and when he heard of his death, he lamented it very affectionately.

II. This writer has been supposed to refer to the patient fortitude of christians, in voluntarily enduring the greatest pains, rather than sacrifice to the gods, or do any thing contrary to the principles of their religion.

e

You have, perhaps, lately seen acted in the theatre, Mucius, who thrust his hand into the fire. If you think such an one patient, valiant, stout, you are a mere senseless dotard. For it is a much greater thing when threatened with the troublesome coat, to say I do not sacrifice, than to obey the command-burn the hand.'

However, the two last verses of the epigram may be otherwise rendered, after this manner: For it is a much greater thing, when threatened with the troublesome coat, you are commanded to burn your hand, to say; I will not.'

But I can see no reason for bringing in the troublesome coat to oblige a man to act the part of Mucius in the theatre. And I much rather incline to the sense given in the first translation.

I shall therefore place below the remarks of Stephen Le Moyne upon this epigram, who makes no doubt that Martial refers to the christians, and declares that what Mucius did, is not comparable to the resolution of christians under the sufferings which they endured.

The troublesome coat, or shirt, here mentioned, a cruelty which, as we have before learned from Tacitus, the innocent

fellis, nec candoris minus. Prosequutus eram cum viatico discedentem. Dederam hoc amicitiæ: dederam etiam versiculis, quos de me composuit Plin. Lib. 3. E. p. 21.

e In matutinâ nuper spectatus arenâ

Mucius, imposuit qui sua membra focis,
Si patiens fortisque tibi durusque videtur,
Abderitanæ pectora plebis habes.

Nam, cum dicatur, tunicâ præsente molestâ,
Ure manum, plus est dicere: Non facio.

Martial. 1. x. Epigr. 25.

f Facinus Mucii non videtur, inquit Martialis, cum fortitudine christianorum comparandum. Ille ustulandam manum suam flammis exhibuit, ut istâ constantiâ reliquum corpus suum servaret. Sed christiani totum corpus igni vorandum tradunt, imo igni lento; et patiuntur se supervestiri cereo indumento, ut instar cereorum ardeant; quod tamen possent declinare, si vellent, et si religioni popularium suorum, et sacris imperatoris, faciles se alligarent. Sed malunt in cineres et favillas redigi, et se vivos ardere, quam sacrificare, vel thura adolere: et cum ad id compelluntur, dicunt, Non facio, non sacrifico-et tunicæ molestæ præsens et tremendum supplicium illos a sacris suis non potest avellere, vel mininum terrere. St. Le Moyne Varia sacra. p. 1041, 1042. Vid. et Kortholt. De persecutionib. primit. Ec. p. 25.

christians unjustly suffered, was made like a sack, of paper

or

coarse linen cloth; and having been first besmeared within and without with pitch, wax, rosin, sulphur, and such like combustible materials, or dipt all over in them, was put upon the person for whom it was appointed; and that he might be kept upright, the more to resemble a flaming torch, his chin was fastened to a stake fixed in the ground.

That this was esteemed a cruel death is manifest from Seneca; who, describing the greatest causes of fear, writes to this purpose: Imagines here,' says he, a prison, crosses, and racks, and the hook, and a stake thrust through 'the body and coming out at the mouth, and the limbs torn by chariots pulling adverse ways, and that coat besmeared ' and interwoven with combustible materials, nutriment for fire, and whatever else beside these cruelty has invented. "It is no wonder if, in such a case, fear riseth high, where 'the variety of evils is so great, and the preparation is so ' terrible.'

It is hence apparent, that this was one of the worst punishments which cruelty had invented.

