writing."]

[Footnote 124: Claudius already had expelled the Jews from Rome and
included in their number the followers of Christ. But his edict was
not specifically directed against the Christians. Nero was the first
emperor who persecuted them as professors of a new faith.]

[Footnote 125: From Book III of the "History." The Oxford translation
revised. Pliny, Josephus and Dio all agree that the Capitol was set on
fire by the followers of Vitellius.]

[Footnote 126: Porsena did not actually get into Rome, being induced
to raise the siege when only at its gates.]

[Footnote 127: The capture of Rome by the Gauls under Brennus took
place in 390 B.C. The destruction of the Capitol in the first Civil
War occurred in 83 B.C., during the consulship of Lucius Scipio and
Caius Norbaius. The fire was not started as an act of open violence,
however, but by clandestine incendiaries.]

[Footnote 128: From Book III of the "History." The Oxford translation
revised. Near Cremona had been fought the first battle of Bedriacum by
the armies of Vitellius and Otho, rivals for the imperial throne, Otho
being defeated. A few months later on the same field the army of
Vitellius was overthrown by Vespasian, who succeeded him as emperor.
Vitellius retired to Cremona, which was then placed under siege by
Vespasian, and altho strongly fortified, captured.]

[Footnote 129: Antonius Primus, the chief commander of Vespasian's
forces.]

[Footnote 130: The modern Brescia.]

[Footnote 131: According to Josephus 30,000 of the Vitellians perished
and 4,500 of the followers of Vespasian.]

[Footnote 132: From the Oxford translation revised.]

[Footnote 133: Caligula, not Caius Julius Caesar, is here referred to,
he also having borne the name of Caius.]

[Footnote 134: Now Marseilles, founded by Phoenicians, who
introduced, there a degree of Greek culture which long made the city
famous.]

[Footnote 135: A brother of the Emperor Otho.]

[Footnote 136: Agricola was Consul in 77 A.D., and had for colleague
Domitian, afterward Emperor.]

PLINY THE YOUNGER

Born at Como, in 63 A.D.; died in 113; nephew of the elder
Pliny; Consul in 100; governor of Bithynia and Pontus in
111; friend of Trajan and Tacitus; his letters and a eulogy
of Trajan alone among his writings have survived.

I

OF THE CHRISTIANS IN HIS PROVINCE[137]

It is my invariable rule, Sir, to refer to you in all matters where I
feel doubtful;