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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Valeria, by William Henry Withrow
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Valeria
+       The Martyr of the Catacombs
+
+Author: William Henry Withrow
+
+Release Date: August 22, 2010 [EBook #33484]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VALERIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Rose Mawhorter (This file was produced from
+images generously made available by The Internet
+Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+  Ascii conversion was done as follows:
+  e with circumflex is now [e>]
+  a with grave is now [a\]
+  o with circumflex is now [o>]
+  e with acute is now [e/]
+  ae ligature is now [ae]
+  e with diaeresis is now [e:]
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  [Illustration: SCENE IN THE CATACOMBS--AT THE MARTYR'S TOMB.]
+
+
+  VALERIA,
+
+  THE MARTYR OF THE CATACOMBS.
+
+  A Tale of Early Christian Life in Rome.
+
+  BY
+  W.H. WITHROW, D.D.,
+
+  _Author of "The Catacombs of Rome and their Testimony Relative
+  to Primitive Christianity," Etc._
+
+
+  [Illustration: "VALERIA SLEEPS IN PEACE."]
+
+
+  TORONTO:
+
+  WILLIAM BRIGGS.
+
+  MONTREAL: C.W. COATES.
+  HALIFAX: S.F. HUESTIS.
+
+
+
+
+THE MARTYRS IN THE CATACOMBS.
+
+BY CHARLES J. PETERSON.
+
+
+    THEY lie all around me, countless in their number,
+      Each martyr with his palm.
+    No torture now can rack them: safe they slumber,
+      Hushed in eternal calm!
+
+    I read the rude inscriptions, written weeping,
+      At night with hurried tears.
+    Yet what a tale they tell! their secret keeping
+      Through all these thousand years.
+
+    "IN PACE." Yes, at peace. By sword, or fire,
+      Or cross, or lictor's rod--
+    Virgin, or matron; youth, or gray-haired sire:
+      For all, the peace of God.
+
+    "IN CHRISTO." Died in Christ. Oh, tragic story!
+      Yet, over shouts, and cries,
+    And lion's roar, they heard the saints in glory
+      Singing from Paradise.
+
+    "AD DEUM." Went to God. Wide swung the portal;
+      Dim sank the sands away;
+    And, chanting "Alleluia," the immortal
+      Passed to Eternal Day.
+
+    Agnes, Cecilia! Names undying ever,--
+      What's C[ae]sar's gain to this?
+    He lived for self; they for their high endeavour.
+      His, fame; theirs, endless bliss.
+
+    And pagan Rome herself? Her wisest teacher
+      Could teach but how to die!
+    Sad, hopeless emperor, echoing the Preacher,
+      "All, all is vanity."
+
+    He slew the martyrs. Yet, through ages crying,
+      This noble truth they give:
+    "Life is but birth-throes. Death itself, not dying.
+      We pass to God--to live."
+
+    O blessed hope! O faith that conquers sorrow!
+      Pain, heart-break, all shall cease.
+    They are but gateways to a glad to-morrow.
+      "IN PACE." God is peace.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The writer having made the early Christian Catacombs a special study for
+several years, and his larger volume on that subject having been
+received with great favour in Great Britain, the United States, and
+Canada, has endeavoured in this story to give as popular an account as
+he could of early Christian life and character as illustrated by these
+interesting memorials of the primitive Church. He has been especially
+careful to maintain historical accuracy in all his statements of fact,
+and in the filling up of details he has endeavoured to preserve the
+historical "keeping" of the picture. Persons wishing to pursue the study
+of the Catacombs still further are referred to the Author's special work
+on that subject. See note at the end of this volume.
+
+W.H.W.
+
+
+
+
+THE CATACOMBS.
+
+BY HARRIET ANNIE WILKINS.
+
+"Miles after miles of graves, and not one word or sign of the gloominess
+or death." _Professor Jules De Launay._
+
+    MILES after miles of graves,
+      League after league of tombs,
+    And not one sign of spectre Death,
+      Waving his shadowy plumes;
+    Hope, beautiful and bright,
+      Spanning the arch above
+    Faith, gentle, overcoming Faith,
+      And Love, God's best gift, Love.
+
+    For early Christians left
+      Their darlings to their rest,
+    As mothers leave their little ones
+      When the sun gilds the west;
+    No mourning robes of black,
+      No crape upon the doors,
+    For the victorious palm-bearers,
+      Who tread the golden floors.
+
+    Arrayed in garments white,
+      No mournful dirges pealing,
+    Bearing green branches in their hands,
+      Around the tomb they're kneeling;
+    This was their marching song,
+      "By death we are not holden;"
+    And this their glorious funeral hymn,
+      "Jerusalem the golden."
+
+    Beautiful girls sleep there,
+      Waiting the Bridegroom's call.
+    Each lamp is burning brilliantly,
+      While the bright shadows fall;
+    And baby martyrs passed
+      Straight to the great I AM,
+    While sturdier soldiers carved o'er each,
+      "VICTOR, GOD'S LITTLE LAMB."
+
+    Miles after miles of graves,
+      League after league of tombs,
+    The cross upon each conqueror's brow
+      Light up the catacombs;
+    "'Tis in this sign we conquer."
+      Sounds on the blood-stained track;
+    "'Tis in this sign we conquer,"
+      We gladly answer back.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+  ON THE APPIAN WAY                  7
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  IN C[AE]SAR'S PALACE                 17
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  EMPRESS AND SLAVE                 23
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+  THE IMPERIAL BANQUET              33
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+  THE CHRISTIANS AND THE LIONS      43
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+  THE MARTYR'S BURIAL               54
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+  WITH HILARUS, THE FOSSOR          64
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+  WITH PRIMITIUS, THE PRESBYTER     75
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+  A DIFFICULT QUEST                 86
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+  A WICKED PLOT                     92
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+  THE SLAVE MARKET                  97
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+  THE LOST FOUND                   105
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+  FATHER AND DAUGHTER              111
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+  "UNSTABLE AS WATER"              117
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+  AT THE BATHS                     124
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+  THE GAMING TABLE                 129
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+  "IN PERICULIS TUTUS"             135
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII
+  THE MIDNIGHT PLOT                142
+
+  CHAPTER XIX
+  IN THE TOILS OF THE TEMPTER      148
+
+  CHAPTER XX
+  THE PLOT THICKENS                153
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.
+  A CRIME PREVENTED                161
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.
+  THE STORM BURSTS                 168
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.
+  THE MAMERTINE PRISON             177
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.
+  THE EVE OF MARTYRDOM             184
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.
+  A ROMAN HOLIDAY                  188
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI
+  THE MARTYRS CROWNED              199
+
+  CHAPTER XXVII.
+  THE MARTYRS BURIED               205
+
+  CHAPTER XXVIII.
+  THE BETRAYAL--THE PURSUIT        215
+
+  CHAPTER XXIX.
+  THE DOOM OF THE TRAITOR          224
+
+  CHAPTER XXX.
+  FATE OF THE PERSECUTORS--TRIUMPH OF
+    CHRISTIANITY                   229
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+VALERIA, THE MARTYR OF THE CATACOMBS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE APPIAN WAY.
+
+
+[Illustration: "ENTRANCE TO A CATACOMB."]
+
+On a bright spring morning in the year of our Lord 303--it was in the
+"Ides of March," about the middle of the month, but the air was balmy as
+that of June in our northern clime--two note-worthy-looking men were
+riding along the famous Appian Way, near the city of Rome The elder of
+the two, a man of large size and of mighty thews and sinews, was mounted
+on a strong and richly-caparisoned horse. He wore the armour of a Roman
+centurion--a lorica or cuirass, made of plates of bronze, fastened to a
+flexible body of leather; and cothurni, or a sort of laced boots,
+leaching to mid-leg. On his back hung his round embossed shield; by his
+side, in its sheath, his short, straight sword, and on his head was a
+burnished helmet, with a sweeping horsehair crest. His face was bronzed
+with the sun of many climes. But when, for a moment, he removed his
+helmet to cool his brow, one saw that his forehead was high and white.
+His hair curled close to his head, except where it was worn bare at his
+temples by the chafing of his helmet, and was already streaked with
+grey, although he looked not more than five-and forty years of age. Yet
+the eagle glance of his eye was undimmed, and his firm-set muscles, the
+haughty expression of his countenance, and the high courage of his
+bearing, gave evidence that his natural strength was not abated.
+
+His companion contrasted strongly in every respect. He had a slender,
+graceful figure, a mobile and expressive face, a mouth of almost
+feminine softness and beauty, dark and languishing eyes, and long,
+flowing hair. He wore a snowy toga, with a brilliant scarlet border of
+what is still known as "Greek fret;" and over this, fastened by a brooch
+at his throat, a flowing cloak. On his head sat jauntily a soft felt
+hat, not unlike those still worn by the Italian peasantry, and on his
+feet were low-laced shoes or sandals. Instead of a sword, he wore at his
+side a metal case for his reed-pen and for a scroll of papyrus. He was
+in the bloom and beauty of youth, apparently not more than twenty years
+of age.
+
+The elder of the two was the Roman officer Flaccus Sertorius, a
+centurion of the 12th Legion, returning with his Greek secretary,
+Isidorus, from the town of Albano, about seventeen miles from Rome,
+whither he had been sent on business of state.
+
+"This new edict of the Emperor's," remarked Sertorius to his secretary,
+with an air of affable condescension, "is likely to give us both work
+enough to do before long."
+
+"Your Excellency forgets," replied Isidorus, with an obsequious
+inclination of the head, "that your humble secretary has not the same
+means of learning affairs of state as his noble master."
+
+"Oh, you Greeks learn everything!" said the centurion, with a rather
+contemptuous laugh. "Trust you for that."
+
+"We try to make ourselves useful to our patrons," replied the young man,
+"and it seems to be a sort of hereditary habit, for my Athenian
+ancestors were proverbial for seeking to know some new thing."
+
+"Yes, new manners, new customs, new religions; why, your very name
+indicates your adherence to the new-fangled worship of Isis."
+
+"I hold not altogether that way," replied the youth. "I belong rather to
+the eclectic school. My father, Apollodorus, was a priest of Phoebus,
+and named me, like himself, from the sungod, whom he worshipped; but I
+found the party of Isis fashionable at court, so I even changed my name
+and colours to the winning side. When one is at Rome, you know, he must
+do as the Romans do."
+
+"Yes, like the degenerate Romans, who forsake the old gods, under whom
+the State was great and virtuous and strong," said the soldier, with an
+angry gesture. "The more gods, the worse the world becomes. But this new
+edict will make short work of some of them."
+
+"With the Christians you mean," said the supple Greek. "A most
+pernicious sect, that deserve extermination with fire and sword."
+
+"I know little about them," replied Sertorius, with a sneer, "save that
+they have increased prodigiously of late. Even in the army and the
+palace are those known to favour their obscene and contemptible
+doctrines."
+
+"'Tis whispered that even their sacred highnesses the Empresses Prisca
+and Valeria are infected with their grovelling superstition," said the
+Greek secretary. "Certain it is, they seem to avoid being present at the
+public sacrifices, as they used to be. But the evil sect has its
+followers chiefly among the slaves and vile plebs of the poorest
+Transtiberine region of Rome."
+
+"What do they worship, anyhow?" asked the centurion, with an air of
+languid curiosity. "They seem to have no temples, nor altars, nor
+sacrifices."
+
+"They have dark and secret and abominable rites," replied the fawning
+Greek, eager to gratify the curiosity of his patron with popular
+slanders against the Christians. "'Tis said they worship a low-born
+peasant, who was crucified for sedition. Some say he had an ass's
+head,[1] but that, I doubt not, is a vulgar superstition; and one of our
+poets, the admirable Lucian, remarks that their doctrine was brought to
+Rome by a little hook-nosed Jew, named Paulus, who was beheaded by the
+divine Nero over yonder near the Ostian gate, beside the pyramid of
+Cestius, which you may see amongst the cypresses. They have many strange
+usages. Their funeral customs, especially, differ very widely from the
+Greek or Roman ones. They bury the body, with many mysterious rites, in
+vaults or chambers underground, instead of burning it on a funeral pyre.
+They are rank atheists, refusing to worship the gods, or even to throw
+so much as a grain of incense on their altar, or place a garland of
+flowers before their shrines, or even have their images in their
+houses. They are a morose, sullen, and dangerous people, and are said to
+hold hideous orgies at their secret assemblies underground, where they
+banquet on the body of a newly-slain child.[2] See yonder," he
+continued, pointing to a low-browed arch almost concealed by trees in a
+neighbouring garden, "is the entrance to one of their secret crypts,
+where they gather to celebrate their abominable rites, surrounded by the
+bones and ashes of the dead. A vile and craven set of wretches; they are
+not fit to live."
+
+"They are not all cravens; to that I can bear witness," interrupted
+Sertorius. "I knew a fellow in my own company--Lannus was his name--who,
+his comrades said, was a Christian. He was the bravest and steadiest
+fellow in the legion;--saved my life once in Libya;--rushed between me
+and a lion, which sprang from a thicket as I stopped to let my horse
+drink at a stream--as it might be the Anio, there. The lion's fangs met
+in his arm, but he never winced. He may believe what he pleases for me.
+I like not this blood-hound business of hunting down honest men because
+they worship gods of their own. But the Emperor's edict is written, as
+you may say, with the point of a dagger--'The Christian religion must
+everywhere be destroyed.'"
+
+"And quite right, too, your Excellency," said the soft-smiling Greek.
+"They are seditious conspirators, the enemies of C[ae]sar and of Rome."
+
+"A Roman soldier does not need to learn of thee, hungry Greekling,"[3]
+exclaimed the centurion, haughtily, "what is his duty to his country!"
+
+"True, most noble sir," faltered the discomfited secretary, yet with a
+vindictive glance from his treacherous eyes. "Your Excellency is always
+right."
+
+For a time they rode on in silence, the secretary falling obsequiously a
+little to the rear. It was now high noon, and the crowd and bustle on
+the Appian Way redoubled. This Queen of Roads[4] ran straight as an
+arrow up-hill and down from Rome to Capua and Brundisium, a distance of
+over three hundred miles. Though then nearly six hundred years old, it
+was as firm as the day it was laid, and after the lapse of fifteen
+hundred years more, during which "the Goth, the Christian, Time, War,
+Flood and Fire," have devastated the land, its firm lava pavement of
+broad basaltic slabs seems as enduring as ever. On every side rolled the
+undulating Campagna, now a scene of melancholy desolation, then
+cultivated like a garden, abounding in villas and mansions whose marble
+columns gleamed snowy white through the luxuriant foliage of their
+embosoming myrtle and laurel groves. On either side of the road were the
+stately tombs of Rome's mighty dead-her pr[ae]tors, proconsuls, and
+senators some, like the mausoleum of C[ae]cilia Metella,[5] rising like a
+solid fortress; others were like little wayside altars, but all were
+surrounded by an elegantly kept green sward, adorned with parterres of
+flowers. Their ruins now rise like stranded wrecks above the sea of
+verdure of the tomb-abounding plain. On every side are tombs--tombs
+above and tombs below--the graves of contending races, the sepulchres of
+vanished generations. Across the vast field of view stretched, supported
+high in air on hundreds of arches, like a Titan procession, the Marcian
+Aqueduct, erected B.C. 146, which after two thousand years brings to the
+city of Rome an abundant supply of the purest water from the far distant
+Alban Mountains, which present to our gaze to-day the same serrated
+outline and lovely play of colour that delighted the eyes of Horace and
+Cicero.
+
+As they drew nearer the gates of the city, it became difficult to thread
+their way through the throngs of eager travellers--gay lectic[ae] or
+silken-curtained carriages and flashing chariots, conveying fashionable
+ladies and the gilded gallants of the city to the elegant villas without
+the walls--processions of consuls and proconsuls with their guards, and
+crowds of peasants bringing in the panniers of their patient donkeys
+fruits, vegetables, and even snow from the distant Soracte, protected
+from the heat by a straw matting--just as they do in Italy to-day. The
+busy scene is vividly described in the graphic lines of Milton:
+
+    "What conflux issuing forth or entering in;
+    Pr[ae]tors, proconsuls to their provinces
+    Hasting, or on return, in robes of state;
+    Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power,
+    Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings;
+    Or embassies from regions far remote,
+    In various habits on the Appian Road."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] I have myself seen in the museum of the _Collegio Romano_ at Rome, a
+rude caricature which had been scratched upon the wall of the barracks
+of Nero's palace, representing a man with an ass's head upon a cross,
+and beneath it the inscription, _"Alexomenos sebete Theon"_ "Alexomenos
+worships his God." Evidently some Roman soldier had scratched this in an
+idle hour in derision of the worship of our Lord by his Christian
+fellow-soldier. Tertullian also refers to the same calumny; and Lucian,
+a pagan writer, speaks of our Lord as "a crucified impostor." It is
+almost impossible for us to conceive the contempt and detestation in
+which crucifixion was held by the Romans. It was a punishment reserved
+for the worst of felons, or the vilest of slaves.--ED.
+
+[2] All these calumnies, and others still worse, are recorded by pagan
+writers concerning the early Christians. Their celebration of the Lord's
+Supper in the private meetings became the ground of the last-mentioned
+distorted accusation.--ED.
+
+[3] "Graeculus esuriens," the term applied by Juvenal to those foreign
+adventurers who sought to worm their way into the employment and
+confidence of great Roman houses.
+
+[4] _Regina Viarum_, as the Romans called it.
+
+[5] It is a circular structure sixty-five feet in diameter, built upon a
+square base of still larger size. After two thousand years it still
+defies the gnawing tooth of Time.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IN C[AE]SAR'S PALACE.
+
+
+Passing beneath the even then grim and hoary archway of the Porta
+Capena, or Capuan Gate, with the dripping aqueduct above it, the
+centurion and his secretary traversed rapidly the crowded streets of a
+fashionable suburb--now mere mouldering mounds of desolation--to the
+Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill. This eminence, which is now a
+mass of crumbling ruins, honey-combed with galleries and subterranean
+corridors through what was once the stately apartments of the Lords of
+the World, where wandering tourists peer and explore and artists sketch
+the falling arch or fading fresco of the banquet halls and chambers of a
+long line of emperors, was then the scene of life and activity, of pomp
+and splendour. Marble courts and columned porticos stretched on in
+almost endless vistas, covering many acres of ground. Flashing fountains
+leaping sunward sparkled in the beams of noonday, diffusing a coolness
+through the air, which was fragrant with blossoms of the orange and
+magnolia trees growing in the open courts. Snowy statuary gleamed amid
+the vivid foliage, and beneath the shadow of the frescoed corridors.
+
+Having dismounted at the outer court and given their horses to
+obsequious grooms, Sertorius and the Greek repaired each to a marble
+bath to remove the stains of travel before entering the presence of the
+Emperor. Having made their toilet they advanced to the inner court. The
+guards who stood in burnished mail at the portal of the palace
+respectfully made way for the well-known imperial officer, but were
+about to obstruct the passage of the Greek secretary, when with a
+gesture of authority Sertorius bade the soldier to permit the man to
+pass.
+
+"Quite right, Max, as a rule: but wrong this time. He accompanies me on
+business of state, before the Emperor."
+
+Two lictors in white tunics with scarlet hem, and bearing each the
+fasces or bundle of rods bound with filets from the top of which
+projected a polished silver axe, came forward and conducted the
+centurion into the Imperial presence chamber, the secretary remaining in
+an ante-room.
+
+The lictors draw aside a heavy gold-embroidered curtain, and Sertorius
+stood in the presence of the Lord of the World, the man to whom divine
+honours had been ascribed, who held in his hand the lives of all his
+myriads of subjects, and the word of whose mouth uttering his despotic
+will might consign even the loftiest, without form or process of law, to
+degradation or death.
+
+Let us note for a moment what manner of man this god on earth, this
+Diocletian, whose name is remembered with abhorrence and execration, the
+degenerate usurper of the august name of the C[ae]sars, may be. He sits in
+an ivory, purple-cushioned chair, near a table of inlaid precious woods.
+His short and obese figure is enswathed in the folds of an ample
+crimson-bordered toga, or fine linen vestment of flowing folds. His
+broad, coarse features are of plebeian cast, for he had been originally
+a Dalmatian slave, or at least the son of a slave; but the
+long-continued exercise of despotic authority had given an imperious
+haughtiness to his bearing. He was now in his fifty-eighth year, but his
+features, coarsened and bloated by sensuality, gave him a much older
+aspect. He was dictating to a secretary who sat at the table writing
+with a reed pen on a parchment scroll, when the lictors, lowering their
+fasces and holding their hands above their eyes, as if to protect their
+dazzled eyes from the effulgence of the noonday sun, advanced into the
+apartment.
+
+"May it please your divine Majesty," said one of the servile lictors,
+"the centurion whom you summoned to your presence awaits your Imperial
+pleasure."
+
+"Most humbly at your Imperial Majesty's service," said Sertorius, coming
+forward with a profound inclination of his uncovered head. He had left
+his helmet and sword in the ante-chamber.
+
+"Flaccus Sertorius, I have heard that thou art a brave and faithful
+soldier, skilled in affairs of State as well as in the art of war. I
+have need of such to carry out my purpose here in Rome. Vitalius, the
+scribe," he went on, with an allusive gesture toward the secretary, "is
+copying a decree to be promulgated to the utmost limits of the empire
+against the pestilent atheism of the accursed sect of Christians, who
+have spawned and multiplied like frogs throughout the realm. This
+execrable superstition must be everywhere destroyed and the worship of
+the gods revived.[6] Even hero in Rome the odious sect swarms like
+vermin, and 'tis even said that the precincts of this palace are not
+free. Now, purge me this city as with a besom of wrath. Spare not young
+or old, the lofty or the low; purge even this palace, and look to it
+that thy own head be not the forfeit if you fail. This seal shall be
+your warrant;" and lashing himself into rage till the purple veins stood
+out like whipcords on his forehead, he tossed his signet ring across the
+table to the scribe, who prepared a legal instrument to which he affixed
+the Imperial seal.
+
+"May it please your Imperial Majesty," said the centurion, with an
+obeisance, "I am a rude soldier, unskilled to speak in the Imperial
+presence; but I have fought your Majesty's enemies in Iberia, in Gaul,
+in Dacia, in Pannonia, and in Libya, and am ready to fight them
+anywhere. Nevertheless, I would fain be discharged from this office of
+censor of the city. I know naught, save by Rumour, who is ever a lying
+jade, your Imperial Majesty, against this outlawed sect. And I know some
+of them who were brave soldiers in your Imperial Majesty's service, and
+many others are feeble old men or innocent women and children. I pray
+you send me rather to fight against the barbarian Dacians than against
+these."
+
+"I was well informed then that you were a bold fellow," exclaimed the
+Emperor, his brow flushing in his anger a deeper hue; "but I have need
+of such. Do thy duty, on thy allegiance, and see that thou soon bring
+these culprits to justice. Is it not enough that universal rumour
+condemns them? They are pestilent sedition-mongers, and enemies of the
+gods and of the State."
+
+"I, too, am a worshipper of the gods," continued the intrepid soldier,
+"and will fail not to keep my allegiance to your Imperial Majesty, to
+the State, and to those higher powers," and he walked backward out of
+the Imperial presence. As he rejoined his secretary a cloud sat on his
+brow. He was moody and taciturn, and evidently little pleased with his
+newly-imposed duties. But the confirmed habit of unquestioning obedience
+inherent in a Roman soldier led to an almost mechanical acceptance of
+his uncongenial task. Emerging from the outer court he proceeded to his
+own house, in the populous region of the Aventine Hill, now a deserted
+waste, covered with kitchen gardens and vineyards. In the meantime we
+turn to another part of the great Imperial palace.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] Even as far west as Spain the following inscription has been found,
+which seems designed as a funeral monument of dead and buried
+Christianity: "DIOCLETIAN. C[AE]S. AVG. SVPERSTITIONE CHRIST. VBIQ.
+DELETAET CVLTV, DEOR. PROPAGATO"--"To Diocletian, C[ae]sar Augustus, the
+Christian superstition being everywhere destroyed and the worship of the
+gods extended." But though apparently destroyed, Christianity, like its
+divine Author, instinct with immortality, rose triumphant over all its
+foes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+EMPRESS AND SLAVE.
+
+
+Using the time-honoured privilege of ubiquity accorded to imaginative
+writers, we beg to conduct our readers to a part of the stately palace
+of Diocletian, where, if they had really been found in their own proper
+persons, it would have been at the peril of their lives. After fifteen
+long centuries have passed, we may explore without let or hindrance the
+most private apartments of the once all-potent masters of the world. We
+may roam through their unroofed banquet-chambers. We may gaze upon the
+frescoes, carvings, and mosaics which met their eyes. We may behold the
+evidences of their luxury and profligacy. We may thread the secret
+corridors and galleries connecting the chambers of the palace--all now
+open to the light of day.
+
+We may even penetrate to the boudoirs and tiring rooms of the proud
+dames of antiquity. We may even examine at our will the secrets of the
+toilet--the rouge pots and vases for cosmetics and unguents, the silver
+mirrors, fibulas or brooches, armlets and jewels, and can thus
+reconstruct much of that old Roman life which has vanished forever from
+the face of the earth.[7]
+
+By the light of modern exploration and discovery, therefore, we may
+enter the private apartments of ladies of the Imperial household, and in
+imagination re-furnish these now desolate and ruinous chambers with all
+the luxury and magnificence of their former prime. A room of commodious
+size is paved with tesselated marble slabs, adorned with borders and
+designs of brilliant mosaic. The walls are also marble, save where an
+elegant fresco on a stucco ground--flowers or fruit or graceful
+landscape[8]--greet the eye. A small fountain throws up its silver
+spray, imparting a grateful coolness to the air. Windows, void of
+glass, but mantled and screened by climbing plants and rare exotics,
+look out into a garden where snowy marble statues are relieved against
+the dark green of the cypress and ilex. Around the room are busts and
+effigies of the Imperial household or of historical characters. There
+is, however, a conspicuous absence of the mythological figures, whose
+exquisite execution does not atone for their sensuous conception, which,
+rescued from the _debris_ of ancient civilization, crowd all the
+Art-galleries of Europe. That this is not the result of accident but of
+design is seen by an occasional empty pedestal or niche. Distributed at
+intervals are couches and tables of costly woods, inlaid with ivory, and
+bronze and silver candelabra, lamps and other household objects of
+ornament or use. Sitting in an ivory chair amid all this elegance and
+luxury was a lady in the very flower of her youth, of queenly dignity
+and majestic beauty. She wore a snowy _stola_, or robe of finest linen,
+with purple border, flowing in ample folds to her sandaled feet Over
+this was negligently thrown a saffron-coloured veil of thinnest tissue.
+She held in her hand a burnished silver mirror, at which she glanced
+carelessly from time to time, while a comely slave with dark lustrous
+eyes and finely-formed features carefully brushed and braided her long
+and rippling hair.
+
+This queenly presence was the young and lovely Empress Valeria, the
+daughter of Diocletian and Prisca, and wife of the co-Emperor, Galerius
+C[ae]sar. The object of envy of all the women of Borne, she lived to become
+within a few short years the object of their profoundest commiseration.
+Of her even the unsympathetic Gibbon remarks that "her melancholy
+adventures might furnish a very singular subject for tragedy."
+
+"Nay, now, Callirho[e:]," said the Empress, with a weary smile, "that will
+do! Put up my hair and bind it with this fillet," and she held out a
+gold-embroidered ribband. "Thou knowest I care not for the elaborate
+coiffure that is now so fashionable."
+
+"Your Majesty needs it not," said the slave, speaking Greek with a low
+sweet voice, and with an Attic purity of accent. "As one of your own
+poets has said, you appear 'when unadorned, adorned the most.'"
+
+"Flatterer," said the Empress, tapping her gaily and almost caressingly
+with a plumy fan of ostrich feathers which she held lightly in one hand,
+"you are trying to spoil me."
+
+"Such goodness as thine, sweet mistress," said the slave, affectionately
+kissing her hand, "it would be impossible to spoil."
+
+"Dost know, Callirho[e:]," said the young Empress, with a smile of
+bewitching sweetness, "that I have a surprise for thee? It is, thou
+knowest, my birthday, and in my honour is the banquet given to-day. But
+I have a greater pleasure than the banquet can bestow. I give thee this
+day thy freedom. Thou art no more a slave, but the freedwoman of the
+Empress Valeria. See, here are the papers of thy manumission," and she
+drew from the girdle of her robe a sealed and folded parchment, which
+she handed to the now emancipated slave.
+
+"Dearest mistress!" exclaimed the faithful creature, who had thrown
+herself on the marble pavement and was kissing the sandaled feet of the
+beautiful Empress, but an outburst of sobs and tears choked her
+utterance.
+
+"What! weeping!" exclaimed Valeria. "Are you sorry then?"
+
+"Nay, they are tears of joy," exclaimed the girl, smiling through her
+tears, like the sun shining through a shower; "not that I tire of thy
+service; I wish never to leave it. But I rejoice that my father's
+daughter can serve thee no longer as thy slave, but as thy freedwoman."
+
+"I should indeed be sorry to lose thee," said the august lady with a
+wistful smile. "If I thought I should, I would almost regret thy
+manumission; for believe me, Callirho[e:], I have need of true friends, and
+thou, I think, wilt be a faithful one."
+
+"What! I, but this moment a poor slave, the friend of the fairest and
+most envied lady in all Rome! Nay, now thou laughest at me; but believe
+me I am still heart and soul and body thy most devoted servant."
+
+"I do believe it, child," said the Empress; "but tell me, pray, why thou
+speakest in that proud melancholy tone of thy father? Was he a
+freedman?"
+
+"Nay, your Majesty, he was free-born; neither he nor his fathers were
+ever in bondage to any man,"--and the fair face of the girl was suffused
+with the glow of honest pride in the freeborn blood that flowed in her
+veins.
+
+"Forgive me, child, if I touched a sore spot in thy memory. Perchance I
+may heal it. Money can do much, men say."
+
+"In this case, dearest mistress, it is powerless. But from thee I can
+have no secrets, if you care to listen to the story of one so long a
+slave."
+
+"I never knew thou wert aught else, child. My steward bought thee in the
+slave market in the Suburra. Tell me all."
+
+"'Tis a short story, but a sad one, your Majesty," said the girl, as she
+went on braiding her mistress's hair. "My father was a Hebrew merchant,
+a dealer in precious stones, well esteemed in his nation. He lived in
+Damascus, where I was born. He named me after the beautiful fountain
+near the Jordan of his native land."
+
+"I thought it had been from the pagan goddess," interrupted the Empress.
+
+"Nay, 'twas from the healing fountain of Callirho[e:], in Judea," continued
+the girl "When my mother died, my father was plunged into inconsolable
+grief, and fell ill, well-nigh to death. The most skilled physician in
+Damascus, Eliezer by name, brought him back to life; but his friends
+thought he had better let him die, for he converted him to the hated
+Christian faith. Persecuted by his kinsmen, he came to Antioch with my
+brother and myself, that he might join the great and flourishing
+Christian Church in that city.[9] While on a trading voyage to Smyrna,
+in which we children accompanied our father, we were captured by
+Illyrian pirates, and carried to the slave market at Ravenna. There I
+was purchased by a slave dealer from Rome, and my father and brother
+were sold I know not whither. I never saw them again,"--and she heaved a
+weary and hopeless sigh.
+
+"Poor child!" said the Empress, a tear of sympathy glistening on her
+cheek, "I fear that I can give thee little help. 'Tis strange how my
+heart went out toward thee when thou wert first brought so tristful and
+forlorn into my presence. 'Tis a sad world, and even the Emperors can do
+little to set it right."
+
+"There is One who rules on high, dear lady, the God of our fathers, by
+whom kings rule and princes decree judgment. He doeth all things well."
+
+"Yes, child, I am not ignorant of the God of the Jews and Christians.
+What a pity that there should be such bitter hate on the part of your
+countrymen towards those who worship the same great God."
+
+"Yes," said Callirho[e:], "blindness in part hath happened to Israel. If
+they but knew how Jesus of Nazareth fulfils all the types and prophecies
+of their own Scriptures, they would hail Him as the true Messiah of whom
+Moses and the prophets did write."
