Acts 16:27

Acts 16:27. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled. The jailor or governor of the prison seeing the doors open, naturally concluded that his prisoners, of whom no doubt a considerable number were under his charge, and some doubtless on capital charges, had fled; and then knowing that if such were the case a sure death awaited him under the stern Roman law, determined by self-murder to anticipate his doom. Howson remarks that Philippi is famous in the annals of suicide, and quotes the examples of the vast number of voluntary deaths after the great battle of Philippi had destroyed the hopes of the old republicans. Niebuhr relates how the majority of the proscribed who survived the battle of Philippi put an end to their own lives, as they despaired of being pardoned. Among these were Brutus and Cassius. Self-murder among the Romans in the first and second centuries of the Christian era was fearfully common. It was even approved of in Stoic philosophy. Many of the noblest of the Romans ended their days in this manner. It was, in fact, the common resort in trouble and in extreme danger, and was not unknown even in cases where satiety in all life's pleasures had induced the not uncommon feeling of utter weariness of living.