 Section 9 of The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 3. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 3. Edited by Charles F. Horn, Rossiter Johnson, and John Roode. The Rise and Spread of Christianity, A.D. 33, by John Henry Newman, Part I. The prima facie view of early Christianity, in the eyes of witnesses external to it, is presented to us in the brief but vivid descriptions given by Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny, the only heathen writers who distinctly mention it for the first hundred and fifty years. Tacitus is led to speak of the religion on occasion of the conflagration of Rome, which was popularly imputed to Nero. To put an end to the report, he says, he laid the guilt on others and visited them with the most exquisite punishment. Those, namely, who held in abhorrence for their crimes, perflagitia invisos, were popularly called Christians. The author of that profession, Nomenis, was Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius was capitally punished by the procurator Pontius Pilate. The deadly superstition, Exitibialis superstitio, though checked for a while, broke out afresh, and that not only threw out Judea, the original seat of the evil, but through the city also, whether all things atrocious or shocking, atrocia ot pudenda flow together from every quarter and thrive. At first certain were seized who avowed it, then on their report a vast multitude were convicted not so much of firing the city as of hatred of mankind, odio umani generis. After describing their tortures he continues, In consequence, though they were guilty, and deserved most signal punishment, they began to be pitied, as if destroyed not for any public object, but from the barbarity of one man. Suetonius relates the same transactions thus. Capital punishments were inflicted on the Christians, a class of men of a new and magical superstition, superstitionis nove et maleficie. What gives additional character to this statement is its context, for it occurs as one out of various police or sanctuary or domestic regulations, which Nero made, such as controlling private expenses, forbidding taverns to serve meat, repressing the contests of theatrical parties, and securing the integrity of wills. When Pliny was governor of Pontus, he wrote his celebrated letter to the emperor Trajan to ask advice how he was to deal with the Christians, whom he found there in great numbers. One of his points of hesitation was whether the very profession of Christianity was not by itself sufficient to justify punishment. Whether the name itself should be visited, though clear of flegitious acts, flegitia, or only when connected with them, he says he had ordered for executions such as persevered in their profession after repeated warnings, quote, as not doubting whatever it was they professed that at any rate, contumacy and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished, end quote. He required them to invoke the gods, to sacrifice wine and frankincense to the images of the emperor, and to blaspheme Christ. To which, he adds, it is said no real Christian can be compelled. Renegades informed him that, quote, the sum total of their offence or fault was meeting before light on an appointed day and saying with one another a form of words, carmen, to Christ, as if to a god, and binding themselves by oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but against the commission of theft, adultery, adultery, breach of trust, denial of deposits, that after this they were accustomed to separate and then to meet again for a meal, but eaten altogether and harmless. However, that they had even left this off after his edicts enforcing the imperial prohibition of heteria or associations, end quote. He proceeded to put two women to the torture, but discovered nothing beyond a bad and excessive superstition, end quote, superstitionem pravam et imodikam, the contagion of which he continues, had spread through villages and country till the temples were emptied of worshipers. In these testimonies, which will form a natural and convenient text for what is to follow, we have various characteristics brought before us to the religion to which they relate. It was a superstition, as all three writers agree, a bad and excessive superstition, according to Pliny, a magical superstition, according to Suetonius, a deadly superstition, according to Tacitus. Next, it was embodied in a society, and moreover, a secret and unlawful society, heteria, and it was a proselytizing society, and its very name was connected with flegitious, atrocious, and shocking acts. Now, these few points, which are not all which might be set down, contain in themselves a distinct and significant description of Christianity, but they have far greater meaning when illustrated by the history of the times, the testimony of later writers, and the acts of the Roman government toward its professors. It is impossible to mistake the judgment passed on the religion by these three writers, and still more clearly by other writers and imperial functionaries. They evidently associated Christianity with the Oriental superstitions, whether propagated by individuals or embodied in a right, which were in that day traversing the empire and which, in the event, acted so remarkable a part in breaking up the national forms of worship and so in preparing the way for Christianity. This, then, is the broad view which the educated heathen took of Christianity, and if it had been very unlike those rights and curious arts in external appearance, they would not have confused it with them. Changes in society are by a providential appointment, commonly preceded and facilitated by the setting in of a certain current in men's thoughts and feelings in that direction toward which a change is to be made. And as lighter substances whorl about before the tempest and presage it, so words and deeds, ominous, but not effective of the coming revolution, are circulated beforehand through the multitude or pass across the field of events. This was especially the case with Christianity as became its high dignity. It came heralded and attended by a crowd of shadows, shadows of itself, impotent and monstrous as shadows are, but not, at first sight, distinguishable from it by common spectators. Before the mission of the apostles, a movement of which there had been earlier parallels had begun in Egypt, Syria, and the neighboring countries, tending to the propagation of new and peculiar forms of worship throughout the empire. Prophecies were afloat that some new order of things was coming in from the east, which increased the existing unsettlement of the popular mind. Pretenders made attempts to satisfy its wants, and old traditions of the truth, embodied for ages in local or in national religions, gave to these attempts a doctrinal and ritual shape, which became an additional point of resemblance to that truth which was soon visibly to appear. The distinctive character of the rites in question lay in their appealing to the gloomy, rather than to the cheerful and hopeful feelings, and in their influencing the mind through fear. The notions of guilt and expiation, of evil and good to come, and of dealings with the invisible world were in some shape or other preeminent in them, and formed a striking contrast to the classical polytheism which was gay and graceful, as was natural in a civilized age. The new rites, on the other hand, were secret. Their doctrine was mysterious. Their profession was a discipline, beginning in a formal initiation, manifested in an association, and exercised in privation and pain. They were from the nature of the case proselytizing societies, for they were rising into power. Nor were they local, but vagrant, restless, intrusive, and encroaching. Their pretensions to supernatural knowledge brought them into easy connection with magic and astrology, which are as attractive to the wealthy and luxurious as the more vulgar superstitions to the populace. The Christian, being at first accounted a kind of Jew, was even on that score included in whatever odium and whatever bad associations attended on the Jewish name. But in a little time his independence of the rejected people was clearly understood, as even the persecutions show, and he stood upon his own ground. Still his character did not change in the eyes of the world, for favor or for reproach, he was still associated with the votaries of secret and magical rites. The emperor Hadrian, noted as he is for his inquisitive temper and a partaker in so many mysteries, still believed that the Christians of Egypt allowed themselves in the worship of therapies. They are brought into connection with the magic of Egypt in the history of what is commonly called the thundering legion. So far as this, that the reign which relieved the emperor's army in the field and which the church ascribed to the prayers of the Christian soldiers is by D. Ocasius attributed to an Egyptian magician who obtained it by invoking mercury and other spirits. This war had been the occasion of one of the first recognitions which the state had conceded to the Oriental rites, though statesmen and emperors as private men had long taken part in them. The emperor Marcus had been urged by his fears of the Marcomani to resort to these foreign introductions and is said to have employed magi and chaldeans in averting an unsuccessful issue of the war. It is observable that in the growing countenance which was extended to these rites in the third century Christianity came in for a share. The chapel of Alexander Severus contained statues of Abraham, Orpheus, Apollonius, Pythagoras, and our Lord. Here indeed, as in the case of Zenobios Judaism, an eclectic philosophy aided the comprehension of religions. But immediately before Alexander, Helio Gabales, who was no philosopher while he formally seated his Syrian idol in the Palatine while he observed the mysteries of Seibel and Adonis and celebrated his magic rites with human victims intended also, according to Lampridius, to unite with his horrible superstition the Jewish and Samaritan religions and the Christian rite that so the priesthood of Helio Gabales might comprise the mystery of every worship. Hence, more or less, the stories which occur in ecclesiastical history are the conversion or goodwill of the emperors to the Christian faith of Hadrian, Mimea, and others besides Helio Gabales and Alexander. Such stories might often mean little more than that they favored it among other forms of oriental superstition. What has been said is sufficient to bring before the mind an historical fact which indeed does not need evidence. Upon the established religions of Europe the East had renewed her encroachments and was pouring forth a family of rites which in various ways attracted the attention of the luxurious, the political, the ignorant, the