This Acilius Glabrio was also a Christian. The researches and discoveries of De Rossi and Marruchi in the older portion of the vast Catacomb of S. Priscilla have conclusively proved this.
There was another reason, however, for Domitian's special hatred of the Christian sect. The Emperor was a vigilant censor, and an austere guardian of the ancient Roman traditions. In this respect he has with some justice been cited as pursuing the same policy as did his great predecessor Augustus, and, like him, he looked on the imperial cultus[1] as part of the State religion. Domitian felt that these ancient traditions which formed a part of Roman life were compromised by the teaching and practices of the Christian sect. No doubt this was one of the principal reasons which influenced him in his active persecution of the followers of Jesus.
But although he struck at some of the noblest and most highly placed in the Empire, especially, as it seems, those suspected of being members of the hated sect, he appears to have vented his fury also upon many who belonged to the lower classes of the citizens. Juvenal in a striking passage evidently alludes to his pursuit of these comparatively unknown and obscure ones, and traces the unpopularity which eventually led to his assassination to this persecution of the poor nameless citizen.[2]*
- ↑ "Domitian loved to be identified with Jupiter, and to be idolized as the Divine Providence in human form; and it is recorded that Caligula, Domitian, and Diocletian were the three Emperors who delighted to be styled dominus et deus."
- ↑ He struck (says the Roman poet), without exciting popular indignation,
at the illustrious citizen:
"Tempora sævitiæ, claras quibus abstulit Urbi
Illustresque animas impune, et vindice nullo."But when his rage touched the people—he fell:
"Sed periit, postquam cerdonibus esse timendus cœperat". . . (Juvenal, iv. 151-4).
The word cerdones included the poorest and humblest artisans. The word is commonly translated "cobblers"—French savetiers; it is usually applied to the slave class, or to those engaged in the poorest industries.
Allard (Histoire des Persécutions, i. 11, chap. iv.) considers that the disgust and pity of the populace when they saw the horrible cruelties practised in the celebrated games of Nero in A.D. 64, were partly owing to the indignation
