Antipas, citizen of Rome, lover of all things good and beneficial, and seeker for truth;
To my friends Luke, lover of god, and Calpurnius, preeminent citizen of Ephesus;
Grace be with you.
I have now returned to Pergamum, having been refreshed in my travels by your mutual kindness. Your hospitality to me and my entourage on the way was most welcome, especially since the effects of time’s passage have apparently worsened my abilities to travel. Nonetheless, we have returned to Pergamum without further complication [allusion uncertain], welcomed back by the kindly Euphemos, who, true to his word, reserved my rooms in his house in my absence.
I have returned with some unease, however. Your worry about the situation in Pergamum was well founded. The first disturbing indicator came when, on my first night back, Euphemos gently suggested that I sever my connections with the Christians who assemble in the house of Antonius. Although this was presented as a suggestion to preserve my own good name, I was certain that Euphemos was concerned to protect his own at the same time. It became clear that, if I continued to be associated with those particular Christians while living in Euphemos’s house, I might compromise his own standing within the city. It seems that the Christians who gather at Antonius’s house are suspected of antisocial behavior, as those who compromise the city of Pergamum in the eyes of Rome. This reputation has come about, it seems, solely through the actions of Demetrius, that well-meaning stonemason, husband to Diotis and caretaker of darling Nouna. Although he has continually worked hard to promote the good, his feisty petulance has put him in the center of the city’s recent gaze. I was devastated to learn that Demetrius is now being held in custody by the city magistrates.
After hearing this from Euphemos, I went early the next day to Antonius’s house, expecting to hear of these recent events from him and Mania, after which I would need to evaluate my own situation. It should not have come as a surprise to find that Antonius had taken Diotis and Nouna into his own household to provide for their security. The charges against Demetrius were substantial enough to suggest that retribution against his family might follow, and Antonius took action to prevent that from happening. This act alone could endanger Antonius’s standing within the city. Although he is clearly aware of this danger, it seems not to have factored into his attitude toward Diotis and Nouna.
I am now able to reconstruct the events leading up to this present situation, of which I know you will want to be informed. It seems that this crisis was precipitated by a disagreement between Demetrius and the managers of the Pergamene stonemasons’ guild, the strongest guild of the city and one fiercely loyal to the emperor. Demetrius’s membership within the guild had become progressively strained as he began to make vocal protestation against some of the guild’s practices, especially its unrestrained honoring of the emperor. There had been a recent upsurge in the guild’s commitment to display honor for Domitian and to worship him. Demetrius’s protests had increased to match the guild’s augmented interest in the imperial cult. He had objected in particular to the guild’s special banquets held in the emperor’s honor, at which incense is burned on the emperor’s behalf, sacrifices are offered before images of the emperor and the established gods of Pergamum, and some of the sacrificial meat is eaten in the banquet setting. Demetrius’s vocal infractions of civic etiquette brought upon him the ire of the guild. Its managers attempted to discipline him, but without avail. On one occasion, for instance, he was instructed to offer his own sacrifice to Domitian upon the Great Altar of the gods in the acropolis, but the deadline for that action lapsed without his compliance.
At this point, he probably would simply have been ejected from the guild, falling among the vulnerable ranks of the unemployed. Unfortunately, things took a different course once Demetrius’s vocal denunciations caught the attention of civic authorities. They took notice of Demetrius’s public portrayal of Domitian as the ambassador of evil who usurps the universal authority of the true god. Along with this, Demetrius had regularly indicted the imperial cult that has rooted itself firmly in Pergamum.
Taken into custody to stand trial before the civic officials, Demetrius refused to retract his subversive claims and consistently declared Jesus Christ to be the sole ruler of the universe. The officials castigated him as an atheist who opposes traditional Roman religion, and an antisocial miscreant. His open attacks on the pillars of civic life were deemed antagonistic to the well-being of the city and dangerous to society in general. Sentenced to death, he is in prison awaiting the next gladiatorial event, now less than two weeks away, to be attended by the emperor himself. At those games, under the emperor’s own gaze, Demetrius is scheduled to be executed as a criminal against the state, an example to deter others. Only two courses of action will save Demetrius of that fate. First, he could recant his charges against the emperor, offer sacrifices before the emperor’s image, and eat the meat of altar sacrifices. Second, on the day of the games themselves, the emperor might take the occasion to show leniency, demonstrating before the crowds the extent of his graciousness and goodness. No one knows what might happen.
Meanwhile, it seems that little Nouna has been traumatized by this series of events. She refuses to speak, is not eating much, and keeps herself secluded. The joy of life that shone from her eyes and delighted me so much prior to my journey is now nowhere to be seen. Diotis is naturally distraught, her tears continually streaming down her face.
