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He was born of Christian parents at some period between A.D. 372 and A.D. 415. His father, Calphurnius, was a deacon, his grandfather, Potitus, a priest Though an ecclesiastic, Calphurnius would seem to have held the rank of decurion, and may therefore have been of Roman or provincial British extraction.
The small patches of ground belonging to the poor peasants up and down the country, for raising the turnips, garlic, barley, watermelons, on which they live, are the prey of these glutton invaders as much as the choicest vines and olives. Nor have they any reverence for the villa of the civic decurion or the Roman official.
Drenched guards, posted near the eaves where water splashed on them clanged their shields in darkness as the decurion passed; there was not a square yard of the palace grounds unwatched.
Many might have answered like that grammarian of Constantine, who told the Inquisitors with astute simplicity: "I am a professor of Roman literature, a teacher of Latin grammar. My father was a decurion at Constantine; my grandfather was a soldier and had served in the guard.
"And dost Thou know, worthy lord," continued the innkeeper, "what that decurion answered? 'Asarhadon, said he, 'I know that Thou art a faithful servant of his holiness, Thou hast good food and pure wines; for this reason I warn thee, look to thyself. Have a care of foreigners who make no acquaintances, who avoid wine and every amusement, and are silent.
Suddenly he drew rein, for a man, dressed in the coarse, gray tunic of a slave, had half run, half stumbled across his way. An instant more, and the fellow was struggling in the grasp of Decius, who had sprung to the ground. "What now, forkbearer! what now, delight of the scourges!" cried the decurion. "Will you delay the march of a tribune of the Republic?"
Meanwhile, Lucius Sergius rode on through the night, with Marcus Decius at his side, and the troop of horse trailing out across the plain behind them. "It is silent, master," said the decurion, but his attitude, as he leaned forward over his horse's neck, was rather of one trying to smell than to listen. "The pulse-eaters sleep deeply."
No light showed, saving at the guard-house by the main gate, where a group of sentries shrugged themselves against the wall ill-tempered, shivering, alert. However mutinous a Roman army, or a legion, or a guard might be, its individuals were loyal to the routine work of military duty. A decurion stepped out beneath a splashing arch, the lamplight gleaming on his wetted bronze and crimson.
He spoke the last words aloud, and then desired one of the senator's slaves to give his mule a good feed and drink, for his own groom, and the superior decurion who during his absence must take his place, were also worshippers of Mithras, and had not yet returned from the mountain.
He began to feel thoroughly frightened, as he told himself that the escort and their decurion would swear to any statement Marcia might make.
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