 Section 26. The Great Events by Famous Historians Volume 3. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Rita Butros. The Great Events by Famous Historians Volume 3. Edited by Charles F. Horne, Rosseter Johnson, and John Root. Persecution of the Christians in Gaul, A.D. 177 by Francois P. Guisot. Part 1. That the persecutions of Christians under the Roman Empire should have been inaugurated by a Nero is not a subject of wonder in view of that emperor's character as depicted in history through all ages since his own. But it is difficult to understand how an emperor like Trajan, an enlightened and humane ruler, if he was powerless to prevent, could have brought himself to give countenance to a policy at once so intolerant and cruel and in the end to prove so short-sighted. A great cause prospers by persecution. The martyr's spirit is strengthened by blows and faggots. History has well proved the truth of that saying of the church fathers, tersely given by Saint Jerome. Est sanguus martyrium seminarium ecclesiarum. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Still more incomprehensible to modern students is the fact that Marcus Aurelius, the imperial philosopher and benevolent man, should also be stained with the infamy of the persecutions. The charges brought against him as a cruel persecutor of the Christians have given rise to much dispute among historical scholars. Among modern Christian writers of favorable disposition toward Marcus, F. W. Ferrar has perhaps as clearly as any set forth the views that explain his conduct and vindicate his reputation for humanity. That he shared the profound dislike with which Christians were regarded is very probable. That he was a cold-blooded and virulent persecutor is utterly unlike his whole character. The deep calamities in which during his whole reign the empire was involved caused widespread distress and roused into peculiar fury the feelings of the provincials against men whose atheism, for such they considered it to be, had kindled the anger of the gods. Marcus, when appealed to, simply let the existing law take its course. In like manner the purely official or legal view of human affairs often leads the most kindly and conscientious of men to pursue or acquiesce in policies against which, in different situations, their moral nature would rebel. There were many reasons which led the populace to hate Christians whom, first of all, they regarded as being unpatriotic. While among Romans it was considered the highest honor to possess the privileges of Roman citizenship, the Christians announced that they were citizens of heaven. They shrank from public office and military service. Again, the ancient religion of Rome was an adjunct of state dignity and ceremonial. It was hallowed by a thousand traditional and patriotic associations. The Christians regarded its rights and its popular assemblies with contempt and abhorrence. The Romans viewed the secret meetings of the Christians with suspicion and accused them of abominable excesses and crime. They were known to have representatives in every important city of Gaul, Spain, Italy and Asia, and the more their communities grew, the more the Roman populace raged against them. Only such considerations appeared to mitigate the historical judgments against Aurelius for marring the splendor of his reign by persecutions. The tragedies enacted in the churches of Lyon and Vienne as described in the following pages form one of the most melancholy records of history. When Christianity began to penetrate into Gaul, it encountered there two religions very different one from the other and infinitely more different from the Christian religion. These were druidism and paganism, hostile one to the other, but with a hostility political only and unconnected with those really religious questions that Christianity was coming to raise. Druidism, considered as a religion, was a mass of confusion wherein the instinctive notions of the human race concerning the origin and destiny of the world and of mankind were mingled with the oriental dreams of metempsychosis that pretended transmigration at successive periods of immortal souls into diverse creatures. This confusion was worse confounded by traditions borrowed from the mythologies of the east and the north by shadowy remnants of a symbolical worship paid to the material forces of nature and by barbaric practices such as human sacrifices in honor of the gods or of the dead. People who are without the scientific development of language and the art of writing do not attain to systematic and productive religious creeds. There is nothing to show that from the first appearance of the Gauls in history to their struggle with victorious Rome the religious influence of druidism had caused any notable progress to be made in Gallic manners and civilization. A general and strong but vague and incoherent belief in the immortality of the soul was its noblest characteristic. With the religious elements at the same time course and mystical were united two facts of importance. The druids formed a veritable ecclesiastical corporation which had throughout Gallic society fixed attributes, special manners and customs and existence at the same time distinct and national. And in the wars with Rome this corporation became the most faithful representatives and the most persistent defenders of Gallic independence and nationality. The druids were far more a clergy than druidism was a religion but it was an organized and a patriotic clergy. It was especially on this account that they exercised in Gaul an influence which was still existent particularly in northwestern Gaul at the time when Christianity reached the Gallic provinces of the south and center. The Greco-Roman paganism was at this time far more powerful than druidism in Gaul and yet more lukewarm and destitute of all religious vitality. It was the religion of the conquerors and of the state and was invested in that quality with real power but beyond that it had but the power derived from popular customs and superstitions. As a religious creed the Latin paganism was at bottom empty indifferent and inclined to tolerate all religions in the state provided only that they in their turn were indifferent at any rate toward itself and that they did not come troubling the state either by disobeying her rulers or by attacking her old deities dead and buried beneath their own still standing altars. Such were the two religions with which in Gaul nascent Christianity had to contend compared with them it was to all appearance very small and very weak but it was provided with the most efficient weapons for fighting and beating them for it had exactly the moral forces which they lacked. Christianity instead of being like a druidism a religion exclusively national and hostile to all that was foreign proclaimed a universal religion free from all local and national partiality addressing itself to all men in the name of the same God and offering to all the same salvation. It is one of the strangest and most significant facts in history that the religion most universally human most dissociated from every consideration but that of the rights and well-being of the human race in its entirety that such a religion be it repeated should have come forth from the womb of the most exclusive most rigorously and obstinately national religion that ever appeared in the world that is Judaism. Such nevertheless was the birth of Christianity and this wonderful contrast between the essence and the earthly origin of Christianity was without doubt one of its most powerful attractions and most efficacious means of success. Against paganism Christianity was armed with moral forces not a wit less great confronting mythological traditions and poetical or philosophical allegories appeared a religion truly religious concerned solely with the relations of mankind to God and with their eternal future. To the pagan indifference of the Roman world the Christians opposed the profound conviction of their faith and not only their firmness in defending it against all powers and all dangers but also their ardent passion for propagating it without any motive but the yearning to make their fellows share in its benefits and its hopes. They confronted nay they welcomed martyrdom at one time to maintain their own Christianity at another to make others Christians around them. Propagandism was for them a duty almost as imperative as fidelity. And it was not in memory of old and obsolete mythologies but in the name of recent deeds and persons in obedience to laws proceeding from God one and universal in fulfillment and continuation of a contemporary and superhuman history that of Jesus Christ the son of God and son of man that the Christians of the first two centuries labored to convert to their faith the whole Roman world. Marcus Aurelius was contemptuously astonished at what he called the obstinacy of the Christians. He knew not from what source these nameless heroes drew a strength superior to his own though he was at the same time emperor and sage. It is impossible to assign with exactness the date of the first footprints and first labors of Christianity and Gaul. It was not however from Italy nor in a Latin tongue and through Latin writers but from the east and through the Greeks that it first came and began to spread. Marseille and the different Greek colonies originally from Asia Minor and settled upon the shores of the Mediterranean or along the Rhone marked the route and were the places where the first Christian missionaries carried their teaching. On this point the letters of the apostles and the writings of the first two generations of their disciples are clear and abiding proof. In the west of the empire especially in Italy the Christians at their first appearance were confounded with the Jews and comprehended under the same name. The emperor Claudius says Suetonius drove from Rome, AD 52, the Jews who at the instigation of Christus were in continual commotion. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, AD 70, the Jews Christian or not dispersed throughout the empire but the Christians were not slow to signalize themselves by their religious fervor and to come forward everywhere under their own true name. Leon became the chief center of Christian preaching and association in Gaul. As early as the first half of the second century there existed there a Christian congregation regularly organized as a church and already sufficiently important to be an intimate and frequent communication with the Christian churches of the east and west. There is a tradition generally admitted that St. Pothinas, the first bishop of Leon, was sent thither from the east by the bishop of Smyrna, St. Polycarp, himself a disciple of St. John. One thing is certain that the Christian church of Leon produced Gaul's first martyrs among whom was the bishop St. Pothinas. It was under Marcus Aurelius, the most philosophical and most conscientious of the emperors, that there was enacted for the first time in Gaul against nascent Christianity that scene of tyranny and barbarity which was to be renewed so often and during so many centuries in the midst of Christendom itself. In the eastern provinces of the empire and in Italy the Christians had already been several times persecuted now with cold-blooded cruelty, now with some slight hesitation and irresolution. Nero had caused them to be burned in the streets of Rome accusing them of the conflagration he himself had kindled and a few months before his fall St. Peter and St. Paul had undergone martyrdom at Rome. Domitian had persecuted and put to death Christians even in his own family and though invested with the honors of the consulate. Righteous Trajan, when consulted by Pliny the Younger on the conduct he should adopt in Bithynia toward the Christians, had answered, It is impossible in this sort of matter to establish any certain general rule. There must be no quest set on foot against them and no unsigned indictment