transcribes into his Annals the chapter of his Ecclesiastical History above quoted by me. Nor has Nicephorus done much more. Upon the whole, I think the accounts of those ancient authors, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, deserve some regard. It is upon them that I have made my comments; and my defence is confined to them. And we can perceive from Eusebius, and other later writers, that their accounts were received as true. But some make additions or alterations in Tertullian's original narration, which diminish the credibility of the whole. Orosius not only says that the senate ⚫ refused to comply with the proposal of Tiberius, but also that they were so provoked as to order, by an edict, that the Christians should be expelled the city:' which is loading the history with two great absurdities. For it is very improbable that the Christians should be so numerous at Rome, in the time of Tiberius, as to occasion any uneasiness to the senate. And it is equally improbable that the senate should behave so rudely to the emperor. Tertullian's account is free from such things, and ought not to be rejected because of additions made by later writers. The truth of Tertullian's account has been contested by divers learned moderns. I have already taken notice of what is said by Du Pin, and have also considered the objections of some others. I now willingly refer to divers others on the same side. Other learned men have embraced it as true, and have taken a good deal of pains to vindicate it against objections. Pearson, in particular, is very favourable to this history; and in the course of my argument I have quoted him several times. The late Mr. Mosheim also was of opinion that it ought not to be entirely rejected, and has spoken in favour of it in several of his works. a d II. There is another thing which may not be omitted here, though it appears to me to be of little or no importance. It is a story told by Cleombrotus, one of the speakers in Plutarch's dialogue concerning the cessation of oracles: He had it from Epitherses, his master in grammar. He said he was sailing for Italy in a ship well freighted with merchandise, in which also were many passengers. When they were one evening among the islands, called Echinedes, in the Ægean sea, the ship was becalmed. Most of the passengers were awake, and some were carousing after supper: at the same time there came a voice from the island Paxæ, which called aloud for Thamus. He ✦ was an Egyptian, and the pilot, and not so much as known by name to many of the passengers. He suffered himself to be called twice without making any answer; but at the third call he spoke. The voice then with great vehemence said to him: "When you come to the Palodes, declare that the great Pan is dead." They were all astonished when they heard this, and debated the matter, whether it were fit to perform the order or not. Thamus determined that if, when they were arrived at the appointed place, there was wind enough to sail forward, he would pass by in silence; but if the vessel was becalmed, he would publish what he had heard. When they came over against Palodes, the winds and waves were all calm. Thamus therefore placing himself at the stern of the vessel, with his face toward the land, declared as he had been told," that the great Pan was dead." Scarcely had he done speaking, when they heard 'from the shores groans and lamentations, not of one, but as of a great multitude. As there were many in the ship who were witnesses of this affair, the fame of it spread in a short time so 'far as Rome, and Thamus was sent for by the emperor Tiberius; and Tiberius gave such credit a Tan. Fabr. 1. 2. Ep. xii. Vandale de Orac. p. 455. et Diss. de Actis Pilati. p. 608. &c. Amst. 1700, Cleric. H. E. ann. 29. n. 96. &c. Basnag. ann. 33. n. 192-196. et Exercitat. p. 136. &c. Sig. Havercamp. Annot. ad Tertullian. Apol. cap. v. Jortin's Remarks upon Ecclesiastical History. Vol. i. p. 2-4. b Sueur, Histoire de l'Eglise et de l'Empire. Tom. i. p. 130, 131. Tillem. Mem. Ecc. T. i. S. Pierre art. 19. et notes xvi-xix. Fr. Balduin. Comment. ad Edicta veterum Principum Roman. de Christianis. p. 20-24 1727. Tob. Eckhard. non Christianorum de Christo Testimonia. cap. iv. J. A. Fabr. Lux Evangelii. cap. xii. p. 220-222. La Religion Chret, autorisée par le témoignage des anciens auteurs Payens. Par D. Colonia. Tom. 2. ch. xi.