Said Rabbi Ishmael: Surya, the Prince of the Presence, spoke to me [saying]: “Friend, why did all this disgrace, all this revilement, and all this shame befall that wicked man? Because of Rabbi Hanaya ben Teradyon. For when the day came which he had set for his execution, [some of his servants] said to him, ‘Lord Caesar, repeal [the sentence which] thou [hast passed] upon that sage, that he be not killed.’ [But] he replied, ‘Let him die. For though I and all these of my family, yea, even though all Rome be destroyed with him – yet in this matter I will not change my mind.’”