+
+"Well, child, I will help thee to find thy father, if possible, though I
+fear it will be a difficult task. Ask me freely anything that I can do.
+As my freedwoman, you will, of course, bear my name with your own. Now
+send my slave Juba to accompany me to the banquet-hall."
+
+Callirho[e:], or as we may now call her, after the Roman usage, Valeria
+Callirho[e:], fervently kissed the outstretched hand of her august mistress
+and gracefully retired.
+
+It may excite some surprise to find such generous sentiments and such
+gentle manners as we have described attributed to the daughter of a
+persecuting Emperor and the wife of a stern Roman general. But reasons
+are not wanting to justify this delineation. Both Valeria and her mother
+Prisca, during their long residence at Nicomedia, where the Emperor
+Diocletian had established his court, became instructed in the Christian
+religion by the bishop of that important see. Indeed, Eusebius informs
+us that among them there were many Christian converts, both Prisca and
+Valeria, in the Imperial palace. Diocletian and his truculent
+son-in-law, Galerius, were bigoted pagans, and the mother of the latter
+was a fanatical worshipper of the goddess Cybele. The spread of
+Christianity even within the precincts of the palace provoked her
+implacable resentment, and she urged on her son to active persecution. A
+council was therefore held in the palace at Nicomedia, a joint edict for
+the extirpation of Christianity was decreed, and the magnificent
+Christian basilica was razed to the ground. The very next day the edict
+was torn from the public forum by an indignant Christian, and the
+Imperial palace was almost entirely destroyed by fire. The origin of
+this disaster is unknown, but it was ascribed to the Christians, and
+intensified the virulence of the persecution. Diocletian proceeded to
+Rome to celebrate a military triumph and to concert with his western
+colleagues more vigorous methods of persecution. It is at this period
+that the opening scenes of our story take place.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[7] On the Palatine Hill may still be seen, in the palace of the Flavii,
+the frescoed private apartments and banquet-chambers of the emperors--in
+the walls are even the lead water-pipes, stamped with the maker's name;
+and the innumerable ancient relics in the museums of Rome and Naples
+give such an insight as nothing else can impart of the life and
+character of the palmy days of the empire.
+
+[8] On the banquet-room mentioned in the last note are some remarkable
+frescoes, among other objects being glass vases through whose
+transparent sides are seen exquisitely painted fruits--as fresh,
+apparently, after eighteen centuries as if executed within a few months.
+
+[9] Shortly after this time, that Church numbered 100,000 persons.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE IMPERIAL BANQUET.
+
+
+At the summons of Callirho[e:] a Nubian female slave, Juba by name, an old
+family nurse, skilled in the use of herbs and potions, made her
+appearance. Her huge and snowy turban and her bright-coloured dress
+strikingly contrasted with her jet complexion and homely features. Yet,
+as the personal attendant of the young empress, it was her duty to
+accompany her mistress to the banquet-hall, to stand behind her chair,
+to adjust her robes, hold her fan, and obey her every word or gesture.
+As she drew aside the curtain of the apartment which shut out the light
+and heat, two lictors who guarded the door sprang to their feet and
+preceded the empress through the marble corridor to the _triclinium_, or
+banquet chamber. It was a family party, rather than a state banquet, but
+neither Greeks nor Romans practised a profuse hospitality nor held large
+social or festive gatherings like those of modern times. Their feasts
+were rather for the intense epicurean pleasure of a favoured few than
+for the rational enjoyment of a larger company.[10]
+
+Couches inlaid with ivory and decked with cushions surrounded three
+sides of a hollow square. On these the emperor and his male guests
+reclined, each resting on his left arm. On ivory chairs facing the open
+side of the square sat the Empress Prisca (a majestic-looking matron of
+somewhat grave aspect), Valeria, and a lady of the court, each
+accompanied by her female slave. The extreme ugliness of the Nubian Juba
+acted as a foil for the striking beauty of Valeria.
+
+First of all, the guests were crowned with wreaths of fair and fragrant
+flowers. Then elegantly dressed slaves brought in, to the sound of
+music, the different courses: first eggs dressed with vinegar, olives
+and lettuce, like our salad; then roast pheasants, peacocks' tongues and
+thrushes, and the livers of capons steeped in milk; next oysters brought
+alive from the distant shores of Great Britain, and, reversing our
+order, fish in great variety--one of the most beautiful of these was the
+purple mullet--served with high-seasoned condiments and sauces. Of solid
+meats the favourite dish was a roast sucking pig, elegantly garnished.
+Of vegetables they had nothing corresponding to our potatoes, but,
+instead, a profusion of mallows, lentils, truffles, and mushrooms. The
+banquet wound up with figs, olives, almonds, grapes, tarts and
+confections, and apples--hence the phrase _ab ovo ad mala_.
+
+After the first course the emperor poured out a libation of Falernian
+wine, with the Greek formula, "to the supreme God," watching eagerly if
+his wife and daughter would do the same. Lacking the courage to make a
+bold confession of Christianity, and thinking, with a casuistry that we
+shall not attempt to defend, that the ambiguity of the expression
+excused the act, they also, apparently to the great relief of the
+emperor, poured out a libation and sipped a small quantity of the wine.
+The emperor then drank to the health of his wife and daughter, wishing
+the latter many returns of the auspicious day they had met to celebrate.
+Each of the guests also made, according to his ability, a complimentary
+speech, which the ladies acknowledged by a gracious salutation. After
+the repast slaves brought perfumed water and embroidered napkins for the
+guests to wash their fingers, which had been largely employed in the
+process of dining.
+
+The most of the guests were sycophants and satellites of the emperor,
+and in the intervals between the courses employed their art in
+flattering his vanity or fomenting his prejudices. One of them,
+Semphronius by name, an old fellow with a very bald and shiny head and
+a very vivacious manner, made great pretensions to the character of a
+philosopher or professor of universal knowledge, and was ever ready,
+with a great flow of often unmeaning words, to give a theory or
+explanation of every conceivable subject. Others were coarse and
+sensual-looking _bon vivants_, who gave their attention chiefly to the
+enjoyment of the good fare set before them. Another sinister-looking
+fellow, with a disagreeable cast in one eye and a nervous habit of
+clenching his hand as if grasping his sword, was Quintus Naso, the
+prefect of the city. He had been a successful soldier, or rather
+butcher, in the Pannonian wars, and was promoted to his bad eminence of
+office on account of his truculent severity. Of very different
+character, however, was a young man of noble family, Adauctus by name,
+who was present in his official character as Treasurer of the Imperial
+Exchequer.[11] He almost alone of the guests paid a courteous attention
+to the high-born ladies of the party, to whom he frequently addressed
+polite remarks while the others were intent only in fawning on the great
+source of power. He, also, alone of all present, conspicuously refrained
+from pouring out a libation--a circumstance which did not escape the
+keen eye of the emperor. After interrupted talk on general topics, in
+which the ladies took part, the conversation drifted to public matters,
+on which they were not expected to meddle.
+
+"Well, Naso, how was the edict received?" said the emperor to the
+prefect, as a splendid roast peacock, with sadly despoiled plumage, was
+removed.
+
+"As every command of your divine Majesty should be received," replied
+Naso, "with respectful obedience. One rash fool, indeed, attempted to
+tear it down from the rostra of the Forum, like that mad wretch at
+Nicomedia; but he was taken in the act. He expiates to-night his crime,
+so soon as I shall have wrung from him the names of his fanatical
+accomplices,"--and he clenched his hands nervously, as though he were
+himself applying the instruments of torture.
+
+"And you know well how to do that," said the emperor with a sneer, for,
+like all tyrants, he despised and hated the instruments of his tyranny.
+
+"You may well call them fanatics, good Naso," chimed in the would-be
+philosopher, Semphronius; "a greater set of madmen the world never saw.
+They believe that this Chrestus whom they worship actually rose from the
+dead. Heard ever any man such utter folly as that! Whereas I have
+satisfied myself, from a study of the official records, that he was
+only a Jewish thaumaturge and conjuror, who used to work pretended
+miracles by means of dupes and accomplices. And when, for his sedition,
+he was put to death as the vilest of felons, these accomplices stole his
+body and gave out that he rose from the dead."[12]
+
+"I have heard," said Adauctus gravely, "that the Romans took care to
+prevent such a trick as that by placing a maniple of soldiers on guard
+at His grave."
+
+"Yes, I believe they say so," went on the unabashed Semphronius; "but if
+they did, the dastards were either overpowered, or they all fell asleep
+while his fellow-knaves stole his body away."
+
+"Come now, Semphronius," said the emperor, "that is too improbable a
+story about a whole maniple of soldiers. You and I know too well, Naso,
+the Roman discipline to accept such an absurd story as that."
+
+"Oh, if your divine Majesty thinks it improbable, I fully admit that it
+is so," the supple sophist eagerly replied. "I am inclined to identify
+this impostor and a kinsman of his who was beheaded by the divine Herod
+with the Janus and Jambres whose story is told in the sacred books of
+the Jews. But it is evident, from the identity of name of one of these
+with the god Janus, that they merely borrowed the story from the Roman
+mythology. This execrable superstition, they say, was brought to Rome by
+two brothers named Paulus and Simon Magus. They both expiated their
+crimes, one in the Mammertine Prison, the other without the Ostian Gate.
+They say also that when Simon the magician struck the prison wall, a
+well of water gushed forth for some of their mystic rites; and that when
+the head of Paulus was smitten off it bounded three times on the ground,
+and at each spot where it touched a well of water sprang up. But these
+are stories that no sane man can believe."[13]
+
+"I quite agree with you in that," said Adauctus.
+
+"Do you, indeed?" exclaimed the Emperor; "I am glad to know that so
+brave and trusted an officer can say so."
+
+"I believe, your Majesty, that half the stories told about the
+Christians are calumnies that no candid man can receive," continued the
+young officer.
+
+"You are a bold man to say so, for they have few friends and many
+enemies at court," replied Diocletian; "but we will soon extort their
+secrets by this edict. Will we not, good Naso?"
+
+"It will not be my fault if we do not, your divine Majesty," replied
+that worthy, with a more hideous leer than usual in his cruel eye.
+
+"Another thing these fools of Christians believe," interjected the
+garrulous philosopher, "is, that when they die their souls shall live in
+some blander clime, and breathe some more ethereal air. 'Tis this that
+makes them seem to covet martyrdom, as they call it, instead of, like
+all sane men, shunning death."
+
+"But do not your own poets," chimed in the soft voice of Valeria, "speak
+of the Elysian fields and the asphodel meadows where the spirits of
+heroes walk, and of the bark of Charon, who ferries them across the
+fatal Styx?"
+
+"True, your most august Highness," replied the pedant with grimace
+intended to be polite, "but those fables are intended for the vulgar,
+and not for the cultured classes, to which your Imperial Highness
+belongs. Even the priests themselves do not believe in the existence of
+the gods at whose altars they minister; so that Cicero, you will
+remember, said that 'he wondered how one augur could look in the face of
+another without laughing.'"
+
+"I quite admit," remarked Adauctus, "that the priests are often
+impostors, deceiving the people; but our wisest philosophers--the
+thoughtful Pliny, the profound Tacitus, the sage Seneca, and even the
+eloquent Cicero whom you have quoted--teach the probability if not the
+certainty of a future state, where virtue shall be rewarded and
+wickedness punished."
+
+"What do they know about it any more than any of us?" interrupted the
+truculent Naso, to whom ethical themes were by no means familiar or
+welcome. "My creed is embodied in the words of that clever fellow,
+Juvenal, that I used to learn at school--
+
+    'Esse aliquid manes, et subterranea regna,
+    Nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum [ae]re lavantur.'"[14]
+
+"What's the use of all this talk?" lisped a languid-looking epicurean
+fop, who, sated with dissipation, at twenty-five found life as empty as
+a sucked orange. "We cannot alter fate. Life is short; let us make the
+most of it. I'd like to press its nectar into a single draught and have
+done with it for ever. As the easy-going Horace says, 'The same thing
+happens to us all. When our name, sooner or later, has issued from the
+fatal urn, we leave our woods, our villa, our pleasant homes, and enter
+the bark which is to bear us into eternal exile!'"[15]
+
+Here the Emperor made an impatient gesture, to indicate that he was
+weary of this philosophic discourse. At the signal the ladies rose and
+retired. Adauctus also made his official duties an excuse for leaving
+the table, where Diocletian and his other guests lingered for hours in
+a drunken symposium.
+
+Thus we find that the very questions which engage the agnostics and
+skeptics and pessimists of the present age--the Mallocks, and Cliffords,
+and Harrisons and their tribe--have agitated the world from the very
+dawn of philosophy. Did space permit, we might cite the theories of
+Lucretius as a strange anticipation of the development hypothesis.
+Indeed the writings of Pyrrho, Porphyry and Celsus show us that the
+universal tendency of human philosophy, unaided by divine inspiration,
+is to utter skepticism.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[10] On a single supper for his friends, Lucullus, who is said to have
+fed his lampreys with the bodies of his slaves, is recorded to have
+expended 50,000 denarii--about $8,500.
+
+[11] His name and office are recorded even by so skeptical a critic as
+Gibbon, and his epitaph has been found in the Catacombs. See Withrow's
+Catacombs, p. 46.
+
+[12] Strauss and Renan and their rationalizing school rival this pagan
+sophist in eliminating the miraculous from the sacred record.
+
+[13] Yet these stories, too incredible for this old pagan, were gravely
+related to the present writer, on the scene of the alleged miracles, by
+the credulous Romans of to-day.
+
+[14] _Sat._ ii. 49. "That the manes are anything, or the nether world
+anything, not even boys believe, unless those still in the nursery."
+
+[15] See that saddest but most beautiful of the ode of Horace, To
+Delius, II. 3:
+
+    ... Et nos in [ae]ternum
+    Exilium impositura cymb[ae].
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+"THE CHRISTIANS TO THE LIONS."
+
+
+The progress of our story transports us, on the day after the banquet
+described in our last chapter, to the palace of the Prefect Naso, on the
+Aventine. It was a large and pompous-looking building, with a
+many-columned portico and spacious gardens, both crowded with statuary,
+the spoil of foreign cities, or the product of degenerate Greek art--as
+offensive in design as skilful in execution. The whole bore evidence of
+the ostentation of vulgar wealth rather than of judicious taste. A crowd
+of "clients" and satellites of the great man were hanging round the
+doors, eager to present some petition, proffer some service, or to swell
+his idle retinue, like jackals around a lion, hoping to pick up a living
+as hangers-on of such a powerful and unscrupulous dispenser of
+patronage. In the degenerate days of the Empire, the civic officials
+especially had always a swarm of needy dependents seeking to fatten on
+the spoils of office. They were supposed, in some way, to add to the
+dignity of the consuls and pr[ae]tors, as in later times were the retainers
+of a medi[ae]val baron. The system of slavery had made all honest labour
+opprobrious, and these idle, corrupt, and dangerous parasites had to be
+kept in good humour by lavish doles and constant amusements. "Bread and
+the Circus," was their imperious demand, and having these, they cared
+for nothing else.
+
+On the morning in question there was considerable excitement among this
+turbulent throng, for the rumour was current that there was to be an
+examination of certain prisoners accused of the vile crime of
+Christianity; and there were hopes that the criminals would supply fresh
+victims for the games of the amphitheatre, which for some time had
+languished for lack of suitable material. The temper of the mob we may
+learn by the remarks that reach our ears as we elbow our way through.
+
+"Ho, Davus! what's the news to-day?" asked a cobbler with his leathern
+apron tucked up about his waist, of a greasy-looking individual who
+strutted about with much affectation of dignity; "you have the run of
+his Excellency's kitchen, and ought to know."
+
+"Are _you_ there, Samos?" (a nick-name meaning Flat Nose). "Back to your
+den, you slave, and don't meddle with gentlemen. _'Ne sutor,'_ you know
+the rest."
+
+"Can't you see that the cook drove him out with the basting ladle?" said
+Muscus, the stout-armed blacksmith, himself a slave, and resenting the
+insult to his class; and so the laugh was turned against the hungry
+parasite.
+
+"Here, good Max, you are on the guard, you can tell us," went on the
+burly smith.
+
+"News enough, as you'll soon find. There's to be more hunting of the
+Christians for those who like it. For my part, I don't."
+
+"Why not," asked Burdo, the butcher, a truculent looking fellow with a
+great knife in a sheath at his girdle. "I'd like no better fun. I'd as
+lief kill a Christian as kill a calf."
+
+"It might suit your business," answered stout Max, with a sneer, "but
+hunting women and children is not a soldier's trade."
+
+"O ho! that's the game that's a-foot!" chuckled a withered little wretch
+with a hungry face and cruel eyes, like a weasel. "Here's a chance for
+an honest man who worships the old gods to turn an honest penny."
+
+"Honest man!" growled Max. "Diogenes would want a good lantern to find
+one in Rome to-day. He'd certainly never take thee for one. Thy very
+face would convict thee of violating all the laws in the Twelve Tables."
+
+"Hunting the Christians, that's the game, is it?" said an ill-dressed
+idler, blear-eyed and besotted; "and pestilent vermin they are. I'd like
+to see them all drowned in the Tiber like so many rats."
+
+"You are more likely to see them devoured in the amphitheatre," said
+Bruto, a Herculean gladiator. "The Prefect is going to give some grand
+games on the Feast of Neptune. Our new lions will have a chance to
+flesh their teeth in the bodies of the Christians. The wretches haven't
+the courage to fight, like the Dacian prisoners, with us gladiators, nor
+even with the beasts; but just let themselves be devoured like sheep."
+
+At this juncture a commotion was observed about the door, and Naso, the
+Prefect, came forth and looked haughtily around. Several clients pressed
+forward with petitions, which he carelessly handed unopened to his
+secretary, who walked behind. He regarded with some interest the
+elegantly-dressed and graceful youth who glided through the throng and
+presented a scroll, saying, as he did so--
+
+"It is of much importance, your Excellency. It is about the Christians."
+
+"Follow me to the Forum," said the Prefect, and our old acquaintance
+Isidorus, for it was he, fell into the train of the great civic
+dignitary. Arrived at the Basilica Julia, or great Court of Justice, the
+Prefect beckoned to the young Greek secretary, and entered a private
+ante-room. Throwing himself into a bronze chair, and pointing the Greek
+to a marble seat, he asked abruptly--
+
+"Now, what is this you know about these Christians?"
+
+"Something of much importance to your Excellency, and I hope to learn
+something still more important."
+
+"You shall be well paid if you do," said the Prefect. "It is difficult
+to convict them of any crime."
+
+"I have secret sources of information, your Excellency. In fact, I hope
+to bring you the names of the ringleaders of the accursed sect."
+
+"How so? Are you not the secretary of Flaccus Sertorius?"
+
+"I am, your Excellency, but he has no heart in the work of this new
+edict. I would like to see more zeal in the Emperor's service."
+
+"I like not this Sertorius," said the Prefect, half musing. "He affects
+too much what they call the severe old Roman virtues to suit these
+times. But how do you expect to learn the secrets of these Christians?"
+
+"By becoming one myself, your Excellency, replied the Greek, with a
+sinister expression in his eyes."
+
+"By becoming one yourself!" exclaimed the Prefect, in a tone of anger
+and surprise. Then noting the wily expression of the supple Greek, he
+added, "Oh! I see, by becoming a spy upon their practices and a betrayer
+of their secrets. Is that it?"
+
+"We Greeks like not the words traitor and spy," said the youth, with a
+faint blush, "but to serve the Emperor and your Excellency we would bear
+even that opprobrium."
+
+"Well, you look capable of it," said the Prefect, with an undisguised
+sneer, "and I will gladly use any instruments to crush this vile sect."
+
+"But, your Excellency," said the cringing Greek, swallowing his chagrin
+and annoyance, "I shall require gold to gain the confidence of these
+Christians--not to bribe them, for that is impossible, but to spend in
+what they call charity--to give to their sick and poor."
+
+"Not forgetting yourself, I'll be bound," sneered the Prefect. "But what
+you say is no doubt true;" and turning to the table he wrote an order
+upon the Imperial Exchequer, and handed it to the Greek, with the words,
+"If you make good use of that, there is more where it comes from. The
+Emperor pays his _faithful_ servants well." Then dismissing the
+treacherous tool whom he himself despised, he passed into the Basilica,
+or court, where the bold Christian youth who had torn down the Emperor's
+edict was to receive his sentence.
+
+Livid with the torture he had undergone to make him disclose the names
+of his accomplices--tortures which he had borne with heroic fortitude
+he boldly avowed his act, and defied the power of the Prefect to extort
+the name of a single Christian from his lips. We will not harrow the
+hearts of our readers by recounting the atrocious tortures by which the
+body of the brave youth had been wrung. He was at length borne away
+fainting to his cruel fate. Although the Prefect, who had sworn to have
+his secret if he tore the heart out of his body, gnashed his teeth in
+impotent rage at the defiance of the mangled martyr, yet he could not in
+his inmost soul help feeling the vast gulf between his sublime fidelity
+and the heinous guilt of the base traitor from whom he had just parted.
+
+The pages of the contemporary historians, Eusebius and Lactantius, give
+too minute and circumstantial accounts of the persecutions, of which
+they were eye-witnesses, to allow us to adopt the complacent theory of
+Gibbon, that the sufferings of the Christians were comparatively few
+and insignificant. "We ourselves have seen," says the Bishop of C[ae]sarea,
+"crowds of persons, some beheaded, others burned alive in a single day,
+so that the murderous weapons were blunted and broken to pieces, and the
+executioners, weary with slaughter, were obliged to give over the work
+of blood.... They vied with each other," he continues, "in inventing new
+tortures, as if there were prizes offered to him who should contrive the
+greatest cruelties."[16] Men whose only crime was their religion, were
+scourged with chains laden with bronze balls, till the flesh hung in
+shreds, and even the bones were broken. They were bound in fetters of
+red hot iron, and roasted over fires so slow that they lingered for
+hours, or even days, in their mortal agony; their flesh was scraped from
+the very bone with ragged shells, or lacerated with burning pincers,
+iron hooks, and instruments with horrid teeth and claws, hence called
+_ungul[ae]_, examples of which have been found in the Catacombs; molten
+metal was applied to their bodies till they became one undistinguishable
+wound, and mingled salt and vinegar,[17] or unslacked lime, were rubbed
+upon the quivering flesh, torn and bleeding from the rack or
+scourge--tortures more inhuman than savage Indian ever wreaked upon his
+mortal foe. Chaste matrons and tender virgins were given over to a fate
+a thousand-fold worse than death, and were subjected to indignities too
+horrible for words to utter. And all these sufferings were endured,
+often with joy and exultation, for the love of a Divine Master, when a
+single word, a grain of incense cast upon the heathen altar, would have
+released the victims from their agonies. No lapse of time, and no recoil
+from the idolatrous homage paid in after ages to the martyr's relics,
+should impair in our hearts the profound and rational reverence with
+which we bend before his tomb.
+
+While the examination of the Christian martyr was in progress, much
+interest was manifested in his fate by the throng of idlers who were
+wont to linger around the public courts, to gratify their curiosity or
+their morbid love of cruelty.
+
+"The State is in danger," said Piso, the barber, gesticulating
+violently, "if such miscreants are suffered to live."
+
+"Ay, is it," chimed in a garrulous pedagogue, "this is rank treason."
+
+"Right, neighbour Probus," added a pettifogging lawyer. "This is the
+very _crimen majestatis_. These men are the enemies of C[ae]sar and of the
+Roman people."
+
+"Who would think he was so wicked?" said a poor freed-woman who sold
+sugar barley in the Forum. "Sure he looks innocent enough."
+
+"He _is_ innocent," replied her neighbour, who kept a stall for the sale
+of figs and olives. "'Tis that wretch who is wicked," looking fiercely
+at the Prefect as he moved from the court.
+
+"You are right," said a grave-looking man, speaking low, but with a look
+of secret understanding; "but be careful. You can do the brave Lucius no
+good, and may betray the others into jeopardy," and he passed swiftly
+through the throng.
+
+"'Tis time all these Atheists were exterminated," said Furbo, a sort of
+hanger-on at the neighbouring temple of Saturn. "The gods are angry, and
+the victims give sinister auspices. To-day when the priest slew the ram
+for the sacrifice, would you believe it? it had no heart; and the sacred
+chickens refused their food."
+
+"And they certainly are to blame for the floods of the Tiber, which
+destroyed all the olives and lentils in my shop," said Fronto, the oil
+and vegetable seller.
+
+"And the rain rusted all the wheat on our farm," said Macer, the
+villicus or land-steward.
+
+"And the fever has broken out afresh in the Suburra," croaked a withered
+old Egyptian crone, like a living mummy, who told fortunes and sold
+spells in that crowded and pest-smitten quarter, where the poor swarmed
+like flies.
+
+"And the drought has blighted all the vines," echoed Demetrius, the
+wine-merchant.
+
+"I never knew trade so dull," whined Ephraim, the Jewish money-lender.
+"We'll never have good times again till these accursed Christians are
+all destroyed."
+
+"So say I," "And I," "And I," shouted one after another of the mob, till
+the wild cry rang round the Forum, _"Christiani adleones"_--"The
+Christians to the lions."[18]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[16] Euseb. Hist Eccles., viii. 7.
+
+[17] "Salt me the more, that I may be incorruptible," said Tarachus, the
+martyr, as he underwent this excruciating torture.
+
+[18] "If the Tiber overflows its banks," says Tertullian, "or if the
+Nile does not; if there be drought or earthquakes, famine or pestilence,
+the cry is raised, 'the Christians to the lions.' But I pray you," he
+adds, in refutation of these absurd charges, "were misfortunes unknown
+before Tiberius? The true God was not worshipped when Hannibal conquered
+at Cann[ae], or the Gauls filled the city."--Tertul. _Apol._, x.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE MARTYR'S BURIAL.
+
+
+The fawning Greek Isidorus had stealthily wormed his way into the
+confidence of Faustus, a servant of Adauctus, by professing to be, if
+not a Christian, at least a sincere inquirer after the truth, and an
+ardent hater of the edict of persecution. Faustus had therefore promised
+to conduct him to a private meeting of the Christians, where he might be
+more fully instructed by the good presbyter, Primitius. In the short
+summer twilight they therefore made their way to the villa of the
+Christian matron Marcella, on the Appian Way, about two miles from the
+city gates. A high wall surrounded the grounds. In this was a wicket or
+door, at which Faustus knocked. The white-haired porter partly opened
+the door, and recognizing the foremost figure, admitted him, but gave a
+look of inquiry before passing his companion.
+
+"It is all right," said Faustus. "He is a good friend of mine," and so
+they passed on.
+
+The grounds were large and elegant, fountains flashed in the soft
+moonlight, the night-blooming cereus breathed forth its rare perfume,
+and masses of cypress and ilex cast deep shadows on the pleached alleys.
+But there was a conspicuous absence of the garden statuary invariably
+found in pagan grounds. There was no figure of the god Terminus, nor of
+the beautiful Flora, or Pomona, nor of any of the fair goddesses which
+to-day people the galleries of Rome. In the spacious _atrium_, or
+central apartment of the house, which was partially lighted by bronze
+candalabra, was gathered a company of nearly a hundred persons, seated
+on couches around the hall--the men on the right and the women on the
+left. A solemn stillness brooded over the entire assembly. Near a tall
+cadalabrum stood a venerable figure with a snowy beard--the presbyter
+Primitius. From a parchment scroll in his hand he read in impressive
+tones the holy words of hope and consolation, "Let not your hearts be
+troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me," and the rest of that
+sweet, parting counsel of the world's Redeemer.
+
+[Illustration: STAIRWAY TO CATACOMB.]
+
+Before he was through, a procession with torches was seen approaching
+through the garden. On a bier, borne by four young men, lay the body of
+Lucius the martyr, wrapped in white and strewn with flowers--at rest in
+the solemn majesty of death from the tortures of the rack and scourge.
+The little assembly within joined the procession without, and softly
+singing the holy words which still give such consolation to the stricken
+heart, "Beati sunt mortui qui in Domino morientur--Blessed are the dead
+who die in the Lord," through the shadowy cypress alleys wound the
+solemn procession. Soon it reached an archway, like that shown in our
+first chapter, the entrance to the catacomb of St. Callixtus, which lay
+beneath the grounds of the Lady Marcella. Then, preceded by torches,
+with careful tread the bearers of the bier slowly descended a rock-hewn
+stairway, and traversed a long and gloomy corridor, lined on either side
+with the graves of the dead.[19] This stairway and corridor are shown in
+the engravings which accompany this chapter.
+
+An almost supernatural fear fell upon the soul of Isidorus the Greek,
+who had followed in the train of the procession, as it penetrated
+further and further into the very heart of the earth. He seemed like
+Ulysses with his ghostly guide visiting the grim regions of the
+nether-world, and the words of the classic poet came to his mind,
+"Horror on all sides, the very silence fills the soul with dread."
+Already for more than two centuries these gloomy galleries had been the
+receptacles of the Christian dead, and in many places the slabs that
+sealed the tombs were broken, and the graves yawned weirdly as he
+passed, revealing the unfleshed skeletons lying on their stony bed. To
+his excited imagination they seemed to menace him with their
+outstretched bony arms. Deep, mysterious shadows crouched around, full
+of vague suggestions of affright. His gay, joyous and pleasure-loving
+nature recoiled from the evidences of mortality around him. His
+footsteps faltered, and he almost fell to the rocky pavement. The
+procession swept on, the glimmering lights growing dimmer and dimmer,
+and then turning an angle they suddenly disappeared. Fear lent wings to
+his feet, and he fled along the narrow path with outstretched hands,
+sometimes touching with a feeling of horrible recoil the bones or ashes
+of the dead. He hurried along, groping from side to side, and when he
+reached the passage down which the funeral procession had disappeared,
+no gleam of it was visible, nor could he tell, so suddenly the lights
+had disappeared, whether it had turned to the right or to the left. The
+darkness was intense--a darkness that might be felt, a brooding horror
+that oppressed every sense. He tried to call out, but his tongue seemed
+to cleave to the roof of his mouth, and his faint cry was swallowed up
+in the deep and oppressive silence. Had the vengeance of the gods
+overtaken him in punishment for his meditated crime? Was he, who so
+loved the light and air, and joyous sunshine, never to behold them
+again? Must he be buried in these gloomy vaults for ever? These thoughts
+surged through his brain, and almost drove him wild. But what sounds are
+those that steal faintly on his ear? They seem like the music of heaven
+heard in the heart of hell. Stronger, sweeter, clearer, come the holy
+voices. And now they shape themselves to words, "Nam et si ambulavero in
+medio umbr[ae] mortis, non timebo mala--Yea, though I walk through the
+valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Was it to taunt his
+terrors those strange words were sung? Then the holy chant went on,
+"Quonian tu mecum es Virga tua, et baculus tuus, ipsa me consolata
+sunt--For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." What
+strange secret had these Christians that sustained their souls even
+surrounded by the horrors of the tomb?
+
+[Illustration: CORRIDOR OF CATACOMB.]
+
+Isidorus groped his way amid the gloom toward these heavenly sounds.
+Soon he caught a faint glimmer of light reflected from an angle of the
+corridor, and then a ray through an open doorway pierced the gloom.
+Hurrying forward he found the whole company from which he had become
+separated gathered in a sort of chapel hewn out of the solid rock. The
+body of Lucius lay upon the bier before an open tomb, hewn out of the
+wall. The venerable presbyter, by the fitful torchlight which illumined
+the strange group, and lit up the pious paintings and epitaphs upon the
+wall, read from a scroll the strange words, "And I saw under the altar
+the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the
+testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How
+long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on
+them that dwell on the earth?" A great fear fell upon the soul of the
+susceptible Greek, for the slain man seemed, in the solemn majesty of
+death, to become an accusing judge.
+
+Then turning his scroll the presbyter read on, "What are these arrayed
+in white robes and whence came they? These are they which came out of
+great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in
+the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and
+serve Him day and night in His temple.... They shall hunger no more,
+neither thirst any more ... and God shall wipe away all tears from
+their eyes."
