ON ST. ZENO THE MARTYR AND HIS COMPANIONS, 10,203
AT ROME AT THE SALVIAN WATERS.
ABOUT THE YEAR 298.
Notice from the Martyrologies.
Zeno, Martyr, at Rome at the Salvian Waters (S.)
Companions, ten thousand two hundred and three, Martyrs, at Rome at the Salvian Waters
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
[1] Among the synonymous Zenos, both Martyrs and Confessors, who are now recounted in considerable number in our Acts, and are further to be recounted in their places, he who is honored today under the same name is distinguished by this characteristic mark, Today's Zeno distinguished from the other synonyms, so that no danger of confusion can lie beneath: for the companions, ten thousand two hundred and three, suit him alone in such wise that they cannot easily be transferred to another. Likewise the place of martyrdom, marked at the perpetually flowing Drop, or at the Salvian
Waters, most celebrated in the whole world by the martyrdom of the Apostle Paul, is restricted abundantly to this single class of Martyrs alone. And these things indeed are plain enough from the Little Roman, and its whole progeny through Ado and Usuard. Hear first the fountain of all: At Rome, at the perpetually flowing Drop, of Zeno and the others, ten thousand two hundred and three, who, there expressed by Roman numerals, are more explicitly signified by Ado and others. Concerning the arena there remains no dispute; the things which had crept into Usuard by Molanus from Baronius have been restored in our Observations. For the rest, Ado added nothing to the Little Roman except only the Saint's title; Usuard reads, The birthday of St. Zeno the Martyr.
[2] he has been received from the Martyrologies. Notker, in his manner, closely followed the footsteps of Ado. Bede could not be cited except from the Plantinian edition, for in our genuine one, whether it be Bede's or Florus's, in Rabanus or Wandelbert, the today's announcement of which we treat is not noted, which to describe from several other Martyrologies is plainly superfluous. Peter de Natalibus wrongly ascribes to Ado, that, slaughtered by diverse tortures, glorifying Christ the Lord in their bodies, they deserved to obtain the crowns of heavenly triumph from the hand of the Lord, which is another's interpolation, since the text of Ado is most simple, equally with the Little Roman. Peter may have given occasion to some augmenter of Usuard, such as was edited at Lübeck and Cologne, to weave a longer analysis of the tortures. Of whom, he says, some struck with the axe, some with swords, some with daggers, some with legs broken, some mutilated with hands and feet cut off, some with arms hung up, a most bitter smoke kindled beneath, were vexed with great tortures. Others they consumed by a slow fire applied nearby, with longer torments, etc. Which, since they are apocryphal, do not deserve to be reported at length; it will be enough for us if the truth of the above-cited text be placed in safety.
[3] Baronius's narration concerning him and his companions Tillemont gnaws at it, volume 5, page 124, plucking at Baronius, because the things which he reports rest on no authority. He had cited some appendix to the Acts of St. Marcellus, but which has hitherto not seen the light, nor exists in our Acts in the place where it ought to have been produced, on the 16th of the month of January. Other authorities would be needed, says Tillemont, to believe with Baronius, that Diocletian, endowed with some moderation and prudence of mind, willed at one stroke more than ten thousand of his soldiers to be slaughtered. It strikes, to speak candidly, so horrible a butchery perpetrated in one day, if the sense of the Martyrologies is thus to be understood, which nothing forbids to be given a somewhat more accommodating explanation than Baronius seems to have done at the year 298, number 17, in these words: But let us here summarily describe the appendix to the recited Acts (of St. Marcellus) above. At the same time it happened, that by the counsel of Diocletian and Maximian, all the legions everywhere stationed were reviewed; and those Christian soldiers found in them, stripped of their military service and utterly disarmed, bound and brought to Rome, were assigned as bond-servants to the works of the baths.
