The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire

In the first two centuries of our era a great change came over the ancient world. A despised and traditional religion, under the stimulus of new cults coming from the East, revi...

"I am entering," writes Tacitus,[1] "upon the history of a period, rich in disasters, gloomy with wars, rent with seditions, nay, savage in its very hours of peace. Four Emperor...

In his most famous chapter Gibbon speaks at one point of the affirmation of the early church that those who persisted in the worship of the dæmons "neither deserved nor could ex...

Though Celsus had much to say upon the vulgar and servile character of the members of the Christian community, he took the trouble to write a book to refute Christianity; and th...

Stoicism as a system did not capture the ancient world, and even upon individuals it did not retain an undivided hold. To pronounce with its admirers to-day that it failed becau...

On the Ides of March in the year 44 B.C. Julius Cæsar lay dead at the foot of Pompey's statue. His body had twenty three wounds. So far the conspirators had done their work thor...

When we hear any other speaker, even a very good one, he produces absolutely no effect upon us, or not much, whereas the mere fragments of you and your words, even at second-han...

It is a much discussed question as to how far Jesus realized the profound gulf between his own religious position and that of his contemporaries. Probably, since tradition meant...

Two things stand out, when we study the character of the early church--its great complexity and variety, and its unity in the personality of Jesus of Nazareth. In spite of the g...

At the beginning of the last chapter reference was made to the spread of Christianity in the second century, and then a brief survey was given of the position of the old religio...

[10] e.g. he alludes to a manual on flowers and garlands by Claudius Saturninus, and another on a similar subject, perhaps, by Leo Ægyptius; _de cor. mil._ 7, 12. Apart from the...

[56] _Adv. Coloten_ (foe Epicurean), 31, 1125 D, E. For this argument from consensus, see Seneca, _Ep._ 117, 6, _Multum dare solemus præsumptioni omnium hominum et apud nos veri...

[7] _Pæd._ ii, 61-73; Tertullian, _de corona militis_, 5, flowers on the head are against nature, etc.; _ib._ 10, on the paganism of the practice; _ib._ 13 (end), a list of the...

[55] _D._ iii, 26. Compare and contrast Tertullian, _de Idol_, 12, _fides famem nan timet. Scit enim famem non minus sibi contemnendam propter Deum quam omne mortis genus_. The...

[4] Apud Origen, _c. Cels._ viii, 2. References in what follows will be made to the book and chapter of this work without repetition of Origen's name. The text used is that of K...

[2] See Justin, _Apology_, i, 14, a vivid passage on the change of character that has been wrought in men by the Gospel. Cf. Tert. _ad Scap._ 2, _nec aliunde noscibiles quam de...

[14] E.g. _Apol._ 25, with a serious criticism of the contrast between Roman character before and after the conquest of the world,--before and after the invasion of Rome by the...

[1] On the other hand see a very interesting passage in Tertullian, _de Anima_, 30, on the progress of the world in civilization, and population outstripping Nature, while plagu...

[3] _Assumption of Moses_, x, 8-10, tr. R. H. Charles. "Gehenna" is a restoration which seems probable, the Latin _in terram_ representing what was left of the word in Greek. Se...

[7] On "playfulness" in the words of Jesus, see Burkitt, the _Gospel History_, p. 142. See also _Life of Abp Temple_, ii. 681 (letter to his son 18 Dec. 1896), on the "beam in t...