Taking the Measure of the Ancient World numberofpeoplehadeitherGreekorLatinastheirprimarylanguage.Inone
way,asAugustine’spictureof hiseducationinhislittlehometownshows,
thiswasthemost‘‘classical’’ofallperiods.
Butthesecondreasonismorerelevanttohowweintroducepeopletothe
classicalworldtoday.Forthetwoimportantprocessesmentionedjustnow,
thetransferofChristianityanditssacredscripturesintoaLatin-speakingen-
vironment,andtheclashbetweenChristianityandpaganism,areillustrated
forusbytextsofoutstandingdramaticforce,combinedwithgreatlinguistic
simplicity,theActs of the Christian Martyrs.TheseActsarenot,thoughthey
mayseemtobe,authenticverbalrecordsofthetrialsofmartyrs.Butthey
areancientliteraryevocationsofthosetrials,whichboth,inrealityandas
presentedinmartyracts,servedtofocusonjustwhatwasatstakeintheclash
oftwoviewsoftheworld.
Oneaspectofthesecomplexprocessesisperfectlycaughtintheearliest
oftheknownmartyractsinLatin,whichrepresentsthetrialbeforethepro-
consulofAfricain..ofsomeChristiansfromasmallplacecalledScilli.
Oneoftheproconsul’squestionsevokesaresponseoffargreatersignificance
thantheverysimplelanguagemightsuggest:
Saturninustheproconsulasked:Whatthingsarethereinyourbox?
Speratusanswered:ThebooksandlettersofPaulus,arighteousman.WiththatwehavetheveryearliestevidenceforthetranslationoftheNew
Testament into Latin, a process which was to culminate in Jerome’s great
work of revision, and the production of theVulgate,which has remained
eversincetheBibleoftheCatholicChurch:
InprincipiocreavitDeuscaelumetterram.terraautemeratinaniset
vacua et tenebrae super faciem abyssi. et spiritus Dei ferebatur super
aquas.dixitqueDeus‘‘fiatlux’’;etfactaestlux.Fromonepointofview,thediffusionofthisviewofwhattheworldwasis
surelyofsomeimportanceforourunderstandingoftheancientworld.But
fromanother,mightnotthesesimple,pregnantsentencesprovideforbegin-
nersagoodwayintotheLatinoflaterantiquity(asJewishtextsdointothe
GreekoftheHellenisticperiod)?ButifwedidwishtouseChristianLatin
asawayinforbeginners,therecouldbenobetterchoicethanthemartyr
actwhichrepresentsthetrialofFructuosus,bishopofTarragona,beforethe
governor(praeses)in...Notetheveryloadedandmeaningfuluseof
tenses, the deployment of subordinate clauses, the contrast of singularand
plural(deumanddeos)inspeakingofthedivineorder,andthestarkclarity
inwhichtheclashofreligiousunderstandingsispresented: