Stormbringer’s Blunder: Modern Coliseums?

In his latest blog post from another blog entry, Stormbringer once again show’s he’s a complete sucker for any sob story without checking for references or the varasity of a yarn. In this instance it involves Saint Telemachus, so let’s hear Stormbringer’s version.

Chuck Colson tells the story of Telemachus, a 4th-century Christian monk. This man lived in a remote village, tending his garden and spending much of his time in prayer. One day he thought he heard the voice of God telling him to go to Rome, so he obeyed, heading out on foot. Weary weeks later, he arrived in the city at the time of a great festival. The little monk followed the crowd surging down the streets into the Colosseum. He saw the gladiators stand before the emperor and say, “We who are about to die salute you.” Then he realized these men were going to fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowd Telemachus cried out, “In the name of Christ, stop!”

As the games began, he pushed his way through the crowd, climbed his way over the wall, and dropped to the floor of the arena. When the crowd saw this tiny figure rushing to the gladiators and saying, “In the name of Christ, stop!” they thought it was part of the show and began laughing.

When they realized it wasn’t, the laughter turned to anger. As Telemachus was pleading with the gladiators to stop, one of them plunged a sword into his body. He fell to the sand. As he was dying, his last words were, “In the name of Christ, stop!”

Then a strange thing happened. The gladiators stood looking at the tiny figure lying there. A hush fell over the Colosseum. Way up in the upper rows, a man stood and made his way to the exit. Others began to follow. In dead silence, everyone left the Colosseum.

The year was 391AD, and that was the last battle to the death between gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. Never again in the great stadium did men kill each other for the entertainment of the crowd, all prompted by one tiny voice that could hardly be heard above the roar, one voice that spoke the truth in God’s name.

You know, it takes something to be the only voice. It takes guts to be the lone man or woman, sticking out in a crowd. It takes heart to speak out when it’s easier to keep still. It takes courage to stand up when you’re standing alone.

It sounds wonderful doesn’t it. A good Christian bringing an age of barbarity to an end.

Well thanks to a little known company called “Google” who have a “search engine”, we can find the original text which was written by Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus.

Honorius, who inherited the empire of Europe, put a stop to the gladiatorial combats which had long been held at Rome. The occasion of his doing so arose from the following circumstance. A certain man of the name of Telemachus had embraced the ascetic life. He had set out from the East and for this reason had repaired to Rome. There, when the abominable spectacle was being exhibited, he went himself into the stadium, and, stepping down into the arena, endeavoured to stop the men who were wielding their weapons against one another. The spectators of the slaughter were indignant, and inspired by the mad fury of the demon who delights in those bloody deeds, stoned the peacemaker to death.
When the admirable emperor was informed of this he numbered Telemachus in the array of victorious martyrs, and put an end to that impious spectacle.

That’s weird. There’s no mention of the Colosseum, the cry of “in the name of Christ, stop!” or the crowd leaving. And would you believe it, even the method of death is wrong. It wasn’t a Gladiator that killed him with a sword but crowd stoned the bugger who because of his interruption!

Someone else has also pointed out that at the time of this incident, the Roman emperors where all… *drum roll please*…. CHRISTIANS by this time. Yay!

So basically, it’s a story that’s been added to for over 1,500 years and now it’s just a load of bollocks RWNJ like Ronald Reagan and Stormbringer repeat like fucking brainless parrots they are instead of doing VERY basic research that took all of five minutes to find the original source material.

It’s not the first time he’s done it today either. Alex has pointed out the errors on his other full of bullshit blog.

That’s what a sceptical mind does for you.