Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
'But still I would that, like Gallienus, thou couldst only believe in
the gods. The Christians, so it is reported, worship and believe in but
a man,--a Jew,--who was crucified as a criminal, with thieves and
murderers.' He turned upon me a countenance full of unaffected horror.
'Well, Milo, at another time I will tell you what the truth about it is.
Here we are now, at the shop of Publius.'
The shop of Publius is remarkable for its extent and magnificence, if
such a word may be applied to a place of traffic. Here resort all the
idlers of learning and of leisure, to turn over the books, hear the
news, discuss the times, and trifle with the learned bibliopole. As I
entered, he saluted me in his customary manner, and bade me 'welcome to
his poor apartments, which for a long time,' he said, 'I had not honored
with my presence.'
I replied that two things had kept me away: the civil broils in which
the city had just been involved, and the care of ordering the
appointments of a new dwelling. I had come now to commence some
considerable purchases for my vacant shelves, if it might so happen that
the books I wanted were to be found in his rooms.
'There is not,' he replied, 'a literature, a science, a philosophy, an
art, or a religion, whose principal authors are not to be found upon
the walls of Publius. My agents are in every corner of the empire, of
the east and west, searching out the curious and the rare, the useful
and the necessary, to swell the catalogue of my intellectual riches. I
believe it is established, that in no time before me, as nowhere now,
has there been heard of a private collection like this for value and for
number.'
'I do not doubt what you say, Publius. This is a grand display. Your
ranges of rooms show like those of the Ulpian. Yet you do not quite
equal, I suppose, Trajan's for number?'
'Truly not. But time may bring it to pass. What shall I show you? It
pleases me to give my time to you. I am not slow to guess what it is you
now, noble Piso, chiefly covet. And I think, if you will follow me to
the proper apartment, I can set before you the very things you are in
search of. Here upon these shelves are the Christian writers. Just let
me offer you this copy of Hegesippus, one of your oldest historians, if
I err not. And here are some beautifully executed copies, I have just
ordered to be made, of the Apologies of Justin and Tertullian. Here,
again, are Marcion and Valentinus; but perhaps they are not in esteem
with you. If I have heard aright, you will prefer these tracts of Paul,
or Artemon. But hold, here is a catalogue. Be pleased to inspect it.'
As I looked over the catalogue, I expressed my satisfaction that a
person of his repute was willing to keep on sale works so generally
condemned, and excluded from the shops of most of his craft.
'I aim, my dear friend--most worthy Piso--to steer a midway course among
contending factions. I am myself a worshipper of the gods of my fathers.
But I am content that others should do as they please in the matter, I
am not, however, so much a worshipper--in your ear--as a bookseller.
That is my calling. The Christians are become a most respectable people.
They are not to be overlooked. They are, in my judgment, the most
intelligent part of our community. Wasting none of their time at the
baths and theatres, they have more time for books. And then their
numbers too! They are not fewer than seventy thousand!--known and
counted. But the number, between ourselves, Piso of those who secretly
favor or receive this doctrine, is equal to the other! My books go to
houses, ay, and to palaces, people dream not of.'
'I think your statements a little broad,' said a smooth, silvery voice,
close at our ears. We started, and beheld the Prefect Varus standing at
our side. Publius was for a moment a little disconcerted; but quickly
recovered, saying in his easy way, 'A fair morning to you! I knew not
that it behooved me to be upon my oath, being in the presence of the
Governor of Rome. I repeat, noble Varus, but what I hear. I give what I
say as the current rumor. That is all--that is all. Things may not be
so, or they may; it is not for me to say. I wish well to all; that is my
creed.'
'In the public enumerations of the citizens,' replied the Prefect,
inclining with civility to Publius, 'the Christians have reached at no
time fifty thousand. As for the conjecture touching the number of those
who secretly embrace this injurious superstition, I hold it utterly
baseless. It may serve a dying cause to repeat such statements, but they
accord not with obvious fact.'
'Suspect me not, Varus,' hastily rejoined the agitated Publius, 'of
setting forth such statements with the purpose to advance the cause of
the Christians. I take no part in this matter. Thou knowest that I am a
Roman of the old stamp. Not a Roman in my street is more diligently
attentive to the services of the temple than I. I simply say again, what
I hear as news of my customers. The story which one rehearses, I retail
to another.'
'I thank the gods it is so,' replied the man of power.
'During these few words, I had stood partly concealed by a slender
marble pillar. I now turned, and the usual greetings passed with the
Prefect.
'Ah! Piso! I knew not with certainty my hearer. Perhaps from
you'--smiling as he spoke--'we may learn the truth. Rome speaks loudly
of your late desertion of the religion and worship of your fathers, and
union with the Galileans. I should say, I hoped the report ill founded,
had I not heard it from quarters too authentic to permit a doubt.'
