by one of the Pompeian inscriptions:--

CUSPIUM PANSAM AED[_ilem fieri rogat_] FABIUS EUPOR
PRINCEPS LIBERTINORUM.[144]

The persecution which took place under Claudius was really the first
connected with the preaching of the gospel. According to Suetonius
(Claud. 25) the Jews themselves were the cause of it, having suddenly
become uneasy, troublesome, and offensive, _impulsore Chresto_, that
is to say, on account of Christ's doctrine, which was beginning to be
preached in their synagogues. The expression used by Suetonius shows
how very little was known at the time about the new religion. Although
Christ's name was not unknown to him, he speaks of this outbreak under
Claudius as having been stirred up personally by a certain Chrestus,
as though he were a living member of the Jewish colony. At that early
stage the converts to the gospel were identified by the Romans with
the Jews, not by mistake or error of judgment, but because they were
legally and actually Jews, or rather one Jewish sect which was
carrying on a dogmatic war against the others, on a point which had no
interest whatever in the eyes of the Romans,--that is, the advent of
the Messiah. This statement is corroborated by many passages in the
Acts, such as xviii. 15; xxiii. 29; xxv. 9; xxvi. 28, 32; xxviii. 31.
Claudius Lysias writes to the governor of Judaea that Paul was accused
by his fellow-citizens, not of crimes deserving punishment, but on
some controversial point concerning their law. In Rome itself the
apostle could preach the gospel with freedom, even when in custody, or
under police supervision.[145] And as it was lawful for a Roman
citizen to embrace the Jewish persuasion, and give up the religion of
his fathers, he was equally free to embrace the Evangelic faith, which
was considered by the pagans a Jewish sect, not a new belief.

The pagans despised them both, and mixed themselves up with their
affairs only from a fiscal point of view, because the Jews were
subject to a tax of two drachms per head, and the treasury officials
were obliged to keep themselves acquainted with the statistics of the
colony.

This state of things did not last very long, it being of vital
importance for the Jews to separate their cause from that of the
new-comers. The responsibility for the persecutions which took place
in the first century must be attributed to them, not to the Romans,
whose tolerance in religious matters had become almost a state