restless, and the remorseful. Armenian, Chaldee, Egyptian, Jew, Syrian, Phrygian as the case might be was the designation of the new hierophant and magic, superstition, barbarism, jugglery were the names given to his right by the world. In this company appeared Christianity. When, then, three well-informed writers call Christianity a superstition and a magical superstition they were not using words at random or the language of abuse but they were describing it in distinct terms as cognate to those gloomy, secret, odious, disreputable religions which were making so much disturbance up and down the empire. The Gnostic family suitably traces its origin to a mixed race which had commenced its national history by associating orientalism with a revelation. After the captivity of the ten tribes Samaria was colonized by men from Babylon and Kushan and from Eva and from Hamath and from Sefarvayim who were instructed at their own instance in the manner of the god of the land by one of the priests of the church of Jeroboam. The consequence was that they feared the Lord and served their own gods. Of this country was Simon the reputed patriarch of the Gnostics and he is introduced in the acts of the apostles as professing those magical powers which were so principal a characteristic of the oriental mysteries. His heresy, though broken into a multitude of sects was poured over the world with a catholicity not inferior in its day to that of Christianity. Saint Peter, who fell in with him originally in Samaria seems to have encountered him again at Rome. At Rome, Saint Polycarp met Marcian of Pontus whose followers spread through Italy, Egypt, Syria, Arabia and Persia. When the reader of Christian history comes to the second century, says Dr. Burton he finds that Gnosticism, under some form or other was professed in every part of the then civilized world. He finds it divided into schools as numerously and as zealously attended as any which Greece or Asia could boast in their happiest days. He meets with names totally unknown to him before which excited as much sensation as those of Aristotle or Plato. He hears of volumes having been written in support of this new philosophy not one of which has survived to our own day. Many of the founders of these sects had been Christians others were of Jewish parentage others were more or less connected in fact with the pagan rites to which their own bore so greater resemblance. Whatever might be the history of these sects and though it may be a question whether they can be properly called superstitions and though many of them numbered educated men among their teachers and followers they closely resembled at least in ritual and profession the vagrant pagan mysteries which have been above described. Their very name of Gnostic implied the possession of a secret which was to be communicated to their disciples. Ceremonial observances were the preparation and symbolical rights the instrument of initiation. Tatian and Montanus the representatives of very distinct schools agreed to making asceticism a rule of life. Such were the Gnostics and to external and prejudiced spectators whether philosophers as Celsus and Porphyry or the multitude they wore an appearance sufficiently like the church to be mistaken for her in the latter part of the anti-Nicene period as she was confused with the pagan mysteries in the earlier. Let us proceed in our contemplation of this reflection as it may be called of primitive Christianity in the mirror of the world. All three writers, Tacitus, Suetonius and Pliny call it a superstition. This is no accidental imputation but is repeated by a variety of subsequent writers and speakers. The charge of Thaestian banquets scarcely lasts a hundred years but while pagan witnesses are to be found the church is accused of superstition. Now what is meant by the word thus attached by a consensus of heathen authorities to Christianity? At least it cannot mean a religion in which a man might think what he pleased and was set free from all yokes ignorance, fear, authority or priestcraft. When heathen writers call the Oriental rights superstitions they evidently use the word in its modern sense. It cannot surely be doubted that they apply it in the same sense to Christianity but Plutarch explains for us the word at length in his treatise which bears the name of all kinds of fear he says superstition is the most fatal to action and resource. He does not fear the sea who does not sail nor war who does not serve nor robbers who keeps at home nor the sycophant who is poor nor the envious if he is a private man nor an earthquake if he lives in Gaul nor thunder if he lives in Ethiopia but he who fears the gods fears everything earth seas air sky darkness light noises silence sleep slaves sleep and forget their masters of the fettered doth sleep lighten the chain inflamed wounds ulcers cruel and agonizing are not felt by the sleeping superstition alone has come to no terms with sleep but in the very sleep of her victims as though they were in the realms of the impious she raises horrible specters and monstrous phantoms and various pains and whirls the miserable soul about and persecutes it they rise and instead of making light of what is unreal they fall into the hands of quacks and conjurers who say call the crone to expiate bathe in the sea and sit all day on the ground here we have a vivid picture of Plutarch's idea of the essence of superstition it was the imagination of the existence of an unseen ever present master the bondage of a rule of life of a continual responsibility obligation to attend to little things the impossibility of escaping from duty the inability to choose or change one's religion an interference with the enjoyment of life a melancholy view of the world sense of sin, horror at guilt apprehension of punishment dread, self-abasement depression, anxiety and endeavor to be at peace with heaven and error and absurdity in the methods chosen for the purpose such too had been the idea of the Epicurean Vileus when he shrunk with horror from the Semp Eternus Dominus and Curiosus Deus of the Stoics such surely was the meaning of Tacitus, Suetonius and Pliny and hence of course the frequent reproach cast on Christians as credulous, weak-minded and poor-spirited the heathen objectors in Minucius speak of their old woman's tales Celsus accuses them of assenting at random and without reason saying do not inquire but believe they lay it down he says elsewhere let no educated man approach no man of wisdom no man of sense but if a man be unlearned weak in intellect let him come with confidence confessing that these are worthy of their God they evidently desire as they are able to convert none but fools and vulgar and stupid and slavish women and boys they take in the simple and lead him where they will they address themselves to youths, house servants and the weak in intellect they hurry away from the educated as not fit subjects of their imposition and invagle the rustic thou says the heathen magistrate to the martyr Fructuosis who as a teacher dost disseminate a new fable that fickle girls may desert the groves and abandon Jupiter condemn if thou art wise the anal creed hence the epithets of itinerant mount a bank, conjurer, cheat sophist and sorcerer heaped upon the teachers of Christianity sometimes to account for the report or apparent truth of their miracles sometimes to explain their success our lord was said to have learned his miraculous power in Egypt wizard, mediciner, cheat rogue, conjurer were the epithets applied to him by the opponents of Eusebius they worship that crucified sophist says Lucian Paul, who surpasses all the conjurers and imposters who ever lived is Julien's account of the apostle you have sent through the whole world says St. Justin to trifo to preach that a certain atheistic and lawless sect has sprung from one Jesus a Galilean cheat we know, says Lucian speaking of Chaldeans and magicians the Syrian from Palestine who is the sophist in these matters how many lunatics with eyes distorted and mouth in foam he raises and sends away restored ridding them from the evil at a great price if any conjurer came to them a man of skill and knowing how to manage matters says the same writer he made money in no time with a broad grin at the simple fellows the officer who had custody of St. Perpetua feared her escape from prison by magical incantations when St. Tiberius had walked barefoot on hot coals his judge cried out that Christ had taught him magic St. Anastasia was thrown into prison as a mediciner the populace called out against St. Agnes away with the witch Tole Magam, Tole Maleficam when St. Bonasus and St. Maximilian bore the burning pitch without shrinking Jews and Gentiles cried out Istimeji et Malefici what new delusion says the heathen magistrate concerning St. Romanus has brought in these sophists to deny the worship of the gods how doth this chief sorcerer mock us skilled by his thesalian charm Carmine to laugh at punishment it explains the phenomenon which has created so much surprise to certain moderns that a grave well-informed historian like Tacitus should apply to Christians what sounds like abuse yet what is the difficulty supposing that Christians were considered Mathematosai and Magi and these were the secret intrigues against established government the allies of desperate politicians the enemies of the established religion the disseminators of lying rumors the perpetrators of poisonings and other crimes read this says Paley after quoting some of the most beautiful and subduing passages of St. Paul read this and then think of Exitiabilis superstitio and he goes on to express a wish in contending with heathen authorities to produce our books against theirs as if it were a matter of books public men care very little for books the finest sentiments the most luminous philosophy the deepest theology inspiration itself moves them but little they look at facts and care only for facts the question was what was the worth what the tendency of the Christian body in the state what Christians said what they thought was little to the purpose they might exhort to peaceableness and passive obedience as strongly as words could speak but what did they do what was their political position this is what statesmen thought of then as they do now what had men of the world to do with abstract proofs or first principles a statesman measures parties and sects and writers by their bearing upon him and he has a practiced eye in this sort of judgment and is not likely to be mistaken what is truth said jesting pilot apologies however eloquent or true availed nothing with the Roman magistrate against the sure instinct which taught him to dread Christianity it was a dangerous enemy to any power not built upon itself he felt it and the event justified his apprehension we must not forget the well-known