Daniel's father was the overseer of the vineyards.  He had a brother, "younger than he was, and they were very close".  When this brother, Daniel's uncle, had his first son, he did "a very foolish thing...it was almost time for the taxes, (but) he took part of the money he had saved and bought his wife a present...he planned to find extra work and make up the money".  Unfortunately, the tax collector came early that year, because the Romans needed the money to build a new section of road. Too ashamed to ask his brother for help, Daniel's uncle tried to argue with the tax collector, but the soliders came to arrest him.  When he heard, Daniel's father raised the money for the tax, but Daniel's uncle "had lost his head and tried to fight his way out" of prison, and was sentenced to serve time at hard labor in the quarries to work off his debt.

Daniel's uncle's wife was "almost out of her mind" with grief and desperation, and, at her behest, Daniel's father, "a peaceful man", armed himself and tried to force his brother's release by attacking the convoy which was transporting the prisoner to the city, but he was captured.  The Romans "wanted to make an example for the village", and, in a grisly act of retaliation, crucified Daniel's uncle, father, and all the others involved, six in all (Chapter 7).