NERONIAN PERSECUTIONS 956
NERSES
Paul lost his life on this occasion. Wieseler {Chronol aynopse der vier Evangelim [1843], p. 531) places the execution of Paul in the bcf,'iiniiii.i,' of the year G4, and the crucifixion of Peter in the Neronian persecution, theref(;re some months later. Tradition places the death of both apostles in the Neronian persecution, and some witnesses, as Jerome and (Jelasius, put both martyrdoms on the same day; but others, as Arator, Cedrenus, Au- gustine, separate them by an interval of one year or less. That Paul suffered first, before the outbreak of the persecution properly so called, seems to be indicated by the easier mode and the locality of his death; for ill the persecution itself his Koman citizenship would hardly have been respected; and the scene of that per- secution was not the Ostian Way, but the A'atican across the Tiber, where Nero's gardens and the circus lay (comp. Tacitus, Ann. xiv, 14; and Hunsen, Beschrei- bung der <Sludt Rom. ii, 1, p. 13 sq.). At the same time, this persecution, notwithstanding the statement of Oro- sius. does not seem to have extended through all the provinces, but rather to have been restricted to Kome and the surrounding country.
Shortly after the death of Nero, July II, 68, the be- lief commenced to gain adherents among the people that he was not dead. They expected him to return from the East as a great conqueror, and this induced several adventurers to assume his name and create in- surrections. As for the Christians, the remembrance of that terrible persecution, their manner of interpret- ing the Book of Revelations, and still more the Sibyl- line Oracles, led them for several centuries to believe that Nero was still living, and even that he would a|)pear at the latter day as the Antichrist or with him. Says SchaflF: "The report aros?. first among the heathen that Nero was not really dead, and would come forth again from his concealment; according to Tacitus {IHM. ii, 8), 'Sub idem tempus Achaja atque Asia falso cxterritse, velut Nero adventaret, vario super exitn ejus rumore, eoque pluribus vivere eum fingentibus credenri- busquo.' Among the Christians this rumor took the form that Nero would return as Antichrist, or (accord- ing to Lactantius) as the forerunner of Antichrist. That such an expectation arose, at least afterwards, in the Cluirch, though merely as the private opinion of indi- viduals, is plain from Augustine, De ciritate Dei, lib. xx, cap. 19, where he says that by the ' mystery of ini- quity' (2 Thess. ii, 7) some understood Nero, and then proceeds: ' Unde nonnnlli ipsum (Neronem) resurrectu- rum et fulurum Aniichrislum suspicantnr. Alii vero nee eum occisum putant, sed subtractum potius, ut pnta- returoccisus; et vivum occultari in vigore ipsius letatis, in qua fuit, (juum crederetur exstinctus, donee suo tem- pore rcveletur et restituatur in regnnm. Sed multum mihi mira est h;ec opinantium tanta prassumptio.' Lac- tantius mentions a similar opinion {I)e mart, persec. c. 2) with a reference to a passage in the Sibylline Oracles (lib. iv, p. 52o, cd. Ser. (lallieus), which, however, refers not at all to Antichrist, but probably to the appearance of the pseudo-Nero in the time of Titus (comp. Tacitus, Hist, i, 2) as to a past fact, as Thiersch has shown j (Kritik der X.-Tesl. Schriften, 1845, p. 410 sq.) against Bleek. Altogether erroneous is the view of Ewald, ' Liicke, and others, w'ho charge tliis superstition respect- ing Nero as the future Antichrist upon the author of the Aiiocalypse ; taking the beast, wliich ' was, and is not, and yet is' (xvii, H, 11), to be Nero. This betrays an exceedingly low, unworthy view of this holy book" (Hist. Apoxtol. Cli. p. 347). Yet very recently this "low and iniwortliy view" of the Apocalypse has found general favor in England, and in France also. Notoidy has the rationalistic Henan espoused it, but several of the British conservative reviews, in notices of LW ntechrist, commend Mr. Kenan's researches as to the authorship and object of the Apocalypse. The name of the Antichrist is be- lieved by Kenan to be found in clmp. xiii, IK, which (nurnl)cr of the beast) amounts to precisely (itiC), and sig- nifies, if to each Hebrew letter is given its numerical
value, Ja'tpuyv Kalffap, or "lOp "I'^S, well known in that form by sight to all the provincials on their coin and standards and inscriptions (comp. Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1874, art. viii ; and see under Nero, above). See Pauly, Real-Encykiopddie d. Klass. Alterthuinswissen- schuj't, pt. V, p. 570-591 ; Kortholt, I)e persecutioni- bus ecclesitB primitivfe sub imperutoribus ethnicis (Kilon. 1689) ; Walch, De Romanorum in tolerandis diversis religionibus disciplina publica (in the Xov. Commeiitt. Soc. Reg. [Gcitt. 1733, vol. iii]); Lehmann, Studien z. Gesch. d. apost. Zeitulters ((ireifw. 185G, 4to) ; Masson, Histoire critique de la Republique dcs lettres, viii, 74, 1 17 ; ix, 172, 186; Toinard, Ad Lactunt. de Mortibu.<i I'erse- quutorum, p. 398 (ed. Du Fresnoy); Tillemont, l/ist. des Empereurs, i, 564; Baratier, De successioite Roinanor. Poniificum, cap. v, p. 60; Mosheim, Commentaries, i, 97, 120;'Schafr, J/ist. of the Apostolic Church, p. 395; id. Hist, of the Christian Church, i, 162, 305; Mosheim, Eccles. J/ist. (1st cent, in vol. i) ; Neander, Ch. I/ist. i, 94 ; Leckev, J/ist. Europ. Morals, i, 274, 326, 456 ; Bur- ton, Ecclel JJist. p. 190, 195, 200, 203, 231, 237, 242, 322; Gieseler, Eccles. J/ist. i, 56 sq. ; Kiddle, JJist. of the Pa- pacy, i. 5 sq.; Meth. Quar. Jier. Jan. 1875, p. 127-131; Christian (iuarterly, April, 1874, p. 275-277 ; Journal of Sacred JJterature, vol. xxvi. (J. II. W.)