4 Maccabees 9:29

²⁷And when, on inquiring whether he would eat before he was tortured, they heard his noble sentiment,

²⁸after they with the iron hands had violently dragged all the flesh from the neck to the chin, the panther-like beasts tore off the very skin of his head: but he, bearing with firmness this misery, said,

— 4 Maccabees 9:29 —

³⁰Thinkest thou not, most cruel of all tyrants, that thou art now tortured more than I, finding thy overweening conception of tyranny conquered by our patience in behalf of our religion?

³¹For I lighten my suffering by the pleasures which are connected with virtue.