Rome (Hastings' Dictionary)

The aim of this article is (1) to give an outline of the relations between Rome and the Jews during the period covered by tlie Scripture history ; (2) to describe the general aspects and life of the city at the time when it was first brought into contact ■with Christianity ; (3) to touch upon its associations with the names or writings of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. John ; and (4) with some of the minor characters mentioned in the NT. 1.

The first specific mention of Rome in Jewish literature occurs incidentally in 1 Mac 1'", where reference is made to 'a sinful root, Antiochua Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the king, who had been an hostage at Rome.' Political relations of a somewliat indefinite character were estab- lished by Judas Maccabxus in B.C. 161. By that date Rome had gained a position of unquestioniv' supremacy. The power of Carthage, which carried with it the control of the West, was broken at Zania in B.C.

202; the defeat of Antiochus at Magnesia in B.C. 190 made Rome arbiter in the East. A graphic picture of the reputation which Rome had created for itself in the East is found in 1 Mac 8''". It ascribes to the Romans some virtues in regard to which closer experience might have modified the judgment of Judas, and contains some inaccuracies in details, but is vivid and accurate in its spirit.

The valour of tlie Romans, the terror with which they inspired their foes, the support which they ga\e to their allies, tlieir victories over Spain, over Philip and Antiochus, the constitution of the Senate, the absence of all the outward insignia of royalty, their freedom from envy and emula- tion, are all set forth in -tt-ords of laudation.

On the strength of this conviction as to Roman power and policy, Judas sent Eupolemus the son of John, and Jason the son of Eleazar, to Rome with the view of establishing friendship and a treaty of alliance (1 Mac 8").

The object of Judas was to get rid of the Syrian yoke, and in accordance with its tradi- tional policy Rome readily recognized the Jewish autonomy in order to cripple SjTia ; but tliough they mutually pledged themselves to furnish a contingent if required, and not to assist any common enemy with ' victuals, weapons, money, or ships,' the treat'*' seems to have led to no de- finite action by either party. About eighteen years later, in B.C.

143, Jonathan, the brother and successor of Judas, sent representatives to Rome to renew and confirm the former alliance (1 Mac 12'-»-''). In B.C. 139, Simon, the brother of Jona- than, despatched an embassy, of which Numeiiius was the head, to Rome, with a great shield of gold, a thousand pounds in weight (1 Mac 14-*). The Romans graciously received the costly gift and entered into a formal treaty 'vvith Simon.

They intimated the fact of that alliance to all the powers with which they themselves were friendly, and called on them to hand over to the Jews any 'pestilent fellows,' i.e. any political refugees who had found an asj'lum witfi them. Details of the embassy of Numenius are given by Jos. (Ant. XIV. viii. 5), though by a launder he assigns it to a later date. (For the literature on this embassy see Schiirer, HJP I. i. 268).

To this date is prob- ably to be referred the obscure statement in Valerius Maximus (i. 3. 3), the authenticity of which is now generally acknowledged, that ' Cor- nelius Hisi^alus compelled the Jews, who had been trying to corrupt the Roman morals by the worship of Jupiter Sabazius (J" ZibdCth?), to go back to their own homes.'

If the reference be correct, it would appear that bj- some of the suite of Numenius attempts at propagandism had been successfully made (see Reinacli, Textes relatifs ait Judaisme, p. 259, note 3). Though we can point to no definite statement, it is probable that after this date many Jews found their way to Rome in pursuit of business (Griitz, Eistory of the Jews, ii. 67 ; Berliner, Gcwh. d. Jud. in Rom, p. 5). After his capture of Jerusalem in B.C.

63, Pompey carried many Jewisli prisoners to Romeag slaves. (See Libertines). The great majority of them ■would seem to have been \ oluntarilv manu- mitted by their masters or ransomed oy theit fellow-countrymen, for we find but a few yean later that a strong Jewish community was iu existence dwelling on the other side of the Tiber in I lie quarter corresponding to the Trastevere of today.

I'Vom its proximity to the wharves it was a suitable place for the trades which were carried on by the Jews, and the Jewish community rapidly increased in numbers and influence. In his deience of Valerius Flaccus — who was accused of appropri- ating the gold which had been sent by the Jews in Asia Minor towards the maintenance of the temple worship at Jerus. — in the rear B.C. 69, Cicero tiiakes many allusions which sliow that the Jews in Koine were a party wortli conciliating.

He speaks 9f their numbers, their unity, their influence in public gatherings. He pretends that he must speak in a whisper so that only the judges may hear, on the ground that there was no lack of persons ready to stir up the Jews against him and all the best men in the State (pro Flacco, c. 28). The verj' exaggeration of the scorn which he pours on their claim to be specially favoured of heaven (ib. c.

69) is a testimony to their grow- ing strength, as well as an index of the alarm which the success of their proselrtizing efibrts had created. Julius Csesar, perhaps from the idea that the Jews were specially htted to be inter- mediaries between the East and theAVest (Rosenthal in Berliner, p.

17), treated the Jews throughout the empire with great generosity; and we read without s-stonishment that conspicuous among the foreign races in Rome in their sorrow over the death of Caesar were the Jews, who, for nights in succession, visited his tomb (Suet. Dimis Julius, c. 84). By the time of Augustus the Jewisli population in Koine must have numbered many thousands. Accord- ing to Jos. {Ant. XVII. ii. 1 ; BJ 11. vi.

1) more than 8000 Jews supported the embassy that came to Augustus with complaints against Archelaus. For a time no repressive measures were adopted ; on the contrary, the Jews in Rome received special privileges in the form of a limited jurisdiction over their own adherents. The rulers of Palestine were often brought into close relations by friendship and alliance with members of the imperial house- hold. Herod Agrippa I., e.g., was brought up at Rome along with Dmsus the son of Tiberius (Jos.

Ant. xvni. vi. 1). From allusions in the Roman Satirists (Juv. iii. 10-15), as well as from the evidence of the cemeteries (see Schiirer), it is plain that the limitation to the Trastevere was not rigidlj enforced, and soon disappeared. From a story in Jos. {Ant. XVIII. iii. 5) it may be gathered that the success of their proselytism, especially among women in the higlier classes, was the main ground for the coercive measures that were subsequently adopted. In A.D.

19, perhaps at the instigation of bejanns, who accord- mg to Philo {Le(/. ad Gaiu7n, c. 24) was bitterly hostile to the Jews, 4000 Jews were banished to Sardinia under the pretext of being sent to put down brigandage there, but not without a hope that they might be cut off by the notoriously nnhcalthy climate (Tac. Ann. li. 85; Suet. Ti/>. 66). In the account of the embassy to Caligula in A.D.

