22 Sjef van Tilborg mythological applications, once again a relationship is made with the horrible reality of the mutilation and death which the author of the book foresees for his readers. * ** “Maturus, Sanctus, Blandina, and Attalus were led into the amphitheatre to be exposed to the beasts and to give a public spectacle of the pagans’ inhumanity, for a day of fighting wild beasts (qhriomaciva) was expressly arranged for our sake” (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. V.1.37 about the martyrs of Lyons). Starting from the very first Christian literature until far into the 3rd century a relationship is made between the persecution of Christians and the munera (65). Clement gives presumably a description of a fatal charade when he writes: “Through jealousy women were persecuted as Danaids and Dircae, suffering terrible and unholy dignities” (1 Clement 6.2) (66). Ignatius writes in different letters that he is on his way prov" qhriva (in the letter to the Trallians 10,1 and the Smyrnaeans 4,2) in the simple terms that he shall go to fight with the wild beasts; in the letter to the Romans (67) 4,1.2; 5,1.2.3 in the more strange formulations that he hopes to be eaten by the wild animals; that the wild animals may become his grave). According to the martyrium of Carpus, Papylus of Thyatira and Agathonice of Pergamum the martyrs, after having first been tortured (23.24), are finally brought to death in the amphitheater (37.40.44). In the martyrium of Polycarp something similar happens. In the beginning of the text the story is about anonymous martyrs who after having been tortured are led (2,4) to the wild beasts (eij" ta; qhriva), (65) See KYLE, Spectacles of Death, 155-182; D. POTTER, “Martyrdom as Spectacle”, Theater and Society in the Classical World (ed. R. SCODEL) (Ann Arbor 1993) 53-88 and G.W. BOWERSOCK, Martyrdom and Rome (Cambridge 1995). (66) COLEMAN, “Fatal Charades”, 66 writes about this text: “Since the mythological Dirce was bound to the horns of a bull…, it is easy to imagine how realistically her fate could be re-enacted in the arena…And, a group of female prisoners furnished with jugs would immediately remind the audience of the Danaids, and they might then be executed in a manner not necessarily corresponding to any known variant of the story”. (67) The Letter to the Romans occupies also a special position in a number of other themata. For an introduction and the bibliography about Ignatius, see Ch. MUNIER, “Où en est la question d’ Ignace d’ Antioche? Bilan d’ un siècle de recherches 1870-1988”, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (Berlin – New York 1993) II. 27.1, 359-484.