or hostile ventures to impugn. It is from these writings that we obtain our knowledge of what was the condition of the Christians in the Empire.
There is no question but that doubtful "Acts of Martyrdom," many of which purport to belong to this period, i.e., from the last years of Hadrian to the death of Marcus Antoninus, have given colour to the theory which has found favour with certain writers, some even of the first rank, that, after all, the number of martyrs was but small. Recent study has, however, completely set aside this theory. In the first place, the scientific investigation of the Roman catacombs has shown that in many cases the heroes and heroines of the doubtful "Acts" were real historical. persons; and, secondly, a careful study of the fragments of contemporary writers above referred to, has given us an exact and accurate picture of the period in question,[1] and the largest estimate of the number of sufferers during this period which has been made is probably too small.
Most melancholy was the close of the brilliant life of the great Emperor. Shortly after the close of the Jewish war, Hadrian returned to Italy and settled in the magnificent and fantastic palace he amused himself by building in the neighbourhood of Rome at Tibur. The vast group of buildings and parks and gardens of the so-called Villa of Hadrian was a copy of the more famous temples, baths, and villas he had visited during his long travels. Egypt, Greece, Italy, supplied him with models. But the seeds of a fatal malady were already sapping his strength. He was a sufferer from dropsy in its worst form; his life, too, had long been enfeebled by his wild excesses, to which ever and again he had given way. Then the strange mental sickness, the fatal heritage of so many absolute sovereigns, came over him. Nothing pleased him; no ray of hope lightened his ailing, suffering life; the present and the future were both dark.
[Footnote: 1] No scholar is more definite here than Renan, who certainly cannot be regarded as one who would be likely to dwell with emphasis on testimony which makes for the ardent faith of the Christians of the first days. And yet this great scholar brushes aside all the theories which maintain that the Christian martyrs of this period were few and insignificant in number; no modern writer is more positive on the awful character of the persecutions between A.D. 135 and A.D. 180.
