A play by Naomi Mitchison and L. E. Gielgud
Adapted for broadcasting and produced by Martyn C. Webster
This play deals with the Neronian persecution of the early Christians, —the time of the Fire of Rome, and of the excesses of Nero and his henchman Tigellinus. The story tells of Beric, the son of Caractacus the British king, who is held half-captive, half-guest in the house of a Roman named Crispus, and of his conversion to the Christian faith. His sufferings begin when the Christians are made scapegoats for the burning of Rome, for as Crispus, an honest man of the old school, remarks: "If the authorities round up a few hundred Christians, put them through a solemn trial and find them guilty, all the curses will go to them, and Nero will only have to appear on his balcony to have all Rome lining up below and shouting hail, hail, hail!" An ironical touch here is that Gallio, who as related in Acts "cared for none of these things," finds himself in prison in company with the same Paul whom he once had beaten in Achaia. (Peter Foriler)