powerful charm of mysteriousness; but as in both cases religion and life were so closely intertwined, while their fundamental principles were antagonistic, Romans and Jews lived side by side, but always remained strangers to, and entirely separate from, each other. Besides, the continual recurrence of Sabbaths, of feasts, of circumcision-their manifest attachment to those of their own nation, and their equally manifest contempt of heathenism, if not of heathens -contributed to embitter the public mind.1

The grossest misapprehensions prevailed among all classes, as to the origin, history, and creed of the Jews. Thus even Tacitus (90 A.D.), recounting the current traditions of their origin, in which most other heathen historians agree,2 relates that the Jews derived their name from Mount Ida (Idæi, Judæi); that they had at one time been expelled from Crete; that Jerusalem had been called after Hierosolymus, who, with Judah, was the leader of their wanderings; that they had found their way into Egypt, whence they were expelled on account of their leprosy. They had left that country under the leadership of Moses. A troop of wild asses had conducted them to a spring, when they were almost perishing from thirst. On this account they ever afterwards adored the golden head of an ass, which was kept in their innermost sanctuary. Their abstinence from swine's flesh was accounted for, either on the ground that they adored that animal, or else because swine were peculiarly liable to leprosy. Their observance of the Sabbath was variously traced to the service of Saturn (to whom the Romans had dedicated that day), the supposed god of the Ideans, or else to the superiority of the star of that name. Some reported that the Jews fasted on Sabbaths, others that they spent the day in idleness 5 and feastings. It was also suggested that the Jews observed the Sabbath, as being the day on which they got possession of Palestine. They were described as

1-Juvenal, Sat. xiv. 96-106.

2 Tacit. Hist. v. 2 ff.

Petron. Sat., Frag. ed. Burm. p. 683; cf. Plutarch, Symp. iv. 5. 4 Petron. ut supra; Sueton. In Octav. 76.

5 Cl. Rutil. Itiner. i. 391 f.

exceedingly dangerous to the State,. on account of their contempt for the religion of the Romans, and their hatred of all but their co-religionists. Their rites were said to be contemptible, and their whole creed empty and unmeaning. Circumcision formed a theme of never-failing scorn,2 and was stated by some to have been derived from the Egyptians.3 Various opinions prevailed as to the origin of the city and name of Jerusalem (Hierosolyma). One party traced it to the people of Solymi, celebrated in Homeric verse. Again, the blowing of trumpets, the use of branches in some of the feasts, and the name of Levites (supposed to be derived from Evius), were taken as indications of their service of Bacchus.* On the other hand, some accused them either of Atheism, or else of the adoration of an invisible god, or even of the sky and of the clouds.5 The Jewish hatred of the Romans is described to have been such, that they would not point out the road to a stranger, or conduct the thirsty to a well. However, the superstitious Romans imitated their rites, and many of them were even circumcised." Jews were frequently resorted to for soothsaying and the preparation of charms, or consulted as to the future.8

9

In Rome the Jews engaged in all kinds of trade. The poorer classes are ridiculed as vendors of matches and similar trifles; others are characterised as beggars, as in abject poverty, or as renting the ground where Numa had been wont to meet his friendly nymph. They seem to have inhabited separate quarters of the city, the region where they first settled being the district beyond the river and the Tiber island. As in other countries, they had rulers or archons, who, as far as was practicable, administered the Jewish law. They also maintained a continual intercourse with Palestine.10 Under the reign of Augustus, 8000 Roman Jews are said to

1 Tacitus et Juvenalis, ut supra.

2 Hor. Sat. i. 9. 70; Martial, vii. Ep. 30, 35; Petron. et Juven. ut

supra.

3 Herodot. ii. 104.

5 Juven. Sat. xiv. 96 f.

7 Juven. ut supra, 99.

9 Mart. i. 42; xii. 57.

4 Plutarch, Symp. iv. 6.

6 Juven. ut supra, 103, 104.

8 Juven. Sat. vi. 542-547.

10 Acts xxviii. 21.

have joined a deputation from Palestine.1 Their number at that time is calculated to have amounted to 40,000. The first direct persecution of the Jews occurred under the reign of Tiberius, who sent 4000 Jewish youths against the robbers of Sardinia, purposely exposing them to the inclemencies of the climate, and who banished all the others from Rome.2 The ground of this decree is stated to have been the emperor's desire to suppress all foreign superstitions, more especially the Jewish, which numbered many proselytes. Josephus explains that a certain Jewish impostor, who acted as a Rabbi in Rome, had, in concert with three other Jews, succeeded in proselytising Fulvia, a noble Roman lady. On pretence of collecting for the temple, they received from her large sums, which they appropriated to their own purposes.3 The fraud was detected, and Sejanus, who at that time was high in the emperor's confidence, used the opportunity for inciting his master to a general persecution of the Jews.1 After the death of Sejanus, the Jews were allowed to return to Rome. Of the mad attempts of Caligula to be adored by them, we have already spoken. Claudius (41-54 A.D.) again decreed the expulsion of the Jews from Rome, probably on account of the disputations and tumults excited by them in consequence of the spread of Christianity; [it appears, however, that the edict was never fully carried out].5 Nero, who persecuted the Christians, had apparently not molested the Jews; and, indeed, the Empress Poppaa seems to have had a leaning towards Judaism. Such was the chequered history of the dispersed of Israel during the period which ends with the destruction of Jerusalem. The events which befell them in the Roman Empire and elsewhere, will form the subject of subsequent history.

