Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
converted into friends. But Aurelian was by nature a tyrant; it was
accident whenever he was otherwise. If affairs moved on smoothly, he was
the just or magnanimous prince; if disturbed and perplexed, and his will
crossed, he was the imperious and vindictive tyrant.
LETTER II.
FROM PISO TO FAUSTA.
You need not, dear Fausta, concern yourself on our behalf. I cannot
think that your apprehensions will be realized. Rome never was more calm
than now, nor apparently has there ever a better temper possessed its
people. The number of those who are sufficiently enlightened to know
that the mind ought not to be in bondage to man, but be held answerable
to God alone for its thoughts and opinions, is becoming too great for
the violences and cruelties of former ages to be again put in practice
against us. And Aurelian, although stern in his nature, and
superstitious beyond others, will not, I am persuaded, lend himself
either to priests or people to annoy us. If no principle of humanity
prevented him, nor generosity of sentiment, he would be restrained, I
think, by his attachments to so many who bear the hated name.
And this opinion I maintain, notwithstanding a recent act on the part of
the Emperor, which some construe into the expression of unfavorable
sentiments toward us. I allude to the appointment of Fronto, Nigridius
Fronto, to be chief priest of the temple of the Sun, which has these
several years been building, and is now just completed. This man
signalized himself, both under Decius and Valerian, for his bitter
hatred of the Christians, and his untiring zeal in the work of their
destruction. The tales which are told of his ferocious barbarity, would
be incredible, did we not know so well what the hard Roman heart is
capable of. It is reported of him, that he informed against his own
sisters, who had embraced the Christian faith, was with those who hunted
them with blood-hounds from their place of concealment, and stood by, a
witness and an executioner, while they were torn limb from limb, and
devoured. I doubt not the truth of the story. And from that day to this,
has he made it his sole office to see that all the laws that bear hard
upon the sect, and deprive them of privileges and immunities, are not
permitted to become a dead letter. It is this man, drunk with blood,
whom Aurelian has put in chief authority in his new temple, and made
him, in effect, the head of religion in the city. He is however not only
this. He possesses other traits, which with reason might commend him to
the regard of the Emperor. He is an accomplished man, of an ancient
family, and withal no mean scholar. He is a Roman, who for Rome's honor
or greatness, as he would on the one hand sacrifice father, mother,
daughter, so would he also himself. And Rome, he believes, lives but in
her religion; it is the life-blood of the state. It is these traits, I
doubt not, that have recommended him to Aurelian, rather than the
others. He is a person eminently fitted for the post to which he is
exalted; and you well know that it is the circumstance of fitness,
Aurelian alone considers, in appointing his own or the servants of the
state. Probus thinks differently. And although he sees no cause to
apprehend immediate violence, confesses his fears for the future. He
places less reliance than I do upon the generosity or friendship of
Aurelian. It is his conviction that superstition is the reigning power
of his nature, and will sooner or later assert its supremacy. It may be
so. Probus is an acute observer, and occupies a position more favorable
to impartial estimates, and the formation of a dispassionate judgment,
than I.
This reminds me that you asked for news of Probus, my 'Christian
pedagogue,' as you are wont to name him. He is here, adorning, by a life
of severe simplicity and divine benevolence, the doctrine he has
espoused. He is a frequent inmate of our house, and Julia, not less than
myself, ever greets him with affectionate reverence, as both friend and
instructor. He holds the chief place in the hearts of the Roman
Christians; for even those of the sect who differ from him in doctrine
and in life, cannot but acknowledge that never an apostle presented to
the love and imitation of his followers an example of rarer virtue. Yet
he is not, in the outward rank which he holds, at the head of the
Christian body. Their chiefs are, as you know, the bishops, and Felix is
Bishop of Rome, a man every way inferior to Probus. But he has the good
or ill fortune to represent more popular opinions, in matters both of
doctrine and practice than the other, and of course easily rides into
the posts of trust and honor. Ho represents those among the
Christians--for, alas! there are such among them--who, in seeking the
elevation and extension of Christianity, do not hesitate to accommodate
both doctrine and manner to the prejudices and tastes of both Pagan and
Jew. They seek converts, not by raising them to the height of Christian
principle and virtue, but by lowering these to the level of their
grosser conceptions. Thus it is easy to see that in the hands of such
professors, the Christian doctrine is undergoing a rapid process of
deterioration. Probus, and those who are on his part, see this, are
alarmed, and oppose it; but numbers are against them, and consequently
power and authority. Already, strange as it may seem, when you compare
such things with the institution of Christianity, as effected by its
founder, do the bishops, both in Rome and in the provinces, begin to
assume the state and bearing of nobility. Such is the number and wealth
of the Christian community, that the treasuries of the churches are
full; and from this source the pride and ambition of their rulers are
luxuriously fed. If, as you walk through the street which crosses from
the Quirinal to the Arch of Titus, lined with private dwellings of
unusual magnificence, you ask whose is that with a portico, that for
beauty and costliness rather exceeds the rest, you are told, 'That is
the dwelling of Felix, the Bishop of Rome;' and if it chance to be a
Christian who answers the question, it is done with ill-suppressed pride
or shame, according to the party to which he belongs. This Felix is the
very man, through the easiness of his dispositions, and his proneness to
all the arts of self-indulgence, and the imposing graciousness of his
carriage, to keep the favor of the people, and at the same time sink
them, without suspicion on their part, lower and lower toward the
sensual superstitions, from which, through so much suffering and by so
many labors, they have but just escaped, and accomplish an adulterous
and fatal union between Christianity and Paganism; by which indeed
Paganism may be to some extent purified and exalted, but Christianity
defiled and depressed. For Christianity, in its essence, is that which
beckons and urges onward, not to excellence only, but to perfection. Of
course its march is always in advance of the present. By such union with
Paganism then, or Judaism, its essential characteristic will disappear;
Christianity will, in effect, perish. You may suppose, accordingly, that
Probus, and others who with him rate Christianity so differently, look
on with anxiety upon this downward tendency, and with mingled sorrow and
indignation upon those who aid it--oftentimes actuated, as is notorious,
by most corrupt motives.
