Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE PERSECUTION OF NERO We learn from the Epistle to the Philippians that Christianity had penetrated into the household of Nero, that vast establishment of freedmen and slaves of every type, nationality, and grade, ranging from what we may call ministers of the crown to the lowest menials, which was in close touch on the one hand with the Emperor himself, on the other with the governmental offices in all the imperial provinces. It is a remarkable fact that Caesar's household continued to be a stronghold of Christianity throughout the ages of persecution. The first definite spot in Rome that we can connect with the history of the Church is the Palatine Hill. Within the palace the new faith could not fail to attract the notice of influential persons. There were many Jews in the court of Nero. Poppaea, his mistress, afterwards his wife, was favourably inclined towards them, and out of their flatteries Nero spun the extravagant dream that, if he were driven out of Rome, he might yet rule the East as King of Jerusalem. Gentile officials would mark the Christians as devotees of a new Oriental sect which practised secret rites, avoided the temples of the gods, and was probably stained by the vilest immorality, by magic, child- murder, and promiscuous lust. As yet the only religions which had been definitely attacked by the Roman government had fallen under charges of the most shocking kind. The most remarkable instance in point is that of the Bacchanalia. Shortly before 186 R. c. an obscure Greek hierophant brought the Bacchic orgies into Etruria. From thence this fanaticism made its way into Rome. Complaint was made to the Consul Postumius by Publius Aebutius, a dissolute young man ofequestrian family, and his mistress, a freedwoman, Hispala Fecenia, who profess... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.