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THE transaction above related excited the indignation of the emperor
as much as if an insult had been offered him, and he determined upon
punishing the Christians; but Sallust, a praetorian prefect,
although a pagan, tried to dissuade him from this measure. The
emperor, however, could not be appeased, and Sallust was compelled
to execute his mandate, and arrest and imprison many Christians. One
of the first whom he arrested was a young man named Theodore, who was
immediately stretched upon the rack; but although his flesh was
lacerated by the application of the nails, he addressed no supplication
to Sallust, nor did he implore a diminution of his torments; on the
contrary, he seemed as insensible to pain as if he had been merely a
spectator of the sufferings of another, and bravely received the
wounds; and he sang the same psalm which he had joined in singing the
day before, to show that he did not repent of the act for which he had
been condemned. The prefect, struck with admiration at the fortitude
of the young man, went to the emperor and told him that, unless he
would desist speedily from the measure he had undertaken, he and his
party would be exposed to ridicule while the Christians would acquire
more glory. This representation produced its effect, and the
Christians who had been arrested were set at liberty. It is said that
Theodore was afterwards asked whether he had been sensible of any pain
while on the rack; and that he replied that he had not been entirely
free from suffering, but had his pains assuaged by the attentions of a
young man who had stood by him, and who had wiped off the perspiration
with the finest linen cloth, and supplied him with coolest water by
which he eased the inflammation and refreshed his labors. I am
convinced that no man, whatever magnanimity he may possess, is
capable, without the special assistance of Divine Power, of
manifesting such entire indifference about the body.
The body of the martyr Babylas was, for the reasons aforesaid,
removed to Daphne, and was subsequently conveyed elsewhere. Soon
after it had been taken away, fire suddenly fell upon the temple of the
Daphnic Apollo, the roof and the very statue of the god were burned,
and the naked walls, with the columns on which the portico and the back
part of the edifice had rested, alone escaped the conflagration. The
Christians believed that the prayers of the martyr had drawn down fire
from heaven upon the demon; but the pagans reported the Christians as
having set fire to the place. This suspicion gained ground; and the
priest of Apollo was brought before the tribunal of justice to render
up the names of those who had dared the incendiary act; but though
bound and subjected to the most cruel tortures, he did not name any
one.
Hence the Christians were more fully convinced than before, that it
was not by the deed of man, but by the wrath of God, that fire was
poured down from heaven upon the temple. Such were the occurrences
which then took place. The emperor, as I conjecture, on hearing
that the calamity at Daphne had been occasioned by the martyr
Babylas, and on being further informed that the honored remains of the
martyrs were preserved in several houses of prayer near the temple of
the Apollo Didymus, which is situated close to the city of Miletus,
wrote to the governor of Caria, commanding him to destroy with fire
all such edifices as were furnished with a roof and an altar, and to
throw down from their very foundations the houses of prayer which were
incomplete in these respects.
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