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XVII. GALLIO .
THY Stoic sense, belike in Attic airAttempered and in hallowing Hippocrene,
For the fond figments of Judaic spleen,
For words and names and forms of fast and prayer,
For letter strait of Law and split of hair,
Knew only cold contempt and scorn serene
Nor vengeance deigned to wreak of aught so mean:
For none of these things, Gallio, didst thou care.
—Might but all traders in unrest, all foes
Of the world's weal find only Gallios,
Who, as the sun o'erlooks the mists of morn,
Should look on them and let them creep their course
And in the quagmires quibble out of scorn,
Nor by opposing lend their follies force!
Lucius Junius Gallio, Proconsul of Achaia under Claudius, (v. Acts XVIII, 12) appears, as far as can be made out from the tangled maze of Roman record, to have been the brother or other near relative of the famous Stoic moralist and poet Lucius Annaeus Seneca and to have shared the latter's philosophical opinions. His real name seems to have been Titus or Marcus Annaeus Noratus or Novatus, the name of Gallio being one of adoption. In any case, it is certain that he was a man of high culture and wide mind; and he is, perhaps, (momentary as is his appearance on the Christian scene) the most remarkable figure of the second or apostolic part of the New Testament.
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