must be accepted but if they be accused and convicted they must be punished. To be punished it's sufficed that they were convicted of being Christians and it was Trajan himself who condemned St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, to be brought to Rome and thrown to the beasts for the simple reason that he was highly Christian. Marcus Aurelius, not only by virtue of his philosophical conscientiousness but by reason of an incident in his history, seemed bound to be further than any other from persecuting the Christians. During one of his campaigns on the Danube, AD 174, his army was suffering cruelly from fatigue and thirst and at the very moment when they were on the point of engaging in a great battle against the barbarians, the rain fell in abundance, refreshed the Roman soldiers and conduced to their victory. There was in the Roman army a legion, the 12th, called the Melatine or the Thundering, which bore on its role many Christian soldiers. They gave thanks for the rain and the victory to the one omnipotent God who had heard their prayers while the pagans rendered like honor to Jupiter, the rain giver and the thunderer. The report about these Christians got spread abroad and gained credit in the empire, so much so that there was attributed to Marcus Aurelius a letter in which by reason no doubt of this incident he forbade persecution of the Christians. Tertullian, a contemporary witness, speaks of this letter in perfect confidence and the Christian writers of the following century did not hesitate to regard it as authentic. Nowadays, a strict examination of its existing text does not allow such a character to be attributed to it. At any rate, the persecutions of the Christians are not forbidden, for in the year 177, that is, only three years after the victory of Marcus Aurelius over the Germans, there took place undoubtedly by his orders the persecution which caused at Lyon the first Gallic martyrdom. This was the fourth, or according to others, the fifth great imperial persecution of the Christians. Most tales of the martyrs were written long after the event and came to be nothing more than legends laden with details often utterly purile or devoid of proof. The martyrs of Lyon in the second century wrote, so to speak, their own history, for it was their comrades, eyewitnesses of their sufferings and their virtue, who gave an account of them in a long letter addressed to their friends in Asia Minor and written with passionate sympathy and pious prolixity, but bearing all the characteristics of truth. It seems desirable to submit for perusal that document which has been preserved almost entire in the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in the third century, and which will exhibit better than any modern representations the state of facts and of souls in the midst of the imperial persecutions and the mighty faith, devotion, and courage with which the early Christians faced the most cruel trials. The servants of Christ, dwelling at Vienna and Lyon in Gall, to the brethren settled in Asia and Frigia, who have the same faith and hope of redemption that we have, peace, grace, and glory from God, the Father and Jesus Christ, our Lord. None can tell to you in speech or fully set forth to you in writing the weight of our misery, the madness and rage of the Gentiles against the saints, and all that hath been suffered by the blessed martyrs. Our enemy, Doth, rush upon us with all the fury of his powers, and already giveth us a foretaste and the first fruits of all the license with which he Doth intend to set upon us. He hath omitted nothing for the training of his agents against us, and he Doth exercised them in a sort of preparatory work against the servants of the Lord. Not only are we driven from the public buildings, from the baths, and from the forum, but it is forbidden to all our people to appear publicly in any place whatsoever. The grace of God hath striven for us against the devil, at the same time that it hath sustained the weak, it hath opposed to the evil one, as it were pillars of strength, men strong and valiant, ready to draw on themselves all his attacks. They have had to bear all manner of insult. They have deemed but a small matter that which others find hard and terrible. And they have thought only of going to Christ, proving by their example that the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be put in the balance with the glory which is to be manifested in us. They have endured in the first place all the outrages that could be heaped outcries, blows, thefts, spoilation, stoning, imprisonment, all that the fury of the people could devise against hated enemies. Then, dragged to the forum by the military tribune and the magistrates of the city, they have been questioned before the people and cast into prison until the coming of the governor. He, from the moment our people appeared before him, committed all manner of violence against them. Then stood forth one of our brethren, Veteus Epagathus, full of love toward God and his neighbor, living a life so pure and strict that, young as he was, men held him to be the equal of the aged Zacharias. He could not bear that judgment so unjust should go forth against us. And moved with indignation, he asked leave to defend his brethren and to prove that there was in them no kind of irreligion or impiety. Those present at the tribunal, among whom he was known and celebrated, cried out against him, and the governor himself enraged at so just a demand, asked him no more than this question, art thou a Christian? Straightway, with a loud voice, declared himself a Christian and was placed among the number of the martyrs. Afterward, the rest began to be examined and classed. The first, firm and well-prepared, made hearty and solemn confession of their faith. Others, ill-prepared and with little firmness, showed that they lacked strength for such a fight. About ten of them fell away, which caused us incredible pain and mourning. Their example broke down the courage of others, who, not being yet in bonds, though they had already had much to suffer, kept close to the martyrs and withdrew not out of their sight. Then were we all stricken with dread for the issue of the trial, not that we had great fear of the torments inflicted, but because prophesying the result according to the degree of courage of the accused, we feared much falling away. They took, day by day, those of our brethren who were worthy to replace the weak so that all the best of the two churches, those whose care and zeal had founded them, were taken and confined. They took likewise some of our slaves for the governor had ordered that they should be all summoned to attend in public, and they, fearing the torments, they saw the saints undergo, and instigated by the soldiers, accused us falsely of odious deeds such as the banquet of thiestes, the incest of Oedipus, and other crimes which must not be named or even thought of, and which we cannot bring ourselves to believe that men were ever guilty of. These reports, having once spread among the people, even those persons who had hitherto by reason perhaps of relationship shown moderation towards us, burst forth into bitter indignation against our people. Thus was fulfilled that which had been prophesied by the Lord, the time cometh when whosoever shall kill you shall think that he doeth God's service. Since that day the holy martyrs have suffered tortures that no words can express. The fury of the multitude of the governor and of the soldiers fell chiefly upon Sanctus, a deacon of Vienne, upon Maturus, a neophyte still, but already a valiant champion of Christ, upon Adolis also, born at Pergamos, but who hath ever been one of the pillars of our church, upon Blandina, lastly, in whom Christ hath made it appear that persons who seem vile and despised of men are just those whom God holds in the highest honor by reason of the excellent love they bear him, which is manifested in their firm virtue and not in vain show. All of us, and even Blandina's mistress here below who fought valiantly with the other martyrs feared that this poor slave so weak of body would not be in a condition to freely confess her faith. But she was sustained by such vigor of soul that the executioners who from mourn till eve put her to all manner of torture failed in their efforts and declared themselves beaten, not knowing what further punishment to inflict, and marveling that she still lived with her body pierced through and through and torn piecemeal by so many tortures of which a single one should have sufficed to kill her. But that blessed saint, like a valiant athlete, took fresh courage and strength from the confession of her faith, all feeling of pain vanished and ease returned to her at the mere utterance of the words I am a Christian and no evil is wrought among us. As for Sanctus, the executioners hoped that in the midst of the tortures inflicted upon him the most atrocious which man could devise, they would hear him say something unseemly or unlawful. But so firmly did he resist them that without even saying his name or that of his nation or city or whether he was bond or free, he only replied in the Roman tongue to all questions, I am a Christian. Therein was for him his name, his country, his condition, his whole being and never could the Gentiles rest from him another word. The fury of the governor and the executioners was redoubled against him and not knowing how to torment him further, they applied to his most tender members bars of red-hot iron. His members burned but he upright and immovable persisted in his profession of faith as if living waters from the bosom of Christ flowed over him and refreshed him. Some days after these infidels began again to torture him believing that if they inflicted upon his blistering wounds the same agonies they would triumph over him who seemed unable to bear the mere touch of their hands and they hoped also that the sight of his torturing alive would terrify his comrades. But contrary to general expectation the body of Sanctus rising suddenly up stood erect and firm amid these repeated torments and recovered its old appearance and the use of its members as if by divine grace this second laceration of his flesh had caused healing rather than suffering. End of Section 26 Part 1 Section 27 The Great Events by Famous Historians Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Rita Butros The Great Events by Famous Historians Volume 3 Edited by Charles F. Horn, Rossiter Johnson and John Roode Section 27 Persecution of the Christians in Gaul A.D. 177 Part 2 by Francois P.G. Guiseaux When the tyrants had thus expended and exhausted their tortures against the firmness of the martyrs sustained by Christ, the devil devised other contrivances. They were cast into the darkest and most unendurable place in their prison. Their feet were dragged out and compressed to the utmost tension of the muscles. The jailers, as if instigated by a demon, tried every sort of torture in so much that several of them for whom God willed such an end died of suffocation in prison. Others who had been tortured in such a manner that it was thought impossible they should long survive deprived as they were of every remedy and aid from men, but supported nevertheless by the grace of God remained sound and strong in body as in soul and comforted and reanimated their brethren. The blessed Pathanus, who held at that time the bishopric of Lyon being upward of 90 and so weak in body that he could hardly breathe, was himself brought before the tribunal so worn with old age and sickness that he seemed nigh to extinction, but he still possessed his soul wherewith to subserve the triumph of Christ. Being brought by the soldiers before the tribunal whether he was accompanied by all the magistrates of the city and the whole populace that pursued him with hootings he offered as if he had been the very Christ the most glorious testimony. At a question from the governor who asked what the God