- -Lettre de M. Iselin Docteur et Professeur en Théologie à Basle, sur le projet conçu par Tibère, de mettre N. Š. J. C. au nombre des Dieux de Rome. Bib. Germanique T. 32. p. 147, et T. 33. p. 12. &c. c Pearson. Lection. in Act. Ap. iii, et iv. d Negant hodie viri sagaces et eruditi, fidem huic narrationi habendam esse. Ego vero superstitiosi nomen minime formido, si dixero, non prorsus eam mihi rejiciendam videri. Moshem. Institution. H. Christianæ Maj. Sec. i. P. i. c. 4. sect. ix. p. 109. A. D. 1739. Sunt quidem viri eruditi, quibus hoc alienissimum a vero videtur: sed his alii, doctrinâ non inferiores, rationes opponunt haud facile destruendas. Id. de Reb. Christian. ante Const. M. p. 92. Erudite, post Theod. Hasæum peculiari libello de Decreto Tiberii, quo Christum referre voluit in numerum Deorum, Ersurti 1715, 4, edito, pro veritate hujus facti militavit ven. Jac. Christoph. Isellus, epistolà Gallica, quæ legitur Bibliothéque Germanique. T. 32. p. 147. T. 33. p. 12. Moshem. Insti. Hist. Ec. p. 30 ed. 1755. Conf. supr. not. b e Plut. de Oracul. Defectu. Et vid. Euseb. Pr. Ev. p. 206. 'to the account that he called together several learned men, to inquire of them who this Pan They delivered it as their opinion that he was the son of Mercury and Penelope.' ⚫ was. b As this story is placed in the time of Tiberius, some learned men have been of opinion that * by the great Pan was meant Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, who suffered in the time of that emperor. Huet gives credit to this story, and supposeth that thereby the death of Christ, who is the true Pan, the parent of all things, and the author of all nature, was notified to heathen people. I shall now make two or three remarks, which are referred to the consideration of my readers. 1. The whole story is improbable, and has more the appearance of fiction than of truth and credibility. 2. The story is all over heathenish. If there be any truth in the account, when it was brought to Rome, and the affair was examined by the learned philologists at the court of Tiberius, their determination was, that the Pan, who was reported to be dead, was the son of Mercury and Penelope. Neither Thamus, nor Epitherses, nor Tiberius, nor the learned men whom he consulted, nor yet Plutarch and his company, who lived some good while after the death of our Lord, and the publication of his gospel, had any notion that this related to Jesus Christ. That this story is throughout heathenish may be argued from what is said presently afterwards by Demetrius, another of the speakers in that dialogue of Plutarch: that most of the islands near Britain are desert, and consecrated to dæmons and heroes; and that, being sent by the emperor to take a survey of those islands, he landed on one of them which had a few inhabitants; and that, soon after his arrival, there happened a tempest, with terrible claps of thunder and lightning. When the tempest was over, the people of the island gave out that some one of the principal dæmons was dead. A candle, said they, when it burns is pleasant; but when it goes out it leaves a stink behind: even so the deaths of great souls produce storms, ⚫ and sometimes a pestiferous air. To which Demetrius added, that in one of those islands Satan was bound, and guarded by Briarius, and that there were many dæmons attending upon him, as his slaves and ministers." All fiction surely; but representing, as may be supposed, the doctrine of credulous heathens concerning dæmons. All which, however, is quoted by Eusebius from Plutarch, to prove the cessation or the declension of oracles soon after the coming of Christ. ་ His remark is to this purpose: So far Plutarch. But it will be worth the while to observe the time when he says the death of that dæmon happened: it was in the time of Tiberius. At that time our Saviour dwelt among men; and it is written of him that he expelled all sorts of dæmons; and some of them fell down before him, entreating him that he would not send them into the abyss. Here then you have the true time of the expulsion of dæmons out of this 'world. A thing never heard of before. Nor was there an end put to human sacrifices, so * common among the Gentiles, till the evangelical doctrine had been preached to all men.' So Eusebius. d e And though Colonia flourisheth mightily upon this story, he in the end finds it prudent to content himself with considering it as an argument, that the Gentiles themselves acknowledged the general downfall or declension of their oracles, after the time of Tiberius, and the