Yet, in spite of every difficulty, Christianity prevailed. The new religion spread with great rapidity. This we learn not only from Christian writers, who might be thought to exaggerate; but from impartial men such as _Suetonius_ and _Tacitus_. The former says that in the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54) the Jews in Rome, _stirred up by one Chrestus_ (_i.e._, Christian Jews), were so numerous that the Emperor thought it expedient to banish them; and the latter that at the time of the great fire (A.D. 64) _large numbers_ of Christians were discovered at Rome. While some years later _Pliny_, one of the Roman governors in Asia Minor, complained to the Emperor Trajan that the Christians were so numerous that the temples had long been deserted, though at the time he wrote (A.D. 112) they were being frequented again. He also bears witness to the exemplary lives of the Christians, their steadfastness in their religion, and the divine worship they paid to Christ. And as the religion did not originate in either Rome or Asia Minor, Christians were presumably as numerous elsewhere. Nor can it be said that they were only to be found among the poor and ignorant. For Pliny himself admits that they included men of _every rank_ in life; and the undisputed Epistles of St. Paul, such as that to the Romans (about A.D. 55), show that he thought his readers well educated, and quite able to follow a difficult argument. Moreover, according to the Acts, the people were by no means willing to accept Christianity without inquiry; and St. Paul was obliged in consequence to have long discussions on the subject. This was especially the case at Ephesus, where he _reasoned daily_ in one of the schools, for about _two years_,[446] which does not look as if his followers were only among the poor and ignorant. While elsewhere we have the names of some eminent converts. [Footnote 446: Acts 19. 9-10; 17. 17.] Among these may be mentioned _Erastus_ the treasurer of the city at Corinth; and _Crispus_, the ruler of the Synagogue there; _Dionysius_, the Areopagite at Athens; _Manaen_, the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch; _Apollos_, a learned Jew of Alexandria, who had made a special study of the Scriptures; and _Theophilus_, a man of high rank (as is shown by the title _Most excellent_), none of whom are likely to have accepted the religion of the Crucified, without very strong evidence.[447] And recent discoveries in the catacombs have made it probable that a distinguished Roman lady, Pomponia Græcina (wife of the General Aulus Plautius) who Tacitus says was accused in A.D. 57 of having adopted a _foreign superstition_, was also a Christian.[448] [Footnote 447: Rom. 16. 23; Acts 18. 8; 17. 34; 13. 1; 18. 24; 1. 1; _comp._ 23. 26; 24. 3.] [Footnote 448: J. Orr, Hist. and Lit. of early Church, 1913, p. 43. Tacitus, Annals, Bk. xiii., ch. 32.]