held by the church of Rome, was originally Greek. The first Latin version of the Bible was not
made for Rome, but for the provinces, especially for North Africa. The Greeks and Greek speaking
Orientals were at that time the most intelligent, enterprising, and energetic people among the middle
classes in Rome. "The successful tradesmen, the skilled artisans, the confidential servants and
retainers of noble houses—almost all the activity and enterprise of the common people, whether
for good or for evil, were Greek."^508
Social Condition.
The great majority of the Christians in Rome, even down to the close of the second century,
belonged to the lower ranks of society. They were artisans, freedmen, slaves. The proud Roman
aristocracy of wealth, power, and knowledge despised the gospel as a vulgar superstition. The
contemporary writers ignored it, or mentioned it only incidentally and with evident contempt. The
Christian spirit and the old Roman spirit were sharply and irreconcilably antagonistic, and sooner
or later had to meet in deadly conflict.
But, as in Athens and Corinth, so there were in Rome also a few honorable exceptions.
Paul mentions his success in the praetorian guard and in the imperial household.^509
It is possible, though not probable, that Paul became passingly acquainted with the Stoic
philosopher, Annaeus Seneca, the teacher of Nero and friend of Burrus; for he certainly knew his
brother, Annaeus Gallio, proconsul at Corinth, then at Rome, and had probably official relations
with Burrus, as prefect of the praetorian guard, to which he was committed as prisoner; but the
story of the conversion of Seneca, as well as his correspondence with Paul, are no doubt pious
fictions, and, if true, would be no credit to Christianity, since Seneca, like Lord Bacon, denied his
high moral principles by his avarice and meanness.^510
Pomponia Graecina, the wife of Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, who was arraigned
for "foreign superstition" about the year 57 or 58 (though pronounced innocent by her husband),
and led a life of continual sorrow till her death in 83, was probably the first Christian lady of the
Roman nobility, the predecessor of the ascetic Paula and Eustochium, the companions of Jerome.^511
Claudia and Pudens, from whom Paul sends greetings (2 Tim. 4:21), have, by an ingenious
conjecture, been identified with the couple of that name, who are respectfully mentioned by Martial(^508) Lightfoot, l.c., p. 20. See especially the investigations of Caspari, in his Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, vol. III.
(1875), 267-466. According to Friedländer, I. 142, 481, Greek was the favorite language at the imperial court, and among lovers.
(^509) Phil. 1:13; 4: 22. The πραιτώριον embraces the officers as well as the soldiers of the imperial regiments; οἱ εκ τῆς καίσαρος
οἰκίας may include high functionaries and courtiers as well as slaves and freedmen, but the latter is more probable. The twenty
names of the earlier converts mentioned in Rom. 16 coincide largely with those in the Columbaria of the imperial household on
the Appian way. Comp. Lightfoot, Philipp., p. 169 sqq., Plumptre, Excursus to his Com. on Acts, and Harnack, l.c., pp. 258 sq.
Harnack makes it appear that the two trusty servants of the Roman church, Claudius Ephebus and Valerius Bito, mentioned in
the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, c. 63, belonged to the household of the emperor Claudius.
(^510) See above, § 29, p. 279, especially the essay of Lightfoot quoted there. Harnack (l.c., p. 260) and Friedländer regard the
acquaintance of Paul with Seneca as very improbable, Plumptre as probable. An epitaph from the third century was found in
Ostia which reads: D M. M. Anneo. Paulo. Petro. M. Anneus. Paulus. Filio. Carissimo. See De Rossi in the Bullet. di archeol.
christ., 1867, pp. 6 sq., and Renan, L’Antechrist, p. 12. Seneca belonged to the gens Annaea. But all that the inscription can be
made to prove is that a Christian member of the gens Annaea in the third century bore the name of "Paul," and called his son
"Paulus Petrus," a combination familiar to Christiana, but unknown to the heathen. Comp, Friedländer, III. 535.
(^511) Here Christianity has been inferred from the vague description of Tacitus, Ann. XIII. 32. See Friedländer III. 534; Lightfoot,
p. 21; Northcote and Brownlow, I. 82 sq. Harnack, p. 263. The inference is confirmed by the discovery of the gravestone of a
Pomponius Graecinus and other members of the same family, in the very ancient crypt of Lucina, near the catacomb of St.
Callistus. De Rossi conjectures that Lucina was the Christian name of Pomponia Graecina. But Renan doubts this, L’Antech.,
p. 4, note 2.
A.D. 1-100.