Works

Preface

Many years ago the writer of this collected some extracts from Christian anticipations of Eome's destruction. While doing this, he noticed that similar views had prevailed among Jews and Eomans. Investigation convinced him that the former were the originators. This implied Jewish influence on the Eoman mind, which he at first underrated, regarding it as confined to moments of excitement and as affecting merely the populace. Only by degrees did he discover how continuous and powerful it had been, and that it was directly due to the superiority of Judaism over heathenism.

Debarred from night study, the writer has pursued his work amid daily avocations and interruptions. He could have wished to rearrange and revise some portions of it yet further ; but to have attempted this might have endangered publication under his own supervision, and would have precluded attention to other duties, and to the completion of another short work which, if eyesight permit, he would thankfully finish.

It seems morally impossible that Judaism and Greek culture, which were driven out with such difficulty from Italy, should have made no impression upon Oriental nations. A remnant of Jews has been found as far east-

IV PEEFACE.

ward as China. The moral precepts of Burmah and Siam savor of Judaism.^ Greeks held intercourse with India long before and after the Christian era.^

How far the better features of the Civil or Eoman Law resulted from monotheistic iniiuence would be an interestiug, and might prove a copious question.

Amons suffoestions which should have been made in the work is : — that women, equally as men, of the popular party have been grossly maligned by their patrician opponents, who too often were in a position to prevent safe utterance of the truth. On two cases of this, those of LiviUa and a granddaughter of Tiberius called the younger Julia, remarks have been offered.^ Concerning the first Julia, daughter of Augustus, it may be a fair question whether her character also has not been blasted by party policy or malignity.*

1 Malcom quotes "Five principal " The king of Siam recently opened

and positive [Burmese] laws: 1. Thou a new mint. . . . The high priest re-

shalt not kill 2. Thou shalt not steal, cited the five commands. These are,

3. Thou shalt not commit adultery. * Do not kill ; do not steal ; do not

4. Thou shalt not lie,. 5. Thou shalt commit adultery ; do not speak falsenot drink any intoxicating liquor." — hood ; do not drink strong drink.' *' — Travels, 8th edit. p. 189. Cp. Exod. Evening Post (Weekly, N. Y.), Jan- 20, 13- 16 ; Lev. 10, 9. uary 10, 1877.

^ Arabic numerals, whether obtained by Arabs direct from India, or at second hand from Greeks, imply communication centuries after the Christian era between India and Western Asia. Montfaucon cites such numerals {Palaeograph. Grcec. pp. 345, 346) from a Greek manuscript.

^ Concerning Livilla, see pp. 529, 530, 538 ; concerning the younger Julia, friend of Pomponia, pp. 241, 518. Julia Sabina, daughter of the patrician idol Titus, was bitterly misrepresented for friendship with her uncle Domitian. The old nurse who at personal risk placed the ashes of uncle and niece together (Sueton. Domit. 17) is, by her actions, an unsuspicious witness to their mutual kindness and family affection.

* The aristocracy were anxious to put young Antony out of the way. The charge against him was adultery with his cousin Julia. Her father (at that time ruled by patricians) credited, and the popular party discredited, the charge. The language of Philo {Embassy, 40) concerning Julia, half a century later, seems unaccountable, if the charges against

PREFACE. V

On the eve of going to press I learn that Professor Beesly of England, in the " Fortnightly Review " for December, 1867, and January, 1868, treats the account of Tiberius, by Tacitus, as " an elaborate libel." I have no knowledge as to his course of argument.

In a few instances a brief quotation has been repeated, either through inadvertence or to save readers the need of recurring to it.

To Professors Gary of Meadville, and Abbot of Cambridge, my thanks are due for kind offices. The latter, as a labor of friend.ship, has read many of the proof-sheets, and through his suggestions some errors and oversights have been remedied.

Meadville, Pa., September 2, 1876.

