The Martyrium gives the examination of the accused by Rusticus.
All of them professed to be Christians. Justinus was asked if
he expected to ascend into heaven and to receive a reward for
his sufferings, if he was condemned to death. He answered that
he did not expect: he was certain of it. Finally, the test of
obedience was proposed to the prisoners; they were required to
sacrifice to the gods. All refused, and Rusticus pronounced the
sentence, which was that those who refused to sacrifice to the
gods and obey the emperor's order should be whipped and
beheaded according to the law. The martyrs were then led to the
usual place of execution and beheaded. Some of the faithful
secretly carried off the bodies and deposited them in a fit
place.

The persecution in which Polycarp suffered at Smyrna belongs to the time
of M. Antoninus. The evidence for it is the letter of the church of
Smyrna to the churches of Philomelium and the other Christian churches,
and it is preserved by Eusebius (E.H. iv. 15). But the critics do not
agree about the time of Polycarp's death, differing in the two extremes
to the amount of twelve years. The circumstances of Polycarp's martyrdom
were accompanied by miracles, one of which Eusebius (iv. 15) has
omitted, but it appears in the oldest Latin version of the letter, which
Usher published, and it is supposed that this version was made not long
after the time of Eusebius. The notice at the end of the letter states
that it was transcribed by Caius from the copy of Irenaeus, the disciple
of Polycarp, then transcribed by Socrates at Corinth; "after which I
Pionius again wrote it out from the copy above mentioned, having
searched it out by the revelation of Polycarp, who directed me to it,"
&c. The story of Polycarp's martyrdom is embellished with miraculous
circumstances which some modern writers on ecclesiastical history take