lamian province, was held on a precarious tenure; the Parthian kingdom had acquired new vigour and energy, and during great part of his reign, the state of the East must have occupied the active mind of Trajan. The Jewish population of Babylonia and the adjacent provinces were of no inconsiderable importance in the impending contest. There is strong ground for supposing that the last insurrection of the Jews, under Hadrian, was connected with a rising of their brethren in Mesopotamia, no doubt secretly, if not openly, fomented by the intrigues, and depending on the support, of the king of Parthia. This was at a considerably later period; yet, during the earlier part of the reign of Trajan, the insurrection had already commenced in Egypt and in Cyrene, and in the island of Cyprus, and no sooner were the troops of Trajan engaged on the Eastern frontier towards the close of his reign, than the Jews. rose up in all these provinces, and were not subdued till after they had perpetrated and endured the most terrific massacres (1). Throughout the Eastern wars of Trajan, this spirit was most likely known to be fermenting in the minds of the whole Jewish population, not only in the insurgent districts, but in Palestine and other parts of the empire. The whole race, which occupied in such vast numbers the conterminous regions, therefore, would be watched with hostile jealousy by the Roman governors, already prejudiced against their unruly and ungovernable character, and awakened to more than ordinary vigilance by the disturbed aspect of the times. The Christians stood in a singular and ambiguous position between the Jewish and Pagan population; many of them probably descended from, and connected with, the former. Their general. peaceful habits and orderly conduct would deserve the protection of a parental government, still their intractable and persevering resistance to the religious institutions of the empire might throw some suspicion on the sincerity of their civil obedience. The unusual assertion of religious might be too closely allied with that of political independence. At all events, the dubious and menacing state of the East required more than ordinary watchfulness, and a more rigid plan of government in the adjacent provinces; and thus the change in society, which was working unnoticed in the more peaceful and less Christianised West, in the East might be forced upon the attention of an active and inquiring ruler; the apprehensions of the inhabitants themselves would be more keenly alive to the formation of a separate and secluded party within their cities; and religious animosity would eagerly seize the opportunity of implicating its enemies in a charge of disaffection to the existing government. Nor is there wanting evidence that the acts of persecution ascribed to Trajan were, in fact, connected with the military movements of the

(1) Euseb. iv. 2. Dio. Cass., or rather, Xyphilin. Orosius, 1. 7. Pagi places this Jewish rebellion,

A. D. 116.

Hadrian

A. D. 117.

Emperor. The only authentic Acts are those of Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, and of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch (1). In the prefatory observations to the former, it is admitted that it was a local act of violence. The more celebrated trial of Ignatius is stated to have taken place before the Emperor himself at Antioch, when he was preparing for his first Eastern campaign (2). The Emperor is represented as kindling to anger at the disparagement of those gods on whose protection he depended in the impending war. "What, is our religion to be treated as senseless? Are the gods, on whose alliance we rely against our enemies, to be turned to scorn (3)? " If we may trust the epistles ascribed to this bishop, there was an eagerness for martyrdom not quite consistent with the conduct of the Apostles, and betraying a spirit, which, at least, would not allay, by prudential concession, the indignation and resentment of the government (4).

The cosmopolite and indefatigable mind of Hadrian was more Emperor, likely to discern with accuracy, and estimate to its real extent, the growing influence of the new religion. Hadrian was, still more than his predecessor, the Emperor of the West, rather than the monarch of Rome. His active genius withdrew itself altogether from warlike enterprise and foreign conquest; its whole care was centered on the consolidation of the empire within its narrower and uncontested boundaries, and on the internal regulation of the vast confederacy of nations which were gradually becoming more and more assimilated, as subjects or members of the great European empire. The remotest provinces for the first time beheld the presence of the Emperor, not at the head of an army, summoned to defend the insulted barriers of the Roman territory, or pushing forward the advancing line of conquest, but in more peaceful array, providing for the future security of the frontier by impregnable fortresses ; adorning the more flourishing cities with public buildings, bridges, and aqueducts; inquiring into the customs, manners, and even the religion, of the more distant parts of the world; encouraging commerce; promoting the arts; in short, improving, by salutary regulations, this long period of peace, to the prosperity and civilisation of the whole empire. Gaul, Britain, Greece, Syria, Egypt, Africa, were in turn honoured by the presence, enriched by the liberality, haracter and benefited by the wise policy of the Emperor (5). His personal

of Ha. drian.

(1) See them in Ruinart. Selecta et sincera Martyrum Acta.

(2) According to the chronology of Pagi, ▲. v.

112.

(3) ἡμεῖς οὖν σοι δοκοῦμεν κατὰ νοῦν μὴ ἔχειν θεοὺς, οἷς καὶ χρώμεθα ξυμμάχοις πρὸς τοὺς πολεμίους. The Jewish legends are full of acts of personal cruelty, ascribed to Trajan, mingled up, as usual, with historical errors and anachronisms. See Hist. of Jews, iii. 109.

correspondence with the most eminent bishops of Asia Minor, who do not appear to have been in danger of persecution; that to the Romans deprecates all kindly interference with the government to avert the glorious destiny which he

coveted, and intimates some apprehension lest their unwelcome appeal to the imperial clemency might meet with success. I consider this an argument for their authenticity.

