<b> <i>Martyrium Polycarpi</i> 2,2–3,1 and the Question of an Earlier Archetype</b>

Abstract Otto Zwierlein has argued recently that there was an original archetype of the Martyrium Polycarpi that was shorter than the extant Greek text. He bases this argument on the Armenian version of Eusebius’s narration of Polycarp’s martyrdom found in a collection of martyrologies. The Armenian version of the Historia ecclesiastica was a translation of a Syriac version of Eusebius’s work that was earlier than the Syriac version which currently exists. The text of the Armenian collection is an extensively abbreviated version of Abraham Čarean’s superior edition of Eusebius’s Historia . An examination of a test case indicates that Zwierlein’s reconstruction is highly problematic.