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( ῾Ñώìç [in Greek, strength; but probably from Romulus, the founder], expressly mentioned in the Bible only in the books of the Maccabees, and in Act_18:2, etc.; Rom_1:7; Rom_1:15; 2Ti_1:17; see also “Babylon, “Revelations 14:8, etc.), the ancient capital of the Western world, and the present residence of the pope and capital of Italy. In the following brief account, we treat only of its ancient, and especially its Biblical, relations. SEE ROMAN EMPIRE.
I. General Description. — Rome lies on the river Tiber, about fifteen miles from its mouth, in the plain of what is now called the Campagna (Felix illa Campania, Pliny, Hist. Nat. 3, 6), in lat. 41° 54' N., long. 12° 28' E. The country around the city, however, is not altogether a plain, but a sort of undulating table land, crossed by hills, while it sinks towards the southwest to the marshes of Maremma, which coast the Mediterranean. In ancient geography, the country in the midst of which Rome lay was termed Latium, which, in the earliest times, comprised within a space of about four geographical square miles the country lying between the Tiber and the Numicius, extending from the Alban Hills to the sea, having for its chief city Laurentum. The “seven hills” (Revelations 17:9) which formed the nucleus of the ancient city stand on the left (eastern) bank. On the opposite side of the river rises the far higher ridge of the Janiculum. Here from very early times was a fortress, with a suburb beneath it extending to the river. Modern Rome lies to the north of the ancient city, covering with its principal portion the plain to the north of the seven hills, once known as the Campus Martius, and on the opposite bank extending over the low ground beneath the Vatican to the north of the ancient Janiculum.
The city of Rome was founded (B.C. 753) by Romulus and Remus, grandsons of Numitor, and sons of Rhea Sylvia, to whom, as the originators of the city, mythology ascribed a divine parentage. At first the city had three gates, according to a sacred usage. Founded on the Palatine Hill, it was extended, by degrees, so as to take in six other hills, at the foot of which ran deep valleys that in early times were in part overflowed with water, while the hillsides were covered with trees. In the course of the many years during which Rome was acquiring to herself the empire of the world, the city underwent great, numerous, and important changes. Under its first kings it must have presented a very different aspect from what it did after it had been beautified by Tarquint. The destruction of the city by the Gauls (A.U.C. 365) caused a thorough alteration in it; nor could the troubled times which ensued have been favorable to its being well restored. It was not till riches and artistic skill came into the city on the conquest of Philip of Macedon and Antiochus of Syria (A.U.C. 565) that there arose in Rome large, handsome stone houses.
The capture of Corinth conduced much to the adorning of the city, many fine specimens of art being transferred thence to the abode of the conquerors. As the power of Rome extended over the world, and her chief citizens went into the colonies to enrich themselves, so did the masterpieces of Grecian art flow towards the capital, together with some of the taste and skill to which they owed their birth. Augustus, however, it was who did most for embellishing the capital of the world, though there may be some sacrifice of truth in the pointed saying that he found Rome built of brick and left it marble. Subsequent emperors followed his example, till the place became the greatest repository of architectural, pictorial, and sculptural skill that the world has ever seen — a result to which even Nero's incendiarism indirectly conduced, as affording an occasion for the city's being rebuilt under the higher scientific influences of the times. The site occupied by modern Rome is not precisely the same as that which was at any period covered by the ancient city: the change of locality being towards the northwest, the city has partially retired from the celebrated hills. About two thirds of the area within the walls (traced by Aurelian) are now desolate, consisting of ruins, gardens, and fields, with some churches, convents, and other scattered habitations. Originally the city was four miles in circumference. In the time of Pliny the walls were nearly twenty miles in circuit; now they are from fourteen to fifteen miles around. Its original gates, three in number, had increased in the time of the elder Pliny to thirty-seven. Modern Rome has sixteen gates, some of which are, however, built up. Thirty-one great roads centered in Rome, which, issuing from the Forum, traversed Italy, ran through the provinces, and were terminated only by the boundary of the empire.
