THE SCILLITAN
MARTYRS
S
aturninus, governor of the Ro-
man province of Africa, was los-
ing his temper. “Stop being part
of this madness!” Facing him,
six Christians from the Numidian town
of Scilli kept on disobeying his orders to
swear by the emperor’s birth spirit. The
discussion that took place in the gover-
nor’s office in Carthage was recorded in
a document that is known as the Acts of
the Scillitan Martyrs. Immediately after
the hearing, which took place on 17 July
180, these Christians were sentenced to
death by beheading,
because in spite of the opportunity
given to them to return to the Roman
way of life, they have stubbornly per-
sisted in maintaining theirs.
A severe penalty for what the Romans con-
sidered a severe crime: they found Christian
religion incompatible with traditional civic
life. The fact that Christians worshipped
none but a single god meant, for example,
ahm_2.indd 47
that they were saying no to popular festi-
vals, since all of these involved the worship
of other gods. Two decades after the Scil-
litan Martyrs, Christian author Minucius
Felix records a complaint against Christians
that must have been commonly heard:
You abstain from legitimate amuse-
ments: you do not visit the shows, you
do not join the processions; the public
banquets are not attended by you; the
sacred games, the meat of which part
is offered in sacrifice and the libations
poured upon the altars, you abhor them.
— (Octavius 12.5)
The rapid increase of Christian converts
would inevitably lead to the neglect of
the traditional gods, and up to the time of
Constantine, this was considered harmful
to state and society. A small jar from Carthage, from
the early third century. The fish
and a hardly visible cross on
the other side indicate that it
In dealing with the Christians from Scilli, was used by Christians: recog-
Governor Saturninus was following a pro- nizable to fellow-believers, ir-
cedure that is known to us from the letters recognizable to others (Musée
of Pliny the Younger. In 112, Emperor Trajan national de Carthage).
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A third-century wall painting
from the Catacombs of SS. Pe-
ter and Marcellinus in Rome.
The depiction of a codex is evi-
dence for the degree of literacy
among early Christians.
ahm_2.indd 48
"BOOKS AND LETTERS OF PAUL" AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
Gospel of Matthew Romans
Gospel of Mark 1 Corinthians
Gospel of Luke 2 Corinthians
Gospel of John Galatians
Ephesians
Acts of the Apostles Philippians
Colossians
Pink: quoted or alluded to by the Christians of Scilli
Italics: not quoted or alluded to by Tertullian
had given his consent to the way Pliny dealt
with Christians when he was governor of
the province of Bithynia. Pliny writes:
I interrogated these as to whether
they were Christians. Those who con-
fessed I interrogated a second and
a third time, threatening them with
punishment; those who persisted I or-
dered executed … Those who denied
that they were or had been Christians,
when they invoked the gods in words
dictated by me, offered prayer with
incense and wine to your image …
and moreover cursed Christ – none of
which those who are really Christians,
it is said, can be forced to do – these I
thought should be discharged.
— (Letters 10.96)
The most important question before us is:
why did “those who are really Christians”,
as Pliny called them, prefer to die?
At some point during the hearing of the
Christians of Scilli, Governor Saturninus
asks: “What sort of things do you have in
that case of yours?” Speratus, the Scilli-
tans’ chief spokesman, replies: “Books and
letters of Paul, a righteous man”.
Second-century papyrus finds and
third-century catacomb paintings prove
that books, both scrolls and codices, were
1 Thessalonians James
2 Thessalonians 1 Peter
1 Timothy 2 Peter
2 Timothy 1 John
Titus 2 John
Philemon 3 John
Hebrews Jude
Revelation
in widespread use among early Christians.
Although nothing of certainty may be said
about the “books” referred to by Speratus,
we may surmise these included at least
one of the four gospels and the Acts of the
Apostles. With “letters of Paul”, Speratus
may allude to any of the thirteen letters
attributed to the apostle. All these writ-
ings were regarded as undisputed parts of
what was to become the New Testament.
Of one of Paul’s letters we may at least be
confident a copy was kept in the case, for
Speratus literally quotes from 1 Timothy
6.15-16 (see below).
Rather than drawing any conclusions
as to what books were or were not in
Speratus’ case, we may suppose that these
Christians from Scilli read exactly the same
texts as Tertullian, their famous fellow
Christian from the same province who was
to write many books less than two decades
later. From quotations and allusions in his
writings, it is clear that he regarded most
if not all books of the New Testament as
divinely inspired. It is therefore safe to say
the writings of the New Testament are the
frame of reference to turn to if we want to
understand what drove the Christians from
Scilli to withstand the authority of Rome.
