Rome and the early Christians Republ Author:William Ware Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ROME IN THE THIRD CENTURY. The record which follows is by the hand of me, Nicho- Machus, once the happy servant of the great Queen of Palmyra, than whom the w... more »orld never saw a queen more illustrious, nor a woman adorned with brighter virtues. But my design is not to write her eulogy, nor recite the wonderful story of her life. That task requires a stronger and a more impartial hand than mine. The life of Zenobia by Nichomaehus, would be the portrait of a mother and a divinity, drawn by the pen of a child and a worshipper. My object is an humbler, but perhaps also a more useful one. It is to collect and arrange, in their proper order, such of the letters of the most noble Lucius Mani.ius Piso, as shall throw most light upon his character and times, supplying all defects of incident, and filling up all chasms that may occur, out of the knowledge which, more exactly than any one else, I have been able to gather concerning all that relates to the distinguished family of the Pisos, after its connexion with the more distinguished one still of the Queen of Palmyra. It is in this manner that I propose to amuse the few remaining days of a green old age, not without hope both to amuse and benefit others also. This is a labour, as those will discover who read, not unsuitable to one who stands trembling on the verge of life, and whom a single rude blast may in a moment consign to the embraces of the universal mother. I will not deny that my chief satisfaction springs from the fact, that in collecting these letters, and binding them together by a connecting narrative, I am engaged in the honourable task of tracing out some of the steps by which the new religion has risen to its present height of power. For whether true or false, neither friend nor foe, neither philosopher nor fool, ...« less