text: [Themes: edutainment, historical]
  
  You consider the money in your hand carefully, before turning to the beggars lining the edge of the market. The road to Rome may be dangerous, but you know that God will protect you, as he called you there. Besides, the danger facing you is only possible, while the starvation facing the beggars is very real. You place your coins into the hand of a old blind man, and he smiles gratefully.
  
  With your supplies ready, you set out along the Appian Way to Rome. The roads are well-maintained in this area of central Italy, which makes travel more convenient than in many places on the fringes of the empire. Most other people traveling on the road are in carriages that make a terrible racket as they move along. Some, like you, travel on foot, typically keeping to their groups. Almost nobody travels alone, due to the dangers of the road, but it is necessary for you. You pray that your short journey will be free from trouble.
  
  It is in this setting that you make your way towards Rome. At night, you stay in cauponae, disreputable inns that are available to the general public. Generally, officials traveling stay in mansiones, which are much more similar to a Roman villa with travelers in mind than the rundown cauponae. Your diet of bread and salted fish, along with sleeping on little more than hard ground, begins to wear on you. In the evenings, when you are alone, you pray to yourself, repeating daily the prayer you have been taught.
  
  "Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Quia tuum est regnum, et potestas, et Gloria,in saecula. Amen."
  
  When you were younger, the man appointed elder over the Christians in your area taught that everyone should pray this prayer three times a day, on the orders of the apostles themselves. You remember sitting around a table with your mother and siblings, repeating the words, committing them to memory. When the persecutions began, the elder was quick to flee, betraying the trust of the community, and many stopped worshipping God that day. Your mother did not, however, nor did you.
  
  > Encyclopedia: The Didache
  The Didache, meaning Teaching, also known as "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles", is a brief anonymous text dating to the first century AD. It was a contender for the Biblical canon, with some early Christians arguing it should be in the New Testament, but ultimately it was not entered into the canon.
  
  The writing is a short summary of beliefs and practices for early Christians. It lays out details on how to baptize people, on beliefs about God, and also commands that the faithful should pray the Lord's Prayer three times every day. It also contains some of the earliest mention of specific liturgy used in Christianity, prescribing words to be said during the breaking of the bread.
  
  In many places, it was read during gatherings along with the letters of Paul and the Gospel accounts, though it fell out of favor in later centuries.
  
  We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.
  
  -The Apostle Paul
  
  In the year of our Lord 95, 65 years after the death of Christ, Christianity has spread throughout the Roman Empire. Communities of Christians exist in secret, careful of exposing themselves due to the persecutions ordered by the emperor Domitian. Many are exposed as Christians and killed when they refuse to participate in sacrifices to the Roman gods.
  
  It is in this world when God speaks to you. Your mother had been baptized secretly in the night, and she had taken you, her teenage son, to be baptized at the next opportunity. After a few years of practicing your faith in secret, you are working in the field scattering seeds when you hear a quiet voice in the back of your mind.
  
  Go to Rome, and find a man named Clement. Tell him I have sent you.
  
  Rome is a week away on foot. You have nothing on you but the clothes on your back, and your bag of seeds. Travel is dangerous, and you've never been to Rome before.
  
  > stay home
  You pause for a moment, unsure of what you've heard. Shaking your head, you continue scattering seed. Your family needs you here, especially during planting season.
  
  The day drags on, and by the end of it you're exhausted. You walk home in the evening, amid the lowering sun. When you get home, you open the door smell your mother cooking, the pleasant aroma wafting all around. You smile to yourself, content with your life.
  
  The night passes like any other. You share a meal with your mother and siblings, then sleep on your cot in the communal sleeping room. You easily tune out your brother's snoring, just as you do every night, and in the morning you head back out into the fields to tend the crops. In the middle of the day, as you tend to the field scattering seeds, the Lord speaks to you again.
  
  Go to Rome, and find a man named Clement. Tell him I have sent you.
  
  This time, there's no denying what you've heard, or who you heard. You have a choice before you.
  
  > prepare to go to Rome
  You drop your bag of seeds on the ground and run home in excitement. Inside your mother is singing to herself, mending tears in a tunic.
  
  "Marci, done planting already? It's still early," she says suspiciously.
  
  "Mother, you won't believe what's happened!" You enthuse. "The Lord has spoken to me!"
  
  "Hush! Watch your words, Marci, the door is open."
  
  You continue quieter, "He has spoken to me, mother. He told me I need to go to Rome."
  
  "Rome? That's... well, that's very dangerous, you know what goes on there-"
  
  "I trust that if He told me to go there, there is some purpose."
  
  "I know, just be careful. You remember our way? How to tell who is safe?"
  
  You roll your eyes and draw a curved line on the floor with your foot. Your mother smiles softly, repeating your motion, leaving a rough image of a fish on the ground. After a second she wipes it away. "Yes. If God is truly telling you to go, I shall not stop you. I will pray for you, Marci." She presses a few coins into your hand. "Take these and buy what you need in the market. Best not keep the Lord waiting."
  
  You embrace your mother tightly before hurrying out the door, pausing to grab a traveling cloak and staff. The path is short to the marketplace, and you soon find yourself in a semi-busy square. Merchants peddle goods all around, as people who aren't working at this time whittle away their time.
  
  You head to the bakery and purchase a few loaves of bread, sliding them into your bag. Next, you stop by where a fisherman's son is set up, and add a few salted fish to your provisions. You are running low on money, but you have just enough to buy one more thing.
  
  The blacksmith's shop catches your eye. An array of swords is on display. The road to Rome is certainly dangerous, but you're not sure if you should take a weapon. Alternatively, you could give the money in alms to the poor.
  
  You pause for a moment, unsure of what you've heard. Shaking your head, you continue scattering seed. Your family needs you here, especially during planting season.
  
  The day drags on, and by the end of it you're exhausted. You walk home in the evening, amid the lowering sun. When you get home, you open the door smell your mother cooking, the pleasant aroma wafting all around. You smile to yourself, content with your life.
  
  The night passes like any other. You share a meal with your mother and siblings, then sleep on your cot in the communal sleeping room. You easily tune out your brother's snoring, just as you do every night, and in the morning you head back out into the fields to tend the crops. In the middle of the day, as you tend to the field scattering seeds, the Lord speaks to you again.
  
  Go to Rome, and find a man named Clement. Tell him I have sent you.
  
  This time, there's no denying what you've heard, or who you heard. You have a choice before you.
  
  > No, stay home
  You really are needed at home. Besides, everyone knows what happens to Christians in Rome. And God is all powerful, so He can do anything he wants to, with or without your help.
  
  Right?
  
  After a long day spent working, you head home. You share a meal with your family, sleep, wake up with the sun, go back out to the fields again. You're a hard worker, you're a good citizen, you're well appreciated in your community. One day, you settle down and get married. You raise your children in your Christian faith, and no persecution finds you. In the end, you live a simple life.
  
  It is only when you are old, when you lay dying, that a striking fear seizes your heart. You remember that quiet voice you heard in your youth, like a candle in a strong wind. You remember hearing the words of God directly to you, and not heeding them. You are terrified for your soul, and no amount of consoling from your wife and children can settle down your restless mind.
  
  It is with great mental anguish that you pass from this life and into the next.