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N.50: (non liquet) for adjournment. It was during this period of remand, while awaiting
the issue of the remainder of his trial, that the Apostle wrote this second epistle to
Timothy--an epistle written in view of martyrdom, and yet triumphant in view of a
finished course. It was often the case that a prisoner would be acquitted on some minor
count, only to be condemned upon some other indictment. It was during this time that
the Apostle, the prisoner of Jesus Christ and "such an one as Paul the aged", suffered
from the cold and wanted his cloak. He longed with an intense longing for one more look
at his son Timothy's face; he wrote his last instructions for the church on earth, and
bequeathed to every member of the one body his blessed example.
As we read through this sacred epistle, and remember the solemn atmosphere in
which it was conceived and written, may each of us catch something of its spirit, and
be numbered among those of whom it can be said that they "love His appearing"
(II Tim. 4: 8).
As every reader will not have easy access to the writings of the ancients, we append
one or two extracts from contemporary Latin writers which throw light upon the
conditions obtaining during the Apostle's last days.
Tacitus was a celebrated Roman historian, born about A.D.56. Maunder says of him
that "no name stands higher for historical reputation". The following extract will give
some idea of the outbreak of persecution under Nero, consequent upon the great fire at
Rome.
"To put an end therefore to this report (that he had fired the city) he (Nero) laid the
guilt, and inflicted the most cruel punishments upon a set of people who were held in
abhorrence for their crimes, and vulgarly called Christians. The founder of that name
was Christ, Who suffered death in the reign of Tiberius, under his Procurator Pontius
Pilate. This pernicious superstition, thus checked for a while, broke out again and spread,
not only over Judæa, where the evil originated, but through Rome also, whither
everything bad upon earth finds its way and is practiced. Some who confessed their sect
were first seized, and afterwards, by their information, a vast multitude were
apprehended, who were convicted, not so much of the crime of burning Rome, as of
hatred to mankind. Their sufferings at their execution were aggravated 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. 15: 44).
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,