ccount of his travels. This savage monster expected nothing more than
some overtures to be proposed to him of an intention to yield; but
finding himself disappointed, in the utmost rage, ordered his torments
to be redoubled. At length having glutted his barbarity, the confessors
were dismissed, their clothes rent, their bodies inhumanly torn, and
their beards and hair plucked off. The very Arians were ashamed of such
cruelty, and their bishop offered to punish the priest, if Fulgentius
would but undertake his prosecution. His answer was, that a Christian is
never allowed to seek revenge; and for their parts it was incumbent on
them not to lose the advantage of patience, and the blessings accruing
from the forgiving of injuries. The two abbots, to avoid an additional
effort of the fury of these heretics, travelled to Ididi, on the
confines of Mauritania. Here Fulgentius went aboard a ship for
Alexandria, being desirous, for the sake of greater perfection, to visit
the deserts of Egypt, renowned for the sanctity of the solitaries who
dwelt there. But the vessel touching at Sicily, St. Eulalius, abbot at
Syracuse, diverted him from his intended voyage, on assuring him, that
"a perfidious dissension had severed this country from the communion of
Peter,"[1] meaning that Egypt was full of heretics, with whom those that
dwelt there were obliged either to join in communion, or be deprived of
the sacraments. The liberality and hospitality of Fulgentius to the
poor, out of the small pittance he received for his particular
subsistence, made Eulalius condemn himself of remissness in those
virtues, and for the future imitate so laudable an example.

Our saint having laid aside the thoughts of pursuing his voyage to
Alexandria, embarked for Rome, to offer up his prayers at the tombs of
the apostles. One day passing through a square called Palma Aurea, he
saw Theodoric, the king of Italy, seated on an exalted throne, adorned
with pompous state, surrounded by the senate, and his court, with all
the grandeur of the city displayed in the greatest magnificence: "Ah!"
said Fulgentius, "how beautiful must the heavenly Jerusalem be, if
earthly Rome be so glorious! What honor, glory, and joy will God bestow
on the saints in heaven, since here in this perishable life he clothes
with such splendor the lovers and admirers of vanity!" This happened
towards the latter part of the year 500, when that king made his first
entry into Rome. Fulgentius r