The Roman (57 page)

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jest. Or are you a Christian yourself and involved in it all through your muddle-headedness? Be careful. Your name is on the lists, though naturally I don�t put much store by such accusations. A member of the Senate can�t be a Christian.� He tried to laugh but stared steadily at Cephas, starting every time Cephas made a movement. Pudens remembered his rank and position and realized he had gone too far. �Well, perhaps there are fanatics and zealots among the Christians,� he said, �and even false prophets too. Perhaps a wolf has managed to get among them in sheep�s clothing. But Cephas will answer for them all at the public trial. I only hope he doesn�t, at the behest of the spirit, speak words which frighten Nero himself.� Tigellinus also calmed down a little. �I bear you no ill-will,� he said. �I�m always ready to meet people half way. But your Jewish magician cannot answer for others in this case. He has the same rights and special position as all the other cursed Jews. Nero has expressly forbidden me to drag the Jews into this, for not even Hercules himself would be able to tell the faithful Jews from the heretics in their Aegean stables. I think Rome would be a considerably better city without the Jews. But that is just my personal opinion and is neither here nor there. I must obey the Emperor.� I briefly explained Tigellinus� legal view to Cletus and he translated it for Cephas, whose face again began to turn red. At first Cephas tried to talk in a controlled manner but then he became so excited that he started thundering out his words. Cletus tried to interpret and I too intervened with my views and Pudens spoke according to his own lights, so that at one time we were all talking at once and no one could make out what the other was trying to say. Finally Tigellinus raised both hands, as if fending us off, and demanded silence. �Enough,� he said. �Out of respect for your white hairs, Pudens, and to win the favors of this powerful magician, I am willing to release ten or twenty, or shall we say a hundred Christians whom he may select himself. He can go out on to the parade ground and choose. I have too many Christians anyhow and shall be only too glad to be rid of some in a sensible way.�

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But Cephas did not approve of this reasonable suggestion, although he gave it some thought. He stubbornly insisted that it was he who should be arrested and all the others set free. It was a senseless demand, but on thinking it over, I realized it was a wise one from his point of view. If he picked out one or two hundred people at his own discretion from that huge crowd, it would cause worse suspicion than ever among the Christians and at a moment when the spokesmen for the different sides had come to some measure of agreement. Our negotiations reached deadlock, and finally, in spite of his fear of magic, Tigellinus lost patience when he saw that his authority was being undermined. He rushed out of the room and we could hear him barking out an order to the guards on duty to drive the presumptuous Jew out of the camp area with a scourge. �But don�t use more violence than necessary,� he said, �and under no circumstances may you lay as much as a little finger on Senator Pudens. He is a Publicolian.� But Tigellinus found it difficult to make the Praetorians obey, for some of them had heard Paul speak when they had been guarding him and had felt respect for the Christians ever since. Now they warned their friends, and Tigellinus could not make them take the responsibility, for he himself was horribly afraid of Cephas� reputation for magic. Even the centurion in the Praetorium warned him seriously against touching such a holy man. Finally Tigellinus was forced to promise a whole month�s extra pay to whoever would drive Cephas out of the camp and ensure he stayed outside the walls. In this way he managed to find five rough men who bolstered each other�s courage by saying that they did not fear the forces of the underworld. After tossing �back a measure of wine each, they crowded into the interrogation room and began to drive Cephas out with rough lashes from their scourges. Pudens could not interfere, for not even a senator has the right to countermand a military order. He could do nothing but abuse and threaten Tigellinus, who for safety�s sake kept at a distance and urged the Praetorians on with loud cries. The lashes of the lead-tipped whip-thongs crashed down on Cephas� head and shoulders, but the towering old man only straightened his broad shoulders, smiled gently, blessed the soldier