I mentioned none of this to Demetrius when I gained access to his prison cell later in the day. He too showed signs of distress. He has lost a significant amount of weight, and his back shows evidence of scourging. His cell is dark, musty, and foul in smell. But he remains alert in mind, determined in spirit, and confident in his singular faith in Jesus Christ. Evidently, Kalandion had already visited him several days earlier in the hope of deterring him from his persistent atheism. Kalandion, who is clearly concerned about his own reputation as a Christ worshiper, suggested that allegiance to Jesus Christ is not incompatible with worship of the Roman emperor and the lesser gods. Moreover, eating meat sacrificed to idols is not a religious offense. According to Kalandion, because all food comes from the most high god, and because idols have no real existence or power, Christians should not worry about eating sacrificial food. Demetrius thought that, in principle, Kalandion’s argument about idol meat was correct. However, he felt that eating meat sacrificed to idols in the context of a guild banquet would signal his compliance with the imperial cult and would involve a compromise in his singular devotion to Jesus Christ. That was a step he was unprepared to make. Kalandion departed from Demetrius’s prison cell unsuccessful in his attempts to find an acceptable compromise.
In our conversation, Demetrius spoke about his decision to take a stand against the increasing local pressures to conform to imperialistic propaganda and the cult of emperor worship. He feels that the emperor’s claims to divinity, perpetuated by the local imperial priesthood, are simply the most obscene and despicable demonstration of human self-aggrandizement. It is this characteristic that he thinks is deeply embedded within the empire, eating away at its heart as a cancer devours its host. Demetrius recounted how the story of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection helped him to see Rome for what it really is. Unmasked, it is little more than a peddler of human pride and self-centeredness under the guise of divine legitimization. The human traits of conceit and self-importance propelled Rome to world supremacy, and now those traits are conspiring to worship themselves in the embodied form of the emperor. Demetrius said that he wanted no part of this narcissistic paganism, preferring to give his allegiance instead to the empire of god that Jesus had spoken of, practiced, and embodied.
Demetrius feels that the Christians who gather at Antonius’s house have caught momentary glimpses of that empire in their corporate gatherings. He claims that the invigoration of those moments surpasses anything he has ever experienced. To eat together without being bound by societal expectations; to learn, study, and worship together as a group of people, males and females, from a variety of races and locations, each with different roles in society and different levels of civic status and economic power—these corporate occasions are, for Demetrius, embodiments of the divine empire proclaimed and inaugurated by Jesus. These unprecedented phenomena are not the product of a local deity or tribal god. They emerge as the manifestation of the power of the ultimate god, the universal god, the god of all people, the god responsible for the creation of life. This god alone has the power to defeat the forces of chaos, evil, and death. So it is not surprising that Jesus was raised from the dead, signaling the overthrow of those forces by the most high god. Only he has such authority and power, not Rome. As a result of Rome’s claim to prevail over these forces of chaos, some good is being done in the name of stability, but that good only serves to cloak the way in which the chaotic forces of self-interest and conceit permeate the Roman Empire. In Demetrius’s view, Jesus’s life challenged those forces; his death absorbed them; and his resurrection defeated them. These events have set in motion the power of god’s spirit to inspire new patterns of living in those loyal to Jesus. In those patterns of life lie the testimony that the most high god is sovereign over the forces of evil and chaos. It is against this backdrop, Demetrius told me, that he views his impending death. Despite its ghastly prospect, he is willing to remain faithful to his god, who in turn will be faithful to him, restoring him to life in the final resurrection of which Jesus spoke.
It was pointless to try to dissuade him from his intended course of action, and I was unsure of what to say as I left him, other than to compliment his bravery. As I rose to leave, Demetrius rose too and prayed to the god of Israel on behalf of both of us, seeking wisdom, courage, and faithfulness.
After leaving Demetrius’s prison cell, I returned late at night to my rooms in Euphemos’s house, which I then vacated the next morning. Euphemos and I did not exchange much conversation that morning, for we both knew the implications of my departure. I requested that he pass on to the other city officials my resignation from the post of overseeing the renovation of the Asclepion, and he agreed to do so, expressing his regrets. I then donated my servants to Euphemos’s service in exchange for his kindness over the past months and took with me only Stachys and Glykeros, my scribe.
I dictate this letter to you from Attaea, one day’s travel from Pergamum, where I have taken residence in a humble inn near the Aegean Sea. I am not known here and, having connections with neither the house of Antonius nor the house of Euphemos, I can consider these matters dispassionately. I am not sure whether I will ever again return to Pergamum.
I hope to write to you soon, good friends. You remain faithful guides in my journey for truth. I would ask that you join me in praying to the father of Jesus Christ with regard to these matters. May his will be done.
Farewell.