character of the Roman state in its dealings with its subjects it had had from the first an extreme jealousy of secret societies it was prepared to grant a large toleration and a broad comprehension but as is the case with modern governments it wished to have jurisdiction and the ultimate authority in every movement of the body politic and social and its civil institutions were based or essentially depended on its religion accordingly every innovation upon the established paganism except it was allowed by the law was rigidly repressed hence the professors of low superstitions of mysteries of magic of astrology were the outlaws of society and were in a condition analogous if the comparison may be allowed to smugglers or poachers among ourselves or perhaps to burglars and highwaymen for the Romans had ever burnt the sorcerer and banished his consultors for life it was an ancient custom and at mysteries they looked with a special suspicion because since the established religion did not include them in its provisions they really did supply what may be called a demand of the age we know what opposition had been made in Rome even to the philosophy of Greece much greater would be the aversion of constitutional statesmen and lawyers to the ritual of barbarians religion was the Roman point of honor Spaniards might rival them in numbers, says Cicero Gauls in bodily strength Carthaginians in address Greeks in the arts Italians and Latins in native talent but the Romans surpassed all nations in piety and devotion it was one of their laws let no one have gods by himself nor worship in private new gods nor adventitious unless added on public authority Masonists in Dio advises Augustus to honor the gods according to the national custom because the contempt of the country's deities leads to civil insubordination reception of foreign laws conspiracies and secret meetings suffer no one he adds to deny the gods or to practice sorcery the civilian Julius Paulus lays it down as one of the leading principles of Roman law that those who introduced new or untried religions should be degraded and if in the lower orders put to death in like manner it is enacted in one of Constantine's laws that the Haruspices should not exercise their art in private and there is a law of Valentinians against nocturnal sacrifices or magic it is more immediately to our purpose that Trajan had been so earnest in his resistance to Heteriae or sacred societies that when a fire had laid waste Nicomedia and Pliny proposed to him to tolerate a body of 150 firemen in consequence he was afraid of the precedent and forbade it what has been said will suggest another point of view in which the Oriental rights were obnoxious to the government namely as being vagrant and proselytizing religions if it tolerated foreign superstitions this would be on the ground that districts or countries within its jurisdiction held them to proselytize to a right hitherto unknown to form a new party and to propagate it through the empire a religion not local but Catholic was an offense against both order and reason the state desired peace everywhere and no change considering according to Lactancias that they were rightly and deservedly punished who executed the public religion handed down to them by their ancestors it is impossible surely to deny that in assembling for religious purposes the Christians were breaking a solemn law a vital principle of the Roman constitution and this is the light in which their conduct was regarded by the historians and philosophers of the empire this was a very strong act on the part of the disciples of the great apostle of disobedience to the powers that be time after time they resisted the authority of the magistrate and this is a phenomenon inexplicable on the theory of private judgment or of the voluntary principle the justification of such disobedience lies simply in the necessity of obeying the higher authority of some divine law but if Christianity were in its essence a private and personal as so many now think there was no necessity of their meeting together at all if on the other hand in assembling for worship and holy communion they were fulfilling an indispensable observance Christianity has imposed a social law on the world and formally enters the field of politics Gibbon says that in consequence of Pliny's edict the significance of the Christians suspended their agape but it was impossible for them to omit the exercise of public worship we can draw no other conclusion and of section 9 recording by Linda Johnson section 10 of the great events by famous historians volume 3 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the great events by famous historians volume 3 edited by Charles F. Horn Rossiter Johnson and John Rood the rise and spread of Christianity AD 33 by John Henry Newman part 2 at the end of 300 years a more remarkable violation of law seems to have been admitted by the Christian body it shall be given in the words of Dr. Burton he has been speaking of Maximon's edict which provided for the restitution of any of their lands or buildings which had been alienated from them it is plain, he says from the terms of this edict that the Christians had for some time been in possession of property it speaks of houses and lands which did not belong to individuals but to the whole body their possession of such property could hardly have escaped the notice of the government but it seems to have been held in direct violation of a law of Diocletian which prohibited corporate bodies or associations which were not legally recognized from acquiring property the Christians were certainly not a body recognized by law at the beginning of the reign of Diocletian and it might almost be thought that this enactment was specially directed against them but like other laws which are founded upon tyranny and are at variance with the first principles of justice it is probable that this law about corporate property was evaded we must suppose that the Christians had purchased lands and houses before the law was passed and their disregard of the prohibition may be taken as another proof that their religion had now taken so firm a footing that the executors of the laws were obliged to connive at their being broken by so numerous a body no wonder that the magistrate who presided at the martyrdom of Saint Romanus calls them in Prudentius a rebel people that Galerius speaks of them as a nefarious conspiracy the heathen in minutious as men of a desperate faction that others make them guilty of sacrilege and treason and call them by those other titles which more closely resembling the language of Tacitus have been noticed above hence the violent accusations against them as the destructors of the empire the authors of physical evils and the cause of the anger of the gods men cry out that the state is beset that the Christians are in their fields in their forts in their islands they mourn as for a loss that every sex condition and now even rank is going over to this sect and yet they do not by this very means advance their minds to the idea of some good therein hidden they allow not themselves to conjecture more rightly they choose not to examine more closely the generality run upon a hatred of this name with eyes so closed that in bearing favorable testimony to anyone they mingle with it the reproach of the name a good man, Caius Seius only he is a Christian so another I marvel that that wise man Lucius Titius had suddenly become a Christian no one reflecteth Caius be not therefore good and Lucius wise because a Christian or therefore a Christian because wise and good they praise that which they know they revile that which they know not virtue is not in such account as hatred of the Christians now then if the hatred be of the name what guilt is there in names what charge against words unless it be that any word which is a name have either a barbarous or ill omen or a scurrilous or an immodest sound if the Tyber cometh up to the walls if the Nile cometh not up to the fields if the heaven hath stood still if the earth hath been moved if there be any famine if any pestilence the Christians to the lions is forthwith the word man of a desperate lawless reckless faction says the heathen Cicilius in the passage above referred to who collect together out of the lowest rabble the thoughtless portion and credulous women seduced by the weakness of their sex and form a mob of impure conspirators of whom nocturnal assemblies and solemn fastings food no sacred right but pollution is the bond a tribe lurking and light hating dumb for the public talkative in corners they despise our temples as if graves spit at our gods deride our religious forms pityable themselves they pity forsooth our priests half naked themselves they despise our honors and purple monstrous folly and incredible impudence day after day their abandoned morals wind their serpentine course over the whole world are those most hideous rights of an empires association growing into shape they recognize each other by marks and signs and love each other almost before they recognize promiscuous lust is their religion does their vain and mad superstition glory in crimes the writer who tells the story of a criminal capital punished and of the gibbet of the cross being their observance ceremonias assigns to them thereby an altar in keeping with the abandoned and wicked that they may worship what they merit why their mighty effort hide and shroud whatever it is they worship since things honest ever like the open day and crimes are secret why have they no altars no temples no images known to us never speak abroad never assemble freely were it not that what they worship and suppress is subject either of punishment or of shame what monstrous portentous notions do they fabricate that that god of theirs whom they can neither show nor see should be inquiring diligently into the characters the acts nay the words and secret thoughts of all men running to and fro for sooth and present everywhere troublesome restless nay impudently curious they would have him that is if he is close at every deed interferes in all places while he can neither attend to each as being distracted through the whole nor suffice for the whole as being engaged about each think too of their threatening fire meditating destruction to the whole earth nay the world itself with its stars nor content with this mad opinion they add and append their old wives tales about a new birth after death ashes and cinders and by some strange confidence believe each others lies poor creatures consider what hangs over you after death while you are still alive low the greater part of you the better as you say are in want cold, toil, hunger and your god suffers it but I omit common trials low that's are offered to you punishments, torments crosses to be undergone now not worshipped adorande fires too