As a starting point, a gilt pillar (Milliarium Aureum) was set up by Augustus in the middle of the Forum. This curious monument, from which distances were reckoned, was discovered in 1823. Eight principal bridges led over the Tiber; of these three are still relics. The four districts into which Rome was divided in early times, Augustus increased to fourteen. Large open spaces were set apart in the city, called Campi, for assemblies of the people and martial exercises, as well as for games. Of nineteen which are mentioned, the Campus Martius was the principal. It was near the Tiber, whence it was called Tiberius. The epithet “Martins” was derived from the plain being consecrated to Mars, the god of war. In the later ages it was surrounded by several magnificent structures, and porticos were erected, under which, in bad weather, the citizens could go through their usual exercises. It was also adorned with statues and arches. The name of Forum was given to places where the people assembled for the transaction of business. The Fora were of two kinds fora venalia, “markets;” fora cicilia, “law-courts,” etc. Until the time of Julius Caesar there was but one of the latter kind, termed by way of distinction Forum Romanum, or simply Forum. It lay between the Capitoline and Palatine Hills; it was eight hundred feet wide, and adorned on all sides with porticos, shops, and other edifices, on the erection of which large sums had been expended, and the appearance of which was very imposing, especially as it was much enhanced by numerous statues. In the center of the Forum was the plain called the Curtian Lake, where Curtius is said to have cast himself into a chasm or gulf, which closed on him, and so he saved his country. On one side were the elevated seats, or suggestus, a sort of pulpit from which magistrates and orators addressed the people usually called rostra, because adorned with the beaks of ships which had been taken in a sea fight from the inhabitants of Antium. Near by was the part of the Forum called the Comitium, where were held the assemblies of the people called Comitia Curiata. The celebrated temple bearing the name of Capitol (of which there remain only a few vestiges) stood on the Capitoline Hill, the highest of the seven; it was square in form, each side extending about two hundred feet, and the ascent to it was by a flight of one hundred steps.
It was one of the oldest, largest, and grandest edifices in the city. Founded by Tarquinius Priscus, it was several times enlarged and embellished. Its gates were of brass, and it was adorned with costly gildings; whence it is termed “golden” and “glittering,” aurea, fulgens. It enclosed three structures, the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in the center, the Temple of Minerva on the right, and the Temple of Juno on the left. The Capitol also comprehended some minor temples or chapels, and the Casa Romuli, or cottage of Romulus, covered with straw. Near the ascent to the Capitol was the asylum. We also mention the Basilicae, since some of them were afterwards turned to the purposes of Christian worship. They were originally buildings of great splendor, being appropriated to meetings of the senate, and to judicial purposes. Here counselors received their clients, and bankers transacted their business. The earliest churches, bearing the name of Basilicae, were erected under Constantine. He gave his own palace on the Coelian Hill as a site for a Christian temple. Next in antiquity was the Church of St. Peter, on the Vatican Hill, built A.D. 324, on the site and with the ruins of temples consecrated to Apollo and Mars. It stood about twelve centuries, at the end of which it was superseded by the modern church bearing the same name. The Circi were buildings oblong in shape, used for public games, races, and beast fights. The Theatra were edifices designed for dramatic exhibitions; the Amphitheatra (double theaters, buildings in an oval form) served for gladiatorial shows and the fighting of wild animals. That which was erected by the emperor Titus, and of which there still exists a splendid ruin, was called the Coliseum, from a colossal statue of Nero that stood near it.. With an excess of luxury, perfumed liquids were conveyed in secret tubes around these immense structures, and diffused over the spectators, sometimes from the statues which adorned the interior. In the arena which formed the center of the amphitheaters, the early Christians often endured martyrdom by being exposed to ravenous beasts. See Smith, Dict. of Class. Geog. s.v.; Parker, Archoeology of Rome (Lond. 1877, 6 vols. 8vo); Wood, Guide to Rome (Lond. 1875); Cokesly, Map of Anc. Rome (Lond. 1852).
