have heard of this event, then, about the beginning of February, U. C. 822: between which time and the death of Nero, U. C. 821, the interval would not be less than eight months. And this interval must have been taken up as follows. First, by the transmission to Judæa of the news of the death of Nero and of the accession of Galba; and secondly, by the journey of Titus from that country as far as Corinth in Greece; where he was at the beginning of February. In this case, we cannot allow less than two or three months to the former; and four or five months to the latter. IV. The death of Vitellius, according to Josephus, took place on the third of Apellæus, which answered in that year to the fifth of our November; but the news of his death did not reach Vespasian, who was then at Alexandria, before the close of the winter quarter1 and the same post, according to Suetonius, brought him intelligence of the victory at Cremona ; which victory was obtained October 19. U. C. 822. This was an interval of more than four months at least. At the time when Vespasian was apprised of this event, he dispatched his son Titus from Alexandria against Jerusalem; and Titus, having effected his march into Judæa with no delay, sat down to the siege of the city at the passover U. C. 823. or A. D. 70 m. The passover this year fell almost as late as possible, viz. Livy, xxxvi. 21. Plutarch, Cato Major, 14. B. C. 193, Cato the censor certainly travelled from Brundisium to Rome in five or six days but this was an extraordinary instance of dispatch. The usual length of the journey was ten days. Luce minus de cima dominam venietis in Urbem, Ut festinatum non faciatis iter. Ovid, De Ponto, iv. v.7. Brundusium decimis jubet hanc adtingere castris. Lucan, v. 374. which is in reference to Cæsar's march from Rome to Brundisium, U. C. 705. 1 De Bello, iv. xi. 4. 5. Tacitus, Historiæ, iii. 48. iv. 81. Suetonius, Vespasianus, 7. Cf. Philostratus, Apollonius Tyan. v. 10. 237. C. D. v. iii. 1. xiii. 7. m De Bello, on April 13". Titus therefore could not have set out from Alexandria earlier than the last week in March. V. The news of the arrival of Vespasian at Rome (who set out from Egypt while Titus was engaged on the siege of Jerusalem) was brought to the latter at Berytus when the siege was over; and his father's birthday, November the 17th, was at hando*. VI. The defeat of Cestius Gallus, U. C. 819, took place on the eighth of Dius; and the news of it was brought to Nero in Achaia; who dispatched Vespasian, as Vespasian did Titus, from thence P. Titus travelled by way of Alexandria, having made the passage in the winter season; so as to join his father at Ptolemais in the spring 9. The news of the misfortune of Cestius, then, must have been brought to Nero between the eighth of Dius, U. C. 819, (which in that year corresponded to the middle of October,) and January, U. C. 820: which was a three months' interval: and Titus must have arrived in Judæa, after travelling * Tacitus, Historiæ, iv. 53: the rebuilding of the Capitol was begun, U. C. 823, June 21, when, according to Dio, lxvi. 10, and Suetonius, Vespasianus, 8, Vespasian was at Rome, and must consequently have arrived by that time: yet Tacitus, Historiæ, iv. 52: he was still at Alexandria, sævo adhuc mari, which means until the middle of February at least. The latter, however, is at variance with himself, as well as with the two former, on this point for, lib. cit. 81, he supposes Vespasian to have continued at Alexandria until the setting in of the Etesian winds : which would be about the mid dle of July. But it is needless to observe that this very supposition refutes itself: as every one knows that an Etesian or North wind is almost directly in the face of a voyage from Alexandria to Rome: and no one who desired to sail with all expedition from the former to the latter, would think of waiting expressly for it. How far this discrepancy may serve to discredit the truth of the miracle, which it is pretended that Vespasian wrought during the time of his waiting at Alexandria, (which nevertheless has to a certain extent the countenance of Suetonius' testimony) I leave to others to decide. n Dissertation vii. vol. i. 333- o De Bello, vii. ii. 1. iv. 2. iii. 1. iv. 1. Sueto nius, Vespasianus, 2. P Jos. De Bello, ii. xix. 9. xx. 1. iii. i. 1. 