Chapter 9. Alexander Severus leaves Rome

It was now spring, and, according to custom, the Eoman army was about to commence its summer campaign. Whether the war undertaken by Alexander against the Persians broke out this year,* or whether his arms were directed against other enemies, certain it is that he absented himself from Borne with so much solemnity, that the medals of his reign have left a memorial of it to posterity. The Prefectf of Eome at this time, was Turcius Almachius, a man well known by the hatred he bore the Christians. As we have before stated, antipathy against the new religion was so violently fermenting in the hearts of the

• We are rather inclined to agree with Pagi and F. Blanchini that in this year, 230, Alexander was engaged in an expedition against the Persians ; however this may be, the monuments of the epoch prove that there was an expedition to the East, and a victorious return. Mezzabarba refers to this year the three following medals ; the first, upon which the prince is designated : IMP. CES. ALEXAND.AUG, presents a sun rising tin the east. The two others represent — one, Alexander, holding a laurel branch and a standard ; the other, the victorious Emperor, surrounded by soldiers, and borne on a triumphal chariot. Ekkel is nol so positive as Mezzabarba, regarding the precise dates of these medals, but he formally admits that Alexander may have gone to the East in 230. This concession, joined to the positive assertion of the authors mentioned above, is sufficient to render our history perfectly clear.

t The Prefect of Rome, Prasfectus Urbis, exercised a purely civil magistracy, and should not be confounded with the Prefect of the Praitorium.

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first magistrates of the empire, that they could scarcely support the tolerance, imposed upon them by the personal conduct of the Emperor. The moment was therefore most favorable to persecute the odious sect, and Alexander's character gave little reason to fear his serious displeasure. The ancient edicts were still in force, and the prince was not a man to acknowledge in favor of the Christians, a patronage rejected by the laws of the empire. Besides, there would be sufficient time to throw the blame upon the Christians themselves, since the presence and progress of these enemies of the human race were naturally calculated to rouse the passions of the people, and thus occasion a sedition which would render it the magistrate's duty to punish those, who, if not its authors, were at least the eternal pretext for disturbance.

Almachius first directed his violence against the great body of Christians who belonged to the plebian order. The carnage was very great, the more so as the prefect did not fear their opposition. Not satisfied with mangling their bodies by every species of torture, Almachius also resolved that they should not be interred.* The first Christians were most zealous in burying their brother martyrs, and many among them obtained the crown of martyrdom in accomplishing this pious duty.

The city of the glorious dead already extended its vast and gloomy ways all around the ramparts of Eome, of which it formed the invisible bulwark.

• Turcius Almachius Urbis Prsefectus Sanctos Domini fortiter laniabat, et inhumata jubebat eorum corpora derelinqui. Acta SancUB Cceciliaz,

Nevertheless its avenues, although crossed in every direction, were not yet sufficiently large for the numerous soldiers of Christ who were to be immolated in the terrible persecutions of Maximinus, Decius, and Diocletian. There reposed in peace, * that valorous phalanx of soldiers whose blood had cemented the edifice of the church ; but the tempest roused by Almachius would have rendered it necessary to compress still more the already crowded ranks of this silent dwelling, had not Urban's predecessor, St. Callistus, foreseen in his pastoral zeal this necessity, and excavated that vast cemetery of the Appian Way, to which as we have previously stated, his name is attached.f The Christians who devoted themselves to the touching and perilous ministry of burying the martyrs, frequently purchased with gold the remains of their brothers. They lovingly re-united the limbs separated by the sword, and gathered the blood with sponges which they afterwards pressed into vials or ampullse ; and to preserve for Christian posterity the full testimonials of the martyrs' victory, they sought diligently even for the instruments of torture. New Eome was destined to repose upon this superhuman foundation, that the hand of God, and not that of man,

• In pace. These two words, so frequently engraven on the tombs of the martyrs, exprass the repose to which the first Christians aspired after their combats. They are taken from the words of Ecclesiasticus. (xliv. 14). Corpora ipsorum, in pace sepulta sunt. Which the Roman church still chants in the office of martyrs.

f Fecit aliud ccemeterium Via Appia, ubi multi Sacerdotes et Martyresrequiescunt, quod appellatur usque inhodiernum diem Caiineterium Callisti. Anastas. in Calixto, might be evident in the astonishing transformation which was soon to take place.

