Just Say "No"

There is a story of a legion of soldiers from Thebes (present day Lurer in Upper Egypt) that is a spectacular example of witnessing to others about the Christian faith. They were known as The Roman Theban Legion because the men were Egyptian Christian Copts who had been recruited from and stationed in Thebias in Upper Egypt. All 6600 were Martyred in the town (known in the Roman times) as "Aguanum", an important communication center in 286 A.D. The following is report of why none would survive.


Maximian, the second in command to Emperor Diocletian, ordered the Theban Legion (which were quartered in the east) to march to the border of Gaul (France). The legion camped in (present day) Switzerland. There they were to assist him against the rebels of Burgundy. It was the custom of the Romans to move troops from extreme parts of the empire to avoid the problem of Roman-trained soldiers participating in uprisings to free their native lands.

[It should be noted here that the Egyptians or the Copts accepted Christianity so very rapidly to the extent that the Romans had to exercise a series of persecutions in an attempt to suppress the growth of a religion which openly defied the divinity of the Emperor. The Roman Edict of 202 A.D. decreed that Christian conversion should be stopped at all costs. The edict of 250 A.D. decreed that every citizen should carry at all times a certificate issued by the local authorities testifying that he had offered sacrifice to the gods. Those who refused to conform were tortured with unprecedented ferocity. Some were beheaded, others were thrown to the lions and others were burnt alive. All were subjected to even innovated veracious torture regardless of age or sex. The Catechetical School of Alexandria was closed by order of the authorities, though its members continued to meet in other secret places. At one time, the number of bishops was restricted by the State to three. The consummation of the age of persecution is considered by the Copts to be during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284-305). So severe was the mass execution and the savage torture of the Copts that they took the day of DiocIetian's military election as Emperor to mark the beginning of the era of the Coptic martyrs. That very day marked the start of the Coptic Calendar known in the Western world as Anno Martyrum (A.M.) or the year of the Martyrs.]

There are conflicting reports as to the timing of the event: there are some reports that state the following happened the night before the attack and others reporting that it took place after the revolt was quelled), the Emperor Maximian issued an order that the whole army should join offering sacrifices for the Roman gods for the success of their mission. The order included killing Christians. Only the Thebian Legion dared to refuse to comply with the orders declaring that they were Christians themselves. The legion withdrew itself, encamped near Aguanum and refused to take part in these rites. The declaration angered Maximian

He stood them in file and had them decimated (i.e. every 10th man killed) hoping to intimidate the rest. The remaining soldiers met together and wrote a letter to him, which then all signed. They wrote:

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 cannot obey any order if it turns counter to God's commands. If your orders coincide with God's commands we will certainly obey; if not, 'we ought to obey God rather than man' (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.

This steadfastness of the whole legion infuriated Caesar and he ordered the Roman soldiers to wipe out the whole legion, which they did. Pere Cheneau, the historian, described the event in this way:

Thus they were martyred...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.

(painting by Joannis Santoniadis)