Peter was crucified, and they relate that he said to his executioner: “If you insist on crucifying me, then crucify me upside-down, so that I may not appear like my Master, the Messiah, for He was crucified upright.” Paul, for his part, was beheaded with the sword. Peter survived for twenty-two years after the Ascension of Christ. Mark stayed in Alexandria and Cyrenaica for seven years, calling the people to faith in Christ; afterwards he was killed in Alexandria and his body was burned.

The line of Roman Caesars carried on in the same fashion until a Caesar called Titus (1) gained control of Egypt. Seventy years after Christ he besieged Jerusalem and destroyed it. A terrible famine struck its inhabitants, and he slew every man and woman he found there—ripping open the bellies of pregnant women and smashing their infants against the rocks. He demolished the city, set it ablaze, and when the dead were counted those killed at his hands numbered three million.

Other rulers followed. One of them was exceedingly harsh toward the Jews, and they informed him that the Christians were saying, “The Messiah is our king and His kingdom will last until the end of time.” Enraged, he ordered that the Christians be put to death and that not a single Christian remain within his domain (2). John, the author of the Gospel, was present and fled; later the king decreed that the Christians be honored and no longer molested.

After him another king came to power and unleashed a fierce persecution against the Christians. He killed the Patriarch of Antioch in Rome, put the Bishop of Jerusalem to death and crucified him—at the time the bishop was one hundred and twenty years old—and he ordered that the Christians be enslaved, so their ordeal intensified until