IV. Pagan P/rilosophg and Christianity. — Apart from the ruling powers of the empire, and from those classes which formed the bulk of the nations composing it, there was also a considerable class of highly educated men, especially in Rome and Alexandria, on whom old- fashioned polytheism had no hold, but who yet set themselves against Christianity. Among such were the Epicurean Celsus, who wrote a comprehensive work. The Woixl of Truth (now known only by Origen's refu- tation of it), against the new faith ; the cynic Crescens • — ^iXoif/o^oc Kai ^iXoKoj-iiroQ — the boasting braggadocio of Justin Martyr's Apolog}^ (Just. Mart. Apol. ii, 3 ; Eiiseb. iv, 5); Tr3'pho the Jew, against whom the same apologist wrote an important work, his Dialogue icith Trypho ; and Lucian the satirist, who opposed Chris- tianity as a superstition unworthy of intellectual men (Lucian, De Moi-te Peregriu. c. xi-xvi). Indeed, the contemptuous manner in which grave writers like Pliny, Tacitus, and Suetonius mention the new faith seems to show that the literary class in general was opposed to it, and did not even think it worth while to make any effective inquiry in regard to its principles. That they gradually learned to feel more respect for it is shown by the rise of the eclectic school of the Neo-Platonists; but even among these there were bitter opponents of Chris- VII.— L L
tianity, though there were indeed others who theoreti- cally adopted a large portion of its principles. See Ec- lecticism ; Neo-Platonism.
V. Persecutions of Christians by Pagans. — The broad- est and most evident form of the struggle for life and supremacy between paganism and Christianity was that of the continuous attempt of the former to suppress the latter by force. In this the state and the populace co-operated, and there is no reason to think that the intellectual classes and philosophers held aloof. The first approach to a general persecution was that begun at Rome under Nero (Tertull. AjmI. c. v). St. Paul's account of his o\vn sufferings (2 Cor. vi, 23-27), his ref- erence to the amphitheatre at Ephesus (1 Cor. xv, 32), to actual persecution of Christians (1 Cor. iv, 9, and perhaps in Heb. xi, 35-38), to the position of the apostles as the " oflFscouring of the earth," to the " much tribula- tion" tlirough which the faithful entered into rest, to his deliverance " out of the mouth of the lion," all seem to show that the struggle between paganism and Chris- tianity had begun even in apostolic times. But it is probable that persecution then was of a local kind, aris- ing out of charges made by Jews against Christians, for whom they entertained a deadly hatred. Suetonius mentions, indeed, that the Jews were driven out of Rome by Claudius on account of an insurrection raised by one "Chrestus," probably one of the many false Christs that rose up at this period, and Christians who were not Jews may have been expelled with them, though anything like a Christian insurrection (as the historian's words are sometimes interpreted) was so alien to the spirit of the early Christians as to be beyond probability. Af- ter the great fire of Rome in the year fi4, Nero, however (who is said by Dion and Suetonius to have been him- self the incendiary), accused the Christians of causing it, and brought upon them a terrible stream of indigna- tion from the excited Romans. Tacitus wrote his an- nals about thirty years after that, and he describes their sufferings in a few graphic words. Nero invited the citizens to a festival in the imperial gardens (now the Vatican), and the chief spectacle which he then of- fered them was the martyrdom of their hated neigh- bors. Some were sewn in the skins of wild beasts, and torn to pieces by dogs ; some crucified ; some burned to death; some smeared over with infiammable substances, and used as torches or bonfires to light up the gardens after dark. This persecution lasted for four years, and there can be no doubt that it was carried on in other cities as well as at Rome. During the course of it the apostle Peter was one of those who were crucified in the gardens of Nero, and Paul was beheaded a short distance out of Rome. How man}^ others went to make up the grand vanguard of the army of martyrs it is impossible to say, but the words of the heathen historian point to a great multitude rather than to a merely considerable number. It is usual to reckon ten periods of persecution, at intervals, spreading over the latter half of the 1st, the 2d, the 3d, and the 4th centuries. But this enumer- ation is arbitrary, and cannot be supported by historical evidence. During the whole of that time there was persecution going on in some part of the empire, al- though emperors like Hadrian, Vespasian, Titus, Nerva, and Trajan (Tertull. A2yol. c. v) were unlikely to give it any encouragement. Yet Pliny's famous letter to Trajan (Plinii Epp. x, 96) shows that it was difficult to save Christians from the popular cry for their extermi- nation, and the martyrdom of St. Cyprian is another illustration of the same fact. The last and most ter- rible of the general persecutions was that which im- mediateh' preceded the accession of Constantine, when it seemed as if Diocletian had nearly accom])lished his object of destroying the very name of Christian. It is not the purpose of this article, however, to go into any details respecting these periods of persecution, and the subject may be dismissed with the following table, which represents the conclusions that may be arrived at from the examination of historical data :