ABSTRACT

Origen was born in ce 185 or 186 in Alexandria when Commodus ruled the Roman empire. He died, either as a martyr at Caesarea in the persecution of the emperor Decius, or at Tyre a year or so after Decius’s death when Valerian was emperor.1 His father was martyred in Alexandria during the persecution of Septimius Severus when Origen was a teenager.2