Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER XII.

AN­NAEUS SENECA to PAUL Greet­ing.

ALL hap­pi­ness to you, my dear­est Paul. Do you not sup­pose I am ex­treme­ly con­cerned and grieved that your in­no­cence should bring you in­to suf­fer­ings?

2 And that all the peo­ple should sup­pose you (Chris­tians) so crim­inal, and imag­ine all the mis­for­tunes that hap­pen to the city, to be caused by you?

3 But let us bear the charge with a pa­tient tem­per, ap­peal­ing for our in­no­cence to the court above, which is the on­ly one our hard for­tune will al­low us to ad­dress to, till at length our mis­for­tunes shall end in un­al­ter­able hap­pi­ness.

4 For­mer ages have pro­duced (tyrants) Alexan­der the son of Philip, and Diony­sius; ours al­so has pro­duced Caius Cae­sar; whose in­cli­na­tions were their on­ly laws.

5 As to the fre­quent burn­ings of the city of Rome, the cause is man­ifest; and if a per­son in my mean cir­cum­stances might be al­lowed to speak, and one might de­clare these dark things with­out dan­ger, ev­ery one should see the whole of the mat­ter.

6 The Chris­tians and Jews are in­deed com­mon­ly pun­ished for the crime of burn­ing the city; but that im­pi­ous mis­cre­ant, who de­lights in mur­ders and butcheries, and dis­guis­es his vil­lainies with lies, is ap­point­ed to, or re­served till, his prop­er time.

7 And as the life of ev­ery ex­cel­lent per­son is now sac­ri­ficed in­stead of that one per­son (who is the au­thor of the mis­chief), so this one shall be sac­ri­ficed for many, and be shall be de­vot­ed to be burnt with fire in­stead of all.

8 One hun­dred and thir­ty-​two hous­es, and four whole squares (or is­lands) were burnt down in six days: the sev­enth put an end to the burn­ing. I wish you all hap­pi­ness.

9 Dat­ed the fifth of the cal­ends of April, in the Con­sul­ship of Frigius and Bas­sus.