The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-25
DIOGJEyIYAN-

Diocletian, Roman Emperor, had been elected by the army He shared the rule with three others He ruled over Thrace, Egypt and Asia He was proclaimed emperor at Chalce- don, Asia Minor, on August 29, 2S4 A. D. He has only one distinction, an infamous distinction: his Era, the Diocletian Era was called the Era of Martyrs"
 Almos immediately upon attaining the @Purple,' the Paludimentum, a | distinctive mantle of royal Tyrian purple-in reality scarlet-worn by a Roman commanding general, and by l the emperor as head of the army, a mantle which was worn over the armor, and fastened in front or on 1 the shoulder by a c1asp-Dioc1etian on this date, in 3o3, A D., issued a 1 general edict of persecution against 1 the Christians, by which all their re- 1 ligious edifices throughout the em- 1 pire, from the confines of. Asia to the l bleak North were to be levelled to l their foun dations, and the church property were confiscated to the 1 highest bidder This decree was 1 fastened on a column in the imperial l city, in Rome But a Christian of
 
 l column. For his audacity he was l burnt, or rather roasted alive over a | slow fire
 1 Under Nero in the First Century ! the prosecutions had been unspeak- | able in horror For one afternoon s amusement in the Coliseum, NerG | ordered the Christians bound on l crosses, by ropes, the entire circle Of l the huge Coliseum There is a cele- | brated picture of this historical "Ro- man holiday
 The emperor, of fat, 1asciEious 1 face. is lolling back on his iInporia c;ia,l1ons, but his eye is fixed upor l one form upon a cross directly op, posite the emperor's place in the frs row above the arena The reader vii see in a moment what engages Nero: IUstful, amused attention To tn. right of the enperor's purple canop! are seated the Vestal Virgins in theL historic white draper-y and veil. Tht most beautiful of these Vestals oc cupies the seat Of honor It is he custom to give the signal for tn | slaughter in a gladiatorial exhfbi ton when the overthrown fighter on tn ground inplores mercy with pitifu right arm outstretched- This Vesta generally gives the signal, Thumb
 
 victim with his sword, to the delight ed roars that sh ook the Coliseum.
 IT. the picture above alluded tc ! the VestaIs are quietly watching without the least tremor or qualr the awful scene before them.
 The Coliseum is crowded to ca pacity-Rome at its most luxuriou: most noted, most brilliant. And wha are they all looking at? What is i on which the emperor's eyes glu | ' themselves? Not only on the pitifr 5 forms of men feebly writhing in thei last agonies on crosses of torture (bu to whom the loin-cloth of som modesty has been granted); not onl f a the wild beasts let in to the aren lions, tigers, and the deadly puma 1eaping to the human flesh, and tear , ing dripping morsels at pleasure l for the crosses have adroitly bee - placed exactly high enough for tn wild beasts to reach and tear out tn < heart of the victim-the daintie' h morseI-but on wonder young forn = an exquisite form of woman who's cross has been erected directly oI = posite to the enperor's canopy.
 The youllg woman has been boun . entirely naked to her cross.