[4] Thus far there is nothing in that narration of Baronius which greatly offends; does not so offend, thus he continues: But the baths being finished, those who, constant in the confession of the name of Christ, had persisted, broken by no labors; lest, relieved from the work of labor (since their number was huge), they should attempt something against the empire; all alike are condemned to the capital sentence. The whole number was found to be ten thousand two hundred and three, who all, together with Zeno the tribune, who among them seemed to excel in dignity, were led outside the City by the Trigemine gate, and in the hollow of a valley, in the place called the perpetually flowing Drop, at the Salvian Waters, all to a man were slain on the seventh of the Ides of July, on which their triumph's birthday is annually recalled with celebrated memory. These things, Baronius reporting, I would by no means deny to be contained in the alleged appendix of the Acts of St. Marcellus. But less credulous men will ask, whether that appendix deserves so much faith, that we are compelled to admit as certain a thing so crude and unheard-of, which in truth seemed to need the support of the testimonies of older writers. However the matter may have been, it is ours here at least to protect the integrity of the Martyrologies.
[5] if it be accommodatingly explained. With the leave, therefore, of the most eminent man be it said; the text of the Little Roman or of its followers does not at all require that these soldiers or workmen were all slaughtered together and on one day, which so execrable a deed could not, it seems, have been wrapped in silence by the writers of that time. Let us say a little more benignly, that the famous baths of Diocletian, which are recorded to have been built in seven years by the labor, sweat, and blood of the Christians, were the arena, from which so many thousands of champions could be dragged to punishment, whose number the Christians noted, and there remained at Rome a most constant tradition, that ten thousand two hundred and three or four perished in this manner, Zeno being expressly named, as their tribune or at least their chief standard-bearer. And their memory remained at the perpetually flowing Drop, because in that place outside the City they were beheaded with less tumult. In this way, unless I am greatly mistaken, whatever offends by its impossibility in the narration of Baronius is removed, and meanwhile the truth of the text is preserved concerning Zeno and his 10,203 companions, if not crowned on the same day, at least in about the same place, whose memory the author of the Little Roman consigned chiefly to this day, being wont, as we have shown elsewhere, to select the birthdays of very many Martyrs at his own mere discretion. These things indeed I have thought could be thus reconciled, not taking it ill if anyone shall find a safer and clearer way.
[6] The fabrications of Dexter and Bivarius. I marvel indeed that Tamayo did not on this day claim so notable a class of Martyrs for his own Spain, where nevertheless he has his usual guides, his Flavius Dexter and his commentator Bivarius. Whether perchance he reported it on another day, I forbear to inquire; to have reported the words of Dexter and Bivarius is to sprinkle jests, however tasteless, upon serious matters. The text of the former is at the year 290, page 308, number 4: At Rome, of the holy Martyrs Zeno and the twelve hundred and two Spanish martyrs, gloriously suffering from Celtiberia. It is worth while to see in how many ways the good Bivarius twists himself, to reconcile the text of his Dexter with the Roman; but lest we waste our labor, have his last words: To some it has seemed that the word TEN is lacking in Dexter's codex, so that not indeed only a thousand, but TEN THOUSAND is to be read. But as to their being said again two hundred and two or two hundred and three, it matters little, since that variation depends on the manner in which Zeno himself is reckoned with the rest, or is reported outside the number of the rest. But it is more probable to me that holy Zeno indeed had 10,202 companions; but that these were not all Spanish soldiers, but 1,202; the other nine thousand were from other regions. Cleverly enough, if truly enough; but we let these trifles pass.
[7] On the relics of the holy Martyrs. Lastly let us note, that it seems strange enough that out of so many thousands of Martyrs no relics are honored at Rome, at least such as Pancirolus, Martinellus, or Piazza found, among whom there is no memory of them. In the Bologna surveyed of Masinius, Henschenius found on the 22nd of March, and reported among the Passed-Over, the feast of the exposition of two heads out of the ten thousand Martyrs, which is celebrated at Bologna in the church of St. James the Greater, where the said Henschenius suspects them to be the Martyrs honored with Zeno on the 9th of July. Whether Masinius knew well enough whom he there called Martyrs, and whether further the suspicion of Henschenius stands, is not so easy to divine: the Surveyor of Bologna explains himself more clearly on this day, when he asserts that in the temple of St. Gabriel at the Revegnana gate there exist relics of St. Zeno, companion of the ten thousand two hundred and three Martyrs: Likewise among the Nuns of St. Mary of the Angels in the square della Nosadella there are some bones of the aforesaid Saints, obtained from the supreme Pontiff Gregory XIII in the year 1575. What other bones are preserved elsewhere, or exposed to the veneration of the people, has hitherto escaped me.