The illustrations in this volume are taken from photographs by Anderson, the unsurpassed photographer so well known in Rome. H. F. C. [Illustration: JULIUS CÆSAR] UNDER CÆSARS’ SHADOW CHAPTER I CÆSAR AUGUSTUS We read in the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel that “it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.” The common version of the New Testament says, “taxed.” But the revised version, following more closely the original Greek, says, “enrolled.” It was what we call at the present day a registration, made in order that none should escape the subsequent taxation. The sacred narrative continues. “All went to enroll themselves, every one to his own city.” Dr. James Stalker remarks: “This does not seem a very thrilling fact with which to begin the Christmas story; it seems, even, prosaic. But when the stern emperor’s edict went forth there was one young woman’s heart which thrilled with the keenest dread. That was the heart of Mary of Nazareth, called of God to be the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. It meant for her a long hard journey of eighty miles, in the winter season, over the mountains and along the roughest paths; it meant that she must suffer pain and privation when she was frail in body and anxious in mind, and all because she could not escape going to Bethlehem to be enrolled. For she and her husband Joseph were both direct descendants of Israel’s best-beloved King, David, and must obey the law requiring people to go back to the city from which their family had first come and be enrolled and taxed there. So there was nothing for her but to set out on the difficult journey, this sweet and gentle maiden with her crown of supreme honor from God and her burden of human anxiety and pain.”