"Idem JifdoBos qui Sabazii "JndsBos quoque qui Ro- Jovis cultu Romauosinticeieinanis tradeie sacra sua co- niores conati sunt, repetere nati suut,idem Hispalnsurbe domos suas coegit."' exterminavit arnsque piiva-
Itas a pnblicis locis abjecit."
If this reading be genuine, we find the Jews not merely settled in Rome, but a dangerous and proselyting peo- ple, three quarters of a century before the taking of Jerusalem bv Pompey. But aside from the fact that both Paris and Nepotianus are post-Christian writers, the question comes up, "What have the Jews to do with Jupiter Sabazius — a Phrygian god?" Without argu- ing the question at any length, we may unhesitating- h' saj' that the whole is a flagrant anachronism, in- troduced into the text of Valerius after the time when the Jews, either of themselves or as connected with the Christians, had become much more familiar to the gen- eral ear. Friedliinder, in his Darslellungen aus der Sit- tem/eschichte Roins, iii, 510, adopts the reading of Vale- rius Maximus as a source ; but it is certain that the first settlement of the Jews at Rome was under Pompey, when vast numbers of slaves were brought to the cap- ital. These slaves were publicly sold in the markets, but, if we may believe Philo, were soon emancipated by their tolerant masters, who were unwilling to do violence to their religious feelings. Is it not more probable that there were some, if not many, opulent commercial Jews already in Rome, " who, with their usual national spirit, purchased, to the utmost of their means, their unhappy countrymen, and enabled them to settle in freedom in tlie great metropolisV" Certain it is that at the time when Cicero delivered his memorable oration to vindi- cate Flacous their influence was already felt ; for being afraid of the large number of Jews Cicero saw in the audience, lie delivered his speech in a low voice (Cicero, J'ro Flacco, 28). Under Julius Cassar they enjoyed great liberties; for, as Suetonius tells us, they were among the mourners— the most sincere mourners — at the obsequies of C;csar; they waited for many nights around his en- tombment (" priecipue Judiei qui noctibus continuis bus- turn fre(iuentaruut" [.fnl. c. 84]). At the time of Au- gustus, the number of Jews residing at Rome already amounted to several thousand. Tacitus gives their number at 4000, and Josephus states that 8000 were present when Archelaus appeared before Augustus (Aiif, xvii, 11,1; \l'(ii; ii, 6, 1). Tliey formed the chief popu- lation of the trans-Tiberine region : r»}j' -rripav rov Ti- fiipnijt; TTOTaj-iov /(fyriXj/i' r;;c 'l'tbfir]r aTrciropi]v, Yjv oiiK »)yi'('if( (C«rf\'0//f i'(;i' Koi olKovi^ih'ijv Trpoc lovcai- wi' ■ l^iijfiaioi Sir i/uav ot TrXn'oi'C cnrtXevS^tpujSrivTec. AixpaXioToi yuf) ax-^ti'Ttij ti'c iTaXiav, inri) riov kti]- aa^ii'u)V tXtv^tpw^tjaav, oitttv tmv Trarpiwi' irapay^a-
puS,ai l3ia(7^iVTeg. Such is the report Philo gives in Li'fjat. ad Caiuin, § 23 (Mang. ii, 568). Augustus was at first an enemy to all foreign religions, and even praised Caius, the son of Agrippa, for not having sacri- ficed in Jerusalem (Sueton. .4 ugustus, 93). But as he advanced in years he grew more superstitions, and final- ly ordered that sacrifices for his welfare shoidd be offer- ed in the Jewish temple. The kindly feelings of Au- gustus towards the Jews were no doubt increased by his private friendship for Herod, and we must not be sur- prised at the special favors shown to the Jews by Au- gustus; for the less wealth}' Jews not only shared in the general largess of corn which was distributed among the poorer inhabitants of the city, but, by a special fa- vor of the monarch, their portion was reserved for the following day if the distribution fell on a Sabbath.
The first direct persecution of the Jews occurred un- der the reign of Tiberius, who sent 4000 Jewish youth against the robbers of Sardinia, purposely exposing them to the inclemencies of the climate (''si ob gravita- tem coeli interirent, vile damnum," as Tacitus writes), and who banished all the others froin Rome (Tacit. Annal, ii, 85; Sueton. Tiberius, 36). 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 proseU'tizing Fulvia, a noble Roman lady. On pre- tence of collecting for the Temple, they received from her large sums, which they appropriated to their own purposes. 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 per- secution of the Jews. After the death of Sejanus, the Jews were allowed to return to Rome to be oppressed by Caligula. Claudius (A.D. 41-45) again banished them from Rome, probably on account of the disputations and tumults excited by tliem in consequence of the spread of Christianity ("Juda>os impulsore Chresto assidue tu- multuantes Roma expulit" [Sueton. C/««rfii«, 25]). Yet here, as elsewhere, oppression and persecution seemed not to be the slightest check on their increase, and it is true what Dion Cassius remarks, that the Jews were a yti'oc, KoXovaSr'tv jikv iroXXaKiQ, av^)]^tv Se tTri TrXti- (TTov (xxxvii, 17). They had a sort of council, or house of judgment, which decided all matters of dispute. To this, no doubt, either in the synagogue or law-court at- tached to it, Paul expected to give an account of his conduct. '• The numbers of the Jews in Rome were, doubtless, much increased; but their respectability as well as their popularity was much diminished by the im- mense influx of the most destitute as well as of the most unridy of the race, who were swept into captivity by thousands after the fall of Jerusalem." The change ap- pears to be very marked. Rome tolerated, indeed, all religions; but the exclusiveness and the isolation of the Jews at Rome raised against them popular preju- dice. The language of the incidental notices which occur about the Jews in the Latin authors, after this period, seems more and more contemptuous, and implies that many of them were in the lowest state of penury — the outcasts of society. Juvenal bitterly complains that the beautiful and poetic grove of Egeria was let out to mendicant hordes of Jews, who pitched their camps, like gypsies, in the open air, with a wallet and a bundle of hay for their pillow as their only furniture :