In issuing this fifth edition of his work, the author would state that his belief — somewhat cautiously expressed in its pages — as to the monotheistic origin of Greek Culture has become an undoubting conviction. >

As regards decadence of civilization in Italy, he would date it from b. c. 18, when the friends of improvement were driven from the Senate, and when that body fell under the control of reactionaries. Thenceforward civilization stood at disadvantage; the law-making power was in the hands of its enemies, the course of society was downwards, and though this tendency met with an occasional check from some of the better emperors, yet within two centuries it landed the community in that ignorance and brutality, that barbarism, which pervaded Italy under Marc Antonine and his son Commodus. To the deification of Augustus a separate heading ought to

her found credence in the community where he lived. The unreserred intercourse of cousins may have heen seized upon as the means of murdering one and cruelly injuring the other.

VI PREFACE.

have been given. It was a political stroke which greatly aided reactionaries (see p. 7) in murdering the friends of justice and of improvement.

As a literary question the perversion of the Erythraean Verses by Virgil ^ claims attention from teachers of Latin. Those verses — deposited by the Senate in its archives, and of which numerous copies circulated in the community — had proved a thorn in the side of Patricians. In B. c. 12 they collected and burned two thousand copies of them and of their imitations, forbidding any one under death penalty® to read them. These verses originated the view that .^'neas, a "genuine monotheist," founded the Latiu kingdom. The .iEneid was intended to transform the " genuine monotheist," the " chaste ^neas," into a licentious pagan, a patron of prize fights and of polytheistic customs. In Virgil's day his iatention to parody these verses must have been obvious.''

Meadville, Pa., ISTovember 17, 1882.

5 See pages mentioned in Note A, footnote 21", and compare Indirect Testimony, p. 82.

6 See Ch. VII., notes 65, 67, 68.

'■ Six ancient writers (cited in LeMaire's Virgil, vol. 7, pp. 282, 323, 324) state that Virgil on his death-bed and in his will ordered a destruction of his jEneid. He had doubtless become ashamed of it, knowing, as he must, that it would disgust the improvement party, who, even if they distrusted the Erythnean verses, would not sympathize with a burlesque upon moral teaching. The feeling of that party was perhaps expressed by Caligula (see p. 203, note 65) in his proposal to banish Virgil's busts from public libraries. The author's wishes were disregarded, and his .^neid was published.

Chapter I. Ancient Judaism

Section Paoi

I. Its field for Growth 1

II. Its First Impediment 2

III. The Roman Aristocracy its Chief Enemy .... 6

IV. They oppose its Associate, Greek Culture ... 11 V. Close of Jewish Influence in Europe 14

Chapter II. Causes Of Jewish Influence

I. Chief Causes 16

1. Jews recognized a Divine Being who took interest in the Moral

Education of Mankind 17

Heathen Deities were regarded as devoid of such Interest . 18

2. The Jewish View of Religious Duties included Morality . 20 Heathen Views did not 25

3. Future Existence to be hoped if God exercise Moral Care of

us, otherwise not 26

4. The average Character of Jews superior to that of Heathens 27 II. Accessories and Hindrances 32

1. Ceremonial Law 32

•2. Offerings for the Temple 33

3. Popular Rights 35

4. Relative Antiquity of Monotheism and Idolatry . . .35

5. Sibylla 36

6. Astrology and Soothsaying .38

7. Mechanical Skill aided Jewish Influence .... 40

8. Absence of Political Control ; its EfiFect on Hellenistic Jews . 40

Chapter III. Jewish Influence Originates The Stoics

I. Greek Stoics 40

II. Roman Stoics 64

Viii CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Jewish Division Into Weeks

I. Adopted by Heathens 8^

II. Numbering and Nomenclature of the Days ... 68

III. Lord's Day ^*

Chapter V. Affiliated Questions

I. Public Games 71

II. War 82

III. Annexation and Disintegration 83

IV. Kegicide 85

V. Slavery 86

VI. Expensive Living 89

VII. Suppression of Documents 92

VIII. Sympathy of the Jewish with the Roman Aristocracy 96

IX. Murder of Body-Guards 107

X. Two Senatorial Usurpations 108

XI. Herod Agrippa, Senior 112

XII. Insincerity op Patrician Hobbies 114

CHAPTER VI. BELIEF OP home's IMPENDING DESTRTJCTION

I. As A Precedent of the New Era 116

II. Jewish Expectations 120

Sibylline Oracles 120

Second Book of Esdras 130

III. Roman Apprehensions 134

IV. Views of Jewish and Semi-Jewish Christians . . 135 V. The Roman Emperor as Beliar. Origin of the Conception called Antichrist 137

Chapter VII

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE, B. C. 76 - A. D. 19.

