Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/81

 iQcrease. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. G3 of the posterity of Abraham, who should have paid tlie c ll A 1', same homage to the Jupiter of the cai)itol, would have ^^- been an object of abhorrence to hunself and to his brethren. But the moderation of the conquerors was insufficient to appease the jealous prejudices of their subjects, who were alarmed and scandalized at the en- signs of paganism, which necessarily introduced them- ' selves into a Roman jjrovince^. The mad attempt of Caligula to place his own statue in the temple of Jeru- salem, was defeated by the unanimous resolution of a ])eople who dreaded death much less than such an idolatrous profanation ''. Their attachment to the law | of Moses was equal to their detestation of foreign re- ligions. The current of zeal and devotion, as it was contracted into a narrow channel, ran with the strength, and sometimes with the fury, of a torrent. This inflexible perseverance, which appeared so odi- Its gradual ous or so ridiculous to the ancient world, assumes a more awful character, since providence has deigned to reveal to us the mysterious history of the chosen people. But the devout and even scrupulous attach- ment to the Mosaic religion, so conspicuous among the jews who lived under the second temple, becomes still more surprising, if it is compared with the stubborn incredulity of their forefathers. When the law was given in thunder from mount Sinai ; when the tides of the ocean and the course of the planets were sus- pended for the convenience of the Israelites ; and when temporal rewards and punishments were the immediate consequences of their piety or disobedience ; they per- petually relapsed into rebellion against the visible ma- fice. Yet he approved of the neglect which his grandson Caius expressed towards the temple of Jerusalem. See Sueton. in August, c. 93. and Ca- saiibon's notes on that passage. B See, in particular, Joseph. Antiquitat. xvii. 6. xviii. 3. and de Bel. Judaic, i. 33. and ii. 9. edit. Ilavercamp. '' Jussi a Caio Cajsare erfigiem ejus in teniplo locare, arma potius sump- sere. Tacit. Ilist. V. 9. I'hilo and Joseplius gave a very circumstantial, but a very rhetorical, account of this transaction, which exci.ediiigly per- plexed the governor of Syria. At the first mention of this idolatrous propo- sal, king Agri])pa fainted away, and did not lecover his senses till the third day.