response 138 of 278:

May 8 11:17 UTC 1999

Not H. G. Wells. Good guess though. Here's another quote:

     Outwardly, the Roman state during the first century of our era was
a magnificent political structure, so large that Alexander's empire
became one of its minor provinces. Underneath this glory there lived
millions upon millions of poor and tired human beings, toiling like ants
who have built a nest underneath a heavy stone. They worked for the
benefit of someone else. They shared their food with the animals of the
fields. They lived in stables. They died without hope.
     It was the seven hundred and fifty-third year since the founding of
Rome. Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus was living in the palace
of the Palatine Hill, busily engaged upon the task of ruling his empire.
     In a little village of distant Syria, Mary, the wife of Joseph the
Carpenter, was tending her little boy, born in a stable of Bethlehem.
     This is a strange world.
     Before long, the palace and the stable were to meet in open combat.
     And the stable was to emerge victorious.