Dorcas, the daughter of Faustina

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Preface

TN the Catacombs of Rome is an ancient tomb ■** wherein repose the mortal remains of some Christian martyr. A slab of white marble closes the little crypt cut out of the rock to be her sarcophagus, and upon this slab a careful, but unskilled hand hath cut an inscription that readeth after the fashion shown in this book; the English of which is, “ Here lies Faustina. In peace.” The name is Latin, the inscription is in the Greek tongue, the word Shalom or “ Peace ” is in Hebrew. The character in the lower middle portion of the slab indicates that she died a martyr to her faith, and the urn at the left is a symbol of Christian burial. Who was she? How died she ? When ?

Musing alone beside this last resting-place of one who died for Jesus centuries ago, my lamp flickered and expired; and then in the subterranean 5

PREFACE darkness of the catacombs the dead forms around me seemed to live again, re-peopling the past in which they lived, and loved, and suffered, and what I beheld, as in a vision, I seek now to reproduce in this story of Anti-Christ. Those of whom I learned it knew whereof they spoke, and the reader may rely upon the verity of all things that are set forth as facts.

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Preface

I Dorcas the Daughter of Faustina . . . . ii

CHAPTER II TOGA yiRILIS

npHE months passed swiftly and quietly, and the day came upon which Marcellus was to celebrate his coming of age, after the manner of the golden youth of Rome; and, although he had been sending messages to his mother and orders to the slaves for days before, on the morning of the eventful day he came on horseback to the villa to see for himself that the preparations for the revel were properly made, and to report that the soothsayers had announced that all omens and auguries were auspicious for celebrating an event so important in the life of a young gentleman of the Imperial City. The young man leaped from his horse at the stile in front of the house, and left the beast as if he knew there must be some one there to take charge of him, some one of the slaves to whom the benevolent gods of Rome had given life only that they might minister to the conveniences, passions and pleasures of those upper classes for whom the world was made. The young man came swinging up the broad gravel walk with that swift, martial tread which 18 the thorough military training that his father had given to him seemed to have made his natural gait; for, careless about many things, the Vice- Prefect had insisted, with steady and inflexible determination, that the boy must be a thorough soldier, and had never permitted any excuses to avail for evading daily military exercises; and, indeed, the youth’s martial spirit had seconded his father’s settled purpose so well that the boy was as proficient in the tactics, and even in the military laws which prevailed in the armies of the empire, as any veteran. He came rushing into the house with a boisterous and half-boyish good humor and impatience, nodded courteously to his mother, Calpha, kissed some of the slave-girls in her presence, and hugged and tousled others until they ran off screaming and laughing to avoid the embraces of the romping youth, and then began to make minute and rapid inquiries after almost every item of the preparations in progress for the coming feast, and especially as to the quality of snow which had been brought from Mount Soracte, and as to the particular amphoras of wine that had been packed away in it.

During the few months she had been at the villa Dorcas had so greatly pleased the Vice-Prefect by her reading and writing, and by her pleasant but always cautious conversation, that he felt the girl to be indispensable to his comfort, and never permitted anything to interfere with the services she was accustomed to render him. But whenever any duty of his official position required his presence in the city she was left very much to her own devices and inclinations; and generally she went into the atrium and volunteered to aid Calpha and the slaves in the preparation or spinning of wool and flax, in preserving various fruits, and in other domestic operations; and she was always so quiet, cheerful and neat that her aid was exceedingly acceptable. But both Calpha and the slaves observed that whenever their talk drifted into the licentiousness and immodesty which were common in the gossipings of all Roman women, high and low, the girl at once became silent, her sweet young face grew very grave, and if it were at all convenient to leave the atrium she would do so immediately; but her uniform kindness to all of them prevented them from resenting her manifest loathing of subjects which always formed the staple of their talk, and the tenderness and reverence which were constantly manifest in her deportment toward Calpha, the wife of Varus, the mother of Marcellus, the mistress of these slaves, was a thing so new and pleasant to that most reputable matron that she wondered how and where the girl had acquired manners that seemed naturally to exhibit a degree of respect for herself which no Roman mother ever expected or received from her own daughters — a reverence that was not based upon fear, like that of her domestics, but that seemed to be spontaneous, loving and sincere.

