.The mines of Numidia contained nine bishops, with a proportionable number of their clergy and people, to whom Cyprian addressed a pious epistle of praise and comfort.

See Cyprian.

Epistol.
76, 77.] [Footnote 70: Though we cannot receive with entire confidence either the epistles, or the acts, of Ignatius, (they may be found in the 2d volume of the Apostolic Fathers,) yet we may quote that bishop of Antioch as one of these exemplary martyrs.