With their knowledge of these authorita-
tive texts, persecution shouldn’t have come
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 as a surprise to the Scillitan Christians. “If
they persecuted me”, Jesus had said, “they
will persecute you also” (John 15.20). More
than being mere warnings, early Christians
must at times have found these texts to be
downright prophetic. This was especially
the case with Matthew 10.18: “On my ac-
count you will be brought before governors
… as witnesses to them”.
The Scillitan Christians being
brought before their own governor, it is
“as a witness” that Speratus offers Sat-
urninus to explain his beliefs: “If you are
prepared to listen to me, I will tell you a
mystery of simplicity”.
Governor Saturninus declines the
offer, but that doesn’t stop us from brief-
ly discussing what Speratus may have
had in mind. With the word “simplic-
ity”, Speratus responds to the governor’s
previous statement that Roman religion
“is simple”. To Speratus, though, a “sim-
ple” act of worship towards the emperor
would result in losing the favor of his
only God. Furthermore, a single God
who had his commands written down
must have been far easier to understand
than coming to terms with innumerous
deities whose wishes had to be discov-
ered by complicated acts of divination.
More to the point, Speratus uses the
Latinized Greek word mysterium to char-
acterize his beliefs. With Paul in mind, it
is worth noting that the word μυστήριον
occurs no less than twenty-one times in
the letters ascribed to him. A clear indica-
tion of what Speratus may have thought it
meant can be found in Ephesians:
[God] made known to us the mystery
of his will … to be put into effect when
the times reach their fulfillment – to
bring unity to all things in heaven and
on earth under Christ.
— (Ephesians 1.9-10; bolded text mine)
That Speratus had this particular mystery
in mind is corroborated by the fact that
a similar allusion to the prospect of God
bringing “all things under Christ”, is part
ahm_2.indd 49
of the passage in 1
Timothy from which
Speratus quotes (as
mentioned above).
Interestingly, that
passage also con-
tains an exhortation
that would be most
welcome in the pre-
dicament the Scilli-
tan Christians were
in. For all we know,
they may have read
and discussed these
very words together
before being brought
before the governor:
Fight the good
fight of the faith.
Take hold of the
eternal life to
which you were
called … In the
sight of God, who gives life to eve- The Christians from Scilli car-
rything, and of Christ Jesus, who ried with them a case with
while testifying before Pontius Pilate “books and letters of Paul”.
made the good confession, I charge The apostle is depicted with
you to keep this command without case in the Catacombs of
spot or blame until the appearing of Domitilla in Rome. This nine-
our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will teenth-century watercolor
bring about in his own time – God, represents the original bright-
the blessed and only Ruler, the King ness of the fourth-century wall
of kings and Lord of lords, who alone painting.
is immortal and who lives in unap-
proachable light, whom no one has
seen or can see.
— (1 Timothy 6.12-16, with the words
quoted by Speratus in bold)
The Christians of Scilli were fighting the
“fight of the faith” there and then and
were in a situation not dissimilar to that of
Jesus before Pilate, who “while testifying
made the good confession”. The Greek of
Paul’s words contains the verb μαρτυρέω
(“to bear witness”). Since bearing witness
in the case of both Jesus and his Scilli-
tan followers resulted in death, the word
“witness” also came to mean “martyr”.
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Fragments of a codex with Ro-
mans 13. The pages are espe-
cially worn at the lower corners,
because of the frequent turn-
ing of pages not just by reading
from start to end, but also by
looking up specific passages.
ahm_2.indd 50
The statement most important to our attempt
at understanding early Christian thought
comes after the Roman official’s second ex-
hortation to swear by the emperor’s birth spir-
it. (This is also the statement containing the
quotation from 1 Timothy.) Speratus replies:
I do not acknowledge the authority
of this world, but I rather serve that
God whom no one has seen or can
see with these eyes.
At first it appears Speratus is ignoring or
unaware of a very important passage in
the letters of Paul: Romans 13. His refusal
to acknowledge worldly authority seems
to contradict the first verse:
Let everyone be subject to the govern-
ing authorities, for there is no authority
except that which God has established.
However, Speratus’ next words are most
revealing:
Whenever I buy, I pay the tax, because
I acknowledge my lord, the king of
kings and ruler of all peoples.
These words show that he does have Ro-
mans 13 in mind, for verse 7 reads:
Give to everyone what you owe them:
If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue,
then revenue; if respect, then respect;
if honor, then honor.
Paying tax is what Speratus owes the Ro-
man state, so that is what he does. Ac-
cordingly, when he states that he rather
serves God (a principle taken from Acts
5.29), we are to understand that he does
feel obliged to render service to the state,
but up to the point where this service isn’t
in conflict with service to God. What the
governor is asking clearly is beyond what
the Scillitan Christians owe him, and it is
only in this respect that Speratus cannot
acknowledge his authority.