of the Christians was he answered, if thou be worthy, thou shalt know. He was immediately raised up without any respect or humanity and those were showered upon him. Those who happened to be nearest to him assaulted him grievously with foot and fist without the slightest regard for his age. Those who were farther off cast at him whatever was to their hand. They would all have thought themselves guilty of the greatest default if they had not done their best each on his own score to insult him brutally. They believed they were avenging the wrongs of their gods. Pothinas, still breathing was cast again into prison and two days after yielded up his spirit. Then were manifested a singular dispensation of God and the immeasurable compassion of Jesus Christ. An example rare among brethren but in accord with the intentions and the justice of the Lord all those who at their first arrest had denied their faith and themselves cast into prison and given over to the same sufferings as the other martyrs for their denial did not serve them at all. Those who had made profession of being what they really were that is Christians were imprisoned without being accused of other crimes. The former on the contrary were confined as homicides and wretches thus suffering double punishment. This sort found repose in the honorable joys of martyrdom in the hope of promised blessedness in the love of Christ and in the spirit of God the Father. The other were a prey to the reproaches of conscience. It was easy to distinguish the one from the other by their looks. The one walked joyously bearing on their faces a majesty mingled with sweetness and their very bonds to them and ornament even as the broitery that decks a bride. The other with downcast eyes and humble and dejected air were an object of contempt to the Gentiles themselves who regarded them as cowards who had forfeited the glorious and saving name of Christians and so they who were present at this double spectacle were thereby signally strengthened and whoever among them was to be arrested confessed the faith without doubt or hesitation. Things having come to this pass different kinds of death were inflicted on the martyrs and they offered to God a crown of diverse flowers. It was but right that the most valiant champions those who had sustained a double assault and gained a signal victory should receive a splendid crown of unity. The Neophyte, Maturus and the Deacon Sanctus Blandina and Adilis then were led into the amphitheater and thrown to the beast as a sight to please the inhumanity of the Gentiles. Maturus and Sanctus there underwent all kinds of tortures as if they had hitherto suffered nothing or rather like athletes who had already been several times furious and were contending for the crown of crowns they braved the stripes with which they were beaten the bites of the beasts that dragged them to unfro and all that was demanded by the outcries of an insensate mob so much the more furious because it could by no means overcome the firmness of the martyrs or extort from Sanctus any other speech than that which on the first day they uttered I am a Christian after this fearful contest as life was not extinct their throats were at last cut when they alone had thus been offered as a spectacle to the public instead of the variety displayed in the combat of gladiators Blandina in her turn tied to a stake was given to the beast she was seen hanging as it were sort of cross calling upon God with trustful fervor and the brethren present were reminded in the person of a sister of him who had been crucified for their salvation as none of the beast would touch the body of Blandina she was released from the stake taken back to prison and reserved for another occasion Adelus whose execution seeing that he was a man of mark was furiously demanded by the people came forward ready to brave everything as a man deriving confidence from the memory of his life for he had courageously trained himself to discipline and had always among us born witness for the truth he was led all around the amphitheater preceded by a board bearing this inscription in Latin this is Adelus the Christian the people pursued him with the most furious hootings but the governor having learned that he was a Roman citizen had him taken back to prison with the rest having subsequently written to Caesar he waited for his decision as to those who were thus detained this delay was neither useless nor unprofitable for then shone forth the boundless compassion of Christ those of the brethren who had been but dead members of the church were recalled to life by the pains and help of the living the martyrs obtained grace for those who had fallen away and great was the joy in the church at the same time virgin and mother for she once more found living those whom she had given up for dead thus revived and strengthened by the goodness of God Philip not the death of the sinner but rather invited him to repentance they presented themselves before the tribunal to be questioned afresh by the governor Caesar had replied that they who confessed themselves to be Christians should be put to the sword and they who denied sent away safe and sound when the time for the great market had fully come there assembled a numerous multitude from every nation and every province the governor had the blessed martyrs brought up before his judgment seat showing them before the people with all the pomp of a theater he questioned them afresh and those who were discovered to be Roman citizens were beheaded the rest were thrown to the beast great glory was gained for Christ by means of those who had at first denied faith and who now confessed it contrary to the expectation of the Gentiles those who having been privately questioned declared themselves Christians were added to the number of the martyrs those in whom appeared no vestige of faith and no fear of God remained without the pale of the church when they were dealing with those who had been reunited to it one Alexander a Phrygian by nation a physician by profession who had for many years been dwelling in Gaul a man well known to all for his love of God and open preaching of the faith took his place in the hall of judgment exhorting by signs all who filled it to confess their faith even as if he had been called in to deliver them of it the multitude enraged to see that those who had at first denied turned round and proclaimed their faith cried out against Alexander whom they accused of the conversion the governor forthwith asked him what he was and at the answer I am a Christian condemned him to the beast on the morrow Alexander was again brought up together with Adilis whom the governor to please the people had once more condemned peace after they had both suffered in the amphitheater all the torments that could be devised they were put to the sword Alexander uttered not a complaint not a word he had the air of one who was talking inwardly with God Adilis seated on an iron seat and waiting for the fire to consume his body said in Latin to the people see what you are doing truth devouring men as for us we devour not men and we do no evil at all he was asked what was the name of God God said he is not like us mortals he hath no name after all these martyrs on the last day of the shows Blandina was again brought up together with a young lad named Ponticus about 15 years old they had been brought up every day before that they might see the tortures of their brethren when they were called upon to swear by the altars of the gentiles they remained firm in their faith making no account of those pretended gods and so great was the fury of the multitude against them that no pity was shown for the age of the child or the sex of the woman tortures were heaped upon them they were made to pass through every kind of torment but the desired end was not gained supported by the exhortations of his sister who was seen and heard by the gentiles Ponticus after having endured all magnanimously gave up the ghost Blandina last of all like a noble mother that hath roused the courage of her sons for the fight and sent them to seek her for their king passed once more through all the tortures they had suffered anxious to go and rejoin them and rejoicing at each step toward death at length after she had undergone fire the talons of beasts and agonizing aspersion she was wrapped in a network and thrown to a bull that tossed her in the air she was already unconscious of all that befell and seemed altogether taken up with watching for the blessings that Christ had in store for her even the gentiles allowed that never a woman had suffered so much or so long still their fury and their cruelty toward the saints were not appeased they devised another way of raging against them they cast to the dogs the bodies of those who had died of suffocation in prison and watched night and day that none of our brethren might come and bury them and for what remained of the martyrs half mangled or devoured corpses they left them exposed under a guard of soldiers coming to look on them with insulting eyes and saying where is now their god of what used to them was this religion for which they laid down their lives we were overcome with grief we were not able to bury these poor corpses nor the darkness of night nor gold nor prayers could help us to succeed therein after being thus exposed for six days in the open air given over to all manner of outrage the corpses of the martyrs were at last burned reduced to ashes and cast hither and thither by the infidels upon the waters that there might be left no trace of them on earth they acted as if they had been more mighty than god and could rob our brethren of their resurrection tis in that hope said they that these folk bring among us a new and strange religion that they said it not the most painful torments and that they go joyfully to face death let us see if they will rise again god will come to their aid and will be able to tear them from our hands it is not without a painful effort that even after so many centuries we can resign ourselves to be witnesses in imagination only of such a spectacle we can scarce believe that among men of the same period and of the same city so much ferocity could be displayed in opposition to so much courage the passion for barbarity against the passion for virtue nevertheless such is history and it should be represented as it really was first of all for truth's sake then for the due appreciation of virtue and all it costs of effort and sacrifice and lastly for the purpose of showing what obstacles have to be surmounted what struggles endured sufferings born when the question is the accomplishment of great moral and social reforms Marcus Aurelius was without any doubt a virtuous ruler and one who had it in his heart to be just and humane but he was an absolute ruler that is to say one fed entirely on his own ideas very ill informed about the facts on which he had to decide and without a free public to warn him of the errors of his ideas or the practical results of his decrees he ordered the persecution of the Christians without knowing what the Christians were or what the persecution would be and this conscientious philosopher let loose at Leon against the most conscientious of subjects the zealous servility of his agents and the ferocious passions of the mob the persecution of the Christians did not stop at Leon or with Marcus Aurelius it became during the third century the common practice of the emperors in all parts of the empire from AD 202 to 312 under the reigns of Septimius Severus Maximinus I Aurelian Diocletian Maximian and Galerius there are reckoned six great general persecutions without counting others more circumscribed or less severe the emperors Alexander Severus Philip the Arabian and Constantius Chlorus were almost the only exceptions to this cruel system and nearly always the pagan mob in its brutality or fanatical superstition added to imperial rigor its own atrocious and cynical excesses but Christian zeal