1 Earliest Rome

12.7 The Christians
Romans 16.10-11); presumably both the deceased and at least one of his own
ex-slaves were Christian.
See further; Vol. 1, 295; 2.10b for evidence of Christianity among the imperial
household; Instinsky (1964); Bovini and Brandenburg (1967) no. 929;
Lampe (1989) 278-82.
/Z51738; 7ZCV3332; ICURvi.17246
To Marcus Aurelius Prosenes, ex-slave of
the emperors, chamberlain of the emperor , steward of the treasury, steward
of the imperial property, steward of the gladiatorial shows, steward of the wines,
appointed by divus Commodus to the court, his ex-slaves paid for the carving of the
sarcophagus from their own money for their most pious master who well deserved it.
Prosenes was
received unto god five days before the Nones of [March] at S[ . . . ]nia when Praesens and
Extricatus were consuls, the latter for the second time . Ampelius his ex-slave
on his return to the city from the campaign inscribed this. 1
Tertullian, To Scapula 5
1. He had been with the emperor Caracalla in Mesopotamia.
12,7c(ii) Christians in Carthage (A.D. 212)
In this extract of a speech to the governor of Africa Tertullian claims that
Christians were a large cross-section of the city of Carthage (the capital of the
province) by the early third century A.D. But this claim may have been largely
motivated by the purpose of the speech - which was a plea to the governor not
to persecute Christians in his province.
See further: Barnes (1971) 67-70.
When Arrius Antoninus was pressing hard in Asia, all the Christians
of that state presented themselves openly before his tribunal. 1
Then, having ordered a few
to be taken off for execution, he said to the rest : 'Wretched people, if you
want to die, you have cliffs or ropes.' If we decided to do this here too, what would you
do with all these thousands of people, so many men and women, every sex, every age,
every rank, offering themselves to you? How many pyres, how many swords you would
need! What will be the suffering of Carthage itself, whom you will decimate, when each
person recognizes their relatives and friends, when one sees there perhaps men and
women even of your own rank, and some leading people, and relatives and
friends of your friends? Spare yourself, even if not us. Spare Carthage, if not yourself.
Spare the province, which, once your intention was known, has been subject to the
extortionate demands both of soldiers and of individual private enemies.
1. Tertullian starts with a corroborating example from the province of Asia, where Arrius
was governor c. A.D. 188.
335