+
+These holy words stirred strange emotions in the agitated breast of the
+young Greek. Sweeter were they than ought he had ever read in Pindar's
+page, and more sublime than even Homer's hymns. If these things were
+true, he thought, he would gladly change places with the martyr on his
+bier, if only he might exchange the torturing ambitions, strifes and
+sins of time for the holy joys which that marvellous scroll revealed.
+
+Then by loving hands the martyr's body was placed in its narrow tomb. A
+marble slab, on which were simply written his name and the words,
+"DORMIT IN PACE--He sleeps in peace," was cemented against the opening.
+With a trowel, a palm branch, the symbol of martyrdom, was rudely traced
+in the yet unhardened cement, and the little company began to disperse.
+
+"O sir," cried the young Greek, clasping the hand of the venerable
+Primitius, "teach me more fully this excellent way."
+
+"Gladly, my son," replied the benignant old man. "Come hither to-morrow.
+For here," he added with a smile, "my friends insist that I must remain
+concealed till this outburst of persecution shall have passed.[20]
+Hilarus, the fossor, will be thy guide. He will now conduct thee back
+to thy friend Faustus, who is seeking thee."
+
+By the dim light of a waxen taper which he carried, Hilarus led the
+Greek to the entrance to the Catacomb, where they found Faustus waiting
+in some alarm at the delay of his friend. In the bright moonlight they
+walked back to the city. Isidorus thought well to evade giving an
+account of his adventure in the Catacomb, and, to turn the conversation,
+asked how the Christians had obtained the body of Lucius from the public
+executioner.
+
+"Oh, money will do anything in Rome," said Faustus, at which the Greek
+visibly winced. "The Lady Marcella, in whose grounds the Catacomb is,
+devotes much of her wealth to burying the poor of the Church, and her
+steward had no difficulty in purchasing from Hanno, the executioner, the
+mangled remains of the martyr. 'Tis like, before long, that he will have
+many such to sell."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] For the details above given, see Bingham's _Origines Ecclesiastica_
+
+[20] Liberius, Bishop of Rome, lay concealed in the Catacombs for a
+whole year, during a time of persecution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WITH HILARUS THE FOSSOR.
+
+
+"No one becomes vile all at once," said the Roman moralist, and we would
+be unjust to the fickle, fawning Greek Isidorus, if we concluded that
+deliberate treachery was his purpose, as, at the invitation of
+Primitius, he repaired next day to the catacomb of St. Calixtus. His was
+a susceptible, impressionable nature, easily influenced by its
+environment, like certain substances that acquire the odour, fragrant or
+foul, of the atmosphere by which they are surrounded. Amid the vileness
+of the Roman court, his better feelings died, and he was willing to
+become the minion of tyranny, or the tool of treachery. Amid the holy
+influences of the Christian assembly, some chord responded, like an
+Eolian harp, to the breathings of the airs from heaven. It was,
+therefore, with strangely conflicting feelings, that he passed beneath
+the Capuan Gate, and along the Appian Way, toward the Villa Marcella.
+His better nature recoiled from his purposed treachery of the previous
+day. His heart yearned to know more of that strange power which
+sustained the Christian martyr in the presence of torture and of death.
+
+
+He was recognized by the porter at the gate of the villa as the
+companion of Faustus, and on his inquiry for the house of Hilarus, the
+fossor, was directed to a low-walled, tile-roofed building, such as may
+be seen in many parts of the Campagna to the present day. About the
+house were many stone chippings, and numerous slabs of marble. Under a
+sort of arbour, covered with vine branches in full leaf, stood a
+grisly-visaged man, with close-cropped, iron-gray hair, chipping with
+mallet and chisel at a large sarcophagus, or stone coffin, upon a
+mason's bench.
+
+"Do I address Hilarus, the fossor?" asked the Greek, with a graceful
+salutation.
+
+"I am Hilarus, at your service, noble sir," replied the old man, with a
+kindly expression of countenance.
+
+The young Greek then told of the invitation given him by the good
+presbyter, Primitius, and requested to be conducted to him.
+
+"You are, of course, known to the porter, or you would not have obtained
+admission to these grounds," said Hilarus. "But you will first honour my
+poor roof by partaking some refreshment after your hot walk from the
+city."
+
+"Thanks, good friend," replied the Greek, "a draught of your native
+wine would not be amiss. Nay, I would prefer it here beneath the
+grateful shadow of this vine," he continued, as Hilarus courteously led
+the way to the open door of the cottage. This was quite small, and had
+almost no furniture save some earthen pots for cooking at an open
+fireplace. In a moment the old man re-appeared with an earthen flagon of
+wine and a bronze salver, with bread and goat's milk cheese, and a
+bronze cup.[21]
+
+"For whom is this elegant sarcophagus?" asked Isidorus, as he sipped his
+wine.
+
+[Illustration: SARCOPHAGUS NOW IN LATERAN MUSEUM.]
+
+"I pray it be not for her who orders it," said the old man, devoutly;
+"at least not for many a long day to come. The good Lady Marcella bade
+me exercise my best skill in setting forth the great truths of the
+Gospel, that in death as in life, she said, she might teach the
+doctrines of Christ. She often comes to see how I get on with it, and to
+describe how she wishes it to be. See," said the old man, pointing to
+the side--(see above)--"the general idea is all her own, the details
+only are mine. These four groups exhibit four scenes in the life--or
+rather in the death--of our Lord. To the extreme right we see Pilate,
+warned by his wife, washing his hands and saying 'I am innocent of the
+blood of this just person,' and yet, like a coward, consenting to His
+death, he was as guilty as Judas, who betrayed Him."
+
+At this the Greek visibly winced, then paled and flushed, and said,
+"Well, what is the next group?"
+
+"That is part of the same," said the sculptor, with evident pride in his
+work. "It represents our Lord, guarded by a Roman soldier, witnessing a
+good confession before Pontius Pilate. In the central niche are two
+soldiers, types of the Christian warriors, whose only place of safety is
+beneath the cross; while above are the wreath of victory, the doves of
+peace, and the sacred monogram, made up, I need not tell you, who are a
+Greek, of the two first letters of the word Christos. To the left you
+observe a Roman soldier, putting on Jesus the crown of thorns, and in
+the last, Simon the Cyrenian, guarded by a soldier, bearing His
+cross."[22]
+
+"And for whom are all these funeral tablets," said Isidorus, pointing to
+a number of slabs partly executed--some with the engraved outline of a
+dove, or fish, or anchor, or olive branch upon them--leaning against the
+wall.
+
+"For whom God pleases," said the old man, devoutly. "I keep them ready
+to suit purchasers, and then I have only to fill the name and age, or
+date."
+
+"But see here," said the Greek, touching with his foot one on which were
+effigies of Castor and Pollux, the "great twin brethren" of the Roman
+mythology, and the letters, "DIS MANIBVS--To the Divine Spirits;" "this
+is a pagan inscription. How come you to use that?"
+
+"Oh, we turn up such slabs by scores, in ploughing the fields hereabout.
+They may be hundreds of years old, for aught I know. We just turn that
+side to the wall, or deface it with a few strokes of the chisel."
+
+"It was a prentice hand that made _that_, I'll be bound," said the
+Greek, pointing to one on which was rudely painted in black pigment, the
+sprawling inscription that follows, no two letters being the same size--
+
+LOcvSaVgvStIsvToRis.
+"The Place of Augustus, the Shoemaker."
+
+"Oh, that is the epitaph of a poor cobbler. I let my boys do that for
+nothing. They will soon be able to do better. Here now is one by my
+oldest son, of which I would not be ashamed myself;" and he pointed to a
+neatly-cut inscription, the letters coloured with a bright vermillion
+pigment, which ran thus,--
+
+AVRELIAE THEVDOSIAE
+BENIGNISSIMAE ET INCOMPARABILI FEMINAE
+AVRELIVS OPTATVS
+CONIVGE INNOCENTISSIMAE
+
+"Aurelius Optatus, to his most innocent wife, Aurelia Theudosia, a most
+gracious and incomparable woman."
+
+"We will now, if you are sufficiently cool," he went on, "enter the
+catacomb. It is not well to make too sudden a transition from this
+sultry heat to their chilly depths."
+
+"Thanks," said the young man, "I shall find the change from this sultry
+air, I doubt not, very agreeable;" and they crossed a vineyard under a
+blazing sun, that made the cool crypts exceedingly grateful. Descending
+the stairway, the guide took from a niche a small terra-cotta lamp,
+which he carefully trimmed and lit at another, which was always kept
+burning there.[23]
+
+"Is there not danger of losing one's way in this labyrinth?" asked the
+Greek, feeling no small degree of the terror of his late adventure
+returning.
+
+"Very great danger, indeed," replied Hilarus, "unless you know the clue
+and marks by which we steer, almost like ships at sea. But knowing
+these, the way may become as familiar as the streets of Rome. You may,
+perhaps, have heard of C[ae]cilia, a blind girl, who acted as guide to
+these subterranean places of assembly, because to her accustomed feet
+the path was as easy as the Appian Way to those who see."
+
+"How many Greek epitaphs there are," said Isidorus, deeply interested in
+scanning the inscriptions as he passed.
+
+"Yes," said the fossor, "there are a-many of your countryfolk buried
+here; and even some who are not like to have their epitaphs written in
+the language in which holy Paulus wrote his epistle to the Church in
+Rome."
+
+"But what wretched scrawls the most of them are," said the Greek, with
+something like a sneer; "and see, here is one even upside down."
+
+"Yes, noble sir," continued the old man, "not many mighty, not many
+noble are called--most of those who sleep around us are God's great
+family of the poor. Indeed, most of them were slaves. That poor fellow
+was a martyr in the last persecution. I mind it well, though it is years
+agone. We buried him by stealth at dead of night, and did not notice
+that the hastily written inscription was reversed."
+
+The dim rays of their lamp and taper made but a faint ring of light
+about their feet. Their steps, as they walked over the rocky floor,
+echoed strangely down the long-drawn corridors and hollow vaults, dying
+gradually away in the solemn stillness of this valley of the shadow of
+death. The sudden transition from the brilliant Italian sunlight to this
+sepulchral gloom, from the busy city of the living to this silent city
+of the dead, smote the heart of the susceptible youth with a feeling of
+awe. And all around in this vast necropolis, each in his narrow cell
+forever laid, were unnumbered thousands, who were once like himself,
+full of energy and life.
+
+[Illustration: SECTIONAL VIEW OF GALLERY AND CHAMBERS, SHOWING LIGHT AND
+AIR SHAFT]
+
+As they advanced, a faint light in the distance seemed to penetrate the
+gloom. It grew brighter as they approached, and attracted by the sound
+of the footsteps, a venerable figure emerged from a doorway and stood in
+the flood of light which poured down from an opening in the vaulted
+roof, which extended to the bright free air above. Almost like an
+apparition from the other world, in the strong, Rembrandt-like
+illumination in which he stood, looked the venerable Primitius, clothed
+in white, with silvery hair and flowing beard, and high, bare brow. As
+Isidorus glanced up the shaft, he saw the blue sky shining far above,
+and the waving of the long grass that fringed the opening for light and
+air. This construction--a very frequent one in the Catacombs--is shown
+in sectional view on the previous page. On each side of the corridor was
+a chamber about twelve feet square, also lit up by this shaft, which,
+plastered with white stucco, reflected the light into every part.
+
+"Welcome, my son," said the venerable presbyter, as he sat down on a
+bench hewn out of the dry pummice-like rock "Welcome to these abodes of
+death; may they prove to thee the birthplace to eternal life;" and he
+laid his hand benignantly on the head of the young man, whom he had
+motioned to a seat beside him.
+
+"Sire," said the youth, all the nobler feelings of his nature deeply
+moved, "I wish above all things to sit at your feet and to learn the
+lessons of wisdom which you are so well able to impart But are these
+seemly surroundings for a man of your years and condition?--this rocky
+vault, this utter loneliness, and these crumbling relics of mortality?"
+and he shuddered as he glanced at the shattered sepulchral slabs, which
+revealed the remains of what was once man in his strength, woman in her
+beauty, or a sweet child in its innocence and glee.
+
+"Why not, my son? soon I must lie down with them and be at rest. The
+thought has no terrors to my soul I know no loneliness, and through the
+care of kind friends my wants are all supplied. But your young blood and
+sensitive imagination, I perceive, shrink from these things to which, by
+long use, I have become accustomed. Let us go into the adjoining
+chamber, which you will find more cheerful, and, I trust, not less
+instructive."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: EARLY CHRISTIAN SCULPTURE--SARCOPHAGUS OF JUNIUS BASSUS,
+ROME.]
+
+[Illustration: CEILING PAINTING FROM CATACOMB OF ST. CALIXTUS, ROME.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[21] Just such a peasant's house the writer visited on the Appian Way,
+near this spot, and just such a repast he shared at the entrance of this
+very catacomb. "The wine," said the guide, "is necessary to guard
+against a chill." The contrast between the temperature above ground and
+below was about 30 degrees.
+
+[22] This sarcophagus, with many others resembling it the writer studied
+minutely in the Lateran Museum at Rome.
+
+[23] The writer has some of these earthen lamps which once did service
+in the Catacombs. They bear Christian symbols, inscribed before
+baking--a dove, anchor, olive branch, fish, and the like.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+WITH PRIMITIUS, THE PRESBYTER.
+
+
+The venerable presbyter laid his hand familiarly on the young man's
+shoulder and conducted him into a smaller, but much more elegantly
+finished, apartment. It contained no graves, save an arched tomb which
+had never been used; at one side was a shelf for lamps. The whole
+surface of the wall was covered with hard white stucco, which was
+divided into panels by bands and borders of brilliant red and blue, as
+shown in the cut on next page. The vaulted ceiling was similarly
+divided. The angles were filled in with elegant floral designs, and the
+panels with Biblical and symbolical paintings, which Primitius began now
+to explain.
+
+[Illustration: PAINTED CHAMBER IN THE CATACOMBS]
+
+"Thou seest, my son," he said, "that central group above the arch. That
+represents the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep. Thou
+perceivest He bears the lost sheep upon His shoulders, and gently leads
+those which follow Him. Even so, all we, like sheep, have gone astray,
+but the blessed Saviour seeks the erring, and brings them into the safe
+and true fold. Thou seest to the left the figure between the two lions.
+That is Daniel in the lion's den; and to the right are the three Hebrews
+in the fiery furnace. These, my son, are symbols of the Church of
+Christ, amid the wild beasts and the fires of persecutions. But she
+shall be delivered unhurt; she shall come forth unscathed. In the
+ceiling you will observe praying figures between lambs, the emblems of
+the Church, the Bride which is the Lamb's wife, perpetually engaged in
+adoration and prayer."
+
+The youth was deeply impressed, and almost awed, to see the
+silvery-haired old man, a refugee from persecution, in these
+subterranean crypts, with the full assurance of faith, confronting all
+the power of the persecuting despot of the world, and predicting the
+triumph of that oppressed Church which was compelled to seek safety in
+those dens and caves of the earth.
+
+The good old man then sought to impart the great truths of our holy
+religion to his new catechumen, and to implant in his soul the same
+germs of lofty faith that flourished in his own. With this object he led
+him through the long corridors and chambers of the vast encampment of
+death--a sort of whispering gallery of the past, eloquent with the
+expression of the faith and hope of the silent sleepers in their narrow
+cells.
+
+"Listen, my son," said Primitius, "to the testimony of the dead in
+Christ, and of the martyrs for the truth," and pausing from time to time
+before some inscribed or painted slab, he pointed out the lofty hopes
+which sustained their souls in the very presence of death.
+
+"Here," he said, entering again the chamber he had first left, "is the
+sepulchre of my own beloved wife. When depressed and lonely, I come
+hither and derive strength and consolation by reading the words which
+she requested, with her dying breath, should be written on her tomb,"
+and with deep emotion he traced with his finger the inscription:--[24]
+
+PARCITE VOS LACRIMIS DVLCIS CVM CONIVGE NATAE
+VIVENTEMQVE DEO CREDITE FLERE NEFAS.
+
+"Refrain from tears, my sweet children and husband, and believe that it
+is forbidden to weep for one who lives in God."
+
+"And here," he went on, "is the tomb of our little child," and Isidorus
+read with softened spirit the words:--
+
+AGNELLVS DEI--PARVM STETIT APVD NOS ET
+PRAECESSIT NOS IN PACE.
+
+"God's little lamb--he stayed but a short time with us, and went before
+us in peace."
+
+"And here," said Primitius, "is the couch of our eldest daughter," and
+he read, with caressing tones, her epitaph:--
+
+ANIMA DVLCIS INNOCVA SAPIENS ET PVLCHRA--
+NON MORTVA SED DATA SOMNO.
+
+"A sweet spirit, guileless, wise, beautiful. She is not dead but
+sleepeth."
+
+"This is certainly very different," said Isidorus, "from two epitaphs I
+read to-day upon the pagan tombs on the Appian Way. They ran thus:--
+
+DECIPIMVR VOTIS ET TEMPORE FALLIMVR ET MORS
+DERIDET CVRAS ANXIA VITA NIHIL.
+
+"We are deceived by our vows, misled by time, and death derides our
+cares; anxious life is naught."
+
+INFANTI DVLCISSIMO QVEM DEI IRATI AETERNO
+SOMNO DEDERVNT.
+
+"To a very sweet child, whom the angry gods gave to eternal sleep."
+
+"Yes," said Primitius, "nothing can sustain the soul in the presence of
+death, but such faith as that of my friend Eutuchius, who sleeps here;"
+and he read the lofty line:--
+
+IN CHRISTVM CREDENS PREMIA LVCIS HABET.
+
+"Believing in Christ, he has the rewards of the light (of heaven)."
+
+"Similar are these also," and he pointed to the following ill-written,
+but sublime, epitaphs, which Isidorus slowly spelled out:--
+
+DVLCIS ET INNOCES _(sic)_ HIC DORMIT SEVERIANVS
+SOMNO PACIS CVIVS SPIRITVS IN LVCE DOMINI
+SVSCEPTVS EST,--IN SEMPETERNALE
+AEVVM QVIESCIT SECVRVS.
+
+"Here lies in the sleep of peace, the sweet and innocent Severianus,
+whose spirit is received into the light of God. He rests free from care
+throughout endless time."
+
+"But how were these Christians so confident of the future life," asked
+the Greek, "when the greatest of the philosophers and sages--a Socrates
+or Cicero--never rose above a vague 'perhaps,' and even the philosophic
+Pliny, anticipating only annihilation, writes, 'there is no more
+consciousness after death than before birth?'"
+
+"Find there thy answer, young man," exclaimed Primitius, and with a
+gleam of exultation in his eyes, he pointed to the following epitaphs:--
+
+CREDO QVIA REDEMPTOR MEVS VIVIT ET NOVISSIMO
+DIE DE TERRA SVSCITABIT ME IN CARNE MEA
+VIDEBO DOMINVM.
+
+"I believe, because that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day shall
+raise me from the earth, that in my flesh I shall see the Lord."
+
+HIC REQVIESCIT CARO MEA NOVISSIMO VERO DIE
+PER CHRISTVM CREDO RECVSCITABITVR A MORTVIS.
+
+"Here rests my flesh, but at the last day, through Christ, I believe it
+will be raised from the dead."
+
+"And must the soul, then, slumber with the body in blank unconsciousness
+till this 'last day?'" asked the Greek. "Methinks I should shudder at
+going out into the dark inane, like a taper extinguished in these gloomy
+vaults. Better is the dim and ghostly Hades, and Elysian Fields of our
+own mythology, than that."
+
+"Not so, my son," replied Primitius, "we believe with the blessed
+Paul--that as soon as the soul passes from earth's living death, it
+enters into the undying life and unfading bliss of heaven." And he
+pointed out, one after another, the following epitaphs corroborating his
+view:--
+
+CORPVS HABET TELLVS ANIMAM CAELESTIA REGNA.
+MENS NESCIA MORTIS VIVIT ET ASPECTV
+FBVITVR BENE CONSCIA CHRISTI.
+
+"The soul lives unknowing of death, and consciously rejoices in the
+vision of Christ."
+
+PRIMA VIVIS IN GLORIA DEI ET IN PACE DOMINI
+NOSTRI XR.
+
+"Prima, thou livest in the glory of God, and in the peace of Christ our
+Lord."
+
+"This is indeed a high philosophy, beyond aught I ever heard before,"
+said Isidorus, deeply moved. "Whence do you Christians derive such lofty
+teachings? For as Hilarus but now said most of your sect are poor and
+lowly in this world's goods and rank."
+
+"Our teaching comes, my son, from God Himself, the Great Father of
+lights, and from Jesus Christ our Lord. Behold, as the greatest favour I
+can do thee, I will lend thee this precious MS. of the Gospel of the
+blessed John;" and he took from a leathern case a purple vellum
+parchment scroll, inscribed with letters of silver. "Cherish it
+carefully; 'tis worth more than gold. When thou hast well pondered it, I
+will lend thee the letter of the blessed Paul to the infant Church in
+this city of Home. But here comes Hilarus to conduct thee back to the
+light of day. Return hither, if thou canst, on the fourth day from now
+--the day of our Sabbath assembly. My blessing be upon thee. _Pax
+vobiscum et cum spiritu tuo._"
+
+The young Greek knelt at the old man's feet, then rose and kissed his
+hand, and followed in silence the fossor Hilarus. At length he broke the
+silence by inquiring,--
+
+"What's the meaning, good Hilarus, of all these strange figures which I
+have noted on the tombstones as I passed. I have observed a lion, a pig,
+an ass, a cobbler's last, carpenters', masons', and wool-combers'
+implements; a fish, a ship, an anchor, and the like--all scratched or
+painted on the stone slabs. They have no religious significance,
+surely?"
+
+[Illustration: TOMB OF THE BISHOPS, CATACOMB OF ST. CALIXTUS.
+
+Seven of the Bishops of the early Christian Church in Rome fell in
+succession by the hand of the headsman, five of them in the space of
+eight years. In this chamber are buried several of those heroic martyrs
+of Jesus.]
+
+"Well, no, not all of them," said Hilarus, with a smile. "You see, many
+of the Christians being lowly craftsmen, are unable to read, so the
+tools or emblems of their calling are inscribed on the tombs of their
+friends, that they may recognize and find them again in this vast
+cemetery."
+
+"But the ship, anchor, and fish are not signs of a handicraft, unless
+that of sailor or fisherman."
+
+"No, the fish has another and a secret meaning. I need not tell a
+scholar like you, that the first letters of the Greek names for Jesus
+Christ, Son of God, the Saviour, make up the word Ichthus, or fish, so
+it is used as a secret symbol of our faith. The ship is the emblem, I
+have been told, even in your own country, of a well-spent life, and to
+us it signifies a soul entering into the haven of eternal rest. While
+our holy hopes are the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
+entering into that within the veil."
+
+"Well, and the lion, ass, and pig? What about them?"
+
+"These," said the fossor, with a laugh, which seemed as incongruous to
+him as it would be to a modern sexton, for such his office virtually
+was, "these are a sort of play upon the names of Leo, Onager, and
+Porcella, the latter was a sort of pet name, I suspect--'Little Pig'--by
+which their friends, who could not read, could find their tombs."
+
+"What wives these Christians must have had," continued the
+keenly-observing Greek. "I have noticed several inscriptions, in which
+they are said to have passed ten, twenty, thirty, and one even fifty
+years of married life--SINE IVRGIO, SINE AEMVLATIONE, SINE DISSIDIO,
+SINE QVERELA--'Without contention, without emulation, without
+dissension, without strife.' There are no such wives in Rome now, I'll
+be bound--at least in the Rome I am acquainted with."
+
+"Yes," said the old man, with a sigh, "come with me into yonder chapel.
+I always, in passing this way, stop there to see again the sepulchre of
+the best wife God ever gave to any man." After walking in silence some
+minutes, he entered a sort of family vault, and lit a bronze lamp,
+shaped like a ship, hanging from the vaulted ceiling, while Isidorus
+studied out the following inscription, not altogether free from errors
+in spelling and grammar:--
+
+CONIVGE VENEVANDE BONE INNOCVA FLORENTIA
+DIGNA PIA AMABILIS PVDICA _(sic)_ DEO FIDELIS
+DVLCIS MARITO NVTRIX FAMILIAE HVMILIS
+CVNCTIS AMATRIX PAVPERVM. BIXIT MECVM
+ANN. XXXII. MENS. IX. DIES V. HOR. X.
+SCRVPVLOS XIL SEMPER CONCORDES SINE VLLA
+QVERELA. BIXIT PLVS MINVS ANN. LII. MENS.
+V. INCOMPARABILEM CONIVGEM MALE FRACTVS
+CONIVX GEMITV TRISTI LACRI MIS DEFLET.
+
+"To my wife Florentia, deserving of honour, good, guileless, worthy,
+pious, amiable, modest, faithful to God, endeared to her husband, the
+nurse of her family, humble to all, a lover of the poor. She lived with
+me (_i.e._, was married) thirty-two years, nine months, five days, ten
+hours, six scruples (about a quarter of an hour--they were very
+scrupulous about this). She lived (altogether) fifty-two years, five
+months, more or less. The sore-broken husband bewails, with tears and
+bitter lamentation, his incomparable spouse."
+
+"Yes, I made it all up, and carved it all myself," said the old man, as
+Isidorus finished reading the long inscription; "and if I say it myself,
+I don't think there is a better in the whole Catacomb; you see, I
+selected the best bits from all the best epitaphs, and she deserved it
+every word, dear soul," and he drew his rough hand across his moistened
+eyes.
+
+The easy-tempered Greek was too good-natured to inflict wanton pain, so
+he ignored its bad Latinity, and contented himself with saying that "it
+was indeed a very remarkable epitaph."
+
+In a few minutes they emerged from the gloom of the Catacomb to the
+golden glory which was flooding the broad Campagna from the westering
+sun. "Would," thought Isidorus within himself, "that I could thus emerge
+from the gloomy doubts and fears in which my spirit gropes, to the
+golden light of Christian life."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[24] The following, except the last one, are all authentic inscriptions
+from the Catacombs, selected from many hundreds, translated by the
+writer in his volume on this subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A DIFFICULT QUEST.
+
+
+The Empress Valeria had not forgotten her purpose to discover, if
+possible, the father of her freed-woman, Callirho[e:], and at the earliest
+opportunity took steps to accomplish her design. It was, she knew, a
+task of much difficulty, and one that required an intelligent and
+confidential agent. It was also of the utmost importance that some sign
+of identity should be exhibited as a guarantee of the good faith of the
+agent. With this view the Empress one day, as she sat at her toilet in
+the apartment described in our third chapter, thus interrogated her
+freed-woman and namesake, Valeria Callirho[e:].
+
+"Hast thou any token, child," she asked, "by which, should we find thy
+father, he would be assured of thy identity?"
+
+"I was despoiled of everything, your Majesty," said the girl, "by the
+pirates by whom we were captured; except the clothes in which I stood.
+All my rings and jewellery were rudely snatched away, and I never saw
+them again."
+
+"What is that little amulet I have seen thee wear?" asked the Empress;
+"I think thou hast it now."
+
+"Oh, that was so trivial and valueless," said Callirho[e:], "that they
+either overlooked it or thought it not worth taking;" and she drew from
+the folds of her robe, where it hung suspended by a silken cord about
+her neck, a cornelian stone, carved into the shape of a tiny fish,[25]
+on which was inscribed the word, [Greek: S[O>]T[E>]RS[O>]T[E>]R], or "Saviour," and
+on the other side the letters [Greek: KAL.D[E>]M[E>]T.THYG]--a contraction for
+"Callirho[e:] daughter of Demetrius."
+
+"Trivial as it is," said the girl, with emotion, "it is something which
+I value above all price. My sainted mother, before she died, took it
+from her neck and put it upon mine; and I hope to wear it while I live."
+
+"You do not regard it as an amulet, or charm against evil spirits, I am
+sure, like some Christians, who have not quite shaken off their pagan
+superstitions."
+
+"Nay, your Majesty, but as a symbol of our holy faith. Yet it might well
+be a spell to keep my soul from sin, so sacred are its associations."
+
+"I want you to give it to me," said the Empress.
+
+"It is yours, your Majesty," said the girl, taking it from her neck, and
+passionately kissing it. "To no one else on earth would I give it; but
+from my best benefactress I can withhold nothing."
+
+"I would not put thee to the pain of parting with it," said the Empress,
+with a kind caress, "but I need it as a clue, to find, if possible, thy
+father, and when found, as an identification of his child. I do not wish
+to raise hopes which may be doomed to disappointment; but I am about to
+make a strenuous effort to discover thy sire."
+
+"A thousand thanks, dearest lady," exclaimed the grateful girl, kissing
+her mistress's hands and bedewing them with her tears. "I feel sure that
+God will reward your efforts, and answer my ceaseless prayers."
+
+In pursuance of her purpose, the Empress wrote upon a scroll of
+parchment the following letter to her faithful counsellor, Adauctus:--
+
+    "Valeria, consort of the co-Emperor Galerius C[ae]sar--to Adauctus,
+    Treasurer of the Imperial Exchequer, greeting:
+
+    "Honoured Servant,--Thy mistress hath need of a faithful and
+    intelligent agent, to execute a delicate and difficult mission.
+    He must be of good address, and must be a man whom I can
+    implicitly trust. When thou hast found such, bring him with thee
+    to the palace." L.S.
+
+Having bound the scroll with a silken cord, and affixed her signet in
+purple wax, and addressed the document to the Imperial Treasurer, she
+sent it by a soldier of the guard, whom we would describe in modern
+parlance as an orderly-in-waiting, to Adauctus.
+
+During the latter part of the day, the chamberlain announced a visit
+from "His Excellency the Imperial Treasurer." That officer was received
+with much honour by the Empress, who was attended only by her faithful
+freed woman.
+
+"Many thanks, your Excellency, for your prompt attendance. Have you
+found me the paragon whom I require?"
+
+"I cannot avouch for that, your Majesty, but he is highly commended by
+his master, an honest soldier, who places him at your Majesty's service.
+Of his nimble wit and subtle parts, I can myself bear witness, and my
+own servant testifies that if not a Christian, he is at least a sincere
+inquirer after the truth."
+
+The Empress briefly explained the nature of the commission which she
+wished executed, and asked that the proposed agent, who waited in an
+ante-room, might be presented. In a moment the chamberlain announced our
+old friend Isidorus. With bowed head and hands folded upon his breast,
+he stood on the threshold, and then advancing, knelt gracefully before
+the Empress. He evidently made a good impression, for her Majesty smiled
+graciously and said:--
+
+"It is a difficult quest on which I would send thee, but thou shalt be
+well rewarded for thy fidelity and zeal."
+
+"My humble services, my life, are at your Majesty's disposal," said the
+Greek. "I shall deem myself well rewarded by your Majesty's favour."
+
+"See'st thou this lady?" asked the Empress, pointing to Callirho[e:]. "To
+find her sire in this wide world--that is thy task;" and she briefly
+explained the nature of the commission.
+
+The youth gazed long and earnestly on the fair face of the girl, and
+replied, "Those features once seen can never be forgotten. If I find
+anywhere on earth aught resembling them, I shall not fail to recognize
+the likeness. In such a quest I would gladly search the wide world
+over."
+
+"My chamberlain will amply equip you for your journey, and will give you
+a letter, with the Emperor's seal, to all the Roman prefects in Italy;
+and, by the Divine favour, I trust you will bring us good tidings."
+
+"So may it be," said the youth, as he retired from the presence, giving,
+as he did so, a lingering look at Callirho[e:], who, with dilated eyes and
+parted lips, gazed at him with an intensity of entreaty that would have
+proved an inspiration to a less susceptible nature than his.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[25] These objects, of which the writer has examined several, were given
+to neophytes on the occasion of their baptism, as an emblem of their
+holy faith. (See explanation of the symbol of the fish in last chapter,
+p. 82.) They were often used as a sign of membership in the Christian
+Church, somewhat like our modern class-tickets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A WICKED PLOT.
