Callista : a Tale of the Third Century

by John Henry Newman

  We must not conclude the day without relating what was its issue to thepersecutors, as well as to their intended victim. It is almost a proverbthat punishment is slow in overtaking crime; but the present instance wasan exception to the rule. While the exiled Bishop of Carthage escaped, thecrowd, on the other hand, were caught in the trap which had been laid forthem. We have already said it was a _ruse_ on the part of the governingauthorities of the place to get the rioters out of the city, that theymight at once be relieved of them, and then deal with them just as theymight think fit. When the mob was once outside the walls, they might berefused re-admittance, and put down with a strong hand. The Romangarrison, who, powerless to quell the tumult in the narrow and windingstreets and multiplied alleys of the city, had been the authors of themanoeuvre, now took on themselves the stern completion of it, anddetermined to do so in the sternest way. Not a single head of all thosewho poured out in the afternoon should return at night. It was not to besupposed that the soldiers had any tenderness for the Christians, but theyabominated and despised the rabble of the town. They were indignant attheir rising, thought it a personal insult to themselves, and resolvedthey should never do so again. The gates were commonly in the custody ofthe city guard, but the Porta Septimiana, by which the mob passed out, wason this occasion claimed by the Romans. It was most suitably circumstancedfor the use they intended to make of it. Immediately outside of it was alarge court of the same level as the ground inside, bordered on the rightand left by substantial walls, which after a time were drawn to meet eachother, and contracted the space to the usual breadth of a road. The wallscontinued to run along this road for some distance, till they joined theway which led to the Campus Martius, and from this point the ground wasopen till it reached the head of the ravine. The soldiers drew up at thegate, and as the worn-out and disappointed, brutalized and half-idioticmultitudes returned towards it from the country, those who were behindpushed on between the border walls those who were in front, and, whilethey jammed together their ranks, also made escape impossible. It was nowthat the Roman soldiers began their barbarous, not to say cowardly,assault upon them. With heavy maces, with the pike, with iron gauntlets,with stones and bricks, with clubs, with scourge, with the sword, with thehelmet, with whatever came to hand, they commenced the massacre of thatlarge concourse of human beings, who did not offer one blow in return.They slaughtered them like sheep; they trampled them down; they threw thebodies of the wounded over the walls. Attempting to run back, numbers ofthe poor wretches came into conflict with the ranks behind them, and anadditional scene of confusion and overthrow took place; many of themstraggled over to the open country or woods, and perished, either from theweather, or from hunger, or even from the wild beasts. Others, weakened byexcess and famine, fell a prey to the pestilence that was raging. Aftersome days a remnant of them was allowed silently and timidly to steal backinto the city as best they could. It was a long day before the PlebsSiccensis ventured to have any opinion of its own upon the subject ofChristianity, or any other political, social, or ecclesiastical topicwhatever.