ABSTRACT
The discovery at Pompeii, however, of specimens reasonably conjectured to be earlier than A.D. 79, together with the implied presence of Christians before the eruption of Vesuvius, presented grave difficulties. If, then, the Pompeian squares were inscribed before A.D. 79, some alternative solution must be found. Could they, in fact, have been the work of Christians? There were certainly Christians in Rome. Tacitus, speaking of the disturbances of A.D. 64, when the fire of Rome touched off the first great persecution, refers to Christians as an ingens multitudo. There were certainly Christians in Rome. This may be rhetorical exaggeration, but there is clear evidence of quarrels between Christians and Jews under Claudius. There is certainly no justification for supposing the existence of a Christian community, and it need hardly be stressed that their presence at Pompeii would offer no solution to the remaining difficulties of Jerphanion.
