tax was now exacted, it is likely there were divers sorts of men. Some Gentiles who had embraced Christianity, might be looked upon as Jews: these were under no obligation to pay this tax. Beside them, some Jews, who were become Christians, might think themselves excused from paying this tribute; whether reasonably or not, I do not determine: for, according to the letter of the law, they were obliged to pay it, as being circumcised, though they might think that in equity they had a right to plead an exemption. And, beside all these, there might be some Jews, both by nation and religion, who declined this tax. These, I suppose, will not be vindicated by any, unless they scrupled to contribute to a heathen temple.

To these several sorts of men, probably, Suetonius here refers. Nor can it be doubted that some Christians met with sufferings upon this account, under the name and character of Jews, from whom they had received their religion. And, perhaps, this story of Suetonius has a reference to Domitian's persecution of the Christians, commonly called the second persecution.

a

This tax was not exacted with the same rigour under that good emperor Nerva: but it was not abolished, as some have thought.

This passage ought to be understood as another testimony from the same writer, to the final overthrow of the Jewish people by the Romans, as Jesus had foretold.

b

V. Among the cruelties of the latter part of Domitian's reign, Suetonius mentions this: And lastly, he put to death his cousin Flavius Clement, a man of an indolent temper, even to contempt, whose sons, when they were as yet infants, he had publicly declared his successors; and, changing their former names, he called the one Vespasian, and the other Domitian. Him he put to death on a sudden, upon a slight suspicion, when he was but just out of his consulship: by which action, more than by any other, he hastened his own ruin.'.

C

d

This happened in the year of our Lord 95. Suetonius does not expressly say that Flavius Clement was a Christian: that may be farther cleared up hereafter. However, it may be argued from the character here given of Clement, that he was a man of an indolent temper, • even to contempt:' that having been a reproach frequently cast upon the Christians by heathen people, that they were useless, and unprofitable to the public; as we learn from Tertullian, and other ancient writers.

с

In this character of Clement there seems to be a censure of him for excessive indolence. But I think the chief and direct intention of Suetonius is to aggravate the cruelty of Domitian, who put to death so near a relation, in whom there was not one spark of ambition, and therefore there could be no reason to fear any thing from him.

Before I shut up this article, I must observe some things for explaining the last cited of Suetonius.

passage Flavius Clement was cousin-german to Domitian. There were two brothers, Flavius Sabinus, and Flavius Clement, sons of Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's elder brother. Sabinus, the elder of those two brothers, had been put to death by Domitian some while before, as is related by Suetonius. The second was put to death now, as just related. The death of Flavius Clement is also mentioned by Dion Cassius, as will be more particularly observed by us hereafter it is also mentioned by Philostratus, in his Life of Apollonius Tyanæus, and as a thing that hastened the death of Domitian himself. And we ought to recollect here what we before saw in1 Juvenal.

-Item fiscus Judaïcus, ut Suetonio, Domit. 12, qui cum acerbissime ageretur sub Domitiano, JUDAICI FISCI CALUMNIA SUBLATA est sub Nervâ, ut testatur nummus apud Oiselium-Unde tamen plane cessâsse hoc tributum non evincitur, sicut Bergerus et Spanhemius jam demonstrârunt. Reimar. annot. ad Dion C. p. 1082. § 43.

Denique Flavium Clementem, patruelem suum, contemtissimæ inertiæ, cujus filios, etiam tum parvulos, successores palam destinaverat; et abolito priore nomine, alterum Vespasianum appellari jusserat, alterum Domitianum; repente, ex tenuissima suspicione, tantum non in ipso ejus Consulatu interemit. Quo maxime facto maturavit sibi exitium. Domit. cap. 15.

Vide Pagi. ann. 96. num, ii. et Basnag. ann. 95: n. iv. d See the chapter of Dion Cassius, in the next volume. Sed alio quoque injuriarum titulo expostulamur, et infructuosi in negotiis dicimur. Tert. Ap. cap. 42.

Cum autem hunc Flavium Clementem contemtissimæ

inertiæ hominem vocat Suetonius, eo ipso Christianum fuisse demonstrat. De quo injuriæ in Christianos titulo, quod inertes, et inutiles, et infructuosi dicerentur, Tertull. Ap. cap. 42. Torrent. in Sueton. loc.

Vid. Sueton. Vespas. cap. 12. et Vitell. cap. 15. Tacit. Hist. 1. 3. cap. 65. Eutrop. 1. 7. cap. 18. Victor. de Cæs. cap. viii. Joseph. de B. J. 1. 4. cap. x. sect. 3. Conf. ib. cap. xi.

sect. 4.

Suetonius assures us that Domian had publicly declared the sons of this Clement to be his successors, and he changed their names, calling the one Vespasian, and the other Domitian.' Undoubtedly, they are the two young persons whom Domitian had committed to the care and institution of Quintilian; who calls them the grand-children of Domitian's sister.' Domitian's only sister, Domitilla, died before Vespasian came to the empire, as we learn from 'Suetonius: but she must have left a daughter of the same name, whose sons therefore were her grand-sons. What became of them afterwards we are not informed.

Finally, Dion Cassius, in the place above cited, calls Clement consul. Suetonius says, he was put to death on a sudden, when he was just out of his consulship.' But there is no disagreement between them in this; for the ordinary consuls did not then serve out the whole year, but others were substituted in their room, after a few months, or a less space. However, the year was still reckoned with the names of the ordinary consuls, and they preserved the title throughout the whole year; Clement therefore was still consul, though another, or several, one after another, had been substituted. As before said, Clement was put to death in 95, the year of his consulship.

VI. We have seen so many things in Suetonius, that it may not be improper to recapitulate; for he bears witness to the expulsion of the Jews and Christians out of Rome in the reign of Claudius; to the persecution of the Christians in the time of Nero; to the Jewish war, and the reduction of Judea by Vespasian and Titus, and therein is a witness to the accomplishment of our Saviour's predictions concerning the calamities coming upon that people. He likewise mentions the death of Flavius Clement, which we suppose to have happened in the time of Domitian's persecution of the Christians.

To all these things does Suetonius bear testimony, who is an historian of the best credit, and lived at the end of the first, and the beginning of the second, century.

Our next author will be the younger Pliny, at the beginning of the second century.

I have placed Suetonius before him, and in this volume, because his testimony has a near affinity with the particulars mentioned by Tacitus, and the two other last mentioned writers.