* * * * *
I am just returned from the shop of the learned Publius, where I met
Probus, and others of many ways of thinking. You will gather from what
occurred, better than from anything else I could say, what occupies the
thoughts of our citizens, and how they stand affected.
I called to Milo to accompany me, and to take with him a basket in which
to bring back books, which it was my intention to purchase.
'I trust, noble master,' said he, 'that I am to bear back no more
Christian books.'
'Why so?'
'Because the priests say that they have magical powers over all who read
them, or so much as handle them; that a curse sticks wherever they are
or have been. I have heard of those who have withered away to a mere
wisp; of others who have suddenly caught on fire, and vanished in flame
and smoke; and of others, whose blood has stood still, frozen, or run
out from all parts of the body, changed to the very color of your shoe,
at their bare touch. Who should doubt that it is so, when the very boys
in the streets have it, and it is taught in the temples? I would rather
Solon, noble master, went in my stead. Mayhap his learning would protect
him.'
I, laughing, bade him come on. 'You are not withered away yet, Milo, nor
has your blood run out; yet you have borne many a package of these
horrible books. Surely the gods befriend you.'
'I were else long since with the Scipios.' After a pause of some length,
he added, as he reluctantly, and with features of increased paleness,
followed in my steps:
'I would, my master, that you might be wrought with to leave these ways.
I sleep not for thinking of your danger. Never, when it was my sad
mischance to depart from the deserted palace of the great Gallienus, did
I look to know one to esteem like him. But it is the truth when I
affirm, that I place Piso before Gallienus, and the lady Julia before
the lady Salonina. Shall I tell you a secret?'
'I will hear it, if it is not to be kept.'
'It is for you to do with it as shall please you. I am the bosom friend,
you may know, of Curio, the favorite slave of Fronto--'
'Must I not publish it?'
'Nay, that is not the matter, though it is somewhat to boast of. There
is not Curio's fellow in all Rome. But that may pass. Curio then, as I
was with him at the new temple, while he was busied in some of the last
offices before the dedication, among other things, said: 'Is not thy
master Piso of these Christians?' 'Yes,' said I, 'he is; and were they
all such as he, there could be no truth in what is said of them.' 'Ah!'
he replied, 'there are few among the accursed tribe like him. He has but
just joined them; that's the reason he is better than the rest. Wait
awhile, and see what he will become. They are all alike in the end,
cursers, and despisers, and disbelievers, of the blessed gods. But lions
have teeth, tigers have claws, knives cut, fire burns, water drowns.'
There he stopped. 'That's wise,' I said, 'who could have known it?'
'Think you,' he rejoined, 'Piso knows it? If not, let him ask Fronto.
Let me advise thee,' he added, in a whisper, though in all the temple
there were none beside us, 'let me advise thee, as thy friend, to avoid
dangerous company. Look to thyself; the Christians are not safe.' 'How
say you,' I replied, 'not safe? What and whom are they to fear?
Gallienus vexed them not. Is Aurelian----' 'Say no more,' he replied,
interrupting me, 'and name not what I have dropped, for your life.
Fronto's ears are more than the eyes of Argus, and his wrath more deadly
than the grave.'
'Just as he ended these words, a strong beam of red light shot up from
the altar, and threw a horrid glare over the whole dark interior. I
confess I cried out with affright. Curio started at first, but quickly
recovered, saying that it was but the sudden flaming up of the fire that
had been burning on the altar, but which shortly before he had quenched.
'It is,' said he, 'an omen of the flames that are to be kindled
throughout Rome.' This was Curio's communication. Is it not a secret
worth knowing?'
'It tells nothing, Milo, but of the boiling over of the wrath of the
malignant Fronto, which is always boiling over. Doubtless I should fare
ill, were his power equal to his will to harm us. But Aurelian is above
him.'
'That is true; and Aurelian, it is plain, is little like Fronto.'
'Very little.'