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would neither eat nor drink till they had assassinated him; when the tribune was informed of this conspiracy, to secure the person of the apostle from the determined fury of the Jews, he immediately gave orders for seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to escort the prisoner to Cæsarea, where the procurator resided; writing a letter, in which he informed the president of the vindictive rage of the Jews against the prisoner, whom he had snatched from their violence, and whom he afterwards discovered to be a Roman citizen. In consequence of this epistle Felix gave the apostle a kind and candid reception: when he read it, he turned to him, and said, When your accusers come hither before me, I will give your cause an impartial hearing. And accordingly when the high priest Ananias and the Sanhedrin went down to Cæsarea with one Tertullus an orator, whose eloquence they had hired to aggravate the apostle's crimes before the procurator; Felix, though a man of mercenary and profligate character,3 did not depart from the Roman honour in this regard; and would not violate the usual processes of judgment to gratify this body of men, though they were the most illustrious personages of the province he governed, by condemning the apostle unheard, and yielding him poor and friendless as he was, to their fury, merely upon their impeachment. He allowed the apostle to offer his vindication and exculpate himself from the charges they had alleged against him; and was so far satisfied with his apology as to give orders for him to be treated as a prisoner at large, and for all his friends to have free access to him; disappointing those who thirsted for his blood, and drawing down upon himself the relentless indignation of the Jews, who, undoubtedly, from such a disappointment, would be instigated to lay all his crimes and oppressions before the emperor.

"The same strict honour, in observing the usual forms and processes of the Roman tribunal, appears in Festus, the successor of Felix. Upon his entrance into his province, when the leading men among the Jews waited upon him to congratulate him upon his accession, and took that opportunity to inveigh with great bitterness and virulence against the apostle, soliciting it as a favour (Acts xxv. 3.) that he would send him to Jerusalem, designing, as it afterwards appeared, had he complied with their request, to have hired ruffians to murder him on the road, Festus told them, that it was his will that Paul should remain in custody at Cæsarea; but that any persons whom they fixed upon might go down along with him, and produce at his tribunal what they had to allege against the prisoner. This was worthy the Roman honour and spirit. How importunate and urgent the priests and principal magistrates of Jerusalem, when

1 Acts xxiii. 27. "I have since learned that he is a Roman citizen." 2 Acts xxiii. 35. Literally, "Hear it through; give the whole of it an attentive examination." Similar expressions occur in Polybius, lib. i. pp. 39. 170. 187. lib. iv. p. 328. edit. Hanov. 1619. See also Dion. Halicarn. lib. x. p. 304.

3 Felix per omnem sævitium ac libidinem, jus regium servili ingenio exercuit. Tacitus Hist. lib. v. p. 397. edit. Dublin. Felix cuncta maleficia impune ratus. Annal. xii. 54. He hoped also that money, &c. Acts xxiv. 26.

Festus was in this capital, were with him to pass sentence of death upon the apostle merely upon their impeachment, and upon the atrocious crimes with which they loaded him, appears from what the procurator himself told king Agrippa and Bernice upon a visit they paid him at Cæsarea, to congratulate him upon his new government. I have here, said he, a man whom my predecessor left in custody when he quitted this province. During a short visit I paid to Jerusalem, upon my arrival I was solicited by the priests and principal magistrates to pass sentence of death upon him. To these urgent entreaties I replied, that it was not customary for the Romans to gratify (xxv. 16.) any man with the death of another; that the laws. of Rome enacted that he who is accused should have his accuser face to face; and have license to answer for himself concerning the crimes laid against him.1

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II." It appears from numberless passages in the classics that a Roman citizen could not legally be scourged. This was deemed to the last degree dishonourable, the most daring indignity and insult upon the Roman name. 'A Roman citizen, judges!' exclaims Cicero in his oration against Verres, was publicly beaten with rods in the forum of Messina: during this public dishonour, no groan, no other expression of the unhappy wretch was heard amidst the cruelties he suffered, and the sound of the strokes that were inflicted, but this, I am a Roman citizen! By this declaration that he was a Roman citizen, he fondly imagined that he should put an end to the ignominy and cruel usage to which he was now subjected."3 The orator afterwards breaks forth into this pathetic prosopopœia: 'O transporting name of liberty! O the distinguished privilege of Roman freedom! O Porcian and Sempronian laws! Are things at last come to this wretched state, that a Roman citizen, in a Roman province, in the most public and open manner, should be beaten with rods !'4 The historian Appian, after relating how Marcellus, to express his scorn and contempt of Cæsar, seized a person of some distinction, to whom Cæsar had given his freedom, and beat him with rods, bidding him go and show Cæsar the marks of the scourges he had received, observes, that this was an indignity which is never inflicted upon a Roman citizen for any enormity whatever.5 Agreeably

1 "Senators," saith Piso, "the law ordains that he who is accused should hear his accusation, and after having offered his defence, to wait the sentence of the judges." Appian, Bell. Civil. lib. iii. p. 911. Tollii, Amst. 1670. "He said, that what he now attempted to do was the last tyranny and despotism, that the same person should be both accuser and judge, and should arbitrarily dictate the degree of punishment." Dion. Halicarn. lib. vii. p. 428. Hudson.

