TABLE II.—

Rome.

Death of Nero; Civil Famine and floods at war, 68.

Rome, 68-69.

Galba, Otho, Vitellius, 69; Vespasian, 69-79.

Apollonius of Tyana.

Revolt of Civilis in
Germany, c. 70.

71

Rhetoric-teachers en-
dowed in Rome.

Dacian revolts.

Herculaneum and Pom- Rabbi Jochanan (d. 100). Bethar, a Jewish centre.

peii destroyed, 79.

Josephus resident in
Rome, 70-100.

A false Nero among

Parthians, c. 88.

Synod of Jamnia, 90: John in Ephesus.
Settlement of OT

canon.

Eleazar ben Hyrcanos.

Growing antipathy of
Jews and Christians.
Menander, disciple

Pliny's "Panegyric," | Eleazar ben Azarja.
Eleazar ben Zadok.

100.

Cerinthus.

Polykarp in Smyrna.

John the Presbyter. of Simon Magus.

Epiktetus, banished from Tacitus,
Rome to Nikopolis,89 A.D.

TABLE III.-100-190 A.D.

In the eyes of the Pagan historian, the period from the accession of Nerva, in 96 A.D., to the death of Marcus Aurelius, in 180 A.D., is memorable as a period of uniform good government, of rapidly advancing humanity, of great legislative reforms, and of a peace which was very rarely seriously broken. To the Christian historian it is still more remarkable, as one of the most critical periods in the history of his faith. The Church entered into it considerable indeed, as a sect, but not large enough to be reckoned an important power in the Empire. It emerged from it so increased in its numbers, aud so extended in its ramifications, that it might fairly defy the most formidable assaults.—

Lecky.

After the silver age which ended nobly with Tacitus and the younger Pliny, Latin pagan literature almost ceases to exist; and the falling off in the form is not more striking than in the value and quality of the contents. All superstitions revived and flourished apace in the ever-waning light of knowledge. A shudder of religious awe ran through the Roman world, and grew more sombre and searching with the progressive gloom and calamities of the time. A spirit wholly different from the light-hearted scepticism of the Augustan age and later Republic stirred men's hearts, and the strongest minds did not escape it.-Cotter Morison.

Parallel mit dem langsamen Einströmen des griechisch - philosophischen Elements gingen auf der ganzen Linie Versuche, die man kurzweg als "akute Hellenisierung" bezeichnen kann. Sie bieten uns das grossartigste geschichtliche Schauspiel; in jener Epoche selbst aber waren sie die furchtbarste Gefahr. Das zweite Jahrhundert ist das Jahrhundert der Religionsmischung, der Theokrasie, wie kein anderes vor ihm. In diese sollte das Christentum als ein Element neben anderen, wenn auch als das wichtigste, hineingezogen werden. Jener "Hellenismus," der das versuchte, hatte bereits alle Mysterien, die orientalische Kultweisheit, das Sublimste und das Absurdeste, an sich gezogen und es durch das nie versagende Mittel der philosophischen, d. h. der allegorischen Deutung in ein schimmerndes Gewebe versponnen.

er sich-man muss sich so ausdrücken-auf die christliche Verkündigung. — Nun stürzte

Harnack.

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