Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/333

 CHRONICLE.] of his age. In the persecution stirred up by Trajan against the Christians, Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, is crucified, being the same with Simon the son Ignatius, and of Cleophas; and Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, is brought to Rome, and exposed to wild beasts. Alexander, too, bishop of Rome, gains the martyr's crown, and is buried seven miles from the city in the Numentan road, where he was beheaded. Pliny the younger, of Novocomum, is the esteemed an excellent orator and historian: many of his learned works remain. The Pantheon at Rome, which Domitian had built, was burnt by lightning: the name was given it as marking its designation to be the abode of all the gods. The Jews are deservedly slaughtered for exciting sedition in various parts of the world. Trajan widely extended the boundaries of the Roman empire, which, since the days of Augustus, had been rather maintained than amplified.

A.M. 4090 [139].

Adrian, the son of a female cousin of Traian, reigned 21 years. Having become acquainted with some books on the Christian religion, through Quadrata, a disciple of the Apostles, and Aristides an Athenian, a man full of faith and wisdom, and Serenus Granius, one of his lieutenants, he enjoined by a letter that the Christians should not be condemned unless something criminal were laid to their charge. By a further slaughter he humbled the Jews, who a second time rebelled; and even forbad them to enter Jerusalem, which he restored to its best condition, and rebuilt its walls, and ordered it to be called Ælia, from his own name. He was learned both in the Greek and Latin tongue, and built a library at Athens of a wonderful structure.