The real difficulty, however, as to this alleged census under Quirinius lies in reconciling St. Luke's testimony with the facts of secular history. The Syrian governors in the period of B.C. 9-4 are given by Schiirer as C. Sentius Saturninus (B.C. 9-6) and P. Quintilius Varus(B.c. 6-4). As B.C. 4 is the generally accepted year of Herod's death, the possibility of a governorship of Quirinius at the time of the execution of the decree of Ciesar Augustus is thereby excluded. Many therefore have been ready to say, with Mommsen, that St. Luke has * erred.' Even TertuUian is quoted against the Evangelist, when he affirms that an ' enrolment' was made by Sentius Saturninus. And yet his testimony, while it differs from that of St. Luke as to the name of the governor of Syria, supports none the less the fact that there was a census earlier than the famous one of a,d. 6. The evidence in favour of an earlier as well as later governor- Bhip of Quirinius is now admitted to be so strong, that Mommsen and others have fully accepted it. The only question that remains is as to where we are to place it. ImporUnt help towards the solution of it has been found in the inscription discovered at Tivoli in 1764, now preserved in the Lateran Museum of Christian Antiquities. On it are recorded the ex- ploits of a Roman official, with the honours awarded to him in the time of Augustus, ^\'liile no name has been preserved, we are told that he was proconsul in Asia, and that he twice governed Syria and Phcenicia. The only one, knou-n to us, who satisfies these conditions is Quirinius. Where then, in the interval immediately before the birth of Jesus in B.C. 6 or at latest B.C. 5, are we to find room for his earlier Syrian governor- ship? It must be between Saturninus and Varus, or as a con- temporary of the one or the other. If we can find proofs in history of a double 'hegemony' in provincial government, we may consider that only there can the solution lie. In the history of Josephus we have a singular confirmation of this two- fold governorship. A Volumnius is named in relation to Sentius Saturninus as 'the hegemon of Ciesar' (Schurer, IIJP i. i. p. 350). Why might not Quirinius have been the military governor, while Saturninus was the civil administrator? In view of the progress of discovery in recent years, may we not hope that some additional fragment of the Tiburtine inscription will be found, and definitely settle the much debated question as to the historical accuracy of St. Luke? See art. Ce.ssus.
Though secular history from B.C. 6 to A.D. 14 furnishes us with no trace of any influence having been exerted by Augustus on Jesus or by Jesus on Augustus, we are able to trace, in the remarkable an for tlie manifest
than in his unification of the Empire. When Augustus finally defeated Antony at Alexandria in B.C. 31, he wa.s the one ruler left in the whole Roman world. The only adverse influence with which he had thereafter to contend was found among the heads of the old families in the Roman Senate. In the i ourse of the next 10 or 12 j-ears he so skilfully guided the aftairs of the State, that he was clothed with every attribute of supremacy which it seemed possible for the State to bestow.
• It is true, indeed, that the impepf. may point, not to a repetition of the census, but simply to the fact of its going on for some time (of. Winer, Gram, o/ NT Greek [Eng. tr.)9, p. 335).
The title of ' Princeps Senatus' was revived in B.C. 29, and had new significance given to it. In B.C. 27 the Senate conferred upon him the proconsular iinperium for 10 years. This put into his hands an all but absolute military power throughout the empire. At this same time he received the title of ' Augustus,' a name having to do with the science of augury [or from augeo, as OH-gustus from ««(jro], and suggesting something akin to religious veneration. Though even then he wished him- self to be considered as having a primacy only among equals, yet, as wielding the power both of purse and sword, he had become really the master of the Roman world. Nor was he content with this. 1hetribuniciapotcsfas-\va,s granted to him in a sense more extended than ever before. While he appeared to assume it year by year, it really became his for life, and was the symbol of his sovereign authority, being used to mark the years of his reign. In B.C. 23 the whole machinery of the State had definitely and permanently passed into his hands. When the Christian era dawned, Augustus had for 17 years exercised a dominion un- rivalled in its nature and extent, entitling it to be spoken of as over ' the whole world. ' And yet there was no one in his day that felt so much the need of limiting the extension of the Kmpire. Among his last instructions there was one enjoining his successors not to seek enlargement, as it only made the work of guarding the frontiers more difficult. One of his greatest anxieties durin" his later years, owing to the deaths of Marcellus, Agrippa, Lucius, and Gains, had to do with the succession to the Imperial throne. While the Christian era had not yet reached its first decade, he had only Tiberius, his step-son, to look to as his successor. At an early period of his reign Augustus had given himself to the development of a complete system of road-supervision for Italy and the provinces. The celebrated pillar of gilded bronze, the ' Milli- arium Aureum,' of which but a fragment of the marble base can be seen to-day near the ascent of the Capitol, was set up by Augustus on ' his com- pletion of the great survey and census of the Roman world' (Lanciani). On it were marked the distances of all the principal places along the main roads from the city gates. Where these roads led, civil government was found established, with a representative of the Emperor or the Senate, and with tribunals for the administration of justice. Anyone claiming to be a Roman citizen had the privilege of appeal ti> ( 'asar, and could be assured of a safe conduct tn iiiuiie. Safe and compara- tively speedy modes uf tia\el were assured.