32.Odio humani generis convicti. These words may either
signify the hatred of mankind towards the Christians, or the
hatred of the Christians towards mankind. I have preferred
the latter sense, as the most agreeable to the style of
Tacitus, and to the popular error, of which a precept of the
Gospel (see Luke xiv. 26) had been, perhaps, the innocent
occasion. My interpretation is justified by the authority of
Lipsius; of the Italian, the French, and the English
translators of Tacitus; of Mosheim (p. 102), of Le Clerc
(Historia Ecclesiast. p. 427), of Dr. Lardner (Testimonies,
vol. i. p. 345), and of the Bishop of Gloucester (Divine
Legation, vol. iii, p. 38). But as the word convicti does
not unite very happily with the rest of the sentence, James
Gronovius has preferred the reading of conjuncti, which is
authorised by the valuable MS. of Florence.