2 Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum, scelus verberari. In Verrem, lib. v. 170. 3 Cædebatur virgis in medio foro Messinæ civis Romanus, judices; cum interea nullus gemitus, nulla vox alia istius miseri, inter dolorem crepitumque plagarum audiebatur, nisi hæc, Civis Romanus sum. Hac se commemoratione civitatis omnia verbera depulsurum cruciatumque a corpore dejecturum arbitrabatur. Cicero in Verrem. lib. v. 162.

4 O nomen dulce libertatis! O jus eximium nostræ civitatis! O lex Porcia, legesque Sempronia! Huccine tandem omnia recederunt, ut civis Romanus in provincia populi Romani, delegatis in foro virgis cæderetur. Ibid. 163. 5 Appian Bell. Civil. lib. ü. p. 731. Tollii.

to this custom, which also obtained at Athens, in the Adelphi of Terence, one of the persons of the drama says to another, If you continue to be troublesome and impertinent, you shall be instantly seized and dragged within, and there you shall be torn and mangled with scourges within an inch of your life. What! a freeman scourged, replies Sannio. To this privilege of Roman citizens, whose freedom exempted them from this indignity and dishonour, there are several references in Scripture. St. Paul pleads this immunity. He said to the centurion, as they were fastening him to the pillar with thongs to inflict upon him this punishment, Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman ?2 So also at Philippi he told the messengers of the magistrates, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison, and now do they thrust us out privately; no, verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out. And the sergeants told these words to the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they were Romans, and were conscious they had used them with a contumely and dishonour which subjected them to the just displeasure of the Roman senate.

"Neither was it lawful for a Roman citizen to be bound,3 to ba examined by the question, or to be the subject of any ingenious and cruel arts of tormenting to extort a confession from him. These punishments were deemed servile; torture was not exercised but upon slaves ;4 freemen were privileged from this inhumanity and ignominy. It is a flagrant enormity, says Cicero, for a Roman citizen to be bound:5 not meaning by that, that it was unlawful for a Roman to be fettered and imprisoned; but it was in the highest degree unjustifiable and illegal for a freeman of Rome to be bound in order to be tortured for the discovery of his crimes. Dion Cassius, particularising the miseries of Claudius's government, observes, that Messalina and Narcissus, and the rest of his freemen, seized the occasion that now offered to perpetrate the last enormities. Among other excesses they employed slaves and freedmen to be informers against their masters. They put to the torture several persons of the first distinction, not merely foreigners, but citizens; not only of the common people, but some even of the Roman knights and senators: though Claudius, when he first entered upon his government, had bound himself under a solemn oath that he would never apply the torture to any Roman citizen. These two passages from Cicero and Dion illustrate what St. Luke relates

1 Nam si molestus pergis esse, jam intro abripiere, atque ibi

Usque ad necem operiere loris. S. loris liber! Adelphi, act ii. scena 1. ver. 28. 2. Acts xxii. 25. The consul Marcellus scourged with rods one of the magistrates of that place who came to Rome, declaring he inflicted this as a public token that he was no Roman citizen. Plutarch, in Cæsar. p. 1324. edit. Gr. Stephen. 3 Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum. Cicero in Verr. lib. v. 170.

4 Q. Gallium prætorem, servilem in modum torsit. Sueton. in vita Augusti, cap. 27. p. 192. variorum.

5 See the last note but one.

6 Dion Cassius, lib. 60. p. 953. Reimar.

concerning Lysias the tribune. This officer, not knowing the dignity of his prisoner, had, in violation of this privilege of Roman citizens, given orders for the apostle to be bound and examined with thongs. (Acts xxii. 24, 25.) When he was afterwards informed by his centurion that St. Paul was a freeman of Rome, the sacred historian observes, that upon receiving this intelligence, the chief captain was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. (xxii. 29.)

