The Greek and Roman writers of the first five centuries take, upon the whole, very little notice of Christ and Christianity, and were mostly quite ignorant of their character and history. Tacitus, Suetonius, the younger Pliny, Epictetus, Lucian, Aristides, Galenus, Lampridius, Dio Cassius, Himerius, Libanius, Ammianus Marcellinus, Eunapius, and Zosimus, mention them incidentally, and generally with contempt or hatred. The only heathen authors who wrote special works against the Christian religion are Lucian (who assailed it at least indirectly), Celsus, Porphyry, Hierocles, and Julian the Apostate.

But even the incidental allusions of the former and the assaults of the latter contain much that tends to confirm the credibility of the gospel history and the miracles of Christ. Let us briefly sum up the chief inferences. [10]

---

Footnotes:

[10] For a fuller discussion of the heathen attacks on Christianity, the reader is referred to the author's "History of the Christian Church of the First Three Centuries," New York, p. 185 ff.