II. Judaism in Rome. — The connection of the Romans with Palestine caused Jews to settle at Rome in considerable numbers. The Jewish king Aristobulus and his son formed part of Pompey's triumph, and many Jewish captives and emigrants were brought to Rome at that time. A special district was assigned to them (Josephus, Ant. 14, 10, 8), not on the site of the modern “Ghetto,” between the Capitol and the island of the Tiber, but across the Tiber (Philo, Leg. ad Caium, p. 568, ed. Mangey). From Philo also it appears that the Jews in Rome were allowed the free use of their national worship, and generally the observance of their ancestral customs. With a zeal for which the nation had been some time distinguished, they applied themselves with success to proselytizing (Dion Cass. 37, 17). Many of these Jews were made freedmen (Philo, loc. cit.). Julius Caesar showed them some kindness (Josephus, Ant. 14, 10, 8; Sueton. Caesar, 84). They were favored also by Augustus, and by Tiberius during the latter part of his reign (Philo, loc. cit.). On one occasion, in the reign of Tiberius, when the Jews were banished from the city by the emperor for the misconduct of some members of their body, not fewer than four thousand enlisted in the Roman army which was then stationed in Sardinia (Sueton. Tib. 36; Josephus, Ant. 18, 3, 4). Claudius “commanded all Jews to depart from Rome” (Act_18:2), on account of tumults connected, possibly, with the preaching of Christianity at Rome (Sueton. Claud. 25, “Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit”). This banishment cannot have been of long duration, for we find Jews residing at Rome apparently in considerable numbers at the time of Paul's visit (Act_28:17). The Roman biographer does not give the date of the expulsion by Claudius, but Orosius (7:6) mentions the ninth year of that emperor's reign (A.D. 50).
The precise occasion of this expulsion history does not afford us the means of determining. The cause here assigned for their expulsion is that they raised disturbances, an allegation which at first view does not seem to point to a religious, still less to a Christian, influence. Yet we must remember that the words bear the coloring of the mind of a heathen historian, who might easily be led to regard activity for the diffusion of Christian truth, and the debates to which that activity necessarily led, as a noxious disturbance of the peace of society. The Epicurean view of life could scarcely avoid describing religious agitations by terms ordinarily appropriated to martial pursuits. It must equally be borne in mind that the diffusion of the Gospel in Rome — then the very center and citadel of idolatry was no holiday task, but would call forth on the part of the disciples all the fiery energy of the Jewish character, and on the part of the pagans all the vehemence of passion which ensues from pride, arrogance, and hatred. Had the ordinary name of our Lord been employed by Suetonius, we should, for ourselves, have found little difficulty in understanding the words as intended to be applied to Jewish Christians. But the biographer uses the word Chrestus. The us is a mere Latin termination; but what are we to make of the root of the word — Chrest for Christ? Yet the change is in only one vowel, and Chrest might easily be used for Christ by a pagan writer. A slight difference in the pronunciation of the word as vocalized by a Roman and a Jew would easily cause the error.
We know that the Romans often did make the mispronunciation, calling Christ “Chrest” (Tertull. Apol. c. 3; Lactant. Inst. 4, 17; Just. Mart. Apol. c. 2). The point is important, and we therefore give a few details, the rather that Lardner has, under Claudius (1, 259), left the question undetermined. Now, in Tacitus (Annal. 15, 44) Jesus is unquestionably called Chrest in a passage where his followers are termed Christians. Lucian, too, in his Philopatris, so designates our Lord, playing on the word Chrestus ( ×ñçóôüò ), which, in Greek, signifies “good.” These are his words: “since a Chrest [a good man] is found among the Gentiles also.” Tertullian (ut sup.) treats the difference as a case of ignorant mispronunciation, Christianus being wrongly pronounced Chrestianus. The mistake may have been the more readily introduced from the fact that, while Christ was a foreign word, Chrest was customary. Lips that had been used to Chrest would, therefore, rather continue the sound than change the vocalization. The term Chrest occurs on inscriptions (Heumann, Sylloge. diss. 1. 536), and epigrams in which the name appears may be found in Martial (7, 55; 9, 28). In the same author (11, 91) a diminutive from the word, namely, Chrestillus, may be found. The word assumed, also, a feminine form, Chresta, as found in an ancient inscription. Comp. also Martial (7, 55). There can therefore be little risk in asserting that Suetonius intended to indicate Jesus Christ by Chrestus; and we have already seen that the terms which he employs to describe the cause of the expulsion, though peculiar, are not irreconcilable with a reference on the part of the writer to Christians. The terms which Suetonius employs are accounted for, though they may not be altogether justified, by those passages in the Acts of the Apostles in which the collision between the Jews who had become Christians and those who adhered to the national faith is found to have occasioned serious disturbances (Kuinol, Act_18:2; Rorsal, De Christoper Errorum in Chrest. Comm. [Groning. 1717]). Both Suetonius and Luke, in mentioning the expulsion of the Jews, seem to have used the official term employed in the decree. The Jews were know to the Roman magistrate; and Christians, as being at first Jewish converts, would be confounded under the general name of Jews. But that the Christians as well as the Jews strictly so called were banished by Claudius appears certain from the book of Acts; and, independently of this evidence, seems very probable from the other authorities of which mention has been made. SEE CHRESTUS; SEE ROME, JEWS IN.