3. q iii. iv. 2. vii. 3. by way of Alexandria, and consequently by sea, about the time of the month Artemisius, which would answer to the beginning of April, U. C. 820. VII. A decree of the Roman senate, in favour of the Jews, was passed on the ides of December, U. C. 707, in consequence of a command from Julius Cæsar. This command was given by Cæsar when he was at Antioch in Syria, after the Alexandrian war'. Now he was not at Antioch later than the end of July: since on August 2. he defeated Pharnaces at Ziela in Cappadocia s. The edict, therefore, had been issued originally in the month of July at least; and yet the Jewish delegates did not arrive with it in Rome before the month of December following. VIII. Ignatius was at Smyrna, on his way to Rome, when he wrote the Epistle to the Romans, τῇ πρὸ ἐννέα Kaλavdov ZETTEμßpiov, August 24t: and he suffered, according to his Martyrium ", immediately after his arrival in the city, on December 20. If so, he was three months, or more, on the road between Rome and Smyrna only. If the reader is curious to see more examples to the same effect with those produced, he will find them in the following instances. U. C. 544. Lælius was thirty-four days in travelling from Tarraco in Spain to Rome: Livy, xxvii. 7: xxvi. 51. Centesima lux est hæc ab interitu Publii Clodii, et opinor ultra quam fines imperii Populi Romani sunt, ea non solum fama jam de illo, sed etiam lætitia peragravit: Cicero, Pro Milone, 35. The day of Clodius' death was xiii Kal. Feb.: Ibid. 10. Epp. ad Atticum, vi. 1: between Cicero's writing to r Ant. Jud. xiv. viii. 5. s Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum, vi. 3. t Epist. ad Rom. x. Patres Apostolici, 869. A. B. u cap. 24. Ibid. 1001. B. Atticus, from Cybistra in Cappadocia, ad x Kal. Oct. and the receipt of Atticus' answer ad diem quintum Terminalia, was five months' interval complete. Ad Att. iv. 17, a letter from Ephesus written v Id. Sextiles was received at Rome not before ix Kalends of November and on this last day arrived also another letter from Gaul, on the coast opposite to Britain, written a. d. vi Kal. Oct. The decree for Cicero's return from exile was passed on the Kalends of June; his arrival at Brundisium was on the Nones of August, his daughter's birthday: Pro P. Sextio, 31. 63. Now, Pro Plancio, 41, his exile was spent at Thessalonica: so that it required two months and upwards to travel from Rome to Thessalonica and back, even in the summer season: Cf. Dio, xxxviii. 17, 18; xxxix. 6. 9: Plutarch, Cicero, 33. Philotimus, Cæsar's freedman, was at Rhodes on his way to Rome, May 28; yet he did not arrive in Italy until pridie Idus Sextiles, August 12: Cicero, Epistolæ ad Att. xi. 19. 23: Ad Fam. xiv. 24. 23. Cæsar was at Ziela in Cappadocia, Aug. 2, U. C. 707: yet, notwithstanding his characteristic dispatch, he did not set out from Lilybæum for Africa, before vi Kal. Januarias, in the same year: De Bello Africano, 1. 2: Plutarch, Vita, 52. Vitellius was declared emperor on the first of January, U. C. 822. News that the eastern army had sworn allegiance to him, did not reach him until the middle of June at least: so that it required five months for messengers to go to, and return from, the East: Tacitus, Historiæ, i. 52. 12. 55: ii. 73. 70. The embassy from the Seres and Indi, which Augustus received at Antioch, U. C. 734, was four years on the road: Florus, iv. 12. sect. 62.* * In the Codex Apocryphus, 91. Apostolicæ Historia, lib. ix. cap. iii. speaking of the journey of St. Thomas to India, the writer The ambassadors from Vologeses, sent about midsummer, U. C. 815, arrived at Rome, veris principio, U. C. 816: Tacitus, Ann. xv. 24. 12. 17. 'H de Tорeíα Èπ' avrà (that is, the walls, not of Rome, but of the empire as such) εἴ τις βούλοιτο ἰδεῖν, μηνῶν τε καὶ ἐνιαυτῶν ἀρξαμένῳ βαδίζειν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως : Aristides, xiv. 355. 1. 10.* This same writer, iepov Xóywv ii. Oratio xxiv. 481, ad principium-giving an account of a journey of his own, to Rome, from Smyrna or Pergamus, on which he set out χειμῶνος μεσοῦντος, makes it appear that though he travelled so expeditiously that even the imperial couriers did not outstrip him, yet he arrived at his destination only ἡμέρᾳ ἑκατοστῇ ὕστερον ἢ ἐκινήθη οἴKOOεV. It must be observed, however, that he was detained sometime by sickness on the road. Ut mater juvenem, quem Notus invido Dulci distinet a domo. Non ego cessavi, nec fecit inertia serum: Ultima me vasti sustinet ora freti. Horace, iv. v. 9. Dum venit huc rumor, properataque carmina fiunt, Factaque eunt ad vos, annus abisse potest. Ovid, Epp. De Ponto, iii. iv. 57. Dum tua pervenit, dum littera nostra recurrens makes it matter of wonder, that he accomplished that journey in three months, Quod alias trium annorum spacio vix expedieba tur. *This assertion is illustrated by Procopius, De Bello Vandalico, i. 1. in his description of the extent of the empire as it was under Justinian, or rather, at the time of the division of the empire into the two por Ibid. iv. xi. 15. tions of the east and the west, upon the death of Theodosius, A. D. 395. The computation is made in days' journeys. The same author, we may observe by the way, still reckons it a year's journey even by sea, A. D. 533 or 534. from Constantinople to Carthage and back: see De Bello Vandalico i. 10: the speech of John of Cappadocia to Justinian. |