1. Even the deeds that were done yesterday' and the day Malice
THE SECOND APOLOGY
S. JUSTIN M A R T Y R
FOR THE CHRISTIANS
TO ANTONINUS
PIUS.
1. Even the deeds that were done yesterday' and the day Malice before in our city by Urbicus, O Romans, and those which ^^^^ in like manner are unreasonably perpetrated by your and ,, T / n .
. wicked governors m all parts, compel me to frame this composition men. of argument, in behalf of us, who are of like passions with ^ ^^^^ yourselves and your brethren, even though you do notTrpa>vi'acknowledge it, and wish it not, because of thd glory of what are considered by you as distinctions.
For every ""^ where, whoever is corrected by father, or neighbour, or child, or friend, or brother, or husband, or wife, for any fault, as for being inflexible, and addicted to sensuality, and hard to excite to good, (except those who believe that the ^ unjust and intemperate shall be punished in eternal fire, but that the good and those v/ho live like Christ shall be together with God in a state free from suffering, I allude to those who have become Christians,) these, and the evil demons who hate us, and who have, as judges under them, such as the above, their subjects and worshippers, cause the latter, like rulers who are under the influence of devils, to put us to^ leath.
But in order that the very cause of the whole thing hat Urbicus did may be made plain to you,
I will relate all hat was done.
58 A husband prosecutes his wife's teacher before Urbicus.
Just.
2. A certain woman liacl a husband who was intemperate, Mart.
. r ?
^ - ~ she herself also formerly being intemperate.
But when she execuknew the doctrines of Christ, she was brought to selftljr°8 control; and endeavoured to persuade her husband to the martyrs, same, relating these doctrines, and teaching him that there would be a future punishment in eternal fire, for all who did not govern their lives by moderation and right reason.
But he continued in the same excesses, and by his conduct alienated his wife from him ; and she thinking it wrong to live any longer with one, who, against the law of nature, and contrarily to right, laboured to procure by every device the means of gratification, wished for a divorce ; and when she yielded to the entreaties of those about her who wished her to remain with him still, as her husband would come bye and bye to the hope of a change, she constrained herself, and remained with him.
But when her husband went into Alexandria, and was said to be acting worse, she, that she might not be a partaker in his sins and impieties, by remaining in her connection with him, and continuing to share his i^cTToutable and his bed, gave him what you call the ^bill of divorce, and was separated.
But this good and admirable husband ; who ought to have rejoiced, that the deeds which she formerly used to commit recklessly with the servants and hirelings, taking delight in drunkenness, and every kind of wickedness, she now ceased to do, and wished him to abstain from doing as well ; when she had parted from him against his will, laid an accusation against her, declaring that she was a Christian.
And she addressed a petition to you, O Emperor, praying that she might first be permitted to arrange her affairs, and then, after they were set in order, she would defend herself on the subject of the accusation.
And you granted her petition.
Her former husband then, being now unable to reply to her, turned in the following manner on a certain Ptolemaeus, who was her teacher in the Christian doctrines, whom Urbicus punished; he persuaded the centurion who threw Ptolemagus into prison, and who was his friend, to take him, and ask him this single question alone : Was he a Christian ?
And Ptolemseus, who was a lover of truth, and no wise disposed to be a deceiver or falsifier, confessed himself to be a Christian
; on which the