III. Christianity at Rome. — Nothing is known of the first founder of the Christian Church at Rome. Roman Catholics assign the honor to Peter, and on this ground an argument in favor of the claims of the papacy. There is, however, no sufficient reason for believing that Peter was ever even so much as within the walls of Rome (Ellendorf, Ist Petrus in Rom und Bischof der romischen Kirche gewesen? [Darmstadt, 1843]). SEE PETER. Christianity may, perhaps, have been introduced into the city, not long after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, by the “strangers of Rome” who were then at Jerusalem (Act_2:10). It is clear that there were many Christians at Rome before Paul visited the city (Rom_1:8; Rom_1:13; Rom_1:15; Rom_15:20). The names of twenty-four Christians at Rome are given in the salutations at the end of the Epistle to the Romans. For the difficult question whether the Roman Church consisted mainly of Jews or Gentiles, see Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, 2, 157; Alford, Proleg.; and especially Prof. Jowett, Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans, Galatians, and Thessalonians, 2:7-26. The view there adopted, that they were a Gentile Church, but with many Jewish converts, seems most in harmony with such passages as 1:5, 13; 11:13, and with the general tone of the epistle. SEE ROMANS, EPISTLE TO.
It may be useful to give some account of Rome in the time of Nero, the “Caesar” to whom Paul appealed, and in whose reign he suffered martyrdom (Eusebius, H.E. 2, 25).
1. The city at that time must be imagined as a large and irregular mass of buildings unprotected by an outer wall. It had long outgrown the old Servian wall (Dionys. Hal. Ant. Hom. 4, 13; ap. Merivale, Rom. Hist. 4, 497); but the limits of the suburbs cannot be exactly defined. Neither the nature of the buildings nor the configuration of the ground was such as to give a striking appearance to the city viewed from without. “Ancient Rome had neither cupola nor campanile” (Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, 2, 371; Merivale, Rom. Emp. 4, 512), and the hills, never lofty or imposing, would present, when covered with the buildings and streets of a huge city, a confused appearance like the hills of modern London, to which they have sometimes been compared. The visit of Paul lies between two famous epochs in the history of the city, viz. its restoration by Augustus and its restoration by Nero (Conybeare and Howson, 1, 13). Some parts of the city, especially the Forum and Campus Martius, must now have presented a magnificent appearance; but many of the principal buildings which attract the attention of modern travelers in ancient Rome were not vet built. The streets were generally narrow and winding, flanked by densely crowded lodging-houses (insuloe) of enormous height. Augustus found it necessary to limit their height to seventy feet (Strabo, 5, 235). Paul's first visit to Rome took place before the Neronian conflagration, but even after the restoration of the city, which followed upon that event, many of the old evils continued (Tacitus, Hist. 3, 71; Juvenal, Sat. 3, 193, 269). One half of the population consisted, in all probability, of slaves. The larger part of the remainder consisted of pauper citizens supported in idleness by the miserable system of public gratuities. There appears to have been no middle class and no free industrial population. Side by side with the wretched classes just mentioned was the comparatively small body of the wealthy nobility, of whose luxury and profligacy we hear so much in the heathen writers of the time. (See for calculations and proofs the works cited.)
Such was the population which Paul would find at Rome at the time of his visit. We learn from the Acts of the Apostles that he was detained at Rome for “two whole years,” “dwelling in his own hired house with a soldier that kept him” (Act_28:16; Act_28:30), to whom apparently, according to Roman custom (Seneca, Ephesians 5; Act_12:6, quoted by Brotier, Ad Tac. Ann. 3, 22), he was bound with, a chain (Act_28:20; Eph_6:20; Php_1:13). Here he preached to all that came to him, no man forbidding him (Act_28:30-31). It is generally believed that on his “appeal, to Caesar” he was acquitted, and, after some time spent in freedom, was a second time imprisoned at Rome (for proofs, see Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, ch. 27, and Alford, Gr. Test. vol. 3, ch. 7). Five of his epistles, viz. those to the Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, that to Philemon, and the Second Epistle to Timothy, were, in all probability, written from Rome, the latter shortly before his death (2Ti_4:6), the others during his first imprisonment. SEE HEBREWS, EPISTLE TO THE. It is universally believed that he suffered martyrdom at Rome.
