into Jerusalem y, be true, (and I can see no just reason why the truth of it should be questioned,) the fame of this alone would be a sufficient inducement to the Athenians to erect an altar to the God of the Jews. It is certain, that after this expedition of Alexander many of the Jews were taken into his army, the Jews and Greeks became better acquainted, the Jews soon spread themselves through Greece, there was a communication opened, and a frequent intercourse between Greece and Judæa, and leagues of friendship were entered into, and particularly between the Athenians and Hyrcanus the high priest of the Jewish nation, to whom, for the many kindnesses he had shewn them, they erected a brazen statue in one of their temples at Athens b.

The reason why they should give the title of unknown to the God of the Jews is sufficiently easy and obvious. The Jews themselves religiously abstained from uttering the name of God, so that no foreigner could ever learn any name peculiar to him. Dio says, that the Jews esteemed him approv, not to be expressed. For which reason the emperor Caius replied to Philo, and the Jews that were with him, "Ye are the god-haters, who esteem not me a god, though acknowledged to be so by all others, σε ἀλλὰ τὸν ἀκατονόμαστον ὑμῖν, but him that is un

66

y Antiq. 1. 11. c. 8. §. 5.

a

z Ibid. fin.

Antiq. 1. 12. c. 4. §. 10. et l. 13. c. 5. §. 8. Vid. Gronov. not. ad Jos. p. 44.

b Antiq. 1. 14. c. 8. §. ult.

Vid. Philon. Vit. Mosis, l. 3. p. 683, D. E. 684, A. B.

d L. 36. p. 37, C.

"named by you." Therefore Lucan and Trebellius Pollio call him incertus Deus: and doubtless the Jews always spoke of him as incomprehensible and unutterable. No wonder therefore if the Athenians should inscribe upon the altar intended him, To the unknown God. And most certainly the apostle had hereby given him the fairest opportunity imaginable to instruct the Athenians in the knowledge of the only true God; and with great reason told them, that the God whom they ignorantly worshipped, declared he unto them b

It is said, that among St. Paul's converts at this place was Dionysius the Areopagite i. The Areopagites were not only the highest court of judicature in Athens, but also the supreme council in affairs of state: men of the best families and fortunes, and

e

Leg. ad Caium, p. 1041, A. B. It is in our printed copies, Dequiσes, ye that are hated by the gods, but I think it ought to be read θεομίσεις.

h Acts xvii. 23.

Incerti Judæa Dei.

i Ch. xvii. v. 34.

8 Claud. p. 351. k So Meursius expressly calls it, Supremus omnino senatus erat; and quotes both Plutarch and Heliodorus to authorize the expression. Vid. Meurs. Areop. cap. 1. p. 5, 6. Our very learned archbishop observes, that the council of the Areopagites, though inferior to the senate of the Five Hundred in order and power, yet was superior to it in dignity and esteem, and therefore was called Bouλý. Gr. Antiq. b. 1. c. 18. p. 90. The senate of the Five Hundred were chosen annually; the Areopagites sat for life, or till some very gross misbehaviour. To shew what part they held in the Athenian government, I need only transcribe the words of Tully: Ut, si quis dicat, Atheniensium rempublicam concilio regi, desit illud, Areopagi: Sic, cum dicimus, providentia mundum administrari, deesse arbitrator, deorum. De Nat. Deor.

who had the fairest reputations, were usually taken into this court. And it may be, no court in the world was ever so illustrious and so highly esteemed as this. There are few or none of the ancient authors but make laudable mention hereof.

St. Paul, it is said, departed from the island of Melita, in a ship of Alexandria, whose sign was Castor and Pollux1. It was the custom with the ancient Greeks and Romans to place the image or picture of the deity, to whose care and protection they committed the ship, at the stern, and to place the sign, by the name of which the ship was called, at the head m. It is a It is a dispute among learned men, whether the tutelar deity were not also sometimes the sign, and for that reason placed both at head and stern ". n There are undeniable instances in ancient authors, wherein some of the heathen deities are placed at the head. And it is not very likely that such ships should have other deities at the stern, to whose tutelage they were committed. Of this sort is the ship which carried Paul to Italy. It had Castor and Pollux, two heathen deities, at

1. 2.

§. 74. And it is not seldom that he calls the senate of Rome by the name of this court: Romanæ autem se res sic habent. Senatus, "Apelos máάyos, nihil constantius, nihil severius, nihil fortius. Ad Att. 1. 1. ep. 14.

1 Acts xxviii. 11.

m Vid. Hammond. in loc. Virg. Æneid. 1. 10. v. 157, 166, et 171. Ovid. de Trist. Eleg. 9. v. 1, 2. Pers. Sat. 6. v. 30.

» Selden denies it. Vid. de Diis Syris, Syntag. 2. c. 16. p. 400. And Grotius seems to be of the same opinion, in loc. Salmasius in Solin. p. 403. defends the contrary, as also many other authors. • Vid. Herod. 1. 3. c. 37. Eschyl. Sept. contra Thebas, v.214. et Not. Stanleii.

the head P; and doubtless, if any 9, had the same also at the stern, as the tutelar gods, protectors, and patrons of the ship, these being esteemed deities peculiarly favourable to mariners ".

In the same manner is a ship, which used to carry corn from Egypt to Italy, described by Lucian as having the goddess Isis, who gave name to the ship, at the head. Vid. Navig. p. 665, C. et 669, A. B.

4 It is not certain that all such ships as bad their tutelar deities at the head had them also at stern. Vid. Not. Stanl. ante citat.

Vid. Hor. Carm. 1. 1. Od. 3. v. 1. et Od. 12. v. 27, &c. Ovid. de Trist. Eleg. 9. v. 45. Lucian. Apol. et Merc. p. 185, D. E. Max. Tyr. Iterum. Quis sit Deus Socr. fin. p. 173. et Not. Davisii.

CHAP. IX.

Roman customs confirmed.

§. 1. MOST of the Roman customs referred to are so well known that I need say little to confirm them. That the ordinary residence of the Roman procurator in Judæa was at Cæsarea, and that the Romans had a military force both at Cæsarea and Jerusalem, are fully evident from Josephus a.

That the Roman army consisted of legions, and that a legion was made up of a certain number of cohorts, as our army is divided into regiments, and every regiment into companies, and that a cohort was made up of six orders or centuries 1, over each of which orders was placed a centurion, is known almost to every one that has but heard of the Romans. But besides the cohorts, which were formed into legions, there were other cohorts separate and distinct from any legion, something like our independent companies, as is abundantly evident from Cæsar, Strabo, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Josephus. Such were cohortes urbanæ, cohortes prætoriæ : such, I take it, were cohortes colonica, mentioned by Cæsare, and the cohorts placed by the emperor Claudius at Puteoli and Ostia for the prevention of fired. Such confessedly were the auxiliary cohorts,

a

Compare Acts xxi. 32. xxiii. 23, 24. xxiv. 7. and Antiq. l. 18. c. 3. §. I. c. 4. §. I.

b Cæteri (centuriones) juxta suam quisque centuriam. Tac. Hist. 1. 2. c. 89.

c De Bell. Civ. 1. 2. c. 19. n. 4.

Suet. Claud. c. 25. n. 7.