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 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.

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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 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 knowledge-able 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 tearfulness 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

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