ROMAN LAW AND HISTORY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Boman Law and History in the New Testament. By the Rev. Septimus Buss. (Rivingtons. 65. net.)—Mr. Buss gives us a very carefully prepared and useful book. The student of the Bible will find everything that he wants in the direction indicated by the title, The date of the Nativity is fixed at A.U.C. 749, and the difficult question of the " taxing" by Cyrenius fully discussed. Following on this comes a description of the Roman Government, with a detailed account of the provinces into which the Empire was divided, and of the dependent or semi-dependent kingdoms. The "Tribute," the " Trials" (1) before Pilate, (2) before the Roman Governors at Caesarea are discussed. The references in the Acts to Roman officials, as, e.g., to Asiarchs, are explained. That portion of the book which refers to St. Paul is specially interest- ing. Mr. Buss attributes the arrest of St. Paul previous to the second imprisonment to the persecution which followed the burning of Rome. It is doubtful, however, whether the force of this persecution was much felt at a distance from the capital. It was the discomfort endured by the homeless population of Rome which made Nero anxious to divert their thoughts from his own misdoings to the suspicions felt about the Christians. It is easy to imagine that the preaching of St. Paul, with a hostile feeling among the Jews, might bring him into trouble anywhere. We are inclined to think that the description of Livia as a " most hateful and unscrupulous woman" is a little too strong. Suspicions of poisoning were always rife in Imperial households. The charges against Livia as to the death of the two young Caesars, Lucius and Caius, may have been as unfounded as that of poisoning Augustus himself certainly was. Livia had every motive for keeping him alive, and he died at what was in those times an unusually advanced age,—he was within a month of completing his seventy-seventh year.. Vespasian and Nerve, neither of whom reached seventy, are spoken of as old men. We see in the list of Latin words AlYa. It is not Latin at all, and originally not Greek, but Oriental.
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