ing that Tacitus knew so little about the
Christians that he confounded them with the Jews, and that the hatred
universally felt for the latter fell upon the former. In this way he
believes Tacitus gets his "huge multitude," as the Jews established
themselves in Rome as early as 60 years B. C., where they multiplied
rapidly, living together in the Traslevere--the most abject portion of
the city, where all kinds of rubbish was put to rot--where they became
"old clothes" men, the porters and hucksters, bartering tapers for
broken glass, hated by the mass and pitied by the few. Other scholars,
among whom may be mentioned Schwegler (_Nachap Zeit._, ii. 229); Koestlin
(_Johann-Lehrbegr._, 472); and Baur (_First Three Centuries_, i. 133);
also being struck with the absurdity of the statement made by some of
the early Christian writers concerning the wholesale prosecution of
Christians, said to have happened at that time, suppose it must have
taken place during the persecution of Trajan, A. D. 101. It is strange
we hear of no Jewish martyrdoms or Jewish persecutions till we come to
the times of the Jewish war, and then chiefly in Palestine! But fables
must be made realities, so we have the ridiculous story of a "huge
multitude" of Christians being put to death in Rome, in A. D. 64,
evidently for the purpose of bringing Peter there, making him the first
Pope, and having him crucified head downwards. This absurd story is made
more evident when we find that it was not until about A. D. 50--only 14
years before the alleged persecution--that the first Christians--a mere
handful--entered the capitol of the Empire. (See Renan's _Hibbert
Lectures_, p. 55.) They were a poor dirty set, without manners, clad in
filthy gaberdines, and smelling strong of garlic. From these, then, with
others who came from Syria, we get our "huge multitude" in the space of
14 years. The statement attributed to Tacitus is, however, outdone by
Orosius, who asserts that the persecution extended "through all the
provinces." (Orosius, ii. 11.) That it was a very easy matter for some
Christian writer to interpolate or alter a passage in the _Annals_ of
Tacitus may be seen from the fact that the MS. was not known to the
world before the 15th century, and from information which is to be
derived from reading Daille _On the Right Use of the Fathers_, who shows
that they were accustomed to doing such business, and that these
writings are, to a large extent, unreliable.