CHAP. XVI.
their answers, soon convinced him that they were neither desirous nor capable of disturbing the peace of the Roman empire. They frankly confessed their royal origin, and their near relation to the Messiah ; but they disclaimed any temporal views, and professed that his kingdom, which they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual and angelic nature. When they were examined concerning their fortune and occupation, they showed their hands hardened with daily labour, and declared that they derived their whole subsistence from the cultivation of a farm near the village of Cocaba, of the extent of about twenty-four English acres[1], and of the value of nine thousand drachms, or three hundred pounds sterling. The grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion and contempt[2].
Execution of Clemens the counsul. But although the obscurity of the house of David might protect them from the suspicions of a tyrant, the present greatness of his own family alarmed the pusillanimous temper of Domitian, which could only be appeased by the blood of those Romans whom he either feared, or hated, or esteemed. Of the two sons of his uncle Flavins Sabinus[3] the elder was soon convicted of treasonable intentions; and the younger, who bore the name of Flavius Clemens, was indebted for his safety to his want of courage and ability[4]. The emperor, for a long time, distinguished so harmless a kinsman by his favour and protection, bestowed on him his own niece Domitilla, adopted the children of that marriage to the hope of the succession, and invested their father with the honours of the consulship. But he had
- ↑ Thirty-nine (
Greek characters), squares ot an hundred feet each, which, if strictly computed, would scarcely amount to nine acres. But the probability of
circumstances, the practice of other Greek writers, and the authority of
M. de Valois, incline me to believe that the (Greek characters) is used to express the Roman jugerum.
- ↑ Eusebius, iii. 20. The story is taken from Hegesippus.
- ↑ See the death and character of Sabinus in Tacitus, Hist. iii. 74, 75. Sabinus was the elder brother, and, till the accession of Vespasian, had been considered as the principal support of the Flavian family.
- ↑ Flavium Clementem patruelem suum contemtissimæ inertiæ ... ex tenuissiina suspicione interemit. Sueton. in Dornitian, c. 15.
