Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Cyprian/The Epistles of Cyprian/Part 38

by Cyprian

Epistle XXXVIII.^[1]

The Letter of Caldonius, Herculanus, and Others, on the Excommunication of Felicissimus with His People.

Argument.—Caldonius, Herculanus, and Others Carry into Effect What the Preceding Letter Had Bidden Them.

Caldonius, with Herculanus and Victor, his colleagues, also with Rogatianus and Numidicus, presbyters.^[2] We have rejected Felicissimus and Augendus from communion; also Repostus from among the exiles, and Irene of the Blood-stained ones;^[3] and Paula the sempstress; which you ought to know from my subscription; also we have rejected Sophronius and Soliassus (budinarius),^[4]—himself also one of the exiles.

1. Oxford ed.: Ep. xlii. a.d. 251.
2. V. l. “to Cyprian, greeting.”
3. “Rutili,” scil. confessors who had spilt their blood.
4. “Budinarius.” The exact meaning of this word is unknown. Some read it as another name: “Soliassus and Budinarius.” The Oxford editor changes it into Burdonarius, meaning a “carrier on mules.” Salmasius, in a long note on a passage in the life of Aurelian (Hist. Aug., p. 408), proposes butinarius, which he derives from βυτίνη, a cruet for containing vinegar, etc., and which he identifies with βοῦττις, the original of our bottle. Butinarias would then mean a maker of vessels suitable for containing vinegar, etc. See Sophocles’ Glossary of Byzantine Greek, s. v. βοῦττις.  [Probably low Latin for a maker of force-meats. Spanish, budin.]