. The Apocalypse of St. John : the Greek text with introduction, notes and indices. icased in saevitiani unius absumerentur. Suet. JVero 16 multa subeo et animadversa severe et suppliciis Christiani,genus hominum superstitionis novae ac maleficae. It is evident that Tacitus, who certainly held no brief forthe Christian faith, represents Nero as the real author of theoutrage. It took the form of a police measure, as Suetonius says,but in the first instance it was simply a device for screening theEmperors own infamy. Christians already had a bad name withthe Roman populace, b
. The Apocalypse of St. John : the Greek text with introduction, notes and indices. icased in saevitiani unius absumerentur. Suet. JVero 16 multa subeo et animadversa severe et suppliciis Christiani,genus hominum superstitionis novae ac maleficae. It is evident that Tacitus, who certainly held no brief forthe Christian faith, represents Nero as the real author of theoutrage. It took the form of a police measure, as Suetonius says,but in the first instance it was simply a device for screening theEmperors own infamy. Christians already had a bad name withthe Roman populace, but no attack would have been made upontheir lives had not Nero sacrificed them to save himself. Whenhe proceeded to offer the use of the Vatican Gardens for the 1 How little disposed the Church was ^ On the trustworthiness of Tacitus to make difficulties on her part may be see Lightfoot, Ignatius, i. pp. 9 f., 7 () from St Lukes readiness ^ Either their Christian Faith or their to use the title SejSao-Tos (Acts XXV. 21, 25). guilt as incendiaries. To fue /. Ixxxii. a bust in the British Museum. ANTICHRIST IN THE PROVINCE OF ASIA Ixxxiii executions and to mix with the spectators, even the Roman mobrecognized the brutality (saevitiani) of his conduct. 6. Even if Nero had desired to abandon the policy of per-secution, it would have been difficult for him to do so. The wordsof Suetonius suggest that notwithstanding the reaction broughtabout by the Emperors callousness, repressive measures continuedin force. Sulpicius Severus, who wrote in the fourth century, maybe confusing later times with those of Nero when he writes(chron. ii. 29) in reference to the latter: post etiam datis legibusreligio vetabatur, palamque edictis propositis Christianum essenon licebatV but he is certainly right in adding with regard tothe atrocities of 64, hoc initio in Christianos saeviri coeptum;and, as Lightfoot points out, when once persecution had begun theRoman Jews, with Poppa
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