[37] According to others, it was the daughter of Aurelius who was healed. A deputation had been sent to protest against the severe edicts of Verus. The celebrated mystic, Simon ben Jochai, was the envoy, and he cast an evil spirit out of the Emperor’s daughter. The Rabbins assert also that Antoninus received circumcision. But their testimony on this, as on many similar matters, cannot be relied on.

[38] Thus it is mentioned that the Jews were more forward than the heathen in bringing faggots to burn the Christian martyr Polycarp—‘as is their habit,’ says the historian (Polyc. Martyr. xiii.).

[39] Origen affirms that the power of the patriarchs was little less than that of a king (Orig., Epist. ad Afric.).

[40] The Presidents of the Sanhedrin are said to have been—

1. Ezra, who, according to this
list, must have survived to the reign
of Darius Codomannus, fully 200
years.		10. Gamaliel (St. Paul’s teacher).
11. Simeon, son of Gamaliel,
killed during the siege of Jerusalem.
2. Simon the Just (identified by
some with Jaddua who received
Alexander the Great).		12. Jochanan.
13. Gamaliel II., son of Simeon,
first Patriarch of Jerusalem.
3. Antigonus of Soco.14. Simeon, called the Just.
4. Joseph of Zeredah.15. Judah II., called Hakkadosh.
5. Joshua, banished by Hyrcanus.16. Gamaliel III., in whose time
the Sanhedrin is said to have
ceased to exist.
6. Judah, contemporary with A.
Jann.		17. Judah II.
7. Shemaiah.18. Hillel II., who drew up the
permanent Jewish calendar.
8. Hillel, the renowned Jewish
Doctor.		19. Judah III.
9. Simeon, son of Hillel, supposed
by some to be the same who
took Jesus into his arms (St. Luke
ii. 25).		20. Hillel III.
21. Gamaliel IV., with whom
the Patriarchate of Tiberias expired,
A.D. 429.

[41] It may be that it was not against the Jews, but the Samaritans, that Severus waged war, and that he temporarily confounded them with the Jews. The Romans continually made such mistakes.

[42] Some of the Rabbins assert that Caracalla received circumcision, but with no more evidence in support of their statement than in the instance of Antoninus. There was, however, something unusual in the education of Caracalla. Tertullian says that he received a Christian education ‘lacte Christiano educatus’ (Tertull. ad Scop.). If so, he profited but little by it.

[43] This seems to have been notorious, as the nickname of the ‘Ruler of the Synagogue,’ given him by the wits of the day, seems to indicate.

[44] This extraordinary man was born at Tyana, in Cappadocia, a year or two before our Lord. Hierocles, A.D. 300, wrote a comparison between him and Jesus Christ, in which the main points of resemblance are his (supposed) miraculous birth and power of working miracles, his attempt to reform the religion of the world, and the voice from heaven, which is said to have summoned him from earth. His history, written by Philostratus is overlaid with exaggeration and fable; but he is to be regarded rather as an enthusiast and a mystic than as an impostor. His fame was at its zenith in the time of Alexander Severus.

[45] Theodoret, de Hær. Fab. Athanas, de solit. vit.