---At the time when God called Paul and he repented near Damascus, an Emperor began to rule at the age of 25.

---He would be murdered at the age of 33 a few years later.

---He was the cousin of Nero who would later rule young and also die young by suicide. Nero persecuted Paul and Peter.

---Emperor Caligula fell into inhuman habits and practices.

---He threw people to the lions in arenas in front of thousands to make his audience happy.

---One day he was bored at such a show and during a break he asked them if there was another prisoner who would come after the break.

---“No,” they say.

---"Then grab that group of spectators there and throw them in."

---This is just background. Now we come to the story.

---It is told by some historians that during the emperor Caligula's short reign, there was a slave Androcles who worked for a senator of Caligula.

---Androcles had an experience with a lion in his younger days.

---One day he entered a cave and saw a lion in great pain.

---The lion was already very weak.

---So Androcles wanted to run but realized that there was something wrong with the swollen leg of the animal.

---A thorn sat there.

---The lion could not walk.

---So Androcles took out the thorn with a knife and washed his paw with water. ---The animal was very weak.

---He moved into the cave and began to give the lion food and water.

---Slowly he got stronger.

---Then the lion befriended Androcles who saved his life.

---On his recovery, Androcles returned to civilization and worked for the senator of Caligula, about 39 AD.

---In AD 37 Paul was converted, according to scholars.

---What exactly happened is not clear to me, but Androcles took the road and it means death penalty.

---So, when they later caught him it was his turn to entertain the crowd as a prisoner in Caligula's gruesome lion attack theater. Are you ready?

---The day started like any other day of the kind with a big noise.

---Androcles is blindfolded and made to stand.

---When the lions came out they rushed in his direction.

---The crowd screams. Any minute now the front one will get to him.

---Then it happened.

---The front lion is the thorn lion that recognizes him.

---When the lion owned him, he rushed towards him faster and immediately he swung around and started to growl at the other lions.

---He now stands between Androcles and the other lions.

---The crowd falls silent. It's touching. They have never experienced it.

---The crowd stands to see properly.

---The emperor jumped up.

---What's going on today? Something funny is going on here.

–--Thorn lion growls at the other lions and in lion language, all the others understand.

---This is not the selfish appropriation of food just for himself growl, it is the growl of a female who will bite to death if they come near her cub.

 ---The message is clear to them: turn around and go back.

---This is what the other lions also do.

---They lie down there to watch what thorn lion has in mind.

---The thorn lion then licked Androcles' feet.

---The crowd holds their mouths shut not to say anything.

---Mothers start crying. Men cannot stop the tears.

---The thorny lion recognized Androcles and saved his life.

---He rubbed the lion and the lion rubbed against him and made little sounds of joy at seeing each other.

---Emperor Caligula had an interview with him and when he heard the story he declared Androcles innocent and dropped the accusation against him.

---He also ordered that the thorn lion be given to Androcles.

---Also that enough food must be provided for him to take care of the animal.

---The writer Apion says, he saw it himself and he says that for a long time afterwards people saw him walking with the lion on a rope to come and shop at the market.

---He says people said: "there is the lion who saved the man and there is the man who doctored the lion". Is not it wonderful?

---When I was a child, there was a farmer who often came to Stegens Filling Station in Vryheid Kwa-Zulu Natal with his lion in an open car to buy something from the cafe. "Tarzan" we always called him.

---Also on Youtube there is the video of the husband and wife from England who took their tame lion back to Africa and after three years went to see if he would recognize them.

---He rushed but hugged the woman and licked in gratitude. Touching. All on video.

---Scholars say it's a story or a legend. I think otherwise. Excuse me.