40, we have a curious light thrown on tlie character of the emperor as well as on the attit\ide of the court to Jewish customs and beliefs (Philo, Leg. ad Gaium, 44-46). In A.D. 49 (or 52 according to some authorities), probahly on account of the tumults created by the preaching of the gospel in the Je>vish quarter (Suet. Claud. 25), Claudius issued an edict for the banishment of all the .lews from Rome.

Among those banished were Aquila and Priscilla, who went to Corinth, where they • The Identiflcatlon of the Chrietlam with the Jews wan not Ihe reffult of a mlBtake. They wwre Jews, and the ChriHtiane were rppinied tiniply aa a (cct, certaialy by ouUtidens, and In all probability they lo regarded thenualTe. The time of elaavtge waa not yet. came into contact with St. Paul (Ac IS').

But the decree of banishment was futile, for the Jews had now obtained a social and political influence that made repression difficult or impossible. ' The customs of that most accursed race,' says Seneca, — perhaps with an indirect reference to the influence of Poppffia on Nero (Jos. Vita, 3, Ant. XX. viii. 11), — ' have spread to such an extent that they are kept in every land ; the conquered have given laws to the conqueror' (Aug. de Civ. Dei, vi. 11).

And yet ' we may be sure that the proud patricians, who, in their walks on the Aventine cast a glance on the other side of the river, never suspected that the future was being made ready in that mass of hovels which lay at the foot of the Janiculum ' (Renan, Hibbert Lecture, p. 53).* The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 is commemorated in the well-known Arch of Titus on the Via Sacra.

The seven-branched candk-stick, the golden table, and the silver trumpets, delineated on the Arch, were themselves placed in the Temple of Peace in A. D. 75, but fell a prey to Genseric, and were landed safely at Carthage in 455. In 535 Belisarius re- captured them, took them to Constantinople, and since then they have completely disappeared. But it is fairly certain that they cannot be, as is popularly imagined, in the bed of the Tiber. 2.

When Christianity was first proclaimed in the Jewish quarter, Rome with its environa had far outgrown the old walls of Servius Tullius, and con- tained a population probably of IJ millions (Fried- liinder, i. 23 ; Champagny, Lcs Cwsars, iv. 347-353 ; Kenan, p. 53. Merivale, Hist, of the RoDians, v. 58, estimates it at 700,000).

Lauded by poets and orators as ' the queen of cities,' ' the home of the gods,' 'golden Rome,' ' the epitome of the world,' Rome even at the beginning of the Christian era was impressive mainly by reason of its great ex- tent, and not in virtue of any distinctive beauty or grandeur. The movement begun by Augustus to make Rome worthy of the majesty of the empire, led to great changes, and to the building of many palatial mansions, of ornate temples {e.g.

the Pantheon and the Temple of Apollo), and large basilicas for the transacting of banking and law, notably the Basilica Julia in the Forum com- menced by Julius and completed by Augustus. Great aqueducts are associated with the names of Agrippa and the emperor Claudius, bringing the water then as now chiefly from tlie hills of Alba Longa, and making possible the life that centred around the thcrmcB, corresponding very closely to the club life of our own day.

To what an extent this afterwards developed may be seen from the imposing remains of the Baths of Caracalla and of Diocletian. The patrician's day was divided be- tween the forum and the thrrmw. The I'^rum was now embellished on all sides ; the Triumphal Arch of Tiberius spanned the lower part of the ascent to the Capitol ; the palace of the Ca'sars on the Palatine, ' wnth gilded battlements, conspicuous far,' looked worthy of an imperial city (see Meri- vale, V.

18-48 ; Conybearo and Ilowson, St. Paul, ii. 449-^54). But notwithstanding all tlie changes that had been ellecled, down even to the great lire in A.D. 64, in the reign of Nero, Rome was built on no regular plan ; its streets were narrow and dirty, the houses, several storeys high, were flimsily buut • Two of the catacombs arc exclusively Jewish. One was dis- covered by L'.

osio on Monte Verde, and containi-d many Bla>»s with the seven-branched candlestick inscribed, ond one on which the word CYNAfOOr was jilninly lepible. The other waa dls covered In 1S69 In the Villa "lUndanini on the Appian Way, about 2 miles out of Rome (see CimUero dnili antteJii Ebrei, illuslrato da KalToele Oarucci, Roma, 1802). In It the candle. slick, the dove, the olive branch and the dove are the favourite emblems. Many of the Inscriptions have been removed to the I^ateran Museum.

There Is no authority for tlie statement, sometimes made, that the Colosseuni was erect«d by forced Jewish labour. 308 ROME ROME and often tumbling dow-n. 'The vici,' says Men- vale, ' were no better than lanes or alleys, and tliere were only two via?, or paved ways, tit for the trans- port of heavy carriages, the Sacra and the Nova, in the central parts of the city.' ( For a vivid picture of the shops and streets, see Martial, vii. 61).

It was desolated by frequent hres ; it was subject to earthquakes and inundations ; fever, as was plainly indicated by the many altars dedicated to it, was never absent ; the unhealtliiness of the site mani- fested itself ill the unhealthy pallor of the in- habitants.

Yet from the vastness of its extent, the density of its crowds representative of every nationality, religion, and race, from its being the natural treasure-house of all that was valuable and curious in the empire, from its being the centre of political and intellectual life, from the elaborate amusements pro\aded gratuitously for the inhabitants, it fascinated and drew to itself patriots as well as adventurers of all types.

' The rich man went to Rome to enjoy himselt, the poor to beg; the new citizen to give his vote, the citizen who had been dispossessed to reclaim his rights.' The rhetorician from Asia, the Greek philosopher, the ChaldiBan astrologer, the nia§:ician from Egypt, the begging priest of Isis, all jostled each other in the struggle for existence m the metropolis (Champagny, L 41 ; Strabo, V. iii. 8). The picture of Milton {PR iv.

36-68) furnishes a vivid if idealized representation of Rome as it would appear to St.

Paul and his fellow-travellers as they came along the Via Appia from Puteoli (Pozzuoli), and passing tlirough the Market of Appius and tlie Three Taverns (both as yet unidentified) entered the city through the Porta Capena, the Dripping Gate (,1/'-, ikla) of Martial and Juvenal (long since closed, but whose position was determined by the dis- covery in 1584 of the first milestone of the Via Ajipia, and since then confirmed by the discovery of tlie walls of the gate).