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and asked them to strike harder, for it was a joy to him to suffer in the name of Christ. To lighten their task he took off his coarse cloak, and so that it would not become spattered with blood, handed it to Senator Pudens to hold. Pudens would have been pleased to hold it, but naturally I could not let him do that because of his rank so I took the cloak over my arm instead. Crazed with fear, the soldiers lashed at Cephas as hard as they could and accidentally injured each other with their blows. The blood flowed down Cephas� face and into his gray beard, his tunic soon disintegrated into rags, and blood spattered onto the floor and walls so that Pudens and I had to draw back. But the harder the soldiers whipped him, the more blissfully Cephas smiled, occasionally crying out with pleasure and bidding Christ bless them for furnishing him with such great joy. As Tigellinus watched the cruel scene, he was more than ever convinced that Cephas was a terrifying wizard, even worse than Apollonius from Tyana, for he did not even feel physical pain. He shouted at the soldiers to throw down the scourge and carry Cephas out. They were afraid to touch him, but the whole affair had begun to affect their honor as soldiers. Encouraged by the laughter and jeers of their friends, they swore loudly and grabbed hold of Cephas, making him lose his balance although he struggled like a bull, while avoiding striking or hurting the soldiers. They managed to carry him out through the arcade to the marble steps. There he struggled free from their grip and promised to walk of his own accord to the gateway if they scourged him all the way. The soldiers willingly let him go, saying that their arms were paralyzed by his strength and their lashes with the scourge had lost their sting. The arrested Christians rushed up unhindered to Cephas, jubilantly crying out his name and kneeling in long lines on each side of his path in respect for him. He told them to endure in their distress, smiling joyously as he raised his arms in blessing and cried out the name of Christ. The prisoners were seized with devout trust and courage as they watched the bleeding Cephas being whipped out of the camp, and lost their mistrust of each other.

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Cephas was determined to stay outside the gateway and wait there, neither eating nor drinking, but Pudens finally persuaded him to give way, handing him over to his following and telling them to take him swiftly and secretly back to his house. He allowed Cephas to use his private sedan for this purpose, although Cephas would have preferred to go on foot, but he was swaying from emotion and loss of blood. Pudens turned back once again to negotiate with Tigellinus in a reasonable Roman manner. When Tigellinus saw the Christians loudly murmuring and joyously crowding into the Praetorium courtyard, he came to his senses and ordered them to be driven back to the enclosure on the parade ground, giving orders to the nearest prisoners to clean the spots of blood from the floor and walls of the private interrogation room. The Christians looked at each other in bewilderment, for they had neither brushes nor water vessels. Tigellinus burst out laughing. �You can lick the floor if you want to, for all I care,� he said. �All that matters is that it is clean.� So the Christians knelt down and carefully wiped off every drop of blood with their clothes and kerchiefs, for they considered that it was consecrated to their god and reminded them of the suffering of Christ. Being a sensible man, Pudens tried to save what he could and boldly appealed to Tigellinus to stand by his promise that a hundred Christians were to be selected from among the prisoners. Tigellinus wished to be in his favor because of his reputable descent and promised this willingly. �As far as I am concerned, you can take two hundred if you want to,� he said. �From those who deny that they had anything to do with setting fire to the city.� Pudens went out quickly to the parade ground before Tigellinus had time to regret his promise, which he had made out of sheer relief. But Tigellinus stopped to think sufficiently long to call out after him, �That�ll be one hundred sesterces in my private purse for every one of them.� He knew that Pudens was not a wealthy man and hardly managed to keep himself above the income limit for senators. Emperor Claudius had once in his day put down the difference from his own pocket so that Pudens would not have to leave the

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Senate on the grounds of poverty. So Tigellinus did not think he could press him for a larger sum. From the many Christians, Pudens chose men who he knew had been close to Cephas, and women who had children at home or else were in a hurry to get back to their households. He thought it unnecessary to select any girls as he presumed they would not be charged with arson, and none of the women was threatened with danger or punishment, as no legal jurisdiction was possible in view of the meager evidence. So he contented himself with consoling and encouraging his own friends among the Christians and assuring them that they as respected men would be certain to be released. There was no great crush around him, and in fact some of the people he picked out refused to leave their fellow believers, preferring to share their trials. Anyhow, Pudens took over two hundred people to be released and bargained with Tigellinus so that in the end the latter looked between his fingers insofar as the final total was concerned, and contented himself with a token sum of only ten thousand sesterces for the lot. I was so moved by his compliance that I asked if I too might redeem some people whom I recognized as members of Paul�s following in Rome. I thought it was important that some of Paul�s followers should also be released, for the sake of unity among the Jews, else there might be malicious talk afterwards if those in Cephas� favor received preferential treatment. These people considered Paul�s teaching unnecessarily involved, while they who used to listen to Paul glorified in understanding the divine mysteries better than others. I felt content and was pleased at the thought of boasting to Claudia of how I had helped the Christians in their distress without gain to myself. Tigellinus did not even demand redemption fees for them, for he needed my help for an impartial account of the Christian superstition at the court. He also held me in some respect because I had shown no fear of Cephas and had remained in his presence. He expressed his gratitude over this in a few reluctant words. He himself still retained a healthy fear of Cephas, for the soldiers who had seized Cephas had completely lost the use of their arms. They complained pitifully of their paralysis, which they

