III. Thirdly, It is intimated, that it was unlawful to scourge a Roman: which thing is also taken notice of in the account of the treatment of Paul and Silas at Philippi, Acts xvi. 22-37. Cicero says, it was a crime to bind or whip a Roman citizen. It is one of his charges against Verres, that he had openly whipped a Roman at Messina who had claimed the privilege of the city, and when they were going to inflict this punishment upon him, cried out to the officers; (much after the same manner that Paul is said to have done ;) I am a Roman citizen. Here again it is to be observed, that a citizen of Rome, if he had committed a fault that deserved it, might be beaten with a stick, but might not be whipped with rods.i

IV. But it was more especially unlawful to punish a man uncondemned, or before he had been convicted. This the magistrates at Philippi did, but they soon repented of it. It is said to have been one of the laws of the twelve tables, that no man should be put to death before he had been tried. According to Dionysius, this was a law among the Romans long before the twelve tables were composed. Indeed I think, it must be a law with all people who have any sense of justice or equity. Cicero lays it down as an undoubted maxim, that no sentence of condemnation ought to be pronounced before a cause had been heard.m

V. From Lysias's order to examine St. Paul, and from other things done by him at Jerusalem, it may be inferred that he had there some sort of jurisdiction. It appears from a passage alleged by me above" from Marcianus, that it was usual for presidents of provinces to delegate part of 8 Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum, scelus verberari. In Verr. I. v. n. 170. h Cædebatur virgis in medio foro Messanæ civis Romanus, judices; cum interea nullus gemitus, nulla vox alia istius miseri, inter dolorem crepitumque plagarum audiebatur, nisi hæc, civis Romanus sum. Hac se commemoratione civitatis omnia verbera depulsurum cruciatumque a corpore dejecturum arbitrabatur. Ibid. n. 162. O nomen dulce libertatis! O jus eximium nostræ civitatis! O lex Porcia, legesque Sempronia!

-Huccine tandem omnia reciderunt, ut civis Romanus, in provincia populi Romani, deligatus in foro virgis cæderetur? n. 163. Oblitosne igitur hos putatis esse, quemadmodum sit iste solitus virgis plebem Romanam concidere? In Verr. lib. i. n. 122. Ex quibus causis liber fustibus

cæditur, ex his servus flagillis cædi. Lib. x. in pr. ff. de pœnis.

* Interfici indemnatum quemcunque hominem, etiam xii. tabularum decreta vetuerant. Hæc Salvianus episcopus Massiliensis de judicio et providentiâ. Fragment. xii. Tab. Tit. 27. sect. 1.

Τες νόμες παρεχόμενοι τες εκ εώντας ακριτον αποκτείνειν εδενα. Antig. Rom. lib. iii. cap. 22. p. 153. v. 7.

m Nam, causa cognitâ, multi possunt absolvi; incognitâ quidem condemnari nemo potest. In Verr. lib. i. n. 25.

" P. 77. note f

their power and authority to under officers. For this reason Cicero advises his brother, then president of Asia, not only to observe himself the rules of justice, but to have a strict eye upon all the ministers of his government, and to be very circumspect in the choice of persons to whom he committed any power. And it appears from a passage of Josephus already a transcribed, that there were at Cæsarea officers under Felix who had the power of whipping offenders.

I have in answer to Tertullus's accusation given Lysias' a great character. But perhaps some may think, that this order for examining St. Paul by scourging is unjustifiable. They may be of opinion, that here were not sufficient grounds of suspicion to put him to the question. To this I say: If I should here abandon Lysias, my apology for him will in some respect be strengthened by it. If Lysias here strained a point in complaisance to the Jewish multitude, and bore too hard upon his prisoner, Tertullus's complaints will appear the more unreasonable. But I am still inclined to think that Lysias acted honestly herein. Paul was a stranger to him, and he could not but pay some regard to the vehement and general clamour of the people of the city in which he resided, and which was the metropolis of the province. Any man in the same case with Lysias would have been apt to conclude, that Paul must have committed some offence or other when" they cried so against him." The method of inquiry he had appointed was not fit to be practised upon a Roman; but Lysias did not then know that Paul was a Roman. In other respects it must have been unexceptionable; for I cannot but think, it was a more gentle way of examining than some others then in

use.