These may now be seen in the cellar of the Osteria della Porta Capena. All Rome is historic ground and of special interest to the student of NT times, for the places associated with the names of the apostles and their friends and converts are in many instances still to be seen, in some few cases unchanged since apostolic times. They will be treated of under the respective names. 3. When and by whom the gospel was first pro- claimed in Rome is uncertain.

As sojourners from Rome were in Jems, on the day of Pentecost, some of them may have been among the 3000 converts (Ac G'"- •"). St. Paul refers to Romans who were in Christ before him (Ro 16'). Many of the Jews who had been banished by the edict of Claudius were brouglit under the influence of St. Paul, and on returning to Rome swelled the ranks of the missionaries and converts there (Ac IS, '-'*, Ro Ig3-7.9.i2) Prisca and Aqnila should be specially noted in this connexion. In A.D.

59 (or 58), when the Ep. to the Romans was WTitten, there was in existence a strong Church, partly composed of Jews, partly of Gentiles. St. Paul hail for many years cherished a strong desire and resolution to see Rome (Ac 19=' 25", Ro l"'"). From the time of the Second Missionary Journey it had been quite clear to him that his mission was to the Roman Empire qita Empire, and all his subsequent move- ments are governed by this dominant idea.

Hence he goes to Ephesus, the door of the East toward the West, afterwards to Rome, and we find him purposing to visit Spain, the great province of the West. There is much plausibility in the view that his pu/pose in appealing to Cte.sar was to gain recognition for Christianity as a religio Ikita (cf. Ranisay, St. Paul the Traveller, p. 308) : and he apparently succeeded for the time being, for after hi? first trial the emperoc left Jews and Christians in peace. About A.D.

61 he was brought to Rome as a prisoner. Nero had already begun to disappoint the promise of the early years of his reign, and had given way to his un{ro\'ernable sava^erj'. For two years before his trial, St. Paul lived either in the praetorian barracks attached to the palace, or in the pr^torian camp (but see p. 33") in the N.E.

of the city, — in a place in anj' case where, in spite of his bonds, he was brought into contact with the freed- men and slaves who formed part of the household of Nero (Ph l'^4^) ; or in the house of the centurion, stUl to be seen beneath the church of S. Maria in Via Lata, at the junction of the Via Lata and the Corso (the Via Flaminia) (see Lewin, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, ii. 238, 239, and Appendix (I.) for a sketch and plan of the house).

There is no evidence be3'ond the name for the Scuola di S. Paolo underneath the church of S. Paolo alia Regola(t.e. arenula, from the sand deposited by the Tiber) near the modem Ghetto, but the under^ound chamber is unquestionably old. Neither do we know with certainty the spot wiiere tiie trial of St. Paul took place.

The Proitoriuin of Ph V3 ' is the whole body ol persons connected with the sitting in judgment, the supreme Imperial Court, doubtless in this case the Prefect or both Prefects of tile Prstorian Guard, representing the emperor io his capacity as the fountain of justice, together with the assessors and high officers of the court ' (see St. Paul the Trav. p. 35, and cf. art. Pfljetohicm). The Mamertin dungeon or Tuilianwn., under the church of S.

Giuseppe de' Falegiiaml, remains as it was in apostoUc days, though the stairs leading to the lower dungeon are modem. The only entrance originally was through the hole in the roof. Here St. Peter and St. Paul are said to have been immured during St. Paul's second im- prisonment. The outbreak of Nero's fury, which resulted in a renewal of hostilities against the Christians, led to the numerous martyrdoms in the garden of Nero (now partly covered by St.

Peter^s), where, amid sufferings of fiendish ingenuity, so many disciples sealed their testimony with their blood ('Tac. Ann. XV. 44 ; Suet. A'ero, 35 ; Kenan, llibbert Lecture, 70-9S ; Liglit- foot, St. Clement, ii. 26, 27). This was in a.d. 64-C5. About this time, or a little later, St. Paul suffered martyrdom by execution. He was led out of the city p.ast the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, along the Via Ostiensis, tlience along the Via Laurentina, to a spot near some springs, then known as Aqua S.

alviEe, now called Tre Fontane, and there, bein^ a Rothmi citizen, was beheaded. This fact gives point to his words in Ph 23 * obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross,' i.e. to a more degrading form of death than the apostle hinisell would have bec-n allowed to suffer. The site is fixed partly by an unbroken tradition and partly by local evidence.

It is a wild, desolate spot, almost uninhabitable through the prevalent malaria (the Trappist monks have of recent years redeemed it by planting eucalj-ptus), so that there would be everything against the invention of such a site for so important an event. This factor has very frequently to be borne in mind in judging of the likelihood or the reverse of a traditional site. Over the spot a memorial oratory was erected in the 5th cent.

, whose ' foundations were discovered in 1S07 beneath the present church of S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane, erected in the 17th cent., together with historical inscriptions in Latin and Armenian* (Lanciani, Pagan aiui Chriatian liottie, p. loti). Lanciani also quotes an interesting fact confirmatory of the tradition that the apostle was bche.aded under a stone pine.

The Trappists were excavating in IS95 for the foundation of a water-tank behind the chapel, and found a mass of coins of Nero, together with several pine cones fossilized by age and earth pressure. There is a continuous tradition, found first in Tertullian (Scorp. 16 ; de Primcript. 36) and in Caius of Rome (quoted by Eus. HE II. XXV. 6, 7), and repeated in varying fomis by lat«r writers, to the effect that St. Paul was buried on the Via Ostia.

Says Caius: ' But I can show you the trophies of the apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican, or to the Ostian ro.ad. you will find the trophies of those who have laid the foundation of this church." So that about the beginning of the 3rd cent, the prev.alent belief in Rome was that St. Paul was buried on the Via Ostia. The translation of his body, together with that of St. Peter, to thecatacomb of St. Sebastian, to the spot called Platooia, occurred later, in A.D.

258, probably owing to the Valerian perse- cution, "rhis seems to dispose of the ingenious theory of .Mr. A. S. B^men (St. Peter and his Tomb in /inmc), that the aposllM were buried first of all in the catacomb, and only removed to the Vatican and the Ostian Way after the persecution of Valerian had ceased, and therefore enables us to accept the earlier and more likely theorj- of de Rossi.