was superior in perseverance and efficacy to pagan persecution Saint Pothines the martyr was succeeded as bishop at Leon by Saint Iranius the most learned, most judicious and most illustrious of the early heads of the church in Gaul originally from Asia Minor probably from Smyrna he had migrated to Gaul at what particular date is not known and had settled as a simple priest in the diocese of Leon where it was not long before he exercised vast influence as well on the spot as also during certain missions entrusted to him and among them one they say to the pope Saint Eleutherius at Rome while bishop of Leon from AD 177 to 202 he employed the 5 and 20 years in propagating the Christian faith in Gaul and in defending by his writings the Christian doctrines against the discord to which they had already been subjected in the east and which was beginning to penetrate the west in 202 during the persecution instituted by Septimius Severus Saint Iranius crowned by martyrdom his active and influential life it was in his episcopate that there began what may be called the swarm of Christian missionaries who toward the end of the second and during the third century spread over the whole of Gaul preaching the faith and forming churches some went from Leon at the instigation of Saint Iranius others from Rome especially under the pontificate of Pope Saint Fabian himself martyred in 249 Saint Felix and Saint Fortunatus to Valence Saint Ferriol to Besencon Saint Marcellus to Céline Cersei Saint Benignus to Dijon Saint Trofimus to Arles Saint Paul to Narbon Saint Saturnanus to Toulouse Saint Martial to Limoges Saint Andiol and Saint Privatus to the Seven Saint Ostromoin to Clément Ferrand Saint Gallien to Tour Saint Danis to Paris and so many others that their names are scarcely known beyond the pages of erudite historians or the very spots where they preached, struggled and conquered often at the price of their lives such were the founders of the faith and of the Christian church in France at the commencement of the fourth century their work was if not accomplished at any rate triumphant and when AD 312 Constantine declared himself a Christian he confirmed the fact of the conquest of the Roman world and of Gaul in particular by Christianity no doubt the majority of the inhabitants were not as yet Christians but it was clear that the Christians were in the ascendant and had command of the future of the two grand elements which were to meet together on the ruins of Roman society for the formation of modern society the moral element the Christian religion had already taken possession of souls the devastated territory awaited the coming of new peoples known to history under the general name of Germans whom the Romans called the barbarians end of section 27 section 28 of the great events by famous historians volume 3 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Ryan Fahey Fairfield Connecticut the great events by famous historians volume 3 edited by Charles F. Horn Rossiter Johnson and John Rudd section 28 beginning of Rome's decline Commodus AD 180 by Edward Gibbon had a ruler of such noble character as the Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius should have had for his son and successor a man like Commodus is one of the strange contrasts of history the succession of Commodus marking as it does the beginning of the decline of the great empire may be regarded as one of the most critical moments in the existence of Rome how folly and cruelty shameless vice and unbridled ferocity may be associated in the same character often been illustrated in the careers of the world's rulers and nowhere more conspicuously than in some of the Roman emperors and in the case of Commodus the combination of these qualities led to acts which involved not only the emperor himself but also the empire over which he ruled in fatal consequences this vast empire composed of many different peoples was under the rule and subject to the caprice of one man the form of the government imposed practically no checks on his power with such able emperors as Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius the state was safe but the wise men of Rome had foreseen that a tyrant or weak and inexperienced ruler under this system might plunge the empire into confusion and ruin yet they had made no provision against such a contingency in the death of such a ruler and the accession of an abler and juster one lay their only hope of amelioration the presence of events during the bloody reign of the degenerate Commodus was such as surely to forecast the decline of Roman power and supremacy in the next hundred years there were 23 emperors 13 of whom were murdered by their own soldiers or servants a tragic period of cruelty licentiousness and decay if a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus the vast extent of the Roman Empire was governed by absolute power under the guidance of virtue and wisdom the armies were restrained by the firm but gentle hand of four successive emperors whose characters and authority commanded in voluntary respect the forms of the civil administration were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines who delighted in the image of liberty and were pleased with considering themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws such princes deserved the honor of restoring the Republic had the Romans of their days been capable of enjoying a rational freedom the labors of these monarchs were overpaid by the immense reward that inseparably waited on their success by the honest pride of virtue and by the exquisite delight of beholding the general happiness of which they were the authors a just but melancholy reflection embittered, however, the noblest of human enjoyments they must often have recollected the instability of a happiness which depended on the character of a single man the fatal moment was perhaps approaching when some licentious youth or some jealous tyrant would abuse to the destruction that absolute power which they had exerted for the benefit of their people the ideal restraints of the senate and the laws might serve to display the virtues but could never correct the vices of the emperor the military force was a blind and irresistible instrument of oppression and the corruption of Roman manners would always supply flatterers eager to applaud and ministers prepared to serve the fear or the avarice the lust or the cruelty of their masters these gloomy apprehensions had been already justified by the experience of the Romans the annals of the emperors exhibit a strong and various picture of human nature which we should vainly seek among the mixed and doubtful characters of modern history in the conduct of those monarchs we may trace the utmost lines of vice and virtue the most exalted perfection and the meanest degeneracy of our own species the mildness of Marcus Aurelius which the rigid discipline of the stoics was unable to eradicate formed at the same time the most amiable and the only defective part of his character his excellent understanding was often deceived by the unsuspecting goodness of his heart artful men who studied the passions of princes and concealed their own approached his person in the disguise of philosophic sanctity and acquired riches and honors by affecting to despise them his excessive indulgence to his brother his wife and his son exceeded the bounds of private virtue and became a public injury by the example and consequences Faustina the daughter of Pius and the wife of Marcus has been as much celebrated for her gallantries as for her beauty the grave simplicity of the philosopher was ill calculated to engage her wanton levity or to fix that unbouted passion for variety which often discovered personal merit in the meanest of mankind the cupid of the ancients was in general a very sensual deity and the amours of an empress as they exact on her side the plainest advances are seldom susceptible of much sentimental delicacy Marcus was the only man in the empire who seemed ignorant or insensible of the irregularities of Faustina which according to the prejudices of every age reflected some disgrace on the injured husband he promoted several of her lovers to post of honor and profit and during a connection of 30 years invariably gave her proofs of the most tender confidence and of a respect which ended not with her life in his meditations he thanks the gods who had bestowed on him a wife so faithful so gentle and of such a wonderful simplicity of manners the obsequious senate at his earnest request declared her a goddess she was represented in her temples with the attributes of Juno Venus and Ceres and it was decreed that on the day of their nuptials the youth of either sex should pay their vows before the altar the monstrous vices of the son have cast a shade on the purity of the father's virtues it has been objected to Marcus that he sacrificed the happiness of millions to a fond partiality for a worthless boy and that he chose a successor in his own family rather than in the empire nothing however was neglected by the anxious father and by the men of virtue and learning whom he summoned to his assistants to expand the narrow mind of young comotus to correct his growing vices and to render him worthy of the throne for which he was designed but the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous the distasteful lesson of a grave philosopher was in a moment obliterated by the whisper of a profligate favorite and Marcus himself blasted the fruits of this labored education by admitting his son at the age of 14 or 15 to a full participation of the imperial power he lived but four years afterward but he lived long enough to repent a rash measure which raised the impetuous youth above the restraint of reason and authority most of the crimes which disturb the internal peace of society are produced by the restraints which the necessary but unequal laws of property have imposed on the appetites of mankind by confining to a few the possession of those objects that are coveted by many of all our passions and appetites the love of power is of the most imperious and unsociable nature since the pride of one man requires the submission of the multitude in the tumult of civil discord the laws of society lose their force and their place is seldom supplied by those of humanity the ardor of contention the pride of victory the despair of success the memory of past injuries and the fear of future dangers all contribute to inflame the mind and to silence the voice of pity the history has been stained with civil blood but these motives will not account for the unprovoked cruelties of comatis who had nothing to wish in everything to enjoy the beloved son of marcus succeeded to his father amid the acclimations of the senate and armies and when he ascended the throne the happy youth saw around him neither competitor to remove nor enemies to punish in this calm elevated station it was surely natural that he should prefer detestation the mild glories of his five predecessors to the ignominious fate of Nero and Domitian yet comatis was not as he has been represented a tiger born with an insatiate thirst of human blood and capable from his infancy of the most inhuman actions nature had formed him of a weak rather than a wicked disposition his simplicity and timidity rendered him the slave of his attendants who gradually corrupted his mind and his tendency which had first obeyed the dictates of others degenerated into habit and at length became the ruling passion of his soul upon the death of his father comatis found himself embarrassed with the command of a great army and the conduct of a difficult war against the quadi and marcomani the servile and profligate youths whom marcus had banished soon regained their station in influence about the new emperor they exaggerated the hardships and dangers and they assured the indolent prince that the terror of his name and the arms of his lieutenants would be sufficient to complete the conquest