The truth is that Marcus’ attitude to the Christians was in no way changed for the better by this incident, but rather for the worse. As Renan says: “In three or four years the persecution reached the highest pitch of fury it knew before Decius.” In Africa persecution was widespread and furious; Sardinia was crowded with Christian exiles; in Byzantium nearly the whole population was put to death with torture; while in Asia, where the Christians were especially numerous, officials vented all their fury on them, interpreting the laws in a way in which they had never been intended to be applied. “Truly,” to quote Renan again, “these repeated persecutions were a bloody contradiction to a century of humanity.” Marcus was not directly responsible for all this cruelty; he was probably for the most part passive and indifferent. Some of the Christian apologists certainly looked on him as friendly, as, for instance, Melito, who wrote to him: “As for yourself, who cherish the same kind of feeling for us [as the other good Emperors], with a heightened degree of philanthropy and philosophy, we rest assured that you will do what we ask you.” But the confidence of the Christians in Marcus’ humanity and friendship for them and in his ability to restrain the pagan mob or his own more brutal officials was ill-founded. This passing incident in the Danube campaign was of little importance in the history of the Empire, but its interest will never die as a picturesque detail in the great world-battle of the spirit then in its acutest stage. In A.D. 175 Marcus followed up his reduction of the Quadi by that of the Jazyges. This practically ended the war. Marcus intended securing the fruit of his conquest by establishing two more Roman provinces; but a new danger had appeared in the East, and he had to conclude a hasty peace with the barbarians and to hurry with all speed to Syria. These victories in the North stirred in him no pride. Here is his sadly disillusioned comment on the whole campaign: “A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and a hunter when he has caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another when he has taken wild boars, _and another when he has taken_ _Sarmatians_. _Are not these robbers, if thou examinest their principles?_”