Dion then ordered his name to be struck from the roll, and, when this was done, he proceeded, “Because, out of thy rebellious spirit, thou hast refused to bear arms, thou shall be punished according to thy deserts for an example to others.”  And then he delivered the following sentence:  “Maximilian! because thou hast with a rebellious spirit refused to bear arms, thou art to die by the sword.”  Maximilian replied, “Thanks be to God.”

He was twenty years, three months, and seventeen days old, and when he was led to the place of execution, he spoke thus:  “My dear brethren, endeavour with all your might, that it may be your portion to see the Lord, and that he may give you such a crown;” and then, with a pleasant countenance, he said to his father, “Give the executioner the soldier’s coat thou hast gotten for me, and when I shall receive thee in the company of the blessed martyrs, we may also rejoice together with the Lord.”

After this he suffered.  His mother Pompeiana obtained his body of the judge, and conveyed it to Carthage, and buried it near the place where the body of Cyprian the Martyr lay.  And thirteen days after this his mother died, and was buried in the came place.  And Victor, his father, returned to his habitation, rejoicing and praising God, that he had sent before such a gift to the Lord, himself expecting to follow after.

I shall only observe, upon this instance, that it is nearly pure and unmixed, or that it is but little connected with idolatrous circumstances, or rather, that the unlawfulness of fighting was principally urged by Maximilian as a reason against entering upon a military life.  Let us now find a case, where, when a person was converted in the army, he left it, pleading this principle, as one among others, for his dereliction of it.

Marcellus was a centurion in the legion called “Trajana.”  On a festival, given in honour of the birth-day of Galerius, he threw down his military belt at the head of the legion, and in the face of the standards, declared with a loud voice, that he would no longer serve in the army, for that he had become a Christian.  “I hold in detestation, said he, addressing himself to all the soldiers, the worship of your gods:  gods, which are made of wood and stone, gods which are deaf and dumb.”  So far Marcellus, it appears, seems to have been influenced in his desertion of a military life by the idolatry connected with it.  But let us hear him farther on this subject.  “It is not lawful, says he, for a Christian, who is the servant of Christ the Lord, to bear arms for any earthly consideration.”  After a delay of more than three months in prison after this transaction, which delay was allowed for the purpose of sparing him, he was brought before the prefect.  There he had an opportunity of correcting his former expressions.  But as he persisted in the same sentiments, he suffered.  It is remarkable, that, almost immediately after his execution, Cassian, who, was the notary to the same legion, refused to serve any longer, by publicly throwing his pen and accompt-book upon the ground, and declaring, at the same time, that the sentence of Marcellus was unjust.  When taken up by the order of Aurelianus Agricolanus, he is described by the record, preserved by Ruinart, to have avowed the same sentiments as Marcellus, and, like him, to have suffered death.