Four Witnesses by Bennett Rod

Author:Bennett, Rod [Bennett, Rod]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9780898708479
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2009-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

Cup of Blood, Cup of Hemlock

Antoninus Pius died on the seventh day of March, A.D. 161: six or eight years after receiving the First Apology of Justin Martyr. His son Marcus Aurelius was immediately acknowledged by the Senate as sole emperor of Rome. Marcus, however, acting entirely on his own initiative, chose to promote his adopted brother Lucius Verus to the position of colleague, with co-equal rights as Imperator Rex. Together, then, the two brothers set out to reign as worthy successors of their venerable father, a man whom the citizens of the Empire began immediately to think of as a saint.

How had Justin’s letter been received by the saintly Antoninus? For years, we felt we had some idea; in his Church History Eusebius quotes a decree that supposedly went out from the emperor to the cities of Asia Minor forbidding any further “tumultuous outbreaks against the Christians”. Unfortunately, later scholarship seems to have proven this document untrustworthy. Probably Antoninus did continue, at the very least, the careful policies of Hadrian. Anything more, however, is speculation.

About Marcus himself, however, a good deal more is known.

The death of his father, ironically, appears to have triggered a wave of nostalgia for the “good old days”—both in the new emperor himself and in his subjects. Paganism’s stock was up, so to speak, in response to Antoninus’ good example—and especially the stock of the emperor’s own chosen philosophical system. Marcus Aurelius, therefore, is in no mood to have his thinking challenged. His desire is to live up to his father’s legacy, to stick by the traditions of his family. Perhaps he had read a word or two, some years back, that had troubled his complacency about the Christians. But, after all, one is always reading something . . . and, of course, as every philosopher knows, anything can be made to sound plausible by a skilled rhetorician. What was completely unthinkable was the notion of actually forsaking Stoicism at such an hour. And for what? For some detested oriental sect? The very idea was almost inconceivable. A Christian emperor! The mind rebelled. It was a sheer impossibility. In fact, it was probably illegal . . . or, at the very least, an excellent way to get assassinated or to have one’s throne taken away. Not that Marcus was afraid of death. Everything we know of the son of Antoninus assures us that he was a sincere Stoic, who would have faced any reasonable calamity with dignity. But when he thought of the scandal such news would create, the heartbreak of his mother, of his brother Lucius. His whole being revolted against the prospect.

No, with a little effort one might easily forget that strange letter from that strange man, that man who had claimed to be both Christian and philosopher, as if such a thing were possible. Yet admittedly, his words had worked a curious spell. In fact, Marcus would have liked, under different circumstances, to have questioned that strange man a bit, to have

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