Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/180

 162 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, torments; and their torments were imbittered by in- W'T. • " suit and derision. Some were nailed on crosses ; others sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs : others again, smeared over with com- bustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate the darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the melancholy spectacle, which was ac- companied with a horse race, and honoured with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the popu- lace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of the christians deserved indeed the most ex- emplary punishmen<^ but the public abhorrence was changed into commiseration, from the opinion that those unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the public v/elfare, as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant''." Those who survey with a curious eye the revolutions of mankind, may observe, that the gardens and circus of Nero on the Vatican, which were pol- luted Avith the blood of the first christians, have been rendered still more famous by the triumph and by the abuse of the persecuted religion. On the same spot^, a temple, which far surpasses the ancient glories of the capitol, has been since erected by the christian pontiffs, who, deriving their claim of univei'sal dominion from an humble fisherman of Galilee, have succeeded to the throne of the Caesars, given laws to the barbarian con- querors of Rome, and extended their spiritual jui'is- diction from the coast of the Baltic to the shores of the Pacific ocean. But it would be improper to dismiss this account of Nero's persecution, till we have made some observa- tions, that may serve to remove the difficulties with which it is perplexed, and to throw some light on the subsequent history of the church. p. 345.) and of the bisliop of Gloucester, (Divine Legatioa, vol. iii. p. 38.) But as the word convicti does not unite very happily with the rest of the sentence, James Gronovius has preferred the reading of conjuncti, which is authorised by the valuable manuscript of Florence. ^ J'acit. Annal. xv. 44, ' Nardini Roma Antica, p. 487 ; Donatus de Rnma Antiqua, 1. iii. p. 449.