Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/226

 208 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, aggravate his guilt. He was burnt, or rather roasted, by a slow fire; and his executioners, zealous to re- venge the personal insult which had been offered to the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty, without being able to subdue his patience, or to alter the steady and insulting smile which in his dying agonies he still preserved in his countenance. The cliristians, though they confessed that his conduct had not been strictly conformable to the laws of prudence, admired the divine fervour of his zeal ; and the ex- cessive commendations which they lavished on the memory of their hero and martyr, contributed to fix a deep impression of terror and hatred in the mind of Diocletian '^. Fire of the His fears were soon alarmed by the view of a danger NiTOtnedia ^^'^^^^ which he very narrowly escaped. Within fifteen imputed to days the palace of Nicomedia, and even the bedcham- tians. l^er of Diocletian, were twice in flames ; and though both times they were extinguished without any ma- terial damage, the singular repetition of the fire was justly considered as an evident proof that it had not been the effect of chance or negligence. The sus- picion naturally fell on the christians ; and it was sug- gested, with some degree of probability, that those desperate fanatics, provoked by their present suffer- ings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, had entei'ed into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, the eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two em- perors, whom they detested as the irreconcilable ene- mies of the church of God. Jealousy and resentment prevailed in every breast, but especially in that of Dio- cletian. A great number of persons, distinguished either by the offices which they had filled, or by the favour which they had enjoyed, were thrown into pri- son. Every mode of torture was put in practice ; and '1 Lactantius only calls him quidam, etsi non recte, magno tamen animo, etc. c. 12. Eusebius ( 1. viii. c. 5.) adorns him with secular honours. Neither have condescended to mention his name ; but the Greeks celebrate his memory under that of John. See Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, torn. V. part ii. p. 320.