To Scapula 5

Your cruelty is our glory. Only take care that, from the very fact that we endure such things, we do not seem to burst forward solely to prove this very point: that we do not fear these things but even invite them. When Arrius Antoninus was persecuting vigorously in Asia, all the Christians of that city presented themselves before his tribunal in a body. Then, having ordered a few to be led off, he said to the rest, “Wretches, if you want to die, you have cliffs or nooses.” If it should be decided to do this here too, what will you do with so many thousands of people, so many men and women, of every sex, every age, every rank, offering themselves to you? How many fires, how many swords will be needed? What will Carthage itself suffer, decimated by you, when each person recognizes there his relatives and companions, when he sees there perhaps men of your own order, and matrons, and all the leading persons, and relatives or friends of your friends? Spare yourself, then, if not us. Spare Carthage, if not yourself. Spare the province, which, once your intention was seen, has been exposed to the extortions both of the soldiers and of each person's private enemies. We have no master except God alone. He is before you and cannot be hidden, but you can do nothing to him. As for those you regard as your masters, they are men, and they themselves will die some day. Yet this sect will not fail; know that it is built up the more when it seems to be cut down. For everyone who watches such endurance, struck as it were by some misgiving, is fired to inquire what is at the bottom of it; and when he has learned the truth, he himself at once follows.