Calpurnius, thus challenged, and thinking himself highly complimented, solemnly gave mouth: “The Christians,” said he, “are a foreign sect, the founder of which flourished many ages ago in Chaldea. His doctrines were brought to Rome at the time of Vespasian by two brothers named Peter and Paul. Some maintain that these were the same twin brothers as the Jews call Moses and Aaron, the second of whom sold his birthright to his brother for a kid, the skin of which he wanted to make chirothecæ[27] of. But this identity I do not admit; as it is recorded in the mystical books of the Jews, that the second of these brothers, seeing the other’s victims give better omens of birds than his own, slew him, as our Romulus did Remus, but with the jaw-bone of an ass; for which he was hung by King Mardochæus of Macedon, upon a gibbet fifty cubits high, at the suit of their sister Judith. However, Peter and Paul coming, as I said, to Rome, the former was discovered to be a fugitive slave of Pontius Pilate, and was crucified by his master’s orders on the Janiculum. Their followers, of whom they had many, made the cross their symbol, and adore it; and they think it the greatest honor to suffer stripes, and even ignominious death, as the best means of being like their teachers, and, as they fancy, of going to them in a place somewhere among the clouds.”[28]
This lucid explanation of the origin of Christianity was listened to with admiration by all except two. The young officer gave a piteous look towards Agnes, which seemed to say, “Shall I answer the goose, or shall I laugh outright?” But she put her finger on her lips, and smiled imploringly for silence.
“Well, then, the upshot of it is,” observed Proculus, “that the Thermæ will be finished soon, and we shall have glorious sport. Is it not said Fulvius, that the divine Dioclesian will himself come to the dedication?”
“It is quite certain; and so will there be splendid festivals and glorious games. But we shall not have to wait so long; already, for other purposes, have orders been sent to Numidia for an unlimited supply of lions and leopards to be ready before winter.” Then turning round sharp to his neighbor, he said, bending a keen eye upon his countenance: “A brave soldier like you, Sebastian, must be delighted with the noble spectacles of the amphitheatre, especially when directed against the enemies of the august emperors, and of the republic.”
The officer raised himself upon his couch, looked on his interrogator with an unmoved, majestic countenance, and answered calmly:
“Fulvius, I should not deserve the title which you give me, could I contemplate with pleasure, in cold blood, the struggle, if it deserve the name, between a brute beast and a helpless child or woman, for such are the spectacles which you call noble. No, I will draw my sword willingly against any enemy of the princes or the state; but I would as readily draw it against the lion or the leopard that should rush, even by imperial order, against the innocent and defenceless.” Fulvius was starting up; but Sebastian placed his strong hand upon his arm, and continued: “Hear me out. I am not the first Roman, nor the noblest, who has thought thus before me. Remember the words of Cicero: ‘Magnificent are these games, no doubt; but what delight can it be to a refined mind to see either a feeble man torn by a most powerful beast, or a noble animal pierced through by a javelin?’[29] I am not ashamed of agreeing with the greatest of Roman orators.”
“Then shall we never see you in the amphitheatre, Sebastian?” asked Fulvius, with a bland but taunting tone.
“If you do,” the soldier replied, “depend upon it, it will be on the side of the defenceless, not on that of the brutes that would destroy them.”
David with his Sling, from the Catacomb of St. Petronilla.