I. B. c. 76. The Erythraean Verses cause Discussion of

Monotheism 141

II. B.C. 75-68. Other Sibylline Verses. King prom the East 143

III. B.C. 62-50. Conflict of Parties and Religious Ideas.

Cicero a Reactionist 147

IV. B. c. 49. Romans throw away Idol Images during the

Passover 161

V. B. c- 44. Cj.sar's Death. Cicero disavows Heathenism 154

CONTENTS. IX

VI B.C. 43-31. Virgil AND Horace. The Oracle at Delphi 166 Vll. B. c. 80 - 18. Patrician Reaction. Virgil burlesques part

OF THE Erythraean Verses 159

VIII. B. c. 18-a. D. 2. Attack on Monotheism and Populab

Rights 160

IX. Schools of Law 170

X. A. D. 2 - 14. Augustus recedes from ultra-Patbicianism . 175 XI. A. D. 14-18. Tiberius Emperor. Patrician Steps towards

Rebellion .' 179

Chapter VIII

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE, A. D. 19-A. D.70.

I. A. d. 19, 20. Patrician Rebellion. Conversions to Judaism become illegal 186

II. a. D. 21-37. Effects OF Patrician Reaction . . .195

III. A. D. 37-41. Caligula 199

2. Order of Events in liis Reign 205

3. The alleged Statue for the Jewish Temple .... 215

IV. a. d. 41 - 51. Claudius. A Reign of Patricianism and

Heathekism 222

V. A. D. 52 - 54. Expulsion of Jews. Paul in Greece. Claudius as Belial. Philip martyred. Sunday instituted 228 VI. A. D. 54-62. Earlier Years OF Nero's Reign . . .241 VII. A. D. 63 - 70. FiKE AT Rome. Jewish War. Persecution

OF Christians 242

CHAPTER IX. APOCALYPSE, OR BOOK OF CHRIST'S SECOND COMINa

I. Title and Authorship . 255

II. Date 258

III. Divisions and Object 259

IV. Phraseology and Illustrations ...... 260

V. Outline op the Book 261

Chapter X

I. A. D. 70-81. The Reign of Vespasian a Coalition. That

of Titus favors Reaction 270

n. A. D. 81 - 96. Domitian. Expulsion op Monotheism . 275

IV. Position about the Close of the First Century . . 286

K CONTENTS.

, 1. Senatorial Families 286

2. Corruption of the Judiciary 287

3. Extinction of Oracles discussed by Lamprias . . . 287

4. Effort needed to keep up Belief in Omens . . . 290

6. Social Gatherings and Suppers 293

7. Fashionable Education portrayed in the De Oratoribue . 295

8. Vestal Virgins 296

9. Dio Chrysostom sympathizes with Monotheism . . . 297

10. Plutarch indirectly defends it 305

11. Tacitus maligns it 310

12. Pliny, as Tool of Treasury Thieves, persecutes it . . 312

13. Gentile Monotheists .318

14. The Name Christian 319

V. A. D. 98-117. Trajan. Reaction and Persecution . . 320

VI. a. d. 117 - 138. Hadkian. Jewish Revolt .... 325

Chapter XI. Effects Of The Jewish Revolt Under Hadrian

I. DiKECT Effects 330

1. Gnostics, or Anti-.Tewish Christians 331

2. Heathen Names affixed to Jewish Documents . . . 336

3. Gentile Evidence substituted for Jewish in Acts of Pilate . 342

4. Embitterment of Semi-Jewish Christians against Jews . 342 II. Indirect Effects 344

1. Extravagant Use of the Old Testament . . . . ■ 344

2. Antitheses of Irenseus 349

3. Jesus deified as subordinate God of the Old Testament . 349

MONOTHEISM.

I. Its Okigin 388

1. Whether inherent in mankind 388

2. Or due to Reasoning 390

8. Or to Revelation 390

II. Judaism a Preparation for Chkistiahity .... 394