ootnote 247: The early Christians shared with the Jews the aversion of
the Romans to their religion, more than that of others, arising probably
from its monotheistic and exclusive character. But we find from Josephus
and Philo that Augustus was in other respects favourable to the Jews.]

[Footnote 248: Strabo tells us that Mendes was a city of Egypt near
Lycopolis. Asclepias wrote a book in Greek with the idea of
theologoumenon, in defence of some very strange religious rites, of which
the example in the text is a specimen.]

[Footnote 249: Velletri stands on very high ground, commanding extensive
views of the Pontine marshes and the sea.]

[Footnote 250: Munda was a city in the Hispania Boetica, where Julius
Caesar fought a battle. See c. lvi.]

[Footnote 251: The good omen, in this instance, was founded upon the
etymology of the names of the ass and its driver; the former of which, in
Greek, signifies fortunate, and the latter, victorious.]

[Footnote 252: Aesar is a Greek word with an Etruscan termination; aisa
signifying fate.]

[Footnote 253: Astura stood not far from Terracina, on the road to
Naples. Augustus embarked there for the islands lying off that coast.]

[Footnote 254: "Puteoli"--"A ship of Alexandria." Words which bring to
our recollection a passage in the voyage of St. Paul, Acts xxviii. 11-13.
Alexandria was at that time the seat of an extensive commerce, and not
only exported to Rome and other cities of Italy, vast quantities of corn
and other products of Egypt, but was the mart for spices and other
commodities, the fruits of the traffic with the east.]

[Footnote 255: The Toga has been already described in a note to c.
lxxiii. The Pallium was a cloak, generally worn by the Greeks, both men
and women, freemen and slaves, but particularly by philosophers.]

[Footnote 256: Masgabas seems, by his name, to have been of African
origin.]

[Footnote 257: A courtly answer from the Professor of Science, in which
character he attended Tiberius. We shall hear more of him in the reign of
that emperor.]

[Footnote 258: Augustus was born A.U.C. 691, and died A.U.C. 766.]

[Footnote 259: Municipia were towns which had obtained the rights of
Roman citizens. Some of them had all which could be enjoyed without
residing at Rome. Others had the right of serving in the Roman legions,
but not that of voting, nor of holding civil offices. The municipia
retained their own laws and customs; n