not before this time that St. Paul arrived at Crete: and the presumption as I think is confirmed by the allusion to the vŋoreia, or tenth of the Jewish Tisri "; as past some time, more or less, before they set out for Phoenice.

In the year U. C. 811, A. D. 58, when the fifteenth of Nisan coincided with March 28, the fifteenth of Tisri coincided with September 21; and consequently the tenth of Tisri fell on September 16. If we suppose that, before the ship arrived at the Fair Havens, St. Paul had been about a month on the road, and that the day of the fast occurred either before or soon after they came thither; the time of his departure from Cæsarea would be, as we conjectured, about the middle or even the beginning of August. It was the intention of the ship's crew not to have continued their route that year from Crete, but to have passed the winter in the island; and when they set out from the Fair Havens to Phonice, it was only that they might change their present winter quarters for others which were more convenient. This is a proof that, before they set out, the autumnal equinox, or September 24, was long past; the autumnal equinox being the time after which the sea was usually considered shut *. They had apparently

ἀθρόοι ἐμπίπτουσιν· ὁ δὲ πλόος οὐκα έτι κώπαις | ὥριος εὐρεῖαί μοι ἀρέσκοιεν τότε νῆες, | εἰς ἄνεμον δὲ τὰ πηδὰ κυβερνητῆρες ἔχοιεν. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, ii. 500-529. gives a mythological account of the origin of these winds-which he represents as a providential dispensation of Jupiter to temper the heat of the dog-star: Τοῖο δ ̓ ἕκητι | γαῖαν ἐπιψύχουσιν ἐτήσιοι ἐκ Διὸς αὖραι | ἤματα τεσσαράκοντα, κ, τ. λ. The

Scholiast, in loco, observes: ràs τῶν ἐτησίων ἀνέμων ἡμέρας οἱ μὲν τεσσαράκοντα, ἄλλοι δὲ πεντήκοντα φασίν, ὡς Τιμοσθένης. ἄρχονται δὲ πνεῖν ὄντος τοῦ ἡλίου ἐν τῷ τοῦ καρκίνου τέλει πνέουσι δὲ δι ̓ ὅλου τοῦ λέοντος, καὶ λήγουσιν ἐν τῷ διμοίρῳ Thя Taрlévov. Cf. ad vers. 500.

supra.

*Philo Judæus, Operum ii. 548. 14. De Virtutibus: duayyeλeions οὖν τῆς ὅτι νοσεῖ φήμης, ἔτι πλοίμων ὄντων· ἀρχὴ γὰρ ἦν μετοπώρου, τε

n Acts xxvii. 9.

taken up their abode for the winter at Lasæa; and it was against the prophetical warning of St. Paul that they ventured to exchange it for another: he would have had them remain where they were; the pilot and the master of the vessel thought there could be no danger in removing as far as Phoenice.

It is extremely probable, then, that they must have set out from the Fair Havens about the middle of our October, if not later; and as the storm which immediately surprised them lasted fourteen days or moreo, they would be wrecked on Malta at last about the beginning, if not nearer to the middle of our November*.

λευταῖος πλοῦς τοῖς θαλαττεύουσιν, ἀπὸ τῶν πανταχόθεν ἐμπορίων εἰς τοὺς οἰκείους λιμένας καὶ ὑποδρόμους ἐπανιοῦσι, καὶ μάλιστα οἷς πρόνοια τοῦ μὴ διαχειμάζειν ἐπὶ ξένης ἐστίν.

Hesiod, Opera et Dies, 671: Σπεύδειν δ ̓ ὅττι τάχιστα πάλιν οἶ κόνδε νέεσθαι· | μηδὲ μένειν οἶνόν τε νέον καὶ ὀπωρινὸν ὄμβρον, | καὶ χειμῶν ̓ ἐπιόντα, νότοιό τε δεινὰς ἀήτας, | ὅς τ ̓ ὤρινε θάλασσαν ὁμαρτήσας Διὸς ὄμβρῳ | πολλῷ, όπως ρινῷ· χαλεπὸν δέ τε πόντον ἔθηκεν.

Oppian, Halieutica, v. 312: Φορτὶς ὅπως εὐρεῖα πολύζυγος, ἣν τε θαλάσσης | ἀνέρες ἐξερύσωσιν ἐπὶ τραφερὴν ἀνάγοντες, | χείματος ἱσταμένοιο, μεταπνεῦσαι καμάτοιο ποντοπόρου βριθὺς δὲ πόνος ναύτῃσι μέμηλεν, κ, τ. λ.

