Note 250 — Chapter VIII

The Eirenarch of Smyrna sends out these gens d’armes to arrest Polycarp: ἐξῆλθον διωγμῖται καὶ ἱππεῖς μετὰ τῶν συνήθων αὐτοῖς ὅπλων, ὡς ἐπὶ λῃστὴν τρέχοντες (Acta mart., ed. Ruinart, p. 39). That they had not the armour of soldiers proper, is also elsewhere remarked (Ammian. xxvii. 9, 6: adhibitis semiermibus quibusdam—against the Isaurians—quos diogmitas appellant). Their employment in the Marcomanian war is reported by the biographer of Marcus, c. 26: armavit et diogmitas, and by the inscription of Aezani in Phrygia, C. I. Gr. 3031 a 8 = Lebas–Waddington, 992: παρασχὼν τῷ κυρίῳ Καίσαρι σύμμαχον διωγμείτην παρ’ ἑαυτοῦ.