(5) M. St. Croix observes (in an essay in the Mém. de l'Académ. xlix. 409.) that we have (4) The epistles represent Ignatius as holding medals of twenty-five countries through which

character showed the same incessant activity and politic versatility. On the frontier, at the head of the army, he put on the hardihood and simplicity of a soldier; disdained any distinction, either of fare or of comfort, from the meanest legionary; and marched on foot, through the most inclement seasons. In the peaceful and voluptuous cities of the South, he became the careless and luxurious Epicurean. Hadrian treated the established religion with the utmost respect; he officiated with solemn dignity as supreme pontiff, and at Rome affected disdain or aversion for foreign religions (1). But his mind was essentially imbued with the philosophic spirit (2) he was tempted by every abstruse research, and every forbidden inquiry had irresistible attraction for his curious and busy temper (3). At Athens, he was in turn the simple and rational philosopher, the restorer of the splendid temple of Jupiter Olympius, and the awestruck worshipper in the Eleusinian mysteries (4). In the East, he aspired to penetrate the recondite secrets of magic, and professed himself an adept in judicial astrology. In the midst of all this tampering with foreign religions, he at once honoured and outraged the prevailing creed, by the deification of Antinous, in whose honour quinquennial games were established at Mantinea; a city built, and a temple, with an endowment for a priesthood (5), founded and called by his name, in Egypt: his statues assumed the symbols of various deities. Acts like these, at this critical period, must have tended to alienate a large portion of the thinking class, already wavering in their cold and doubtful Polytheism, to any purer or more ennobling system of religion.

Hadrian not merely surveyed the surface of society, but his sagacity seemed to penetrate deeper into the relations of the different classes to each other, and into the more secret workings of the social system. His regulations for the mitigation of slavery were recommended, not by humanity alone, but by a wise and prudent policy (6). It was impossible that the rapid growth of Christianity could escape the notice of a mind so inquiring as that of Hadrian, or that he could be altogether blind to its ultimate bearings on the social state of the empire. Yet, the generally humane and pacific

Hadrian travelled. (Compare Eckhel, vi. 486.) He looked into the crater of Etna; saw the sun rise from Mount Casius; ascended to the cataracts of the Nile; heard the statue of Memnon. He imported exotics from the East. The journeys of Hadrian are traced, in a note to M, Solvet's translation of Hegewisch, cited above. Tertullian calls him curiositatum omnium explorator. Apol. i. v. Eusebius, E. H. v. 5., závra rà repiepya πολυπραγμονῶν.

(1) Sacra Romana diligentissimè curavit, peregrina contempsit. Spartian. in Hadrian.

(2) Les autres sentiments de ce prince sont très difficiles à connaître. Il n'embrassa aucune secte, et ne fut ni Académicien, ni Stoïcien, encore moins Epicurien; il parut constamment livre à cette incertitude d'opinions, fruit de la

I.

bizarrerie de son caractère, et d'un savoir superficiel ou mal digéré. St. Croix, ubi suprà.

cribed in the pregnant phrase oλvπpayμovâv (3) In the Cæsars of Julian, Hadrian is desropinta,- busied about all the secret religions.

(4) The Apology of Quadratus was presented tiated in the mysteries; that of Aristides when on Hadrian's visit to Athens, when he was inihe became Epoptes, A. D. 131. Warburton connects the hostility of the celebrators of the mys. teries towards Christianity with the Apology of Quadratus, and quotes a passage from Jerome to this effect. Compare Routh's Reliquiæ Sacræ, i. 70.

(5) Euseb. iv. 8. Hieronym. in Catal. et Rufin, (6) Gibbon, vol. i. ch. ii. p. 71.

conduct

anity.

Hadrian's character of his government would be a security against violent towards measures of persecution; and the liberal study of the varieties of Christi human opinion would induce, if not a wise and rational spirit of toleration, yet a kind of contemptuous indifference towards the most inexplicable aberrations from the prevailing opinions. The apologists for Christianity, Quadratus and Aristides, addressed their works to the Emperor, who does not appear to have repelled their respectful homage (1). The rescript which he addressed, in the early part of his reign, to the proconsul of Asia, afforded the same protection to the Christians against the more formidable danger of popular animosity, which Trajan had granted against anonymous delation. In some of the Asiatic cities, their sullen and unsocial absence from the public assemblies, from the games, and other public exhibitions, either provoked or gave an opportunity for the latent animosity to break out against them. A general acclamation would sometimes demand their punishment. "The Christians to the lions!" was the general outcry; and the names of the most prominent or obnoxious of the community would be denounced with the same sudden and uncontrollable hostility. A weak or superstitious magistrate trembled before the popular voice, or lent himself a willing instrument to the fury of the populace. The proconsul Serenus Granianus consulted the Emperor as to the course to be pursued on such occasions. The answer of Hadrian is addressed to Minucius Fundanus, probably the successor of Granianus, enacting that, in the prosecution of the Christians, the formalities of law should be strictly complied with; that they should be regularly arraigned before the legal tribunal, not condemned on the mere demand of the populace, or in compliance with a lawless outcry (2). The edict does credit to the humanity and wisdom of Hadrian. But, notwithstanding his active incapable and inquisitive mind, and the ability of his general policy, few perstanding sons were, perhaps, less qualified to judge of the real nature of the new religion, or to comprehend the tenacious hold which it would obtain upon the mind of man. His character wanted depth and seriousness, to penetrate or to understand the workings of a high, profound, and settled religious enthusiasm (3). The graceful verses,

