the suffering christ 770 Indeed, when I contemplate this freely undertaken captivity of Christ the Lord, I reckon it to be held in preference to the similarly voluntary captivity of a certain Trojan solider. The two men, Nisus and Euryalus, were the fellow comrades of Aeneas, united to him with the closest bond of love. Those men set forth from the encircled camp and passed to their leader through the watches of the Rutulians. Seeing that a battalion of the enemy was coming against them, they separated from each other and were evading the entirely unexpected crisis with the help of darkness. However, Euryalus, the younger, was caught. So now, Nisus, pitying the flight of his comrade who was dearer to him than his own life, determined to either deliver him from the enemies or to die himself, shouted as he jumped forth from his hiding place: “I, here I am, I did it! Direct the sword to me, O Rutulians, since all the trickery is my own; this one would not dare anything, nor was he able; I call to witness the sky and the stars are aware of this.”15 Nisus was fearing, as it finally occurred, that the oppressors would enact a punishment of death on Euryalus for the deed done while the Rutulian sentinels were fast asleep. Therefore, the true friend tried to undertake the evil, diverting it from his most dear companion to himself, to transfer the most insolent madness of the furious enemy to his own shoulders. This is either a very splendid testimony of the most steadfast friendship or a tale (because the greatest Roman poet sings of tragic themes). Nevertheless, He accomplished [it], as our Fellow Man, of the same nature as us, the Incarnate Son of God, dared greater and more real things. For our sake, He offered Himself to be seized, to be tightly bound in a most savage manner, to be violently dragged off toward suffering; and [He did] all this willingly, resolutely, and without delay. He did not wish to either destroy His enemies, though He could, nor to save us in any other manner, which was easily attainable to Him, except through His own chains. He, therefore, gave an opportunity to the henchmen to 15 Publius Virgilius Maro, Aeneis, 1. IX, vv. 427-429, Publii Virgilii Maronis Opera, Ed. C.H. Weise, Lipsciae 1844, p. 309.
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