I do not know but some may think I ought to have quoted this passage of Seneca, not only as a description of this coat and the cruelty of it, but also as an allusion to the sufferings of the christians, who felt it in so great numbers; for Seneca's death happened noth before April in the year 65; whereas the fire at Rome began in July the preceding year, and the persecution of the christians commenced in November following; but, in my opinion, it is better not to insist upon any reference here to the sufferings of the christians.

i

8 Cogita hoc loco carcerem, et cruces, et eculeos, et uncum, et adactum per medium hominem, qui per os emergat, stipitem, et distracta in diversum actis curribus membra, illam tunicam, alimentis ignium et illitam et intextam; quicquid, aliud, præter hæc, commenta sævitia est. Non est itaque mirum, si maximus hujus rei timor est, cujus et varietas magna, et apparatus terribilis est. Senec. Ep. 14. 1 See Tillemont, Neron. art. xxii.

1 See vol. v. ch. xi. near the end of the chapter.

CHAP. VII.

JUVENAL.

1.

I. His time and writings. II. His testimony to Nero's persecution of the christians. III. His testimony to Domitian's persecution. IV. An observation concerning Seneca the philosopher.

I. DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS, or Juvenal, author of sixteen satires, which we still have, is computed to have flourished in the reigns of Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, and Adrian. And, as Lipsius well says, heb was contemporary with Pliny the younger, Tacitus, and others of that age. Nevertheless we do not find Juvenal at all mentioned in any of the letters of Pliny now extant. I place him next to his friend Martial, and in the same year, the last of the first century of the christian epoch.

II. He seems to refer to Nero's persecution of the christians in some lines of his first satire, which are thus translated by Mr. Dryden :

But if that honest licence now you take,

If into rogues omnipotent you rake,

Death is your doom, impal'd upon a stake,
Smear'd o'er with wax, and set on fire to light

The streets, and make a dreadful blaze by night.

Or, more literally: Describe a great villain, such as was Tigellinus, (a corrupt minister under Nero,) and you shall suffer the same punishment with those who stand burning in their own flame and smoke, their head being held up by a stake fixed to their chin, till they make a long stream (of blood and running sulphur) on the ground.'

a Vid. Lips. Epist. Qu. 1. 4. Ep. 20. Fabr. Bib. Lat. 1. 2. cap. 18. Tillem. H. E. Domitien, art. 24. b Ergo, meo arbitrio, compar

Juvenalis Plinio juniori, Tacito, et illi classi fuit. Lips. 1. c.

• Pone Tigellinum, tædâ lucebis in illâ,
Quâ stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant,
Et latum mediâ sulcum deducit arenâ.

Juven. Sat. i. ver. 155, &c.

d

e

It is the opinion of Joseph Scaliger, and many other learned men, that Nero's cruelties to the christians are here intended and that some punishments of men accused of magic in the reign of Nero are here referred to, is affirmed by an ancient scholiast upon this place of Juvenal; who f likewise speaks of them as exhibited for a spectacle; as is particularly described by Tacitus. And Suetonius (as we shall presently see) calls the christians, ' men of a new and 'magical superstition.'

In another satire Juvenal speaks of the pitched shirt, or troublesome coat, which they were covered with who were condemned to that punishment. And I shall place below h a part of Prateus's note upon that place.

6

III. In another satire Juvenal speaks of the death of Domitian in this manner; Manyi illustrious men he destroyed who found no avenger; at last he perished, when he became formidable to the rabble. This ruined him, who long before was stained with the noble blood of the Lamiæ.'

The verses are thus translated by Mr. Stepny :

What folly this! But oh! that all the rest
Of his dire reign had thus been spent in jest!
And all that time such trifles had employed,
In which so many nobles he destroyed.
He safe, they unrevenged, to the disgrace
Of the surviving, tame, Patrician race.
But when he dreadful to the rabble grew,
Him, who so many lords had slain, they slew.

d Scholia Juvenalis: Nero maleficos homines tædâ et papyro et cerâ supervestiebat, et sic ad ignem admoveri jubebat, ut arderent.

Hæc Scholiastes ille in illos versus Juvenalis, qui sine dubio de christianis dicti sunt. Jos. Scaliger. Animadv. in Euseb. Chron. p. 197. Videatur Id. De Emendat. Temp. I. v. p. 471. e Vid. not. d, supra.

