"Nunc Siicri fontis neinns et delubra locantur Judseis, quorum cophiuus foeimmque supellex"
(Sat. iii, 12).
And Martial alludes to their filth, and, what is curious enough, describes them as peddlers, venders of matches, which they trafficked for broken glass (i, 42; xii, 46). Be it as it may, certain it is that the Jews had once a flourishing and influential congregation at Rome, as may be seen from Jewish inscriptions and tombstones which of late have been brought to light.
ROME
115
ROMEYN
Such was the checkered history of the dispersed of Is- rael during the period which ends with the destruction of Jerusalem. Their wanderings and settlements in other parts of Europe, and the events which befell them in the Roman empire and elsewhere, are fully treated in the articles Jew and Rojie.
See Schiirer, Lehrbitch de?- nevieslamenlUchen Zeitge- sckichte, p. G24 sq. ; Hausrath, A'eii/estamentlic/ie Zeitrje- sr/iichte. iii, 71-81; Edersheim, Ilistdrij of the Jewish Nation, p. 83 sq. ; Milman, History of the Jeu-s, i, 458 sq. ; Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden. iii, 141, 142, '211, 212, 251 ; Kraus, Roma Sotteranea : Die rumischen Kutakumben (1873), p. 61 sq., 489 sq. ; S. Garrucci, Cimitero de(/li Antirhi Ebrei Scoperto recentemente in Vir/na Randanini (Roma, 1862) ; Corpus Inscript. Grcec. vol. iv, Nos. 9901-9926. (B. P.)
Rome, Benjamin (ben-Jehuda) of, a learned Jew, flourished in the 14th century, and is the author of com- mentaries on Kings, Chronicles, and Proverbs. They are still in MS., but "represent the sound and single exegesis of the Spanish school, abounding with quota- tions from Jonah Ibn-Jaunah, Ibn-tiikatilla, Ibn-Ba- 1am, Ibn-Ezra, Joseph Kimclii, and David Kinichi, and are of considerable interest for the history of exegesis." See De Rossi, Dizionario Storico degli A utori Ebrei, p. 63 (Germ, transl.) ; Ginsburg, Lerita's Massoreth ha-Mas- soreth, p. 81, note 91 ; Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebr. iii, 152, No. 393 ; Steinschneider, Catalogus Lib?: Hebr. hi Bib/. Bad- Itiima, p. 790, 1840, 2769 ; the same in the Jeivish Liter- ature (Lond. 1857), p. 146,376; and Bibliographisches llandbuch, p. 21, No. 206 (Leips. 1859) ; Furs't, Bibl. Jud. i, 117. (B. P.)
Rome Land, a large open space in front of the minster of Waltham, Bury St. Edmund's, and St. Al- ban's, called the forbury at Reading, and probably the original of the tombland of Norwich, so called since 1302.
Rome Scot, or Rome Fee, an annual tribute of a thousand marks paid by king John to the see of Rome. The money was remitted for the support of an English school or college in Rome, and was held by some of the popes to be a proof of the dependence of England on the Roman see. It was abolished Jan. 15, 1534. See Petek-pence.
Romeyn, the name of a family who have long been prominent in the ministry of the Retormed (Dutch) Church in America. Their ancestors fled from their native country, the United Provinces (now Belgium), during the persecutions of Louis XIV for conscience' sake and for their attachment to the Protestant cause. They took their lives in their hands, leaving all their effects behind them. There were three brothers, one of whom went to England, and was the ancestor of the celebrated Rev. William Romaine, author of The Life, the Walk, and the Triumph of Faith. He was the con- temporary and colaborer of Whitetield, Berridge, the countess of Huntingdon, and the Wesleys, with others of the great revivalists of the last century. The other two brothers, somewhere between 1650 and 1660, went to the Dutch West India Islands and Brazil. One of them died soon after. Claas Janse Romeyn, the sur- vivor, left Brazil when that country, which had been subject to the States-general, passed from their posses- sion in 1661. He came to New York and died about twelve years later. Of his descendants the following are entitled to notice among the deceased ministers of the Reformed Church.
1. James, son of James Van Campen Romeyn, born at Greenbush, N. Y., in 1797, was a graduate of Columbia College in 1816, and of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church at New Brunswick in 1819. He was settled successively at Nassau, N. Y., 1820-27 ; Six IMile Run, N. J., 1827-33; Hackensack, N. J., as colleague with his venerable father, 1833-36; Catskill, N. Y., 1836-40; Leeds, N. Y., 1842-4-1; Bergen Neck, N. J., 1844-50 ; Geneva, N. Y., 1850-51. He had scarcely be- gun his labors at this place when he was stricken down