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74 DARKNESS AND DAWN
enemy of God before the day of the Lord "
and he
;
adds,
'
only
he who letteth will let, until lie be taken away."
'
The Greek words 6 Kare^wv' she said, '
might be rendered
in Latin qui claudit. The Christians are so surrounded by
enemies that they are sometimes obliged to express themselves
in cryptograms, and Linus tells me that some Christians
see in the words qui claudit an allusion to your father, Claudius.
If so, Paulus seems to think that the day of the Lord's
return is
very near.'
The young prince, though he had but a dim sense of
what some of the phrases meant, was struck with what he
had heard. There was something in the morality more
vivid and more searching than anything which Epictetus
had reported, or than Sosibius had read to him out of Zeno
and Chrysippus. And besides the high morality there
were tones which caused a more thrilling chord to vibrate
within him than anything of which he had yet dreamed.
The morality seemed to be elevated to a purer region of
life and hope, and, in
spite of the strange style, to be
transfused through and through with a divine emotion.
' '
And these,' he said, are the men whom they charge
with every kind of atrocity
!
Surely, Pomponia, the world
is rife with lies ! Would it be too dangerous for you to let
me see and speak to some of the Christian teachers ? You
might disguise me it is ;
quite easy. Even Pudens need not
know he never feels
;
dull,' he added with a smile, 'if he may
talk to Claudia, who is staying with you now.'
'
There was an excellent Jewish workman 'here named
Aquila of Pontus,' she said.
him, but he left Eome when the Jews were banished in
your father's days. He used to mend the awning over the
viridarium, and those which kept the sun from blazing too
'
You might have talked to
hotly into our Cyzicene room. 1 He sometimes brought
with him his still more excellent wife, Prisca. They knew
Paulus, and said that he had promised some day to come
to Rome. I am obliged to be very careful but
; perhaps
you can speak to Linus, who is the Elder of the Christians
in Eome.'
'
But, Pomponia, the Christians believe, you tell me, in a
'
leader named Jesus ;
is he the same as Christus or Chrestos ?
1
Note 16. Cyzicene room.