Aristophanes, Aves, 709: Σπεί ρειν μὲν ὅταν γέρανος κρώζουσ' ἐς τὴν Λιβύην μεταχωρῇ, | καὶ πηδάλιον τότε ναυκλήρῳ φράζει κρεμάσαντι καθεύδειν.

* The storm, which St. Paul encountered, and which ultimately cast him upon the island of Malta; exhibits all the appearances of such a storm, as in a multitude of instances may be

shewn to have coincided with the period in the natural year called the Πλειάδων δύσις ; which, period, from the frequency of such convulsions of the elements at that juncture in particular, was considered and spoken of anciently as the most dangerous period for navigation in the whole year.

Hesiod, Opera et Dies, 616: Εἰ δέ σε ναυτιλίης δυσπεμφέλου ἵμερος αἱρεῖ, | εὖτ ̓ ἂν Πληϊάδες, σθένος ὄβριμον Ωρίωνος | φεύγου σαι, πίπτωσιν ἐς ἠεροειδέα πόντον, | δὴ τότε παντοίων ἀνέμων θύουσιν ἀῆται· [ καὶ τότε μηκέτι νῆας ἔχειν ἐνὶ οἴνοπι πόντῳ, κ, τ. λ.

Anacreon, Epigrammatum 3: Καί σε, Κλεηνορίδη, πόθος ὤλεσε πατρίδος αἴης, | θαρσήσαντα νότου λαίλαπι χειμερίῃ· | ὥρη γάρ σ' ἐπέδησεν ἀνέγγυος ὑγρὰ δὲ τὴν σὴν | κύματ ̓ ἐφ ̓ ἱμερτὴν ἔκλυσεν ἡλικίην.

Theocritus, Epigrammatum ix. 3 : Δείλαιε Κλεόνικε, σὺ δ ̓ εἰς λιπαρὴν Θάσον ἐλθεῖν | ἠπείγεν, κοίλης ἔμπορος ἐκ Συρίης | ἔμπορος, ὦ Κλεόνικε, δύσιν δ ̓ ὑπὸ Πλειάδος αὐτὴν | ποντοπορῶν, αὐτῇ Πλειάδι

o Acts xxvii. 27.

In the fourth month after this shipwreck, (for so I understand the note of time at verse 11. of chap. xxviii.

Μετὰ δὲ τρεῖς μῆνας ἀνήχθημεν,) which would consequently be some time in February or March, U. C. 812, they resumed their journey; and in something more than a

fortnight afterwards, which might possibly be at the beginning, or else at the middle of March, St. Paul arrived at Rome. His two years' residence there subsequently must be dated from this point of time: and beginning with March U. C. 812, it would expire with March U. C. 814.

Upon the arrival of Julius in Rome, he delivered his prisoners to the officer whose duty it was to receive them, and who is called the oтратожеdάрxпs; a very appropriate denomination for the commander-in-chief of the Prætorian cohorts or the Imperial guard; which, since the time of Sejanus in the reign of Tiberius, instead of being distributed in different parts of the city, had been collected together and quartered in a oтρаTÓTedov, or camp by themselves 1. The commander of these forces, from U. C. 804, the eleventh of Claudius, to U. C. 815, the eighth of Nero, was Burrus1; and this is one argument among others that the time of St. Paul's first imprisonment at Rome could not have borne date later than the eighth of Nero: for, upon the decease of Burrus, the command was divided between two, Fenius Rufus and Sofonius Tigellinus; as it had been, even before his appointment, between Lusius Geta and Rufius Crispinus*. Had the command been divided at the time of St. Paul's arrival, the extreme accuracy of St. Luke, I am persuaded, would have induced him to write τοῖς στρατοπεδάρχαις, not τῷ στρατοTedάpx. Nor is it improbable that the centurion Julius was a centurion of one of these cohorts; and that the σπείρα Σεβαστής, to which he belonged, is but a

* Dio. lx. 18. 23. Ixi. 3. U. C. 796, the commander of the Prætorian guard was Catonius Justus: U. C. 797, Rufrius Pollio,

(whom Tacitus,' xii. 42, calls Rufius Crispinus:) U. C. 807, Burrus: appointed according to Tacitus, U. C. 804.

p Acts xxviii. 12—15. q Tacitus, Annales, iv. 2. r xii. 42. xiv. 51. Cf. Dio, lxi. 3.

s Acts xxvii. 1.