which ye predict and fear where is that god who can recover but cannot preserve your life the answer of Socrates when he was asked about heavenly matters is well known what is above us does not concern us my opinion also is that points which are doubtful as are the points in question must be left nor when so many and such great men are in controversy on the subject must judgment be rashly and audaciously given on either side lest the consequence be either anal superstition or the overthrow of all religion such was christianity in the eyes of those who witnessed its rise and propagation one of a number of wild and barbarous rites which were pouring in upon the empire from the ancient realms of superstition and the mother of a progeny of sects which were faithful to the original they had derived from Egypt or Syria a religion unworthy of an educated person as appealing not to the intellect but to the fears and weaknesses of human nature and consisting not in the rational and cheerful enjoyment of the gross rejection of the gifts of providence a horrible religion as inflicting or enjoining cruel sufferings and monstrous and loathsome in its very indulgence of the passions a religion leading by reaction to infidelity a religion of magic and of the vulgar arts real and pretended with which magic was accompanied a secret religion an itinerant busy proselytizing religion forming an extended confederacy against the state resisting its authority and breaking its laws there may be some exceptions to this general impression such as Pliny's discovery of the innocent and virtuous rule of life adopted by the Christians of Pontus but this only proves that Christianity was not in fact the infamous religion even thought it it did not reverse their general belief to that effect now it must be granted that in some respects this view of Christianity depended on the times and would alter with their alteration when there was no persecution martyrs could not be obstinate and when the church was raised aloft in high places it was no longer in caves still I believe it continued substantially the same in the judgment of the world external to it while there was an external world to judge of it they thought it enough says Julian in the fourth century of our lord and his apostles to deceive women servants and slaves and by their means wives and husbands a human fabrication says he elsewhere put together by wickedness having nothing divine in it but making a perverted use of the fable loving childish irrational part of the soul and offering a set of wonders to create belief miserable men he says elsewhere you refuse to worship the ancile yet you worship the wood of the cross and sign it on your foreheads and fix it on your doors shall one for this hate the intelligent among you or pity the less understanding who in following you have gone to such an excess of perdition as to leave the everlasting gods and go over to a dead Jew he speaks of their adding other dead men to him who died so long ago you have filled all places with sepulchres and monuments though it is nowhere told you in your religion to haunt the tombs and to attend upon them elsewhere he speaks of their leaving the gods for corpses and relics on the other hand he attributes the growth of Christianity to its humanity toward strangers care in burying the dead and pretended religiousness of life in another place he speaks of their care of the poor Labanias Julian's preceptor in rhetoric delivers the same testimony as far as it goes he addressed his oration for the temples to a Christian emperor and would in consequence be guarded in his language however it runs in one direction he speaks of those black-habited men meaning the monks who eat more than elephants and by the number of their potations trouble those who send them drink in their chantings and conceal this by paleness artificially acquired they are in good condition out of the misfortunes of others while they pretend to serve God by hunger those whom they attack are like bees they like drones I do not quote this passage to prove that there were monks in Labanias's days which no one doubts but to show his impression of Christianity as far as his works betray it New Manchin in the same century describes inverse his voyage from Rome to Gaul one book of the poem is extant he falls in with Christianity on two of the islands which lie in his course he thus describes them as found on one of these the island is in a squalid state being full of light haters they call themselves monks because they wish to live alone without witness they dread the gifts from fearing the reverses of fortune he meets on the other island a Christian whom he had known of good family and fortune and happy in his marriage who, impelled by the Furies had left men and gods and credulous exile was living in base concealment is not this heard he continues then bodies were changed now minds in the Philopatris which is the work of an author of the fourth century Critias is introduced pale and wild his friend asks him if he has seen Cerberus or Hecate and he answers that he has heard a rigmarole from certain thrice-cursed sophists which he thinks would drive him mad if he heard it again sending him headlong over some cliff as it was he retires for relief with his inquirer to a pleasant place shadowed by planes where swallows and nightingales are singing and a quiet brook is purling Triophon, his friend, expresses a fear lest he has heard some incantation and is led by the course of the dialogue before his friend tells his tale to give some account of Christianity to himself a Christian after speaking of the creation as described by Moses he falls at once upon that doctrine of a particular providence which is so distasteful to Plutarch Velaeus in Cicero and Cicilius and generally to unbelievers he is in heaven he says looking at just and unjust and causing actions to be entered in books all on a day which he has appointed Cretius objects that he cannot make this consistent with the received doctrine about the fates even though he has perhaps been carried aloft with his master and initiated in unspeakable mysteries he also asks if the deeds of the Skyvians are written in heaven for if so there must be many scribes there such was the language of paganism after Christianity had for fifty years been exposed to the public gaze after it had been before the world for fifty more St. Augustine had still to defend it against the charge of being the cause of the calamities of the empire and for the charge of magic when the Aryan bishops were in formal disputations with the Catholic before Gungbald Burgundian king of France at the end of the fifth century still that they charged the Catholics with being prostitutories and worshiping a number of gods and when the Catholics proposed that the king should repair to the shrine of St. Justice where both parties might ask him concerning their respective faiths the Aryans cried out that they would not seek enchantments like Saul for scripture was enough for them which was more powerful than all bewitchments this was said not against strangers of whom they knew nothing as Ethelbert might be suspicious of St. Augustine and his brother missionaries but against a body of men who lived among them I do not think it can be doubted then that had Tacitus Suetonius and Pliny Celsus, Porphyry and the other opponents of Christianity lived in the fourth century their evidence concerning Christianity would be very much the same as it has come down to us from the centuries before it in either case a man of the world and a philosopher would have been disgusted at the gloom and sadness of its profession its mysteriousness its claim of miracles the want of good sense imputable to its rule of life and the unsettlement and discord it was introducing into the social and political world on the whole then I conclude as follows if there is a form of Christianity now in the world which is accused of gross superstition of borrowing its rights and customs from the heathen and of ascribing to forms and ceremonies an occult virtue a religion which is considered to burden and enslave the mind by its requisitions to address itself to the weak-minded and ignorant to be supported by self-istry and imposture and to contradict reason and exalt mere irrational faith a religion which impresses on the serious mind very distressing views of the guilt and consequences of sin sets upon the minute acts of the day one by one their definite value for praise or blame and thus casts a grave shadow over the future a religion which holds up to admiration the surrender of wealth and disables serious persons from enjoying it if they would a religion the doctrines of which be they good or bad are to the generality of men unknown which is considered to bear on its very surface signs of folly and falsehood so distinct that a glance suffices to judge of it that careful examination is preposterous which is felt to be so simply bad that it may be collumniated at hazard and at pleasure it being nothing but absurdity to stand upon the accurate distribution of its guilt among its particular acts or painfully to determine how far this or that story concerning it is literally true or what has to be allowed in candor or what is improbable or what cuts two ways is not proved or what may be plausibly defended a religion such that men look at a convert to it with a feeling which no other denomination raises except Judaism socialism or Mormonism namely with curiosity suspicion fear discussed as the case may be as if something strange had befallen him as if he had had an initiation into a mystery and had come union with dreadful influences as if he were now one of a confederacy which claimed him absorbed him, stripped him of his personality, reduced him to a mere organ or instrument of a whole a religion which men hate as proselytizing, antisocial revolutionary as dividing families separating chief friends corrupting the maxims of government making a mock at law dissolving the empire the enemy of human nature and a conspirator against its rights and privileges a religion which they consider the champion and instrument of darkness and a pollution calling down upon the land the anger of heaven a religion which they associate with intrigue and conspiracy which they speak about in whispers which they detect by anticipation in whatever goes wrong and to which they impute whatever is unaccountable a religion the very name of which they cast out as evil and use simply as a bad epithet and which from the impulse of self preservation they would persecute if they could if there be such a religion now in the world it is not unlike Christianity as that same world viewed it when first it came forth from its divine author End of section 10 Recording by Linda Johnson Nero when a youth was placed under charge of the philosopher Seneca