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In A.D.154 we find a text showing the operation of the law:
"If any person . . . . . is found straying on alien land, he shall be arrested and brought
before me as no longer merely suspect but actually a confessed malefactor."
We find the same law in force in Egypt, in Thrace, and in Palestine.
In 1912 Professor Ramsay discovered an inscription at Antioch which reads:
"To Gaius Caristanius (Son of Gaius, of Sergia tribe) Fronto Caesianus Juletus, Chief
of engineers, pontifex priest, prefect of P. Sulpicius, Quirinius, prefect of M. Servillius.
To him first of all men at state expense by decree of the decuriones, a statue was
erected."
"Quirinius" is the "Cyrenius" of Luke 2: 2 and this inscription shows that he was
elected chief magistrate of the colony of Antioch and that he had nominated Caristanius
to act as his prefect.
It is beyond our purpose to go into all the proofs that Sir William Ramsay has brought
forward to establish the date of Luke 2: 2. It is sufficient to state that the discoveries he
has made in Asia Minor "confirm the correctness of all the facts that Luke mentions
regarding the census and its manner and its date".
In conclusion we would remind the reader that all arguments found in commentaries
written before 1910 were written without the evidence now available and should
therefore be read with discernment.