The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon, Esq.
With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman
Vol. 2
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.
Part I.
Note: The sixteenth chapter I cannot help considering as a
very ingenious and specious, but very disgraceful extenuation of
the cruelties perpetrated by the Roman magistrates against the
Christians. It is written in the most contemptibly factious
spirit of prejudice against the sufferers; it is unworthy of a
philosopher and of humanity. Let the narrative of Cyprian's
death be examined. He had to relate the murder of an innocent
man of advanced age, and in a station deemed venerable by a
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