1 Jos. Ant. xvii. 11. 1; Wars, ii. 6. 1.

2 Tacit. Annal. ii. 85; Sueton. In Tiber. 36.

3 Jos. Ant. xviii. 3. 5.

4 Euseb. Hist. Eccl. ii. 5; Philo, Legat. ad Cajum, ii. 569.

5 Comp. Dio Cassius, lx. 6, with Acts xviii. 2; Sueton. In Claud. 25. See also Schürer, II. ii. 236 f.

6 Jos. Ant. xx. 8. 11; Life, 3.

CHAPTER IV

POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS STATE OF THE JEWS AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM

THE destruction of Jerusalem, and the final subjugation of the land of Israel, do not seem to have permanently affected the condition of the Jews either in or out of Palestine. Immediately after the taking of the capital, Vespasian is said to have instituted an inquiry after the descendants of the house of David.1 This investigation was the signal for a fresh persecution. But the search could not have been very extensive or long continued, as certain Rabbins could at a later period claim kindred with the royal family. At all events, the Christian Jews, who, in accordance with the Lord's injunction, had left Jerusalem and fled beyond Jordan, escaped unmolested. Two Roman ordinances were promulgated, meant to indicate the entire subjugation of Palestine and of the whole Jewish people; 2 [otherwise the political rights of the Jews were respected by Vespasian]. The first of these enjoined that the annual contribution hitherto paid by all Jews to Jerusalem should in future be rendered to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome. The second assigned the whole country to the emperor as his private possession. Grants of land were, however, made to favoured individuals, such as Josephus; and, 800 discharged veterans were settled at the village of Emmaus, near Jerusalem. The first of these measures, though not really involving any additional pecuniary payment, was yet a continual national and religious affront. The inhabitants of Palestine had previously groaned under the burden of an excessive taxation; all property was 2 Dio Cass. lxvi. 7; Jos. Wars, vii. 6. 6.

1 Euseb. Hist. Eccl. iii. 12.

subject to a land tax; every individual had to pay a kind of poll-money; agriculture and commerce were hampered by the exaction of excessive customs and duties. In addition to all these imposts, the Roman government now claimed the temple-didrachm or half-shekel (about one and threepence of our money). It will readily be conceived that this forced diversion of a religious contribution to the support of a hated idolatry must have been felt to be peculiarly galling.

[The inhabitants of Palestine were terribly impoverished by the long struggle, and even after the end of the war a general feeling of insecurity prevailed. When lands were offered for sale, which had been violently taken from their original owners by freebooters (sicarii), or by the Roman government, the Jews hesitated to purchase, fearing that the original owners might establish a claim to their property. To enable the Jews to settle again in their own country, the Sanhedrin, or highest religious tribunal, decreed that all sales of land in Judea made after the destruction of Jerusalem were to be held valid, provided that the original proprietors had previous to the sale given their consent to the transaction. This decree was subsequently modified, and it was determined that the purchaser must give to the original owner one quarter of the price which he paid for the land.]1

Vespasian died on the 23rd June, A.D. 79, much as he had lived, proud and unconcerned. When he felt his end. approaching, he observed, in ironical allusion to the deification of his predecessors, "I suppose I am becoming a god." At his express request, he was lifted from his bed, as he wished to die standing, as became a Roman emperor.2

Titus was about thirty-nine years old when he succeeded

1 M. Gittin, v. 6 ; jer. ib. v. 47b ; bab. ib. 55b; Tosifta, ib. c. iii. [On the Din Sicaricon, or law of the Sicarii, see Derenb. pp. 294, 475-478; Grätz, iv. 24, 422 f.; Levy, Neuhebr. Wörterb. iii. p. 5186. According to Derenbourg, the term Sicaricon was applied to the general principle which allowed an original owner to make good his claim against a purchaser; Grätz understands the term of an exceptional measure suspending this right. Schürer (I. ii. 179) refers the Sicaricon to the time after the war of Hadrian; and Derenbourg (p. 478) allows that there are reasons which support this view.]

2 Sueton. In Vespas. 23, 24.