III. "We find that St. Paul, when he discovered that Festus his judge was disposed to gratify the Jews, appealed from a provincial court to the imperial tribunal; transferred his cause, by appeal, from the jurisdiction of the Roman procurator to the decision of the emperor. This appears to be another singular privilege which a freeman of Rome enjoyed. The sacred historian relates, that after Festus had stayed about ten days in the metropolis, he went down to Cæsarea, and the next day after his arrival he sum moned a court, ascended the bench, and ordered Paul to be brought before him. Here, as he stood at the bar, his prosecutors from Jerusalem with great virulence charged him with many heinous and atrocious crimes, none of which, upon strict examination, they were able to prove against him. For in his apology he publicly declared, in the most solemn terms, that they could not convict him of any one instance of a criminal behaviour, either to the law, the temple, or to the Roman emperor. Festus then, being (Acts xxv. 9.) desirous to ingratiate himself with the Jews, asked him if he was willing his cause should be tried at Jerusalem. To this proposal Paul replied, I am now before Cæsar's tribunal, where my cause ought to be impartially canvassed and decided. You yourself are conscious that I have been guilty of nothing criminal against my countrymen. If I have injured them, if I have perpetrated any capital crime, I submit without reluctance to capital punishment. But if all the charges they have now brought against me are proved to be absolutely false and groundless, no person can condemn me to death merely to gratify them. I appeal to the emperor. Festus, after deliberating with the Roman council, turned and said to him, Have you appealed to the emperor? You shall then go and be judged by the emperor. From the above-mentioned particulars, which are corroborated by several other similar instances in the Roman history, it appears that a Roman citizen could by appeal remove his cause out of the provinces to Rome. 'It was,' says Mr. Melmoth, one of the privileges of a Roman citizen, secured by the Sempronian law, that he could not be capitally convicted but by the suffrage of the people, which seems to have been still so far in force as to make it necessary to send the person here mentioned to Rome.' We are informed by Dionysius of Harlicarnassus that the ever-memorable Poplicola enacted this law, that if any Ro

1 Mr. Melmoth's note on the 97th letter in the 10th book of Pliny's Epistles, vol. ii, p. 672. 3d. edit.

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man governor showed a disposition to condemn any one to death, to Scourge him, or despoil him of his property, that any private person should have liberty to appeal from his jurisdiction to the judgment of the people, that in the mean time he should receive no personal harm from the magistracy till his cause was finally decided by the people. This law, which was instituted at the first establishment of the commonwealth, continued in force under the emperors, If a freeman of Rome, in any of the provinces, deemed himself and his cause to be treated by the president with dishonour and injustice, he could by appeal remove it to Rome to the determination of the emperor. Suetonius informs us that Augustus delegated a number of consular persons at Rome to receive the appeals of people in the provinces, and that he appointed one person to superintend the affairs of each province.2 A passage in Pliny's epistle confirms this right and privilege which Roman freemen enjoyed of appealing from provincial courts to Rome, and, in consequence of such an appeal, being removed, as St. Paul was, to the capital, to take their trial in the supreme court of judicature. In that celebrated epistle to Trajan, who desired to be informed concerning the principles and conduct of the Christians, he thus writes: The method I have observed towards those who have been brought before me as Christians is this-I interrogated them whether they were Christians; if they confessed, I repeated the question twice again, adding threats at the same time, when, if they still persevered, I ordered them to be immediately punished; for I was persuaded, whatever the nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved correction. There were others also brought be- " fore me, possessed of the same infatuation, but, being citizens of Rome, I directed them to be carried thither.23

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IV. "The Roman method of fettering and confining criminals was singular. One end of a chain, that was of commodious length, was fixed about the right arm of the prisoner, and the other end was fastened to the left of a soldier. Thus a soldier was coupled to the prisoner, and every where attended and guarded him. This manner of confinement is frequently mentioned, and there are many beautiful allusions to it in the Roman writers. Thus was St. Paul confined. Fettered5 in this manner, he delivered his apology before Festus, king Agrippa, and Bernice. And it was this circumstance that occasioned one of the most pathetic and affecting strokes of true oratory that ever was displayed either in the Grecian or Roman

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1 Dion. Halicarn. lib. v. p. 281. edit. Oxon. 1704. See also p. 334. ejusdem edit. 2 Appellationes quotannis urbanorum quidem litigatorum prætori delegavit; ac provincialum consularibus viris, quos singulos cujusque provinciæ negotiis reposuisset. Sueton. vit. August. cap. 33. p. 208. edit. var. Lug. Bat. 1662.

3 Plinii Epistolæ, lib. x. epist. 97. pp. 722, 723. edit. var. 1669.

4 Quemamodum eadem catena et custodiam et militem copulat, sic ista quæ tam dissimilia sunt, pariter incedunt. Senecæ Epist. 5. tom. ii. p. 13. Gronovii, 1672. So also Manilius.

Vinctorum dominus, sociusque in parte catene,

Interdum pœnis innoxia corpora servat. Lib. V. v. 628, 629.

5 In like manner the brave but unfortunate Eumenes addressed a very patheticspeech to his army, with his fetters on. Plutarch, Eumenes. Justin, lib. xiv. cap. 3.

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