2. The localities in and about Rome especially connected with the life of Paul are —
(1) The Appian Way, by which he approached Rome (Act_28:15). SEE APPII FORUM.
(2) “The palace,” or “Cesar's court” ( ôὸ ðñáéôώñéïí , Php_1:13). This may mean either the great camp of the Praetorian guards which Tiberius established outside the walls on the northeast of the city (Tacitus, Ann. 4, 2; Suetonius, Tib. 37), or, as seems more probable, a barrack attached to the imperial residence on the Palatine (Wieseler, as quoted by Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, 2, 423). There is no sufficient proof that the word “praetorium” was ever used to designate the emperor's palace, though it is used for the official residence of a Roman governor (Joh_18:28; Act_23:35). The mention of “Caesar's household” (Php_4:22) confirms the notion that Paul's residence was in the immediate neighborhood of the emperor's house on the Palatine.
3. The connection of other localities at Rome with Paul's name rests only on traditions of more or less probability. We may mention especially —
(1) The Mamertine prison, or Tullianum, built by Ancus Marcius near the Forum (Liv. 1, 33), described by Sallust (Cat. 55). It still exists beneath the Church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami. Here it is said that Peter and Paul were fellow prisoners for nine months. This is not the place to discuss the question whether Peter was ever at Rome. It may be sufficient to state that though there is no evidence of such a visit in the New Test., unless Babylon in 1Pe_5:13 be a mystical name for Rome, yet early testimony (Dionysius, ap. Euseb. 2, 25) and the universal belief of the early Church seem sufficient to establish the fact of his having suffered martyrdom there. The story, however, of the imprisonment in the Mamertine prison seems inconsistent with 2 Timothy, especially 4:11.
(2) The chapel on the Ostian Roan which marks the spot where the two apostles are said to have separated on their way to martyrdom.
(3) The supposed scene of Paul's martyrdom, viz. the Church of San Paolo alle tre Fontane, on the Ostian Road. (See the notice of the Ostian Road in Caius, ap. Enseb. H.E. 2, 25.) To these may be added,
(4) The supposed scene of Peter's martyrdom, viz. the Church of San Pietro in Montorio, on the Janiculum.(5) The chapel “Domine quo Vadis,” on the Appian Road, the scene of the beautiful legend of our Lord's appearance to Peter as he was escaping from martyrdom (Ambrose, Ep. 33).
(6) The places where the bodies of the two apostles, after having been deposited first in the Catacombs ( êïéìçôήñéá ) (Euseb. H.E. 2, 25), are supposed to have been finally buried — that of Paul by the Ostian Road, that of Peter beneath the dome of the famous basilica which bears his name (see Caius, ap. Euseb. H.E. 2, 25). All these and many other traditions will be found in the Annals of Baronius, under the last year of Nero. “Valueless as may be the historical testimony of each of these traditions singly, yet collectively they are of some importance as expressing the consciousness of the 3d and 4th centuries that there had been an early contest, or at least contrast, between the two apostles, which in the end was completely reconciled; and it is this feeling which gives a real interest to the outward forms in which it is brought before us — more or less, indeed, in all the south of Europe, but especially in Rome itself” (Stanley, Sermons and Essays, p. 101).
4. We must add, as sites unquestionably connected with the Roman Christians of the apostolic age
(1) The gardens of Nero in the Vatican, not far from the spot where St. Peter's now stands. Here Christians, wrapped in the skins of beasts, were
serve as torches during the midnight games. Others were crucified (Tacitus, 15, 44).
