According to
Suetonius, Domitian ordered several senators and ex-consuls, including Glabrio, to be executed
quasi molitores rerum novarum, "as contrivers of new things".
Eusebius alludes to this proscription of "well-born and notable men", but does not mention why Domitian had done this, nor provides any names.
John Xiphilinus, speaking of the executions of AD 95, says that some members of the imperial family and other persons of importance were condemned for impiety. Some writers afterwards interpreted the charge of impiety against Acilius Glabrio as evidence that he belonged to the
Christian religion, although others believe it more likely he might have converted to
Judaism or just not have been loyal enough to emperor Domitian. The legend that Glabrio was an early
convert to Christianity was suggested to be true when in 1888 a tomb of the Acilii Glabriones was discovered adjacent to the
Catacomb of Priscilla. Although the inscriptions from the tomb mentioning the family were inscribed in a script used generations later than this Manius Acilius Glabrio and his wife Priscilla, at the time numerous experts eagerly cited this archaeological find as certain proof of the story. It was in 1931 when P. Styger was able to show the stone inscriptions did not properly belong to the chamber, but had been part of a sepulchre that was demolished in the construction of the Basilica of San Silvester after the fourth century. Half a century later, F. Tolotti was able to confirm Styger's interpretation when he identified the funerary area the inscriptions had come from. ==See also==