At this time however the Christians had become distinguished from the Jews, and the objects of suspicion and hostility, and the Apostle’s labours at Nicopolis were brought to an abrupt conclusion. Arrested it is not improbable, before the middle of the winter[1175], through the restless activity of some of his many enemies, he was sent to Rome to be tried a second time for his life. The terror of his arrest scattered many of his friends. Demas from love of _this present world_ forsook him and departed to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, and Titus himself, who had joined his master at Nicopolis, possibly by his desire, repaired to the neighbouring Dalmatia (2 Tim. iv. 10). Luke alone remained in constant attendance on the Apostle, and shared with him the perils of his second imprisonment at Rome. This was evidently far more severe than the previous one. Not only was he chained to a soldier, but he was treated as a malefactor (2 Tim. ii. 9), and so perilous was it to visit him that few were willing to seek out his dungeon or to stand by him (2 Tim. i. 16, iv. 16), while he himself could look forward to nothing but certain martyrdom (2 Tim. iv. 6–8). The course of political events sufficiently accounts for the change in the Apostle’s circumstances. Anxious to avert from himself the charge of having set the capital on fire, Nero had let loose the rage of the populace upon the Christians, now very numerous and objects of intense hatred. A familiar passage in the writings of Tacitus[1176] tells us how some of them were crucified, some hunted to death with dogs, some wrapped in robes smeared with pitch and set on fire at night before the eyes of the Emperor, who watched their dying agonies arrayed in the costume of a charioteer. Since then the fury of the first excitement had passed away, but so prominent a ringleader of a hated sect as the Apostle would be certain to be treated with much severity. On the evidence therefore of certain informers, of whom _Alexander the coppersmith_ apparently was one (2 Tim. iv. 14), he was put upon his trial, probably before the city prefect[1177], in one of the numerous basilicas that stood in the Forum. No friend, no adviser, stood by him (2 Tim. iv. 16), to cheer or to encourage. Alone and unaided, save by an Almighty though Invisible Friend (2 Tim. iv. 17), he pleaded the cause of the Gospel before a numerous audience, and _all the Gentiles_ heard his testimony, and the result was that of the first of the charges brought against him he was acquitted, and _was delivered out of the mouth of the lion_ (2 Tim. iv. 17).