Indeed, while the Vice-Prefect Varus was a better husband, a better father, a better master, and, in almost every respect, a better man than any other Roman of his rank and wealth, Dorcas had dwelt at the villa but a short time before she perceived, young as she was, that under the social and political system of the empire the wives of even the most reputable Romans were only a better sort of slaves, in spite of the vain shadow of respect which the law threw over them. Calpha, in every respect a very worthy and sensible woman, stood somewhat higher in the estimation of her husband and son (themselves most excellent Romans) than would a mare that had been dam to a very fine colt, or a slave that had chanced to render some extraordinary service. The single advantage that the wife had over the other domestics consisted in the fact that her legal relation to the master of the house made her offspring legitimate, and also gave her power to control her husband’s other slaves.

Not knowing that the young man had come home, Dorcas went into the atrium, as usual, to offer such aid as she might be able to render in the doing of their domestic tasks; and Marcellus no sooner saw her than, gazing upon her with undisguised admiration, he cried aloud: “ Dioscuri 1 but the Vice-Prefect hath shown marvelous good taste in the purchase of such a new slave as that! And do thou remember, girl, that to prevent any growth of jealousy upon the part of Calpha against my most reputable father, from this day I claim thee for mine own.” Then, darting forward, he seized her hand in one of his own, and catching her about the waist with the other, he kissed her before she could break from his grasp, while he rattled away in praise of her beauty: “ By Aphrodite 1 thou art beautiful ! Thy brow is fairer than a marble god’s! Thine eyes are bluer and deeper than the summer sky ! Thy lips are redder than the scarlet cherries ! Thy cheeks are pinker than the sea shell’s delicatest bloom ! ” But before the delighted and laughing youth had finished his panegyric Dorcas had glided out of his embrace, and sprang away behind his mother’s chair, and stood there gazing, flushed and indignant, upon the handsome youth, but silent still. “ Come thou hither,” said Marcellus, “ for thou shalt be fast friend with me. By foam-born Venus, no other Roman hath so beautiful a slave, and thou shalt be my pet and favorite henceforth I Come hither, girl! ”

But Dorcas raised her queenly little head, and, gazing with quiet self-possession into the young man’s eager face, in low and modulated tones as sweet as flute-notes, answered thus : “ Thou art

greatly mistaken, centurion, for I am not a slave, but born as free as thou art; and I hope that thy conduct, which seemeth to have grown out of this mistake, will never be repeated.”

“What, then, art thou doing here?” asked Marcellus.

“ I serve the Vice-Prefect Varus upon a contract, one condition of which is that I am subject to the orders of no one in his house except his own and those of thy mother, Calpha ! ”

“ Then thou, Calpha, command this beautiful hireling that she come hither and make friends with me.”

“ Nay! ” said Calpha. “ I will in no wise interfere with thy father’s wishes, by which the maiden is to be free of all control; for he is marvelously attached to Dorcas. And besides,” she continued with a sly smile, “ to me it seemeth that one of the handsomest youths in holy Rome should scorn to implore his mother’s help to win the damsel’s favor! ”

“ I will not do so,” said Marcellus; “ but by the gods of Rome, I will have her, and win her for myself, too ! For there is no girl of her class in the Imperial City that would hesitate to put all her wages into an offering to Venus to gain so much of my praise and admiration as thou dost scornfully reject.” But Dorcas had quietly left the room, nor did Marcellus see her again that day, although he was here, there and everywhere, bustling around and meddling with the arrangements for the coming feast, now and then exhibiting toward the young female slaves a tactual familiarity and kindness which showed that his boast of being a favorite was no extravagance, and which, alas! also showed that the sacred delicacy which belongs to womanhood was unknown and unrecognized even in a household so very respectable as that of the Vice-Prefect.

About nightfall the young friends of the centurion began to arrive, and many of them were accompanied by favorite slaves or other feminine friends. Soon the customary rites began with the burning of the beard of Marcellus, with libations to the Lares and Penates, the household gods of Rome, with other libations and offerings to Venus and to Mars, and with strange ceremonies which the later Romans had learned of Egypt in honor of Anubis, Astarte, and Cybele !

Then the banquet began, in which the young men reclined around the table spread in the great hall, tasted delicacies which were of themselves enough to prove that almost every clime and people under heaven paid tribute to the luxury as well as the power of Rome. Each separate course of the feast was followed or accompanied by liberal draughts of different wines, and the girls who reclined with the young gentlemen at table (a privilege from which their own sisters, and all matrons, were jealously excluded by Roman customs) were not behind their masculine associates in eating or in drinking, or in wit and ribaldry. Hour after hour the feast continued, the wine circulated more and more freely, the jest became broader, the conversation louder and more unrestrained, and the song and glance more reckless, until far into the night, both sexes seemed to have reached the last stages of inebriety and indecency; and some of them were still lying around the tables in the hall, some had wandered out into the surrounding grounds, and, here and there upon the rustic benches or the pleasanter couch of grass, slept off the wild debauch. It was a drunken revelry that would have disgraced a Roman in the earlier and better days of Rome, but which at that era was the universal custom among the wealthy classes, not supposed to merit censure at all, and which was regarded as the usual and proper thing by the Vice-Prefect and his wife, whose only concern was to see that the wants of the guests were properly supplied, and that any approach to quarreling was promptly checked before it could assume the features of a brawl. It was a fair index to the state of private morals throughout the empire, and especially at Rome.

These young men were not lost to the sense of shame that in a better age would necessarily have sprung from such luxurious and unmanly excesses because they were bad men or worse than other Romans of their class, but they were entirely devoid of any sense of shame because they did not know that there was anything in these customs and conduct of which to be ashamed. They were only acting in accordance with the teachings of their age and country, and saw nothing disreputable to their own characters, or unacceptable to the gods, in any feature of their revelry.

Dorcas had declined the request of Calpha that she would remain in the atrium, but, seated at one of the small windows characteristic of Roman architecture at the far end of one of the little rooms which opened into the hall, herself in darkness almost, she gazed with vivid interest into the illuminated room, watching the rites and subsequent revelry, until, with burning cheek and eye, she slipped out of the window quietly and sought the solitude of her own chamber, adjoining that which Varus called his library, and repeated, half in reverie, in the splendid language of the Greeks, words that seemed to be practically illustrated by the scenes she had just witnessed:

“ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, idolatry, drunkenness, revelings and such like; of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts ! ”

But continued she, musingly, “ The centurion is so young, so handsome, so full of life, and joy, and kindness, and he knows no better than he does ! ”

Chapter III In Which Dorcas Asketh Questions

HE next morning, at a late hour, the revelers

“■* whom choice had detained at the villa, and those whom vinous excesses had rendered incapable of making their way hack to the city, after certain matutinal libations to the gods and a generous breakfast, took their departure. And Marcellus, also, went to take formal command of his century which his father had obtained for him, and had selected beforehand. For some days he did not return to the villa, but Dorcas learned, from daily conversations in the family, that the young centurion was pursuing a round of dissipations among his friends, some of whom were already, and some of whom were expecting to be, admitted into the military service of the empire about the same period. She remarked with astonishment the fact that while Varus was himself the bearer of nearly all the information the family received concerning Marcellus, and was informed of all the incidents of the feasts and debaucheries in which that gallant young gentleman participated, neither he nor Calpha ever uttered a word of censure or of anxiety, but did use many expressions which indicated their opinion to be that the dissipations constantly referred to were all right and proper enough in a young man, entirely consonant with the customs and usages of Roman social life, and with the religious ideas of paganism.

The Vice-Prefect was so much gratified with the manner in which his young scribe and reader performed the tasks required of her, that he insensibly began to enlarge the sphere of her duties, so that, in place of confining her to the reading of such classics as belonged to him, and copying passages which pleased him out of those borrowed from acquaintances and friends, he began gradually to employ her quick intelligence and deft fingers in making copies of such reports connected with his official business as he deemed it to be necessary to make in duplicate. One day Varus laid before her the report of his criminal jurisdiction for the preceding month, setting forth that he had ordered the execution or other punishment of certain malefactors who had been tried and condemned by the magistrates and transferred to him for punishment. In transcribing this report she came upon the following sentence:

“ Besides these cases of ordinary crime, I had before me seven wretches accused of the crime of being Christians. Two of them, who had remained silent when interrogated in sight of the implements of torture, confessed their guilt, and sacrificed to Jupiter, and were thereupon discharged. Three of them, who remained obstinately silent, I had flogged soundly and banished them out of thy dominions. Two of them, who insolently boasted of their devotion to that malignant superstition, and ridiculed the gods of Rome, I ordered to be immediately beheaded.”

When the young girl read this statement in the official report, she turned pale and trembled so that her fingers refused to perform their office, and the cessation of her work caught the attention of the Vice- Prefect, who was looking on admiring the ease and elegance with which she wrote.

“What aileth thee, Dorcas?” he said kindly. “Art thou ill, child? If so, defer thy task until to-morrow, and a good night’s rest will restore thee.”

But mastering her emotion by a resolute effort, she replied:

“Nay, Vice-Prefect! It hath passed me by already, and I will finish the work now.”

After having done so, and finding that the Vice- Prefect seemed to be more inclined to conversation than to assigning her any other task, she said :

“ In thy report I find that thou hast inflicted punishment upon murderers, thieves and house breakers. Also that thou hast punished others who were not accused of such crimes, simply saying that they were charged with being Christians.