VI. After St. Paul had been beaten at Philippi, he complained of the injustice done him because he was a Roman. As they were binding him at Jerusalem, he claimed the privilege as a Roman citizen, and it was granted him; for it follows: "When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou dost, for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came, and said unto him; Tell me, art thou a Roman ? He said,

Nequaquam satis esse, ipsum hasce habere virtutes, sed esse circumspiciendum diligenter, ut in hac custodia provinciæ non te unum, sed omnes ministros imperii tui, sociis, et civibus et reipublicæ præstare vidcare. Ad. Quint. Fratr. lib. i. cap. 3. P Sed si quis est, in quo jam offenderis, de quo aliquid senseris; huic nihil credideris, nullam partem existimationis tuæ commisseris. Ibid. cap. 4 a P. 184. P. 73.

Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him," Acts xxii. 26—29.

St. Paul therefore does expressly affirm that he was a Roman. Nor ought it to be thought strange that a Jew should be a citizen of Rome. There were many such instances about this time. Julius Cæsar bestowed the freedom of the city upon Antipater, the father of Herod the Great, in consideration of services he had done him. Philo says that there were a great number of Jews in Augustus's time at Rome, who had been taken captives and carried thither, and who had obtained their freedom from their masters. Josephus complains loudly, as well as very justly, of Florus the last procurator of Judea, That he had been guilty of an unheard of cruelty, and what had never been done before, when he whipped before his tribunal, • and crucified, men of the equestrian rank. For, says he, though their extraction was Jewish, their quality" was Roman.' And our historian Josephus, who was a Jewish priest, received the freedom of the city from Vespasian after the war was finished, as he has assured us himself."

W

But though there is no improbability but that St. Paul might be a Roman citizen, yet it has been a question how he came by this privilege. Some learned men are of opinion that Tarsus was a Roman colony, and that St. Paul was therefore a citizen of Rome by virtue of his nativity at Tarsus. But it will be worth our while to take a view of St. Luke's account of this matter. Lysias took Paul out of the hands of the Jews. "And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek? Art thou not that Egyptian-? But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.' Acts xxi. 37-39. In his speech, St. Paul tells the Jews, "I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia," chap. xxii. 3.

Πολιτεια τε αυτόν τη Ρωμαίων ετιμησεν.
De Legat. p.

" Ων ει και το γενος Ιεδαίων, αλλα το γεν

Bell. lib. ii. cap. 14. fin.

Joseph. de Bell. lib. i. p. 978. ν. 1014. C. E.

αξιωμα Ρωμαϊκον ην. Jos. de De Vitâ, p. 945. 28.

"Baron. Ann. A. 58. n. 147, 148. Hamm. ad Acts xxii. 27. Tillemont Memoir. Ecclesi. Witsius de Vita Pauli, sect. 1. n. 6.

When the people had interrupted Paul's speech," the chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging," ch. xxii. 23, 24. The chief captain therefore did not suspect as yet that Paul was a citizen of Rome, though he had been told by Paul he was of Tarsus. St. Paul had also said the same thing at the beginning of his speech to the Jews: but I do not insist upon that; for though it is likely the chief captain stood by, I suppose he did not understand Paul, his speech being made in the Hebrew tongue.

It cannot be said, that the chief captain bade that he should be examined with scourging, though he knew Paul to be a Roman: because Lysias does not appear to be one of those fierce officers, that have no regard to laws. Quite the contrary as soon as Paul had claimed his privilege, "then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him and the chief captain also was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him."

:

"Then the chief captain came and said unto him: Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea." If Tarsus had been a town of Roman citizens, St. Paul having before told the chief captain that he was of Tarsus, the question now put would not have been, Art thou a Roman? but, Art thou really of Tarsus?