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said was due to the Prefect�s orders to lay hands on a magician. I think they deliberately exaggerated their troubles to get more money. At least, I did not hear later that they had suffered any lasting consequences. Tigellinus now considered himself ready to put the matter before Nero. He asked me to go with him, for I had shown myself knowledgeable and personally knew the Christians. He thought it was clearly my duty, for I had misled Nero by giving Poppaea inaccurate information about them. He also thought it would do no harm that I personally felt compassion for the Christians and did not wish to believe all the evil he thought he had found as a result of his interrogations. In this way the presentation would be more impartial. We rode to Esquiline, for to speed the building work after the widening and straightening of the streets, both vehicles and horses were now permitted within the city walls in the daytime. Nero was in the best of moods. He and his suite had just enjoyed a good meal, drunk wine and had cooled themselves with a cold bath to be able to continue eating and drinking until the evening �an occasional habit of his. He was enormously pleased with himself for discovering what he thought a politically excellent method of diverting the people�s attention from himself to the Christian criminals and thus silencing evil gossip. He was not at all disturbed by Tigellinus� report on the huge number of detained Christians, for Nero adhered to his idea that they were nothing but loose people, rabble and criminals. �It�s just a matter of finding a punishment to fit the fearfulness of their crime,� he said. �The more severe their punishment, the more people will accept their guilt. At the same time we can arrange plays and shows for the people of a kind which no one else has ever offered. We can�t use the wooden amphitheater, for the cellars there are still in use as emergency housing, and the great circus lies in ashes. It�ll have to be my circus on Vatican. It�s a bit cramped, of course, but we can arrange festivities for the people and a free feast in the evening in my gardens alongside, below Janiculus.� I was not sure what he had in mind, but was bold enough to remark that first it would be necessary to hold a public trial and

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that probably not many people could be charged with arson on the evidence at present available. �Why public?� asked Nero. �The Christians are criminals and slave runaways without citizenship. There�s no need for a hundred- man college to sit in judgment on such people. A decree by the Prefect will do.� Tigellinus explained that a surprising number of the arrested people were citizens and no charge could be brought against them except that they had admitted to being Christians, and that it was difficult for him because he could not keep five thousand people on the Praetorium parade ground for several days. The arrested citizens also seemed to have sufficient funds to be able to prolong the trial by appealing to the Emperor, even if they were sentenced in the ordinary court. So the Emperor must decide beforehand whether confessing to being a Christian was sufficient grounds to be sentenced by the court. �Did you say five thousand?� said Nero. �No one has ever yet used so many people at once in a show or even in the greatest triumphs. I think it would be enough with just one show. We can�t have a people�s feast lasting several days. That would just delay the building work even more. Would you be able to have them marched immediately through the city to the other side and lodge them in my circus? Then the people will have a preview of the show and can give expression to their anger over these terrible crimes. As far as I am concerned, they can tear a few of them to pieces on the way, as long as you see to it that there is not too much disorder.� I saw that Nero still had no real conception of the whole matter Or its proportions. �Don�t you understand?� I said. �Most of them are respectable and honorable people, girls and boys among them, whom no one could suspect of any evil. Several of them wear togas. You�re not seriously thinking of letting the people insult the Roman toga?� Nero�s face clouded and he peered at me for a moment, while his thick neck and fat chin stiffened. �You obviously doubt my powers of understanding, Manilianus,� he said, showing his displeasure by using my surname. But then he burst out laughing as he immediately had another idea. �Tigellinus can have them marched through Rome naked,� he