Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 28:16

"And when we entered into Rome, Paul was suffered to abide by himself with the soldier that guarded him." — Acts 28:16 (ASV)

And when we came to Rome.—This journey led them through Aricia (now La Riccia), where they would probably stop either for the night or for their midday meal. From that point, as they neared the city, the Appian Road would present more of its characteristic features: tall milestones and stately tombs. The tomb of Cæcilia Metella, wife of Crassus, is the most representative example of these. Lining both sides of the road, these tombs gave it the appearance of one long cemetery and bore record of the fame or vanity, wealth or virtues, of the dead. As they drew nearer still, Saint Paul’s companions would point out to him the Grove and the sacred spring in the valley of Egeria, now leased to a colony of squatters of his own race.

“Hic ubi nocturnæ Numa constituebat amicæ,
Nunc sacri fontis nemus et delubra locantur
Judæis, quorum cophinus fœnumque supellex.”

[“Here, by the sacred scenes of Numa’s love,
We let on lease the shrines, the stream, the grove,
To pauper Jews, who bring their scanty store
Of hay and hamper, and who ask no more.”]

—Juvenal, Satires 3.12.

He would pass the cemetery of the Jews of Rome, lying on the east of the Appian Way (which within the last few years has been discovered and explored), in the Vigna Randanini, and the Columbaria (now in the Vigna Codini) of the imperial household, with which many of his friends and disciples, being of the libertini class themselves, were even then so closely connected.

He would see, perhaps, even then, the beginning of the Catacombs, where the Christians, who would not burn their dead like the heathen and who were excluded from the cemetery of the Jews, laid their dead to sleep in peace, in what was afterwards the Catacomb of Saint Callistus.

It may be noted here that the earliest inscription on any Jewish burial-place in Italy is one found at Naples, from the time of Claudius (A.D. 44) (Garucci, Cimitero degli antichi Ebrei, p. 24; Mommsen, Inscriptt. Neap. Lat. 6467). The earliest Christian inscription with any note of time is from the time of Vespasian (De Rossi, Inscriptt. Christ. No. 1).

Understandably, however, at first both Jews and Christians were likely to bury their dead without any formal record. They had to wait for quieter times before they could indulge in the luxury of tombstones and epitaphs.

Continuing his journey, the Apostle and his companions would come within view of the pyramid of Caius Cestius. They would pass under the Arch of Drusus, which still stands outside the Porta San Sebastiano, and enter the city by the Porta Capena, or Capuan Gate. From there, they would proceed to the Palace of the Caesars, which stood on the Palatine Hill, looking down on one side upon the Forum and on the other upon the Circus Maximus.

Paul was suffered to dwell by himself.—The centurion, on arriving at the Palace of the Caesars, would naturally deliver his prisoners to the captain of the division of the Praetorian Guard stationed there as the emperor’s bodyguard. The favor shown to Saint Paul may fairly be considered as due to the influence of the centurion Julius, from whom he had, from the first, received so many marks of courtesy.

The Prefect of the Praetorium was the natural custodian of prisoners sent from the provinces, and about this time that office was filled by Burrus, the friend and colleague of Seneca.

Before and after Burrus’s time, there were two prefects. Therefore, the way in which Saint Luke speaks of “the captain of the guard” may fairly be accepted as a note of time, fixing the date of the Apostle’s arrival. The Praetorian camp lay to the northeast of the city, outside the Porta Viminalis.

The manner in which Saint Luke speaks of Paul “dwelling by himself” implies that he immediately went into a hired apartment, instead of accepting the hospitality of any friends. Tradition points to the vestibule of the Church of Santa Maria, at the junction of the Via Lata and the Corso, as the site of his dwelling.

However, it has been urged by Dr. Philip (at present working as a missionary in the Ghetto at Rome), in a pamphlet, On the Ghetto (Rome, 1874), that this site, forming part of the old Flaminian Way, was then occupied by arches and public buildings. Dr. Philip argues it was far more probable that Paul would fix his quarters near those of his own countrymen. He adds that a local tradition points to No. 2 in the Via Stringhari, just outside the modern Ghetto, as having been Saint Paul’s dwelling-place, but does not give any documentary evidence as to its nature or the date to which it can be traced back.

With a soldier that kept him.—Better, with the soldier. The arrangement was technically known as a custodia libera. The prisoner, however, was fastened by a chain to the soldier who guarded him. And so, the Apostle speaks of his chain (Acts 28:20), of his being a prisoner (Ephesians 3:1; Ephesians 4:1), an ambassador in chains (Ephesians 6:20), and of his bonds (Philippians 1:7; Philippians 1:13; Philippians 1:17; Colossians 4:18). It was almost a matter of course that the guard would be relieved from time to time. Consequently, the Apostle’s bonds, the story of his sufferings, and the reasons for them, would become known throughout the whole Praetorian camp from which the soldiers came. (See Note on Philippians 1:13.)