(2) The Catacombs. These subterranean galleries, commonly from eight to ten feet in height, and from four to six in width, and extending for miles, especially in the neighborhood of the old Appian and Nomentan ways, were unquestionably used as places of refuge, of worship, and of burial by the early Christians. It is impossible here to enter upon the difficult question of their origin, and their possible connection with the deep sand pits and subterranean works at Rome mentioned by classical writers. See the story of the murder of Asinius (Cicero, Pro Cluent. 13), and the account of the concealment offered to Nero before his death (Suetonius, Nero, 48). A more complete account of the Catacombs than any previously given may be found in G.B. de Rossi's Roma Sotteriana Christiana (1864 sq.). Some very interesting notices of this work, and descriptions of the Roman Catacombs, are given in Burgon's Letters from Rome, p. 120-258. “De Rossi finds his earliest dated inscription A.D. 71. From that date to A.D. 300 there are not known to exist so many as thirty Christian inscriptions bearing dates. Of undated inscriptions, however, about 4000 are referable to the period antecedent to the emperor Constantine” (Burgon, p. 148). SEE CATACOMBS. The lately exhumed foundations of the Church of St. Clement are confidently claimed as relics of the same age (Mullooly, Clement's Basilicta in Rome [Rome, 1873, 8vo]). SEE CLEMENT.
Linus (who is mentioned in 2Ti_4:21) and Clement (Php_4:3) are supposed to have succeeded Peter as bishops of Rome. SEE LINUS.
IV. Mystical Titles. — Rome, as being their tyrannical mistress, was an object of special hatred to the Jews, who therefore denominated her by the name of Babylon the state in whose dominions they had endured a long and heavy servitude (Schottgel, Hot. Heb. 1, 1125; Eisenmenger, Entdeckt. Judenth. 1, 1800). Accordingly Rome, under the name of Babylon, is set forth in the Apocalypse (Rev_14:8; Rev_16:19; Rev_17:5; Rev_18:2) as the center and representative of heathenism; while Jerusalem appears as the symbol of Judaism. In Rev_17:9 allusion is clearly made to the Septicollis, the seven-hilled city — “seven mountains on which the woman sitteth.” The description of this woman, in whom the profligacy of Rome is vividly personified, may be seen in Revelation 17. In ch. 13 Rome is pictured as a huge, unnatural beast, whose name or number “is the number of a man, and his number is ÷î῍῎ ,” 666, not improbably Latinos, Ëáôåßíïò , Latin, Roman. This beast has been most variously interpreted. The several theories serve scarcely more than to display the ingenuity or the bigotry of their originators, and to destroy each other. Minter (De Occulto Urbis Romoe Nomine [Hafn. 1811]) thinks there is a reference to the secret name of Rome, the disclosure of which, it was thought, would be destructive to the state (Pliny, list. Nat. 3, 9; Macrobius, Sat. 3, 5; Plutarch, Quoest. Rom. c. 61; Servius, Ad AEn. 2, 293). Pliny's words occur in the midst of a long and picturesque account of Italy. Coming in the course of it to speak of Rome, he says, “the uttering of whose other name is accounted impious, and when it had been spoken by Valerius Soranus, who immediately suffered the penalty, it was blotted out with a faith no less excellent than beneficial.” He then proceeds to speak of the rites observed on the first of January, in connection with this belief, in honor of Diva Angerona, whose image appeared with her mouth bound and sealed up. This mystic name tradition reports to have been Valencia.
One of the most recent views of the name of the beast, from the pen of a Christian writer, we find in Hyponoia, or Thoughts on a Spiritual Understanding of the Apocalypse (Lond. 1844). “The number in question (666) is expressed in Greek by three letters of the alphabet: ÷ , six hundred; 10, sixty; ῍ , six. Let us suppose these letters to be the initials of certain names, as it was common with the ancients in their inscriptions to indicate names of distinguished characters by initial letters, and sometimes by an additional letter, as C. Caius, Cn. Cneus. The Greek letter ÷ (ch) is the initial of ×ñéóôüò (Christ); the letter î is the initial of îýëïí (wood or tree); sometimes figuratively put in the New Test. for the cross. The last letter, ῍ is equivalent to ó and ô , but whether an s or an st, it is the initial of the word Satanas, Satan, or the adversary. Taking the first two names in the genitive, and the last in the nominative, we have the following appellation, name, or title: ×ñéóôïῦ îýëïõ óáôáíᾶò , ‘the adversary of the cross of Christ,' a character corresponding with that of certain enemies of the truth described by Paul (Php_3:19).” SEE NUMBER OF THE BEAST.