4. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY

4. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ~ 162 ~ educational influences—books and treatises as well as meetings with learned men—were banned. The arts and philosophy flourished in democratic Athens, but many artists and philosophers, among them Aeschylus, Euripides, Phidias, Socrates, and Aristotle, were exiled, imprisoned, executed, or took flight.80 The office of Censor was established in Rome in 443 B.C. Criticism of the Roman authorities was akin to treason. The article says, “Treason included allusion, statement, and criticism. Philosophers and rhetoricians were twice banished by law, and the political rights of actors were curtailed by edicts of the censors. Many prominent citizens were persecuted for having made critical comments on the ruling class.” 81 For almost three centuries after Christ, the Jews and Christians remained hostile to one another only because of differences in their religious beliefs. First the Jews persecuted the Christians. When in the fourth century Christianity became the religion of the empire, Christian officials persecuted the Jews.