When the governor is fed up with
Speratus, the other Christians show they
are equally familiar with their scriptures.
One of the women, Donata, says: “Hon-
or to Caesar in his capacity as Caesar,
but fear to God”.
The idea that what a Christian owes to
Caesar is different from what he owes God,
is doubtlessly taken from Matthew 22.21:
“give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and
to God what is God’s”. In particular, the
distinction Donata makes between “hon-
or” and “fear” (or “respect”), which inci-
dentally are the very words mentioned
in Romans 13.7, appears to be based on
1 Peter 2.17: “fear God, honor the em-
peror”. The “honor” (Latin honor, which
renders τιμή and τιμάω in the Greek of
Paul and Peter respectively) is the ac-
knowledgement of the emperor’s author-
ity. Swearing by his birth spirit cannot be
part of that, because that would amount
to “fear” (timor: φόβος and φοβέομαι re-
spectively). This kind of fear is worship,
and that is owed to God only.
To summarize: Speratus may not have
had the chance to tell about the Christian
mystery, but together, these Christians
bore witness as to make clear that the Ro-
man state official was claiming far more
than was his due. In paying tax they may
have honored the emperor even better
than many a traditional Roman, but they
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 gave their “fear”, that is to say their wor-
ship, to none other than God.
To understand their mood in their fi-
nal moment, it is interesting to take one
more look at Speratus’ quotation of 1
Timothy. Interestingly, to the words “no
one has seen or can see”, he adds: “with
these eyes”. Rather than being a sloppy
quotation, the addition points to anoth-
er scripture from Paul’s letters that may
have been the final consolation to these
Christians from Scilli. It contains the
very hope so important to these Chris-
tians facing their deaths:
We are … persecuted, but not aban-
doned; struck down, but not de-
stroyed… we know that the one who
raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will
also raise us with Jesus and present us
with you to himself… So we fix our
eyes not on what is seen, but on what
is unseen, since what is seen is tempo-
rary, but what is unseen is eternal.
— (2 Corinthians 4.8-18, bolded mine)
As we have seen, early Christian resistance
against specific government requirements
was based on a close reading of Romans
13 and other scriptures. Since New Testa-
ment writings are authorative to millions of
people today, we may ask if this particular
scripture has caused similar conflicts in
modern times. Interestingly, ancient trials
against Christians like the ones from Scilli
have a parallel in World War II. In March
1944, New Testament scholar C.C. Mc-
Cown compared what was happening to
the small Christian group of Jehovah’s Wit-
nesses in Nazi Germany to early Christian
martyrdom in the Roman Empire:
Despatches from Switzerland a few
months ago told of the execution of
some and the arrest of many more of
these sectaries. They were accused…
of putting Germans in the dilemma of
choosing between the Fuehrer and
a heavenly leader… When, recently,
seven were executed, their wives
ahm_2.indd 51
begged them not to sign a recantation
in order to obtain a possible pardon.
Repression seems to have had no de-
terrent effect upon the spread of the
movement. Early Christian martyr-
doms immediately come to mind.
Because of the similar way they under-
stood Romans 13, Jehovah’s Witnesses (or
Bibelforscher as the Nazis called them) re-
fused to say “Heil Hitler”. They felt that the
requirement to salute the head of state in
this manner was more than what they owed
him. Furthermore, they refused to partici-
pate in warfare or work in arms factories.
Of all groups regarded as enemies by the
Nazis, the Bibelforscher were among the
first to be put in camps from 1933 on-
wards. The recantation to which McCown
refers is a known Erklärung (‘declaration’)
that shows a remarkable resemblance to
Pliny’s approach. Part of it reads: ‘I ac-
knowledge that the International society of
Bibelforscher is spreading fallacy… I have
therefore completely withdrawn from this
organisation.’ Signing it meant release, an
opportunity offered to no other group un-
der Nazi persecution. Typically, only few
put their signature. AHM
Alexander Smarius is a teacher of Greek,
Latin, and Classical Culture at the Vossius
Gymnasium in Amsterdam.
FURTHER READING
The uneasy ties between ancient
society and Christian faith are the
subject of Gillian Clark’s Christian-
ity and Roman Society (2004). The
Bible quotations were taken from
the New International Version. The
Latin text of the Acts of the Martyrs
of Scilli can be found in Herbert
Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian
Martyrs (1972). More literature and
an online translation of the Acts of
the Martyrs of Scilli are available at
http://tinyurl.com/q6wpsz2.
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