[373]. Gen. Rab. lxiii. (xxv. 23) makes Hadrian the typical heathen king, as Solomon is the typical Jewish king. His name is followed, as is that of Trajan, by a drastic curse. But there are traditions of a kindlier feeling toward him. Sibyl. v. 248. In the Meg. Taan. the 29th of Adar.
[374]. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. IV. vi., quoting Aristo of Pella. Jerome in Ezek. i. 15. It is here that the famous passage of Jerome occurs, which describes the Jews as “buying their tears.” Cf. also Itiner. Burdigal. (Hierosolymitanum), I. v. 22.
[375]. Vopiscus, Vita Saturn. viii.; Reinach, Textes, p. 326. The authenticity of this letter has been questioned, but the transmission, although indirect, is better documented than in most such cases. Hadrian is known to have written an autobiography, and Phlegon, his freedman, who also wrote his life, no doubt used it. Spartianus, Hadr. i. 1; xiv. 8.
[376]. The writers Spartianus, Capitolinus, etc., dedicate their work to Diocletian or Constantine. It was suggested by Dessau, Hermes, 24, 337, that these writers never existed, and were invented by a forger of a century later. Mommsen, Hermes, 25, 298, assumed their existence, but regarded the extant works as revised at the time mentioned by Dessau. Other investigators, except H. Peter, accept Mommsen’s conclusions. Whether they are authentic or not, these biographies are alike wretched in style and thought.
[377]. Paul, Sent. V. xxiii. 14; Dig. 48, 8, 3, 2; 8, 8. The date is not certain; Dig. 48, 8, 3, 4.
[378]. B. G. U. 347, 82.
[379]. Dig. 48, 8, 11. pr.
[380]. Paul, Sent. V. xxii. 3.
[381]. Lampridius, Vita Alex. 22.
[382]. Jews made converts even after the prohibition of Theodosius (Jerome, Migne Patrol, 25, p. 199; 26, p. 311). One further ground for doubting the statement of Paul as it appears in the extant texts is the following: In the Digest (48, 8, 4, 2) it is only the physician and the slave that are capitally punished for castration. The owner of the slave (ibid. 48, 8, 6) is punished by the loss of half his property. Further, the penalty for circumcision is stated to be the same as that for castration. That was the case not only in Modestinus’ time, who lived after Paul, but as late as Justinian, since it is received into the Digest. Yet Paul, according to the extant text, makes the circumcision of alien slaves a capital crime (V. xxii. 4). The discrepancy can scarcely be reconciled.