The tradition is that a certain Roman matron named Lucina, a disciple of the apostle, begged the body and buried it in her own garden on the Ostian road, at the s]>ot now marked by the Uisilica of S. Paolo fuori le mura. Lie Rossi has conjeclurally identified (and the identifica- tion is accepted by Lanciani and others) Lucina \vith Pomponia Gnecina, the wife of Aulus I'Inutus. the conqueror of Britain, of whom Tacitus (Annat. xiii.

32) records that she was accused of ' foreign superstition," was tried by her husband, and acquitted. Recent investigations have made it very probable that she was a Christian. An inscription was discovered in the 1 cemetery of St Callixtus, rrOMnONIOC rPHK«iNOa Th« ROME ROME 309 ■abeequeot and varied history of the famous ba.silica need not be detailed herr.

Suffice it to say that within the walla of that most glorious fane, into which the kings of the earth poured their treasure after the fire of 18;^, rests all that is mortal of the great apostle. The remains were enclosed by Constaiiline tn a bronze sarcopha^is, and Lanciani (o;j. cit. p. 167) relates that in 1691 he examined the grave so far as he then could.

* I found myself ou a Hat surface paved with slabs of marble, on one of which (placed ne;,'lit,'entlv in a slanting direction) are engraved the words, PAVLO APOSTOLO HART. . This in- ecription belongs to the 4th cent.,' and is, it will be observed, dedicatory and not declaratory. It is possible that ere long more will be known of this tomb and of the garden in which it stood.

Tlie Italian Government is constructing a sewer from Eome to Ostia, and the excavations will include the garden of Lucina. E. Stevenson (since dead) has recorded in an article full of interest, * Osservazioni suUa topografia della via Ostiense e sul cimitero ove fu sepolto I'apostolo S. Paolo' (Knovo BuHettino di Archeotcxjia CrUtiana, Anno iii. n.

3, c, 4, 1897), all that is known about the tomb up to the time of writing, and the Bulletlino will contain an account of any discoveries that are nude during the progress of the engineering works. On the possibility of the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul having been carried oil by the Saracens in A.D. 846, see Lanciani, Destruction ^Ancient limne, p. 129 fl. During his imprisonment St. Paul wTote the Ep. to Philemon, and the Kpp. to the Churches in Phil- ipjii, Colos.sjv, and Epliesus.

From Rome also was written tlie second £p. to Timotliy shortly heforo his martyrdom, in a.D. 67 (?) (For a discussion of questions connected with St. Paul's imprisonment, Bee Paul, and cf. Kamsay, Church in the lionian Empire, and St. Pauf the Trav. ; for tlie constitu- tion of the early Church at Rome, see Romans ; cf. Lightfoot, Philippians ', 1-27, 97-102 ; Hort, Chris- tian Ecclesia). The relation of St. Peter to Rome has been a matter of keen controversy. The general questions of St.

Peter's presence and martyrdom in Rome have been fully discussed in tlie urticle PETf;R, and there is now an almost unanimous agreement among scholars that the apostle suffered martyrdom in the eternal city, the only point of dili'erence being as to the date, some adhering to the earlier date, simultaneously with or shortly after the death of St. Paul, some (notably W. M. Ramsay and Swete, see Church in lioman Empire, p. 279 : St. Mark, p.

xviii) inclining to a later date, in the persecu- tion of Doniitian, but not later than that. What has been already said about the burial-place of St. Paul applies to that of St. Peter. His tomb in the Vatican Cemetery was well kno^vn in the days of Caius of Rome, and therefore anterior to the trans- lation of the body to the catacomb of S. Sebastiano. This has been recently questioned in an able book (cited above) by Mr. A. S.

Rames — a work full of interest, in its later parts dealing with the site of the tomb in old and new St. Peter's, but vitiated in the earlier chapters by an insuflicient review of evidence and many inaccuracies (see review by Rani.say in Ilonkmnn, September 1900). The site of the martyrdom is sometimes stated to have been where the ohelisk now stands in the centre of the piazza ; but this is inaccurate. The obelisk was moved when new St.

Peter's was built, and the true site is marked by a slab with an inscription (worn, neglected, and needing renewal) to be found in the pavement of the courtyard behind the sacristy on the north side of the present ba.silica. The sites of the sup[iosed parting of St. Peter and St. Paul, and of the Dvmine quo vadi.i? story may or may not be genuine. The chapels in both in- stances are moilcrn. The archaeological evidence Bupporting the residence of St.

Peter in Rome is strong, it should be borne in mind, however, that his residence there, if proved, does not carry with it the episcopate, nor, if it did, docs that involve the further claims of supremacy and infallibility. If Ramsay is right and St. Peter did not die till the lo-st quarter of the 1st cent., there is then room (though not at the period traditionally assigned to them) for the alleged twenty-five years' residence •n 1 work in Rome.

Two spots are locally connected with this tradition — the house of Prisca and the house of Pudens, on which see below. The question as to the significance of Babylon in 1 P 5" and in the Apoc. has already been discussed in a separate article. (See BABYLON IN NT, and add to the literature there given, Butcher, The Church in Egypt). At what date the name of Babylon came to be so used cannot be definitely determined ; but it was a familiar designation in the 1st cent, of the Christian era.

In 2 Es. (3' 15"), which Is now usually assigned to the age of Domitian, it is so used. In the Sibylline Oracles, v. 158 — written about A.D. SO, or earlier, in the judgment of Ewal*^ and Hilgenfeld — we find the words — icai 0X^fei irivroi' te jiaduv KaMji' Ba/SvXwfa 'IroXfas ydiav 0', In the Jer. Talm. (Aborfa znrn, c. 1) there is a curious pa.ssage to the ellcct that, on the day when Jeroboam set up the golden calves, Remus and Romulus built two huts at Rome.

The story is repeated with variations in the Midrash Rabba (on Ca P), and it is said that the huts repeatedly fell down, until water brought from the Euphrates was mixed with the clay, and the huts thus made stable received the name [I'^a^ -Dn. (Cf. Otho, Lex. Babb.) The general opinion even among interpreters of opposite schools is that Babylon in the Apocalypse (H" 16'" 17» 18, ">-2') must be understood as Rome.

The reference to it as the seat of universal empire (17'"), as the centre of a bloody persecution (17*), above all to the seven mountains (17"), shows that, whether we are to give a mystical sense or not to that which is signitied, Babylon stands for Rome. As the citj' of the seven hills, Rome is lauded by Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Claudian ; it is so repre- sented on coins ; it is so designated in the Sibyll (ii. 18, etc.)

