Nero waved my words away as if brushing off a fly.
“Don’t annoy me, Manilianus,” he said. “We all know that you’re not exactly a genius, even if you have some good qualities. The Christians have pulled wool over your eyes.”
“Exactly,” said Tigellinus. “Our Minutus is much too credulous. The Christian magicians have distorted his eyes. I myself was in some considerable difficulties during the interrogations. Outwardly they show a meek face, seem respectable and entice the poor by offering them free meals. But whoever pursues their mysteries exposes himself to their magic.”
The only thing we achieved was that Nero realized that two or three thousand prisoners would suffice for his show, and he gave Tigellinus authority to release those who disclaimed their superstition as long as there would be sufficient members left for a trial.
“Let us meanwhile think up something pleasant to amuse the people,” he suggested. “Tigellinus, you must see to it that there are also some healthy girls and youths for the theater performance and not just branded slaves.”
When I went back to the Praetorian camp with Tigellinus, I thought that Nero was considering some funny and shameful theater performance as a punishment for most of the Christians, and then releasing them after a few had been executed to satisfy the people.
Tigellinus said nothing. He had his own plans, although I did not know it at the time.
We went out on to the parade ground. The prisoners were exhausted by the sun, for it was a hot autumn day. They had received food and water from the city, but it had not sufficed for them all. Many who were hungry and thirsty asked to be allowed to provide themselves with food, as the laws and custom permitted.
When Tigellinus caught sight of a respectable man in a toga, he stopped and spoke to him in a friendly way.
“Did you take part in setting Rome on fire?” he asked, and on receiving a negative reply, he said, “Have you been punished for any shameful crime before?” When he had received a satisfactory reply, he then cried out delightedly, “Good! You look like an honorable man. You can go free if you promise to disclaim the Christians’ pernicious beliefs. I suppose you’ve got a hundred sesterces to pay for the costs of arrest?”
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But he was unpleasantly surprised, and to tell the truth, I was surprised too, to hear one after the other calmly reply that they could not deny Christ, who had saved them from their sins and called them to his kingdom. Otherwise they said they would be glad to go home and pay fifty, a hundred, or even five hundred sesterces to cover the expense they had caused the State.
Finally Tigellinus was in such a hurry to achieve something that he turned a deaf ear and muttered the question: “You forswear Christ then, don’t you?” and answered every denial with a hasty: “Good, then you can go.” He even ceased demanding bribes, as long as the more respectable prisoners would agree to go away. But many of them were so stubborn that they secredy turned back to the parade ground and hid themselves among the other Christians.
Meanwhile Tigellinus had the Praetorians on duty in die city spread it about that he was thinking of having the people responsible for the fire of Rome marched right through the ruins along the via Sacra to the other side of the river, where they would be detained in Nero’s circus. He let it be known to the guards that he had no objections if one or two prisoners were allowed to escape into the crowd on the way. Some of the older people and the weaker women complained that it was a long way, but Tigellinus swore jestingly that he could not provide sedans for everyone for every little promenade.
A howling mob assembled along the road and threw dirt and stones at the Christians, but the procession turned out to be so unimaginably long that even the worst troublemakers’ tired long before the end was in sight. I myself rode back and forth along the procession and saw to it that the Praetorians did their duty and protected the prisoners from the crowd.
Some of them struck the prisoners so hard that they remained lying on the ground in their own blood, but when we reached the via Sacra and the sky turned red and the shadows lengthened, a strange silence descended on the crowds along the wayside. It was as if the whole city had for one moment fallen into a ghost-like silence. The Praetorians looked anxiously around, for among them a rumor had spread that the sky would open and Christ would step down in his glory to protect his people.
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