taphrastes, and is not adopted even by Tillemont, H. E. i. 101.

Of all the actors in tragedy, Salome may seem to have been the least guilty, as she was a girl of fourteen years, and acted under the command of her profligate mother.

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Pontius Pilate, who condemned Christ to death, was not long afterwards deposed and banished, and died by his own hands. "Nor ought it to be passed "over in silence, that Pilate himself, who condemned our Saviour to death, fell into so great calamities, "in the reign of Caius, that he became his own exe“cutioner, the divine vengeance overtaking him* "not long after his crime. This we learn from the "Greek historians." Eusebius ii. 7, and Orosius vii. 5.

The High-Priest Caiaphas was deposed by Vitellius three years after the death of Christ, which gave no offence to the Jews, who loved him not. Thus this wicked man, who condemned Christ for fear of disobliging the Romans, was ignominiously turned out of his office by the Roman governor. Josephus Ant. xviii. 4.

To these we may add Flaccus, the governor of Egypt, who persecuted, though not the Christians, yet the Jews in a most cruel manner, A. D. 38. "The "wrath of God overtook Flaccus. Bassus a centu"rion, giving the signal to his soldiers, came upon ❝ him and forced him away from his own table. His "effects were seized, and he would have been sent to Gyarus,

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was Symeon, and they surnamed him Metaphrastes; but they ought to have called him Symeon Pseustes, or Symeon the Liar.

*x eis pangar, non longo post tempore; which is wanting in the version of Valesius.

Gyarus, the most barren of all the islands in the Egean sea, if Lepidus had not intreated for him "that he might be banished to Andros. They say "that one night lifting up his eyes to heaven, he "cried out, O King of gods and men, thou art then "a favourer of the Jews, and they do not falsely "boast of being under thy protection! When Caius "had ordered all the exiles of rank and reputation to “be destroyed, and had particularly named Flaccus, "assassins were sent to dispatch him. When they "landed at Andros, Flaccus guessed for what purpose they were come, and getting into an unfrequented path, he fled to conceal himself: but they "overtook him, and immediately some of them digg"ed a pit in the ground, others dragged him into it, "as he was struggling and screaming, and stabbed "him the more cruelly for his making resistance." Philo. See S. Basnage Ann. i. 493.

Catullus, governor of Libya, was also a cruel persecutor of the Jews, and died miserably, about A. D. 73.

"Such was the lenity of the emperors towards Ca

tullus, that their disapprobation was all the punish"ment which he then underwent ; but not long after"wards he fell into a complicated and incurable dis

ease, and died wretchedly; sorely tormented in "his body, and worse in his mind. He was dreadfully terrified, and continually crying out "that he was haunted by the ghosts of those whom " he had slain and not being able to contain him

:

self, he leaped out of the bed, as if he were tor"tured with fire, and put to the rack. His distemper increased, till his entrails were all corrupted, and

came out of his body, and thus he perished, as

"signal

probably perished in the destruction of Jerusalem. See Tillemont H. E. i.

1. p. 377. &c.

Nero turned his rage upon the Christians, A. D. 64. Four years after, in his great distress, he attempted to kill himself, but being as mean-spirited and dastardly as he was wicked and cruel, he had not resolution to do that piece of justice to the world, and was forced to beg help.

Soon after came on the destruction of Jerusalem, and the punishment of that nation, and of their rulers, for rejecting the Messias.

Domitian persecuted the Christians A. D. 95. and was killed the next year.

Trajan, Titus Antoninus, and Marcus Aurelius, did indeed suffer the Christians to be ill used not through cruelty and tyranny, but by mistake and misrepresentations. These emperors had many great and good qualities, and nothing disastrous befel them.

Eusebius hath justly and judiciously represented the state of the Christians in those days: "Trajan gave a rescript, in which it was decreed that Chris

tians should not be sought out, but that if they "were convicted, they should be punished: by "which though the violence of the storm seemed to “be in some measure abated, yet ill-disposed persons "still found opportunities to exert their malice,

whilst sometimes the populace, and sometimes the governors, were contriving ways to oppress us. "Thus the persecution, though it was not general, "was still kept up in different places, and many of "the faithful were exposed to various

trials and af

flictions

Aictions, and obtained the honour of martyrdom." iii. 33.

Severus, who was violent and cruel, oppressed the Christians, A. D. 202. His latter end was calamitous, he was weary of his life, he left behind him a profligate eldest son, whose temper he knew, and whom he ought to have put to death, but had not the heart to do it, for the wicked wretch attempted to kill his father, and afterwards slew his brother. the family of Severus perished miserably.

All

Saturninus, Proconsul of Afric, in the reign of Severus, persecuted the Christians, and put several of them to death. He lost his eye-sight some time after, as Tertullian says, Ad Scapulam.

Heliogabalus brought a new deity to Rome, and intended to compel all his subjects to adore this god, and no other, or at least, to give him the preference to all other deities, and to make them no better than his Gentlemen Ushers, and Valets de chambre; which must inevitably have brought on a persecution of the Christians; but this vile monster was slain soon after by his soldiers, A. D. 222. Heliogabalum consecravit -id agens ne quis Roma Deus nisi Heliogabalus coleretur. Dicebat præterea, Judæorum et Samaritanorum religionem, et Christianam devotionem illuc transferendam.-Lampridius.

Decius persecuted A. D. 250. He reigned not` three years, and died in battle. Pagan writers speak well of him. He seems to have distressed the Christians partly out of spite to the memory of his predecessor Philip, who had treated them kindly, and who is thought by several to have been himself a Christian, though

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K

though surely a worthless one, and no credit to us. It is more probable that Philip was a Pagan.

Gallus persecuted A. D. 251. and was killed the

next year.

Valerian, who had many good qualities, yet was not only an enemy, but a very cruel enemy to the Christians. He was taken prisoner by Sapor the Persian king, and used like a slave and a dog, and as no Roman emperor was ever treated, and died a poor miserable captive.

Emilian, governor of Egypt, and a violent persecu tor of the Christians, set up for emperor, and was taken prisoner, and sent to Gallienus, who ordered him to be strangled, A. D. 263. Gallieno jubente dedit pœnas : siquidem strangulatus in carcere captivorum veterum more perhibetur. Treb. Pollio.

Aurelian, just intending to begin a persecution, was killed A. D. 974.

Maximinus, the first, a persecutor, reigned three years, and was killed.

Dioclesian, by adopting associates, and sharing the empire and the troops with them, took the most probable method to secure the lives of the emperors from the arbitrary insolence of the army, which with little ceremony used to kill one and set up another.

in

"To prevent the continual treasons of the soldiery, "the emperors associated to themselves persons "whom they had confidence, and Dioclesian, preten"ding that the weight of affairs required it, ordered "that there should always be two emperors, and two

Cæsars. He judged that the four principal armies, being

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