; in the month of December it cele- brated the feast of the Septimontium, and, if a statement of TertuUian is to be trusted, Septi- vwntius was one of its many divinities (ad Nationes, ii. 15). The question of the visit of St. John the apostle to Rome Is one that is so far wrapped in obscurity. The lirst mention of it is in Tcrtullian (dc I'ra's. Uccr. :JG), who 5a>s : * Uhi Apostolus Joannes posteaquam, in oleum igneum deniersus, nihil passiia est, in insulam relegatur.'

The only other early notice of this event is found in the P'ragiiunta Folycatyiana (see Liglitfoot, I'jnatiius), which is, however, both of uncertain authorsnijt and date. The catena of which it forms a part was compiled by some writer later than Victor of Capua, 4SO-.'>rt4 (Lightfoot. op. cit. iii. 420ff.), This fragment rune thus : ' Idem ad ho^c verba Christi : Calicem meum bibetis, etc. (Mt 20-'].

Per huiusniudi potum signiflcat possionem, et Jacobum quidem novissitmun martyrio consummandum, fratrem vero eius Joannem trun- siturum absque martyrio, quamvis et alllictiones plurimas et exsilia tolerarit, Bed prjoparutam martyrio mentem Christus martyrem iudicavit. Nam apostolus Paulus, Quolitlie, inquit, morior : cum impossihile sit quotidie mori hominem ea morto qua semel vita ha;c finitur.

Sed quoniam pro evangelio ad mortem iugiter erat pOBParatus, ee mori (luotidio sub ea signifl- cutione testatus est. Lcgitur et in dolio ferventis olei pro nomineChristi beatus Joannes fuissodemersus.' Thetroditional site on which this confession of St. John took place is outside the Porta Latina (now closed). Hence the celebration in the Calendar of S. John ante PorL Latina. The church of S. Giovanni a Porta Latina was founded by Pope Adrian I. in 772, and the adjoining circular chapel of S.

Giovanni in Oleo was erected so recently as 1509. liut although there are no documentary records earlier than those cited, and no evidence for the existence of a shrine on this spot earlier than the 8th cent., yet it is hanlly a place likely to have been chosen unless there were some reasons (lost to us now) for the selection. It is out of the way, near no- where, and very inaccessible even to-diiy. So that there is no a fyriori groundfor setting aside the traditional spot.

Not without nterest in the same connexion is the dedication of the cathedral of Rome (oimiium Urb\$ et Orbi* KccUMarum matrr et caput) from about the 6th cent., ' to Christ the Saviour, and In honour of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist.' The earlier dedication was 'to Christ the Saviour' alone. It U ditHcult to resist the belief that probably at the time of the Neronian persecution, and for some cause and length of time as yet unknown to us, St.

John did visit the city of the seven hills, and thence, perhaps, derived his conception of Nero as the Beast from (as Reiian suggests, L'A nlich riti, p. 176) seeing the emperor ' disffuised as a wild beast, and in that disguise let loose from a cajje, and personating the furies of a tiger or a panther.' Cf. Suet. A'ero, 29. 4. Connected with the Apostolic Chnrch in Rome there were many whose names are mentioned in tlie NT, and with wliom associations remain in the city of to-day.

Chief among these are PrisCA and Aquila (which see). Plumptre claimed for them (Biblical Studies, p. 415 fl".) the honour of being tlie real founders of the Church of Rome. But certain it is that their house (Ro 16') was one, if not the only one or the earliest, of the meeting- places of the primitive Church ; and here St. Peter IS said to have stayed, for some time at least, during his residence in Rome. The church of S. Prisca on the Aventine Hill marks the spot.

The dedication to Prisca is older than the saint of the same name (Virgin and Martyr, commemorated in the Calendar on January 18th), whose body was placed there by Eutychus towards the end of the 3rd century. The original designation of the church is the Titulus Priscce, and even in the 12th cent, it is known as the ' titulus hcatorum Aqtiilm et Pnscce.' De Rossi has published accounts of two very remarkable discoveries made in the 18th cent.

The original oratory was discovered in 1776 in a garden near the church. It was decorated with frescoes in which the symbol of the tish and the figures of the apostles were clearly discernible. No attention was paid to the discovery, and the only record of it is in 'a scrap of paper in Codex 9697 of the Bibliothfeque Nationale in Paris, in which a man named Carrara speaks of having found a subterranean chapel near S. Prisca, decorated with paintings of the 4th cent.

A copy of the frescoes seems to have been made at the time, but no trace of it has been found ' (Lanciani's Pagan and Christian Rome). A few years later the ruins of an old Roman house were discovered close to the church, but oratory and house have alike now disappeared. Lanciaui gives an account of part of this latter excavation, which is important. 'A bronze tablet was found, which had been ottered to Gains Marcus Pudens Comelianus by the people of Clunia as a token of gratitude. .

The tablet, dated A.D. 222, proves that the house of Aquila and Prisca in apostolic times had subsequently passed into the hands of a Cornelius Pudens ; in other words, that the relations formed between the two families during the sojourn of the apostles had been faithfully maintained by their descendants. Their intimate connexion is also proved by the fact that Pudens, Pudentiana, Praxedes, and Prisca were all buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria.'

So that, in all probability, beside that lonely church on the Aventine must we look for the cradle of the infant Church of Rome. The recently excavated house of Pudens on the Viminal Hill is thus connected with that just described. Pudens, mentioned in 2 Ti 4^', in company with Linus and Claudia (see Pudens), has been the subject of many conjectures (see Lightfoot, Clement, i. 76ff., ii. 464; Farrar, St. Paul, p. 681), upon which Roman archfEology has thrown no light. The church, now called S.

Pudentiana (a later ignorant change from the earlier name 'the church of Pudens' — Ecchsia Pudentiana), has existed in some form on the present site from very early times. Pius I. in tlie middle of the 2nd cent, granted to Pudentiana, Praxedes, and Timotheus, daughters and son of Pudens, th: institution of a regnhar titulus, or parish, with a font for baptism. Here, too, were preserved some pieces of household furniture used by St. Peter during his stay.

Part of this, the old wooden table on which the apostle is said to have celebrated the Lord's Supper, was given by Cardinal Wiseman (who was titular of the church) to St. John Lateran. If it had been a stone altar or an elaborate piece of work, doubt would easily gather round it. But there is nothing per s» against the genuineness of the relic. The excava- tion of the house is still proceeding.

