. The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:. repared the way for the Christianparadoxes. The doctrines of humility and asceticism were acommonplace of the Cynics. No Cross, no Crown, Hewho would save his life must lose it—such sayings as thesewould gain immediate assent from thoughtful , a heathen slave of Domitians day, wrote his answerto the tyrant: No man hath power over me. I have beenset free by God. I know His Commandments; henceforth nonian can lead me captive. The Stoics were daily teachingi^that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the
. The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:. repared the way for the Christianparadoxes. The doctrines of humility and asceticism were acommonplace of the Cynics. No Cross, no Crown, Hewho would save his life must lose it—such sayings as thesewould gain immediate assent from thoughtful , a heathen slave of Domitians day, wrote his answerto the tyrant: No man hath power over me. I have beenset free by God. I know His Commandments; henceforth nonian can lead me captive. The Stoics were daily teachingi^that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom ofGod. This is the creed of Marcus Aurelius: To veneratethe gods and bless them, and to do good to men, and topractise tolerance and self-restraint. The horrors of theamphitheatre are one side of imperial society. But on theother side Musonius Rufus, a Stoic who stood high in thefavour of Vespasian and Titus, went among the soldiers topreach against militarism. Slave-drivers as the Romans were,they were beginning to feel a sense of the brotherhood of 1. THE GROWTH OF THE EMPIRESeneca was calling the slaves humble friends. Man is a holything to man, he says; and such teaching was reflected evenin the legislation of the day. Juvenal pleads passionately forkindness to slaves and for moral purity in the home. Senecanot only feels that men are brothers, but that God is theFather of us all. We have seen how public charity wasfinding expression in the alimenta and the free schools. Lovethem that hate you would not strike the Romans of thesecond century as anything more than a strong expression ofthe truth they had already begun to recognise. Thus thepractical side of Christian ethics found its harmonies in^the conduct as well as the theory of the more enlightenedpagans. Peace and humanitarianism were in the air of theAntonine Age. As for religious dogma the whole tendency of thought wastowards monotheism. God is a Spirit would find aninstant acquiescence among educat
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