Emperor. You know that our governors have strict instructions to avoid
an open break with their foreign subjects. To save the country from
civil war, Pilatus finally sacrificed his prisoner, Joshua, who behaved
with great dignity and who forgave all those who hated him. He was
crucified amidst the howls and the laughter of the Jerusalem mob.

That is what Joseph told me, with tears running down his old cheeks. I
gave him a gold piece when I left him, but he refused it and asked me
to hand it to one poorer than himself. I also asked him a few questions
about your friend Paul. He had known him slightly. He seems to have been
a tent maker who gave up his profession that he might preach the words
of a loving and forgiving God, who was so very different from that
Jehovah of whom the Jewish priests are telling us all the time.
Afterwards, Paul appears to have travelled much in Asia Minor and in
Greece, telling the slaves that they were all children of one loving
Father and that happiness awaits all, both rich and poor, who have tried
to live honest lives and have done good to those who were suffering and
miserable.

I hope that I have answered your questions to your satisfaction. The
whole story seems very harmless to me as far as the safety of the state
is concerned. But then, we Romans never have been able to understand the
people of this province. I am sorry that they have killed your friend
Paul. I wish that I were at home again, and I am, as ever,

Your dutiful nephew,
GLADIUS ENSA.

THE FALL OF ROME

THE TWILIGHT OF ROME

THE text-books of ancient History give the date 476 as the year in which
Rome fell, because in that year the last emperor was driven off his
throne. But Rome, which was not built in a day, took a long time
falling. The process was so slow and so gradual that most Romans did not
realise how their old world was coming to an end. They complained about
the unrest of the times--they grumbled about the high prices of food and
about the low wages of the workmen--they cursed the profiteers who had a
monopoly of the grain and the wool and the gold coin. Occasionally they
rebelled against an unusually rapacious governor. But the majority of
the people during the first four centuries of our era ate and drank
(whatever their purse allowed them to buy) and hated or loved (according
to their nature) and went to the theatre (whenever there wa