+
+
+We have already mentioned the fact that Fausta, the mother of the
+Emperor Galerius, was a fanatical pagan. The especial object of her
+regard was the goddess Cybele, who was worshipped in Rome with rites of
+the most degrading superstition. Fausta was intensely bitter in her
+hatred of the Christian name, and strenuously endeavoured to incite her
+son, the Emperor, to persecution. She was especially virulent towards
+her daughter-in-law, the beautiful Valeria, and sought by every means to
+embitter the mind of Galerius against her. In this she was strongly
+abetted, or rather inspired, by Furca, the vicious old priest of Cybele,
+whose wicked influence over her was very great. This worthy pair, the
+day after the interview above described, were engaged in a secret
+conclave or conspiracy against Valeria and the Christians, while the
+latter was seeking to carry out her benevolent enterprise.
+
+The scene of their interview was the reception-room of Fausta, in the
+palace of the Emperor Galerius. It was far more sumptuously furnished
+and decorated than that of the Empress Valeria, and at one end, in a
+marble niche, stood an ugly image of the goddess Cybele, with her crown
+of many towers, rudely carved out of olive wood, but quite embrowned,
+and almost blackened with age. It was bedizened with costly jewels, and
+was deemed to be of special sanctity. Before it was a small marble
+altar, on which burned, day and night, a silver censer.
+
+At the moment of which we write, Fausta approached the altar, and
+kissing her hand to the image--an ancient mode of worship, from which we
+get the word "adore"--she took some costly Sabean incense from a small
+gold coffer, and sprinkled it on the glowing coals of the censer. Dense
+white fumes arose, whose rich aromatic odour filled the large apartment.
+Fausta had been an Illyrian peasant, and, notwithstanding her
+embroidered robes and costly jewels, she still exhibited much of the
+rude peasant character and lack of culture. Her coarse and wrinkled
+features and swarthy complexion, were all the more striking by their
+contrast with the snowy mantle, with its gold-embroidered border, which
+she wore; and her bright black eyes glittered with an expression of
+deadly malice like those of a serpent. While she stood before the altar,
+a servant announced that Furca, the arch-priest of Cybele, had obeyed
+her summons. As the curtain of the door was drawn aside, a little
+weazened old man, as dark as mahogany, wearing a thick crop of snow
+white hair, appeared.
+
+"Thanks, good Furca," said Fausta, "I desire your counsel on a matter of
+much importance to the State, and to the worship of the holy Cybele."
+
+"At your service, your Excellency," said the obsequious priest, who also
+kissed his hand to the black-faced image, and sprinkled a few grains of
+incense on the censer.
+
+"Thou knowest how the worship of the Galilean Christus has increased,
+not only among the common people, the vile plebs, and the still viler
+slave population, but even among the patricians and nobles. I have
+evidence that even in this palace, and very near the throne, the
+execrable superstition is cherished."
+
+"Alas! your Excellency, I fear it is only too true," whined the bigot
+arch-priest. "Certain it is that neither of the Empresses, Prisca or
+Valeria, ever take part in the public worship of the gods, as from their
+lofty station it is their duty to do."
+
+"Yes, and I have reason to believe that there is plotting and conniving
+between the Empress and the accursed Christian sect."
+
+"Hast any proof of this?" asked the arch-priest, eagerly. "This is a
+crime against the State."
+
+"The black slave Juba," replied Fausta, "is, as thou knowest, a faithful
+worshipper of Cybele, and she told me even now, that Adauctus, the
+Imperial Treasurer, had been only yesterday closeted with the Empress,
+and plotting to restore to the favour of the Emperor a certain
+Demetrius, a Christian renegade, who is in hiding for his crimes."
+
+"Oh, ho!" chuckled the priest, with a wicked grin, "my fine lady need
+not think herself so high and mighty as to be above the reach of the
+law, or beyond the anger of the insulted gods."
+
+"I would almost give my eyes," hissed through her teeth the revengeful
+Fausta, "if I could only see that painted doll, Valeria, abased and
+degraded. She has too long held a sway, of which I, the mother of the
+Emperor, have been deprived."
+
+"I trust you may not only see it," said Furca, gloating in anticipation
+over the prospect, "but also see her pale, proud mother, the Empress
+Prisca, humbled at your feet."
+
+"Accomplish this, good Furca," exclaimed Fausta, with exultation, "and
+the goddess Cybele shall have such an offering as she never had
+before."
+
+"We must be wary," said the priest, "or we may ourselves be crushed.
+They are too powerful to be attacked openly. We must plot against them
+secretly. I'll be a _furca_ to them indeed," he added, punning upon his
+own name, which had also the signification of an instrument of
+punishment, something like a cross; and the conspirators parted with
+this pledge of mutual hate against their destined victims.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE SLAVE MARKET.
+
+
+In the meantime Isidorus, with well-filled purse, and armed with
+credentials under the Imperial seal, had set off upon his difficult and
+doubtful quest.
+
+"However it turn out," he said to himself, "it will be strange if I do
+not climb a few steps higher on the ladder on which my feet are now
+placed. Being the confidential agent of the Empress is better than
+being the secretary of the rude soldier, Sertorius, and being snubbed by
+him every day, too."
+
+Mounted on one of the best horses in the Imperial stables, he rode forth
+upon the famous Salarian Way, which led straight as an arrow over the
+wide Campagna, and over the rugged Appenines to the distant city of
+Ravenna, among the marshes of the Adriatic. Now a decayed and
+grass-grown city, six miles from the sea, it was then a great and busy
+port, and had been for two centuries and a half an important see of the
+Christian Church. Not to the prefect of the city, but to the bishop of
+Ravenna, Isidorus, with his natural tact and shrewdness, betook himself.
+The sign manual of the Emperor, which he confidently exhibited, did not
+command that regard which he had anticipated; but a private letter from
+Adauctus, commending Isidorus to all Christian bishops and presbyters,
+procured for him a much more cordial reception. He was hospitably
+entertained, and every possible assistance given him in his quest. The
+bishop called together the deacons who had the care of the poor of the
+Church, but none of them knew anything of Demetrius. The bishop had
+ransomed many Christian slaves--prisoners taken in war, or captured by
+pirates. A few years before, when the resources of the Church had been
+completely exhausted by the exercise of this charity,[26] a company of
+captives had been sold by pirates to a Jewish slave-dealer named Ezra,
+and conveyed by him to the city of Mediolanum, or as we now call it,
+Milan, as offering, next to Rome, the best market for his wares. And one
+of the deacons remembered among this slave-gang an old man who resembled
+the description given of Demetrius.
+
+To Milan, therefore, crossing again the Appenines, and riding up the
+broad, rich valley of the Po, went Isidorus. He was surprised to find a
+city, almost rivalling in extent Rome itself, and with a history
+reaching back to the times of the Etruscans, well-nigh a thousand years.
+First he sought the Jewish slave-dealer, who kept a regular mart for the
+sale or hire of human beings, just as one now-a-days keeps a
+livery-stable for the sale or hire of horses. There was as much fraud,
+too, in selling slaves then, as has been proverbially connected with
+horse-dealing and jockeying in every age. The _ergastulum_, or slave-pen
+of Ezra, was a large prison-like structure, surrounding the four sides
+of a hollow square. There were no windows to the street, and only very
+small iron-grated ones to the inner court; with heavy, iron-studded
+doors to the stable-like stalls, where the slaves were chained to a
+stout beam running along the wall.
+
+A slave-auction was in progress when Isidorus arrived, so he had to wait
+till it was over before plying his quest. A gang of slaves, unchained,
+but guarded by keepers, armed with whips and spears, awaited their fate.
+Stripped nearly naked, they were rudely examined, pinched, handled, and
+made to stoop, lift heavy weights, walk, run, and show their paces like
+horses for sale. Many had their ears bored--a sign of servitude from the
+time of Moses--and others were seamed with scars of the cruel lash.
+This, however, lessened their market value, as it was evidence of their
+intractable and troublesome character.
+
+Slavery was, at the time of which we write, one of the greatest evils of
+the Roman empire. It was a deadly canker, eating out the national life.
+It cast a stigma of disgrace on labour, and prevented the formation of
+that intelligent middle class which is the true safeguard of liberty.
+Never in the history of the world was society so based upon the abject
+misery of vast multitudes of human beings. The slaves outnumbered, many
+times, their masters. They were forbidden to wear a peculiar garb, lest
+they should recognize their numbers and their strength, and rise in
+universal revolt. As it was, servile insurrections were of frequent
+occurrence. But they were crushed and punished with ruthless severity.
+In one slave revolt, 60,000 of these wretched beings were slain. The
+first question about a man's property was, _"Quot pascit servos?"_--"How
+many slaves does he keep?" Ten was considered the least number
+consistent with any degree of respectability. Four hundred slaves
+deluged with their blood the funeral pyre of Pedanius Secundus. Vidius
+Pollio fed his lampreys with the bodies of his human chattels. A single
+freed-man left over 4,000 at his death. Some 2,000 men were lords of the
+Roman world, and the great mass of the rest were slaves. Their condition
+was one of inconceivable wretchedness. They had no rights of marriage,
+nor any claim to their children. Their food was a pound of bread a day,
+with a little salt and oil. Flesh they never tasted, and even wine,
+which flowed like water, almost never. Colossal piles, built by their
+blood and sweat, attest to the present day the bitterness of their
+bondage. The lash of the taskmaster was heard in the fields, and
+crosses, bearing aloft their quivering victims, polluted the wayside.
+
+This dumb, weltering mass of humanity, crushed by power, and led by
+their lusts, became a hot-bed of vice, in which every evil passion grew
+apace. To these wretched beings came the gospel of liberty, with a
+strange, a thrilling power. The oppressed slave, in the intervals of
+toil or torture, caught with joy the emancipating message, and sprang up
+enfranchised by an immortalizing hope. He exulted in a new-found freedom
+in Christ, which no wealth could purchase, no chains of slavery fetter,
+nor even death itself destroy. In the Christian Church the distinctions
+of worldly rank were abolished.[27] The highest spiritual privileges
+were opened to the lowliest slave. In the ecclesiastical hierarchy were
+no rights of birth, and no privileges of blood. In the inscriptions of
+the Catacombs, no badges of servitude, no titles of honour appear. The
+wealthy noble, the lord of many acres, recognized in his lowly servant a
+fellow heir of glory. They bowed together at the same table of the Lord,
+saluted each other with the mutual kiss of charity, and side by side in
+their narrow graves, at length returned to indistinguishable dust. The
+story of Onesimus was often repeated, and the patrician master received
+his returning slave, "not now as a servant, but above a servant--a
+brother beloved." Nay, he may even have bowed to him as his
+ecclesiastical superior, and received from his plebeian hands the
+emblems of their common Lord.
+
+We return from this digression to the slave-market of Milan. Very few of
+Ezra's stock were black--not more than half a dozen, from Nubia and
+Libya. Most of them were as white as himself, or whiter still. There
+were Dalmatians, Illyrians, Iberians, Gauls, Greeks, Syrians, and many
+other nationalities. Ezra was engaged in busy converse, in a broken
+mixture of Latin and Greek, with the wealthy patrician, Vitellius, the
+lord of wide corn lands on the fertile banks of the Po.
+
+"Field hands your Excellency wants? I have some splendid ones," he said,
+eagerly. "Here, you fellows, step out there and show your muscles;" and
+he struck with his whip-lash two brawny white-skinned, blue-eyed,
+yellow-haired British slaves.
+
+"Sullen dogs these British often are," he said, "but they are as good as
+gold. They never run away like the Germans, nor steal like the Greeks,
+nor kill themselves like the Gauls."[28]
+
+"Glad of that," said Vitellius. "I have had a perfect epidemic of
+suicide among my slaves. I had to kill several of them to keep them from
+killing themselves"--a sad but frequent comment on the utter
+wretchedness of their condition, from which death itself was the only
+refuge.
+
+"Does your Excellency want anything of a higher grade?" asked Ezra.
+"Some skilled workmen to finish your elegant villa, for instance. I have
+a splendid Greek sculptor, almost another Phidias, and another a second
+Zeuxis with the brush. Then if you want a steward, or bookkeeper, or
+secretary, or reader, or a skilled physician, I have them all; or a
+hand-maid for your Excellency's wife. I have a beautiful Greek girl
+here, highly accomplished; can embroider, play the zither, sing in two
+languages. I sold her sister last week for 100,000 sesterces[29]--nieces
+of an ex-archon. I felt really sorry for them, but what would
+you?--trade is trade. Times are bad. Poor Ezra has had bad luck. Several
+of his slaves kill themselves. Market glutted; price falls. I sell them
+very cheap--very cheap."
+
+Vitellius made his purchases, had them chained together in a gang, and
+driven by his steward, like cattle, to his farm. The account of Ezra's
+interview with Isidorus we must defer to another chapter.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] This might easily happen, for after successful raids or slave
+hunts, the victims were sold by their pirate captors by the thousand.
+The fact is on record, that at Delos, a famous slave market, 60,000 were
+sold by Celician pirates in a single day.
+
+[27] Apud nos inter pauperes et divites, servos et dominos, interest
+nihil. Lactant. _Div. Inst._ v. 14, 15.
+
+[28] These were the most common faults of slaves, for attempting which
+they were often branded on cheek or brow.
+
+[29] Over $4,000 of our money. Very beautiful or accomplished slaves
+sometimes brought twice that amount.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE LOST FOUND.
+
+
+"Do you remember buying or selling a slave named Demetrius, a Jew?"
+asked Isidorus of Ezra, the slave-dealer of Milan. He wasted no words in
+circumlocution, for he knew that there was no use in trying to deceive
+the keen-eyed Jewish dealer in his fellowman; and that his best chances
+of success were in coming directly to the point.
+
+"Selling a Jew? Oh, no! I never sell my own kinsmen. That's against our
+law. It is like seething a kid in its mother's milk. I often ransom them
+from pirates and set them free."
+
+"But this Demetrius was a Christian Jew--a convert from Moses to Jesus,"
+said the Greek.
+
+"A Christian dog," cried Ezra with a wicked execration. "He was no Jew.
+He had sold his birthright like Esau, and had no part nor lot with
+Israel. Of course, I'd sell him if I got him--to the mines, or to the
+galleys, or the field gang, to the hardest master I could find. But I
+know naught about your Demetrius, who was he?"
+
+"He was a Jew of Antioch," said Isidorus, "captured by Illyrian pirates
+and sold in the slave market of Ravenna."
+
+"That is a common tale," replied Ezra. "There are many such. How long
+since this occurred?"
+
+"'Tis now five years since he was last seen by her who seeks him, and
+who will pay well for his recovery."
+
+"Just my luck," grumbled the greedy Jew. "Some one else will gain the
+prize. 'Tis not for me."
+
+"Then you cannot help me in this quest?" said the Greek.
+
+"How can I remember the scores and hundreds of Christian dogs that I
+have bought and sold? Go ask these monks, they know more of the vermin
+than I do."
+
+Acting on this hint, Isidorus made his way to the Convent of San
+Lorenzo, the ancient chapel of which still remains. Knocking at a
+bronze-studded gateway he was admitted to a quadrangle surrounded by
+cloisters or covered galleries upon which opened the doors of the
+different apartments. It was more like a hospital and alms-house than
+like what is now understood as a convent. It served as a sort of school
+of theology, youthful acolytes and deacons being here trained for the
+office and work of presbyters in the Church. Isidorus presented his
+letter from Adauctus to the good Bishop Paulinus, and was most cordially
+received.
+
+"Right welcome art thou, my son," said the bishop, "bearing, as thou
+dost, the commendation of the worthy Adauctus; and right glad shall we
+be to promote thy search. I myself know naught that can throw light upon
+it, inasmuch as I lived not at Milan, but was bishop of Nola at the time
+of which thou speakest."
+
+The scriptor, or secretary, of the convent was also consulted without
+avail, no record being found in the annals of the house that gave any
+hope of discovery.
+
+"Come lunch with us in the refectory," said the bishop, "and I will ask
+if any of the brethren know aught of this mystery."
+
+The refectory was a large bare-looking room--its only furniture being a
+long and solid table with a shorter one across the end for the bishop,
+and presbyters, and visitors. Of this latter there were frequently
+several, as such houses were the chief places for entertaining the
+travelling clergy or even lay members of the Christian brotherhood. Upon
+the walls were certain somewhat grim-looking frescoes, representing
+Biblical scenes and characters like those in the Catacombs described in
+chapter VIII. At one side of the room was a _bema_, or reading-desk, at
+which one of the lectors a distinct ecclesiastical office,[30] with its
+special ordination--read, while the brethren partook of their meals, the
+lessons for the day from the Gospels and Epistles, as well as passages
+from the writings of Clement, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and Origen. For
+this usage the scarcity and high price of MS. books, and the desire to
+improve every moment of time was deemed a sufficient ground.
+
+After the meal--which was almost ascetic in its simplicity, consisting
+chiefly of vegetable pottage, lentils, and bread was over, and the
+reading ended, the bishop explained the cause of the presence among them
+of a stranger from Rome.
+
+"My brethren," he said in conclusion, "this is a common story. Many are
+the victims of cruelty and wrong in this great empire. Be it ours, so
+far as God may give us power, to succour the oppressed and redress their
+wrongs."
+
+As he sat down a venerable presbyter rose and said, "Father, five years
+have I been under this hospitable roof, ransomed from bondage by your
+predecessor in office. Five years have I mourned the loss of a son and
+daughter, sold from my arms to I know not what cruel fate. It may be
+that God is about to restore me my children, the flesh of my flesh. Hast
+thou, stranger, any sign or token by which I may be assured of their
+identity?"
+
+"Of thy son I have no tidings; but know thou if this be a token of thy
+daughter's rescue," and Isidorus exhibited the small cornelian _tessara_
+of the fish of which we have spoken.
+
+Eagerly the old man clasped it, and scanned the inscription, and
+joyfully exclaimed, while tears of gladness flowed down his aged cheeks
+and silvery beard, "Thank God, my child yet lives. I shall again behold
+her before I die. See, here is her very name, 'Callirho[e:], daughter of
+Demetrius.' I carved it with my own hands one happy day in our dear home
+in Damascus. God is good. I never hoped to see her again. Tell me,
+stranger, is she, too, a slave?"
+
+"Nay," said Isidorus with emotion, for even his careless nature was
+touched with sympathy at the joy of the old man, "She is the freed woman
+of the Empress Valeria, and high in favour, too, I should judge, from
+the interest her august mistress showed in seeking for thee."
+
+"_Benedic, anima mea, Domino,_" exclaimed the aged presbyter with
+fervour. "_Et omnia, qu[ae] intra me sunt, nomini sacro ejus_--Bless the
+Lord, my soul: and all that is within me bless His holy name. He hath
+heard my prayer. He hath answered my supplication."
+
+The old man's story was soon told. He had been rescued from the slave
+pen of Ezra, and employed in the service of the convent. His familiar
+knowledge of Greek led to his appointment as instructor in that language
+of the young acolytes and deacons who were in training for the office of
+the ministry. At length his superior gifts and fervent piety led to his
+own ordination as a presbyter of the Church of Milan.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[30] This office was possibly derived from the synagogue. As requiring
+good scholarship it was one of much honour, and was even sought by
+laymen. The Emperor Julian, in his youth, and his brother Gallus, were
+readers in the Church of Nicomedia. Many epitaphs of readers occur in
+the Catacombs.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
+
+
+Demetrius was now eager to set out for Rome to behold once more the
+child whom he had scarce hoped ever to see again. A happy leave-taking
+of the brethren of Milan, who rejoiced in fraternal sympathy, followed;
+and on a gently ambling mule, at break of day, the old man rode forth
+beside the gallantly equipped Isidorus. He beguiled the weary way with
+questions about his long-lost daughter, as to her growth, appearance,
+her apparent health, and even the very garb she wore. He was never tired
+hearing about her, and recounting incidents of her childhood and youth.
+The only shadow upon his joy was the vague mystery concerning the fate
+of his son. But he said cheerfully: "God is good. He has restored to me
+one of my children. I feel confident that in His own good time He will
+restore also the other."
+
+Beneath the fatigue of the long journey of nearly three hundred miles
+his powers would have failed, had he not been inspirited and sustained
+by the thrilling anticipation of beholding once more his beloved child.
+
+At length, near sunset, on the tenth day, they drew near the great
+metropolis of the Empire. Clearer and clearer to the view rose the
+seven-hilled city's pride, the snowy marble peristyles and pediments of
+palace and temple, gleaming in the rosy light like transparent
+alabaster. To the left rose the cliff-like walls of the Colosseum, even
+then venerable with the time-stains of over two hundred years. In the
+foreground stretched the long Aurelian Wall, with its towers and
+battlements and strong arched gates. They crossed the Tiber by the
+Milvian Bridge, built three hundred years before, and destined to
+witness within ten years that fierce struggle for the mastery of the
+empire, between Constantine and Maxentius, when the British-born C[ae]sar
+saw, or thought he saw, in the mid-day heavens a blazing cross, and
+exclaiming "By this sign we conquer," overwhelmed his adversary in the
+rushing river.[31]
+
+Passing under the hill crowned with the famous gardens of Lucullus, now
+known as the Pincio, and beneath the heavy-arched gateway in the wall,
+they made their way through the narrow streets towards the centre of the
+city the--Forum and the Palatine. It was a day of festival--the last day
+of the _Quinquatria_, or festival of Minerva. Garlands of flowers, and
+wreaths of laurel, festooned many of the houses, in front of which
+blazed coloured cressets and lamps. Sacred processions were passing
+through the streets, with torches and music and chantings of priests;
+and ever and anon the shrill blare of the sacred trumpets pierced the
+ear of night. In the Forum the temples of Saturn, and of Castor, and
+Pollux were richly adorned and brilliantly illuminated, and a great
+throng of merry-makers filled the marble square.
+
+Turning to the left, our travellers ascended the slope of the Palatine
+Hill, amid ever-increasing grandeur of architecture. Demetrius, though
+he had travelled far and seen much, was struck with astonishment at the
+splendour and magnificence of the buildings. Not at Jerusalem, or
+Damascus, or Antioch, not at Ravenna or Milan, had he witnessed such
+wealth of porphyry and marble, such stately colonades and peristyles,
+covering acres of ground--now but a mound of mouldering ruins.
+
+"Whither art thou leading me?" asked Demetrius, as they stood before a
+palace of snowy marble which, bathed in the mellow radiance of the
+rising moon, seemed transformed into translucent alabaster.
+
+"To the abode where dwells thy daughter, the favoured freed-woman of the
+mistress of all this splendour," replied Isidorus, enjoying the wonder
+and admiration of his companion in travel.
+
+A fountain splashed in the centre of the square, its waters flashing
+like silver in the moonlight. The burnished mail of the Roman soldiers
+gleamed as the guard was changed, and their armour clashed as they
+grounded their spears and saluted the officer of the watch.
+
+"What, Max, are you on duty to-night?" said Isidorus as he recognized a
+soldier of the guard. "Any promotion in your service yet?"
+
+"No, but I see that there is in yours," said the bluff out-spoken
+guardsman.
+
+"Well, yes, I flatter myself that there is," replied the vain-glorious
+Greek, "and I hope for still more."
+
+Announcing to the chamberlain of the palace that he had just arrived
+from a journey of important business for the Empress Valeria, he with
+Demetrius were taken to a marble bath, where with the aid of a skilful
+slave, they made their toilet for immediate presentation to the Empress.
+
+Valeria was attended as usual by her freed-woman Callirho[e:], when the
+Greek was announced.
+
+"We heard," she said to Isidorus, "by thy letters, of the failure of thy
+quest at Ravenna and Milan, but we hope----"
+
+At this moment, with an exclamation of intensest emotion Callirho[e:]
+rushed forward and flung herself in the arms of the venerable figure
+who had followed the Greek into the apartment.
+
+"My father!" she cried in tones which thrilled every heart, and then she
+embraced him again and again. The impassioned love and joy and gratitude
+of her soul struggling for expression, she burst into a flood of tears.
+
+"My daughter, child of my beloved Rachel," exclaimed the old man, as,
+heedless of the presence of the Empress, he fondly caressed her, "do I
+again embrace thee? Thou art the very image of thy angel-mother, as I
+first beheld her in the rose gardens of Sharon. Truly God is good. Now,
+Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace--the cup of my happiness
+runneth over."
+
+"Nay, good father," broke in the soft voice of the Empress, who was
+deeply moved by the scene, "rather live to share thy daughter's love and
+happiness."
+
+"Pardon, august lady," said Demetrius, falling on his knees, and
+gratefully kissing the Empress's hand. "Pardon, that in the joy of
+finding my child I forgot the duty I owe to my sovereign."
+
+"Thy first duty was there," said Valeria, pointing to the lovely
+Callirho[e:], who, smiling through her tears, was now leaning on her
+father's arm. "We leave you to exchange your mutual confidences. Good
+Isidorus it shall be our care to bestow a reward commensurate with thy
+merit;" and she withdrew to her own apartment.
+
+"My everlasting gratitude thou hast," said Callirho[e:], with her sweetest
+smile, frankly extending her hand.
+
+"I am, indeed, well repaid," said the Greek, as he respectfully kissed
+it. "I would gladly show my zeal in much more arduous service," and
+bowing low, he was accompanied by the chamberlain to the vestibule. That
+official gave him, by command of the Empress, a purse of gold, and
+assured him of still further reward.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[31] A magnificent painting in the Vatican represents with vivid realism
+this scene, the drowning of the Pagan Emperor, and the defeat and flight
+of all his army.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+"UNSTABLE AS WATER."
+
+
+It was with feelings highly elated at his successful achievement, which
+presaged still further advancement, that Isidorus sought his lodgings.
+On the way he met many late revellers returning from the festival,
+"flown with insolence and wine," and making night hideous with their
+riot. Among them, his garments dishevelled, and a withering garland
+falling from his brow, was an old acquaintance, Calphurnius, the son of
+the Perfect, who with maudlin affection embraced him and exclaimed:--
+
+"Friend of my soul, where hast thou hidden thyself? Our wine parties
+lack half their zest, since thou hast turned anchorite. Come, pledge our
+ancient friendship in a goblet of Falernian. The wine shop of Turbo, the
+ex-gladiator, is near at hand."
+
+"You have not turned Christian, have you?" hiccoughed the drunken
+reveller; "no offence, but I heard you had, you know."
+
+Isidorus gave a start. Were his visits to the Catacomb known to this
+fashionable fop? Were they a matter of sport to him and his boon
+companions? Was he to be laughed out of his nascent convictions by these
+empty-headed idlers? No, he determined. He despised the whole crew. But
+he was not the stuff out of which martyrs are made, and he lacked the
+courage to confess to this gilded butterfly, his as yet faltering
+feeling towards Christianity.
+
+"Who says I am?" he asked, anxious to test his knowledge on the subject.
+
+"Who says so? I don't know. Why everybody," was the rather vague reply.
+
+"You don't know what you are talking about, man," said the Greek, with a
+forced laugh. "Go home and sleep off your carouse."
+
+"All right. I told them so. The Christians, indeed, the vermin! Come to
+the Baths of Caracalla at noon to-morrow and I'll tell you all about
+it."
+
+Isidorus went to his lodgings and retired to his couch, but not to
+slumber. He was like a boat drifting rudderless upon the sea, the sport
+of every wind that blew. He had no strength of will, no fixedness of
+purpose, no depth of conviction. His susceptible disposition was easily
+moved to generous impulses and even to noble aspirations, yet he had no
+moral firmness. He is portrayed to the life by the words of the great
+Teacher, "He that received the seed into stony places, the same is he
+that heareth the Word, and anon, with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not
+root in himself, but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or
+persecution ariseth because of the Word, bye-and-bye he is offended."
+
+"Did his boon companions," he questioned, "suspect that any serious
+convictions had penetrated beneath his light and careless exterior?" All
+his good resolutions had begun like wax in a furnace to melt and give
+way at the sneer and jeer of the shallow fool from whom he had just
+parted--a creature whom in his inmost heart he despised. Strange
+contradiction of human nature! Like the epicurean poet, he saw and
+approved the better way and yet he followed the worse.[32] He seemed to
+gain in the few casual words he had heard, a glimpse of the
+possibilities of persecution which menaced him if faithful to his
+convictions, and he had act moral fibre enough to encounter them. And
+yet his conscience stung and tortured him as he tossed upon his restless
+couch. Toward morning he fell asleep and it was broad day when he awoke.
+His reflections were as different from those with which he fell asleep
+as the brilliant daylight was from the gloomy shadows of night. The air
+was full of the busy hum of life. Water sellers and fruit pedlers and
+the like were crying "_Aqua Gelata_" "Fresh Figs," and "White wine and
+red." Cohorts of soldiers were clattering in squadrons, through the
+streets, the sunlight glittering on their spearpoints and on the bosses
+of their shields and armour. Jet black Nubian slaves, clad in snowy
+white, were bearing in gold-adorned _lectic[ae]_ or palanquins, proud
+patrician dames, robed in saffron and purple, to visit the shops of the
+jewellers and silk mercers. Senators and civic officials were flocking
+to the Forum with their murmuring crowd of clients. Gilded youths were
+hastening to the schools of the rhetoricians or of the gladiators, both
+alike deemed necessary instructors of these pinks of fashion. The
+streets and squares were a perfect kaleidoscope of colour and
+movement--an eddying throng, on business or on pleasure bent.
+
+The stir and animation of the scene dispelled all serious thoughts from
+the mind of the frivolous Greek. He plunged like a strong swimmer into
+the stream of eager busy life surging through the streets. He was one of
+the gayest of the gay, ready with his laugh and joke as he met his
+youthful comrades.
+
+"Ho, Rufus, whither away in such mad haste," he cried as he saw a young
+officer of the 12th Legion dashing past in his chariot, driving with
+admirable skill two milk-white steeds through the crowded streets.
+
+"Oh! are you there? Where have you hidden yourself for the last month?"
+exclaimed Rufus, as he sharply reined up his steeds. "To the Baths of
+Caracalla; will you go?"
+
+"Yes, very gladly," said Isidorus, stepping upon the low platform of the
+open bronze chariot. "I have been beyond the Po, on a special service--a
+barbarous region. No baths, circus, or games like those of Rome."
+
+"There is but one Rome," said the fiery young Hotspur, "but I am
+beginning to hate it. I am fairly rusting with idleness and long for
+active service--whether amid Libyian sands or Pannonian forests, I care
+not."
+
+"It seems to me," replied the effeminate Greek, "that I could console
+myself with your horses and chariot--the coursers of Achilles were not
+more swift--and with the delights which Rome and its fair dames are
+eager to lavish on that favourite of fortune, Ligurius Rufus."
+
+"_Vanitas vanitatis_," yawned the youth. "Life is a tremendous bore. I
+was made for action, for conquest, for state craft; but under this
+despotism of the C[ae]sars, we are all slaves together. You and I fare a
+little better than that Nubian porter yonder, that is all."
+
+"Yet you seem to bear your bondage very comfortably," laughed the
+light-hearted Greek, "and had I your fortune, so would I."
+
+"Mehercule! the fetters gall though they be golden," ejaculated the
+soldier, lashing his steeds into swifter flight, as if to give vent to
+his nervous excitement. "I plunge into folly to forget that I am a
+slave. Lost a hundred thousand sesterces at dice last night. The empire
+is hurrying to chaos. There are no paths of honour and ambition open to
+a man. One must crouch like a hound or crawl like a serpent to win
+advancement in the state. I tell you the degenerate Romans of to-day are
+an effete and worn out race. The rude Dacians beyond the Tiber possess
+more of the hardy virtues of the founders of the Republic than the
+craven creatures who crawl about the feet of the modern Colossi, who
+bestride the world and are worshipped almost as gods. And unless Rome
+mends her ways they will be the masters of the Empire yet."
+
+"One would think you were Cato the Censor," laughed the Greek. "For my
+part, I think the best philosophy is that of my wise countryman,
+Epicurus--'to take the times as they come, and make the most of them.'
+But here we are at the Therm[ae]."
+
+Giving his horses to one of the innumerable grooms belonging to the
+establishment, Rufus and his friend disappeared under the lofty arched
+entrance of the stately Baths of Caracalla.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[32]  Video, proboque meliora,
+      Deterioraque sequor.--_Hor._
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+AT THE BATHS.
