146 4 The Père Lestocq, tom. ii. pp. 46-60.
147 5 This word is italicized by Gibbon.
149 7 Inst., i. 1 and vii. 27.
151 9 Now (1880) a thousand years old.
152 10 Diarium Italicum, p. 409.
153 11 "Except Isaeus," says Gibbon, who refers to the edition of our author by Dufresnoy, tom. i. p. 596.
1 [Not "the persecutors," but only some of them. This treatise is, in fact, a most precious relic of antiquity, and a striking narrative of the events which led to the "conversion of the Empire," so called. Its historical character is noted by Gibbon, D. and F., vol. ii. 20, n. 40.]
3 [Let any one who visits Rome stand before the Arch of Constantine, and, while he looks upon it (as the mark of an epoch), let him at the same time behold the Colosseum close at hand, and there let him recall this noble chapter.]
6 [St. Peter, as a Jew, could be thus dealt with; St. Paul, as a Roman, was beheaded. See p. 120, note 7, supra.]
7 [Note the incredulity of Lactantius. But see vol. iv. p. 219.]
8 [See especially vol. iv. p. 141 for the intermediary pauses of persecutions, while yet in many places Christians "died daily."]
9 [Most noteworthy in corroboration of the earlier Fathers.]
10 [Jer. xxii. 19 and xxxvi. 30.]
11 [See p. 12, note 1, supra.]
12 [On which see cap. 20, infra, and preceding chapters.]
13 [Nothing easier than for these to pretend such a difficulty, in order to incite the emperor to severities. They may have found it convenient to represent the sign of the cross as the source of their inability to give oracles.]
14 [A just statement of Diocletian's earlier disposition. See. vol. vi. p. 158, the beautiful letter of Theonas.]
17 [That it had become in some degree popular, see evidence, vol. vi. pp. 158-160.]
18 [Truly an eloquent passage, and a tribute to Constantius, which Constantine, in filial humour, must have relished.]