coming of Christ, and that two centuries before Eusebius.' A point about which I do not now particularly concern myself. a Ex hisce audiamus, quæso, primo loco, Boissardum in hunc modum loquentem- Quidam existimant vocem illam locutam fuisse de Christi servatoris morte, cum audita sit anno decimo nono imperii Cæsaris, quo Christus crucifixus est. Et hunc credimus universæ naturæ et totius mundi Dominum et formatorem. Vandale de Orac. p. 435. Huic narrationi fidem creat circumstantia temporis. Incidit enim hæc res in tempus, quo Christus mortuus est. Estque verisimile, ejulationes dæmonum inde ortas, quod scirent, morte Christi Satanæ regnum concidisse. Est enim Pan vox aptissima ad significandum Dominum universi, qui est omnia in omnibus, ut ait Paulus. 1 Cor. xv. 28. Petrus Mornæus, citat. a Vandale. ib. p. 437. b Ethnicis vero stupendo miraculo Christi Jesu significata mors est, quod in libello de desitis oraculis Plutarchus refert. Id, quamquam a vulgo scriptorum tritum est, minime tamen ob admirabilitatem rei pigebit hic adscribere-Narrat id apud Plutarchum Æmilianus Rhetor, ut sibi a patre Epitherse, rei teste, traditum. Atqui id convenit in tempus mortis Christi Jesu, qui verus Pan est, rerum omnium parens, ac naturæ totius auctor, quam Panos symbolo Mythologi signatam voluerunt. Huet. Dem. Ev. Prop. ix. cap. 136. p. 630. See likewise Tillemont. Mem. Ec. J. C. art. 21. et note 31. Præp. Evang. 1. v. cap. 17. p. 206–208. d La Réligion Chrétienne, &c. Tom. i. p. 124, &c. b Before I conclude this article, I would observe that Baronius did not fully rely upon the truth of the story told in Plutarch, concerning the pilot Thamus: and that the centuriators of Magdeburg consider it as an absurd and ridiculous fiction. So likewise does Basnage, who has offered more reasons in behalf of his opinion than need to be repeated by me here. CHAP. III. A MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTION CONCERNING THE CHRISTIANS IN THE TIME OF NERO. WHAT HAT offers next is an inscription of the emperor Nero, on a monument found in Portugal. FOR CLEARING THE PROVINCE A NEW SUPERSTITION. None can doubt that by the new superstition is here intended Christianity. Some have questioned the genuineness of this inscription, because, say they, Nero's persecution extended no farther than Rome. The pretence for punishing them there was a charge of having set fire to the city. But it could not be so much as pretended that they who dwelt in remote countries were concerned in that fact. If this be the only objection, the inscription may be reckoned very good. For if the Christians living at Rome were charged with so great a crime, all of that sect in any place would share in the scandal, and might be judged a vile sort of people, fit to be destroyed. And indeed the christians at Rome were as innocent as they at the greatest distance. Besides, it will presently appear, from Tacitus, that the Christians were then much hated, and that they suffered at Rome, not barely as guilty of setting fire to the city, but also for their supposed enmity to mankind. And Suetonius, in his account of the sufferings of the Christians in this reign, says nothing of any concern in the fire; but only that they were a people of a new and pernicious, or magical superstition. Which leads me to observe farther, that the style of the inscription is agreeable to that of Tacitus and Suetonius, some of the earliest heathen writers who have mentioned the Christians. If the persecution in Nero's time never became universal, it might take place in some of the provinces, particularly in that part of Spain which is now called Portugal. The Christian writers, who speak of Nero's persecution, do in effect, or expressly, say it was general; ' that from Rome it spread into the provinces, and was authorised by public edicts. f e Consulite commentarios vestros. Illic reperietis, primum Neronem in hanc sectam, tum maxime Romæ orientem, Cæsareano gladio ferocîsse. Sed tali dedicatore damnationis nostræ etiam gloriamur. Tertullian. Ap. cap. 5. Cum animadverteret Nero, non modo Romæ, sed ubique quotidie magnam multitudinem deficere a cultu idolorumprosiluit ad excidendum cœleste templum, delendamque justitiam, et primus omnium persecutus Dei servos, &c. Lactant. vel Cæcilius de M. P. cap. 2. Hoc initio in Christianos sæviri cœptum. Post etiam datis legibus religio vetabatur: palamque edictis propositis Christianum esse non licebat. Sulp. Sev. Hist. 1. 