A token offering demanded and refused
The governor demands only a token act of incense wine and a branch with a short cry and argues from what he learned from Jews, and Conon answers and refuses to sacrifice.
The tyrant said to him, "If you have come to know Christ, know our gods as well. Obey me, and, by all the gods, you will win for yourself no ordinary honor, but noble standing and glory in your generation. I am not telling you to sacrifice, nor to do anything of that kind. Only take a little incense and wine and a branch and say, Highest, save this multitude. Say this, and I will bring nothing else upon you. Hear me as I urge you, and flee this most shameful religion. Why do you go astray, calling a man God, and that a man dead by a violent death? I have learned exactly from the Jews what his lineage was, and what he displayed to their nation, and how he died when he was crucified. For they brought out his records and read them to me. So give up such folly and rejoice with us."
The blessed martyr groaned and looked up to heaven, and when he had prayed to the God of all, he said to the tyrant, "Most impious of all men, would that you too shared in such folly, and did not destroy souls that ought not to perish by attending to lifeless stones and works of human hands that neither see nor hear. How did you dare to blaspheme in this way the God over all, in whose hands your breath lies? For me, and for all who call upon his name, may it be ours to sing to him and glorify him always without denial, him who is Saviour and God of all."
The impious tyrant was enraged at what the holy martyr had said, and he said to him, "If you will not be persuaded by me, the tortures will persuade you to be afraid. Even if you despise the tortures, I will throw you to a most savage lion and so destroy you, or I will hand you over as prey to the beasts from the deep, or I will hang you on a cross and have you put to death, or I will throw you into the fiercest fire burning under a cauldron and melt your flesh, unless you sacrifice to the unconquered and eternal gods." The blessed martyr said to the impious tyrant, "You disgrace yourself, governor. You offer only words, and you think you frighten me and suppose you will persuade me? You will not persuade me, may it not happen. See that the judge does not hand you over to Tartarus with no delay, or to unquenchable fire forever, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Isaiah 66:24; Mark 9:48). For your tortures, which you threaten against me, cannot harm me, for I have God who strengthens me." The tyrant said to him, "Even if the tortures will have no power against you, we will devise still more bitter tortures against you."
Greek
Ἔφη αὐτῷ ὁ τύραννος· Εἰ ἔγνως τὸν Χριστόν, γνῶθί τε καὶ τοὺς ἡμετέρους θεούς. Ἐμοὶ πείσθητι καί, μὰ τοὺς θεοὺς ἅπαντας, τιμὴν οὐ τὴν τυχοῦσαν περιποιήσεις σεαυτῷ, ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐγενῆ πίστιν καὶ δόξαν ἐν γενεᾷ. Οὐ λέγω σοι θῦσον, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδέ τι τῶν τοιούτων ποίησον. Μόνον δὲ λάβε λίβανον βραχὺν καὶ οἶνον καὶ θαλλὸν καὶ εἰπέ· Ὕψιστε, σῶσε τὸ πλῆθος τοῦτο. Τοῦτο εἰπέ, καὶ ἕτερον οὐδέν σε ἐπάγω. Ἐμοῦ ἄκουσον παρακαλοῦντός σε καὶ φύγε τὴν ἀσεμνοτάτην θρησκείαν. Τί πλανᾶσθε, ἄνθρωπον θεὸν λέγοντες, καὶ τοῦτον βιοθανῆ; Ὡς ἔμαθον παρὰ Ἰουδαίων ἀκριβῶς, καὶ τί τὸ γένος αὐτοῦ καὶ ὅσα ἐνεδείξατο τῷ ἔθνει αὐτῶν καὶ πῶς ἀπέθανεν σταυρωθείς. Προκομίσαντες γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὰ ὑπομνήματα ἐπανέγνωσάν μοι. Παῦσαι οὖν τῆς τοιαύτης μωρίας καὶ ἔσο μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν εὐφραινόμενος. Ὁ δὲ μακάριος μάρτυς στενάξας καὶ ἀναβλέψας εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, πρὸς τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν προσευξάμενος, τῷ τυράννῳ ἔφη· Ἀσεβέστατε πάντων ἀνθρώπων, εἴθε τοιαύτης μωρίας καὶ σὺ ἧς μετέχων καὶ μὴ ἀπώλλεις ψυχάς, ἃς οὐκ ἔδει ἀπολέσθαι, προσέχων λίθοις ἀψύχοις καὶ ἔργοις χειρῶν ἀνθρώπων, τοῖς μὴ βλέπουσιν μήτε ἀκούουσιν. Πῶς δὲ ἐτόλμησας τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸν οὕτω βλασφημῆσαι, οὗ ἐν χερσίν ἐστιν ἡ πνοή σου; Ἐμοὶ δὲ γένοιτο καὶ πᾶσιν τοῖς ἐπικαλουμένοις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἀνεξαρνήτως ἀεὶ ὑμνεῖν καὶ δοξάζειν αὐτὸν τὸν τῶν ὅλων σωτῆρα καὶ θεόν. Καὶ ὁ ἀσεβὴς τύραννος μεμηνὼς ἐπὶ τοῖς λεχθεῖσιν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος λέγει πρὸς αὐτόν· Ἐμοὶ οὐ πείθῃ, αἱ βάσανοί σε πτοῆσαι πείσουσιν· εἰ δὲ καὶ τῶν βασάνων καταφρονεῖς, λέοντί σε πικροτάτῳ παραβαλὼν οὕτως σε ἀναλώσω, ἢ βορὰν τοῖς ἐκ βυθοῦ θηρίοις παραδώσω σε, ἢ ἐπὶ σταυροῦ κρεμάσας ἀποκτανθῆναί σε ποιήσω, ἢ λαβροτάτῳ πυρὶ ἐν λέβητι ὑποκαιομένῳ βαλῶ σε καὶ ἐκτήξω τὰς σάρκας σου, ἐὰν μὴ θύσῃς τοῖς ἀηττήτοις καὶ αἰωνίοις θεοῖς. Καὶ ὁ μακάριος μάρτυς λέγει πρὸς τὸν ἀσεβῆ τύραννον· Ἀσχημονεῖς, ἡγεμών· λόγοις ἐπαγγελλόμενος μόνον, ἐκφοβεῖν με οἰόμενος, νομίζεις πεῖσαί με; Οὐ πείσεις με, μὴ γένοιτο. Βλέπε δὲ μή σε ὁ κριτὴς ταρτάρῳ παραδώσῃ ἀνυπερθέτῳ, ἢ πυρὶ ἀσβέστῳ εἰς αἰῶνας, ὅπου ὁ σκώληξ οὐ τελευτᾷ καὶ τὸ πῦρ οὐ σβέννυται. Αἱ γὰρ σαὶ βάσανοι, ἃς ἐπαγγέλλῃ μοι, οὐ δύνανταί με ἀδικῆσαι· θεὸν γὰρ ἔχω τὸν ἐνδυναμοῦντά με. Ὁ δὲ τύραννος εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτόν· Εἰ καὶ αἱ βάσανοι οὐδὲν ἰσχύσουσιν κατὰ σοῦ, ἔτι πικροτέρας βασάνους ἐπινοήσομεν κατὰ σοῦ.