CALUMNY AGAINST EARLY CHRISTIANS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The reference in your appreciation of C. M. Doughty to his mention of incestuous orgies attributed among the
Arabs to the Christians shows us the vogue and staying power of a lie, even so outrageous as this. Though referred to no doubt by Tacitus under the term flagitia in his account of Nero's persecution in 64 A.D., it was not formulated in writing tilt the time of the orator Fronto, about 80 years later, and became a stock form of abuse directed against the Christians. It is
surprising that a man of Fronto's character could have lent his authority to the support of such a calumny even for rhetorical purposes. Celsus, the great opponent of Christianity; a few years later totally ignores it. That it should have lasted on in Arabia till now is an astonishing fact. Some may remember, as I do, that similar horrible and inconceivable things were said of the " Salvation Army " in its early days.—
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