The Last Siege of the Jews after Christ

12. But the events connected with the apostolic succession we shall relate at the proper time. Meanwhile let us continue the course of our history.

CHAPTER V. The Last Siege of the Jews after Christ.

1. After Nero had held the power thirteen years,598 and Galba and Otho had ruled a year and six months,599 Vespasian, who had become distinguished in the campaigns against the Jews, was proclaimed sovereign in Judea and received the title of Emperor from the armies there.600 Setting out immediately, therefore, for Rome, he entrusted the conduct of the war against the Jews to his son Titus.601

2. For the Jews after the ascension of our Saviour, in addition to their crime against him, had been devising as many plots as they could against his apostles. First Stephen was stoned to death by them,602 and after him James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of John, was beheaded,603 and finally James, the first that had obtained the episcopal seat in Jerusalem after the ascension of our Saviour, died in the manner already described.604 But the rest of the apostles, who had been incessantly plotted against with a view to their destruction, and had been driven out of the land of Judea, went unto all nations to preach the Gospel,605 relying upon the power of Christ, who had said to them, “Go ye and make disciples of all the nations in my name.”606

3. But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella.607 And when those

obliged to suppose that our Dionysius lived to the good old age of two to three hundred years. The statement of Dionysius of Corinth that the Areopagite was bishop of Athens (repeated by Eusebius again in Bk. IV. chap. 23) is the usual unwarranted throwing back of a second century conception into the first century. That Dionysius held a position of influence among the few Christians whom Paul left in Athens is highly probable, and the tradition that later he was made the first bishop there is quite natural. The church of Athens plays no part in the history of the apostolic age, and it is improbable that there was any organization there until many years after Paul’s visit; for even in the time of Dionysius of Corinth, the church there seems to have been extremely small and weak (cf. Bk. IV. chap. 23, §2). Upon Dionysius and the writings ascribed to him, see especially the article of Lupton in the Dict. of Christ. Biog. I. p. 841–848. 597Upon Dionysius of Corinth, see Bk. IV. chap. 23, below. 598Nero was emperor from Oct. 16, 54, to June 9, 68 a.d. 599Eusebius figures are incorrect. He omits Vitellius entirely, while he stretches Galba’s and Otho’s reigns to make them cover a period of eighteen months, instead of nine (Galba reigned from June 9, 68, to Jan. 15, 69; and Otho from Jan. 15 to April 20, 69). The total of the three reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius was about eighteen months. 600 Vespasian was proclaimed emperor by the prefect of Egypt at Alexandria, July 1, 69, while Vitellius was the acknowledged emperor in Italy. His choice was immediately ratified by his army in Judea, and then by all the legions in the East. Vitellius was conquered by Vespasian’s generals, and slain in Italy, Dec. 20, 69, while Vespasian himself went to Alexandria. The latter was immediately recognized by the Senate, and reached Italy in the summer of 70. Eusebius is thus approximately correct, though he is not exact as to details. 601Titus undertook the prosecution of the war against the Jews after his father’s departure, and brought the siege of Jerusalem to an end, Sept. 8, 70 a.d. 602See Acts vii. 8 sqq. 603See Acts xii. 2 604See Bk. II. chap. 23. 605See chap. 1, note 1. 606See Matt. xxviii. 19. 607Pella was a town situated beyond the Jordan, in the north of Perea, within the dominions of Herod Agrippa II. The