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APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS.
THE REVENGING OF THE SAVIOUR.[1]
In the days of Tiberius Cæsar the emperor, when Herod was tetrarch, Christ was delivered by the Jews under Pontius Pilate, and revealed by Tiberius.
In those days Titus was ruler under Tiberius in the region of Equitania in the city of Libia which is called Burgidalla.[2] For Titus had a wound in his right nostril because of a cancer, and his face was laid open as far as his eye. There went forth a certain man from Judæa, Nathan, the son of Nahum,
- ↑ The antiquity of this document is considerable, as it exists in an Anglo-Saxon translation. The Latin original is exceedingly barbarous in style, and probably much corrupted. The incidents, characters, and localities are introduced in utter disregard of history, geography, and reason. It would be a waste of time to point out all the absurdities of this narration.
- ↑ It might seem that Equitania, Libia, and Burgidalla, represent the more recent names Aquitaine, Albi, and Bourdeaux. But this opinion is opposed to the circumstance that a ship sailing to Rome was driven thither by a "north-wind." By Equitania I understand the African province of Zeugitana; for Libia I suggest Clypea; and Burgidalla I would reject as an interpolation by some scribe who thought Zeugitana meant Aquitaine, The last of these suggestions is at least favoured by the various reading which omits Burgidalla altogether. With regard to Clypea or Aspis, it was a few miles south-east of the Hermæan promontory, or Cape Bon, and some distance east of Utica and Carthage; the old town still exists under the name of Calibia or Kelibia. For an account of it, it may suffice to refer to Davis's "Carthage and her Remains," chapter xvi. I think we may expect any amount of blundering in a document which rests on a basis so unstable.