of the dismayed barbarians or to impose such conditions as were more advantageous than any conquest by a dexterous application to his sensual appetites they compared the tranquility, the splendor the refined pleasures of Rome with the tumult of a panonian camp which afforded neither leisure nor materials for luxury the prince listened to the pleasing advice but while he hesitated between his own inclination and the awe which he still retained for his father's counselors the summer insensibly elapsed and his triumphal entry into the capital was deferred till the autumn his graceful person, popular address and imagined virtues attracted the public favor the honorable peace which he had recently granted to the barbarians diffused a universal joy his impatience to revisit Rome thrived to the love of his country and his disillute course of amusements was faintly condemned in a prince of nineteen years of age during the three first years of his reign the forms and even the spirit of the old administration were maintained by those faithful counselors to whom Marcus had recommended his son and for whose wisdom and integrity Commodus still entertained a reluctant esteem the young prince and his profligate favorites reveled in all the license of sovereign power but his hands were yet unstained with blood and he had even displayed a generosity of sentiment which might perhaps have ripened into solid virtue a fatal incident decided his fluctuating character one evening as the emperor was returning to the palace through a dark and narrow portico in the amphitheater an assassin who waded his passage rushed upon him with a drawn sword loudly exclaiming the senate sends you this the menace prevented the deed the assassin was seized by the guards and immediately revealed the authors of the conspiracy it had been formed not in the state but within the walls of the palace Lucilla the emperor's sister and widow of Lucius Virus impatient of the second rank and jealous of the reigning empress had armed the murderer against her brother's life she had not ventured to communicate the black design to her second husband Claudius Pompeianus a senator of distinguished merit and unshaken loyalty after the crowd of her lovers for she imitated the manners of Faustina she found men of desperate fortunes and wild ambition who were prepared to serve her more violent as well as her tender passions the conspirators experienced the rigor of justice and the abandoned princess was punished first with exile and afterward with death but the words of the assassin sunk deep into the mind of Commodus and left an indelible impression of fear and hatred against the whole body of the senate those whom he had dreaded as importunate ministers he now suspected as secret enemies the delators, a race of men discouraged and almost extinguished under the former reigns, again became formidable as soon as they discovered that the emperor was desirous of finding disaffection and treason in the senate that assembly whom Marcus had ever considered as the great council of the nation was composed of the most distinguished of the Romans and distinction of every kind soon became criminal the profession of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers rigid virtue implied a tacit censure of the irregularities of Commodus important services implied a dangerous superiority of merit and the friendship of the father always ensured the aversion of the son suspicion was equivalent to proof trial to condemnation the execution of a considerable senator was attended with the death of all who might lay meant or revenge his fate and when Commodus had once tasted human blood he became incapable of pity or remorse of these innocent victims of tyranny none died more lamented than the two brothers of the quintillion family Maximus and Condianus whose fraternal love has saved their names from oblivion and endeared their memory to posterity their studies and their occupations their pursuits and their pleasures were still the same in the enjoyment of a great estate they never admitted the idea of a separate interest some fragments are now extant of a treatise which they composed in common and in every action of life it was observed that their two bodies were animated by one soul the Antonines who valued their virtues and delighted in their union raised them in the same year to the consulship and Marcus afterward entrusted to their joint care the civil administration of Greece and a great military command in which they obtained a signal victory over the Germans the kind cruelty of Commodus who united them in death the tyrants rage after having shed the noblest blood of the senate at length recoiled on the principal instrument of his cruelty while Commodus was immersed in blood and luxury he devolved the detail of the public business on Parenis a servile and ambitious minister who had obtained his post by the murder of his predecessor but who possessed a considerable share of vigor and ability by acts of extortion by his avarice he had accumulated an immense treasure the Praetorian guards were under his immediate command and his son who already discovered a military genius was at the head of the Illyrian legions Parenis aspired to the empire or what in the eyes of Commodus amounted to the same crime he was capable of aspiring to it had he not been prevented, surprised and put to death the fall of a minister is a very trifling incident in the general history of the empire he was hastened by an extraordinary circumstance which proved how much the nerves of discipline were already relaxed the legions of Britain, discontented with the administration of Parenis formed a deputation of 1500 select men with instructions to march to Rome and lay their complaints before the emperor these military petitioners by their own determined behavior by inflaming the divisions of the guards by exaggerating the strength of the British army and by alarming the fears of Commodus exacted and obtained the minister's death as the only redress of their grievances this presumption of a distant army and their discovery of the weakness of government were a sure presage of the most dreadful convulsions the negligence of the public administration was betrayed soon afterward by a new disorder which arose from the smallest beginnings a spirit of desertion began to prevail among the troops and the deserters instead of seeking their safety or flight or concealment infested the highways Maternis, a private soldier of a daring boldness above his station collected those bands of robbers into a little army set open the prisons invited the slaves to assert their freedom and plotted with impunity the rich and defenseless cities of Gaul and Spain the governors of the provinces who had long been the spectators and perhaps the partners of his depredations were at length roused from their supine indolence by the threatening commands of the emperor Maternis found that he was encompassed and foresaw that he must be overpowered a great effort of despair was his last resource he ordered his followers to disperse to pass the Alps in small parties and various disguises and to assemble at Rome during the licentious tumult of the festival of Sebel to murder Commodus and to ascend the vacant throne were the ambition of no vulgar robber his measures were so ably concerted that the skilled troops already filled the streets of Rome the envy of an accomplice discovered and ruined this singular enterprise in the moment when it was ripe for execution suspicious princes often promote the last of mankind from a vain persuasion that those who have no dependence except on their favor will have no attachment except to the person of their benefactor Cleander, the successor of Parenis was a Phrygian by birth of a nation over whose stubborn emperor, blows only could prevail he had been sent from his native country to Rome in the capacity of a slave as a slave he entered the imperial palace rendered himself useful to his master's passions and rapidly ascended to the most exalted station which a subject could enjoy his influence over the mind of Commodus was much greater than that of his predecessor for Cleander was devoid of any ability or virtue which could inspire the emperor with envy or distrust avarice was the reigning passion of his soul and the great principle of his administration the rank of consul, of patrician of senator was exposed to public sale and it would have been considered as disaffection if anyone had refused to purchase these empty and disgraceful honors with the greatest part of his fortune in the lucrative provincial employments the minister shared with the governor the spoils of the people the execution of the laws was venal and arbitrary a wealthy criminal might obtain not only the reversal of the sentence by which he was justly condemned but might likewise inflict whatever punishment he pleased on the accuser the witnesses and the judge by these means Cleander in the space of three years had accumulated more wealth than had ever yet been possessed by any freedmen Commodus was perfectly satisfied with the magnificent presence which the artful courtier laid at his feet in the most seasonable moments to divert the public envy Cleander the emperor's name erected baths, porticoes and places of exercise for the use of the people he flattered himself that the Romans dazzled and amused by this apparent liberality would be less affected by the bloody scenes which were daily exhibited that they would forget the death of Beerus a senator to whose superior merit the late emperor had granted one of his daughters and that they would forgive the execution of Arius Antoninus the last representative of the name the virtues of the Antonines the former with more integrity than prudence had attempted to disclose to his brother-in-law the true character of Cleander inequitable sentence pronounced by the latter when procounsel of Asia against a worthless creature of the favorite proved fatal to him after the fall of Parenis the terrors of Commodus had for a short time assumed the appearance of a return to virtue he repealed the most odious of his acts loaded his memory with the public execration and ascribed to the pernicious councils of that wicked minister all the errors of his inexperienced youth but his repentance lasted only 30 days and under Cleander's tyranny the administration of Parenis was often regretted pestilence and famine contributed to fill up the measure of the calamities of Rome the first could be only imputed to the just indignation of the gods but a monopoly of corn supported by the riches and power of the minister was considered as the immediate cause of the second the popular discontent after it had long circulated in whispers broke out in the assembled circus the people quitted their favorite amusements for the more delicious pleasure of revenge rushed in crowds toward a palace in the suburbs one of the emperor's retirements and demanded with angry clamors the head of the public enemy Cleander who commanded the praetorian guards ordered a body of cavalry to valley forth and disperse the seditious multitude the multitude fled with precipitation toward the city several were slain and many more were trampled to death but when the cavalry entered the streets their pursuit was checked by a shower of stones and darts from the roofs and windows of the houses the foot guards who had long been jealous of the prerogatives and insolence of the praetorian cavalry embraced the party of the people the tumult became a regular engagement and threatened a general massacre the praetorians at length gave way oppressed with numbers and the tide of popular fury returned with redoubled violence against the gates of the palace where comatose lay dissolved in luxury and alone unconscious of the civil war he was death to approach his person with the unwelcome news he would have perished in this supine security had not two women his eldest sister Fadilla and Marsha the most favorite of his concubines