'You have heard rightly, Varus,' I rejoined. 'After searching through
all antiquity after truth, I congratulate myself upon having at last
discovered it, and where I least expected, in a Jew. And the good which
I have found for myself, I am glad to know is enjoyed by so many more of
my fellow-citizens. I should not hesitate to confirm the statement made
by Publius, from whatever authority he may have derived it, rather than
that which has been made by yourself. I have bestowed attention not only
upon the arguments which support Christianity, but upon the actual
condition of the Christian community, here and throughout the empire.
It is prosperous at this hour, beyond all former example. If Pliny could
complain, even in his day, of the desertion of the temples of the gods,
what may we now suppose to be the relative numbers of the two great
parties? Only, Varus, allow the rescript of Gallienus to continue in
force, which merely releases us from oppressions, and we shall see in
what a fair trial of strength between the two religions will issue.'
'That dull profligate and parricide,' replied Varus, 'not content with
killing himself with his vices, and his father by connivance, must needs
destroy his country by his fatuity. I confess, that till that order be
repealed, the superstition will spread.'
'But it only places us upon equal ground.'
'It is precisely there where we never should be placed. Should the
conspirator be put upon the ground of a citizen? Were the late rebels of
the mint to be relieved from all oppression, that they might safely
intrigue and conspire for the throne?'
'Christianity has nothing to do with the empire,' I answered, 'as such.
It is a question of moral, philosophical, religious truth. Is truth to
be exalted or suppressed by edicts?'
'The religion of the state,' replied Varus, 'is a part of the state; and
he who assails it, strikes at the dearest life of the state,
and--forgive me--is to be dealt with--ought to be dealt with--as a
traitor.'
'I trust,' I replied, 'that that time will never again come, but that
reason and justice will continue to bear sway. And it is both reasonable
and just, that persons who yield to none in love of country, and whose
principles of conduct are such as must make good subjects everywhere,
because they first make good men, should be protected in the enjoyment
of rights and privileges common to all others.'
'If the Christians,' he rejoined, 'are virtuous men, it is better for
the state than if they were Christians and corrupt men. But still that
would make no change in my judgment of their offence. They deny the gods
who preside over this nation, and have brought it up to its present
height of power and fame. Their crime were less, I repeat, to deny the
authority of Aurelian. This religion of the Galileans is a sore, eating
into the vitals of an ancient and vigorous constitution, and must be cut
away. The knife of the surgeon is what the evil cries out for and must
have--else come universal rottenness and death. I mourn that from the
ranks of the very fathers of the state, they have received an accession
like this of the house of Piso.'
'I shall think my time and talent well employed,' I replied, 'in doing
what I may to set the question of Christianity in its true light before
the city. It is this very institution, Varus, which it needs to preserve
it. Christianize Rome, and you impart the very principle of endurance,
of immortality. Under its present corruptions, it cannot but sink. Is it
possible that a community of men can long hold together as vicious as
this of Rome?--whose people are either disbelievers of all divine
existences, or else ground to the earth by the most degrading
superstitions? A nation, either on the one hand governed by
superstition, or, on the other, atheistical, contains within itself the
disease which sooner or later will destroy it. You yourself, it is
notorious, have never been within the walls of a temple, nor are Lares
or Penates to be found within your doors.'
'I deny it not,' rejoined the Prefect. 'Most who rise to any
intelligence, must renounce, if they ever harbored it, all faith in the
absurdities and nonsense of the Roman religion. But what then? These
very absurdities, as we deem them, are holy truth to the multitude, and
do more than all bolts, bars, axes, and gibbets, to keep them in
subjection. The intelligent are good citizens by reflection; the
multitude, through instincts of birth, and the power of superstition. My
idea is, as you perceive, Piso, but one. Religion is the state, and for
reasons of state must be preserved in the very form in which it has so
long upheld the empire.'
'An idea more degrading than yours, to our species,' I replied, 'can
hardly be conceived. I cannot but look upon man as something more than a
part of the state. He is, first of all, a man, and is to be cared for as
such. To legislate for the state, to the ruin of the man, is to pamper
the body, and kill the soul. It is to invert the true process. The
individual is more than the abstraction which we term the state. If
governments cannot exist, nor empires hold their sway, but by the
destruction of the human being, why let them fall. The lesser must yield
to the greater. As a Christian, my concern is for man as man. This is
the essence of the religion of Christ. It is philanthropy. It sees in
every human soul a being of more value than empires, and its purpose is,
by furnishing it with truths and motives, equal to its wants, to exalt
it, purify it, and perfect it. If, in achieving this work, existing
religions or governments are necessarily overturned or annihilated,
Christianity cares not, so long as man is the gainer. And is it not
certain, that no government could really be injured, although it might
apparently, and for a season, by its subjects being raised in all
intelligence and all virtue? My work therefore, Varus, will be to sow
truth in the heart of the people, which shall make that heart fertile
and productive. I do not believe that in doing this Rome will suffer
injury, but on the contrary receive benefit. Its religion, or rather its
degrading superstitions, may fall, but a principle of almighty energy