who carefully attended to his education during Nero's known age he was persevering in his studies and made great progress in greek by a subterfuge of his mothers he was proclaimed emperor in the place of Brits during Nero's known age he was persevering in his studies and made great progress in greek by a subterfuge of his mothers he was proclaimed emperor in the place of Britannicus the real heir to the throne in the early part of his reign public affairs were wisely conducted but the private life of Nero was given up to vice and profligacy his love for popea led him into the crime of matricide for she wishing to share the imperial throne and knowing it was impossible while his mother Agrippina lived induced him to authorize her assassination strange that Seneca should have approved of this yet Tacitus admits that such was the case in the eighth year of his reign Nero divorced his wife Octavia and married popea Nero was an accomplished musician and sang verses composed by himself he eagerly sought the plaudits of the multitude by reciting his compositions in public historians are divided in opinion as to whether Nero was the cause of the burning of Rome during the conflagration he ordered temporary shelters to be provided for the houseless yet the people did not acclaim this deed as it was reported that Nero at the very time Rome was in flames sang the destruction of Troy in his private theater likening the present disaster to that ancient catastrophe in order to divert the masses from what they believed the true origin of the fire Nero charged it upon the Christians many hundreds of whom were sacrificed to his fury he used the last of the Caesars and died by his own hand amid universal execrations in June AD 68 four years after the destruction of Rome Heinrich Sinkowitz the fire began at the Circus Maximus in that section which touches the Palatine and Kylian Hill it rushed on with inconceivable rapidity and fastened upon the whole center of Rome since the time of Brennus never had the city witnessed such an awful catastrophe a freedman of Caesars Pheon by name ran panting into Nero's presence shrieking, Rome is in flames the conflagration is great all Caesar's guests arose from their recumbent attitude ye gods, I shall see a burning city now can I finish the Troyati exclaimed Nero placing his ludicide if I go at once can I view the fire my lord the whole city is as a sea of flame the smoke is suffocatingly heavy and is destroying the people the inhabitants faint away or rashly cast themselves into the fire maddened with terror all Rome perishes Nero raised his hands and cried woe woe to thee thou sacred city of Priam fires were frequent enough in Rome during these conflagrations violence and robbery were rampant particularly so in those sections of the city inhabited by needy half-barbarian peoples a folk comprising rabble from every part of the world the fear of servile rebellion was like a nightmare which had stifled Rome for many years it was believed that hundreds of thousands of those people were thinking of the times of Spartacus and merely waiting for a favorable moment to seize arms against their oppressors and Rome now the moment had come perhaps war and slaughter were raging in the city together with fire it was possible even that the Praetorians had hurled themselves on the city after slaughtering at command of Caesar in that moment the hair rose on Wenicius's head from terror he recalled all the conversations about burning cities which for some time had been repeated at Caesar's court with wonderful persistence well he recalled Caesar's complaints that he was forced to describe a burning city without having seen an actual fire his contemptuous answer to Tegelinas who offered to burn Antium or an artificial wooden city finally his complaints against Rome and the pestilential allies of the Sabura yes truly Caesar has commanded the burning of the city only he could give such a command as Tegelinas alone could accomplish it but if Rome is burning at command of Caesar who can be sure that the population will not be slaughtered at his command the monster is capable of just such a deed conflagration a servile revolt and slaughter what a horrible chaos what a letting loose of destructive elements and horrid universal frenzy the night had paled long since the dawn had passed into light and on all the nearer summits golden rosy gleams were shining which might come either from burning Rome or the rising daylight Wenicius ran to the hill the summit was reached and any terrible sight struck his eyes all the lower region was covered with smoke forming as it were one gigantic cloud lying close to the earth in this cloud towns aqueducts villas trees disappeared but farther beyond this gray ghastly plane the city was burning on the hills the conflagration had not the form of a pillar of fire as happens when a single building is burning even when of the greatest size that was a long belt rather shaped like the belt of dawn above this belt rose a wave of smoke in places entirely black in places looking rose colored in places like blood in places turning in on itself in some places inflated in others squeezed and squirming like a serpent which is unwinding and extending that monstrous wave seemed at times to cover even the belt of fire which became then as narrow as a ribbon but later this ribbon illuminated the smoke from beneath changing its lower roles into waves of flame the two extended from one side of the sky to the other hiding its lower part as at times a stretch of forest hides the horizon the sabine hills were not visible in the least it seemed at the first glance of the eye that not only the city was burning but the whole world and that no living being could save itself from that ocean of flame and smoke the wind blew with increasing strength from the region of the fire bringing the smell of burnt things and of smoke which began to hide even nearer objects clear daylight had come and the sun lighted up the summits surrounding the albin lake but the bright golden rays of the morning appeared reddish and sickly through the haze winicius while descending toward albinum entered smoke which was denser less and less transparent the town itself was buried in it thoroughly the alarmed citizens had moved out to the street it was a terror to think of what might be in Rome when it was difficult to breathe in albinum he met increasing numbers of people who had deserted the city and were going to the albin hills they had escaped the fire and wished to go beyond the line of smoke before he had reached ustronum he had to slacken his pace because of the throng besides pedestrians with bundles on their backs he met horses with packs mules and vehicles laden with effects and finally litters in which slaves were bearing the wealthier citizens the town of ustronum was so thronged with fugitives from Rome that it was difficult to push the crowd on the market square under temple porticoes and on the streets were swarms of fugitives here and there people were erecting tents under which whole families were to find shelter others settled down under the naked sky shouting calling on the gods or cursing the fates in the general terror it was difficult to inquire about anything new crowds of men women and children arrived from the direction of Rome every moment these increased the order and outcry some gone astray in the throng saw it desperately those whom they had lost others fought for a camping place half crazy shepherds from the campania crowded to the town to hear news or find profit in plunder made easy by the uproar here and there crowds of slaves of every nationality and gladiators fell to robbing houses and villas in the town and to fighting with the soldiers who appeared in defense of the citizens junius a friend from the city of cedricus said after a moment's hesitation in a low voice I know that thou wilt not betray me so I will tell thee that this is no common fire people were not permitted to save the circus when houses began to burn in every direction I myself heard thousands of voices exclaiming death to those who save certain people ran through the city and hurled burning torches into buildings on the other hand people are revolting and crying that the city is burning at command I can say nothing more woe to the city woe to us all and to me the tongue of man cannot tell what is happening there people are perishing in flames or slaying one another in the throng this is the end of Rome when icky us nearing the walls found it easier to reach Rome than penetrate to the middle of the city it was difficult to push along the apian way because of the throng of people houses cemeteries fields gardens and temples lying on both sides of it were turned into camping places in the temple of Mars which stood near the port of apia the crowd had thrown down the doors so as to find a refuge within during night hours in the cemeteries the larger monuments were seized and battles fought in defense of them which were carried to bloodshed Ustrenum with its disorder gave barely a slight foretaste of that which was happening beneath the walls all regard for the dignity of law for family ties for difference of position had ceased gladiators drunk with wine seized in the emporium gathered in crowds and ran with wild shouts through the neighboring squares trampling scattering and robbing the people a multitude of barbarian slaves exposed for sale in the city escaped from the booths for them the burning and ruin of Rome were at once the end of slavery and the hour of revenge so that when the permanent inhabitants who had lost all they owned in the fire stretched their hands to the gods in despair calling for rescue these slaves with howls of delight scattered the crowds dragged clothing from people's backs and bore away the younger women they were joined by other slaves serving in the city from of old wretches who had nothing on their bodies save woollen girdles around their hips dreadful figures from the alleys who are hardly ever seen on the streets in the day time and whose existence in Rome it was difficult to suspect men of this wild and unrestrained crowd asiatics, Africans, Greeks Thracians, Germans, Britons howling in every language of the earth raged thinking that the hour had come in which they were free to reward themselves for years of misery and suffering in the midst of that surging throng of humanity in the glitter of day and of fire shown the helmets of the phytorians under whose protection the more peaceable population had taken refuge and who in hand to hand battle had to meet the raging multitude in many places when Ikeas had seen captured cities but never had his eyes beheld a spectacle in which despair, tears, pain, groans, wild delight madness, rage, and license were mingled together in such immeasurable chaos above this heaving mad human who'd