was dedicated, he might be deemed exempt from the operation of the claim.

It appears from the Acts of the Apostles, that Lysias commanded that St. Paul should be examined by scourging *; and there are accounts in heathen writings which prove that torture was customary among the Romans, and that scourging was part of it.

St. Paul is also represented as asking, is it lawful to scourge a person uncondemned? Cicero says it was a crime to bind or whip a Roman citizen; and it was a law of the twelve tables §, that no man should be put to death before trial ||.

Acts xxii. 23, 24.

† Sueton. August. 19. 27. Tacit. Annal. 15. 57. Seneca De Ira, lib. iii. c. 18, 19. et Lardner, Credibil, b. i. c. 1.

In Verrem, 1. v. et Orat. pro Rabirio.

§ Fragment 12. tab. tit. 2. § 1. 1.

Antiq. Rom. lib. iii. c. 22.

CHAP. XLIV.

Marcus Terentius Varro.

VARRO, who was born about 116 years before Christ, was the intimate friend of Cicero. He was a Senator and a Tribune, attached to the party of Pompey, but afterwards reconciled to Cæsar, notwithstanding which, he was proscribed by Antony.

Varro was eminently distinguished for his multifarious learning and attainments, and was particularly conversant with the religious and civil antiquities of his country, concerning which he wrote forty-one books *. He presided over the Greek and Latin libraries at Rome. Most of the productions of this learned man have perished; they are said to have been rather useful than eloquent. Three books De re Rustica, however, written when he had attained his 80th year, still

August. de Civit. Dei. 1. vi, c. 3.

remain; and together with his work De Lingua Latina, of which the three first books are lost, were published with the notes of Scaliger and others at Paris, by Henry Stephens, in 1569, and in subsequent editions. A few other fragments of his writings are extant; little, however, is to be collected from them, which bears upon the objects of this work. From what St. Augustin has stated, it appears that they must have afforded considerable information concerning the origin of the religious institutions of his country, and of the sentiments which prevailed in his time. He appears to have exposed the ignorance of the priesthood, and the errors of the popular superstition, though he thought that there were some things false, with respect to which the people ought not to be undeceived. The variety of opinions which existed concerning subjects of religious interest was so great, that according to his statement, there were two hundred and eighty-eight different theories or opinions at least concerning the Summum-bonum *. He speaks of three kinds of theology, the

* August. de Civit. Dei. 1. 19. c. 1. and Baker on Learning, page 70.

fabulous, the physical, and the civil; the second of which alone gave any just and philosophical description of the Divine nature; the dramatic and political being accommodated to vulgar apprehensions.

Varro himself subscribed to the doctrine of Pythagoras, and believed in the existence of one supreme and universal Deity, which he regarded as the soul of the universe, or the Deity pervading every part. He admitted, however, partial and dependent gods animated with intelligence superior to men, and existing in the celestial bodies; and invisible beings inhabiting the middle region of the air, called Heroes, Lares, and Genii. But he confesses that the gods might be worshipped with the greatest purity without images*, as they were by the ancient Romans for 170 years; and by the Jews.

Fabricius speaks of a sentiment ascribed to Varro, which bears some resemblance to the instruction afterwards given by our Saviour.

66

"Si vis ad summum progredi, ab infimo ordire."
"Whosoever would be greatest among
you, let him be least."

August. de Civit. Dei. lib. iv. cap. 31. Cudworth, b. 1.

CHAP. XLV.

Caius Sallustius Crispus.

SALLUST, however distinguished as historian, requires only a cursory notice, since he affords but little to illustrate the objects in contemplation in the present publication. His character, as reported to us, by no means accords with the principles of rectitude and virtue recommended in his writings. He was of an illustrious family, and born at Amiternum, a town of the Sabines, A. U. C. 668. He was employed in offices of authority and trust, and associated with men of eminence and dignity, but so degraded himself by his vices, that he was expelled the Senate. Being restored by Cæsar to his rank, and appointed to the government of Numidia, he returned from Africa with great riches, and his palace and gardens on the