The well-trained and disciplined army was the backbone of the Roman Empire. One of the many elite fighting units of the Roman army was the group known as the Roman Wrestlers. During times of peace, the wrestlers trained in Rome and put on the exhibitions of wrestling and fighting skills. This group of forty men was the pride of Rome and the Roman army. Beyond this, the Roman Wrestlers were unique because they were all Christians.
In a large empire periods of peace are few and far between. The emperor would often send the Roman Wrestlers to pockets of serious conflict. The presence of the wrestlers would encourage the soldiers of Rome as the wrestlers led them in battle.
The emperor sent the wrestlers to an eastern province where some religious fanatics had started an uprising. Led by the Roman Wrestlers, it didn’t take long for the army to quell the rebellion.
The emperor didn’t want these eastern fanatics to use their god as a reason to revolt again. So, the emperor had a statue of himself placed in every town in the eastern province. In addition, the emperor decreed that as a symbol of this lordship and deity, every person in every town of the province would have to bow before his statue. To ensure obedience, the emperor threatened to kill any who refused to bow.
The emperor had forgotten about the forty Christian wrestlers in the eastern province. When the day came for all to pass by the statue and bow, everyone wondered what the Roman Wrestlers would do.
The line of people moved slowly, bowing as they passed the statue. Those who refused to bow were killed by the sword, on the spot. Eventually the wrestlers moved to the statue. They did not bow, but marched by the statue chanting in unison this refrain,
“Forty Roman Wrestlers we Marching on for Christ our King! To win for you the Victory And from you, the victor’s crown.”
The soldiers and authorities were no match for the wrestlers. They sent word to the emperor seeking direction.
The wrestlers’ sign of defiance angered the emperor. He wanted to make an example of the wrestlers so that no one else would be tempted to disobey him. The emperor ordered the wrestlers to be transported to the icy mountain peaks and marched out on a frozen lake. The wrestlers were to be stripped of clothing and shoes and marched around the lake until they dropped dead.
The emperor provided one means of escape. If a wrestler would recant his faith he could retreat from the lake and bow down to the image of the emperor in the warm guard house nearby and be saved from frozen death.
The march began at midnight. New snow was falling from the sky. The wrestlers rounded the lake many times without showing the effects of the elements. Each time they passed the guard house they repeated the victory chant.
By daybreak, the wrestlers were still circling the lake, but in a struggling, exhausted manner. As they came by the guard house one of the wrestlers broke away from the other thirty-nine and collapsed in the guard house at the feet of the statue. The guard observing this scene was pierced with conviction. The guard dropped his weapons, stripped off his clothes and joined the wrestler ranks. Spiritually strengthened by this act of faith, the barely living wrestlers repeated their chant one last time. It wasn’t long before each and every wrestler fell dead in his tracks.