public baths and theatres. On one side stood an enormous
building, with a round space in the centre, and tiers of seats rising
one above another like a circus. This was an amphitheatre, where shows
and performances were given.

There were no sham combats in a Roman circus; no mere pretence of being
wounded. Men fought with men in stern reality; worse still, men were
made to fight with wild beasts. Lions and tigers, and fierce bulls
tore and gored men to death, while the audience leaned back in their
comfortable seats, watching the horrible scenes intently.

Every rich man in Rome at the time of which we write owned hundreds of
slaves, who were the absolute property of their owners.

A slave-girl who arranged her mistress's hair badly was burnt with a
hot iron. If a slave-boy broke a costly vase his master might whip him
to death, or have him thrown into a tank full of ravenous fish. There
was no limit to the master's power.

Although millions of people had scarcely a rag to cover them, or a
crust to eat, the rich people flung their gold away on useless trifles.
Indeed, a kind of competition existed among them as to who could waste
his money the most foolishly.

'Nightingales sing more sweetly than any other bird,' thought one of
these. 'I have it. I'll order a dish of nightingales' tongues for my
feast next week; that will be something rare and expensive indeed!'

All his friends were charmed with the new idea, and nightingales'
tongues became quite the fashion.

But all the time, in this mighty city, so black with sin, so red with
cruelty, the pure white light of the Gospel of Christ had begun to
shine.

'Gospel' means good news. The story of Jesus was blessed news indeed,
for the suffering, hopeless people. As yet all unnoticed by the rulers
of the heathen world, the little band of Christians was ever increasing.

[Illustration: THESSALONICA: NOW CALLED SALONICA. IT WAS TO THE
CHRISTIANS OF THIS TOWN THAT PAUL WROTE HIS FIRST EPISTLE]

From Jerusalem the good news had spread to Rome and to numbers of other
heathen cities. The Apostle Paul had preached and gained little groups
of converts in Thessalonica and Philippi and other strongholds of evil,
and in the year when Nero became Emperor of Rome, the first words of
the New Testament were written.

It happened in this way: St. Paul was in Greece, carrying on the war
for Christ in the very centre of the idol-worshippers. Most of the
Roman ideas