by insult and mockery, for some were disguised in the skins of wild

beasts and worried to death by dogs; some were crucified and others

were wrapped in pitched shirts and set on fire when the day closed that

they might serve as lights to illuminate the night.  Nero lent his own

garden for these exhibitions, and exhibited at the same time a mock

Circensian (pertaining to the circus) entertainment, being a spectator

of the whole in the dress of a charioteer, sometimes mingling with the

crowd on foot, and sometimes viewing the spectacle from his car.  This

conduct made the sufferers pitied,

and though they were criminals and deserving the severest punishments,

yet they were considered as sacrificed, not so much out of regard to

the public good, as to gratify the cruelty of one man' (Tac. Ann.

The court favourite at this time was Tigellinus, who was also Prefect

of the Praetorium.  Juvenal writes of him:

`Paint Tigellinus, and your fate will be,

To burn with brimstone at the martyr's tree,

While, as the flames consume the living brand,

A crimson rill runs trickling o'er the sand' (Juv. Sat. 1, v. 155).

Juvenal was born about the beginning of the reign of Claudius and died

a.d. 128.  Maunder says of him that `as the bold and unflinching castigator

of vice he stands without rival'.  Martial, the epigrammatist, who died a.d.

104, was at Rome at the time of the persecution of the Christians, and wrote

the following:

`When Mutins dared upon command,

To thrust into the fire his hand,

With shouts the people rent the skies,

To laud the noble sacrifice.

The silly herd!  Far braver he,

Who, standing at the martyr's tree,

Can yet defy the rabble's cries,

And say "I make no sacrifice"` (Martial Lib. x Ep. 25).

We give below a few notes on the date and place of Paul's death.

Clemens Romanus, the contemporary of Paul, speaks first of Peter's

death and then of Paul's, and also alludes to the martyrdom of a multitude of

others who died for their faith after the greatest torments.  The date

indicated here is A.D. 66.

Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth (a.d. 170), speaking of Peter and Paul,

says: `the one as well as the other, having taught as far as Italy, suffered

martyrdom at about the same time'.  Caius the Presbyter (a.d. 210) records

that Peter and Paul were martyrs at Rome and that their tombs still existed.

Tertullian (a.d. 190 -214) mentions that Paul suffered at Rome, but gives no

date.  Origen (a.d. 210 -253) says that Paul died at Rome in the time of

Nero.  Eusebius (a.d. 308 -340) places the martyrdom of Paul as a.d. 67, in

the thirteenth year of Nero.  Clinton, however, has shown that the years of

Nero's reign are postponed by one year, which brings the apostle's martyrdom

to a.d. 66.  The Auctor Martyric Pauli, written about a.d. 396, gives the

date of Paul's death as the 29th June a.d. 66.  The writer is very

circumstantial on this point, and his testimony is important.  Sulpitus

Severus, who wrote in a.d. 400, associates Paul's martyrdom with the year in