+
+
+Nothing can give one a more striking conception of Roman life under the
+Empire than the size, number, and magnificence of the public baths.
+Those of Caracalla are a typical example. They covered an area of
+fifteen hundred by twelve hundred and fifty feet, the surrounding
+grounds being a mile in circumference. They formed a perfect wilderness
+of stately halls, and corridors, and chambers, the very mouldering
+remains of which strike one with astonishment. Of this very structure,
+the poet Shelley, in the preface of his "Prometheus Unbound," remarks:
+"This poem was chiefly written upon the mountainous ruins of the Baths
+of Caracalla, among the flowery glades and thickets of odoriferous
+blossoming trees, which are extended in ever-widening labyrinths upon
+its immense platforms, and dizzy arches suspended in the air." Piers of
+sold masonry soar aloft like towers, on the summit of which good-sized
+trees are growing. Climbing one of those massive towers, the present
+writer enjoyed a glorious sunset-view of the mighty maze, of the
+crumbling ruins which rose like stranded wrecks above the sea of verdure
+all around, and of the far spreading and desolate Campagna.
+
+The great hypocausts, or subterranean furnaces, can be still examined,
+as also the caleducts in the walls for hot air, and the metal pipes for
+hot and cold water. The baths were supplied by an aqueduct constructed
+for that purpose, the arches of which may be seen bestriding the
+Campagna for a distance of fourteen miles from the city. There were hot,
+and cold, and tepid baths, _caldaria_, or sweating chambers,
+_frigidaria_, or cooling rooms, _unctoria_, or anointing rooms, and many
+others sufficient to accommodate sixteen hundred bathers at once. There
+were also a vast gymnasium for exercise, a _stadium_, or race-course,
+and a _pinacotheca_, or art gallery. Here were found the famous Farnese
+Bull, the largest group of ancient statuary extant, and many _chefs
+d'oeuvre_ of classic sculpture and mosaics.
+
+The Baths of Diocletian, built by the labours of the Christians during
+the last great persecution, one authority says, were twice as large, and
+could accommodate eighteen thousand bathers in a day, but that seems
+incredible. One of its great halls, a hundred yards by thirty in area,
+and thirty yards high, was converted by Michael Angelo into a church. Of
+the remainder, part is used as a monastery, part as barracks, and part
+as an orphanage, a poor-house, and an asylum for the blind, and much is
+in ruins. At Pompeii is a public bath in perfect preservation, with the
+niches for the clothing, soaps, and unguents of the bathers, and even
+the _strigils_, or bronze instruments for scraping the skin--the same
+after eighteen hundred years as though used but yesterday. By these
+means we are able to reconstruct the outward circumstances of that old
+Roman life, almost as though we had shared its busy movement.
+
+As Ligurius Rufus drew aside the heavy matting of the doorway of the
+Therm[ae], of Caracalla, which then, as now, kept out the summer heat from
+the buildings of Rome, a busy scene burst upon his view. A great hall,
+lighted by openings in the roof, was filled with gay groups of patrician
+Romans, sauntering, chatting, laughing, exchanging news, betting on the
+next races, and settling bets on the last. As the modern clubman goes to
+his club to see the papers and learn the current gossip, so all the
+idlers in Rome came to the baths as to a social exchange, to learn the
+latest bit of court scandal or public news.
+
+"Ho, Calphurnius!" said Rufus, to the now sobered son of the city
+Prefect; "what's in the wind to-day? You know all the mischief that's
+going."
+
+"Sorry I cannot maintain my reputation then. Things are dull as an old
+_strigil_. Oh, by the way," and he beckoned them into a recess behind a
+porphyry pillar, "there is going to be a precious row up at the palace.
+I tell you in confidence. The old vixen, Fausta, has got a new spite
+against the Empress Valeria, whom all the people of the palace love. The
+termagant is not fit to carry water for her bath. She has found some
+mare's nest of a Christian plot,--by the way you are mixed up in it,
+friend Isidorus. I would advise you to have a care. In the fight of
+Pagan against Christian, I fear Valeria will get the worst of it, _dii
+avertant_."
+
+"The palace walls are not glass," laughed Isidorus, "nor have you a
+Dionysius' ear. How know you all this?"
+
+"As if the Roman Prefect did not know what goes on, that he thinks worth
+knowing, in every house in Rome! He has eyes and ears in his pay
+everywhere; and when honest Juba, or Tubal, come with their secret
+intelligence, they are not above accepting double pay and letting me
+into the secret, too. Besides that crafty old vulture Furca was closeted
+with the Prefect for an hour by the clepshydra, and you always smell
+carrion when he is hovering round."
+
+"What is it all about?" asked Rufus. "I am sure Valeria is as much
+beloved by the people as the old termagant Fausta is hated."
+
+"There's the rub--a bit of spiteful jealousy," answered Calphurnius.
+"But when that old basilisk hates, she will find a way to sting."
+
+"But what have I to do with the quarrels of the palace?" asked Isidorus,
+a little anxiously, for he knew not how far he might be compromised by
+the commission he had executed, of which he had felt not a little proud.
+
+"You know best yourself," answered Calphurnius with a laugh. "If you
+have done a service to Valeria or the Christians, you have made an enemy
+of Fausta and the Pagans."
+
+"Is this what you spoke of last night, and promised to explain to-day?"
+asked the Greek.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. I have no very distinct recollection of what I said.
+I had been supping with Rufus here, and some other roystering blades,
+and the Folernian was uncommonly good. Come, _amicus meus_," he went on
+turning to Ligurius, "don't you want revenge for those sesterces you
+lost last night?"
+
+"I don't mind if I do punish you a little," yawned the young soldier.
+"It will kill the time for awhile, at all events."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE GAMING TABLE.
+
+
+Gaming was a perfect passion among the Romans, and indeed among most
+ancient nations. Dice of bone and ivory, like those in use to-day, have
+been found in the tombs of Thebes and Luxor. [AE]schylus and Sophocles
+describe their use four hundred years before Christ, and in an ancient
+Greek picture now before us, a female figure is shown tossing _tali_, or
+gaming cubes, and catching them on the back of her hand, as children now
+play "Jacks." Soldiers from the enforced idleness of much of their time
+and the intense excitement of the rest of it, have in every age been
+addicted to gambling to beguile the _ennui_ of their too ample
+leisure--from those of Alexander down to the raw recruits of to-day. Our
+friend, Ligurius Rufus, had undergone frequent experience of the pains
+and pleasures of this siren vice; but was eager to return to its
+embrace. Such vast estates had been squandered, and great families
+impoverished, and large fortunes often staked upon a single throw of the
+dice--beyond anything that Homburg or Monaco ever saw--that gambling was
+forbidden by successive Roman laws. But when were not the rich able to
+indulge in their favourite vices, even under a much purer Government
+than that of Rome? So even in this place of public resort, were numerous
+alcoves in which stood gaming tables, while money changers--generally
+Jews--had tables near for giving good Roman sesterces in exchange for
+the _oboloi_ or _drachmai_ of Greece, the shekels of Jerusalem, or the
+scarab[ae]us coins of Egypt. Into one of these alcoves the three friends
+now turned, Isidorus promising himself that he would only look on. He
+had been excessively addicted to play, but had, notwithstanding
+occasional success, lost so much money that he had abjured the seductive
+vice, especially since his visit to the Catacomb with his friend
+Faustus, who had urged him to forsake a practice so perilous in itself,
+and so opposed to Christian conduct.
+
+Calphurnius and Rufus sat down to the gaming table, and the Greek stood
+looking on. The gold was placed in two piles on the board. The dice
+rattled, and eager eyes took in at a glance the number of red spots on
+the upper surface. Rufus seemed to have recovered his good fortune.
+Throw after throw was successful.
+
+"That is the _Jadus Venereus_," he exclaimed with exultation, as he made
+the cast that counted highest. "We must have wine and I must be
+toast-master," for so was called the leader of the revels.
+
+The Greek watched with honest interest the play, his eye flashing and
+his pulse quickening under its strange spell. The richest wines of Chios
+and Lesbos were ordered; and as the wine was poured into jewelled
+goblets, he required slight urging to partake of the fragrant vintage of
+the Isles of Greece. The eager play was resumed. The Greek noted each
+practised turn of the wrist and cast of the dice--his eye kindling and
+his brain throbbing with the subtle intoxication of both the game and
+the wine.
+
+"I've won enough," said Rufus, "I've got back my own, and more. I don't
+want to ruin you, my good fellow," and he positively declined to play
+any more. His honest nature recoiled from taking that for which he gave
+no value, beyond recouping his previous losses.
+
+"Will you try a cast," he added, turning to Isidorus. "Our friend has
+lots of money to lose?" and he lounged away to watch the game of ball in
+the Gymnasium.
+
+"Yes, take a turn, my luck is wretched to-day!" exclaimed Calphurnius.
+"Come, I will stake that pile of gold on a single cast."
+
+The Greek's whole frame was tingling with excitement--yet he was
+withheld by some lingering restraint of his promise to Faustus to
+abandon play. Calphurnius again rattled the dice, the cast was a
+complete blank--the worst possible combination.
+
+"'Twas lucky for me you were not playing then," he said, laughing; "but
+I'll risk another if you will."
+
+"It must only be for a small stake--a single sesterce," said the
+infatuated youth, quaffing a goblet of wine. "I have given up gambling."
+
+"All right," said his friend, "it's only for amusement that I play," and
+he cast again, and laughing paid over his forfeit.
+
+Isidorus continued to win, each time taking a sip of the strong heady
+wine. The baleful enchantment was upon him.
+
+"Double the stakes!" he cried.
+
+"I thought you would tire of our playing like slaves with jackstones,"
+replied the cool-headed Calphurnius. "This is something like play," he
+continued, as they doubled every time, till the stakes were soon
+enormous. The tide of fortune now turned; but the Greek had become
+perfectly reckless. Conscience was dead, a demon greed for gain had
+taken possession of his soul, the gaming-madness surged through his
+brain. He doubled and redoubled his stakes, till before he rose he had
+lost even the gold received from Valeria the night before, and was
+beggared to his last denarius. With blood-shot eyes and staggering gait
+he reeled away from the table, his handsome features convulsed with rage
+and wicked imprecations pouring from his lips.
+
+"Don't be so vexed about it, man," said his tormentor, for so he
+regarded Calphurnius. "Better luck to-morrow. Here I'll lend you enough
+to set you up. Let us have a bath, we both of us need it to quiet our
+nerves."
+
+Isidorus, in his maudlin intoxication, accepted the offer, and declared,
+with much idle babble, that there was more money where that which he had
+lost came from--that his services were too valuable to the state to be
+overlooked--and that he knew a thing or two--that he could tell some
+secrets, if he would--and much more to the same purpose.
+
+This was just what Calphurnius wanted. He had been set on by his father,
+the Prefect Naso to worm from the Greek the secrets of the Palace and
+the Catacomb, and this by a series of wheedling questions he completely
+succeeded in doing. With some difficulty he got his victim home after he
+had extorted from him all that he cared to know. When Isidorus awoke
+next morning it was with feelings of intense disgust with himself and
+with all the world. He felt that he had played the fool, but how far he
+knew not. He remembered that he had lost all his money, yet he found a
+few coins in his purse. He felt that he had forfeited the confidence of
+his new patron Adauctus, of the Empress, and even was undeserving of the
+gratitude or respect of the beautiful freed-woman, Callirho[e:], whose
+father he had restored. He had learned that there was a plot on foot
+against them all. Indeed he had an impression that he had somehow added
+to their peril by his indiscreet revelations. He determined to warn them
+of their danger and try to save them.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"IN PERICULIS TUTUS."
+
+
+With this purpose the young Greek assuming his most decorous and sober
+attire, proceeded to what would now be called the bureau of the
+Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was situated near the Forum, in the
+cloister around which were grouped the shops of the _argentarii_ and
+_mensarii_, or private and public bankers of Rome. It held about the
+same relation to those that the Treasury Department at New York does to
+the bankers' offices and Gold Board in Wall Street. On every side were
+evidences of the concentrated wealth and power of the august mistress of
+the world. A vast granite building, as strong and solid as a prison, was
+before him. Roman sentinels paced the street, hugging the wall to share
+the protection from the noontide heat offered by its grateful shade.
+Convoys of specie, guarded by cohorts of soldiers with unsheathed
+swords, were continually arriving or departing. Gangs of sturdy porters,
+naked to the waist, were conveying the heavy iron-bound coffers to and
+from the vaults. Officers were counting the tallies and checking the
+vouchers, giving and accepting receipts. Publicans and tax farmers of
+many hues and varied garbs were there from many distant climes--the
+swart Egyptian, the olive Syrian, the graceful Greek, the pale-faced
+yellow-haired German or Briton. But most prominent of all, everywhere
+was seen the pushing, aggressive, keen-eyed, hook-nosed Jew, who in
+every age and every land seems to have had a genius for finance,
+banking, and the handling of money.
+
+From the hundred provinces of Rome the tribute money wrung from wretched
+peasants, to support Imperial luxury, to maintain the conquering
+legions, to pay for the largess of corn that fed the Roman plebs, and
+for the _f[e>]tes_ of the circus that amused them, and to carry on the
+vast governmental administration of the Empire--all poured into this
+greatest focus of moneyed wealth in the world. Like Daniel in Babylon,
+Adauctus, the Christian, was set over all this treasure, "because an
+excellent spirit was in him, forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was
+there any error or fault found in him." The Emperors, when amid
+prevailing corruption, extortion, and fraud, they found an honest
+servant and able administrator, winked pretty hard at his private
+opinions, so long as they did not conflict with his duty to the State.
+Hence, from the days of St. Paul, we find that enrolled among the
+fellowship of Christ's Church were "they of C[ae]sar's household;" and
+among the epitaphs of the Catacombs we find frequent examples of
+Christians of lofty rank, and holding important offices of trust; as for
+instance: "Secretary of the Patrician Order," "Sergeant of the
+Exchequer," "Prefect of the City," "Ex-Qu[ae]stor of the Sacred Palace,"
+"Master of the Imperial Household," and the like.
+
+Making his way to the private apartment, or office of Adauctus, the
+Greek found him dictating despatches to a secretary. At a nod from his
+chief, the secretary retired, and Adauctus, with warm interest,
+addressed Isidorus in the words:
+
+"Right welcome, after your successful quest. You have skilfully
+performed a difficult task. The Empress is greatly gratified, and you
+may count your fortune as good as made."
+
+"Your Excellency is too kind," replied the Greek, with a graceful
+salutation; "I feel that I do not deserve your praise."
+
+"Your modesty, my friend," remarked Adauctus with a smile, "shall not
+prevent your promotion, It is too rare a gift not to be encouraged."
+
+"I have come, your Excellency," said Isidorus, with some degree of
+trepidation, "upon a business that nearly concerns yourself, and some to
+whom you wish well."
+
+"It is very good of you," Adauctus calmly replied, "but I do not think
+you can give me any information that I do not already possess."
+
+"I am in duty bound," continued the Greek, "to reveal to your
+Excellency, what is a secret which is sedulously kept from your
+knowledge. You have enemies who have vowed your destruction--the
+Princess Fausta, Furca, the arch-priest of Cybele, and the Prefect Naso.
+They menace also the Empresses Prisca and Valeria, and others in high
+places suspected of Christianity."
+
+"Is that all you can tell me?" asked Adauctus, with a smile. "Look
+you," and unlocking an ivory cabinet, he took out a wax-covered tablet
+on which were inscribed the names of several other conspirators against
+his life, with the particulars of their plots.
+
+"I have not sought one of these disclosures," he went on, "yet they have
+come to me from trustworthy sources; sometimes from men who are
+themselves Pagan, yet with honest souls that recoil from treachery and
+murder."
+
+"And you know all this and remain thus calm!" exclaimed the Greek in
+amazement.
+
+"With such a sword of Damocles hanging over _my_ head, I am sure I could
+neither eat nor sleep."
+
+"Have you never read the words," asked Adauctus solemnly, "'The very
+hairs of your head are all numbered?' and not a sparrow shall fall
+without your Father's notice. Have you never read of righteous Daniel
+whom his enemies cast into the lions' den, and how God shut the lions'
+mouths that they did him no harm. You have seen the pictured story in
+the Catacombs. So will my God deliver me from the mouth of the lion,"
+and a look of heroic faith transfigured his face--"or," he whispered
+lower, but with an expression of even more utter trust, "or give a
+greater victory and take me to Himself."
+
+"Such stoical philosophy, my master," said the Greek with bated breath,
+"neither Zeno nor Seneca ever taught."
+
+"Nay," said the noble Roman, "it is not stoicism, it is faith. Not in
+the Porch or Academy is this holy teaching learned, but in the school of
+Jesus Christ."
+
+"Oh, wretched coward that I am!" cried the Greek, with an impassioned
+aspiration after a moral courage which he felt almost beyond his
+comprehension, "would that I had such faith."
+
+"Seek it, my brother," said Adauctus solemnly, "where alone it may be
+found, at the Cross of Christ. Whoso apprehends in his soul the meaning
+of the Great Sacrifice, will thenceforth count not his life dear unto
+him for the testimony of Jesus."
+
+"But is the way of the Cross such a thorny, bloodstained path?" asked
+the Greek, with quavering voice. "Are those noble souls, the highborn
+and beautiful Valeria, the good and gentle Callirho[e:], exposed to such
+appalling perils?"
+
+"We live in troublous times," answered Adauctus. "Christ came not to
+send peace on the earth but a sword. Whoso will save his life by
+cowardice and treachery shall basely lose it. Whoso will lose it for
+Christ's sake shall gloriously and forever find it!"
+
+These words burned into the heart and brain of the craven Greek, and he
+winced and shrank beneath them as if a hot iron were searing his
+quivering flesh.
+
+"But we must hope for the best," went on Adauctus more cheerfully. "We
+must take every precaution. Life and liberty are glorious gifts. We may
+not rashly imperil them. I trust that our august mistress, standing so
+near the throne, stands in no peculiar peril; and you may be sure her
+power will be used for the protection of her friends. So," he added with
+a laugh of keen intelligence, "if thou hast any special interest in the
+fair Callirho[e:], be sure she enjoys the most potent patronage in Rome."
+
+"But you, take you no precaution for yourself?" entreated the Greek.
+"You know not the bitterness of the jealousy and hate of your enemies."
+
+"Oh, yes, I do," the Imperial treasurer calmly replied, "As for me, my
+work is here. By ruling righteously and dealing justly I can prevent
+much fraud, and wrong, and suffering. I can shield the innocent and
+frustrate the villany of public thieves--and there are many such in the
+high places of this degenerate city. Our heroic ancestors decreed that
+we must never dispair of our country. But I confess, were it not for
+that salt of Christian faith that preserves the old Roman world, I
+believe it would sink into moral putrescence. It is this divine leaven
+which alone can leaven the whole mass."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE MIDNIGHT PLOT.
+
+
+The scene of our story is now transferred to the Palace of the Emperor
+Galerius, one of the most sumptuous of the group of marble buildings
+which crowned the Palatine Hill. It is the hour of midnight; and in one
+of the most private chambers of the palace a secret conspiracy is in
+progress, which has for its object the destruction of the
+Christians--especially of those high in rank and influence. The lamps
+in the aula and vestibule burned dimly, and, in iron sockets along the
+outside of the palace walls, flared and smoked torches made of tow
+covered with a coating of clay or plaster.[33]
+
+Fausta, the mother of Galerius, and Furca, the high-priest of Cybele,
+were already conferring upon their secret plot. With them was Black
+Juba, who had just returned from gathering, at "the witching hour of
+night," upon the unhallowed ground set apart for the burning of the
+dead, certain baleful plants--wolf's bane, bitter briony, and
+aconite--which she used in wicked spells and incantations. In her native
+Nubia she had an evil reputation as a sorceress, and in Rome she still
+carried on by stealth her nefarious art. It was hinted, indeed, in the
+palace, that by her subtle, deadly potions she fulfilled her own
+prophecies of ill against the objects of the hatred of her employers.
+
+"'Tis certain," hissed through her teeth the spiteful old Fausta, while
+murder gleamed from her sloe-black eyes, "that Galerius will not include
+in the Imperial rescript that painted doll, Valeria. She exerts
+unbounded fascination over him. It must be the spell of her false
+religion."
+
+"The spell of her beauty and grace, rather," answered Furca, with a
+grin.
+
+"What! Are you duped by her wiles, too?" asked Fausta, with bitterness.
+
+"No; I hate her all the more," said the priest; "but I cannot close my
+eyes to what every one sees."
+
+"It is something that I, at least, do not see," muttered the withered
+crone, whose own harsh features seemed the very incarnation of hatred
+and cruelty. "If we cannot get rid of her under the decree," she went
+on, "we can, at least, in a surer but more perilous way. Cunning Juba,
+here, has access to her person; and by her skilled decoctions can make
+her beauty waste, and her life flicker to extinction, like a lamp
+unreplenished with oil."
+
+"Yes, Juba has learned, in the old land of the Nile, some of the dark
+secrets of Egypt," whispered, with bated breath, the dusky African. "But
+it is very perilous to use them. The palace is full of suspicion; and
+that new favourite, Callirho[e:],--how I hate her!--keeps watch over her
+mistress like the wild gazelle of the desert over its mate. It will
+take much gold to pay for the risk."
+
+"Gold thou shalt have to thy heart's content, if thou do but rid me of
+that cockatrice, who has usurped my place in my son's affections,"
+hissed the wicked woman, who still felt a fierce, tiger-like love for
+the soldier-son whom she had trained up like a tiger cub. And Juba
+retired, to await further orders.
+
+"But if she die thus," said Furca, with a malignant gleam in his eyes,
+"she dies alone. What we want is to have her drag others down with
+her--her mother, Prisca; that haughty Adauctus, who holds himself so
+high, and the rest of the accursed Christian brood."
+
+"Yes, that is what we want, if it can be done," said Fausta; "but I fear
+it is impossible. You do not know how headstrong Galerius is in his own
+way; and the more he is opposed, the fiercer he is."
+
+"Here comes Naso," said the arch priest. "He hates the Christians, if he
+does not love the gods. We will hear his counsel."
+
+"Welcome, good Naso," exclaimed Fausta, as the Prefect of the city was
+ushered into the room. "We need your advice in the matter of this edict
+against the Christians: how we may use it as a net to snare the higher
+game of the palace and the Imperial household."
+
+"We must be wary as the weasel, sleepless as the basilisk, deadly as the
+aspic," said Naso, sententiously.
+
+"Just what I have been saying," remarked Furca.
+
+"Methinks we must employ the aspic's secret sting, rather than the
+public edict."
+
+"I declare for the edict," exclaimed with energy the truculent Naso.
+"Let its thunders smite the loftiest as well as the lowly. It will carry
+greater terror, and make the ruin of the Christian party more complete.
+What is the use of lopping off the twigs, when the trunk and main
+branches are unscathed? I possess proof that will doom Adauctus, the
+senator Aurelius, and others who stand higher still. The Christians to
+the lions--every one, say I."
+
+"And so say I," ejaculated Furca, with malicious fervour; "but her
+Excellency thinks that Galerius will interpose to protect one who stands
+near the throne, though she be the chief encouragement of the Christian
+vermin that crawl at her feet."
+
+"Madam, he dare not," exclaimed Naso, with his characteristic gesture of
+clenching his hand as if grasping his sword. "His own crown would stand
+in peril if beneath its shadow he would protect traitors to the State
+and enemies of the gods, however high their station."
+
+"As head of the State," interjected the priest, "he is the champion of
+the gods, and bound to avenge their insulted majesty."
+
+"You know not what he would dare," replied Fausta. "He would defy both
+gods and men, if he took the whim."
+
+"An accusation will be made before me," said Naso, "which not even the
+Emperors can over-look, against the Imperial Consort, Valeria, for
+intriguing with the Christians and bringing their priests to Rome, and
+conniving at their crimes against the State. We will see whether the
+majesty of the Empire or the beauty of a painted butterfly weighs the
+heavier in the scales."
+
+"I will second in private what your accusation demands in public," said
+the implacable Fausta. "Methinks I could die content if I might only
+trample that minion under my feet."
+
+"And I," said Furca, "will menace him with the wrath of the gods if he
+refuse to avenge their wrongs."
+
+"Between us all," added Naso, "it will go hard if we do not crush the
+Christian vermin, even beneath the shadow of the throne."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[33] Such torch-holders may still be seen on the walls of the Palazzo
+Strozzi and in Florence and elsewhere. Torches of the sort we have
+described were purchased by the writer at Pozzuoli, near Naples.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+IN THE TOILS OF THE TEMPTER.
+
+
+In his statement as to the accusation of the Empress before his
+tribunal, Naso, after his manner, took counsel of his truculent desires
+rather than of his cool reason. He had learned from his scapegrace son,
+Calphurnius, that Isidorus had returned to town from executing a
+commission for the Empress, the general purpose of which that hopeful
+youth had extorted from the drunken maunderings of the inconstant and
+unhappy Greek. Naso took it for granted, from his previous acquaintance
+with human nature of the baser sort, that Isidorus was trying to serve
+two masters, and that while acting as the agent of Valeria he would be
+willing to betray her secrets. Unaware of his vacillation of character
+and of his transient impulses toward Christianity, he further believed
+that the supple Greek, in accordance with his compact, would act as
+public accuser of the Christians. He had impressed upon Calphurnius, who
+was very prompt to learn the lesson, that it was of the utmost
+importance to bring the Greek under his personal influence and control,
+and especially to induce him to come again to the tribunal of the
+Prefect in the Forum.
+
+"We must keep our thumb on him. We can use him to our advantage," said
+the Prefect to his son.
+
+"I think I have him under a screw that will extort from him whatever you
+wish," replied the hopeful youth. "He owes me money, and he shall pay
+good interest on the loan. He is not the material of which heroes are
+made, like that young Christian who suffered martyrdom, as they call it,
+a few weeks ago."
+
+"Well, give your screw another turn," said Naso with a hideous chuckle.
+"That's the way I do when I have them on the rack. Keep him in debt.
+Lure him on. Make him lose money at dice and lend him more. We will
+wring his heart-strings by-and-bye. If we can only secure the death of
+Adauctus and some of his wealthy friends, their fair estates will help
+to line our purses, for the Emperors cannot leave such a zealous servant
+as the Prefect Naso unrewarded," and this well matched pair--the
+offspring of the corruption and cruelty of the Empire--parted, each
+intent on his purposes of evil.
+
+The young scapegrace, Calphurnius--young in years, but old in
+vice--followed only too successfully this Satanic advice. He attached
+himself closely to Isidorus and became his very shadow--his other self.
+He lured him on to ostentatious extravagance of expenditure, often
+allowing him to win large sums at dice to replenish his depleted purse,
+and again winning from him every sesterce, and binding the Greek's
+fortunes more firmly to his own by lending him large sums, yet demanding
+usurious interest. The easy, pleasure-loving nature of Isidorus, intent
+on enjoying the passing hour and shrinking from suffering of body or
+anxiety of mind, made this _descensus Averni_ all the more facile. He
+was thus led to forget all his good resolutions and noble purposes, and
+to plunge into the fashionable follies of the most corrupt society in
+the world. From the maundering remarks which fell from his lips in his
+fits of drunkenness, for he rapidly lapsed into this baneful vice,
+Calphurnius constructed a monstrous story of treachery which he used to
+create an utter rupture between the Greek and the Christians, alleging
+that he had too irreparably betrayed them to be ever forgiven, and that
+the only way of escaping the doom which menaced them was to throw
+himself into the arms of the party in power. It was with feelings of
+horror that in his rare moments of sober reflection Isidorus realized
+how fast and how far he had drifted from the thoughts, and feelings, and
+purposes of the hour when he knelt, in the Catacomb of Callixtus, at the
+feet of the good presbyter Primitius; or since he returned from Milan
+the restorer to the fair Callirho[e:] of her sire; or even since, a few
+days before, he had conversed with Adauctus and beheld with admiration
+his serenity of spirit under the shadow of persecution and death.
+
+Calphurnius exhausted every art to wring from his lips a legal
+accusation of the Christians, for even the ruthless persecutors wished
+to observe some forms of law in the destruction of their destined
+victims.
+
+"You have already betrayed them beyond reparation," he said, "and you
+may as well obtain the reward. You have told all about your employment
+by Adauctus in a treasonable mission to the Christian sectaries at
+Ravenna and Milan. You have been present at their assemblies at the
+Villa Marcella and in the Catacombs. A short hand notary[34] has taken
+down every word you said, and it shall be used against you unless you
+turn evidence for the State, and save yourself by bringing its enemies
+to justice."
+
+"Wretch!" cried the exasperated Greek. "Cease to torment me! 'Tis you
+who have tempted me to this perfidy, and now you seek to goad me to
+perdition. The Christians are no traitors to the State, and you know
+it."
+
+"The edict of the Emperors declares that they are," said Calphurnius,
+with a sneer, "perhaps you can persuade their Divine Majesties that they
+are mistaken."
+
+"What would you? What further infamy would you have me commit?"
+exclaimed the tortured Isidorus.
+
+"Only declare before the Prefect what you have already divulged to me.
+By refusing you only imperil yourself," replied his tormentor.
+
+"I consent," moaned the craven-hearted Greek, and he went on with a
+shudder, "I am double-dyed in infamy already. I can acquire no deeper
+stain."
+
+"'Tut, man! don't be a fool! Rome can pay her servants well. You will
+soon be well rewarded," and like an incarnate Diabolus, the accuser of
+the brethren proceeded to earn, as another Judas, the wages of iniquity
+by betraying innocent blood.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[34] These tachugraphoi were in common employment in the courts, and the
+sermons of Chrysostom were also reported by their skill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE PLOT THICKENS.
+
+
+Isidorus reluctantly accompanied Calphurnius to the tribunal of the
+Prefect; and there, partly through intimidation, partly through
+cajolery, he gave such information as to his expedition to Ravenna and
+Milan as the Prefect chose to ask. This was tortured, by that
+unscrupulous officer, into an accusation against the Empress Valeria of
+conspiracy with the Chancellor, Adauctus, and others of the Christian
+sect, against the worship of the gods of Rome, and so, constructively,
+of treason against the State. This indictment--_accusatio_, as it was
+technically called was duly formulated, and attested under the seal of
+the Prefect's Court. Naso, the Prefect, and Furca, the priest, found a
+congenial task in submitting the document to the Emperor Galerius, and
+asking his authority to proceed against the accused. They visited the
+palace at an hour when it had been arranged that the Emperor's evil
+genius, the cruel Fausta, should be with him, to exert her malign
+influence in procuring the downfall of the object of her malice--the
+Empress Valeria--and the destruction of the Christian sect. "The
+insulted gods appeal to your Divine Majesty for protection, and for the
+punishment of the atheists who despise their worship and defy their
+power," began the high-priest of Cybele, seeking to work upon the
+superstition of the Illyrian herdsman, raised to the Imperial purple.
+
+"Well, my worthy friend," replied the Emperor in a bantering tone, "what
+is the matter now. Has any one been poaching on your preserves?"
+
+"This is not a matter of private concern, Your Majesty," remarked the
+Prefect gravely. "It touches the welfare of the State and the stability
+of your throne."
+
+"Yes, and your personal and domestic honour, too," whispered Fausta in
+his ear.
+
+"It must be something pretty comprehensive to do all that. Come, out
+with it at once," laughed the Emperor.
+
+Thus adjured, Furca began to recount the insults offered to the gods by
+the Christians, and, especially, that the Empress no longer attended
+their public festivals.
+
+"Oh yes, I understand," said the Emperor, with a yawn, "your craft is in
+danger. The offerings at your altars are falling off; and we all know
+where _they_ went. The gods are all alike to me; I believe in none of
+them."
+
+"But they are necessary, to keep the mob in subjection," said Naso.
+"Some are amused with their pageants, and others are awed by menaces of
+their wrath."
+
+"Yes, I grant you, they are of some use for that; and that is all they
+are good for," replied this ancient Agnostic.
+
+"But the Christians are traitors to the State," continued the Prefect;
+"rank sedition-mongers. They are secretly sworn to serve another Lord
+than the C[ae]sars, and they are ceaselessly striving to undermine your
+Imperial Majesty's authority."