roared the fire, surging up to the hill tops of the greatest city on earth sending into the whirling throng its fiery breath and covering it with smoke through which it was impossible to see the blue sky the young tribune with supreme effort and exposing his life every moment forced his way at last to the apian gate but there he saw that he could not reach the city through the division of the Porta Capina not merely because of the throng but also because of the terrible heat from which the whole atmosphere was quivering inside the gate besides the bridge at the Porta Tragenia opposite the temple of the Bonadea did not exist yet hence those who wished to go beyond the Tiber had to pass through to the pond's Sublicius that is to pass around the aventine through a part of the city covered now with one sea of flame that was an impossibility when Ikeas understood that he must return toward Ustrenam turn from the apian way cross the river below the city and go to the Via Portuensis which led straight to the trans Tiber that was not easy because of the increasing disorder on the apian way at the fountain of Mercury however he saw a centurion who was known to him this man at the head of a few tens of soldiers was defending the precinct of the temple he commanded him to follow recognizing a tribune and an Augustian the centurion did not dare to disobey the order he and his men were followed by curses and a shower of stones but to these he gave no heed caring only to reach freer spaces at the earliest still he advanced with the greatest effort people who had encamped would not move and heaped loud curses on Caesar and the Praetorians the throng assumed in places a threatening aspect thousands of voices accused Nero of burning the city he and Popeia were threatened with death shouts of buffoon after Mactricide were heard round about some shouted to drag him to the Tiber others that Rome had shown patience enough it was clear that where a leader found these threats could be changed into open rebellion which might break out any moment meanwhile the rage and despair of the crowd turned against the Praetorians who for another reason could not make their way out of the crowd the road was blocked by piles of goods born from the fire previously barrels of provisions furniture the most costly vessels, infant's cradles, beds, carts handpacks here and there they fought hand to hand but the Praetorians conquered the weaponless multitude easily after they had ridden with difficulty across the V.I. Latina, Numidia, Ardia Lavinia and Ostia and passed around villas, gardens, cemeteries and temples when Iquius reached at last a village called Wicus Alexandria where he crossed the Tiber there was more open space at this spot and less smoke from fugitives of whom there was no lack even there he learned that only certain alleys of the trans Tiber were burning but that surely nothing could resist the fury of the conflagration since people were spreading the fire purposely and permitted no one to quench it declaring that they acted at command the young tribune had not the least out then that Caesar had given command to burn Rome the ruins which people demanded seemed to him just and proper what more could Mithridates or any of Rome's most inveterate enemies have done the measure had been exceeded his mandus had grown to be too enormous and the existence of people too difficult because of him all believed that Nero's hour had struck that those ruins into which the city was falling should and must overwhelm the monstrous buffoon together with all those crimes of his the crown of courage sufficient to stand at the head of the despairing people that might happen in a few hours here vengeful and daring thoughts began to fly through his head but if he should do that the family of Wynicius which till recent times counted a whole series of consuls was known throughout Rome the crowds needed only a name once when 400 slaves of the prefect Padanius Secundus were sentenced Rome reached the verge of rebellion what would happen today in view of a dreadful calamity surpassing almost everything which Rome had undergone in the course of 8 centuries whoever calls the keretes to arms thought Wynicius will overthrow Nero undoubtedly and clothe himself in purple the trans-tiber was full of smoke and crowds of fugitives made it more difficult to reach the interior of the place since people having more time there had saved greater quantities of goods the main street itself was in many parts filled completely and around the Numachia Augusta great heaps were piled up narrow alleys in which smoke had collected more densely were simply impassable the inhabitants were fleeing in thousands on the way Wynicius saw wonderful sights more than once two rivers of people flowing in opposite directions met in a narrow passage stopped each other men fought hand to hand families lost one another in the uproar mothers called on their children despairingly the young tribunes' hair stood on end at thought of what must happen nearer the fire amid shouts and howls it was difficult to inquire about anything or understand what was said at times new columns of smoke from beyond the river rolled toward them smoke black and so heavy that it moved near the ground hiding houses, people and every object just as night does the fervor of a July day increased by the heat of the burning parts of the city became unendurable smoke pained the eyes breath failed in men's breasts even the inhabitants who hoping that the fire would not cross the river had remained in their houses so far began to leave them and the throng increased hourly the praetorians accompanying Wynicius were in the rear in the crush someone wounded his horse with a hammer drew up its bloody head, reared and refused obedience the crowd recognized in Wynicius and Augustian by his rich tunic and at once cries were raised round about death to Nero and his incendiaries this was a moment of terrible danger hundreds of hands were stretched toward Wynicius, but his frightened horse bore him away trampling people as he went and the next moment a new wave of black smoke rolled in and filled the street with darkness Wynicius, seeing that he could not ride past, sprang to the earth and rushed forward on foot slipping along walls and at times waiting till the fleeing multitude passed him he said to himself in spirit that these were vain efforts at times he stopped and rubbed his eyes tearing off the edge of his tunic he covered his nose and mouth with it and ran on as he approached the river the heat increased terribly Wynicius, knowing that the fire had begun at the Circus Maximus thought at first that that heat came from its cinders and from the forum Baurium and the Wellabrum which, situated nearby must be also in flames but the heat was growing unendurable one old man on crutches and fleeing the last whom Wynicius noticed cried, go not near the bridge of Cestius, the whole island is on fire it was indeed impossible to be deceived any longer at the turn toward the weakest Judeorum the young tribunes saw flames amid clouds of smoke only the island was burning but the trans-tiber and the other end of the street at which he ran end of section 11 section 12 of the great events by famous historians volume 3 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Mike Botez the great events by famous historians volume 3 edited by Charles F. Horn Rossiter Johnson and John Rudd the burning of Rome under Nero AD 64 by Henryk Sinkiewicz part 2 the thunder of the flames was more terrible than the roar of wild beasts and the hour had come now in which he must think of his own safety for the river of fire was flowing nearer and nearer from the direction of the island and rolls of smoke covered the alley almost completely the taper which he carried was quenched from the current of air the niches rushed to the street and ran at full speed toward the via Port Wences when he had come the fire seemed to pursue him with burning breath now surrounding him with fresh clouds of smoke now covering him with sparks which fell on his hair neck and clothing the tunic began to smolder on him in places he cared not but ran forward lest he might be stifled from smoke he had the taste of suit and burning in his mouth his throat and lungs were as if on fire the blood rushed to his head and at moments all things even the smoke itself seemed red to him then he thought this is living fire better throw myself upon the ground and quickly perish the running tortured him more and more his head, neck and shoulders were streaming with sweat which scolded like boiling water but he ran on as if drunk staggering from one side of the street to the other meanwhile something changed in that monstrous conflagration which had embraced the giant city everything which till then had only glimmered burst forth visibly into one sea of flame the wind had seized to bring smoke that smoke which had collected in the streets was born away by a mad whirl of heated air that whirl drove with it millions of sparks so that Venetius was running in a fiery cloud as it were but he was able to see before him all the better almost when he was ready to fall he saw the end of the street that sight gave him fresh strength passing the corner he found himself in a street which led to the via Portuensis and the codet unfilled the sparks ceased to drive him he understood that if he could run to the via Portuensis he was safe even were he to faint on it at the end of the street he saw again a cloud as it seemed which stopped the exit if that is smoke thought he, I cannot pass he ran with the remnant of his strength on the way he threw off his tunic which on fire from the sparks was burning him like the shirt of Nessus having only a capitium in his head and before his mouth when he had run farther he saw that what he had taken for smoke was dust from which rose a multitude of cries and voices the rubble are plundering houses thought Nessus but he ran toward voices in any case people were there they might assist him in this hope he shouted for aid with all his might before he reached them but this was his last effort it grew redder still in his eyes breath failed his lungs strength failed his bones he fell they heard him however or rather saw him two men run with gourds full of water Nessus who had fallen from question but had not lost consciousness seized the gourd with both hands and emptied one half of it thanks said he place me on my feet I can walk on alone the other laborer poured water on his head the two not only placed him on his feet but raised him from the ground and carried him to the others who surrounded him and asked if he had suffered seriously this tenderness astonished Nessus people who are ye asked he we are breaking down houses so that the fire may not reach the via portuenses answered one of the laborers ye come to my