Foremost of these was Stephen, who, about two years after the
Ascension, bore the first witness through death to the doctrine which he
taught,
[Footnote 1: Apostle--one sent] being stoned by the people in a sudden
fit of fury, at his showing how the whole course of their history was
but a preparation for Him whom they had crucified.
In the year 37, Pilate was recalled to Rome to answer the many charges
against him. He was sentenced to banishment in Gaul, and there suffered
so much from remorse, that he killed himself. At the time of his
deposition, the Caesar, Tiberius, was dying, hated by all, and leaving
his empire to his nephew, Caligula, who had been a youth of great
promise; but he lost his senses in a fever, and did all sorts of strange
wild things--made his horse a consul, tried to make him eat gilded oats,
and once, at a wild beast show, turned the lions in on the spectators.
Shortly before his illness, Herod Agrippa, the son of Herod the Great's
murdered son, Aristobulus, while driving in a chariot with him, had said
how glad everyone would be to see him reigning. The charioteer reported
the speech, and Tiberius punished it by keeping Herod in prison, chained
to a soldier; but to make up for his sufferings, Caligula no sooner
became emperor than he set him free, gave him a crown, made him King of
Trachonitis and Abilene, and presented him with a gold chain of the same
weight as the fetters which he had worn in prison.
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