2. cap. 41. Primus Romæ Christianos suppliciis et mortibus affecit, ac per omnes provincias pari persecutione excruciari imperavit. Cros. 1. 7. c. 7. Though there remain this monument only, there may have been others of the like kind, which have been destroyed out of aversion to the memory of Nero, or by some of those many accidents to which all things are liable in a long course of years. If this inscription be genuine, it is as early an heathen monument as we could expect to find remaining concerning Christianity; especially so far off from Judea as Lusitania, now called Portugal. It must have been set up in the lifetime of Nero, who died in June A. D. 68, or, at the utmost, before his death was publicly known; for after that no people paid him any honours. I have shewn that the style of this inscription is agreeable to early antiquity; and I have answered the objection taken from the supposed narrow limits of Nero's persecution. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that the genuineness of it is not assented to by all. Joseph Scaliger doubted. Pagi and others have endeavoured to vindicate it. Some others still hesitate. This monument, they say, has been seen by few or none: and the credit of the first publisher of the inscription is not established above all suspicion of falsehood and imposture. a I therefore must not insist upon it as certainly genuine and ancient; though I could not forbear to propose it to be considered: nor do I think that any can dislike my placing it here before my readers. CHAP. IV. d PLINY THE ELDER. CAIUS PLINUS SECUNDUS, or Pliny the elder, was born at Verona, in the reign of Tiberius. He had divers public posts under the emperors Vespasian and Titus; notwithstanding which he redeemed a great deal of time for reading, and writing, in which he was indefatigable. He was suffocated in the smoke and ashes of Vesuvius, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and the first year of the reign of Titus, in the year 79. His natural history was published, and inscribed to Vespasian; or, as others think, to Titus, in the year of our Lord 77, before he was emperor. In his History is a chapter concerning the origin of magic; where are these words: There is another sect of magicians, depending on (or deriving from) Moses, and Jamnes, and Jotapes, who were Jews, but many thousand years since Zoroaster. Still so much later is the Cyprian.' Some have thought that in this last Pliny refers to the blindness inflicted by St. Paul on Elymas the sorcerer, in the presence of Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus, and related in Acts xiii. but I do not affirm it. a Neque solum Romæ sævitum in Christianos, sed etiam in provinciis. Exstat vetus inscriptio in Hispaniâ, loco Pisuerga vocato, in quo sine dubio hæc crudelitas tangitur, siquidem vera est illa inscriptio. Nam dubito. De Emend. Temp. p. 471. Pagi ann. 64. n. iv. J. E. J. Walchius De Persecutione Christian. Neronianâ in Hispaniâ. < Exstat celebris hæc inscriptio apud Jan. Gruter. p. 238.. n. 9. Ipsi vero præstantissimi Hispanorum viri auctoritatem hujus inscriptionis tueri non audent, quippe quam nemo unquam vidit, et Cyriacus Anconitanus primus protulit, homo, quod omnes sciunt, fallax, et, si quis alius, malæ fidei, &c. J. L. Moshem. Instit. Hist. Ec. p. 37. Verum magni homines post Scaligerum dubitant, quid de fide et auctoritate monumenti hujus statuendum sit: et, ut arbitror, justissimas habent dubitandi causas. Nemo enim vel Hispanorum, vel Lusitanorum, lapidem hunc unquam vidit, quod ipsi doctissimi Hispaniæ viri non diffitentur. Is vero, si aliquando extitisset, magnâ certe curâ ob insigne pretium asservatus fuisset. Id. De. Reb. Christian. p. 109. d Vid. Plin. Ep. 1. vi. 16. et 20. Voss, de H. 1. i. cap. 29. Fabr. Bib. Lat. 1. 2. c. 13. Basnag. Ann. 77. ii. et 79. v. Tillem. H. E. Tite. art. vi. Crevier's History of the Roman Emperors. B. xvii. vol. 6. p. 291. Est et alia Magicis factio, a Mose et Jamne, et Jotape Judæis pendens, sed multis millibus annorum post Zoroastrem. Tanto recentior est Cypria. Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. 