aid when I had fallen thanks to you we are not permitted to refuse aid answered the number of voices Nessus who from early morning had seen brutal crowds slaying and robbing looked with more attention on the faces around him and said may Christ reward you praise to his name exclaimed the whole chorus of voices it was evening but one could see a zine daylight for the conflagration had increased it seemed that not single parts of the city were burning but the whole city through the length and the breadth of it the sky was dread as far as the eye could see it and that night in the world was a red night the light from the burning city filled the sky as far as human eye could reach the moon rose large and full from behind the mountains and inflamed at once by the glare took on the color of heated brass it seemed to look with amazement on the world-ruling city which was perishing in the rose-colored abysses of heaven rose-colored stars were glittering but in distinction from usual nights the earth was brighter than the heavens Rome, like a giant pile illuminated the whole Campania in the bloody light were seen distant mountains towns, villas, temples, monuments and the aqueducts stretching toward the city from all the adjacent hills on the aqueducts were swarms of people who had gathered there for safety to gaze at the burning meanwhile the dreadful element was embracing new divisions of the city it was impossible to doubt that criminal hands were spreading the fire since new conflaborations were breaking out all the time in places remote from the principal fire from the heights on which Rome was founded the flames flowed like waves of the sea into the valleys densely occupied by houses houses of five and six stories full of shops, booths, movable wooden amphitheaters built to accommodate various spectacles and finally storehouses of wood, olives grain, nuts, pine cones the kernels of which nourished the more needy population and clothing which through Caesar's favor was distributed from time to time among the rubble huddled into narrow alleys in those places the fire finding abundance of inflammable materials became almost a series of explosions and took possessions of whole streets with unheard of rapidity people encamping outside the city were standing on the aqueducts knew from the color of the flame what was burning the furious power of the wind carried forth from the fiery gulf thousands and millions of burning shells of walnuts and almonds which shooting suddenly into the sky like countless flocks of bright butterflies burst with a crackling or driven by the wind fell in other parts of the city on aqueducts and fields beyond Rome all thought of rescue seemed out of place confusion increased every moment for on one side the population of the city was fleeing through every gate to places outside on the other the fire had lured in thousands of people from the neighborhood such as dwellers in small towns, peasants and half wild shepherds of the Campania brought in by hope of plunder the shout Rome is perishing did not leave the lips of the crowd the ruin of the city seemed at that time to end every rule and loosen all bonds which hitherto had joined people in a single integrity the mob in which slaves were more numerous cared nothing for the lordship of Rome destruction of the city could only free them hence here and there they assumed a threatening attitude violence and robbery were extending it seemed that only the spectacle of the perishing city arrested the tension and restrained for the moment an outburst of slaughter which would begin as soon as the city was turning to ruins hundreds of thousands of slaves forgetting that Rome besides temples and walls possessed some tens of legions in all parts of the world appeared merely waiting for a watchword and a leader people began to mention the name of Spartacus but Spartacus was not alive meanwhile citizens assembled and armed themselves each with what he could the most monstrous reports were current at all the gates some declared that Vulcan commanded by Jupiter was destroying the city with fire from beneath the earth others that Vesta was taking vengeance for rubria people with these convictions did not care to save anything but besieging the temples implored mercy of the gods it was repeated most generally however that Caesar had given command to burn Rome so as to free himself from orders which rose from the subura and build a new city under the name of Neronia rage seized the populace at the thought of this and if as Venetians believed a leader had taken advantage of that outburst of hatred Nero's hour would have struck whole years before it did it was said also that Caesar had gone mad that he would command Praetorians and gladiators to fall upon the people and make a general slaughter others swore by the gods that wild beasts had been let out of all the vivaria at Bronzebeard's command men had seen on the streets lions with burning mains and mad elephants and bisons trampling down people in crowds there was even some truth in this for in certain places elephants at the site of the approaching fire had burst vivaria and gaining their freedom rushed away from the fire in wild fright destroying everything before them like a tempest public report estimated at tens of thousands the number of persons who had perished in the conflagration in truth a great number had perished there were people who losing all their property or those dearest their hearts threw themselves willingly into the flames from despair others were suffocated by smoke in the middle of the city between the capital on one side and the Quirinal the Viminal and Esquilin on the other as also between the Palatin and the Sillian hill where the streets were most densely occupied the fire begun in so many places at once that whole crowds of people while fleeing in one direction struck unexpectedly on a new wall of fire in front of them and died a dreadful death in a deluge of flame in terror, in destruction and bewilderment people knew not where to flee the streets were obstructed with goods and in many narrow places were simply closed those who took refuge in those markets and squares of the city where the Flavian amphitheaters stood afterward near the temple of the earth near the portico of Silvia and higher up at the temples of Juno and Lucinia between the Clevos Viribius and the old Esquilin gate perished from heat surrounded by a sea of fire in places not reached by the flames were found afterward hundreds of bodies burned to a crisp though here and there unfortunate tore up flat stones and half buried themselves in defense against the heat hardly a family inhabiting the center of the city survived in full hence along the walls at the gates on all roads were heard howls of despairing women calling on their dear names of those who had perished in the throng or the fire and so while some were imploring the gods others blasphemed them because of this awful catastrophe old men were seeing coming from the temple of Jupiter liberator stretching forth their hands and crying if thou be a liberator say thy altars in the city but despair turned mainly against the old Roman gods who in the minds of the populace were bound to watch over the city more carefully than others they had proved themselves powerless hence were insulted on the other hand it happened on the Via Asinaria that when a company of Egyptian priests appeared conducting a statue of Isis which they had saved from the temple near the porta Selimontana a crowd of people rushed among the priests attached themselves to the chariot which they drew to the Appian gate and seizing the statue placed it in the temple of Mars overwhelming the priests of that deity who dared to resist them in other places people invoked Serapis Baal or Jehovah whose adherents swarming out of the alleys in the neighborhood of the Subura and the Trans-Tiber filled with shouts and uproar the fields near the walls in their cries were heard tones as if of triumph when therefore some of the citizens joined the chorus and glorified the Lord of the world others indignant at this glad shouting strove to repress it by violence here and there hymns were heard sung by men in the bloom of life by old men by women and children hymns wonderful and solemn whose meaning they understood not but in which were repeated from moment to moment the words behold the judge cometh in the day of wrath and disaster thus this deluge of restless and sleepless people encircled the burning city like a tempest driven sea but neither despair nor blasphemy nor hymn helped in any way the destruction seemed as irresistible perfect and pitiless as predestination itself a run-pom pays amphitheater stores of hemp caught fire and ropes used in circuses, arenas and every kind of machine at the games and with them the adjoining buildings containing barrels of pitch with which ropes were smeared in a few hours all that part of the city beyond which lay the campus martyrs was so lighted by bright yellow flames that for a time it seemed to the spectators only half conscious from terror that in the general ruin the order of night and day had been lost and that they were looking at sunshine but later a monstrous bloody gleam extinguished all other colors of flame from the sea of fire shot up to the heated sky gigantic fountains and pillars of flame spreading at their summits into fiery branches and feathers then the wind bore them away turned them into golden threads into hair into sparks and swept them on over the Campania toward the Albon Hills the night became brighter the air itself seemed penetrated not only with light but with flame the Tiber flowed on as living fire the hapless city was turned into one pandemonium the conflagration seized more and more space took hills by storm flooded level places drowned valleys raged, roared and thundered the city burned on the Circus Maximus had fallen in ruins entire streets and alleys in part which began to burn first were falling in turn after every fall pillars of flame rose for a time to the very sky the wind had changed and blew now with mighty force from the sea bearing toward the Selian, the Escoline and the Veminal rivers of flame, brands and senders still the authorities provided for rescue at command of Tijelenos who had hastened from Antium the third day before houses on the Escoline were torn down so that the fire, reaching empty spaces, died of itself that was, however, undertaken solely to save a remnant of the city to save that which was burning was not to be thought of there was need also to guard against further results of the ruin incalculable wealth had perished in Rome all the property of its citizens had vanished hundreds of thousands of people were wandering in utter want outside walls hunger had begun to pinch this throne the second day for the immense stores of provisions