Paul is indirectly responsible for preserving (or at least prolonging) the lives of his fellow prisoners.989 Guards might prefer suicide to court-martial for the charge of dereliction of duty (Acts 16:27; Petron. Sat. 112); most commentators note the Roman custom of the guard’s responsibility for his prisoners, a custom that Luke’s attentive readers in particular will surely recall (cf. Acts 12:18–19).990 Justinian’s later code formalized the principle that a guard whose prisoner escaped would fulfill