Hadrian

of under

Christi

anity.

(1) See the fragments in Routh, Reliquia Sacræ, i. 69-78.

(2) Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 68, 69. Euseb. H. E. iv. 9. Mosheim, whose opinions on the state of the Christians are coloured by too lenient a view of Roman toleration, considers this edict by no means more favourable to the Christians than that of Trajan. It evidently offered them protection under a new and peculiar exigency.

(3) The well-known letter of Hadrian gives a singular view of the state of the religious society, as it existed, or, rather, as it appeared to the inquisitive Emperor. "I am now, iny dear Servianus, become fully acquainted with that Egypt which you praise so highly. I have found the people vain, fickle, and shifting with every breath of popular rumour. Those who worship Serapis

are Christians; and those who call themselves Christian bishops are worshippers of Serapis. There is no ruler of a Jewish synagogue, no Samaritan, no Christian bishop, who is not an astrologer, an interpreter of prodigies, and au anointer. The Patriarch himself, when he comes to Egypt, is compelled by one party to worship Serapis, by the other, Christ. *** They have but one God him, Christians, Jews, and Gentiles, worship alike." This latter clause Casaubon understood seriously. It is evidently malicious satire. The common God is Gain. The key to the former curious statement is probably that the tone of the higher, the fashionable, society of Alexandria, was to affect, either on some Gnostic or philosophic theory, that all these religions differed only in form, but were essentially the

which he addressed to his departing spirit (1), contrasts with the solemn earnestness with which the Christians were teaching mankind to consider the mysteries of another life. But, on the whole, the long and peaceful reign of Hadrian allowed free scope to the progress of Christianity; the increasing wealth and prosperity of the empire probably raised in the social scale that class among which it was chiefly disseminated; while the better part of the more opulent would be tempted, at least to make themselves acquainted with a religion, the moral influence of which was so manifestly favourable to the happiness of mankind, and which offered so noble a solution of the great problem of human philosophy, the immortality of the soul.

Pius Em

The gentle temper of the first Antoninus would maintain that Antoninus milder system which was adopted by Hadrian, from policy or from peror, indifference. The Emperor, whose parental vigilance scrutinised. D. 138. the minutest affairs of the most remote province, could not be ignorant, though his own residence was fixed in Rome and its immediate neighbourhood, of the still expanding progress of Christianity. The religion itself acquired every year a more public character. The Apology now assumed the tone of an arraignment of the folly and unholiness of the established Polytheism; nor was this a low and concealed murmur within the walls of its own places of assemblage, or propagated in the quiet intercourse of the brethren. It no longer affected disguise, nor dissembled its hopes; it approached the foot of the throne; it stood in the attitude, indeed, of a suppliant, claiming the inalienable rights of conscience, but asserting in simple confidence its moral superiority, and in the name of an apology, publicly preaching its own doctrines in the ears of the sovereign and of the world. The philosophers were joining its ranks; it was rapidly growing up into a rival power, both of the religions and philosophies of the world. Yet, during a reign in which human life assumed a value and a sanctity before unknown; in which the hallowed person of a senator was not once violated, even by the stern hand of justice (2); under an emperor who professed and practised the maxim of Scipio, that he had rather save the life of a single citizen than cause the death of a thousand enemies (3); who considered the subjects of the empire as one family, of which himself was the parent (4), even religious zeal would be rebuked and overawed; and the provincial governments, which too often

same; that all adored one Deity, all one Logos or Demiurge, under different names; all employed the same arts to impose upon the vulgar, and all were equally despicable to the real philosopher. Dr. Burton, in his History of the Church, suggested, with much ingenuity, that the Samaritans may have been the Gnostic followers of Simon Magus.

(1) Animula, vagula, blandula, Hospes, comesque corporis, Quae nune abibis in loca?

(2) Jul. Capit. Anton. Pius, Aug. Script. p.

138.

(3) Ibid, p. 140.

(4) The reign of Antoninus the First is almost a blank in history. The book of Dion Cassius which contained his reign was lost, except a small part, when Xiphilin wrote. Xiphilin asserts that Antoninus favoured the Christians.