Jerome. Lives of Illustrious Men 17
17 Polycarp the bishop PL 23, 635
Polycarp disciple of the apostle John and by him ordained bishop of Smyrna was chief of all Asia, where he saw and had as teachers some of the apostles and of those who had seen the Lord. He, on account of certain questions concerning the day of the Passover, went to Rome in the time of the emperor Antoninus Pius while Anicetus ruled the church in that city. There he led back to the faith many of the believers who had been deceived through the persuasion of Marcion and Valentinus, and when Marcion met him by chance and said “Do you know us” he replied, “I know the firstborn of the devil.” Afterwards during the reign of Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus in the fourth persecution after Nero, in the presence of the proconsul holding court at Smyrna and all the people crying out against him in the Amphitheater, he was burned. He wrote a very valuable Epistle to the Philippians which is read to the present day in the meetings in Asia.
Polycarpus, Joannis apostoli discipulus, et ab eo Smyrnae episcopus ordinatus, totius Asiae princeps fuit. Quippe qui nonnullos Apostolorum, et eorum qui viderant Dominum, magistros habuerit, et viderit. Hic propter quasdam super die Paschae quaestiones, sub imperatore Antonino Pio, Ecclesiam in Urbe regente Aniceto, Romam venit, ubi plurimos credentium, Marcionis et Valentini persuasione deceptos, reduxit ad fidem. Cumque ei fortuito obviam fuis et Marcion, et diceret: Cognosce nos: Respondit: Cognosco primogenitum diaboli. Postea vero, regnante M. Antonino, et L. Aurelio Commodo, quarta post Neronem persecutione, Smyrnae, sedente Proconsule, et universo populo in amphitheatro adversus eum personante, igni traditus est. Scripsit ad Philippenses valde utilem Epistolam, quae usque hodie in Asiae conventu legitur.
Πολύκαρπος Ἰωάννου Ἀποστόλου μαθητὴς, καὶ παρ' αὐτοῦ τῆς Σμυρναίων Ἐπίσκοπος κατασταθεὶς, πάσης τῆς Ἀσίας ἀρχηγὸς γέγονε, διὰ τὸ πολλοῖς τῶν Ἀποστόλων καὶ τῶν τὸν Χριστὸν ἑωρακότων συντετυχηκέναι, καὶ διδασκάλους ἐσχηκέναι. Οὗτος διά τινας αἰτίας τοῦ πάσχα, βασιλεύοντος Ἀντωνίνου τοῦ Πίου, καὶ Ἐπισκοποῦντος τῆς ἐκκλησίας Ῥώμης Ἀνικήτου, ἐπέστη τῇ Ῥώμῃ, ἐν ᾗ καὶ πολλοὺς, τῷ δόγματι Μαρκίωνος, καὶ Βαλεντίνου πιστεύσαντας ἀνεκαλέσατο. Ἀπαντήσαντος δὲ αὐῷ ἐξ αὐτομάτου Μαρξίωνος καὶ εἰρηκότος αὐτῷ, Γνώριζε ἡμᾶς, ἀπεκρίθη, Γνωρίζω τὸν πρωτότοκον τοῦ Διαβόλου. Μετὰ ταῦτα βασιλεύοντος Μάρκου Ἀντωνίνου, καὶ Λουκίου Αὐρηλίου Κομόδου, τετάρτου μετὰ Νέρωνα διωγμοῦ κινηθέντος, ἐν Σμύρνῃ θεωροῦντος τοῦ ἀνθυπάτου, καὶ παντὸς τοῦ δήμου ἐν τῷ ἀμφιθεάτρῳ κατ' αὐτοῦ βοῶτος, πυρὶ παρεδόθη. Ἔγραψε πρὸς Φιλιππησίους πάνυ θαυμαστὴν Ἐπιστολὴν, ἥτις ἄχρι τοῦ παρόντος ἐν τῇ Ἀσιανῇ συνόδῳ ἀναγινώσκεται.