most
of them were deceased before the discontent of the Jews broke out into
that furious war, which was terminated only by the ruin of Jerusalem.
During a long period, from the death of Christ to that memorable
rebellion, we cannot discover any traces of Roman intolerance, unless
they are to be found in the sudden, the transient, but the cruel
persecution, which was exercised by Nero against the Christians of the
capital, thirty-five years after the former, and only two years before
the latter, of those great events. The character of the philosophic
historian, to whom we are principally indebted for the knowledge of this
singular transaction, would alone be sufficient to recommend it to our
most attentive consideration.

[Footnote 25: An obscure passage of Suetonius (in Claud. c. 25) may
seem to offer a proof how strangely the Jews and Christians of Rome were
confounded with each other.]

[Footnote 26: See, in the xviiith and xxvth chapters of the Acts of the
Apostles, the behavior of Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, and of Festus,
procurator of Judea.]

[Footnote 27: In the time of Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria, the
glory of martyrdom was confined to St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James.
It was gradually bestowed on the rest of the apostles, by the more
recent Greeks, who prudently selected for the theatre of their preaching
and sufferings some remote country beyond the limits of the Roman
empire. See Mosheim, p. 81; and Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques,
tom. i. part iii.]

In the tenth year of the reign of Nero, the capital of the empire was
afflicted by a fire which raged beyond the memory or example of former
ages. [28] The monuments of Grecian art and of Roman virtue, the
trophies of the Punic and Gallic wars, the most holy temples, and the
most splendid palaces, were involved in one common destruction. Of the
fourteen regions or quarters into which Rome was divided, four only
subsisted entire, three were levelled with the ground, and the remaining
seven, which had experienced the fury of the flames, displayed a
melancholy prospect of ruin and desolation. The vigilance of government
appears not to have neglected any of the precautions which might
alleviate the sense of so dreadful a calamity. The Imperial gardens
were thrown open to the distressed multitude, temporary buildings were
erected for their accommodation, and a plentiful supply of corn and
provisions was distributed at a very moderate price. [29