German victories, A.D. 176. In the following year Commodus was associated
with his father in the empire, and took the name of Augustus. This year
A.D. 177 is memorable in ecclesiastical history. Attalus and others were
put to death at Lyon for their adherence to the Christian religion. The
evidence of this persecution is a letter preserved by Eusebius. It
contains a very particular description of the tortures inflicted on the
Christians in Gallia, and it states that while the persecution was going
on, Attalus, a Christian and a Roman citizen, was loudly demanded by the
populace and brought into the amphitheatre; but the governor ordered him
to be reserved, with the rest who were in prison, until he had received
instructions from the emperor. Many had been tortured before the governor
thought of applying to Antoninus. The imperial rescript, says the letter,
was that the Christians should be punished, but if they would deny their
faith, they must be released. On this the work began again. The
Christians who were Roman citizens were beheaded; the rest were exposed
to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre.

The war on the northern frontier appears to have been uninterrupted
during the visit of Antoninus to the East, and on his return the emperor
again left Rome to oppose the barbarians. The Germanic people were
defeated in a great battle A.D. 179. During this campaign the emperor was
seized with some contagious malady, of which he died in the camp, A.D.
180, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. His son Commodus was with him.
The body, or the ashes probably, of the emperor were carried to Rome, and
he received the honor of deification. Those who could afford it had his
statue or bust; and when Capitolinus wrote, many people still had statues
of Antoninus among the Dei Penates or household deities. He was in a
manner made a saint. Commodus erected to the memory of his father the
Antonine column which is now in the Piazza Colonna at Rome. The bassi
rilievi which are placed in a spiral line round the shaft commemorate the