Together with the house of Prisca and the house of Pudens, both genuine memorials of the apostolic age and closely connected with St. Peter and St. Paul, should be mentioned the house of Clement beneath the lower church of S. Clemente near the Colosseum (see Lightfoot, Clement, i. 91 li'.)

This has been for many years Hooded with water ; but one of the present writers was privileged, by the kind permission of the authorities, to inspect it so far as possible this year (1900), and it is to be hoped that ere long it may be drained and once more opened to the archaeologist and the pilgrim. For its interest is that of the apostolic times, whatever view wo may take of the personality of St. Clement and of his connexion with the Clement mentioned by St. Paul.

There remain to be noticed only the catacombs and other funereal memorials of Rome bearing on NT times. The inscriptions, frescoes, and monu- ments have been mostly removed to the Lateran and Capitoline museums, and can be there studied with the help of such works as de Rossi, Northcote (though now somewhat out of date), Witherow, The Catacombs of Rome, and Malleson and Tuke's Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome, 3 vols, (the catacombs are dealt with in the first volume).

The exploration of the columbarium of the empress Livia has led to the possible identifica- tion of some of the names in Ro 16 (.see Light- foot, Philippians, Excursus). See also Nereus. Monumental evidence also confirms the tradi- tional friendship between Seneca and St. Paul. See L.anciani, Pagan and Christian Rome; Ranisaj', St. Paul the Traveller, p. 353 if.

Much still has to be done before our knowledge of Rome in the 1st cent, is anything like complete, and almost every day brings its news. The enthu- siastic band of Italian scholars, headed by Lanciani and Marucchi and Baccelli, is working hard, and great tilings are expected from the newly founded British School in Rome. The Bullcttino and the Nuovo Bullettino contain full records of all recent discoveries.

Among the researches needing to be made are those concerning the burial of other apostles in Rome, in addition to those already named, e.g. St. Timothy (in St. Paul's outside the walls), St. Bartholomew, etc., and a scientific sifting of the evidence concerning many of the Eastern relics (such as the Santa Scala) and remains.

In the case of the latter class the his- tory is fairlj' clear from the time of Helena onwards, but before that, which is the crucial period, it is all vague and unsatisfactory.

Professor James Orr, in his Neglected Factors in the Study of the Early Progress of Chrittianity (1899), has suggested two fields of inquiry — first, into the actual numbers of Christians in the city in the 1st cent, (on this the evidence of the cata- combs has yet to be examined fully, but the numbers apjiear to have been very much larger than is commonly supposed) ; and, secondly, into the social status of those who were drawn into the infant Church.

He has shoAvn very clearly that the poor were by no means the only members, and the evidence of houses like those of Pudens, Prisca, and Clement, of churches like that discovered this year (1900) on the very Palatine Hill itself (of as yet unknown date, but very early), all goes to show that then as now the gospel was universal in its power as well as in its claim, and that St. Paul's great Apologia in Rom.

aiis for the 'wisdom ' of God was addressed to the wise and leani»i an well as to the freedmen and slaves. ROOF ROOF 311 LlTERATt'RB. — See, besidea the works already mentioned, Bchiirer, Die Geinxndev«r/as8utuj dtr Jridrjt in Kom, 1879, UJF I. i. 231, I!, ii. 232 et ptuxim ; Berliner, fjesch. d. J\id. in Horn, Io93 ; Hollzmann, Aiusicdciuiuj d.'^ chrUtcnihuitu in Rom, lb74 ; Schmidt, Ajijunge des ChriaUnthuinv in dtT Stadt Rcnn, lb79 ; Friedliinder, Sitienrieschichte lioms, i. 1-183, iii.

506, etc.ClSolO; Kenan, Uibbert Lecture, 18iis;Ilild. 'LesJuifs Jl Kom,' In Jtev. d. ilt.JuiviS, 18^, etc. ; Uuidekoper, JU4fauf7n at Hume, 1876; the articles in Kiehui's UWD, Schenkel'a liHid.-Lez., Hamburger's /iA'. ;Lanciaiii, liuini and Excavations of Ancient Home; banday-Hea^llam, Koinans (Internat. Grit. Com.); de Bussierre, Let Sepl Basitiqueg de Rome ; Mrs, Jameson, Hacrt:d and Le'jendary Art, vol.

L ; Stanley's Sennona and Knnaijs on the Apontolic Age ; Murray's llandtook for Home, ed. I'ullen, Murray, Layard, and Lanciani ; iiiacdutf, FoottitepK nf ,St. Paul; I'lumptre, Excursus on the later years of St. I'aul's life, in Com- menlarij on Acta (^^T Com. for Knglish Readers); Gloag, Catholic EpijitUif, pp. 140-100 ; MuUooly, S. Clemente ; itamsay, Paul the StAtefimao,' in Conteinp. Rev., JIarch 1901. John Patrick and F. Relton. ROOF (J;, perliaps from a root meaning ' to cover,' .

Tiip [once, Gn 19'*, tr^ ' roof,' lit. ' beam '], Tin [' roof of the mouth '] ; trriyr)). — The most con- venient form of roof for domestic purposes in a dwelling-house is undoubtedly a flat one ; but the form of roof from the earliest times has probably been governed by a variety of factors, of which tlie most important are the materials procurable near the spot and the climatic conditions.

In northern climates, where wood is plentiful and the snowfall is heavj', a high-pitched roof of thatch or shingle can be readily made, and is a necessity. All around the shores of the Mediter- ranean Sea, where there is no snow and slight rainfall, and where timber can be procured, the most convenient form of roof can be economically constructed, and that is a liat one of some sub- stance impervious to water.

In more tropical climates, where the rains are exceedingly heavy and sudden, and the houses are for the most part of wood, the roofs again are usually high-pitched, and of thatch or leaves. In countries, such as Chakla-a, where there is little or no wood, the storehouses and places where dryness is neces- sary are built with thick w;ills and vaults with Hat roofs or masonry domes, and for the same reason the hou.'^es of modern Jerusalem are built with thick walls and domes.

The houses other- wise in Assyria-Chaldaja are flat-roofed. In Egypt, where timber is scarce, but where stone is plentiful, the roofs are usually flat, the roofs of tlie peasants' houses being usually lightly constructed, and resting on palm beams, while the temples and palaces were roofed with stone. Probably from the earliest times the same forms of roof have obtained in the same parts of the world, e-xcept that local circumstances have here and there interfered.