in the city had burned with it in the universal disorder and in the destruction of authority no one had thought of furnishing new supplies only after the arrival of Tijelenos were proper orders sent to Ostia but meanwhile the people had grown more threatening besides flour as much baked bread as possible was brought at his command not only from Ostia but from all towns and neighboring villages when the first installment came at night to the Emporium the people broke the chief gate toward the Aventine seized all supplies in the twinkle of an eye and caused terrible disturbance in the light of the conflagration they fought for loaves and trampled many of them into the earth flour from torn bags whitened like snow the whole space from the granary to the arches of Drusus and Germanicus the uproar continued till soldiers seized the building and dispersed the crowd with arrows and missiles never since the invasion by the Gauls under Brenus had Rome beheld such disaster people in despair compared the two conflagrations but in the time of Brenus the capital remained now the capital was encircled by a dreadful wreath of flame the marbles it is true were not blazing but at night when the wind swept the flames aside for a moment rows of columns in the lofty sanctuary of Jove were visible red as glowing coals in the days of Brenus moreover Rome had a disciplined integral people attached to the city and its altars but now crowds of many tongued populace roamed nomad-like around the walls of burning Rome people composed for the greater part of slaves and freedmen excited disorderly and ready under the pressure of want to turn against authority and the city but the very immensity of the fire which terrified every heart disarmed the crowd in a certain measure after fire might come famine and disease and to complete the misfortune the terrible heat of July had appeared it was impossible to breathe air inflamed both by fire and the sun night brought no relief on the contrary it presented a hell during daylight an awful and ominous spectacle met the eye in the center a giant city on heights was turned into a roaring volcano roundabout as far as the urban hills was one boundless camp formed of sheds, tents, huts, vehicles, bales, packs stands, fires and all covered with smoke and dust lighted by sun rays reddened by passing through smoke everything filled with roars, shouts, threats, hatred and terror amongst the swarm of men, women and children mingled with queer rights were Greeks, shaggy men from the north with blue eyes Africans and Asiatics among citizens were slaves freedmen, gladiators, merchants, mechanics, servants and soldiers a real sea of people flowing round the island of fire various reports moved this sea as wind does a real one these reports were favorable and unfavorable people told of immense supplies of wheat and clothing to be brought to the Emporium and distributed gratis it was said too that provinces in Asia and Africa would be stripped of their wealth at Caesar's command and the treasures thus gained to be given to the inhabitants of Rome so that each man might build his own dwelling but it was noised about also that water in the aqueducts had been poisoned that Nero intended to annihilate the city destroy the inhabitants to the last person then moved Greece or to Egypt and ruled the world from a new place each report runned lightning speed and each found belief among the rubble causing outbursts of hope, anger, terror or rage finally a kind of fever mastered those nomadic thousands the belief of Christians that the end of the world by fire was at hand spread even among adherents of gods and extended daily people fell into torpor or madness in clouds lighted by the burning gods were singeasing down on the ruin hands were stretched towards those gods then to implore pity or send them curses meanwhile soldiers aided by certain number of inhabitants continued to tear down houses on the escaline and the cillian as also in the trans-Tiber these divisions were saved therefore in considerable part but in the city itself were destroyed incalculable treasures accumulated through centuries of conquest priceless works of art, splendid temples the most precious monuments of Rome's past and Rome's glory they foresaw that of all Rome there would remain barely a few parts on the edges and that hundreds of thousands of people would be without a roof some spread reports that the soldiers were tearing down houses not to stop the fire but to prevent any part of the city from being saved Tijellinus sent courier after courier to Antium imploring Caesar in each letter to come and calm the despairing people with his presence but Nero moved only when fire had seized the Domus transitoria and he hurried so as not to miss the moment in which the conflagration should be at its highest meanwhile fire had reached the Vianomantana but turned from it at once with a change of wind toward the Via Lata and the Tiber it surrounded the capital, spread along the Forum Boarium destroyed everything which it had spared before and approached the Palatine a second time Tijellinus assembling all the Praetorian forces dispatched courier after courier to Caesar with an announcement that he would lose nothing of the grandeur of the spectacle for the fire had increased but Nero who was on the road wished to come at night so as to save himself all the better with a view of the perishing capital therefore he halted in the neighborhood of Aqua Albana and summoning to his tent the Tragedaean Aliturus decided with his aid on posture, look and expression learn fitting gestures disputing with the actor stubbornly whether at the words O sacred city which seemed more enduring than Aida he was to raise both hands or holding in one the Forminga drop it by his side and raise only the other this question seemed to him then more important than all others starting at last about nightfall he took counsel of Petronius also whether to the lines describing the catastrophe he might add a few magnificent blasphemies against the gods and whether considered from the standpoint of art they would not have rushed spontaneously from the mouth of a man in such a position a man who was losing his birthplace at length he approached the walls about midnight with his numerous court composed of holy detachments of nobles, senators, knights, freedmen, slaves, women and children sixteen thousand Praetorians arranged in line of battle along the road guarded the peace and safety of his entrance and held the excited populace at a proper distance the people cursed, shouted and hissed on seeing the wretch new but dared not attack it in many places however applause was given by the rubble which only nothing had lost nothing in the fire and which hoped for a more bountiful distribution than usual of wheat, olives, clothing and money finally shouts, hissing and applause were drowned in the blare of horns and trumpets which the Jelenos had caused to be sounded Nero on arriving Adiostian gate halted and said houseless ruler of houseless people where shall I lay my unfortunate head for the night after he had passed the Cleavus Delphini he ascended the Apian aqueduct on steps prepared purposely after him followed the Augustians and the choir of singers bearing Sithare, lutes and other musical instruments and all held the breaths in their breasts waiting to learn if he would say some great words which for their own safety they ought to remember but he stood solemn, silent in a purple mantle and the wreath of golden laurels gazing at the raging might of flames when Terpnos gave him a golden loot he raised his eyes to the sky filled with conflagration as if he were waiting for inspiration the people pointed at him from afar as he stood in the bloody gleam in the distance fiery serpents were hissing the ancient and most sacred edifices were in flames the temple of Hercules reared by Evander was burning the temple of Jupiter stator was burning the temple of Luna built by Servius Tullius the house of Numapompilius the sanctuary of Vesta with the penatis of the Roman people through waving flames the capital appeared at intervals the past and the spirit of Rome were burning but Caesar was there with a loot in his hand and the theatrical expression on his face not thinking of his perishing country but of his posture and the prophetic words with which he might describe best the greatness of the catastrophe rose most admiration and received the warmest plaudits he detested that city he detested its inhabitants he loved only his own songs and verses hence he rejoiced in heart that at last he saw a tragedy like that which he was writing the poet was happy the declaimer felt inspired the seeker for emotions was delighted at the awful sight and thought with rapture that even the destruction of Troy was as nothing if compared with the destruction of that giant city what more could he desire there was world ruling Rome in flames and he, standing on the arches of the aqueduct with a golden loot conspicuous, purple, admired, magnificent and poetic down below somewhere in the darkness the people are muttering and storming let them mutter ages will elapse thousands of years will pass mankind will remember and glorify the poet who that night sung the fall and the burning of Troy what was Homer compared with him what Apollo himself with his hollowed out loot here he raised his hands and striking the strings with an exaggerated theatrical gesture pronounced the words of Priam oh nest of my fathers oh dear cradle his voice in the open air with the roar of the conflagration and the distant murmur of crowding thousands seemed marvelously weak, uncertain and low in the sound of the accompaniment like the buzzing of insects but senators, dignitaries and Augustians assembled on the aqueduct bowed their heads and listened in silent rapture he sung long and his motive was ever sadder at moments when he stopped to catch breath the chorus of singers repeated the last verse then Nero cast the tragic sirma from his shoulder with a gesture learned from Aliturus struck the loot and sung on when he had finished the lines composed he improvised using grandiose comparisons in the spectacle unfolded before him his face began to change he was not moved it is true by the destruction of his country's capital but he was delighted and moved with a pathos of his own words to such a degree that his eyes filled with tears on a sudden at last he dropped the loot to his feet with a clutter and wrapping himself in the sirma stood as petrified like one of those statues of Naiobi which ornamented the courtyard of the Palatine soon a storm of applause broke the silence but in the distance this was answered by the howling of multitudes no one doubted then that Caesar had given a command to burn the city so as to afford himself a spectacle and sing a song at it End of section 12