Valerian and Tiburtius distinguished themselves among all the Christians of Eome by their zeal in gathering the bodies of the martyrs. They spent their wealth in preparing places of interment for these generous athletes, poor according to the flesh, but already kings in the palaces of heaven. Eager to testify their respect for these precious remains, they anointed them with the richest perfumes,* whilst at the same time by abundant alms they provided for those families, who, by the loss of their principal members, had been deprived of the means of subsistance.

The two brothers were soon denounced to the prefect, both for their donations to the lower classes, and for their transgression of the law, forbidding the interment of the martyrs. They were consequently arrested and led before the tribunal of Almachius. The prefect had no intention of condemning the two patricians whom he had summoned before him ; he merely wished to intimidate them, and obtain satisfaction for their having publicly violated his orders.

"How is it possible!" he said to them, "that you, scions of a noble family, can have so far degenerated from your blood as to associate yourselves with the most superstitious of sects? I hear that you are

• If the Christians expended little in incense which the Pagans used so freely in their sacrifices, they compensated for this, as Tertullian says, by the value they set on perfumes, using them profusely in the burial of martyrs. "Thura plane non emimus. Si Arabia? queruntur, scient Sabsei pluris et carioris suas merces Christianis sepeliendis pronigari, quam diis fumigandis." Apologet. Cap. xlii.

squandering your fortune upon people of the basest extraction, and that you even go so far as to bury with honor the bodies of wretches who have been punished for their crimes. Must we conclude that they are your accomplices, and that this is the motive which induces you to give them honorable burial ?"

It is easily seen by the prefect's language that he had acted without the emperor's orders in his violent proceedings against the Christians; he invoked no edict, preferring to impute to imaginary crimes the cruel death which so many of the faithful had suffered by his orders. The younger of the brothers was the first to answer. u Would to heaven !" cried Tiburtius, " that those whom you call our accomplices, would deign to admit us among the number of their servants. They have had the happiness of despising that which appears something, and is nevertheless nothing; in dying, they have obtained that which is not apparent, and yet is the only reality. May we imitate their holy lives, and walk one day in their footsteps I"

Almachius, completely disconcerted by this courageous reply, endeavored to interrupt the young patrician by remarking the striking resemblance between the two brothers. " Tell me, Tiburtius," he asked, " which is the older of you two ?" Tiburtius replied, " my brother is not older than I, nor am I younger than he ; the One Holy, Eternal God has made us equals by His grace."* "Well," resumed Almachius," tell me what is that which appears something, and is nothing?" " Every thing in this world," Ti-

• Nee hie major, nee ego minor, quia nnus est Dens sauetus aeternus, qui nos sua gratia coaequavit. Acta S. Ccccilice.

burtius warmly replied, " every thing which leads souls to eternal death, the inevitable end of the happiness of this life." "Now tell me," continued Almachius, "what is that which is not apparent, and yet is the only reality?" "It is," answered Tiburtius, " a future life of happiness for the just and of eternal torments for the wicked. Both rapidly approach, and yet, through a fatal self-delusion, we turn away the eyes of our heart that we may not see this inevitable future. Our bodily eyes are fixed upon present objects, and we seek to deceive our conscience by branding virtue with the epithets that belong only to evil, while we embellish evil with the qualities which pertain solely to virtue."

Almachius interrupted the young man: "I am convinced," said he, "the sentiments which you express do not proceed from the spirit which animates you." " You are right," replied Tiburtius, " I do not speak according to that spirit of the world which once animated me; but according to the spirit of Him whom I have received into the inmost recesses of my soul, — the Lord Jesus Christ."* " Do you know what you are saying?" angrily retorted the prefect, indignant at hearing the young man pronounce that sacred name which attested the profession of Christianity in him who uttered it with so much love. " Do you know what you are asking ?" said Tiburtius. " Young man," replied Almachius, " your enthusiasm blinds you !" Tiburtius answered : " I have learned, I know, and I believe that all I have spoken, is truth.' '

• Verum dicis, quia non mente mea loquor, quam in saeculo habebam, sed ejus quern in visceribus meae mentis accepi, hoo est Dominum Jesum Christum. Acta S. Coccilice.

11 But I do not understand it," retorted the prefect, and I cannot enter into this order of ideas." " That is because," answered the young man, borrowing the words of the Apostle, " the sensual man perceiveth not the things that are of the Spirit of God.* But the spiritual man judge th all things; and he himself is judged of no man."f Almachius smiled with vexation, concealing his mortification at the insult which he had received ; % but not wishing that the young man should compromise himself further, he sent him away, and commanded Valerian to be brought forward.