+
+"You do well," continued the cruel Galerius, a fire of deadly hate
+burning in his eyes, "to exterminate that accursed vermin, wherever
+found. Burn, crucify, torture, as you will."
+
+"And the estates of the rebels, they escheat to the temples of the
+insulted gods?" asked the priest, with hungry eyes.
+
+"Nay, to the State, I think," laughed the Emperor. "Is it not so, good
+Naso?"
+
+"Half to the State and half to the _delator_, or accuser," answered that
+worthy, learned in the law of pillage.
+
+"Let not the wolves fall out about the prey," said the Emperor, with a
+sneer; "only make sure work."
+
+"Be so good then, Your Majesty, as to affix your seal to these decrees
+of death. With such high officers as Adauctus and Aurelius my authority
+as Prefect is not sufficient."
+
+"And the Empress Valeria; she, too, as traitor to your person and crown,
+is included in the decree," insinuated, in a wheedling tone, the crafty
+priest.
+
+"Base hound," roared the Emperor, laying his hand upon his sword;
+"breathe but the name of the Empress again, and I will pluck thy vile
+tongue from thy throat."
+
+"Nay, Your Majesty," said the crafty Fausta, while the abject priest
+cowered like a whipped cur; "'tis but his excess of zeal for Your
+Majesty's honour, which I fear the Empress betrays."
+
+"Madam," said Galerius, sternly, "I am the guardian of my own honour.
+What the Christians are, I neither know nor care. What the Empress is, I
+know--the noblest soul that breathes in Rome. Who wags his tongue
+against her shall be given to the crows and kites. _Dixi Fiat_--I have
+spoken--so let it be," and his terrible frown, as he stalked from the
+room, showed that he meant what he said.
+
+The three conspirators, for a moment, stared at each other in
+consternation. Then the wily Fausta faltered out, "Said I not, he would
+defy both gods and men? We must do by stealth what we cannot do by
+force. Juba must ply her most secret and most deadly arts. I have
+certain subtle spells myself; and if mortal hate can give them power, I
+will make her beauty waste away like a fading flower, and her strength
+wane like a dying lamp."
+
+"'Tis a dangerous game," replied Naso. "Be wary how you play it. As for
+me, armed with this edict, I will strike at mine ancient foe, for whom I
+long have nursed a bitter spite. Curse him! I am tired of hearing him
+called Adauctus the Just. He held me to such a strict account that I had
+to make a full return of all the fines and mulcts paid in, without
+taking the toll which is my right." And he departed to gratify his
+double passion of revenge and greed.
+
+It may seem strange that such a truculent monster as Galerius, of whom,
+in his later days, his Christian subjects were wont to say that "he
+never supped without human blood--_Nec unquam sine cruore humano
+coenabat,_"[35]--should be so under the spell of his Christian wife. But
+the statement is corroborated by the records of history, and by the
+philosophy of the human mind. There is a power in moral goodness that
+can awe the rudest natures, a winsome spell that can subdue the hardest
+hearts. It was the story of Una and the Lion, of Beauty and the Beast
+over again; and one of the severest trials for a Christian wife in those
+days of the struggle between Christianity and Paganism for the mastery
+of the world, was that of being allied to a pagan husband. Tertullian,
+in the third century, thus describes the difficulties which a Christian
+woman married to an idolater must encounter in her religious life:
+
+"At the time for worship the husband will appoint the use of the bath;
+when a fast is to be observed he will invite company to a feast When she
+would bestow alms, both safe and cellar are closed against her. What
+heathen will suffer his wife to attend the nightly meetings of the
+Church, the slandered Supper of the Lord, to visit the sick even in the
+poorest hovels, to kiss the martyrs' chains in prison, to rise in the
+night for prayer, to show hospitality to stranger brethren?"[36]
+
+In time of persecution, or in the case of persons of such exalted rank
+as that of Valeria, the difficulty of adorning a Christian life, amid
+their pagan surroundings, was all the greater. Yet not a word of scandal
+has been breathed upon the character of the wife of the arch persecutor
+of the Christians; and even the sneering pen of Gibbon has only words of
+commendation for the Christian Empress who herself under subsequent
+persecution, remained steadfast even unto death.
+
+The beauty and dignity of Christian wedlock in an age of persecution
+and strife are nobly expressed by Tertullian in the following passage,
+addressed to his own wife: "How can I paint the happiness," he exclaims,
+"of a marriage which the Church ratines, the Sacrament confirms, the
+benediction seals, angels announce, and our heavenly Father declares
+valid! What a union of two believers--one hope, one vow, one discipline,
+one worship! They are brother and sister, two fellow-servants, one
+spirit and one flesh. They pray together, fast together, exhort and
+support one another. They go together to the house of God, and to the
+table of the Lord. They share each other's trials, persecutions, and
+joys. Neither avoids, nor hides anything from the other. They delight to
+visit the sick, succour the needy, and daily to lay their offerings
+before the altar without scruple, and without constraint. They do not
+need to keep the sign of the cross hidden, nor to express secretly their
+Christian joy, nor to receive by stealth the eucharist. They join in
+psalms and hymns, and strive who best can praise God. Christ rejoices at
+the sight, and sends His peace upon them. Where two are in His name He
+also is; and where He is, there evil cannot come."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[35] Lactantius, _De Mortibus Persecutorum._
+
+[36] Tertull, _Ad Uzorem_, ii. 8.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A CRIME PREVENTED.
+
+
+The deadly malice of Fausta, Furca, and Naso towards the Empress
+Valeria, foiled in its attempt to invoke upon her the penalties of the
+edict against the Christians, sought, by secret means, to procure her
+death. Juba, the black slave, was heavily bribed to prepare some of her
+most subtle poisons and procure their administration. But here a
+difficulty presented itself, and it is a striking illustration of the
+corruption of the Empire and of the daily peril in which the inhabitants
+of the Imperial palace dwelt--a state of peril which finds its modern
+analogue only in the continual menace under which the Czar of all the
+Russias lives, with a sword of Damocles suspended by a single hair above
+his head. Such was the atmosphere of suspicion which pervaded the whole
+palace, such the dread of assassination or of poisoning, that trusty
+guards and officers swarmed in the ante-chambers and prevented access to
+the members of the Imperial family except under the most rigid
+precautions of safety; and a special officer was appointed, whose duty,
+as his title of _Pr[ae]gustalor_ implies, was to taste every kind of food
+or drink provided for the Imperial table. Regard for his personal safety
+was, of course, a guarantee that the utmost precautions were observed in
+preparing the daily food of the Imperial household. Juba in vain
+attempted to bribe some of the kitchen scullions and cooks to mix with
+the savoury viands designed for the use of Valeria, who generally
+lunched in her private apartments, a potent poison. They accepted,
+indeed, her bribes, but prudently declined to carry out their part of
+the agreement, well knowing that she dare not venture to criminate
+herself by an open rupture with them.
+
+At length she resolved on attempting a more subtle but less certain mode
+of administering a deadly drug. While in the service of a priest of Isis
+in Egypt, she had extorted or cajoled from an Abyssinian slave in his
+service certain dark secrets, learned it was said by the Queen of Sheba
+from Solomon, and handed down from age to age as the esoteric lore of
+the realm. One of these was the preparation of a volatile poison so
+subtle and powerful that its mere inhalation was of deadly potency. As a
+means of conveying this to her victim, and at the same time of
+disguising the pungent aromatic odour, a basket of flowers which she had
+plentifully sprinkled with the deadly poison was sent to the Empress. To
+make assurance doubly sure, she concealed among the flowers one of
+those beautiful but deadly asps, such as that from the bite of which the
+dusky Queen of Egypt, the wanton Cleopatra, died. This, for purposes
+connected with her nefarious arts, she had procured as what evil thing
+could not be procured?--from the dealers in deadly drugs, philtres, and
+potions in the crowded Ghetto of Rome.
+
+To ensure the conveyance of the deadly gift to the hands of Valeria
+herself, Juba invented the fiction that they were a thankoffering from
+the young Greek, Isidorus, to his Imperial patroness for favours
+received. With her characteristic cunning Juba had possessed herself of
+the secret of his services rendered to the Empress, and of the interest
+felt in him by her august mistress.
+
+Valeria was in her _boudoir_ with her favourite and now inseparable
+Callirho[e:], as her tire woman, dressing her hair, when the fatal missive
+arrived. As Callirho[e:] received the basket from the hands of Juba, the
+eyes of the slave gleamed with the deadly hate of a basilisk, and she
+muttered as she turned away--
+
+"May the curse of Isis rest on them both. My fine lady has driven black
+Juba from the tiring room of the Empress. May she now share her fate,"
+and, like a sable Atropos, she glided from the chamber with stealthy and
+cat-like tread.
+
+"Oh! what fresh and fragrant flowers," exclaimed the Empress Valeria, as
+she bent over them, "see how the dew is yet fresh upon their petals."
+Here she raised the basket so as more fully to inhale their fragrance.
+At that moment the concealed and deadly asp whose dark green and glossy
+skin had prevented its detection among the acanthus and lily leaves,
+seized, with his envenomed fang, the damask cheek of the fair Valeria,
+and for a moment clung firmly there.
+
+"God, save her!" exclaimed Callirho[e:], who in a moment recognized the
+cruel aspic, of which, as a child, she had been often warned in her
+native Antioch, and with an eager gesture she flung the venomous reptile
+to the ground and crushed its head beneath her sandal's heel. On the
+quick instinct of the moment and without stopping to think of the
+consequences to herself, she threw her arms about her Imperial mistress'
+neck, and pressing her lips to her cheek, sucked the venom from the yet
+bleeding wound.
+
+The cry of the Empress as the little serpent stung her cheek brought a
+swarm of attendants and slaves into the room, among them black Juba and
+the officer of the guard who was responsible for the Empress' safety.
+Valeria had fainted and lay pale as ashes on her couch, a crimson stream
+flowing from her cheek.
+
+"Dear heart!" exclaimed Juba, with an ostentatious exhibition of
+well-feigned grief, "let her inhale this fragrant elixir. It is a potent
+restorative in such deadly faints," and she attempted to complete her
+desperate crime by thrusting the poisonous perfume under Valeria's
+nostrils.
+
+"Who was last in the presence before this strange accident--if it be an
+accident--occurred?" demanded the officer.
+
+"I and Juba, were the only ones," faltered Callirho[e:], when a deathly
+pallor passed over her face, and with a convulsive shudder she fell
+writhing on the ground.
+
+"You are under arrest," said the officer to. Juba, and then to a soldier
+of the guard, "Go, seize and seal up her effects--everything she has;
+and you," turning to another, "send at once the court physician."
+
+The attendants meanwhile were fanning and sprinkling with water the
+seemingly inanimate forms of the Empress and Callirho[e:]. When the
+physician came and felt the fluttering pulse and noted the dilated eyes
+of his patients, he pronounced it a case of acrid poisoning and
+promptly ordered antidotes. The Empress, in a few days rallied and
+seemed little the worse beyond a strange pallor which overspread her
+features and an abnormal coldness, almost as of death, which pervaded
+her frame. From these she never fully recovered, but throughout her life
+was known in popular speech as "The White Lady."
+
+Upon Callirho[e:] the effects of the poison were still more serious. By her
+prompt action in sucking the aspic virus from the envenomed wound, she
+had saved the life of her beloved mistress, but at the peril of her own.
+The venom coursed through her veins, kindling the fires of fever in her
+blood. Her dilated eyes shone with unusual brilliance; her speech was
+rapid; her manner urgent; and her emotions and expressions were
+characterized by a strange and unwonted intenseness. The physician in
+answer to the eager questioning of Valeria, gravely shook his head, and
+said that the case was one that baffled his skill--that cure there was
+none for the aspic's poison if absorbed into the system, although as it
+had not in this case been communicated directly to the blood, possibly
+the youth and vigour of the patient might overcome the toxic effect of
+the contagium--so he learnedly discoursed.
+
+"My dear child, you have given your life for mine," exclaimed the
+Empress, throwing her arms around her late enfranchised slave, and
+bedewing her cheek with her tears.
+
+"God grant it be so," said Callirho[e:], with kindling eye. "I would gladly
+die to save you from a sorrow or a pain. I owe you more than life. I owe
+you liberty and a life more precious than my own."
+
+"All that love and skill can do, dear heart, shall be done," said the
+Empress caressingly, "to preserve you to your new-found liberty, and to
+your sire."
+
+"As God wills, dearest lady," answered Callirho[e:], kissing her mistress'
+hand. "In His great love I live or die content. I bless Him every hour
+that He has permitted me to show in some weak way, the love I bear my
+best and dearest earthly friend."
+
+And with such fond converse passed the hours of Valeria's convalescence,
+and of Callirho[e:]'s deepening decline.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE STORM BURSTS.
+
+
+The crafty Juba, when she found herself arrested in _flagrante
+delicto_--in the very act of her attempted crime--determined to use, if
+possible, the fiction she had employed with reference to Isidorus, as a
+means of escape from the very serious dilemma in which she was placed.
+It will be remembered that she had stated, in order to procure the
+acceptance of her fatal gift, that it was a thank-offering from the
+young Greek who had rendered such service to the Empress and Callirho[e:].
+Happy if Valeria had remembered and practised the ancient adage, "_Timeo
+Danaos et dona ferentes._" But suspicion was foreign to her generous
+nature, and even if the wise saw had occurred to her, she would have
+lightly laughed away its cynical suggestion.
+
+When the treacherous slave was examined as to her share in the attempted
+crime, she stoutly adhered to her fictitious story, and protested that
+she knew nothing of the contents of the basket, but that she had
+received it from Isidorus, and had been well paid for conveying it to
+the Empress without suspicion of any sinister design.
+
+The Greek, when charged with the crime of attempting to procure, by
+poison, the death of the Empress Valeria, manifested the greatest
+astonishment. Summoned before the Qu[ae]stor of the Palace, an officer of
+co-ordinate jurisdiction with the Prefect of the city, he stoutly
+protested his innocence. But all his protestations were regarded by that
+official, as only the very perfection of art--the well-feigned evasions
+of a mendacious Greek. And certainly appearances were very much against
+him. The Prefect Naso, now that he had extorted from him all the
+information he had to give, abandoned him as a worn-out tool and
+divulged to the Qu[ae]stor the damning fact that the Greek by a formal
+document had accused the Empress of treason against the State, and of
+conspiracy with the Christians--for so he represented the confessions
+which, by his diabolical arts, he had wrung from his unhappy victim.
+Confronted by this evidence Isidorus was dumb. He saw the trap into
+which he had been snared, and that by no efforts of his own could he
+extricate himself. He saw, too, the ruin he had brought upon his
+friends, for Naso had procured the immediate arrest of Adauctus,
+Aurelius, and Demetrius, the father of Callirho[e:], and other Christians
+connected with the Imperial household. Callirho[e:] herself was also placed
+under arrest, upon the monstrous accusation of conspiracy with Isidorus
+and Juba to procure the death of the Empress Valeria. One would have
+thought that her self-devotion and almost sacrifice of her life to save
+that of her mistress would have been a sufficient vindication from such
+a charge. But the unreasoning terror of the Emperors and the unreasoning
+hatred of all who bore the Christian name, fostered as these were by the
+machinations and evil suggestions of the Qu[ae]stor of the Palace, the
+Prefect of the city, the arch priest of Cybele, and the cruel, crafty
+Fausta, thirsty for the blood of her victim, rendered possible the
+acceptance of any charge, however improbable. "Any stick will do to beat
+a dog," and any accusation, however absurd, was considered available
+against the Christians.
+
+Even Galerius who, left to himself, would, soldier-like, have braved any
+personal danger, completely lost his judgment at the peril menacing the
+Empress. The tortures of slaves and servants by the perverted tribunals,
+miscalled of justice, fomented by the cruel, crafty priests, and the
+eager greed of Prefect and Qu[ae]stor, caused an outburst of persecution
+against all who bore the Christian name. The estates of Adauctus, and
+Aurelius were expropriated by the persecutors, and as a consequence
+their late possessors were pre-judged to death. Valeria who would fain
+have interposed her protection, had suffered such a physical shock as
+to be incapable of exercising any authority or influence she might
+possess. And the Empress Prisca, less courageous in spirit, less
+beautiful in person, and less potent in influence, was completely cowed
+by the domineering violence of the Emperor Diocletian, who was quite
+beside himself at the conspiracy against the gods, and against the
+Imperial Household which he persuaded himself had been discovered.
+
+"Madam," he replied, in answer to a weak remonstrance against the
+persecution, "was it not enough that our palace at Nicomedia was burned
+over our heads, that you must apologise for treason in our very
+household and the menace of our very person. No; the Christian
+superstition must be stamped out, and the worship of the gods
+maintained."[37]
+
+Hence throughout the wide empire, in the sober language of history,
+"Edict followed edict, rising in regular gradations of angry barbarity.
+The whole clergy were declared enemies of the State; and bishops,
+presbyters, and deacons were crowded into the prisons intended for the
+basest malefactors"[38]--"an innumerable company," says the Christian
+bishop Eusebius, "so that there was no room left for those condemned for
+crime." "We saw with our own eyes," writes a contemporary historian,
+"our houses of worship thrown down, the sacred Scriptures committed to
+the flames, and the shepherds of the people become the sport of their
+enemies--scourge with rods, tormented with the rack and excruciating
+scrapings, in which some endured the most terrible death. Then men and
+women, with a certain divine and inexpressible alacrity rushed into the
+fire. The persecutors, constantly inventing new tortures, vied with one
+another as if there were prizes offered to him who should invent the
+greatest cruelties. The men bore fire, sword, and crucifixions, savage
+beasts, and the depths of the sea, the maiming of limbs and searing with
+red hot iron, digging out of the eyes and mutilations of the whole body,
+also hunger, the mines, and prison. The women also were strengthened by
+the Divine Word, so that some of them endured the same trials as the
+men, and bore away the same prize. It would exceed all powers of
+detail," he goes on, "to give an idea of the sufferings and tortures
+which the martyrs endured. And these things were done, not for a few
+days, but for a series of whole years. We ourselves," he adds, "have
+seen crowds of persons, some beheaded, some burned alive, in a single
+day, so that the murderous weapons were blunted and broken in pieces,
+and the executioners, weary with slaughter, were obliged to give over
+the work of blood."[39] And he goes on to describe deeds of shame and
+torture of which he was an eye-witness, which our pen refuses to record.
+
+The enthusiasm for martyrdom prevailed at times almost like an epidemic.
+It was one of the most remarkable features of the ages of persecution.
+Notwithstanding the terrific tortures to which they were exposed, the
+zeal of the Christian heroes burned higher and brighter in the fiercest
+tempest of heathen rage. Age after age summoned the soldiers of the
+Cross to the conflict whose highest guerdon was death. They bound
+persecution as a wreath about their brows, and exulted in the "glorious
+infamy" of suffering for their Lord. The brand of shame became the badge
+of highest honour. Besides the joys of heaven they won imperishable fame
+on earth; and the memory of a humble slave was often haloed with a glory
+surpassing that of a Curtius or Horatius. The meanest hind was ennobled
+by the accolade of martyrdom to the loftiest peerage of the skies. His
+consecration of suffering was elevated to a sacrament, and called the
+baptism of fire or of blood.
+
+Burning to obtain the prize, the impetuous candidates for death often
+pressed with eager haste to seize the palm of victory and the martyr's
+crown. They trod with joy the fiery path to glory, and went as gladly to
+the stake as to a marriage feast. "Their fetters," says Eusebius,
+"seemed like the golden ornaments of a bride."[40] They desired
+martyrdom more ardently than men afterward sought a bishopric.[41] They
+exulted amid their keenest pangs that they were counted worthy to suffer
+for their divine Master. "Let the ungul[ae] tear us," exclaims
+Tertullian;[42] "the crosses bear our weight, the flames envelope us,
+the sword divide our throats, the wild beasts spring upon us; the very
+posture of prayer is a preparation for every punishment." "These
+things," says St. Basil, "so far from being a terror, are rather a
+pleasure and a recreation to us."[43] "The tyrants were armed;" says St.
+Chrysostom; "and the martyrs naked; yet they that were naked got the
+victory, and they that carried arms were vanquished."[44] Strong in the
+assurance of immortality, they bade defiance to the sword.
+
+Though weak in body they seemed clothed with vicarious strength, and
+confident that though "counted as sheep for the slaughter," naught could
+separate them from the love of Christ. Wrapped in their fiery vesture
+and shroud of flame, they yet exulted in their glorious victory. While
+the leaden hail fell on the mangled frame, and the eyes filmed with the
+shadows of death, the spirit was enbraved by the beatific vision of the
+opening heaven, and above the roar of the mob fell sweetly on the inner
+sense the assurance of eternal life. "No group, indeed, of Oceanides was
+there to console the Christian Prometheus; yet to his upturned eye
+countless angels were visible--their anthem swept solemnly to his ear
+--and the odours of an opening paradise filled the air. Though the dull
+ear of sense heard nothing, he could listen to the invisible Coryph[ae]us
+as he invited him to heaven and promised him an eternal crown."[45] The
+names of the "great army of martyrs," though forgotten by men, are
+written in the Book of Life. "The Lord knoweth them that are His."
+
+    There is a record, traced on high,
+    That shall endure eternally;
+    The angel standing by God's throne
+    Treasures there each word and groan;
+    And not the martyr's speech alone,
+    But every wound is there depicted,
+    With every circumstance of pain
+    The crimson stream, the gash inflicted
+    And not a drop is shed in vain.[46]
+
+This spirit of martyrdom was a new principle in society. It had no
+classical counterpart.[47] Socrates and Seneca suffered with fortitude,
+but not with faith. The loftiest pagan philosophy dwindled into
+insignificance before the sublimity of Christian hope. This looked
+beyond the shadows of time and the sordid cares of earth to the grandeur
+of the Infinite and the Eternal. The heroic deaths of the believers
+exhibited a spiritual power mightier than the primal instincts of
+nature, the love of wife or child, or even of life itself. Like a solemn
+voice falling on the dull ear of mankind, these holy examples urged the
+inquiry, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose
+his own soul?" And that voice awakened an echo in full many a heart. The
+martyrs made more converts by their deaths than in their lives. "Kill
+us, rack us condemn us, grind us to powder," exclaims the intrepid
+Christian Apologist; "our numbers increase in proportion as you mow us
+down."[47] The earth was drunk with the blood of the saints, but still
+they multiplied and grew, gloriously illustrating the perennial
+truth--_Sanguis martyrum semen ecclesi[ae]_.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[37] These are the very words of the edict quoted in note to Chapter II.
+
+[38] Milman, History of Christianity, Book II., Chapter ix.
+
+[39] Eusebius' "Ecclesiastical History," Book viii., Chaps, ii-xiv.
+
+[40] Hist. Eccles., v. I.
+
+[41] Multique avidius tum martyria gloriosis mortibus qu[ae]rebantur quam
+nunc episcopatus pravis ambitionibus appetuntur.--Sulpic. Sever. Hist.,
+lib. II.
+
+[42] Apol. c. 30.
+
+[43] Gregory Nazianzen. Orat. de Laud. Basil. See also the striking
+language of Ignatius. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. III. 36.
+
+[44] Chrys. Horn. 74, de Martyr.
+
+[45] Kip, p. 88--from Maitland, p. 146. Sometimes the ardour for
+martyrdom rose into a passion. Eusebius says (Hist. Eccles., viii., 6)
+that in Nicomedia "Men and women with a certain divine and inexpressible
+alacrity rushed into the fire."
+
+    Inscripta CHRISTO pagina immortalis est,
+    Excepit adstans angelus coram Deo.
+    Et qu[ae] locutus martyr, et qu[ae] pertulit:
+    Nec verbum solum disserentis condidit,
+    Omnis notata est sanguinis dimensio,
+    Qu[ae] vis doloris, quive segmenti modus:
+    Guttam cruoris ille nullam perdidit. _Peristeph._
+
+[46] Video, proboque meliora,
+     Deterioraque sequor.--_Hor._
+
+[47] The pagans called the martyrs [Greek: biatha(uatoi], or self
+murderers.
+
+[48] Tertul., Apol., c. 50.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE MAMERTINE PRISON.
+
+
+Let us now turn our attention to the fate of the characters in our tale
+of Christian trial and triumph, around whom its interest chiefly
+centres. They have been consigned to one of the most dismal of the many
+gloomy dungeons of Rome--the thrice terrible Mamertine prison--haunted
+with memories of long centuries of cruelty and crime. Manacled each to a
+Roman soldier, Adauctus, Aurelius, Demetrius, and Callirho[e:], together
+with other Christians condemned to martyrdom, marched through the
+streets under the noontide glare of a torrid sun. A guard armed _cap [a\]
+pi[e/]_, flung open an iron-studded door, and admitted them to a gloomy
+vault a few steps below the level of the street. Here a brawny Vulcan,
+with anvil and hammer, with many a brutal gibe smote off the fetters
+that linked the prisoners and soldiers together, and riveted them again
+so that these victims of oppression were bound together in pairs.
+Sometimes it happened that one of a pair thus bound together died, and
+the survivor endured the horror of being inseparably fettered to a
+festering corpse. To this the apostle refers when, groaning over the
+corruptions of his sinful nature, he exclaims: "O wretched man that I
+am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
+
+"My dainty lady," said the hideous Cyclops, as he rudely seized the arm
+of Callirho[e:], "this is not the sort of bracelet you've been used to
+wear. I should not much mind, being bound to such as you myself, only I
+would prefer silken fetters to those iron gyves." Then, as she shrank
+from his touch and winced as he bruised her tender flesh in unriveting
+the fetters, he said, with an insolent jeer, "I wont hurt you more than
+I can help, my beauty. You are not used to having such a rough
+chamberlain;" and he uttered a coarse jest with which we shall not
+pollute our page.
+
+A rosy flush stormed the brow of the maiden as she turned her blushing
+cheek to the mildewed and cold stone wall, in haughty silence disdaining
+a word of reply to the brutal ruffian.
+
+"Nay, my fine gentlemen," went on this typical Roman jailer, as Adauctus
+and the aged Demetrius, weary with their march, sank upon a stone bench,
+"this is too luxurious an apartment for you. For you we have a deeper
+depth." And Be pointed to an opening in the floor, hitherto unnoticed in
+the gloom. "Nay, you need not shrink, old man," he went on, as Demetrius
+recoiled from the grave-like opening at his feet. "Your betters have
+been there before you."
+
+"Father, your blessing e'er you go," exclaimed Callirho[e:], and flinging
+herself on his breast, she received his kiss and benediction.
+
+By means of a leathern strap beneath their arms, the prisoners were one
+by one let down into a hideous vault, like men to a living burial. Into
+this lower dungeon no beam of light struggled, save a precarious ray
+from the opening in the floor above. The loathsome cell was even then
+dank with the slime of well-nigh a thousand years, its construction
+being attributed to Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome. Here the
+African prince, Jugurtha, was starved to death. "What a cold bath is
+this!" he exclaimed, as he descended into its chilly gloom. Here the
+Gallic king, Vercingetorix, also died. Here the usurper Sejanus was
+executed, and here the fellow conspirators of Cataline lingered to
+death. If we would accept Roman tradition, we would also believe that
+St. Peter and St. Paul were immured in this dismal vault, and in the
+case of the latter illustrious martyr it is more than likely that the
+story is true. A stairway has now been constructed to this lower depth,
+and the present writer has stood upon the stone pavement worn by the
+feet of generations of victims of oppression, and has drunk of a spring
+at which the Apostle of the Gentiles may have quenched his thirst.
+
+The prisoners enjoyed not long even this sad reprieve from death. They
+were destined soon to finish their course by a glorious martyrdom. The
+Emperors determined to gratify at once their own persecuting fury and
+the cruel thirst for blood of the Roman mob, by offering a holocaust of
+victims in the amphitheatre. The _Acta Diurna_, a sort of public gazette
+of the day, which circulated in the great houses, and baths, and other
+places of concourse, contained the announcement of a grand exhibition of
+the _ludi circenses_, or gladiatorial games, to be celebrated in honour
+of the god Neptune--_Neptunus Equestris_. In the public spaces of the
+Forum, and in the neighbourhood of the Flavian Amphitheatre and
+elsewhere, where the crowd around them would not obstruct the highway,
+were displayed large white bulletin boards, on which were written in
+coloured chalks a list of the games--like the playbills which placard
+the streets of great cities to-day--and heralds proclaimed through every
+street, even in the crowded Ghetto, the splendour of the approaching
+games. These were on a scale on which no modern manager ever dreamed.
+Trajan exhibited games which lasted a hundred and twenty-three days, in
+which 10,000 gladiators fought and 11,000 fierce animals were killed.
+Sometimes the vast arena was flooded with water, and _naumachia_ or
+sea-fights were exhibited. The vast flood-gates and cisterns by which
+this was accomplished may still be seen.
+
+The chief attraction of the games provided by the Emperors Diocletian
+and Galerius, however, was not the conflict of what might almost be
+called armies of trained gladiators, nor the slaughter of hundreds of
+fierce Libyan leopards and Numidian lions, but the sacrifice of some
+scores of helpless and unarmed Christians--old men, weak women, and
+tender and innocent children.
+
+There was much excitement in the schools of the gladiators--vast stone
+barracks, where they were drilled in their dreadful trade. They were
+originally captives taken in war, or condemned malefactors; but in the
+degenerate days of the Empire, knights, senators, and soldiers sought
+distinction in the arena, and even unsexed women fought half-naked in
+the ring, or lay dead and trampled in the sands. To captives of war was
+often offered, as a reward for special skill or courage, their freedom
+and fierce and fell were conflicts to which men wore spurred by the
+double incentives of life and liberty.
+
+Special interest was given to the forthcoming games by the distinguished
+reputation of one of the volunteer gladiators, a brilliant young
+military officer, our friend Ligurius Rufus, who, sated and sickened
+with the most frenzied dissipations that Rome could offer, plunged into
+this mimic war to appease by its excitement the gnawing ennui of his
+life.
+
+The bets ran high upon the reckless young noble who was the favourite of
+the sporting spend-thrifts and profligates of the city. The vilest
+condition of society that ever cursed the earth was filling up the
+measure of its iniquity, and invoking the wrath of Heaven. The wine
+shops in the Suburra and the gladiators' quarter were overflowing with a
+brawling, blaspheming, drunken mob, the vilest dregs of the vilest city
+the patient earth has ever borne upon its bosom.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE EVE OF MARTYRDOM.
+
+
+Far different was the scene presented by another spot not far distant--a
+vaulted chamber beneath the stone seats of the Coliseum, whither the
+destined Christian martyrs had been removed on the eve before the day of
+their triumph. As an act of grace, some coarse straw, the refuse of a
+lion's lair, had been given them, and the relief to their fetter-cramped
+limbs, stiffened with lying on a rough stone floor, was in itself an
+indescribable delight. But they had a deeper cause of joy. They were
+found worthy to witness a good confession for Christ before C[ae]sar, like
+the beloved Apostle Paul; and even as their Lord Himself before Pontius
+Pilate. And now the day of their espousals to their Heavenly Bridegroom
+was at hand.
+
+The silvery-haired Demetrius, a holy calm beaming in his eyes, uttered
+words of peace and comfort. The coarse black barley-bread and muddy wine
+which had been given them lest death should cheat the mob of their
+promised delight on the morrow, the venerable priest had consecrated to
+the Supper of the Lord--the last viaticum to strengthen their souls on
+their journey to the spirit world. Sitting at his feet, faint and wan,
+but with a look of utter content upon her face, was his daughter
+Callirho[e:], a heavenly smile flickering about her lips. With an undaunted
+courage, a heroic resolve beaming from his eyes, stood Adauctus,
+waiting, like a valiant soldier at his post, the welcome word of the
+great Captain of his salvation: "Well done! good and faithful servant,
+enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
+
+Ever and anon the deep-mouthed roar of a hungry lion rent the air, his
+fierce bound shook the walls of his cage, and his hot breath came
+through the bars as he keenly sniffed the smell of human flesh. But
+though it caused at times a tremor of the quivering nerves of the wan
+and wasted girl, it shook not her unfaltering soul Listen to the holy
+words calmly spoken by the venerable Demetrius: "'_Non turbetur cor
+vestrum_--Let not your heart be troubled. In my Father's house are many
+mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.' Yes, daughter. Yes, brave
+friend; before another sun shall set we shall see the King in His
+beauty, and the laud that is very far off. Mine aged eyes shall see,
+too, the beloved Rachel of my youth, to behold whom they have ached
+these many years. And thou, child, shalt see the mother after whom thy
+heart hath yearned."
