Of the empire

The system of communication The Denteronomie law regarding duties to the gér (Dt 116 2414. 17 ete.) belongs to a different category. t+ Jos. BJ m. ix. 5, Several of the stories in the midrdshim have to do with Jewish guest-friends in different lands, {See Table of Contents, p. 402, * Copyright, 1904, by Charles Scribner's Sons, 376 ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)’ ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT) in the world of the first century after Clirist was dominated and determined by one single motive, viz.

to seek direct connexion with Rome, the capital and centre of the Empire and of the world.

Within the bounds of the Empire, the principle of Roman Republican government had originally been to connect every subject, country, and district as closely as possible with Rome, and to keep them as much as possible disconnected from one another, so that each should look to Rome as the centre of all its interests, its trade, its finance, and its aspirations, and regard all other subjects as rivals and competitors for the favour of the governing city.

‘Though the ideal and the ultimate aim of the Imperial government was different, and did not tend to make Rome the governor of subjects, but rather to educate and elevate the subjects to equality with Rome by a slow but steady process, yet in the first century the older idea still was practically effective to a large extent, and governed the system of communication. Hence. the first point is to examine how each province of the Empire communicated with Rome.

Along the great arteries that led to Rome all new ideas and movements of thought and religious impulses naturally moved, without any definite purpose on the part of the originators, even per- ‘haps in spite of their intentions in some cases. It was, as a rule, an easier and more rapid process for .

a new idea to spread from a distant province to Rome than to spread from that province to its neighbour, if the neighbour did not lie on the road to Rome, or was not connected with the first pro- vince by some old bond of intimacy. Hence the fact, for example, that Christianity spread very early to Rome constitutes no proof, and does not even afford a presumption, that there was any purpose or intention of carrying it thither.

Such conscious, deliberate purpose can be proved only by some clear evidence of its existence, and espe- cially by deliberate statement on the part of those who entertained the purpose. For example, we know that the purpose of visit- ing Rome was distinctly expressed by St. Paul (Ac 19?!)

several years before he was able to carry it into effect ; and we can infer from the general character of his action that the purpose was in his mind, latent or perhaps expressed orally, long before the date at which he first mentions it in his extant letters. But even at that time Rome contained already a body of Christians, and St.

Paul’s aim was twofold — partly to extend the limits and affect the character of the Church in Rome, ‘to impart unto you some spiritual gift,’ and ‘that I might have some fruit in you also, even as in the rest of the Gentiles’ (Ro 11-18); but still more to use Rome as a basis frdém which to affect the West, especially Spain, ‘to be brought on my way thitherward by you’ (Ro 1574).

Just because Rome was the centre and meeting-place of all roads, it lay on the way for any traveller or mis- sionary going from Syria to the West: he could not go direct, but must transship in Rome. When one keeps this principle clearly in mind, the interpretation of Clem. Rom. i. 5 becomes evident and certain. Clement says of St.

Paul that ‘after he had preached in the East and in the West, he won the noble renown which was the reward of his faith, having taught righteousness unto the whole world, and having reached the furthest bounds of the West.

’ If Clement had caught the least spark of the Pauline and the Roman spirit and thought, he could not have called Rome (as some modern scholars maintain that he did) ‘the goal of the West’ or ‘his limit towards the West,’ 7d répua ris dicews ; and Light- [t is, of course, necessary for those who believe that St.

Paul ws put to death at the conclusion of the two years’ imprison-, foot has rightly expressed the general Roman point of view in that age, which looked on Rome as the centre of empire, not as its limit, nor as belonging to the Western part of the Empire. ii. SEASONS AND ROUTES OPEN FOR TRAVEL-