For the buildings of Nineveh and liabj'lon, as well as for Jerusalem, the cedars of Lebanon were made use of. In Jerusalem, in early days, the roofs were flat, and the scarcity of timber, necessitating domed roofs, appears to have been first felt after the siege of the Iloly Citj' by Titus. In early days in Greece the roofs were flat, and it was customary to walk ujion them. But pointed roofs were also used.

In Home the solaria, properly phices for basking in the sun, were terraces on the tops of houses. In the time of Seneca the Romans lormed artificial gardens on the tops of their hou.ses, which contained even fruit trees and fish ponds (Smith's Dirt, of Gr. and Horn. Ant., s. ' Domus '). Herodotus (ii. 95) says that the Egyp- tians slept OD the roof in the marshy part of Lower Egyt>t.

'^ ' Even the bouses of the poor seem generally to have had their courtyards, at the back of which a structure was raised consisting of a single storey etimiountcd by a flat roof, to which access was given by a single staircase ' leading from the court- yard.

' The flat roof seems to have been universal in Egypt ; it added to the accommodation of the house ; it afl'orded a pleasant rendezvous for the family in the evening, where they enjoyed the view and the fresh breezes which spring up at sunset. At certain seasons they must have slept there. On the other hand, the gianarics, bams, and storeliou>es are almost always dome-shaped. ' The flat roof of the house ha!

d a parapet round it, and sometimes a light outer roof supported by slender columns of brilliantly painted wood' (I'errot and Chipiez, i. 36). Fergusson (Utstury of Architecture, 119) gives an illustration of a three-storeyed dwelling in the Egyptians' own quaint style, ' the upper storey apparently being like those of the Assj-rians, an open gallei'y supported by dwarf columns.

In the centre is a staircase leading to the upper storey, and on the left hand an awning supported on wooden pillars, which seems to have been an in- dispensable part of all the better class of houses.' ' In the Yezidi House we see an exact repro- duction in every essential respect of tlie style of building in the d;iys of Sennacherib.

Here we have the wooden pillars with bracket capitals, supporting a mass of timber intended to be covered with a thickness of earth sufficient to prevent the rain or heat penetrating to the dwelling. There is no reason to doubt that the houses of the hiunble classes were in former times similar to that here represented ' {ib. 160). In speaking of the palace ot Esarliaddon, Fergu-sson says (ib.

104), ' Had these buildings been con- structed like those of the Egyptians, their remains would probably have been ai)plied to other pur- poses long ago ; but having been overwhelmed so early and forgotten, they have been preserved to our day : nor is it dillictdt to see how this has occurred. The pillars that supported the roof bein'; of wood, probably of cedar, and the beams on the under side of the roof being of the same material, nothinjj was easier than to set them on flre.

The fall ot the roofs, which were probably composed, as at the present day, of 6 or 6 ft. of earlii, that being requisite to keep out heat as well as wet, would probably suffice to bury the building up to the height of the .sculpture. The gradual crumbling of the thick walls, lonsemient on their unprotected exjw.sure to the atmos]iliere, would add 3 or 4 ft.

to this ; so that it is hardly too much to suppose that green gntss might have been growing on the buried palaces of JJineveh before two or three years had elapsed from the time of their destruction and desolation. When- ever this had taken place, the mounds allurued far too tempting positions not to be speedily occu- pied by the villages of the natives.'

We may here remark that the modest dwellings of the Egyptian fellah are often covered by vaults of fris6, that is to say, of compressed or Kneaded clay. None of the ancient monuments of Egj'pt possess such vaults, which are of much less durability than those of stone or brick. We are, however, disposed to believe that they were used in ancient times (Perrot and Chipiez, i. 110).

The palaces ol Babylon ap|)car to have consisted of courtyards and long narrow chambers ; and as stone was not readily obtained, the question of how they were roofed has occasioned much dis- cussion. Diodorus (ii. 10) states that the hanging gardens of Babylon were suiiported by stone beams, 16 ft. long and 4 ft. wide ; but Strabo (xvii. 1. 5) says they were sui>]iorted by vaulted arcades. Sir II.

I-ayard belicMd that there were only flat roofs at Nineveh similar to that of modem houses in Mosul and the neighbouring villnges, and states that he never ciime upon the slightest trace of a vault, while in almost every room that he excavated ho found wood ashes and carbonized timber, lie suggests that the long and narrow rooms were roofed with beams of palm or poplar, resting on the summit of the walls (Layard, Nineveh, ii. 250).

That Hat roofs must have been extensively used is evident from the number of limestone roof rollers found by M. Place (Ninivf,, i. 293) in his excava- tions in tlie ruins of buildings where they had fallen with the roofs ; but I'lace as well as I'errot and Cliipiez (i. 163) are of opinion that thout;li the roofs wore flat they were in many cases su])iiorted by brick vaults, side by side with other Hat roofs of timber.

Arches still standing in the city gates, and fragments of vaults found witliin the chambers of Sargou's palace at Khorsabad, give colour to this oi)inion. A vaulted storehouse for grain with a flat roof is sliown in Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians (vol. ii. p. 135). Strabo (xv. 3.

18), qnoting from some old authority on Susiana, states, ' In order to prevent the houses from becoming too hot, their roofs are covered with 2 cubits of earth, the weiglit of which compels them to make those dwellings long and narrow ; because although they had only short beams, they had to have large rooms, so as to avoid being sulToeated.'

What strikes one in considering the subject of roofs is the similarity of design in the countries north and south of Palestine (Assyria, Chaldoea, Egypt), the ditt'erence being due only to the material available. WUkinson (ii. 115) says that the roofs of rooms of houses in Egypt were sup- ported by rafters of the date tree, arranged close together, or more generally at intervals, with trans- verse layers of palm branches or planks.

Many roofs were vaulted, and built, like the rest of the house, of crude brick. On the top of the house was a terrace, which served as well for a place of repose as for exercise durin" the heat ; it was covered by a roof supported on columns ; here they slept, using a mosquito net (Herod, ii. 95). The floors of the rooms were flat on the upper side, whether the rooms beneath were vaulted or supported on rafters. Strabo (xvii. 1.

37), in speaking of the labjTinth at Lake Moeris, tells us that the roofs of the dwellings here consisted of a single stone each, and that the covered waj's throughout the whole range were roofed in the same manner with single slabs of stone of extra- ordinary size, without the admixture of timber or of any other material. ' On ascending the roof, which is not a great height, for it consists only of a single storey, there may be seen a field thus composed of stones.