The sequel of this discourse affords more proof. "The chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom." Lysias having purchased this privilege with a great sum, and observing nothing considerable in Paul's person or mien, and supposing therefore that he had no money to spare, he still makes a doubt of the truth of his claim. This answer of Lysias had been altogether impertinent, if Tarsus had been a town of Roman citizens. "And Paul said, But I was free born:" a plain indication that it was a privilege derived to him from his parents. And on this account the opposition between the chief captain's purchase and Paul's free birth is strong and beautiful. If Paul's freedom had been owing to his nativity in any place, the place would certainly have been mentioned in this conference between him and Lysias.

And it is observable, that St. Luke has often mentioned Tarsus, but never calls it a colony or municipium, as he would have done in all probability if it had been so. Upon the whole I think it very plain, that St. Luke does not suppose Paul to have been a Roman by virtue of his birth at Tarsus.

6

Let us now consider the external evidence, and inquire what privileges the Roman or Greek authors ascribe to Tarsus. Strabo says, the people of Tarsus were much given to the study of philosophy, and all other parts of polite literature: That Tarsus was very populous, and reckoned 'the metropolis of the country ;'* but he no where says it was a colony or municipium. It has been thought by some, that Augustus conferred upon them the honour of the citizenship of Rome, beside other privileges, as a reward for their attachment to the interest of Julius Cæsar, and as a recompense for the hardships they suffered from Cassius. But there is no proof of this. None of the authors who have mentioned these matters say any thing of the citizenship. Appian says, that Mark Antony gave liberty and immunity from taxes to Laodicea and Tarsus, and ordered by a special decree, that all citizens of Tarsus, that had 'been taken captive and sold for slaves, should be yet set ' at liberty.' Lucian says, that at the request of Atheno'dorus of Tarsus, the stoic philosopher, and preceptor of Augustus, the city of Tarsus obtained freedom from tribute.' Pliny calls Tarsus a free city which is an incontestable proof it was not a Roman colony, for then he would have called it so. When Ammianus Marcellinus mentions Tarsus, he speaks of it only as a considerable city of Cilicia. Ulpian says there were two colonies in Cilicia; but Tarsus is not one of those which he mentions.d

a

6

Tillemont refers to Baron Spanheim's Treatise of Medals, as the source of the proofs he brings for the citizenship of Tarsus. But though the Baron did then suppose Tarsus had this privilege, yet, I think, the arguments he uses are no proof of it, as he himself was satisfied afterwards. The

X Τοσαύτη δε τοις ενθαδε ανθρωποις σπεδη προς τε φιλοσοφίαν, και την αλλην εγκυκλιον άπασαν παιδειαν, γεγονεν και τ' αλλα τ' ευανδρει, και πλειστ τον δύναται, τον της μητροπολεως επέχεσα λογον. Lib. xiv. p. 991. Α. Β. y Vid Tillemont. Memoires Ecclesiastiques: St. Paul, Article premier. * Λαοδικίας δε και Ταρσιας ελευθερες ηφιει και ατελείς φόρων, και Ταρσεων τες πεπραμένες απέλυε της δελειας διαταγματι. Appian. de Bell. Civ. l. v. p. 1077. ed. Amstel. Oct. 1670.

a

Αθηνοδωρος, Ταρσεύς, σωϊκος, ὃς και διδασκαλος εγενετο Καίσαρος Σεβασε Θεω, ὑφ' οὗ ἡ Ταρσεων πολις και φορων εκεφισθη, κ. λ. Vol. ii. edit. Amst. p. 473. Macrob.

a mari secans. Plin. l. v. c. 27. in.

b

Cydnus Tarsum, liberam urbem, procul

Ciliciam vero Tarsus nobilitat, urbs perspicabilis. L. xiv. c. 8.

a Est et in Bithyniâ (colonia) Apamena, et in Ponto Sinopensis. Est et in Cilicia Selinus et Trajanopolis. L. i. sect. 10, 11. ff. de censibus. e Ubi supra. f See his Orbis Romanus. p. 141, &c. The edition which Mr. Tillemont refers to of Spanheim, de Præstantiâ, &c. is the quarto edit. Amst. 1671. His Orbis Romanus was published at London,