Accounts preserved in early Christian sources and later martyrologies place these events in Alexandria during the persecutions under Emperor Septimius Severus (reign 193–211 AD), commonly dated c. 202–205 AD. Potamiana, a young Christian virgin, was arrested and brutally tortured—accounts describe burning and the application of boiling pitch—and put to death along with her mother Marcella and other companions. Eusebius of Caesarea records that after her martyrdom Potamiana was reported to appear to the living and that one such apparition converted a court officer, Basilides, who was baptized and then executed the following day. Later martyrologies commemorate the two on June 28 (with variant calendrical notes for Basilides). The narrative is transmitted by Eusebius and preserved in later ecclesiastical and hagiographical compilations.
Potamiana is described in the sources primarily in moral and aesthetic terms: a young virgin who 'was blooming in the perfection of her mind and her physical graces.' The hagiography emphasizes her chastity and youth rather than detailed corporeal description; her body is reported to have undergone violent tortures (including burning and the dripping of boiling pitch) prior to death. Basilides is identified as a court officer—an official present at executions—without detailed physical description in the sources.
The sources report only specific hagiographical phenomena: after her execution Potamiana is said to have appeared at night to multiple persons, calling them to the Christian faith and to accept martyrdom. In one account she appeared to Basilides three days after her death and is said to have placed a crown on his head as a pledge of heavenly reward; following this vision Basilides received baptism and was executed. These are presented in the sources (not as general supernatural powers) but as posthumous intercessory or visionary actions attributed to a martyr in early Christian belief.
Agabus
Agabus is an early Christian prophet attested in the Acts of the Apostles and later ecclesiastical tradition. He is reported in Acts to have predicted a famine and to have given a symbolic warning to Paul; later tradition lists him among the Seventy Disciples and attributes missionary activity and martyrdom to him.
Annas (Ananus)
Annas (Hebrew Ḥānān; Greek Ἅννας) was a first-century CE Jewish high priest of Judaea (AD 6–15) whose familial network and continued influence made him a central figure in priestly leadership in Jerusalem and in New Testament narratives of the Passion and early Christian episodes.
Caiaphas (Joseph ben Caiaphas)
Caiaphas (Joseph ben Caiaphas) is attested in New Testament and later Jewish sources as the Jewish High Priest in Jerusalem in the early first century CE. He functions in the Gospel narratives and Acts as a senior temple official and a leading member of the council of chief priests who weigh political and cultic interests and who are portrayed as instrumental in the arrest and trial of Jesus.
Chrysanthus and Daria
Chrysanthus and Daria are venerated Christian martyrs of the early Church, remembered in liturgical calendars and by the cult of relics. Their legend places them in late third-century Rome, where they converted others and suffered martyrdom; their Acts survive in later Greek and Latin versions judged historically unreliable, while relics attributed to them were translated and enshrined in several medieval sites.
Saint Peter
Saint Peter (Simon bar Jonah; Cephas/Petros) is an early Christian apostle and leading disciple of Jesus who, in later Catholic and Orthodox tradition, is venerated as the foundational bishop of the church in Rome and a major saint. Tradition attributes to him a leadership role in the primitive Christian community, a renaming by Jesus signifying a "rock/foundation" role, and martyrdom in Rome under Nero. Relics and institutions (notably the Chair of Saint Peter) continue to anchor his symbolic authority.
Basamum
Basamum is attested as a deity worshipped in pre-Islamic South Arabia, tentatively associated with healing through an etymological link to balsam; a single ancient text credits Basamum with curing two sick goats or ibexes. The evidence is limited and leaves most aspects of cult and myth undetermined.
Basan
The Basan is a legendary nocturnal bird-like yōkai from Edo-period Japanese illustrated compendia. Described as a chicken-sized fowl that emits a visible, cold, non-combustive ‘ghost-fire’ and feeds on charred wood and embers, it is associated with mountain bamboo groves and remote villages at night.
Bashe (巴蛇) — Great Horned/Great Ba Snake
Bashe (巴蛇, bā-shé) is a named legendary giant python-like serpent in classical Chinese literature, famed for swallowing elephants whole and disgorging their bones after a long interval. It appears in mytho-geographic and poetic compilations (notably the Shanhaijing and the Chuci Tianwen) and is taken up in materia medica writings (e.g., Bencao Gangmu) and commentaries (Guo Pu) as both marvel and source of medicinal substances.
Bashnouna
Bashnouna is a Coptic Christian monk venerated as a saint and martyr in the Coptic Orthodox tradition. According to hagiographical accounts recorded in the Coptic Synaxarion and secondary summaries, he was a monk of the Monastery of Saint Macarius in Scetes, arrested during the Fatimid caliphate of al-'Āḍid, refused to convert to Islam, and was burned alive on 24 Pashons (19 May 1164). His relics are reported buried at the Church of Saint Sergius in Cairo and he is commemorated liturgically on that date.
Basilisco chilote
A Chilote household parasite: a rooster-crested, serpentine creature hatched from a chicken's egg that lives beneath houses and feeds on inhabitants' phlegm and saliva, causing dehydration and death. Preventive measures call for burning the egg and killing the laying hen; once hatched the documented remedy is to burn the afflicted house.
Basilisk
A legendary serpent‑king from Roman and medieval European bestiary tradition, described in Pliny's reception as a small but uniquely deadly snake whose venomous trail and lethal gaze can kill. It functions in those corpora as one of several marvelous or dangerous creatures catalogued by natural historians and compilers of bestiaries.
Basilisk
A legendary serpent from classical and medieval bestiary tradition, the basilisk is described as a paradigmatic "king" of serpents whose gaze, breath, or venom is fatal and whose presence scorches and corrupts the surrounding environment. Treated variously as a monstrous animal, materia for alchemy, and a locus of local legend, it features recurrent countermeasures (weasel, rooster, mirror) in the sources.
Community Record
- [1]Basilides and Potamiana — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Basilides and Potamiana'wiki
- [2]Basilides (Catholic Encyclopedia summary). Catholicity.com, 'Basilides'other
- [3]Holy Martyr Potamiana the Virgin. Orthodox Christian blog summarizing hagiography, 'Holy Martyr Potamiana the Virgin'other
- [4]Plutarch and companions — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Plutarch and companions' (context for Alexandrian martyrs)wiki
- [5]Wikidata: Basilides and Potamiana. Wikidata entry Q532385wiki
- [6]Martyrologies and hagiographical compilations (summaries cited in secondary sources). References to the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and entries in the Roman Martyrology (commemorations on June 28; variant note of Basilides on June 30) as cited in hagiographical summariesother