SLAVE

An imperial edict orders the extirpation of Christianity from the Roman Empire, and the re-establishment of the worship of the pagan gods. In Caesarea, Theophilus works to that end, abetted by Harpax; his many successes so far include the forced apostasy of his own daughters, once Christians but now votaresses of Jupiter. Diocletian gives his daughter Artemia the right to choose her own husband, and she selects the unwilling Antoninus, who loves the Christian Dorothea and asks for time to consider. Artemia remains in Caesarea as her father’s deputy. Harpax tells Theophilus that Antoninus is having an illicit relationship with Dorothea, and Theophilus suborns her servants Spungius and Hircius to smuggle him into her home so that he can witness a meeting between them. Dorothea and Antoninus are arrested. Theophilus sets his daughters, Dorothea’s childhood friends, to convert her to paganism; but instead Dorothea persuades them to revert to Christianity. When they demonstrate their new faith by spitting at an idol of Jupiter, their outraged father kills them. Antoninus is taken ill. His father brings Dorothea to his sick-bed in the hope that he will rape her and so be cured. He refuses, and Dorothea is taken for torture and execution. Destitute after losing the gold Theophilus gave them, Spungius and Hircius are engaged by Harpax to be the torturers. They flog her, but miraculously she feels nothing; they are wrongly suspected of botching the job out of regard for their former mistress, and hanged. After praying that Antoninus’ love for her be transformed into love for God, Dorothea is beheaded. Antoninus drops dead at the sight. Artemia gets her second choice of husband: the co-Emperor Maximinus. Dorothea’s faithful page Angelo, whom she took in as a beggar, turns out to be an angel, and brings Theophilus a gift from her: a basket of fruit and flowers to persuade him of the joys of the Christian heaven. Harpax comes in his true form, a devil, to claim Theophilus, but is frightened off by a floral cross in the basket. Theophilus is converted, orders the release of all Christian prisoners, and gives them ships in which to flee persecution. He is arrested by the authorities and asks to die on the worst of his extensive collection of torture instruments. He is racked but will not recant; Harpax is balked of his aim, and Dorothea and the other martyrs receive him into heaven. Diocletian is unmoved: the state will continue the persecution of Christians. =====…