+
+"If only, dear father, my brother Ezra were with us," whispered
+Callirho[e:], "we soon would be an unbroken family in the city of the great
+King."
+
+"God's will be done, my child," answered the patriarch. "He doeth all
+things well. He could bid His angels fly swiftly, and shut the lions'
+mouths, or better still, convoy our spirits to the marriage supper of
+the Lamb--to the repose of Abraham's bosom. Your brother is a child of
+the covenant, an heir of the promises, the son of many prayers. God will
+count him also in the day when He maketh up His jewels." Then, as if
+gifted with the spirit of prophecy, he exclaimed: "Not always shall the
+servants of the Most High be persecuted unto death. But this very
+structure, now dedicated to slaughter and cruelty, shall hereafter be
+consecrated to the service of the true God"--a prediction which, after
+long centuries, has been literally fulfilled.
+
+Thus in holy converse wore the hours away. And then through the rocky
+vaults of the Coliseum stole the sweet accents of their last evening
+hymn before they should sing the song of Moses and the Lamb on high:--
+
+"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide
+under the shadow of the Almighty."
+
+"I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him
+will I trust."
+
+"He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy
+ways."
+
+"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon
+shalt thou trample under foot."
+
+As this p[ae]an of triumph swelled into louder strain, the gladiators, awed
+by its strange power, paused amid their ribald jests, and even the lion
+hushed his hungry roar, and the tiger his angry growl.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+A ROMAN HOLIDAY.
+
+
+Early next morning the army of slaves who had charge of the Coliseum,
+under the direction of Fulvus, the freedman, were hard at work. Some at
+the very summit of the building, with much shouting and pulling of
+ropes, were stretching the great _velarium_ or awning, as a protection
+from the rays of the sun. Others were sweeping the sand of the arena to
+a smooth and even surface. Many cart loads of fresh sand were heaped
+around the base of the podium, for the ghastly purpose of being spread
+upon the blood-stained surface after each act of the sanguinary drama of
+the day. Others were decorating with garlands of flowers, and with gold
+and purple bannerets, the seats of the Emperors Diocletian and Galerius,
+and those of the senators and other persons of distinction. The great
+structure seemed even more striking in its vastness, as a few score
+figures crawled like flies over its empty seats, than when filled with
+its tumultuous throng of spectators. It was an immense oval six hundred
+and fifteen feet in its longer diameter, and five hundred and ten feet
+in the shorter. The circling seats rose tier on tier to the giddy height
+of one hundred and fifty feet.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM, ROME.]
+
+As the present writer climbed those cliff-like walls, now crumbling into
+ruin, he tried to re-people those long-deserted seats with the eager and
+excited throngs which had often filled them to overflowing, when twice
+eighty thousand cruel eyes were wont to gloat upon the dying martyr's
+pang, "butchered to make a Roman holiday."[49] Then he wandered through
+the vast vaulted corridors and stairways, eighty in number, and bearing
+still the old Roman numerals by which access was gained to the different
+galleries. These were so capacious that the whole multitude could in a
+few minutes disperse, and were thence called _vomitoria_. He then
+explored the dens and caves for the wild beasts, and the rocky chambers
+in which the gladiators and martyr victims awaited the signal that
+called them to their doom. The row of seats just above the podium was
+reserved for the equestrian order; those higher still, for the
+_populus_, or common people; and the highest of all, for persons of the
+lowest rank. Early in the day, multitudes of spectators began to arrive,
+mostly arrayed in gala dress, and many wearing the colours of their
+favourite gladiatorial champion. With a loud flourish of trumpets the
+great gates of the imperial entrance opened, and the chariots of the
+Emperors and their respective _suites_ entered and took their places in
+the grand tribune reserved for these august occupants. It was noted with
+dissatisfaction by the multitude that neither of the Empresses Prisca or
+Valeria, were present. But the withered old crone Fausta, mother of
+Galerius, seemed to gloat like a foul harpy on the anticipated spectacle
+of blood, and near by was her sinister shadow, the black-browed priest
+of Cybele.
+
+Our old acquaintance, Burdo, the butcher, was rubicund with joy at the
+approaching conflict, for which, he said, he long had hungered. "But
+why," he asked, "are not their majesties, the Empresses, in the state
+tribune. 'Tis a contempt of a festival sacred to the gods."
+
+"Our dainty Empress," jeered Samos, the "Flat-nose," "has small stomach
+to see her friends the Christians given to the lions, and I suspect the
+old one is tarred with the same stick."
+
+"If I thought that I'd denounce her myself," growled Bruto, the
+gladiator; "Empress or slave, the crime of being a Christian levels all
+ranks."
+
+"And lose your head for your pains," chimed in Piso, the barber. "Don't
+you know that she winds the Emperor round her finger like a silken
+thread."
+
+"Does she favour the accursed Nazarenes?" croaked Ephraim the Jew. "May
+the same fate overtake her."
+
+"I thought they were friends of yours," said our old friend Max, who was
+one of the soldiers on guard. "They say this Christus whom they worship
+was a Jew."
+
+We dare not repeat the wicked imprecation which burst from the lips of
+the exasperated Israelite. But it is notorious that the Jews were far
+more malignant persecutors of the Christians than even the Pagans
+themselves--as is apparent from the Acts of the Apostles and other
+records of the early Church.
+
+The time for beginning the games having come, the priest of Neptune
+poured a libation to the god, and heaped incense on his altar, placed
+near the Imperial tribune. In this act of worship--for these old gods
+were worshipped with the blood of men slain as a holiday pageant--he was
+followed by the Emperors and their chief officers.
+
+Then with another peal of trumpets a procession of gladiators in
+burnished armour entered the arena and marched around its vast circuit.
+Pausing before the tribune of the Emperors they chanted with a loud
+voice: "_C[ae]sares Augusti, morituri salutarus vos_--Great C[ae]sars, we who
+are about to die salute you."
+
+First there was a sort of sham battle--_pr[ae]lusio_, as it was called, in
+which the gladiators fought with wooden swords. But the multitude were
+speedily impatient of that, and demanded the combat _a l'outrance_--to
+the death.
+
+"We came not here to witness such child's play as that," said Burdo, the
+butcher. "I want to see the blood flow as it does in my own shambles;" a
+brutal sentiment which met with much favour from his neighbours.
+
+Soon their desires were gratified. First there was a combat of
+_Andabat[ae]_, that is, men who wore helmets without any aperture for the
+eyes, so that they were obliged to fight blindfold, and thus excited the
+mirth of the spectators. Although they inflicted some ugly wounds upon
+each other, none of these were mortal, and the mob called loudly for the
+_Hoplomachi_, who were next on the play-bill. These were men who fought
+in a complete suit of armour. They were as completely encased as crabs
+in their shells, but as they could see each other through the bars of
+their visors, they were able skilfully to direct their weapons at the
+joints of their antagonist's armour. Soon the arena was red with blood,
+and more than one victim lay dead and trampled on the sands.
+
+"Good! this is something like the thing," cried Burdo. "But these
+fellows are so cased in their shells it is hard to get at them. Let us
+have the _Retiarii_."
+
+"Yes, the _Retiarii_ and _Mirmillones_," shouted the mob; and they soon
+marched upon the scene.
+
+This conflict promised abundance of excitement The _Retiarii_ wore no
+armour, and their only weapons were a net (_rete_, hence their name) and
+a trident or three-pronged spear. The _Retiarius_ endeavoured to throw
+the net over his antagonist, and then to despatch him with the spear. If
+he missed his aim in throwing his net, he betook himself to flight, and
+endeavoured to prepare his net for a second cast, while his adversary
+followed him round the arena in order to kill him before he could make a
+second attempt. It was a cruel sport, and kindled to fury the fierce
+passions of the eager spectators.
+
+Then came a conflict between skilled gladiators--the most accomplished
+swordsmen of the gladiatorial school. The vast multitude watched with
+fevered interest the wary fencing, the skilful guard and rapid thrust
+and stroke of those trained butchers of their fellow-men. When a
+swordsman was wounded, the spectators rent the air with cries of
+"_Habet! Habet!_" and the one who was vanquished lowered his arms in
+token of submission. His fate, however, depended upon the will of the
+people, who sometimes, when a vanquished swordsman had exhibited
+especial dexterity and skill, gave the signal to spare him by
+stretching out their hands with the thumbs turned down. But if, as was
+more frequently the case, their bloodthirsty passions were roused to
+insatiable fury, they demanded his death by turning their thumbs
+upwards, and shouting, "_Recipe ferrum_!" Without a tremor the victim
+then bared his breast to the sword, and the victor thrust it home to the
+hilt, while the cruel mob shouted their huzzas over the bloody tragedy.
+
+Such is the scene brought vividly before our minds by the matchless
+antique statue of the Dying Gladiator, found in the Gardens of Sallust,
+now in the museum of the Capitol. As one gazes with a strange
+fascination on that wondrous marble, instinct, it seems, with mortal
+agony, callous must be the heart that is unmoved by its touching pathos.
+The exquisite lines of Byron nobly express the emotions which it awakens
+in every breast:--
+
+    I see before me the Gladiator lie:
+    He leans upon his hand--his manly brow
+    Consents to death, but conquers agony,
+    And his drooped head sinks gradually low--
+    And through his side the last drops ebbing slow
+    From the red gash fall heavy, one by one,
+    Like the first of a thunder shower; and now
+    The arena swims around him--he is gone,
+    Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won.
+
+    He heard it, but he heeded not--his eyes
+    Were with his heart, and that was far away.
+    He recked not of the life he lost nor prize,
+    But where his rude hut by the Danube lay,
+    _There_ were his young barbarians all at play,
+    _There_ was their Dacian mother--he, their sire,
+    Butchered to make a Roman holiday.
+
+An unwonted interest was given to this cruel scene in the Roman
+amphitheatre, by a novel and unheard of incident which occurred. The
+brilliant young Roman officer, Ligurius Rufus, we have said, was
+announced to take part in these games. It was no uncommon thing for
+military fops, eager to win the applause of the multitude, or to goad
+their jaded weariness of life into a momentary excitement by a spice of
+real danger, to enter the lists of the arena; and Ligurius was at once
+the most brilliant swordsman in the Twelfth Legion, and the most
+_ennuy[e/]e_ and world-weary man in Rome.
+
+He was pitted against a brawny Hercules, the strongest and hugest of the
+whole school of gladiators--a British prisoner of war, who had been long
+the pride and boast of the arena. As they stood face to face, the young
+officer in burnished armour, inlaid with silver and gold, and the
+mighty thews of his opponent encased in leather and bronze, the betting
+was heavy in favour of the British giant. Each felt that he had a foeman
+worthy of his steel. They walked warily around each other, each watching
+with eager eye every movement of his antagonist. Every thrust on either
+side was skilfully parried, any advantage of strength on the part of the
+British warrior being matched by the superior nimbleness of the Roman
+officer. At last a rapid thrust by Ligurius severed a tendon in the
+sword-arm of his foe, and it fell nerveless by his side. With a giant
+effort the disabled warrior sprang upon the Roman as if to crush him by
+sheer weight; but Ligurius nimbly sprang aside, and his antagonist,
+slipping in the gory sand, fell headlong to the ground. In an instant
+the Roman's foot was on his neck and his sword at his breast. With a
+courteous gesture, Ligurius raised his sword and waved it toward the
+Emperors' tribune and to the crowded seats of the podium, as if asking
+the signal to spare the vanquished gladiator, while the despairing look
+of the latter seemed with mute eloquence to ask for life. "_Habet!
+Habet!_" rang round the Coliseum, but not a single sign of mercy was
+made, not a single thumb was reversed. "_Recipe ferrum_," roared the mob
+at the prostrate giant; and then shouted to Ligurius, "_Occide!
+Occide!_--Kill! Kill!"
+
+The gallant Roman heeded them as he would heed the howl of wolves. "I am
+not a butcher," he said, with a defiant sneer, and he sheathed his sword
+and, much to the surprise of his discomfitted foe, lent his hand to
+raise him from the ground.
+
+"You are a brave man," he said, "I want you as a standard bearer for the
+Twelfth Legion. That is better than making worm's meat of you. Rome may
+need such soldiers before long."
+
+The Emperors were not unwilling to grant this novel request of a
+favourite officer, and the grateful creature, in token of his fidelity,
+humbly kissed the hand of Ligurius, and followed him from the arena. The
+cruel mob, however, angered at being deprived of their anticipated
+spectacle of blood, howled with rage, and demanded the crowning scene of
+the day's sports--the conflict between the wild beasts and the Christian
+martyrs.
+
+These hateful scenes had become the impassioned delight of all classes,
+from the Emperors to the "vile plebs" of Rome. Even woman's pitiful
+nature forgot its tenderness, and maids and matrons gloated on the cruel
+spectacle, and the honour was reserved for the Vestal Virgin to give the
+signal for the mortal stroke. Such scenes created a ferocious thirst
+for blood throughout society. They overthrew the altar of pity, and
+impelled to every excess and refinement of barbarity. Even children
+imitated the cruel sport in their games, schools of gladiators were
+trained for the work of slaughter, women fought in the arena or lay dead
+and trampled in the sand.
+
+It is to the eternal praise of Christianity that it suppressed these
+odious contests, and forever averted the sword of the gladiator from the
+throat of his victim. The Christian city of Constantinople was never
+polluted by the atrocious exhibition. A Christian poet eloquently
+denounced the bloody spectacle. A Christian monk, roused to indignation
+by the hateful scene, leaped over the barrier to separate the gladiators
+in the very frenzy of the conflict. The maddened mob, enraged at this
+interruption of their sport, stoned him to death. But his heroic
+martydom produced a moral revulsion against the practice, and the laws
+of Honorius, to use the language of Gibbon, "abolished forever the human
+sacrifices of the amphitheatre."
+
+It remains to notice in another chapter the last scene in the stern
+drama of this "Roman holiday."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[49] On this very arena perished the venerable Ignatius, linked by
+tradition with the Saviour Himself as one of the children whom He took
+in His arms and blessed. "Suffer me to be the food of wild beasts," he
+exclaimed, "by whom I shall attain unto God. For I am the wheat of God,
+and I shall be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, that I may become the
+pure bread of Christ."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE MARTYRS CROWNED.
+
+
+At a flourish of trumpets the iron-studded doors of the cells in which
+the Christians were confined were thrown open, and the destined martyrs
+walked forth on the arena in the sight of assembled thousands. It was a
+spectacle to arrest the attention of even the most thoughtless, and to
+move the sympathy of even the most austere. At the head of the little
+company walked the good presbyter, Demetrius, his silvery hair and beard
+and benignant expression of countenance giving him a strikingly
+venerable aspect. Leaning heavily on his arm, evidently faint in frame
+but strong in spirit, was his daughter Callirho[e:]. Robed in white, she
+looked the embodiment of saintly purity, and in her eyes there beamed a
+heroic courage which inspired a wonder that so brave a soul should be
+shrined in so frail a body. Adauctus, Aurelius, and other Christian
+confessors condemned to death, made up the little contingent of the
+noble army of martyrs.
+
+The prefect Naso, from his place in the tribune, near the Emperors, read
+the sentence of the court, that the accused having been proven by ample
+testimony to be the enemies of the C[ae]sars and of the gods, had been
+condemned to death by exposure to wild beasts.
+
+"Nay, not the enemies of the C[ae]sars," exclaimed the aged Demetrius. "We
+are the friends of all, the enemies of none.[50] We pray for the C[ae]sars
+at all our assemblies."
+
+"Will you do homage to the gods?" demanded Diocletian. "Will you burn
+incense to Neptune? Here is his altar and here are his priests."
+
+"We worship the true God who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and
+all that in them is," replied the venerable man, with uplifted and
+reverent countenance, "and Him only will we serve. They be no gods which
+are made by man's device, and 'tis idolatry to serve them."
+
+"Away with the Atheists," cried the priests of Neptune; "they blaspheme
+the holy gods."
+
+"The Christians to the lions!" roared the mob, and at the signal from
+the Emperor to the master of the games, the dens of the wild beasts were
+thrown open, and the savage brutes, starved into madness, bounded into
+the arena. The defenceless martyrs fell upon their knees in prayer, and
+seemed conscious only of the presence of Him who stood with the three
+Hebrews in the fiery furnace, so rapt was the expression of faith and
+courage on their upturned faces.
+
+The fierce Numidian lions, and tigers from the Libyan desert, instead of
+bounding upon their prey, began to circle slowly around them, lashing
+their tawny flanks meanwhile, glaring at their victims from bloodshot
+fiery eyes, and uttering horrid growls.
+
+At this moment a loud shout was heard, and a soldier, clad in burnished
+mail, and with his drawn sword in his hand, one of the body guards of
+the Emperors, leaped from the tribune and bounded with clashing armour
+into the arena. Striding across the sand, he hurled aside his iron
+helmet and his sword, and flung himself at the feet of the aged priest,
+with the words:--
+
+"Father, your blessing; Callirho[e:], your parting kiss. I, too, am a
+Christian. Long time have I sought you, alas! only to find you thus. But
+gladly will I die with you, and, separated in life, we are united in
+death and forever."
+
+"_Nunc dimittis, Domine!_" exclaimed the old man, raising his eyes to
+heaven. "'Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.'" And he
+laid his hands in blessing on the head of his long-lost son.
+
+"Ezra, my brother!" exclaimed Callirho[e:], folding him in her arms. "To
+think we were so near, yet knew not of each other. Thank God, we go to
+heaven together; and, long divided on earth, we shall soon, with our
+beloved mother, be a united family forever in the skies. 'And God shall
+wipe away all tears from our eyes; and there shall be no more death,
+neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.'"
+
+"Amen! even so, come, Lord Jesus!" spake the young soldier, as he
+enfolded, as if in a sheltering embrace, the gray-haired sire and the
+fair-faced girl.
+
+The utmost consternation was exhibited on the countenance of the old
+Emperor Diocletian. "What! have we Christians and traitors even in our
+body guard? Our very life is at the mercy of those wretches!"
+
+"I would feel safer with them," said the more stoical or more courageous
+Galerius, "than with the _delators_ and informers who betray them," and
+he glanced with mingled contempt and aversion at Naso, the prefect, and
+Furca, the priest. "When a Christian gives his word, 'tis sacred as all
+the oaths of Hecate. I want no better soldiers than those of the
+Thundering Legion."[51]
+
+Meanwhile the wild beasts, startled for a moment by the sudden
+apparition of the mail-clad soldier, seemed roused thereby to ten-fold
+fury. Crouching stealthily for the fatal spring, they bounded upon their
+prey, and in a moment crashing bones and streaming gore appeased the
+growing impatience of the cruel mob, who seemed, like the very wild
+beasts, to hunger and thirst for human flesh and blood.
+
+We dwell not on the painful spectacle. The gallant young soldier was the
+first to die. The brave girl, with a gesture of maiden modesty, drew her
+dishevelled robe about her person, and with a queenly dignity awaited
+the wild beast's fatal spring. She was mercifully spared the spectacle
+of her father's dying agony. Her over-strung nerves gave way, and she
+fell in a swoon upon the sands. Demetrius met his fate praying upon his
+knees. Like Stephen, he gazed steadfastly up into heaven, and the
+fashion of his countenance was suddenly transfigured as he exclaimed:
+"Lord Jesus! Rachel, my beloved! we come, we come." And above the roar
+of the ribald mob and the growl of the savage beasts, fell sweetly on
+his inner ear the song of the redeemed, and burst upon his sight the
+beatific vision of the Lord he loved, and for whom he gladly died.
+
+So, too, like brave men, victorious o'er their latest foe, Adauctus,
+Aurelius, and the others calmly met their fate. When all the rest were
+slain, a lordly lion approached the prostrate form of Callirho[e:], but she
+was already dead. She had passed from her swoon, without a pang, to the
+marriage supper of the Lamb--to the presence of the Celestial
+Bridegroom--the fairest among ten thousand, the one altogether
+lovely--to whom the homage of her young heart had been fully given. She
+was spared, too, the indignity, of being mangled by the lion's jaws.
+When the king of beasts found that she was already dead, he raised his
+massy head, gave a mournful howl, and strode haughtily away.
+
+In the great gallery of Dor[e/] paintings at London, is one of this Flavian
+Amphitheatre after a human sacrifice such as we have described. There
+lie the mangled forms upon the gory and trampled sands. The sated wild
+beasts prowl listlessly over the arena. The circling seats rise tier
+above tier, empty and desolate. But poised in air, with outspread wings,
+above the slain, with a countenance of light and a palm of victory, is a
+majestic angel; and sweeping upward in serried ranks, amid the shining
+stars, is a cloud of bright-winged angels, the convoy of the martyrs'
+spirits to the skies. So, doubtless, God sent a cohort of sworded
+seraphim to bear the martyrs of our story blessed company, and to sweep
+with them through the gates into the city.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[50] This famous phrase dates from the time of Tertullian, in the 3rd
+century, and is also recorded in the Catacombs.
+
+[51] The _Legio Tonans_, tradition affirms, was a legion composed wholly
+of Christians, whose prayers in a time of drought brought on a violent
+thunder-storm, which confounded the enemy and saved the army.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE MARTYRS BURIED.
+
+
+Darker and darker grew the shadows of night over the great empty and
+desolate amphitheatre, but a few hours before clamorous with the shouts
+and din of the tumultuous mob. The silence seemed preternatural, and a
+solemn awfulness seemed to invest the shrouded forms which lay upon the
+sand. By a merciful provision of the Roman law, it made not war upon the
+dead, and the bodies even of criminals were given up to their friends,
+if they had any, that they might not be deprived of funeral rites.
+Having wreaked his cruel rage upon the living body, the pagan
+magistrate at least did not deny the privilege of burial to the
+martyrs' mutilated remains. It was esteemed by the primitive believers
+as much an honour as a duty, to ensepulchre with Christian rites the
+remains of the sacred dead.[52]
+
+Faustus, the faithful freedman of Adauctus, Hilarus, the fossor, and the
+servants of the Christian matron, Marcella, came at the fall of night to
+bear away the bodies of the martyrs to their final resting-place in the
+silent Catacomb. The service was not devoid of danger, for vile
+informers prowled around seeking to discover and betray whomsoever would
+pay the rites of sepulture to the remains of the Christian martyrs. But
+there are golden keys which will unlock any doors and seal any lips, and
+Marcella spared not her wealth in this sacred service.
+
+On the present occasion, too, special facility was given for carrying
+out this pious purpose. Through the influence of the Empress Valeria,
+Hilarus, the fossor, was enabled to show to the chief custodian of the
+amphitheatre an authorization under the hand of Galerius for removing
+the bodies of the "criminals who had paid the penalty of the law"--so
+ran the rescript.
+
+Beneath the cliff-like shadow of the Coliseum gathered this little
+Christian company. The iron gates opened their ponderous jaws. By the
+fitful flare of a torch weirdly lighting up the vaulted arches, with
+gentle and reverent hands, as though the cold clay could still feel
+their lightest touch, the bodies of the dead were laid upon the biers.
+Through the silent streets, devout men in silence bore the martyrs to
+their burial. Through the Porta Capena, which opened to the magic spell
+of the Emperor's order; through the silent "Street of Tombs," still
+lined with the monuments of Rome's mighty dead, wended slowly the solemn
+procession. There was no wailing of the pagan _n[ae]nia_ or funeral dirge,
+neither was there the chanting of the Christian hymn. But in silence, or
+with only whispered utterance, they reached the door of the private
+grounds of the Villa Marcella.
+
+First the bodies were borne to the villa, where, by loving hands, the
+stains of dust and blood were washed away. Then, robed in white and
+bestrewn with flowers, they were placed on the biers in the marble
+atriun. Again the good presbyter Primitius read the words of life as at
+the burial of Lucius, the martyr,[53] and vows and prayers were offered
+up to God.
+
+While this solemn service was in progress, a lady, deeply-veiled, was
+seen to be agitated by violent grief. Convulsive sobs shook her frame,
+and her tears fell fast. When the forms of the martyrs were uncovered,
+that their friends might take their last farewell, the Empress Valeria,
+for it was she, flung herself on her knees beside the body of the late
+slave maiden, and rained tears of deep emotion on her face. More lovely
+in death than in life, the fine-cut features seemed like the most
+exquisite work of the sculptor carved in translucent alabaster. A crown
+of asphodel blossoms the emblems of immortality--encircled her brow, and
+a palm branch--the symbol of the martyr's victory--was placed upon her
+breast.
+
+"Give her an honoured place among the holy dead," said the Empress, amid
+her sobs, to the venerable Primitius.
+
+"I have given orders," said the Lady Marcella, "that she, with her
+father and brother, shall sleep side by side in the chamber prepared as
+the last resting-place for my own family. We shall count it a precious
+privilege, in God's own good time, to be laid to rest near the dust of
+His holy confessors and martyrs."
+
+"Aurelius shall share the tomb," said Hilarus, the fossor, "which he
+made for himself while yet alive, beside his noble wife, Aurelia
+Theudosia."
+
+"Be it mine to honour with a memorial tablet the remains of my good
+master Adauctus," said Faustus, the freedman, with deep emotion.[54]
+
+"It shall be my privilege," said the Empress, "to provide for my beloved
+handmaiden, as a mark of the great love I bore her, a memorial of her
+saintly virtues; and let her bear my name in death as in life, so that
+those who read her epitaph may know she was the freedwoman and friend of
+an unhappy Empress."
+
+The Empress Valeria now retired, and with her trusty escort, returned
+to the city.
+
+With psalms and hymns, and the solemn chanting of such versicles as:
+_"Convertere anima mea, in requiem tuam"_--"Return unto thy rest, O my
+soul;" and _"Si ambulavero in medio umbr[ae] mortis, non timebo
+mala"_--"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
+shall fear no evil," the funeral procession wound its way, by gleaming
+torchlight, through the cypress glades of the garden to the entrance of
+the Catacomb of Callixtus. Here additional torches and tapers were
+lighted, and carefully the sacred burdens were carried down the long and
+narrow stair, and through the intricate passages to the family vault of
+the Lady Marcella.
+
+[Illustration: SUBTERRANEAN ORATORY, CATACOMB OF CALLIXTUS.]
+
+This vault was one of unusual size and loftiness, and had been
+especially prepared for holding religious service during the outbreak of
+persecution. Marcella held the office of deaconess in the Christian
+Church, and when even the privacy of her own house was not a sufficient
+safeguard against the prying of pagan spies, she was wont to retire to
+the deeper seclusion of this subterranean place of prayer. On each side
+of the door were seats hewn in the solid rock, one for the deaconess,
+the other for the female catechist who shared her pious labours. Around
+the wall was a low stone seat for the female catechumens, for the most
+part members of her own household, who here received religious
+instruction. The accompanying engraving indicates the appearance of this
+ancient oratory or class-room, its main features unchanged, although the
+lapse of centuries has somewhat marred its structure and defaced its
+beauty.
+
+With solemn rites and prayers the remains of the martyrs were consigned
+to their last long resting-place. Amid the sobs and tears of the
+mourners, the good presbyter Primitius paid a loving tribute to their
+holy lives and heroic death--all the more thrilling because they
+themselves stood in jeopardy every hour. In the presence of the martyred
+dead the venerable pastor then broke the bread and poured the wine of
+the Last Supper of the Lord, and the little company of worshippers
+seemed united in still closer fellowship with those who now kept the
+sacred feast in the kingdom of their common Father and God.
+
+Before they left the chamber, Hilarus, after he had hermetically sealed
+the tombs of Demetrius and Ezra, his son, cemented with plaster a marble
+slab against the opening of that on which was laid--rude couch for form
+so fair--the body of the chief subject of our "ower true tale." As it
+was designed to be but a temporary memorial of the virgin martyr, until
+the costly epitaph which the Empress was to provide should be ready, he
+took the little pot of pigment which he had brought for the purpose, and
+with his brush in, scribed the brief sentence:--
+
+VALERIA DORMIT IN PACE.
+ANIMA DULCIS, INNOCVA, SAPIENS ET PVLCHP IN XRO.
+QVI VIXIT ANNOS XVIII. EN. V. DIES X.
+
+"Valeria sleeps in peace. A sweet spirit guileless, wise, beautiful in
+Christ. She lived eighteen years, five months, ten days."
+
+[Illustration: "VALERIA SLEEPS IN PEACE."]
+
+Alas! the time never came when that costly memorial should be reared.
+The violence of persecution soon drove the Empress herself an exile from
+her home, and when the storm rolled away there was none left to carry
+out her pious wish. Through the long centuries that humble epitaph was
+all the memorial of one of the noblest, sweetest, bravest souls that
+ever lived. And even that rude slab was not destined always to cover her
+remains. After the re-discovery of the Catacombs in the sixteenth
+century, many of their tombs were pillaged for relics, or in the vain
+search for treasure. By some ruthless rifler of the grave this very
+slab was shivered, and the lower part of the epitaph destroyed; and
+there upon its rocky bed, on which it had reposed for well-nigh fifteen
+hundred years, lay in mouldering dust the remains of the maiden martyr,
+Valeria Callirho[e:]. Verily _Pulvis et umbra sumus_!
+
+Primitius and Hilarus, with the little company of devout men who bore
+the martyrs to their burial, now proceeded to the entombment, in a
+neighbouring crypt, of the bodies of Adauctus and Aurelius. As they
+advanced through the dark corridors, but dimly lighted by their tapers'
+feeble rays, the silence of that under-world seemed almost appalling.
+Black shadows crouched around, and their footsteps echoed strangely down
+the distant passages, dying gradually away in this vast valley of the
+shadow of death. Almost in silence their sacred task was completed, and
+they softly sang a funeral hymn before they turned to leave their
+martyred brethren to their last long sleep.
+
+Suddenly there was heard the tumultuous "tramp, tramp," as of armed men.
+Then the clang of iron mail and bronze cuirass resounded through the
+vaulted corridors. The glare of torches was seen at the end of a long
+arched passage, and the sharp, swift word of military command rang out
+stern and clear.
+
+"Forward! Seize the caitiffs! Let not one escape! Slay if they resist!"
+and a rush was made to the chamber where the notes of the Christian
+psalm had but now died away.
+
+"Out with your lights!" exclaimed, in a muffled tone, Hilarus, the
+fossor. "Follow me as closely and as quietly as you can. Good Father
+Primitius, your arm. By God's help we will disappoint those hunters of
+men of their anticipated prey."
+
+"Or join our brethren in martyrdom, as is His will," devoutly added
+Primitius. "He doeth all things well."
+
+But we must go back a little to learn the cause and means of this armed
+invasion of the Catacombs.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[52] See Eusebius, Hist. Eccl, vii., 16 and 22. Eutychianus, a Roman
+Christian, is recorded to have buried three hundred and forty-two
+martyrs with his own hands.
+
+[53] See Chapter VI.
+
+[54] Through the long lapse of ages this memorial has been preserved,
+and may still be read in Grater's great collection of ancient
+inscriptions. It is also referred to in Gibbon. In the epitaph occur the
+following fine lines:
+
+INTEMERATA FIDE CONTEMPTO PRINCIPE MVNDI CONFESSVS XRM CAELESTIA REGNA
+PETISTI.
+
+"With unfaltering faith, despising the lord of the world, having
+confessed Christ, thou dost seek the celestial realms."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE BETRAYAL--THE PURSUIT.
+
+
+When the unhappy Isidorus discovered that through his cowardice and
+tergiversation, and through the confessions extorted from his
+distempered mind, a criminal charge had been trumped up against the fair
+Callirho[e:], whose beauty and grace had touched his susceptible
+imagination, he was almost beside himself with rage and remorse. He
+protested to the Prefect Naso and his disreputable son, Calphurnius,
+that she was as innocent as an unweaned babe of the monstrous crime
+alleged against her--that of conspiracy to poison her beloved mistress.
