their country, and those who do their (evil) work behind closed doors." Now all these three were the stock charges against Christians, and who can doubt they are hinted at here? Lastly there is the reference to exorcism (i. 6),[1] in which Marcus says that Diognetus taught him to disbelieve.
As a matter of fact, Marcus has been condemned as a persecutor of the Christians on purely circumstantial and quite insufficient grounds. The general testimony of contemporary Christian writers is against the supposition. So is the known character of Marcus. His distinguishing characteristic, in which he excelled all recorded rulers, was humanity. His φιλανθρωπία is mentioned by Galen, Dio, Philostratus, Athenagoras (twice), Melito, and Aristides (eleven times); and his humanitas by the eminent jurist Callistratus.[2] As soon could Alexander have turned his back in the day of battle as Marcus shown cruelty to his subjects, however lowly. "Never," says Marcus in the eighth book of his self-communings, "have I willingly injured another," and Themistius (Orat. 15) records how, when penned in by his enemies in a new Caudine Forks, he raised his hands to Heaven and cried, "With this hand wherewith I have shed no blood, I appeal to Thee and beseech the Giver of life."
He had a passion for justice, and was most scrupulous in his observance of law, as Papinian, the greatest of jurists, has told us. That he should have encouraged mob-violence against unoffending persons, ordered the torture of innocent women and boys, and violated the rights of citizenship in his insensate fury, is as inconceivable as that St. Louis should have broken the Christian law or become a Mohammedan. That some Christians suffered for their religion in the reign of Marcus is most
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