THE THEBAN LEGION.

The first story to be given here is that of the men of the Theban legion and of a nurse whose name is associated with them.

Since Egypt was being ruled by the Romans, the latter exercised their right to mobilize Egyptian youth to serve in their army. One of the Egyptian legions that had won high repute in the armed service was known as the Theban legion, so - called because its members were natives of Thebes, capital of Pharaonic Egypt (and site of the present day town of Luxor). Unknown to the Romans, the soldiers of the Theban legion had all been converted to Christianity, and tried, even as military men "to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesar's, and to God the things that were God’s".

When, in the course of the history of the Roman Empire, the province of Gaul (present - day France) rumbled with signs of rebelliousness, Emperor Diocletian commissioned Maximian - an old comrade and loyal friend of his whom he had appointed as his second in command and given the title of Caesar[(1)] to quell their rebellion. Maximian having heard of the valor of the Theban legion, requested Diocletian to send it over to him that it might participate in the action. When they arrived, Maximian divided them into two groups: one was to encamp on the border of Gaul, and the other further East in present day Switzerland, in preparation for the attack.

On the eve of the battle, Maximian, as was his habit, decided to go to the pagan temple to pay homage to his gods, and he ordered the men of the Theban legion to go with him.

But he was both surprised and infuriated when they unanimously refused to obey his order and admitted they were Christians. He therefore, ordered them to stand in file and had them decimated (i. e. every tenth man killed.) hoping thereby to intimidate them. But the rest assembled together and wrote him a letter which they all signed. In it they said: "Great Caesar - we are your soldiers, and at the same time we are God's slaves. We owe you our military service, but our prime allegiance we owe to God. From you we receive our daily wages; from Him our eternal reward, Great Caesar, we regret that we cannot obey any order if it runs counter to God's commands. If your orders coincide with God's commands we will certainly obey them; if not," we ought to obey God rather than men "(Acts 5: 29) , for our loyalty to Him surpasses all other loyalties. We are not rebels; if we were we would defend ourselves for we have our weapons. But we prefer to die upright than to live stained. As Christians we will serve you. But we will not relinquish our faith in our Lord, and this we openly declare." [(2)].

When Maximian read this letter, the very steadfastness it portrayed angered him all the more. Again he ordered a second decimation, and once more asked the remnant to accompany him to the temple. Fearlessly they said: "We are Christians. ” Thereupon Maximian ordered his Roman soldiers to wipe out the whole Legion. Pere Cheneau describes this saga in the following terms: ’’Thus were they martyred: some in Agaune, others in Soleure, in Ventimiglia in Bergamo, and in Treves. It was a mighty holocaust; an unparalleled massacre, the plains were drunk with blood and the bodies strewn to the winds. But by being willing to make the supreme sacrifice the men of the Theban Legion proved that their faithfulness to their Heavenly Lord and King surpassed their valor as soldiers in the army of the temporal ruler. ” [(3)].