Wilt thou tell me what crimes these persons had committed? ”

“ Why,” said Varus, “ they were members of that odious sect which follows Jesus Christ, whom the Procurator, Pontius Pilate, crucified at Jerusalem, in the days when the Emperor Tiberius ruled the world. A most pestilent superstition, which, in spite of the efforts of many pious emperors to suppress it, hath spread throughout the empire. But the most holy Emperor Maxentius hath seen the evil of any indulgence granted to this criminal association, and hath ordered that its members be punished wherever found, according to the edicts made by the Emperor Diocletian. But surely thou — a Jewess, must have heard of this Jesus ! ”

“Yea,” answered Dorcas; “but thy report showeth that these whom thou didst punish were called Christians, and I asked thee what crimes they were said to have committed?”

“ None,” said Varus, “ except that they were Christians; that is the very worst of crimes.”

“ But if I do not weary thee,” said Dorcas, “ tell me whether it is the custom of the Romans to punish all who differ with them in religion?”

“Surely not,” answered Varus; “Rome protects and welcomes all religions under heaven, and doth not even punish thine own stubborn and presumptuous people, but permitteth the Jews to live in the city, although they refuse to sacrifice unto the gods of Rome.”

“ Why, then, is it esteemed so great a crime to profess the Christian faith?”

“ Because,” rejoined Varus, “ this most odious superstition hath grown into a secret organization governed by extravagant laws contrary to the customs of our ancestors and inconsistent with the laws of the empire.”

“ Wilt thou inform me in what things they differ from the Roman laws — things of consequence enough to incur the displeasure of the Emperor ? ”

“ Certainly, child, if thou seekest knowledge. In the first place, this most impious sect mock and deride the gods of Rome and every other nation, refusing to visit the temples or to sacrifice. This mere atheism of the Christians would not be esteemed a crime punishable by laW; but this pernicious sect hath held and taught for three centuries that no man ought to bear arms even in defense of his country, and the acceptance of this pusillanimous dogma would destroy the legions and expose Rome and the empire to be plundered by the Barbarians. Of course the law does not and ought not to permit the existence of a sect which makes it a matter of religion to discourage enlistments and promote desertion.”

“ I can understand,” replied Dorcas, “ how it may be that a great and warlike people, as the Romans have always been, should seek to destroy a religion which opposes all wars, and forbids its followers to bear arms. Yet, Vice- Prefect, to an innocent and ignorant girl like me, it doth seem that thine own experience upon this point would lead thee to protect, rather than to punish, the Christians.”

“ How can that be possible?” asked Varus laughing.

“ Thou art a soldier,” said Dorcas, “ and, I have heard, an officer of approved courage and experience, that hath borne the imperial standard at the head of thy cohorts in Europe, Asia and Africa. Dost thou not think, after all the wrong and bloodshed and suffering which thou must have seen, that it would be a blessing to mankind, and especially to the common people of the world, upon whom fall the burdens and ills of war, if there should never be war again? ”

“ Yea,” answered Varus, “ a measureless blessing, truly ! But that cannot be, child. There must be wars; and the nation that would preserve itself or govern others, must be first in war.”

“ Yet if thine account of the Christians be correct, all wars must cease if all men were to become Christians: and thou sayest this would be a universal blessing ! ”

“ But the only road to peace lies through the fields of war: only conquest leads to peace,” said the Vice-Prefect.

“ Hast thou ever been engaged in any war in which the people on either side began the struggle? Or is it true, Vice-Prefect, that all the wars that afflict mankind grow out of the ambitions and crimes of rulers, and generally about things concerning which the common people know very little and care less? ”

“ That is true to a great extent; but it is true also that soldiers must fight for their standards, and the law cannot tolerate the doctrine of ‘ nonresistance ’ which these accursed Christians teach. ”

“ Wilt thou inform me what else there may be in the teachings of this hated sect that is contrary to the laws and customs of Rome, besides their opposition to bearing arms? ”

“ One other thing in regard to which they despise our laws and customs and the practice of antiquity, is the fact that they make it religion to abolish slavery. They teach that no Christian can lawfully own a slave, and that if any slave becomes a Christian he should be set free; so that just as this abominable sect groweth, the number of freedmen steadily increaseth. This is another one of those * extravagant laws and opinions * which the most holy Emperor Galerius denounces in his Edict of Toleration issued 1 to reclaim the deluded Christians into the way of reason and of nature.’ ”

“ I have had small opportunities to gain knowledge of all these matters,” said Dorcas.