ventured to break into his presence bathed in tears and with disheveled hair they threw themselves at his feet and with all the pressing eloquence of fear discovered to the affrighted emperor the crimes of the minister the rage of the people and the impending ruin which in a few minutes would burst over his palace and person comatose started from his dream of pleasure and commanded that the head of Kliander should be thrown out to the people the desired spectacle instantly appeased and the son of Marcus might even yet have regained the affection and confidence of his subjects but every sentiment of virtue and humanity was extinct in the mind of comatose while he thus abandoned the reigns of empire to these unworthy favorites he valued nothing in sovereign power except the unbounded license of indulging his sensual appetites the influence of a polite age and the labor of an attentive education had never been able to infuse into his rude and brutish mind the least tincture of learning and he was the first of the Roman emperors totally devoid of taste for the pleasures of the understanding Nero himself excelled or affected to excel in the elegant arts of music and poetry nor should we despise his pursuits had he not converted the pleasing relaxation of a leisure hour into the serious business and ambition of his life but comatose from his earliest infancy discovered in aversion to whatever was rational or liberal and a fond attachment to the amusements of the populace the sports of the circus and amphitheater the combats of gladiators and the hunting of wild beasts the masters in every branch of learning whom Marcus provided for his son were heard with inattention and disgust while the Moors and Parthians who taught him to dart the javelin and to shoot with the bow found a disciple who delighted in his application and soon equaled the most skillful instructors in the steadiness of the eye and the dexterity of the hand the servile crowd whose fortune depended on their masters vices applauded these ignoble pursuits the perfidious voice of flattery reminded him that by exploits of the same nature, by the defeat of the Neemian lion and the slaughter of the wild boar of Aramanthus the Grishian Hercules had acquired a place among the gods and an immortal memory among men they only forgot to observe that in the first ages of society when the fiercer animals often dispute with man the possession of an unsettled country a successful war against those savages is one of the most innocent and beneficial labors of heroism in the civilized state of the Roman Empire the wild beasts had long since retired from the face of man and the neighborhood of populous cities to surprise them in their solitary haunts and to transport them to Rome that they might be slain and pomp by the hand of an emperor to surprise equally ridiculous for the prince and oppressive for the people ignorant of these distinctions Commodus eagerly embraced the glorious resemblance and styled himself as we still read on his medals the Roman Hercules the club and the lion's hide were placed by the side of the throne among the ensigns of sovereignty and statues were erected in which Commodus was represented in the character and with the attributes of the god whose valor and dexterity he endeavored in the daily course of his ferocious amusements elated with these praises which gradually extinguished the innate sense of shame Commodus resolved to exhibit before the eyes of the Roman people those exercises which till then he had decently confined within the walls of his palace and to the presence of a few favorites on the appointed day the various motives of flattery fear and curiosity attracted to the amphitheater an innumerable multitude of spectators with some degree of applause was deservedly bestowed on the uncommon skill of the imperial performer whether he aimed at the head or heart of the animal the wound was alike certain and mortal with arrows whose point was shaped into the form of a crescent Commodus often intercepted the rapid career and cut asunder the long bony neck of the ostrich a panther was let loose and the archer waited till he had leaped upon a trembling malifactor in the same instant the shaft flew the beast dropped dead and the man remained unhurt the dens of the amphitheater discouraged at once a hundred lions a hundred darts from the unerring hand of Commodus laid them dead as they ran raging round the arena neither the huge bulk of the elephant nor the scaly hide of the rhinoceros could defend them from his stroke Ethiopia and India yielded their most extraordinary productions and several animals were slain in the amphitheater which had been seen only in the representations of art or perhaps of fancy in all these exhibitions the secure precautions were used to protect the person of the Roman Hercules from the desperate spring of any savage who might possibly disregard the dignity of the emperor and the sanctity of the god but the meanest of the populace were affected with shame and indignation when they beheld their sovereign enter the lists as a gladiator and glory in a profession which the laws and manners of the Romans had branded with the justice note of infamy he chose the habit and arms of the Secutor whose combat with the Retiarius formed one of the most lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphitheater the Secutor was armed with a helmet sword and buckler his naked antagonist had only a large net and a trident with the one he endeavored to entangle with the other to dispatch his enemy if he missed the first throw he was obliged to fly from the pursuit of the Secutor till he had prepared the net for his second cast the emperor fought in this character 735 several times these glorious achievements were carefully recorded in the public acts of the empire and that he might omit no circumstance of infamy he received from the common fund of gladiators a stipend so exorbitant that it became a new and most ignominious tax upon the Roman people it may be easily supposed that in these engagements the master of the world was always successful in the amphitheater his victories were not often sanguinary but when he exercised his skill in the school of gladiators or his own palace his wretched antagonists were frequently honored with a mortal wound from the hand of comatose and obliged to seal their flattery with their blood he now disdained the appellation of Hercules the name of Paulus a celebrated Secutor was the only one which delighted his ear he was inscribed on his colossal statues and repeated in the redoubled acclamations of the mournful and applauding senate Claudius Pompeonus the virtuous husband of Lucilla was the only senator who asserted the honor of his rank as a father he permitted his sons to consult their safety by attending the amphitheater as a Roman he declared that his own life was in the emperor's hands but that he would never behold the son of Marcus prostituting his person and dignity notwithstanding his manly resolution Pompeonus escaped to the resentment of the tyrant and with his honor had the good fortune to preserve his life Comanus had now attained the summit of vice and infamy amid the acclamations of a flattering court he was unable to disguise from himself that he had deserved the contempt and hatred of every man of sense and virtue in his empire his ferocious spirit was irritated by the consciousness of that hatred by the envy of every kind of merit by the just apprehension of danger and by the habit of slaughter which he contracted in his daily amusements history has preserved a long list of consular senators sacrificed to his wanton suspicion which sought out with peculiar anxiety those unfortunate persons connected however remotely with the family of the Antonines without sparing even the ministers of his crimes or pleasures his cruelty proved at last fatal to himself he had shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome he perished as soon as he was dreaded by his own domestics Marsha his favorite concubine Eclectus his chamberlain and Laetus his praetorian prefect alarmed by the fate of their companions and predecessors resolved to prevent the destruction which every hour hung over their heads either from the mad caprice of the tyrant or the sudden indignation of the people Marsha sees the occasion of presenting a draught of wine to her lover after he had fatigued himself with hunting some wild beasts Comanus retired to sleep but while he was laboring with the effects of poison and drunkenness a robust youth by profession a wrestler entered his chamber and strangled him without resistance the body was secretly conveyed out of the palace before the least suspicion was entertained in the city or even in the court of the emperor's death such was the fate of the son of Marcus and so easy was it to destroy a hated tyrant who by the artificial powers of government had oppressed in 13 years so many millions of subjects each of whom was equal to their master in personal strength and personal abilities end of section 28 section 29 of the great events by famous historians volume 3 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Ryan Fahey Fairfield Connecticut the great events by famous historians volume 3 edited by Charles F. Horn Rossiter Johnson and John Rudd section 29 eventful reign of Sappore the First King of Persia AD 240 by George Rawlinson under Mithridati's the first the Parthian Empire rose to great power and that monarch about BC 163 conquests toward the west by BC 150 he had added to his possessions media magna, susaniana Babylonia Assyria proper and Persia the Persians appear to have yielded without resistance to his rule and he governed them with a fair degree of moderation allowing them as was the Parthian policy toward subject peoples a large measure of self-government under their hereditary native kings the king of kings exacting little from them besides regular tribute and the required number of men for his armies the Parthian Empire was in turn overthrown by Artaxer or Artaxerxes who about BC 226 defeated and killed Artavan the last Parthian king and became the chief founder of the Sasanian dynasty which ruled Persia until the Mohammedan invasion the victories of Artaxerxes had fatal results for the Roman power in the east for the new head of the Persian monarchy was no sooner established on his throne that he sent an embassy to the Roman emperor Alexander Severus to demand from him the surrender of all Asia and the withdrawal of Roman arms and authority to the western shores of the Aegean sea and of the propontus as the sea of Marmora was anciently called from this began a series of wars which continued at intervals for four centuries and which ended only with the Mohammedan conquests that overwhelmed Roman and Persian power alike the first campaigns of the Romans against Artaxerxes were indecisive but the renewal of the war in the reign of his son Sapor I was followed by disasters to the Roman arms which Rawlinson describes in his most lucid and vigorous manner with the other feats of this remarkable man Artaxerxes appears to have died in AD 240 he was succeeded by his son Shupuri or Sapor the first Sasanian prince of that name according to the Persian historians the mother of Sapor was a daughter of the last Parthian king Artabanus whom Artaxerxes had taken to wife after his conquest of her father but the facts known of Sapor throw doubt on this story which has too many parallels in oriental romance to claim implicit credence nothing authentic has come down to us respecting Sapor during his father's lifetime but from the moment that he mounted the throne we find him engaged in a series of wars which show him to have been of a most active and energetic character Armenia which Artaxerxes had subjected attempted it would seem to regain its independence at the commencement of the reign but Sapor easily crushed the nascent insurrection and the Armenians made no further effort to free themselves till several