Warnings from past judgments and the case of Mavilus
Tertullian is addressing Scapula, the proconsul of Africa, and has just said Christians await vengeance from God; now he warns that no city will shed Christian blood with impunity and gives examples of divine signs and the fates of persecuting governors.
Yet, as I said above, we cannot help grieving that no city will allow our blood to be shed with impunity. So it was under the governor Hilarianus, when the crowds cried out about our burial grounds: "Let there be no burial grounds!" Their own burial grounds were not there, for they did not bring in their harvests. As for the rains of last year, what they reminded the human race of is plain enough: that a flood came long ago because of human unbelief and iniquity. And the fires that recently hung over the walls of Carthage through the night—those who saw them know what they threatened, and those who hardened themselves know what the ancient thunderclaps sounded. All these are signs of the coming wrath of God, which we must announce, proclaim, and pray may be local for the time being, in whatever way we can. For those who interpret these examples otherwise will feel the universal and final wrath in its own time. Even that sun in the assembly at Utica, when its light was almost extinguished, was such a portent that it could not have suffered this from an ordinary eclipse, positioned as it was in its exaltation and home. You have your astrologers.
I can likewise set before you the ends of certain governors, who at the close of their lives remembered that they had done wrong in harassing Christians. Vigellius Saturninus, who first used the sword against us here, lost his eyesight. Claudius Lucius Herminianus in Cappadocia, indignant that his wife had gone over to this faith, treated Christians cruelly; and when he was left alone in his palace, ravaged by plague with worms boiling out of him, he said, "Let no one know, so that Christians do not rejoice or hope." Later, when he recognized his error—that he had made some fall from their purpose through torture—he died almost a Christian. Caecilius Capella cried out at that departure of his, "Christians, rejoice!" But those who think they have escaped unpunished will come to the day of divine judgment.
We also hope that for you this has been only a warning: that when you condemned Mavilus of Hadrumetum to the wild beasts, this harassment followed at once, and now in the same cause comes a summons for blood. But remember for the future.
Latin
Tamen, sicut supra diximus, doleamus necesse est, quod nulla civitas impune latura sit sanguinis nostri effusionem; sicut et sub Hilariano praeside, cum de areis sepulturarum nostrarum adclamassent: Areae non sint! areae ipsorum non fuerunt! Messes enim suas non egerunt. Ceterum et imbres anni praeteriti quid commemoraverint genus humanum apparuit, cataclysmum scilicet et retro fuisse propter incredulitates et iniquitates hominum, et ignes, qui super moenia Carthaginis proxime pependerunt per noctem, quid minati sint, sciunt qui viderunt, et pristina tonitrua quid sonaverint, sciunt qui obduruerunt. Omnia haec signa sunt imminentis irae dei, quam necesse est, quoquo modo possumus, ut et nuntiemus et praedicemus et deprecemur interim localem esse. Universalem enim et supremam suo tempore sentient qui exempla eius aliter interpretantur. Nam et sol ille in conventu Uticensi extincto paene lumine adeo portentum fuit, ut non potuerit ex ordinario deliquio hoc pati positus in suo hypsomate et domicilio. Habetis astrologos. Possumus aeque et exitus quorundam praesidum tibi proponere, qui in fine vitae suae recordati sunt deliquisse, quod vexassent Christianos. Vigellius Saturninus, qui primus hic gladium in nos egit, lumina amisit. Claudius Lucius Herminianus in Cappadocia, cum, indigne ferens uxorem suam ad hanc sectam transisse, Christianos crudeliter tractasset, solusque in praetorio suo vastatus peste convivis vermibus ebullisset, Nemo sciat, aiebat, ne gaudeant Christiani aut sperent Christianae. Postea cognito errore suo, quod tormentis quosdam a proposito sue excidere fecisset, paene Christianus decessit. Caecilius Capella in illo exitu By(??)mtinor, Christiani gaudete (??) exclamavit. Sed qui videntur sibi impune tulisse, venient in diem divini iudicii. Tibi quoque optamus admonitionem solam fuisse, quod cum Adrumeticum Mavilum ad bestias damnasses, et statim hace vexatio subsecuta est et (??)nc en eadem causa interpellatio sanguinis. Sed memento de cetere.