30. cap. i. De Origine Magica artis, quando, et a quibus cœperat, &c. CHAP. V. TACITUS. I. His history, time, and works. II. Pomponia Græcina, a Roman lady, accused of a foreign superstition in the year of Christ 57, the fourth year of Nero's reign. III. His account of Nero's persecution of the Christians. IV. His testimony to the Jewish war, and the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. a с I. CAIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS, whose ancestors are unknown, was older than the younger Pliny, who was born in the year of our Lord 61 or 62. In the year 77 or 78 he married the daughter of Cnæus Julius Agricola, famous for his consulship, and government of Britain. He enjoyed divers posts of honour and trust under Vespasian, and the following emperors. He was prætor of Rome, under Domitian, in 88, and consul in the short reign of Nerva, in 97. The year was opened by Nerva and T. Virginius Rufus, who were then both of them the third time consuls. Virginius Rufus, who was a man of great eminence, and then of a great age, died in his consulship; whereupon Tacitus was substituted in his room, and pronounced his panegyric. But, as has been often observed, his writings have gained him more honour than all his dignities. His works seem to have been published by him in this order: first, his Description of Germany, next The Life of Agricola, his father-in-law; after that his History, beginning with Galba, and ending at the death of Domitian; and lastly, his Annals, beginning with Tiberius, and ending at the death of Nero. Both these works are now imperfect. с Tacitus and Pliny the younger lived together in intimate friendship. They revised each other's writings before publication. Divers of Pliny's letters are written to him; in particular those two wherein Pliny gives an account of the eruption of Vesuvius, and the death of his uncle. They were sent as memoirs, to be inserted by Tacitus in his histories. h It is allowed that Tacitus flourished in the first century; I therefore place him here in the year 100, the third of the emperor Trajan: and though the two last, and principal of his works, were not published till some time after, undoubtedly he was now employed in collecting materials for them, and in composing them. Nor did either of them come down any lower than the death of Domitian. 6 i II, In his Annals, at the year of our Lord 57, he writes thus: And Pomponia Græcina, a lady of eminent quality, married to Plautius, who, upon his return from Britain, had the honour of an ovation, being accused of practising a foreign superstition, was referred to the cognizance of her husband. And he, according to ancient institution, in the presence of the family, sat in judgment upon the life and reputation of his wife, and pronounced her innocent. Pomponia lived to a great age, and in perpetual sorrow, after the death of Julia, daughter of Drusus, procured by the intrigues of Messalina. For the space of forty years she wore no ⚫ habit but that of mourning, nor admitted any sentiments but those of grief. And this behaviour, which in the reign of Claudius escaped with impunity, afterwards redounded to her glory.' Vid. G. J. Voss. de Hist. Lat. Lipsii Vit. Tacit. Fabric. Bib. Lat. Tom. i. Bayle Diction. Tillemont H. E. Trajan. art 27. b Equidem adolescentulus, quum jam tu famâ gloriâque floreres, te sequi, tibi longo sed proximus intervallo et esse et haberi concupiscebam. Plin. 1. 7. Ep. 20. Consul egregiæ tum spei filiam juveni mihi despondit, ac post consulatum collocavit, et statim Britanniæ præpositus est, adjecto pontificatûs sacerdotio. Tacit. Vit. Agr. cap. 9. Vid. Tacit. Hist. 1. i. cap. i. • Laudatus est a consule Cornelio Tacito. Nam hic supremus felicitati ejus cumulus accessit, laudator eloquentissimus. &c. Plin. 1. i. ep. 2. Librum tuum legi, et, quam diligentissime potui, annotavi quæ commutanda, quæ eximenda arbitrarer. Nunc a te librum meum cum annotationibus tuis exspecto. O jucundas, O pulchras vices! Plin. l. 7. ep. 20. Vid. et 1. 8. ep. 7. g Petis, ut tibi avunculi mei exitum scribam, quo verius tradere posteris possis. Gratias ago. Nam video, morti ejus, si celebretur a te, immortalem gloriam esse propositam. L. 6. ep. 16. Vid. et ep. 20. h Tacite- Historien Romain, a fleuri dans le premier siècle. Bayle Diction. Et Pomponia Græcina, insignis femina, Plautio, qui ovans se de Britanniis retulit, nupta, ac superstitionis externæ rea, mariti judicio permissa. Isque prisco instituto, propinquis coram, de capite famâque conjugis cognovit, et insontem nuntiavit. Longa huic Pomponiæ ætas, et continua tristitia fuit. Nam, post Juliam Drusi filiam dolo Messalinæ interfectam, per quadraginta annos, non cultu nisi lugubri, non animo nisi mæsto egit. Idque illi imperitante Claudio impune, mox ad gloriam vertit. Tacit. Ann. 1. 13. c. 32. |