gned by Dodwell to the seventh, by most writers to the seventeenth.
In fact, the commencement of the persecutions of the Christians appears
to synchronize exactly with the period of the breaking out of the
Marcomannic war, which seems to have alarmed the whole empire, and the
emperor himself, into a paroxysm of returning piety to their gods, of
which the Christians were the victims. See Jul, Capit. Script. Hist
August. p. 181, edit. 1661. It is remarkable that Tertullian (Apologet.
c. v.) distinctly asserts that Verus (M. Aurelius) issued no edicts
against the Christians, and almost positively exempts him from the
charge of persecution.--M. This remarkable synchronism, which explains
the persecutions under M Aurelius, is shown at length in Milman's
History of Christianity, book ii. v.--M. 1845.]

By a singular fatality, the hardships which they had endured under the
government of a virtuous prince, immediately ceased on the accession of
a tyrant; and as none except themselves had experienced the injustice
of Marcus, so they alone were protected by the lenity of Commodus. The
celebrated Marcia, the most favored of his concubines, and who at length
contrived the murder of her Imperial lover, entertained a singular
affection for the oppressed church; and though it was impossible that
she could reconcile the practice of vice with the precepts of the
gospel, she might hope to atone for the frailties of her sex and
profession by declaring herself the patroness of the Christians. [107]
Under the gracious protection of Marcia, they passed in safety the
thirteen years of a cruel tyranny; and when the empire was established
in the house of Severus, they formed a domestic but more honorable
connection with the new court. The emperor was persuaded, that in a
dangerous sickness, he had derived some benefit, either spiritual or
physical, from the holy oil, with which one of his slaves had anointed
him. He always treated with peculiar distinction several persons of
both sexes who had embraced the new religion. The nurse as well as the
preceptor of Caracalla were Christians; [107a] and if that young prince
ever betrayed a sentiment of humanity, it was occasioned by an
incident, which, however trifling, bore some relation to the cause of
Christianity. [108] Under the reign of Severus, the fury of the populace
was checked; the rigor of ancient laws was for some time suspended; and
the provincial governors were satisfied with receiving an