their message with such evident pleasure and ap- proval that the jealousy of Elymas was roused, and lie tried to dissuade his patron from hearing them. But St. Pauls challenge reduced Elyma.s to im- potent blindness. Sergius Paulus had been im- |iressed alnaily by the missionaries' exposition of Christianily. Il(! was 'a,-,tonished at the teaching of the Ijorii.' His astonishment is said to have been due not to the miracle but to the teaching (C. v. Weizsiicker is wrong, therefore, in ascribing the conversion of Sergius Paulus to ' the .Viiustle striking his favourite, the Magian Barjesus, blind' [Apoxtiilii- Af/e, i. Ill ; and cl. 274]). The Christian message made a deep impression on tliis ' nuin of understanding' ; and, when he saw the issue of the conllict between the two cham])ions, ' he believed.' The governor of Cyprus was a notable convert. Renan and others have regarded the conversion of a Roman proconsul as incredible. It has to be .said that we know nothing more of his Christian life— whether he professecl Christianity o|jenly by baptism, and used his inlluence to further the religion, or whether he relapsed. Possibly the word eirijTeiKrei' is used here to describe something less than full Christian faith; cf. 8'^, 'Simon be- lieved' (though Simon became a pervert), and Jn 12'-, ' the rulers believed . . . but did not confess,' and especially Jn 20". Anyhow-, the unembellislied statement is entirely in favtmr of its historical in- tegrity : Sergius I'aulus did make some profes.-.ion of faith which sent the apostles <m their way re- joicing in the Christian victory. We are not told whether this man's heart w :s the good soil in which the seed bears fruit, or the shallow soil in which the shoot is scorched, or the preoccupied soil in which the growing corn is choked. We are told only that the seed took root and sprang up.
Probal)Iy this proconsul's favourable reception of St. Paul's preaching was one of the earliest suggestions to the Apostle that the dominant power of Rome might be an asset for Christianity rather than a hostile inlluence. It is jiossible, abso, that it encouraged St. Paul and Barnab.os to develop a more extended missionary <'ampaign on the mainland than was origin.ally intended ; and this may have been one reason for John Mark's withdrawal from the party.
Literature.— G. G. Findlay, art. ' Paul the Apostle,' in UDB iii. 704 ; A. C. Headlara. ;irt. ' Paulus, Sertrius," ib., p. 7:il ; W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the iionian Citizen, London, 1S95, pp. 73-88, The Hearintf of Jiceenl iJiscorerij on the Tru.itworthiiies.i of the A'T, do., 1915; R. J. Knowling, Fy^T, ' .\cts,' 1000, in Inc. Kor meaning of * believed ' cf. B. F. Westcott, The Gospel aeeordintf to .S'^ John, 2 vols., London, 1908, ii. 290 ; B. B. Warfield, art. ' Faith,' in UDB i. S29.
J. E. ROBKKTS.
SERJEANTS, LICTORS. — These oHicials are mentioned only in Ac 16''''' '■"', as taking a message from the pra?tors of Philijipi (see under art. Pr.'ETOR) to St. Paul and Silas, .and conveying back to the magistrates their reply. The name in Greek means ' rod-carriers,' and is the oOicial equivalent of the Latin lictures{' beadles'). These men were taken from the lowest class of the people or from the class of freedmen to act as attendants upon the leading magistrates in Rome. A dictator was allowed 24, a con-^nl 12, and a prwtor 6. Each carried a bundle of rods with an axe included, as symbols of the power of puni.shment and of life and death pos.ses,sed by tlie higher magistrates. They marched in single file in front of the magis- trate and cleared a space for him through the crowd. They had to see that proper respect \va> paid to the magistrate, and li.ad also to carry out the punishment ordered by fiiin. A minor oflender (not a citizen) was bound hand and foot and beaten with the rods ; a more serious oll'endcr was beheaded by the axe. This power during the Republic was held by generals comiuanding-in-ciiief in the field,
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but tlio insignia had to be dropped before tliey passed within tlie citj' gates, unless they had been awarded the dignity of a triumph. Within tlie city a citizen had alwaj's the riglit of a])peal against a death sentence of a magistrate (see .1. S. Keid in JRSi. [1911] 68-99). Tlie constitu- tion of Kome was copied in roloiure, wliich were in theory parts of Kome itself. Just as Home had pi-CEtores and lictorex, so had the colonice, even where the chief magistrates did not bear that name. Philippi was a colotiia, and the two chief magistrates there had tlieir lictores. But in all probability they had no such powers as their originals in Rome had. Their bundles of rods were mostly ornamental, and so was the axe, if indeed there was an axe at all. These magistrates were proud of the forms of the parent city, even if the power possessed by them was merely a shadow. The Acts narrative shows that it was in their power to scourge recalcitrant subjects of the Empire, but not Konian citizens, when known to be such. St. Paul and Silas could indeed have successfully ap- pealed against the treatment which they received.
A SoTJTFR