“ And thou art the only maiden, or matron either, I have known that desired to gain knowledge of any matters of importance. The Roman women are satisfied with the shameful ignorance which maketh them but dreary companions for sensible men.”

“May I then learn by asking thee?” said Dorcas blandly.

“ Yea, child, I admire thee both because thou knowest much already, and because thou art eager to learn more.”

“ I understand,” she said, “ that Roman law and custom fosters slavery, and thou hast informed me that this hated Christian sect is, and has always been, settled in its opposition to slavery of any kind. I see clearly, therefore, why the Roman slave-owners seek to destroy a people who hold a religion that condemns the slave code in every line and section of it. But, Vice-Prefect, doth thy experience teach thee that slavery is a good thing in itself?”

“ It hath always existed,” replied Varus. “ It is in accordance with ‘ the ancient laws and public discipline of the Romans,’ and ‘ the religion and ceremonies instituted by our fathers/ and is ‘ the practice of antiquity ’ even as the most holy Emperor Galerius saith in the edict to which I have referred; and these Christians are impious in despising it and teaching that it is religion to abolish it.”

“ But is it a good thing, Vice-Prefect? Wouldst thou prefer to be a slave thyself? Is it good for any save the masters who are rich? Is it, in the long run, good even for them? ”

“ These are strange and perplexing questions, Dorcas, and I cannot rightly answer them at this time. Let it satisfy thee to know that slavery is the universal custom of all peoples in all ages, and it is impious and unholy in this Christian sect to oppose it.”

“ Are there other matters besides war and slavery in regard to which these Christians violate the laws and customs of the Romans? ”

“ Yea, many others,” answered Varus, “ one of the most important of which is that they teach as religion that all the laws and customs of Rome which legalize the superiority of one man, or class, above another, and which legalize the right to acquire, hold or transmit private property rights, are contrary to the will of Christ, and ought to be abolished. They teach community of property, and claim to have practiced this worst form of agrarianism for three hundred years — an abominable system which would destroy all property and subvert the empire and all government if it should be once adopted.”

“ Thou didst inform me, Vice-Prefect, that this sect, although punished and outlawed by many of the emperors, tolerated by but few, and protected by none, had spread throughout the empire. Canst thou tell me whether it hath prospered in property as well as in numbers? ”

“Yea,” answered Varus; “they hold all property in common: the individual can own nothing except his wearing apparel and daily supplies for himself and family; yet the Church (which is the name by which they designate their illegal and pernicious communities, each of which appears to be a distinct and independent democracy) is growing more and more wealthy everywhere.”

“ Doth it not seem to thee, Vice-Prefect, that if the Christian communities, by this democratic policy, have so prospered even in the face of the proscriptions written against them in the imperial law, that the same system would secure the like prosperity for other people also? and that it would be good news to the poor if it were universally adopted? ”

“ Dorcas, thou art the strangest girl that I have ever seen. Thy questions open up continually new and marvelous views of things of which no Roman woman ever thinks at all, and thou art sometimes hard to answer.” But at this moment Marcellus saluted his father from the open door, in his usual musical, rollicking tone:

“ May I come in, Vice-Prefect, and profit by this grand discussion upon laws, religion and statesmanship ? ”

“ Come,” said Varus; “ and if thou wilt listen to this young girl thou wilt have much to think about. This is my son, the centurion, Marcellus, and this is Dorcas, my scribe and reader.”

“ All hail ! ” said Marcellus, with mock gravity. “ Now let the fair Aspasia resume the broken lessons.”

“ I think,” said Dorcas, rising, “ that there would be more profit if I go to aid thy mother with the work.”

“Thou shalt remain, Dorcas,” said Varus; and then turning to Marcellus he continued: “This Dorcas hath found, in transcribing some minutes of the criminal report, an entry of the punishment of certain malevolent and contumacious Christians, and hath inquired why the Roman laws afflict them; and upon being informed that it is because they teach a religion in opposition to war, slavery, social and political distinctions between men and classes of men, and all laws of private property, she hath suggested, even by her inquiries, whether war is not an evil thing and a curse to the world, and whether slavery is not an evil thing, and whether, if the Christians prosper by communism, even under the malediction of the laws, that system might not really be best for all men. What thinkest thou, centurion, of all these things?”

“ I say that war is a glorious thing for all of the better classes; that slavery is necessary for their convenience, and that without offices, rank, privileges and private property, we would be no better than the plebeians ; and that, as to the common herd, it doth not matter a denarius to any sensible man whether war or slavery bless or curse them. That is the hard, common-sense, practical creed of the respectable classes in Rome, and I indorse it with all my soul.”