Apollonius of Rome (180–192). A Roman senator who was accused by one of his slaves of professing Christianity. There was no persecution of Christians, so they were not looked for, but if a denunciation was received, a trial followed. The slave was executed (and he knew about it in advance, so, apparently, the Christian slave owner especially annoyed the unfortunate man with something). Apollonius was tried by the Senate and sentenced to beheading. During the trial, however, what he said in his own defense, or more precisely in his defense of Christianity, was recorded in detail. Apollonius spoke for a long time about the fact that he is not afraid of death, that a Christian dies every day, that dying for God is no worse than dying from dysentery or fever. This prompted the praetorian prefect Perennius to ask: “Are you striving for death?” “No,” answered Apollonius, “I love life, but the love of life does not make me fear death. There is nothing better than life—eternal life, which gives immortality to the soul that lived here with dignity.” Nobody understood these words, which is what they told the defendant directly. Eternal life did not fit well into ancient philosophy. And yet, Apollonius found a way to indicate the common spiritual experience of Christians and pagans and spoke about Socrates, who was executed as unjustly as the Savior Jesus, and he also remembered Plato, who spoke in one of his dialogues about the crucifixion of the righteous. This did not convince his listeners, but for fellow Christians this experience of justifying faith, linking it with pre-Christian experience, with the experience of everyday life turned out to be very important, which is why Apollonius’s speech was carefully rewritten over the centuries. The original text of Apollonius's apology was discovered only in the 19th century (first in Armenian, then in Greek) and became a scientific sensation. Publ.: Analecta Bollandiana, XIV (1895), 284–294; Conybear F.C. The Apology and Acts of Apollonius. 1894. Memory April 18, November 29/December 12.