The Conflict Of Religions In The Early Roman

CONTENTS


CHAP. PAGE

I. ROMAN RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. THE STOICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
III. PLUTARCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
IV. JESUS OF NAZARETH . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
V. THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS . . . . . . . . . 141
VI. THE CONFLICT OF CHRISTIAN AND JEW . . . . 167
VII. "GODS OR ATOMS?" . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
VIII. CELSUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
IX. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA . . . . . . . . . . 262
X. TERTULLIAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349




{1}

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS
IN THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE




CHAPTER I

ROMAN RELIGION

On the Ides of March in the year 44 B.C. Julius Cæsar lay dead at the
foot of Pompey's statue. His body had twenty three wounds. So far the
conspirators had done their work thoroughly, and no farther. They had
made no preparation for the government of the Roman world. They had
not realized that they were removing the great organizing intelligence
which stood between the world and chaos, and back into chaos the world
swiftly rolled. They had hated personal government; they were to learn
that the only alternative was no government at all. "Be your own
Senate yourself"[1] wrote Cicero to Plancus in despair. There was war,
there were faction fights, massacres, confiscations, conscriptions.
The enemies of Rome came over her borders, and brigandage flourished
within them.