‘* Prom heav’n into the sea a star shall fall That shall consume with fire the ocean wide, And Babylon herself, and Italy...”
Nero’s achievements added matricide to the specification of Anti- christ ; but the book of Daniel and other apocalypses, which were directly or indirectly inspired by the experience of the Jews under Antiochus Epiphanes, had long ago established the code of language by which each particular persecutor was identified with the vanished type. Inthe time of Antiochus such disguise was a necessary pre- caution; and it was so again in the time of Nero or Vespasian, of Domitian or Trajan. In fact, Professor Cone’s corollary has nothing, to do with his conclusion. Whenever any Christian community be- came exposed for whatever reason to attack by any representative of the State, the State became for them the enemy, and therefore Babylon.
For Trajan’s attitude towards the Christians of Bithynia we have ample testimony—thanks to the lack of independence displayed by his legate, the younger Pliny. In a.p. 112 Bithynia was in a bad state. There were many abuses which called for remedies, and the province was distracted by factions.2 The law which forbade the formation of clubs or associations for different purposes had fallen into abeyance, and Pliny began by re-enacting it in accordance with Trajan’s mandate? On this policy Trajan insisted so strongly that he refused to authorise a fire brigade in Nicomedia, in spite of Pliny’s. protestations that only 150 men would be enrolled, only carpenters, and for the sole purpose of dealing with such a conflagration as had recently devastated the city. From experience he held that all corporations, whatever name they bore, quickly became politica] associations.» This rigid interpretation of the law made the ordi- nary meetings of the Christians at once illegal; and there were so: many Christians in Bithynia that the temples were almost deserted and the customary sacrifices were omitted. When the edict was
1 Or. Sib. v. 158-160.
2Trajan to Pliny, xxxii. (xli.): ‘‘ Meminerimus idcirco te in istam provinciam missum, quoniam multa in ea emendanda apparuerint; xxxiv. (xlili.) meminerimus- provinciam istam . . . factionibus esse vexatam”’.
3 Pliny to Trajan, xcvi. (xcvii.): ‘‘ Edictum meum quo secundum mandata tua hetaerias esse vetueram ’’.
‘Pliny to Trajan, xxxiii. (xlii.): “Tu, domine, dispice an instituendum putes. Collegium fabrorum dumtaxat hominum Cl. Ego attendam ne quis nisi faber reci- piatur neve iure concesso in aliud utatur; necerit difficile custodire tam paucos”’.
5 Trajan to Pliny, xxxiv. (xliii.): ‘‘Quodcumque nomen ex quacumque causa dederimus eis qui in idem contracti fuerit. . . . hetaeriae que brevi fient ”.