What can we learn from the dialogues between the martyrs and rulers?

These testify to the martyrs’ refusal to join the army or bear the marks of a soldier. In Numidia in the year 295 A. D., Maximilian said to the Proconsul Dion, “I shall not serve … You may cut off my head, I will not serve this world, but only my God … I will not accept the seal of this world; and, if you give it to me, I shall break it, for it is worthless. I am a Christian. I cannot wear a piece of lead around my neck after I have received the saving sign of Jesus Christ my Lord, the son of the living God. You do not know him; yet he suffered for our salvation; God delivered him up for our sins (cf. Acts 2:22–24; Rom. 8:32).”⁹⁶⁴

Clearly, Maximilian believed, like Tertullian, that the seal of the army and the seal of baptism were incompatible with each other,⁹⁶⁵ because serving in the army was connected to pagan worship. Their refusal was not about avoiding battle, as is clear from the dialogue of the martyr Julius the Veteran.[966 ]

962 Arnobius, Against the Heathen 1.14 (ANF 6:417).

963 Lactantius, The Divine Institutes 6.20 (ANF 7:187).

964 H. Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Clarendon Press, 1972) 17.2: pp. 245–247.

965 Tertullian, On Idolatry 19 (ANF 3:73). 966

H. Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Clarendon Press, 1972): pp. 261–265.