years after his death contemporaneously with this revolt in the mountain region of the north a danger showed itself in the plains country of the south where Manizan, king of Hatra or Al Haider not only declared himself independent but assumed dominion over the entire tract between the Euphrates and the Tigris the jazeera of the Arabian geographers the strength of Hatra was great as had been proved by Trajan and Severus its thick walls and valiant inhabitants would probably have defied every attempt of the Persian prince to make himself master of it by force he therefore resorted to stratagem Manizan had a daughter who cherished precious views on obtaining a promise from Sapor that if she gave Hatra into his power he would make her his queen this unnatural child turned against her father betrayed him into Sapor's hands and thus brought the war to an end Sapor recovered his lost territory but he did not fulfill his bargain instead of marrying the traitorous he handed her over to an executioner to receive the death that she had deserved though scarcely at his hands encouraged by his success in these two lesser contests Sapor resolved apparently in AD 241 to resume the bold projects of his father and engage in a great war with Rome the confusion and troubles which afflicted the Roman Empire at this time where such as might well give him hopes of obtaining a decided advantage Alexander his father's adversary had been murdered in AD 235 by Maximon who from the condition of a Thracian peasant had risen into the higher ranks of the army the upstart had ruled like the savage that he was and after three years of misery the whole Roman world had risen against him two emperors had been proclaimed in Africa on their fall two others had been elected by the senate a third, a mere boy had been added at the demand of the Roman populace all the pretenders except the last had met with violent deaths and after the shocks of a year unparalleled since AD 69 the administration of the greatest kingdom in the world was in the hands of a youth of 15 Sapor no doubt thought he saw in this condition of things an opportunity that he ought not to miss and rapidly matured his plans lest the favorable moment should pass away in the old Tigris into Mesopotamia the bands of Sapor first attacked the important city of Nisibis Nisibis, at the time a Roman colony was strongly situated on the outskirts of the mountain range which traverses northern Mesopotamia between the 37th and 38th parallels the place was well fortified and well defended it offered a prolonged resistance but the walls were breached the advance was then made along the southern flank of the mountains by Karhai, Heron and Edessa to the Euphrates which was probably reached in the neighborhood of Berezhik the hordes then poured into Syria and spreading themselves over that fertile region surprised and took the metropolis of the Roman east the rich and luxurious city of Antioch but meantime the Romans had shown a spirit which had not been expected from them Gordian, young as he was had quitted Rome and marched through Moesia and Thrace into Asia accompanied by a formidable army and by at least one good general Temes Atheus whose daughter Gordian had recently married though his life had hitherto been that of a civilian exhibited on his elevation to the dignity of Praetorian prefect considerable military ability the army, nominally commanded by Gordian really acted under his orders with it Temes Atheus attacked and beat the bands of Sapor in a number of engagements recovered Antioch, crossed the Euphrates retook Karhai defeated the Persian monarch in a pitched battle near Rassina Reis El-En recovered Nysibis and once more planted the Roman standards on the banks of the Tigris Sapor hastily evacuated most of his lands and retired first across the Euphrates and then across the more eastern river while the Romans advanced as he retreated placed garrisons in the various Mesopotamian towns and even threatened the great city of Tessiphon Gordian was confident that his general would gain further triumphs and wrote to the senate to that effect but either disease or the arts of a rival cut short the career of the victor and from the time of his death to be successful the legions had it would seem invaded southern Mesopotamia when the Praetorian prefect who had succeeded Temes Atheus brought them intentionally into difficulties by his mismanagement of the commissariat and at last retreat was determined on the young emperor had almost reached his own frontier when the discontent of the army fomented by the prefect Philip came to a head and was murdered at a place called Zaitha about 20 miles south of Circassium and was buried where he fell the soldiers raising a tumulus in his honor his successor Philip was glad to make peace on any tolerable terms with the Persians he felt himself insecure upon his throne and was anxious to obtain the senate's sanction of his usurpation he therefore quitted the east in AD 244 having concluded a treaty with Sapor by which our media seems to have been left to the Persians while Mesopotamia returned to its old condition of a Roman province the peace made between Philip and Sapor was followed by an interval of 14 years during which scarcely anything is known of the condition of Persia we may suspect that troubles in the northeast of his empire occupied Sapor during this period for at the end of it we find Bactria which was certainly subject to Persia during the earlier years of the monarchy occupying an independent position and even assuming an attitude of hostility toward the Persian monarch Bactria had from a remote antiquity claims to preeminence among the Aryan nations she was more than once inclined to revolt from the Akkaimenadi and during the later Parthian period she had enjoyed a sort of semi-independence it would seem that she now succeeded in detaching herself altogether from her southern neighbor and becoming a distinct and separate power to strengthen her position she entered into relations with Rome which gladly welcomed any adhesions to her cause in this remote region Sapor's second war with Rome was, like his first, provoked by himself after concluding his peace with Philip he had seen the Roman world progressively by six weak emperors of whom four had died violent deaths while at the same time there had been a continued series of attacks upon the northern frontiers of the empire by Alemani, Goths, and Franks who had ravaged at will a number of the finest provinces and threatened the absolute destruction of the great monarchy of the west it was natural that the chief kingdom of western Asia should note these events and should seek to promote its own interests by taking advantage of the circumstances of the time Sapor, in AD 258 determined on a fresh invasion of the Roman provinces and once more entering Mesopotamia carried all before him became master of Nisibis Carhai and Odessa and, crossing the Euphrates surprised Antioch which was wrapped in the enjoyment of historical and other representations and only knew its fate on the exclamation of a couple of actors that the Persians were in possession of the town the aged emperor Valerian hastened to the protection of his more eastern territories and at first gained some successes retaking Antioch and making that city his headquarters during his stay in the east but after this the tide turned Valerian entrusted the whole conduct of the war to Macrianus his praetorian prefect whose talents he admired and of whose fidelity he did not entertain a suspicion Macrianus, however, aspired to the empire and intentionally brought Valerian into difficulties in the hope of disgracing or removing him his tactics were successful the Roman army in Mesopotamia was betrayed into a situation whence escape was impossible and where its capitulation was only a question of time a bold attempt made to force a way through the enemy's lines failed utterly after which famine and pestilence began to do their work in vain did the aged emperor send envoys to propose a peace and offered to purchase escape by the payment of an immense sum in gold Sappor, confident of victory refused the overture and waiting patiently till his adversary was at the last gasp invited him to a conference and then treacherously seized his person the army surrendered or dispersed Macrianus the praetorian prefect shortly assumed the title of emperor and marched against Galeanus the son and colleague of Valerian who had been left to direct affairs in the west but another rival started up in the east Sappor conceived the idea of complicating the Roman affairs by himself putting forward a pretender and an obscure citizen of Antioch a certain myriades or siriades a refugee in his camp was invested with the purple and assumed the title of Caesar the blow struck at Odessa laid the whole of Roman Asia open to attack and the Persian monarch was not slow to seize the occasion his troops crossed the Euphrates and marching on Antioch once more captured that unfortunate town from which the more prudent citizens had withdrawn but where the bulk of the people not displeased at the turn of affairs remained and welcomed the conqueror myriades was installed in power while Sappor himself at the head of his irresistible squadrons pressed forward bursting like a mountain torrent into Solitia and thence into Cappadocia Tarsus the birthplace of Saint Paul at once a famous seed of learning in a great emporium of commerce fell Solitia Campestris was overrun and the passes of Taurus deserted or weakly defended by the Romans came into Sappor's hand penetrating through them and entering the campaign country beyond his bands soon began the siege of Caesarea Mazzaca the greatest city of these parts estimated at this time to have contained a population of 400,000 souls Demosthenes the governor of Caesarea defended it bravely and had force only been used against him might have prevailed but Sappor found friends within the walls and by their help made himself master of the place while its bold defender was obliged to content himself with escaping by cutting his way through the victorious host all Asia Minor now seemed open to the conqueror and it is difficult to understand why he did not at any rate attempt a permanent occupation of the territory which he had so easily overrun but it seems certain that he entertained no such idea devastation and plunder revenge and gain not permanent conquest were his objects and hence his course was everywhere marked by ruin and carnage by smoking towns ravaged fields and heaps of slain his cruelties have no doubt been exaggerated but when we hear that he filled the ravines and valleys of Cappadocia with dead bodies and so led his cavalry across them that he depopulated Antioch killing or carrying off into slavery almost the whole population that he suffered his prisoners in many cases to perish of hunger and that he drove them to water once a day like beasts we may be sure that the guys in which he showed himself to the Romans was that of a merciless scourge an avenger bent on spreading the terror of his name not of one who really sought to enlarge the limits of his empire during the whole course of this plundering expedition until the retreat began we hear but of one check that the bands of Sappor received it had been determined to attack Amisa one of the most important of the Syrian towns where the temple of Venus was known to contain a vast treasure the invaders approached scarcely expecting to be resisted but the high priest of the temple having collected a large body of peasants appeared in his sacerdotal robes at the head of a fanatic multitude armed with slings and succeeded in beating off the assailants Amisa, its temple and its treasure escaped the rapacity of the Persians and an example of resistance was set which was not perhaps without important consequences for it seems certain that the return of Sappor across the Euphrates was not affected without considerable loss and difficulty on his