oper to suppress. We may therefore presume to imagine
some probable cause which could direct the cruelty of Nero against the
Christians of Rome, whose obscurity, as well as innocence, should have
shielded them from his indignation, and even from his notice. The Jews,
who were numerous in the capital, and oppressed in their own country,
were a much fitter object for the suspicions of the emperor and of the
people: nor did it seem unlikely that a vanquished nation, who already
discovered their abhorrence of the Roman yoke, might have recourse to
the most atrocious means of gratifying their implacable revenge. But the
Jews possessed very powerful advocates in the palace, and even in the
heart of the tyrant; his wife and mistress, the beautiful Poppaea, and
a favorite player of the race of Abraham, who had already employed their
intercession in behalf of the obnoxious people. [40] In their room
it was necessary to offer some other victims, and it might easily be
suggested that, although the genuine followers of Moses were innocent of
the fire of Rome, there had arisen among them a new and pernicious sect
of Galilaeans, which was capable of the most horrid crimes. Under the
appellation of Galilaeans, two distinctions of men were confounded,
the most opposite to each other in their manners and principles; the
disciples who had embraced the faith of Jesus of Nazareth, [41] and the
zealots who had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite. [42] The
former were the friends, the latter were the enemies, of human kind;
and the only resemblance between them consisted in the same inflexible
constancy, which, in the defence of their cause, rendered them
insensible of death and tortures. The followers of Judas, who impelled
their countrymen into rebellion, were soon buried under the ruins of
Jerusalem; whilst those of Jesus, known by the more celebrated name of
Christians, diffused themselves over the Roman empire. How natural was
it for Tacitus, in the time of Hadrian, to appropriate to the Christians
the guilt and the sufferings, [42a] which he might, with far greater
truth and justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memory was
almost extinguished! 4. Whatever opinion may be entertained of this
conjecture, (for it is no more than a conjecture,) it is evident that
the effect, as well as the cause, of Nero's persecution, was confined
to the walls of Rome, [43] [43a] that the religious tenets of the
Galilaeans or Christians, w