Pagan and Christian Rome | Page 4

by mere chance? And in case of its belonging to the crypt,
was it an isolated record, or did it belong to a group of graves of the
Acilii Glabriones? The queries were fully answered by later discoveries;
four inscriptions, naming Manius Acilius ... and his wife Priscilla,
Acilius Rufinus, Acilius Quintianus, and Claudius Acilius Valerius
were found among the débris, so that there is no doubt as to the
ownership of the crypt, and of the chapel which opens at the end of the
longer arm of the [Greek: G].
The Manii Acilii Glabriones attained celebrity in the sixth century of
Rome, when Acilius Glabrio, consul in 563 (B. C. 191), conquered the
Macedonians at the battle of Thermopylai. We have in Rome two
records of his career: the Temple of Piety, erected by him on the west
side of the Forum Olitorium, now transformed into the church of S.
Nicola in Carcere; and the pedestal of the equestrian statue, of gilt
bronze, offered to him by his son, the first of its kind ever seen in Italy,
which was discovered by Valadier in 1808, at the foot of the steps of
the temple, and buried again. Towards the end of the republic we find
them established on the Pincian Hill, where they had built a palace and
laid out gardens which extended at least from the convent of the Trinità
dei Monti to the Villa Borghese.[3] The family had grown so rapidly to
honor, splendor, and wealth, that Pertinax, in the memorable sitting of
the Senate in which he was elected emperor, proclaimed them the
noblest race in the world.
The Glabrio best known in the history of the first century is Manius
Acilius, who was consul with Trajan, A. D. 91. He was put to death by
Domitian in the year 95, as related by Suetonius (Domit. 10): "He

caused several senators and ex-consuls to be executed on the charge of
their conspiring against the empire,--quasi molitores rerum
novarum,--among them Civica Cerealis, governor of Asia, Salvidienus
Orfitus, and Acilius Glabrio, who had previously been banished from
Rome."
The expression molitores rerum novarum has a political meaning in the
case of Cerealis and Orfitus, both staunch pagans, and a religious and
political one in the case of Glabrio, a convert to the Christian faith,
called nova superstitio by Suetonius and Tacitus. Other details of
Glabrio's fate are given by Dion Cassius, Juvenal, and Fronto. We are
told by these authors that during his consulship, A. D. 91, and before
his banishment, he was compelled by Domitian to fight against a lion
and two bears in the amphitheatre adjoining the emperor's villa at
Albanum. The event created such an impression in Rome, and its
memory lasted so long that, half a century later, we find it given by
Fronto as a subject for a rhetorical composition to his pupil Marcus
Aurelius. The amphitheatre is still in existence, and was excavated in
1887. Like the one at Tusculum, it is partly hollowed out of the rocky
side of the mountain, partly built of stone and rubble work. It well
deserves a visit from the student and the tourist, on account of its
historical associations, and of the admirable view which its ruins
command of the vine-clad slopes of Albano and Castel Savello, the
wooded plains of Ardea and Lavinium, the coast of the Tyrrhenian, and
the islands of Pontia and Pandataria.
Xiphilinus states that, in the year 95, some members of the imperial
family were condemned by Domitian on the charge of atheism, together
with other leading personages who had embraced "the customs and
persuasion of the Jews," that is, the Christian faith. Manius Acilius
Glabrio, the ex-consul, was implicated in the same trial, and
condemned on the same indictment with the others. Among these the
historian mentions Clemens and Domitilla, who were manifestly
Christians. One particular of the case, related by Juvenal, confirms the
account of Xiphilinus. He says that in order to mitigate the wrath of the
emperor and avoid a catastrophe, Acilius Glabrio, after fighting the
wild beasts at Albanum, assumed an air of stupidity. In this alleged

stupidity it is easy to recognize the prejudice so common among the
pagans, to whom the Christians' retirement from the joys of the world,
their contempt of public honors, and their modest behavior appeared as
contemptissima inertia, most despicable laziness. This is the very
phrase used by Suetonius in speaking of Flavius Clemens, who was
murdered by Domitian ex tenuissima suspicione, on a very slight
suspicion of his faith.
[Illustration: Map of the Via Salaria.]
Glabrio was put to death in his place of exile, the name of which is not
known. His end helped, no doubt, the propagation of the gospel among
his relatives and descendants, as well as among