m his residence in Judaea, were in possession of such
exact details of two of Christ's miracles--if not of a third striking
incident in his history--we should find not the most distant allusion in
the works of such cotemporary writers as Tacitus and Suetonius, to any one
of the still more stupendous occurrences which had recently taken place in
a part of the world with which the Romans had now very intimate relations.
The character of these authors induces us to hesitate in adopting the
notion, that either contempt or disbelief would have led them to pass over
such events, as altogether unworthy of notice; and the only other
inference from their silence is, that they had never heard of them. But
as this can scarcely be reconciled with the plagiarism attributed to
Vespasian or the Egyptian priests, it is safer to conclude that the
coincidence, however singular, was merely fortuitous. It may be added
that Spartianus, who wrote the lives of Adrian and succeeding emperors,
gives an account of a similar miracle performed by that prince in healing
a blind man.]

[Footnote 749: A.U.C. 823-833, excepting 826 and 831.]

[Footnote 750: The temple of Peace, erected A.D. 71, on the conclusion of
the wars with the Germans and the Jews, was the largest temple in Rome.
Vespasian and Titus deposited in it the sacred vessels and other spoils
which were carried in their triumph after the conquest of Jerusalem. They
were consumed, and the temple much damaged, if not destroyed, by fire,
towards the end of the reign of Commodus, in the year 191. It stood in
the Forum, where some ruins on a prodigious scale, still remaining, were
traditionally considered to be those of the Temple of Peace, until
Piranesi contended that they are part of Nero's Golden House. Others
suppose that they are the remains of a Basilica. A beautiful fluted
Corinthian column, forty-seven feet high, which was removed from this
spot, and now stands before the church of S. Maria Maggiore, gives a great
idea of the splendour of the original structure.]

[Footnote 751: This temple, converted into a Christian church by pope
Simplicius, who flourished, A.D. 464-483, preserves much of its ancient
character. It is now, called San Stefano in Rotondo, from its circular
form; the thirty-four pillars, with arches springing from one to the other
and intended to support the cupola, still remaining to prove its former
magnificence.]

[Footnote 752: This amphitheatre is the