+
+"Accursed be the day," cried the wretched Isidorus, clenching his hands
+till his nails pierced the flesh, "accursed be the day when I first came
+to your horrid den to betray innocent blood. Would I had perished e'er
+it dawned."
+
+"Hark you, my friend," said Naso, "do you remember by what means you
+promised to earn the good red gold with which I bought you?"
+
+"Do not remind me of my shame in becoming a spy upon the Christians,"
+cried the Greek with a look of self-loathing and abhorrence.
+
+"Nay; 'by becoming one yourself,' that was the phrase as I wrote it on
+my tablets," sneered the prefect.
+
+"Would that I could become one!" exclaimed the unhappy man.
+
+"Suppose I take you at your word and believe you are one?" queried Naso
+with a malignant leer.
+
+"What new wickedness is this you have in your mind?" asked the Greek.
+
+"How would you like to share the doom of your friends, the old Jew and
+his pretty daughter, who are to be thrown to the lions to-day," went on
+the remorseless man, toying with his victim like a tiger with its prey.
+
+"Gladly, were I but worthy," said the Greek. "Had I their holy hopes, I
+would rejoice to bear them company."
+
+"But don't you see," said Naso, "a word of mine would send you to the
+arena, whether you like it or not? Your neck is in the noose, my
+handsome youth, and I do not think, with all your dexterity, you can
+wriggle out of it."
+
+"Oh! any fate but that!" cried the Greek, writhing in anguish. "Let me
+die as a felon, a conspirator, an assassin, if you will; but not by the
+doom of the martyrs."
+
+"Well, you see," went on the prefect, "justice is meted out to the
+Christians so much more swiftly and certainly than even against the
+worst of felons, that I am tempted to take this plan to secure you your
+deserts."
+
+The craven-spirited Greek, to whom the very idea of death was torture,
+blanched with terror and stood speechless, his tongue literally cleaving
+to the roof of his mouth.
+
+When the prefect perceived that he was sufficiently unnerved for his
+final experiment he unveiled his diabolical purpose.
+
+"Hark you, my friend," he whispered or rather hissed into his ear, "you
+may do the State, yourself, and me a service, that will procure you life
+and liberty and fortune. You know the way to the secret assemblies of
+the accursed Christian sect; lead hither a maniple of soldiers and your
+fortune's made."
+
+"Tempter, begone!" exclaimed the Greek in a moment of virtuous
+indignation, "you would make me worse than Judas whom the Christians
+execrate as the betrayer of his Master whom they worship."
+
+"As you please, my dainty youth," answered Naso, with his characteristic
+gesture of clutching his sword. "Prepare to feed the lions on the
+morrow," and he consigned him to a cell in the vaults of the Coliseum.
+
+Very different was the night spent by this craven soul to that of the
+destined martyrs. The darkness, to his distempered imagination, seemed
+full of accusing eyes, which glared reproach and vengeance upon him. The
+hungry lions' roar smote his soul with fearful apprehensions. When the
+savage bounds of the wild beasts shook his cell he cowered upon the
+ground, the picture of abject misery and despair.
+
+When by these mental tortures his nerves were all unstrung, the arch
+tempter silently entered his cell and whispered in his ear, "Well, my
+dainty Greek, are you ready for the games?"
+
+"Save me! save me!" cried the unhappy man, "any death but that! I will
+do anything to escape such a fearful doom."
+
+"I thought you would come to terms," replied the prefect, well skilled
+in the cruel arts of his office. "Life is sweet. Here is gold. By the
+service I require you shall earn liberty," and the compact was sealed
+whereby the Greek was to betray the subterranean hiding-places of the
+Christians to their enemies.
+
+Hence it was that at the dead of night, a band of Roman soldiers,
+reckless ruffians trained to slaughter in many a bloody war, marched
+under cover of darkness along the Appian Way to the villa of the Lady
+Marcella. It was the work of a moment to force the door of the vineyard
+and they soon reached the entrance to the Catacomb.
+
+"It is like a badger's burrow," said the officer in command. "We will
+soon bag our game, Here the old priest has his lair. Secure him at any
+cost. He is worth a score of the meaner vermin."
+
+Lighting their torches they inarched on their devious way under the
+guidance of Isidorus, who had written on a rude chart the number of
+turns to be made to the right or left. With Roman military foresight,
+the officer marked with chalk the route they took, and fixed
+occasionally a torch in the niches in the wall.
+
+Soon the soft, low cadence of the funeral hymn was heard, stealing
+weirdly on the ear, and a faint light glimmered from the chamber in
+which the Christians were paying the last rites to their martyred
+brethren.
+
+"They are at their incantations now," said the Centurion. "'Tis a fit
+place for their abominable orgies. Let us hasten, and we will spoil
+their wicked spells!" and he gave the command, at which the soldiers
+rushed forward toward the distant light.
+
+Instantly it disappeared, and when they reached the spot naught was
+seen, save the tomb of Adauctus; and in the distant darkness was heard
+the sound of hurrying feet.
+
+"The rats have fled," cried the officer; "after them, ferrets! Let not
+one escape!" and at the head of the maniple he darted down the echoing
+corridor.
+
+But Hilarus guided his friends amid the darkness more swiftly than the
+soldiers could pursue by the light of their torches. He followed many a
+devious winding, especially contrived to frustrate capture, and
+facilitate escape. Threading a very narrow passage, he drew from a niche
+a wooden ladder, and placing it against the wall reached a stairway
+which began high up near the roof. The whole party followed, and
+Hilarus, drawing up the ladder after him, completely cut off pursuit.
+They soon reached the comparatively lofty vaults of a deserted
+_arenarium_, or sand pit, which communicated with the open air. As he
+stood with bared brow beneath the light of the silent stars, the good
+Presbyter Primitius devoutly exclaimed:--"_Anima nostra sicut passer
+erepta est de lagueo venantium_--Our soul is escaped as a bird out the
+snare of the fowler, the snare is broken and we are escaped."
+
+The writer has not drawn upon his imagination in describing the
+arrangements for escape made by the persecuted Christians, when taking
+refuge in these dens and caves of the earth. In this very Catacomb of
+Callixtus, such a secret stairway still exists, and is illustrated by
+drawings in his book on this subject. The main entrance was completely
+obstructed and the stairway partially destroyed, so as to prevent
+ingress to the Catacomb, and a narrow stairway was constructed in the
+roof which could only be reached by a moveable ladder, connecting it
+with the floor. By drawing up this ladder pursuit could be easily cut
+off, and escape to a neighbouring _arenarium_ secured. Stores of corn,
+and oil, and wine have been found in these crypts, evidently as a
+provision in time of persecution; frequent wells also occur, amply
+sufficient for the supply of water; and the multitude of lamps which
+have been found would dispel the darkness, while their sudden extinction
+would prove the best concealment from attack by their enemies. Hence the
+Christians were stigmatized as a skulking, darkness-loving race,[55] who
+fled the light of day to burrow like moles in the earth. These
+labyrinths were admirably adapted for eluding pursuit. Familiar with
+their intricacies, and following a well-known clew, the Christian could
+plunge fearlessly into the darkness, where his pursuer would soon be
+inextricably lost.
+
+Such hairbreadth escapes as we have described from the Roman soldiers,
+like sleuth hounds tracking their prey, must have been no uncommon
+events in those troublous times. But sometimes the Christians were
+surprised at their devotions, and their refuge became their sepulchre.
+Such was the tragic fate of Stephen, slain even while ministering at the
+altar; such the event described by Gregory of Tours, when a hecatomb of
+victims were immolated at once by heathen hate; such the peril which
+wrung from a stricken heart the cry, not of anger but of grief, recorded
+on a slab in the Catacombs: _Tempora infausta, quibus inter sacra et
+vota ne in cavernis quidem salvari possimus!_--"Oh! sad times in which,
+among sacred rites and prayers, even in caverns, we are not safe." It
+requires no great effort of imagination to conceive of the dangers and
+escapes which must have been frequent episodes in the heroic lives of
+the early soldiers of the cross.
+
+With what emotions must the primitive believers, seeking refuge in these
+crypts, have held their solemn worship and heard the words of life,
+surrounded by the dead in Christ! With what power would come the
+promise of the resurrection of the body, amid the crumbling relics of
+mortality! How fervent their prayers for their companions in
+tribulation, when they themselves stood in jeopardy every hour! Their
+holy ambition was to witness a good confession even unto death. They
+burned to emulate the zeal of the martyrs of the faith, the plumeless
+heroes of a nobler chivalry than that of arms, the Christian athletes
+who won in the bloody conflicts of the arena, or amid the fiery tortures
+of the stake, not a crown of laurel or of bay, but a crown of life,
+starry and unwithering, that can never pass away. Their humble graves
+are grander monuments than the trophied tombs of Rome's proud conquerors
+upon the Appian Way. Reverently may we mention their names. Lightly may
+we tread beside their ashes.
+
+Though the bodily presence of those conscripts of the tomb no longer
+walked among men, their intrepid spirit animated the heart of each
+member of that little community of persecuted Christians, "of whom the
+world was not worthy; who wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in
+dens and caves of the earth, ... being destitute, afflicted,
+tormented."[56]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[55] Latebrosa et lucifugax natio. _Minuc. Felix._
+
+[56] Compare the following spirited lines of Bernis:--
+    "La terre avail gemi sous le fer des tyrans;
+    Elle cachait encore des martyrs expirans,
+    Qui dans les noirs detours des grottes reculees
+    Derobaient aux bourreaux leurs tetes mutilees."
+         _Poeme de la Religion Vengee,_ chap. viii.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+THE DOOM OF THE TRAITOR
+
+
+But what, meantime, had become of the pursuers? Baffled in their effort
+to seize their prey, and fearful of losing their way in this tangled
+labyrinth they had sullenly retreated, tracing their steps by the
+chalk-marks they had made upon the walls. At last, they returned to the
+stairway by which they had entered and so found their way above ground.
+
+"This is no work for soldiers," muttered the disgusted officer, "hunting
+these rats through their underground runs. They are a skulking set of
+vermin."
+
+"What has become of that coward Greek?" asked the second in command. "He
+didn't seem to half like the job."
+
+"Is he not here? Then he must have made his escape," said the Centurion.
+"But if he is caught in that rat-trap, there let him stay. I'll not risk
+a Roman soldier's life to save a craven Greek," and he gave the command
+to march back to the city.
+
+Meanwhile, how fares it with the unhappy Isidorus?
+
+When the soldiers caught sight of the Christians and began their
+pursuit, he had no heart to join in it, and lingered in the vaulted
+chamber where the funeral rites had been interrupted. The first thing
+that caught his eye was the epitaph of the noble Adauctus. With
+quavering voice he read the lines we have already given: "With
+unfaltering faith, despising the lord of the world, having confessed
+Christ, thou dids't seek the celestial realms."
+
+"And this was he," he soliloquised, "who gave up name, and fame, and
+fortune, high office, and the favour of the Emperor, and embraced shame,
+and persecution, and a cruel death for conscience sake. How grand he
+was that day when I warned him of the machinations of his foes--so
+undaunted and calm. But grander he is as he lies in the majesty of death
+behind that slab. I felt myself a coward in his living presence then,
+but in the presence of this dead map, I feel a greater coward still. His
+memory haunts, it tortures me, I must away!" and turning from, the
+chamber, he wandered by the dim light of his taper down the grave-lined
+corridor, pausing at times to read their humble inscriptions:--
+
+    Rudely written, but each letter
+    Full of hope, and yet of heart-break,
+    Full of all the tender pathos
+    Of the here and the hereafter.
+
+And their calmness and peacefulness seemed to reproach his
+conscience-smitten and unrestful soul.
+
+Listlessly he turned into another chamber, when, what was it that met
+his startled vision!--
+
+VALERIA DORMIT IN PACE.
+
+There slept in the sleep of death another victim of his perfidy, one
+whom he had longed to save, one whose beauty had fascinated his
+imagination, whose goodness had touched his heart. Overcome by his
+emotion he flung himself on the ground, and bursting into convulsive
+sobs that shook his frame, he passionately kissed the cold stone slab
+on which was written the much-loved name.
+
+"Would that I, too, slept the sleep of death," he exclaimed; "if I might
+also sleep in peace; if I might seek celestial realms.... So near and
+yet so far ... A great gulf fixed ... Never to see thee more ... in time
+nor in eternity."
+
+Here the drip, drip of water which had infiltrated through the roof and
+fell upon the floor, jarred upon his excited nerves, and suddenly, with
+a hissing splash, fell a great drop on his taper and utterly
+extinguished its light. For a moment, so intense and sudden was the
+darkness, he was almost dazed; but instantly the greatness of his peril
+flashed upon his mind.
+
+"Lost! Lost!" he frantically shrieked. "The outer darkness, the eternal
+wailing while she is in the light of life! Well I remember now the words
+of Primitius, in this very vault, as he spoke of the joys of heaven, the
+pains of hell;" and in the darkness he tried to trace with his finger
+the words, "DORMIT IN PACE"--"Sleeps in peace."
+
+_"Vale! Vale! Eternum Vale!"_ he sobbed, as he kissed once more the
+marble slab, "an everlasting farewell! I must try to find the
+Christians, or the soldiers, or a way of escape from this prison-house
+of graves."
+
+He groped his way to the door of the vault and listened, oh! so
+eagerly--all the faculties of his body and mind seeming concentered in
+his sense of hearing. But "the darkness gave no token and the silence
+was unbroken." Nay, so awful was the stillness that brooded over this
+valley of death, that it seemed as if the motion of the earth on its
+axis must be audible, and the pulses of his temples were to his tortured
+ear like the roaring of the distant sea.
+
+Venturing forth, he groped his way from grave to grave, from vault to
+vault, from corridor to corridor, but no light, no sound, no hope! Ever
+denser seemed the darkness, ever deeper the silence, ever more appalling
+the gloom. For hours he wandered on and on till, faint with hunger,
+parched with thirst, the throbbings, of his heart shaking his unnerved
+frame, he fell into a merciful swoon from which he never awoke.
+Centuries after, an explorer of this vast necropolis found crouching in
+the corner of one of its chambers a fleshless skeleton, and on the tomb
+above he read the words, VALERIA DORMIT IN PACE. Was it accident or
+Providence, or some strange instinct of locality that had brought this
+poor blighted wreck to breathe his latest sigh at the tomb of one whom
+he had so loved and so wronged?
+
+The peasants of the Campagna tell to the present day of certain strange
+sounds heard at midnight from those hollow vaults--at times like the
+hooting of an owl, at times like the wailing of the wind, and at times,
+they whisper with bated breath, like the moaning of a soul in pain. And
+the guides to the Catacombs aver, that ever on the anniversary of the
+martyrdom of Valeria Callirho[e:], sighs and groans echo through the hollow
+vaults--the sighs and groans, tradition whispers, of a wretched apostate
+who in the ages of persecution betrayed the early Christians to a
+martyr's doom.
+
+[Illustration: ROMAN COLUMRARIUM
+
+The Columbaria were the Pagan Roman underground sepulchres. In the many
+niche-like dovecots--hence the name were placed the urns containing the
+ashes of the dead whose bodies had been burned on the funeral pile.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+FATE OF THE PERSECUTORS--TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY.
+
+
+It remains only to trace briefly the fate of the unfortunate Empress
+Valeria--less happy than her lowly namesake, the martyr of the
+Catacombs--and the doom of the persecuting tyrants. In the violent and
+bloody deaths, often more terrible than those which they inflicted on
+the Christians, which overtook, with scarce an exception, these enemies
+of the Church of God, the early believers recognized a divine
+retribution no less inexorable than the avenging Nemesis of the Pagan
+mythology.[56]
+
+Diocletian, smitten by a mental malady, abandoned the throne of the
+world for the solitude of his palace on the Illyrian shores of the
+Adriatic, where tradition avers that he died by his own hand.
+
+A still more dreadful doom befell the fierce persecutor, Galerius.
+Consumed by the same loathsome and incurable disease which is recorded
+to have smitten his great rivals in bloodshed, Herod the Great and
+Philip II., from his dying couch he implored the prayers of the
+Christians, and, stung by remorse for his cruelties, commanded the
+surcease of their long and bitter persecution.
+
+The Empress Valeria, his widow, by her beauty had the ill fortune to
+attract the regards of his successor in persecution, the Emperor
+Maximin. Spurning his suit with the scorn becoming a pure and
+high-souled woman, at once the daughter and widow of an Emperor, she
+encountered his deadly hate. Her estates were confiscated, her trusted
+servants tortured, and her dearest friends put to death.
+
+"The Empress herself," says Gibbon, "together with her mother, Prisca,
+was condemned to exile; and as they were ignominiously hurried from
+place to place, before they were confined to a sequestered village in
+the deserts of Syria, they exposed their shame and distress to the
+provinces of the East, which during thirty years, had respected their
+august dignity." On the death of Maximin, Valeria escaped from exile and
+repaired in disguise to the court of his successor, Licinius, hoping for
+more humane treatment. But these hopes, to use again the language of
+Gibbon, "were soon succeeded by horror and astonishment, and the bloody
+execution which stained the palace of Nicomedia sufficiently convinced
+her that the throne of Maximin was filled by a tyrant more inhuman than
+himself. Valeria consulted her safety by hasty flight, and, still
+accompanied by her mother Prisca, they wandered above fifteen months
+through the provinces in the disguise of plebeian habits. They were at
+length discovered at Thessalonica; and as the sentence of their death
+was already pronounced, they were immediately beheaded and their bodies
+thrown into the sea. The people gazed on the melancholy spectacle; but
+their grief and indignation were suppressed by the terrors of a military
+guard. Such was the unworthy fate of the wife and daughter of
+Diocletian. We lament their misfortunes, we cannot discover their
+crimes."[58]
+
+At length, on the triumph of the British-born Emperor, Constantine, over
+his rivals for the throne of the world, like the trump of Jubilee, the
+edict of the toleration of Christianity, pealed through the land. It
+penetrated the gloomy dungeon, the darksome mine, the Catacombs' dim
+labyrinth, and from their sombre depths, vast processions of "noble
+wrestlers for religion," thronged to the long-forsaken churches, with
+grateful songs of praise to God.
+
+Christianity, after long repression, became at length triumphant. It
+emerged from the concealment of the Catacombs to the sunshine of
+imperial favour. Constantine, himself, proclaimed to eager thousands the
+New Evangel--the most august lay preacher the Church has ever known. The
+legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus strikingly illustrates the
+wondrous transformation of society. These Christian brothers, taking
+shelter in a cave during the Decian persecution, awoke, according to the
+legend, after a slumber of over a century, to find Christianity
+everywhere dominant, and a Christian Emperor on the throne of the
+C[ae]sars.[59] The doctrines of Christ, like the rays of the sun, quickly
+irradiated the world. With choirs and hymns, in cities and villages, in
+the highways and markets, the praises of the Almighty were sung. The
+enemies of God were as though they had not been.[60] The Lord brought up
+the vine of Christianity from a far country, and cast out the heathen,
+and planted and watered it, till it twined round the sceptre of the
+C[ae]sars, wreathed the columns of the Capitol, and filled the whole land.
+The heathen fanes were deserted, the gods discrowned, and the pagan
+flamen no longer offered sacrifice to the Capitoline Jove, Rome, which
+had dragged so many conquered deities in triumph at its chariot wheels,
+at length yielded to a mightier than all the gods of Olympus. The old
+faiths faded from the firmament of human thought as the stars of
+midnight at the dawn of day. The banished deities forsook their ancient
+seats. They walked no longer in the vale of Tempe nor in the grove of
+Daphne. The naiads bathed not in Scamander's stream nor Simois, nor the
+nereids in the waters of the bright [AE]gean Sea. The nymphs and dryads
+ceased to haunt the sylvan solitudes. The oriads walked no more in light
+on Ida's lofty top.
+
+    O ye vain false gods of Hellas!
+    Ye are vanished evermore!
+
+Long before the recognition of Christianity as the religion of the
+empire, its influence had been felt permeating the entire community.
+Amid the disintegration of society it was the sole conservative
+element--the salt which preserved it from corruption. In the midst of
+anarchy and confusion a community was being organized on a principle
+previously unknown in the heathen world, ruling not by terror but by
+love; by moral power, not by physical force; inspired by lofty faith
+amid a world of unbelief, and cultivating moral purity amid the reeking
+abominations of a sensual age.
+
+We should do scant justice to the blameless character, simple dignity,
+and moral purity of the primitive Christians, if we forgot the
+thoroughly effete and corrupt society by which they were surrounded. It
+would seem almost impossible for the Christian graces to grow in such a
+foetid atmosphere. Like the snow-white lily springing in virgin purity
+from the muddy ooze, they are more lovely by contrast with the
+surrounding pollutions. Like flowers that deck a sepulchre, breathing
+their fragrance amid scenes of corruption and death, are these holy
+characters, fragrant with the breath of heaven amid the social
+rottenness and moral death of their foul environment.
+
+It is difficult to imagine, and impossible to portray, the abominable
+pollutions of the times. "Society," says Gibbon, "was a rotten, aimless
+chaos of sensuality." It was a boiling Acheron of seething passions,
+unhallowed lusts, and tiger thirst for blood, such as never provoked
+the wrath of Heaven since God drowned the world with water, or destroyed
+the Cities of the Plain by fire. Only those who have visited the secret
+museum of Naples, or that house which no woman may enter at Pompeii, and
+whose paintings no pen may describe; or, who are familiar with the
+scathing denunciations of popular vices by the Roman satirists and
+moralists and by the Christian Fathers, can conceive the appalling
+depravity of the age and nation. St. Paul, in his epistle to the Church
+among this very people, hints at some features of their exceeding
+wickedness. It was to shame even to speak of the things which were done
+by them, but which gifted poets employed their wit to celebrate. A
+brutalized monster was deified as God, received divine homage,[61] and
+beheld all the world at his feet, and the nations trembled at his nod,
+while the multitude wallowed in a sty of sensuality.
+
+Christianity was to be the new Hercules to cleanse this worse than
+Augean pollution. The pure morals and holy lives of the believers were a
+perpetual testimony against abounding iniquity, and a living proof of
+the regenerating power and transforming grace of God. For they
+themselves, as one of their apologists asserts, "had been reclaimed
+from ten thousand vices;" and the Apostle, describing some of the vilest
+characters, exclaims, "such were some of you, but ye are washed, ye are
+sanctified." They recoiled with the utmost abhorrence from the
+pollutions of the age, and became indeed "the salt of the earth," the
+sole moral antiseptic to prevent the total disintegration of society.
+
+Thus amid idolatrous usages and unspeakable moral degradation the
+Christians lived, a holy nation, a peculiar people. "We alone are
+without crime," says Tertullian; "no Christian suffers but for his
+religion." "Your prisons are full," says Minutius Felix, "but they
+contain not one Christian." And these holy lives were an argument which
+even the heathen could not gainsay. The ethics of paganism were the
+speculations of the cultivated few who aspired to the character of
+philosophers. The ethics of Christianity were a system of practical duty
+affecting the daily life of the most lowly and unlettered. "Philosophy,"
+says Lecky, "may dignify, but is impotent to regenerate man; it may
+cultivate virtue, but cannot restrain vice." But Christianity introduced
+a new sense of sin and of holiness, of everlasting reward and of endless
+condemnation. It planted a sublime, impassioned love of Christ in the
+heart, inflaming all its affections. It transformed the character from
+icy stoicism or epicurean selfishness to a boundless and uncalculating
+self-abnegation and devotion.
+
+This divine principle developed a new instinct of philanthropy in the
+soul. A feeling of common brotherhood knit the hearts of the believers
+together. To love a slave! to love an enemy! was accounted the
+impossible among the heathen; yet this incredible virtue they beheld
+every day among the Christians. "This surprised them beyond measure,"
+says Tertullian, "that one man should die for another." Hence, in the
+Christian inscriptions no word of bitterness, even toward their
+persecutors, is to be found. Sweet peace, the peace of God that passeth
+all understanding, breathes on every side.
+
+One of the most striking results of the new spirit of philanthropy which
+Christianity introduced is seen in the copious charity of the primitive
+Church. Amid the ruins of ancient palaces and temples, theatres and
+baths, there are none of any house of mercy. Charity among the pagans,
+was at best, a fitful and capricious fancy. Among the Christians it was
+a vast and vigorous organization and was cultivated with noble
+enthusiasm. And the great and wicked city of Rome, with its fierce
+oppressions and inhuman wrongs, afforded amplest opportunity for the
+Christ-like ministrations of love and pity. There were Christian slaves
+to succour, exposed to unutterable indignities and cruel punishment,
+even unto crucifixion for conscience' sake. There were often martyrs'
+pangs to assuage, the aching wounds inflicted by the rack or by the
+nameless tortures of the heathen to bind up, and their bruised and
+broken hearts to cheer with heavenly consolation. There were outcast
+babes to pluck from death. There were a thousand forms of suffering and
+sorrow to relieve; and the ever-present thought of Him who came, not to
+be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for
+many, was an inspiration to heroic sacrifice and self-denial. And
+doubtless the religion of mercy won its way to many a stony pagan heart
+by the winsome spell of the saintly charities and heavenly benedictions
+of the persecuted Christians. This sublime principle has since covered
+the earth with its institutions of mercy, and with a passionate zeal has
+sought out the woes of raan in every land, in order to their relief.
+
+In the primitive Church voluntary collections[62] were regularly made
+for the poor, the aged, the sick, the brethren in bonds, and for the
+burial of the dead. All fraud and deceit was abhorred, and all usury
+forbidden. Many gave all their goods to feed the poor. "Our charity
+dispenses more in the streets," says Tertullian to the heathen, "than
+your religion in your temples." He upbraids them for offering to the
+gods only the worn-out and useless, such as is given to dogs. "How
+monstrous is it," exclaims the Alexandrian Clement, "to live in luxury
+while so many are in want." "As you would receive, show mercy," says
+Chrysostom; "make God your debtor that you may receive again with
+usury." The Church at Antioch, he tells us, maintained three thousand
+widows and virgins, besides the sick and the poor. Under the persecuting
+Decius the widows and the infirm under the care of the Church at Rome
+were fifteen hundred. "Behold the treasures of the Church," said St.
+Lawrence pointing to the aged and poor, when the heathen prefect came to
+confiscate its wealth. The Church in Carthage sent a sum equal to four
+thousand dollars to ransom Christian captives in Numidia. St. Ambrose
+sold the sacred vessels of the Church of Milan to rescue prisoners from
+the Goths, esteeming it their truest consecration to the service of
+God. "Better clothe the Christ," says living temples of Jerome, "than
+adorn the temples of stone." "God has no need of plates and dishes,"
+said Acacius, Bishop of Amida, and he ransomed therewith a number of
+poor captives. For a similar purpose Paulinus of Nola sold the treasures
+of his beautiful church, and, it is said, even sold himself into African
+slavery. The Christian traveller was hospitably entertained by the
+faithful; and before the close of the fourth century asylums were
+provided for the sick, aged, and infirm. During the Decian persecution,
+when the streets of Carthage were strewn with the dying and the dead,
+the Christians, with the scars of recent torture and imprisonment upon
+them, exhibited the nobility of a gospel revenge in their care for their
+fever-smitten persecutors, and seemed to seek the martyrdom of Christian
+charity, even more glorious than that they had escaped. In the plague of
+Alexandria, six hundred _parabolani_ periled their lives to succour the
+dying and bury the dead. Julian urged the pagan priests to imitate the
+virtues of the lowly Christians.
+
+Christianity also gave a new sanctity to human life. The exposure of
+infants was a fearfully prevalent pagan practice, which even Plato and
+Aristotle permitted. We have had evidences of the tender charity of the
+Christians in rescuing these foundlings from death, or from a fate more
+dreadful still--a life of infamy. Christianity also emphatically
+affirmed the Almighty's "canon 'gainst self-slaughter," which crime the
+pagans had even exalted into a virtue. It taught that a patient
+endurance of suffering, like Job's, exhibited a loftier courage than
+Cato's renunciation of life.
+
+We have thus seen from the testimony of the Catacombs, the immense
+superiority, in all the elements of true dignity and excellence, of
+primitive Christianity to the corrupt civilization by which it was
+surrounded. It ennobled the character and purified the morals of
+mankind. It raised society from the ineffable slough into which it had
+fallen, imparted tenderness and fidelity to the domestic relations of
+life, and enshrined marriage in a sanctity before unknown.
+Notwithstanding the corruptions by which it became infected in the days
+of its power and pride, even the worst form of Christianity was
+infinitely preferable to the abominations of paganism. It gave a
+sacredness before unconceived to human life. It averted the sword from
+the throat of the gladiator, and, plucking helpless infancy from
+exposure to untimely death, nourished it in Christian homes. It threw
+the [ae]gis of its protection over the slave and the oppressed, raising
+them from the condition of beasts to the dignity of men and the
+fellowship of saints. With an unwearied and passionate charity it
+yearned over the suffering and the sorrowing everywhere, and created a
+vast and comprehensive organization for their relief, of which the world
+had before no example and had formed no conception. It was a holy
+Vestal, ministering at the altar of humanity, witnessing ever of the
+Divine, and keeping the sacred fire burning, not for Rome, but for the
+world. Its winsome gladness and purity, in an era of unspeakable
+pollution and sadness, revived the sinking heart of mankind, and made
+possible a Golden Age in the future transcending far that which poets
+pictured in the past. It blotted out cruel laws, like those of Draco,
+written in blood, and led back Justice, long banished, to the judgment
+seat. It ameliorated the rigours of the penal code, and, as experience
+has shown, lessened the amount of crime. It created an art purer and
+loftier than that of paganism; and a literature rivaling in elegance of
+form, and surpassing in nobleness of spirit, the sublimest productions
+of the classic muse. Instead of the sensual conceptions of heathenism,
+polluting the soul, it supplied images of purity, tenderness, and
+pathos, which fascinated the imagination and hallowed the heart. It
+taught the sanctity of suffering and of weakness, and the supreme
+majesty of gentleness and truth.
+
+    NOTE.--The entire subject of Christian evidences from the
+    Catacombs, which has been so cursorily glanced at in the
+    foregoing pages, is treated with great fullness of detail and
+    copious pictorial illustration in a work by the writer, "The
+    Catacombs of Rome, and their Testimony Relative to Primitive
+    Christianity." Cr. 8vo, 560 pp., 136 engravings. New York:
+    Phillips & Hunt. Price $2.50. It discusses at length the
+    structure, origin, and history of the Catacombs; their art and
+    symbolism; their epigraphy as illustrative of the theology,
+    ministry, rites, and institutions of the primitive Church, and
+    Christian Life and Character in the early ages. The gradual
+    corruption of doctrine and practice and introduction of Romanist
+    errors, as the _cultus_ of Mary, the primacy of Peter, prayers
+    of the dead, the invocation of saints, the notion of purgatory,
+    the celibacy of the clergy rite of monastic orders, and other
+    allied subjects are fully treated.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[57] See Lactantius, _De Mortibus Persecutorum, Passim_; Eusebius _Hist.
+Ecclec._ viii, 17; ix. 9, 10; Tertullian _ad Scap._, c. 3.
+
+[58] Valeria quoque per varias provincias quindecim mensibus plebeio
+cultu pervagata.... Ita illis pudicitia et conditio exitio fuit.
+Lactantius _De Mart. Persec._ Cap. 51.
+
+[59] Even the sanguine imagination of Tertullian cannot conceive the
+possibility of this event "Sed et C[ae]sares credidissent super Christo,"
+he exclaims, "si aut C[ae]sares non essent seculo necessario, aut si et
+Christiani potuissent esse C[ae]sares." _Apol._, c. 21.
+
+[60] Literally, "They are no more because they never were." Eusebius
+applies, the promises of Scripture concerning the restoration of the
+exiled Jews from Babylon (Psa. lxxx; xcviii;) to the condition of
+Christianity in his day. The above citations are given in his very
+words.
+
+[61] While yet alive, Domitian was called, "our Lord and God"--_Dominus
+et Deus noster._
+
+[62] Nemo compellitur, sed sponte confert _Tertul Apol._ c. 39.
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Valeria, by William Henry Withrow
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