advance into Syria he had received an embassy from a certain Odinathus Assyrian or Arab chief who occupied a position of semi-independence at Palmyra which through the advantages of its situation had lately become a flourishing commercial town Odinathus sent a long train of camels laden with gifts consisting in part of rare and precious merchandise to the Persian monarch begging him to accept them and claiming his favorable regard on the ground that he had hitherto refrained from all acts of hostility against the Persians It appears that Sappor took offense at the tone of the communication and was humble to please him tearing the letter to fragments and trampling it beneath his feet he exclaimed who is this Odinathus and of what country that he ventures thus to address his lord let him now if he would lighten his punishment come here and fall prostrate before me with his hands tied behind his back should he refuse let him be well assured that I will destroy himself his race and his land he ordered his servants to cast the costly presence of the Palmyrene Prince into the Euphrates this arrogant and offensive behavior naturally turned the willing friend into an enemy Odinathus, finding himself forced into a hostile position took arms and watched his opportunity so long as Sappor continued to advance he kept aloof as soon however as the retreat commenced and the Persian army encumbered with its spoil and captives proceeded to make its way back slowly and painfully to the Euphrates Odinathus who had collected a large force in part from the Syrian villages in part from the wild tribes of Arabia made his appearance in the field his light and agile horsemen hovered about the Persian host cut off their stragglers made prize a much of their spoil and even captured a portion of the suraglio of the great king the harassed troops were glad when they had placed the Euphrates between themselves and their pursuer and congratulated each other on their escape so much had they suffered and so little did they feel equal to further conflicts that on their march through Mesopotamia they consented to purchase the neutrality of the people of Odessa by making over to them all the coined money that they had carried off in their Syrian raid after this it would seem that the retreat was unmolested and Sappor succeeded in conveying the greater part of his army together with his illustrious prisoner to his own country with regard to the treatment that Valerian received at the hands of his conqueror it is difficult to form a decided opinion the writers nearest to the time speak vaguely and moderately merely telling us that he grew old in his captivity and was kept in the condition of a slave it is reserved for authors of the next generation to inform us that he was exposed to the constant gaze of the multitude fettered but clad in the imperial purple and that Sappor, whenever he mounted on horseback, placed his foot upon his prisoner's neck some add that when the unhappy captive died about the year AD 265 or 266 his body was flayed and the skin inflated and hung up to view in one of the most frequented temples of Persia where it was seen by Roman envoys on their visits to the great king's court it is impossible to deny that oriental barbarism may conceivably have gone to these lengths and it is in favor of the truth of the details that Roman vanity would naturally have been opposed to their invention but on the other hand we have to remember that in the east the person of a king is generally regarded as sacred and that self-interest restrains the conquering monarch from dishonoring one of his own class we have also to give due weight to the fact that the earlier authorities are silent with respect to any such atrocities and that they are first related half a century after the time when they are said to have occurred under these circumstances the skepticism of Gibbon with respect to them is perhaps worthy of commendation it may be added that oriental monarchs when they are cruel do not show themselves ashamed of their cruelties but usually relate them openly in their inscriptions or represent them in their bar reliefs the remains ascribed on good grounds to Sappor do not however contain anything confirmatory of the stories which we are considering Valerian is represented on them in a humble attitude but not fettered and never in the posture of extreme degradation commonly associated with his name he bends his knee as no doubt he would be required to do being brought into the great king's presence but otherwise he does not appear to be subjected to any indignity it seems thus to be on the whole most probable that the roman emperor was not more severely treated than the generality of captive princes and that Sappor has been unjustly taxed with abusing the rights of conquest the hostile feeling of Odinathus against Sappor did not cease with the retreat of the latter across the Euphrates the Palmyrian prince was bent on taking advantage of the general confusion of the times to carve out for himself a considerable kingdom of which Palmyra should be the capital Syria and Palestine on the one hand Mesopotamia on the other were the provinces that lay most conveniently near to him and that he especially coveted but Mesopotamia had remained in the possession of the Persians as the prize of their victory over Valerian and could only be obtained by wrestling it from the hands into which it had fallen Odinathus did not shrink from this contest it has been with some reason conjectured that Sappor must have been at this time occupied with troubles which had broken out on the eastern side of his empire at any rate it appears that Odinathus after a short contest with Macriannus and his son Cuitus turned his arms once more about AD 263 against the Persians crossed the Euphrates into Mesopotamia took Carhi and Nicibus defeated Sappor and some of his sons in a battle and drove the entire Persian host in confusion to the gates of Tessiphon he even returned to lay siege to that city but it was not long before effectual relief arrived from all the provinces flocked in contingents for the defense of the western capital several engagements were fought in some of which Odinathus was defeated and at last he found himself involved in difficulties through his ignorance of the localities and so thought at best to retire apparently his retreat was undisturbed he succeeded in carrying off his booty and his prisoners among whom were several satraps and he retained possession of Mesopotamia which continued to form a part of the Palmyrene Kingdom until the capture of Zenobia by Aurelian AD 273 the successes of Odinathus in AD 263 were followed by a period of comparative tranquility that ambitious prince seems to have been content with ruling from the Tigris to the Mediterranean and with the title of Augustus which he received from the Roman emperor Gallienus and King of Kings which he assumed upon his coins thus further upon Sapphor nor did the Roman emperor make any serious attempt to recover his father's person or revenge his defeat upon the Persians an expedition which he sent out to the east professedly with this object in the year AD 267 failed utterly its commander Heraclianus being signally defeated by Zenobia the widow and successor of Odinathus himself was murdered by a kinsman three or four years after his great successes and though Zenobia ruled his kingdom almost with a man's vigor the removal of his powerful adversary must have been felt as a relief by the Persian monarch it is evident too that from the time of the accession of Zenobia the relations between Rome and Palmyra had become unfriendly the old empire grew jealous of the new kingdom which had sprung up upon its borders and the effect of this jealousy while it lasted was to secure Persia from any attack on the part of either it appears that Sapphor relieved from any further necessity of defending his empire in arms employed the remaining years of his life in the construction of great works and especially in the erection and ornamentation of a new capital the ruins of Sapphor which still exists near Kazarun in the province of Fars commemorate the name and afford some indication of the grandeur of the second Persian monarch besides remains of buildings they comprise a number of barreliefs and rock inscriptions some of which were beyond a doubt set up by Sapphor the first in one of the most remarkable the Persian monarch is represented on horseback wearing the crown usual upon his coins and holding by the hand figure probably Myriadis whom he is presenting to the captured Romans as their sovereign foremost to do him homage is the kneeling figure of a chieftain probably Valyrian behind whom are arranged in a double line 17 persons representing probably the different core of the Roman army all these persons are on foot while in contrast with them are arranged behind Sapphor on horseback who represent his irresistible cavalry another barrelief at the same place gives us a general view of Sapphor on his return to Persia with his illustrious prisoners here 57 guards are ranged behind him while in front are 33 tribute bearers having with them an elephant and a chariot in the center is a group of 7 figures comprising Sapphor who is on horseback his usual costume Valyrian who is under the horse's feet Myriadis who stands by Sapphor's side 3 principal tribute bearers in front of the main figure and a victory which floats in the sky another important work assigned by tradition to Sapphor the first is the great dyke at Schuster this is a dam across the river Karun formed of cut stones cemented by lime sand together by cramps of iron it is 20 feet broad and no less than 1200 feet in length the hole is a solid mass except in the center where 2 small arches have been constructed for the purpose of allowing a part of the stream to flow in its natural bed the greater portion of the water is directed eastward into a canal cut for it and the town of Schuster is thus defended on both sides by a water barrier whereby the position becomes one of great strength tradition says that Sapphor used his power over Valyrian to obtain Roman engineers for this work and the great dam is still known as the dam of Caesar to the inhabitants of the neighboring country Sapphor died having reigned 31 years from AD 240 to AD 271 he was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable princes of the Sassanian series in military talent, indeed he may not have equaled his father for though he defeated Valyrian he had to confess himself inferior to Odinathus but in general governmental ability he is among the foremost of the Neo-Persian monarchs and may compare favorably with almost any prince of the series he baffled Odinathus when he was not able to defeat him by placing himself behind walls and by bringing into play those advantages which naturally belonged to the position of a monarch attacked in his own country he maintained, if he did not permanently advance the power of Persia in the west while in the east it is probable that he considerably extended the bounds of his dominion to the internal administration of his empire he united works of usefulness with the construction of memorials which had only a sentimental and aesthetic value he was a liberal patron of art and is thought not to have confined his patronage to the encouragement of native talent on the subject of religion he did not suffer himself to be permanently led away by the enthusiasm of a young and bold free thinker he decided to maintain the religious system that had descended to him from his ancestors and turned a deaf ear to persuasions that would have led him to revolutionize the religious opinion of the east facing it upon a satisfactory footing the orientals add to these commendable features of character that he was a man of remarkable beauty of great personal courage and of a noble and princely liberality according to them he only desired wealth that he might use it for good and great purposes end of section 29