and a little hay, as living in a state of mendicity, near the fountain of Egeria, hiring its grove and temples *.

There is a passage in the sixth satire of Juvenal, in which he remarks, that a greater confidence would be placed in the Chaldæans, because the oracles of Delphi had ceased: alluding, no doubt, to the silence of the oracles, produced by the influence of Christianity. He demonstrates in almost

every page, the necessity which existed for that Divine Revelation; and even the addresses which he represents to have been daily offered up to the gods, serve to shew how much the best institutions of religion were perverted, in the practices of his age. He informs us also that there was a general incredulity in his time, concerning a state of future rewards and punishments, produced probably, as he seems to intimate, by the fabulous representations with respect to the infernal regions, which were given in popular superstition; and he considers that this

* Sat. iii. l. 12-16.

Line 554. In the time of the Consul Lucius Emilius Paulus, 167 years before Christ, the oracle of Delphi was in the highest repute. Livy, lib. xlv. § 27.

Juvenal, Sat. x. line 23. et. seq.

was one cause of the crimes committed by men released from all fear of future judgment *

Juvenal mentions in various places the persecutions to which the Christians were exposed. He speaks of the pitched vestments, in which they were burnt, fixed to the stake, producing a long furrow, as their bodies were dragged along the dust of the Arena †.

Sat. ii. 1. 149-152. + Sat. i. 1. 155. 157. neca. Consol. ad Mar. c. 20.

See also Sat. viii. 1. 235, and Se

CHAP. LVIII.

Junianus Justinus.

THE period in which Justin lived is not ascertained. He is generally allowed to have flourished before the Emperors were converted to Christianity; and the clearness and politeness of his style, indicate an earlier period than the reign of Theodosius, in which he is placed by some writers, while others, who appear to have confounded him with Justin Martyr, represent him to have dedicated his work to Antoninus.

The work of Justin is an abridgment, in forty-four books of Trogus Pompeius, who lived in the reign of Augustus, and wrote the history of ancient nations, and particularly of the Macedonians, from the time of Ninus to that of Augustus. That part of the work which relates to the Jews, may be extracted, as affording proofs of the erroneous representations which continued to prevail with re

spect to that people, notwithstanding the opportunities which existed for obtaining accurate information concerning them.

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The historian states, that the Jews" drew "their origin from Damascus *, a most noble city of Syria, where, in honour of a so"vereign of that name, a sepulchral monu ment, erected to his wife, was reverenced as "a temple, and herself worshipped as a god"dess; that after Damascus, Azelus, "Adores, Abraham, and Israhel, reigned in "succession: that Israhel was distinguished "from his progenitors by a family of ten sons, to whom he committed his subjects, "distributed under ten kingdoms, and called "all the people Jews, from the name of Judah, who died after the division, and "whose memory his father directed to be generally respected; that his portion was "distributed among the rest that Joseph youngest among his brethren, who, " from envy of his excellent disposition, "sold him privately to foreign merchants,

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was the

by whom he was carried into Egypt: that "when Joseph, by his quick intelligence, had "obtained a knowledge of magical arts, he

⚫ L. xxxvi. c. 2. See also Euseb. Præp. Evang. l. ix. c. 16. + It is possible that this is some corrupted account of the sepulchre of Sarah. See Gen. xxiii. 9-19.

CHAP. LVII.

Decimus vel Decius Junius Juvenalis.

JUVENAL was born in the reign of Claudius, at Aquinum, in Campania; and lived during the successive reigns of Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, and Adrian. He is supposed to have studied under Fronto and Quintilian, and to have practised at the Roman bar. He seems to have lived principally at Rome, though some state, that in consequence of the resentment of Paris, the comedian, who was a favourite of Domitian, he was sent by the Emperor, under pretence of military employment, to Pentapolis, on the frontiers of Egypt and Lybia *. If this be a correct account, we may suppose with Dodwell, that he returned to Rome in the time of Adrian †. Martial represents him to have been a fre

The place afterwards celebrated for the birth of Thomas Aquinas.

† Malala. lib. i. Chron. p. 34. Sueton.