' Idem Scholiatses: Vivus ardebis, quemadmodum in munere Neronis 'vivi arserunt, de quibus ille jussit cereos fieri, ut lucerent spectatoribus quum 'fixa essent guttura, ne se curvarent.' Id. Scalig. 1. c. p. 197. Et vide annot. ad Juvenalis locum.

8 Ausi quod liceat tunicâ punire molestâ.

Sat. 8. lin. 235.

b Vestis erat e chartâ, cannabe, stuppâ. Illinebatur bitumine, resinâ, pice. Tum circumdabatur iis qui grave quidpiam, et maxime incendia, moliti fuerant. Quâ demum incensâ vivi comburebantur. Annot. in loc. ed. in usum Delphini.

i Atque utinam his potius nugis tota illa dedisset
Tempora sævitiæ, claras quibus abstulit Urbi
Illustresque animas impune, et vindice nullo.
Sed periit, postquam cerdonibus esse timendus
Cœperat. Hoc nocuit Lamiarum cæde madenti.
Sat. iv. ad fin.

k

Ælius Lamia, whose death is likewise particularly mentioned by Suetonius, undoubtedly was a man of a very ancient and noble family. And Domitian had killed many other senators. The christians were generally of the meaner rank of people, and more despised still for their religion than their condition. But they were not all of the rabble, or coblers and tailors, as Juvenal would insinuate. And Flavius Clement, one of those whom Domitian put to death near the end of his reign, and whose death, as Suetonius expressly says, hastened Domitian's ruin, was of the imperial family; and, as we think, a christian. However, it is observable, that Juvenal says Domitian's death soon followed after some acts of cruelty toward mean people. Herein he agrees with and confirms the accounts of some christian writers, particularly that of Cæcilius, or Lactantius, in his book of the Deaths of Persecutors; who observes, that 'Domi'tian1 had been long permitted to exercise great cruelties upon his subjects: but when he began to persecute the servants of God, he was soon delivered up into the hands of his enemies.' IV. It may be observed, that I do not allege, among witnesses to christianity, or the affairs of christians, the philosopher, L. A. Seneca. There is extant a correspondence between him and St. Paul, in fourteen letters; which may be seen in Latin, in Fabricius, and in Latin and English in" Mr. Jones, with remarks. They were in being in St. Jerom's time, and Seneca therefore is mentioned by him in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers. But they are manifestly spurious and of no value; and therefore are not entitled to a place here: nor do they deserve any regard.

m

I have put this advertisement here, at the end of the chapter of Juvenal, because he is the last author of the first century who is alleged by me.

k Sueton. Domit. cap. x.

1 Post hunc, [Neronem] interjectis aliquot annis, alter [Domitianus] non minor tyrannus orsus est: qui cum exerceret invisam dominationem, subjectorum tamen cervicibus incubavit quam diutissime, tutusque regnavit, donec impias manus adversus Dominum tenderet. Postquam vero ad persequendum justum populum instinctu dæmonum incitatus est, tunc traditus in manus inimicorum luit pœnas. Cæc. al. Lact. De M. P. c. 3.

m Cod. Apocr. N. T. Tom. 2. p. 880, &c. Conf. ejusd. Bibl. Lat. T. i. p. 367. n See Jones of the Canon of the N. T. Vol. 2. ch. x. p. 80, &c. • Lucius Annæus Seneca Cordubensis, Sotionis Stoïci discipulus, et patruus Lucani poëtæ, continentissimæ vitæ fuit. Quem non ponerem in Catalogc Sanctorum, nisi me illæ Epistolæ provocarent, quæ leguntur a plurimis, Pauli ad Senecam, et Senecæ ad Paulum. In quibus, cum esset Neronis magister, et illius temporis potentissimus, optare se dicit, ejus esse loci apud suos, cujus sit Paulus apud christianos. Hic ante biennium, quam Petrus et Paulus coronarentur martyrio, a Nerone interfectus est. Hieron. De V. I. cap. xii.