Descending again and looking into the aulas, these may be seen in a line sup- ported by twenty-seven pillars, each consisting of a single stone.' Perrot and Chipiez (i. 109) give examples of a complete .system of construction, belonging exclusively to Eg5'pt, for stone buildings with stone roofs.

The interior of the building is divided up by rows of vertical supports or monoliths, on which rest architraves or stone beams, and across from architrave to architrave are placed long flat stones forming the roof. This, however, seems to have applied only to temples, the palaces as well as the houses of the people having been of very light construction, of wood or crude brick.

At Luxor, Karnak, and the Kamesseum, the temples are provided with staircases by which these flat roofs may be reached. These roofs seem to have been n-eely opened to the people, just as with us one is allowed to ascend domes and belfries for the sake of the view over the sur- rounding buikling and country. The flat roofs of houses in the East have been used from the earliest times for a variety of domestic and even public purposes. — For diwution and prayer. St.

Peter went up upon the house- top to pray about the sixth hour (Ac W). They were used also for idolatrous purposes. There were altars on the top of the roof • chamber (rt'^-l) of Ahaz in Jerusalem (2 K 23'-'). They burned incense to Baal on the roofs of houses in Jerusalem (Jer 19'^ 32-'") ; and there they also worshi[>ped the host of heaven (Zeph 1°).

— For recreation and for sleep at night, it is custom- ary at the present day for the i)eople (especially the old) to take exercise morning and evening on the roof of the house ; and during the summer, time members of the family usually sleep on the roof, carrying their bedding up at night and down again in the morning. ' At night all sleep on the tops of their houses, their beds being spread upon their terraces, without any other covering over their heads than the vault of heaven.

The poor seldom have a screen to keep them from the gaze of passengers' (Morin, Persia, 229). ' We supped on the top of the house for cool- ness, according to their custom, and lodged there likewise, in a sort of closet about 8 ft. square, of wicker-work, plastered round towards the bottom, but without any doors' (Pocock's Travels, ii. 6). Saul appears to have slept on the roof of Samuel's house in the unnamed city.

' And it came to pass, about the spring of the day, that Samuel called to Saul on the housetop, saying.

Up, that I may send thee away '(IS 9-*) ; ' David walked upon the roof of the king's house at Jerusalem, and from the roof saw a woman washing herself ' (2 S 11-) ; ' Absalom spread a tent upon the top of the house ' (2 S IG-') ; ' Nebuchadnezzar walked upon the royal palace at Babylon ' (Dn 4^) ; ' Samuel communed ^vith Saul upon the top of the house' (IS 9-^) ; 'the people made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house ' (Neh 8'«).

They used the housetops to m^ke their public lamentations, and in the villages to proclaiin any neics that required to be promulgated. As the houses had few windows opening to the streets, the people rushed to the roofs to look down upon any processions, and to view what was going on far and near. ' At the present time local governors in country districts cause their commands thus to be published.

These proclamations are generally made in the evening, after the people have returned from their labours in the held ; the public crier ascends the highest roof at hand, and lifts up his voice in a long-drawn call upon all faithful subjects to give ear and obey. He then proceeds to announce, in a set form, the will of their master, and to demand obedience thereto.' ' On their housetops, and in their broad places, every one howleth' (Is 15^22').

'On all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof, there is lamentation ' (Jer 48*"). ' Proclaim upon the house- tops' (Mt 10'^, Lk 123). Eusebius {HE ii. 23) tells us that ' the Pharisees, who had a design upon the life of St. James, bishop of Jerusalem, persuaded him to preach to the people, when assembled at the Passover, from the battlements of the temple, alluding to this oistom of proclaiming from the housetop whatever was to be made known far and wide.'

The roof of the house in the East is used as i* the backyard of European houses ; linen and flax are dried there, also figs, apricots, raisins, and com. ' The ordinary houses have no other place where the inmates can either see the sun, "smeU the air," dry their clothes, set out their flower-pots, or do numfierless other things essential to their health and comfort' {Land and Book, i. 49).

Kahab the harlot brought the spies up to the roof of the house and hid them with the stalks of Uax, which she had laid in order about the roof (Jos 2'). The staircase from the roof leads down into the inner court (Mt lU''' 24", Lk 12'). Battlements of ROOM KOSE 313 a parapet were enjoined by the law, a very neces- sary precaution, to prevent loss of life from falling over (Dti-i").

Tlie manner in which Samson brought down the roof of the temple of Dagon (Jg 16), upon which about 3000 persons were assembled, by pulling down the two principal pillars, has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained.

Shaw describes having seen several hundreds of people assembled, on the dey's palace in Algiers, to view an exhibition of wrestlers, and describes how the pulling down of the front or centre pillars would have been attended by a catastrophe similar to that which happened to the I'hilistmes (Shaw, Travels, p. 2S3). Cf. further, Moore, Jiidfjes, ad loc. The rtat roofs in Syria at the present day are made as follows : Stout beams are first laid across the walls about 2 ft.

apart ; crosswise is laid tough brushwood, or, if that cannot be obtained, split wood with matting, and over it a mass of thorny bush in bundles ; upon this is laid a plsLSter of mud or clay mortar, which is well pressed in, and over this a layer of earth 6 to 12 in. thick. This is pla-stered over with mud and straw as a protection against the rain.

Each roof requires a little stone roller to be always ready — the handles of wood being movable, and used for all the rollers of the ditlerent roofs ; periodically, and whenever the rain falls, the roller must be used to fill in the cracks and keep the roof compact. Constant care is required to avoid leakage (rr 27'°). During the ?£!

> excavations at Jerusalem one of these roof rollers was found in the ancient aqueduct to the west of the temple, where it must have lain for q^uite 1800 years, showing that flat roofs at that time were in use at Jerusalem, though at the present day they are mostly domed roofs of stone, on account of the scarcity of timber. The un- covering of a roof (Mk 2*) of this nature would not be a dillicult matter. See House in vol. ii. p. 432". l'"or other points connected with the subject of this art.

see BRICK, GATE, House, Pavement, Walls. LiTERATXTRE- — WilldnBOD, Ano. Egypt. ; Fergoisson, Arekitec- turf ; Layard, Sineveh ; Place, Ninivi ; Perrot and Chipiez, ^9i/pf* a'so Chaldoea and Assyria; FEFSt; Thomson. Tke Laiid and the Book. See also Marshall in Expos. March IS&l, p. 8181. ; Ranisav, Was Chrim bom at liethUhemt; E. A Abbott, CJu<(190u), p. 1180. ; and the Oomm. od Mk 2^, Lk b^». C. Warken.