"We lose in guidance what we gain in freedom," the Pharisee added.
"In Judea," the Sadducee continued, "they are still bound by the usages of the Mosaic Law. An offender against the Law is stoned. We do not stone in Alexandria; yet we have the offender, and suffer the offense. What, then, shall we do to cleanse our skirt and yet offer no violence to our advanced thinking?"
"Give me thy meaning," the proconsul said impatiently.
"Perchance it hath come to thee that there is a sect known as the Nazarenes, followers of Jesus of Nazareth, which are spreading like a pestilence on the wind over the world. So full of them is Judea, even David's City, that the Sanhedrim, in alliance with the Roman legate, is proceeding against them with extreme punishment."
"I have heard," Flaccus assented.
"But the numbers have grown so great and so far-reaching that the Sanhedrim hath achieved little more than to drive them abroad into the world."
"So the legate informs me," Flaccus added.
"Perchance then thou knowest that Alexandria hath its share."
"I do."
"Even the Regio Judæorum."