When at last he ended his prayer, having remembered everyone he had ever met—small and great, prominent and obscure—and the whole catholic Church throughout the world, the hour came for departure. They placed him on a donkey and brought him into the city on a Great Sabbath.
The police captain Herod and his father Nicetas met him. They transferred him into their carriage, sat beside him, and tried to persuade him, saying, “What harm is there in saying, ‘Caesar is Lord,’ offering sacrifice, and doing whatever else follows, and so saving yourself?” At first he gave them no answer. But when they persisted, he said, “I will not do what you advise me to do.”
When they failed to persuade him, they spoke harshly to him and hurriedly forced him down, so that as he descended from the carriage he scraped his shin. Without turning around, as though he had suffered nothing, he went forward willingly and quickly as they led him into the arena. The noise in the arena was so great that no one could be heard.