according to custom, till the death of the conquered general of the enemy should be announced. This was Simon, the son of Giora, who, after having been exhibited in the procession among the captives, was dragged with a cord round his neck to the place of execution overhanging the Forum, and scourged with rods as he went. The announcement of his death was received with acclamations; then the sacrifices commenced, and after a solemn thanksgiving the emperor and his sons returned to the palace, where they gave a splendid banquet; and the feasting was universal throughout the city.1 Vespasian, when he had regulated the affairs of the Empire, determined to erect a splendid TEMPLE OF PEACE. The site which he selected for it was near the northeastern extremity of the Forum. As it was surrounded with a large open space, it must have served, like the Fora of Julius and Augustus, to relieve the Forum Romanum; and indeed it sometimes bore the name of FORUM PACIS. The temple was a most magnificent structure, and the interior was adorned with chefs-d'œuvre of Greek sculpture and painting, which seem to have been mostly taken from Nero's palace; for Vespasian caused that monument of insane extravagance to be demolished. Here also were placed the Jewish spoils, except the laws and the veil of the temple, which were deposited in the imperial palace. To the temple was annexed a library which served not only for study, but also for the meetings of literary men. The temple was burnt down in the reign of Commodus, and does not appear to have been restored.? Vespasian also erected on the Cælian Hill a TEMPLE to the EMPEROR CLAUDIUS, which had been begun by Agrippina, but destroyed by Nero.3 The exact site of it, however, cannot be determined. As, after the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, a great number of Jews appear to have resorted to Rome, it may be proper here to say a few words respecting their condition in that city. The capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in B. c. 63, on which occasion Sulla's son, Faustus, was the first man to scale the walls, appears to have caused the settlement of many Jews at Rome. Pompey brought thither a number of Jewish slaves, and after his time we begin to hear of Jewish freedmen and other Hebrews, attracted probably to the Roman capital by views of trade and speculation. Pompey, accompanied by some of his officers, appears to have penetrated into the holy of holies, which the chief priest alone was permitted to enter, and there to have viewed the golden table and candlesticks already described, with other sacred utensils, besides consecrated money to the value of two million talents; but he touched nothing of all these things, and, the day after his entry, directed the temple to be purified and worship to be resumed as usual. But the treasure was afterwards plundered by Crassus. Judæa retained its own princes, who lived on friendly terms with the first Roman emperors. Julius Cæsar appears to have favoured them ; they deplored his death with weeping and lamentations, and gathered round his tomb for nights together.1 Philon Judæus, in his description of the embassy to Caligula,2 of which he was himself the head, adverts to the mildness with which Augustus had treated the Jews. He allowed them to observe the customs of their forefathers, to hold their synagogues, to observe their Sabbath, and receive the distributions of corn on the following day, to transmit money to Jerusalem in order that sacrifices might be made for them; nay, he is even said to have adorned the Jewish Temple with costly offerings, and to have caused large sacrifices to be made there. Several Jewish princes 2 Opera, p. 728 (Paris, 1552). 1 Suet. Jul. Cæs. 84. R who visited Rome were treated with great distinction, and some were even educated at the imperial court. Agrippa, the grandson of Herod, was brought up with Claudius, the future emperor, and with Drusus, the son of Tiberius; he formed an intimacy with Caligula, who made him king of the Jews. Towards the Jews in general that emperor, however, conceived a great animosity, because they were the only people who refused to recognise his divinity; and he received the embassy of Philon and the Jews at Alexandria, with every mark of contumely and insult. He directed Petronius, governor of Syria, to cause his statue to be erected in the temple at Jerusalem. The scene which ensued touched even the heart of Petronius. He entreated the emperor to alter his purpose, and Caligula at last yielded to the representations of his early friend Agrippa, who came to Rome to intercede with him. But it is with the domestic life of the Jews at Rome that we are here more particularly concerned. Under Julius Cæsar and Augustus they appear to have been perfectly unmolested. They seem at this period to have lived chiefly in the Transtiberine district; but they were not confined to any particular place, and had full liberty to move about the city and transact their business. There must have been many thousand Jews at Rome in the time of Augustus. Josephus relates that an embassy from Jerusalem to that emperor was joined at Rome by more than 8,000 Jews, who may be presumed to have been adult males. At first the Jews and Christians were regarded by the Romans as the same sect, which was natural enough, as most of the early Christians were converted Jews;2 and as they were thus confounded, so they experienced the same persecutions. Tiberius, by the advice of Sejanus, 1 Ant. lib. xvii. c. 11 (12). due tumultuantes, Roma expulit.' Claud. 25. 2 Thus Suetonius says of them: Judæos impulsore Christo assi banished 4,000 of them to Sardinia, where they were to serve against the bandits and were expected to perish by the climate; the rest were ordered to leave Italy unless they renounced their religion before a fixed day. This severity appears to have been excited by the roguery and malpractices of four of the sect. But Tiberius, having afterwards discovered the innocence of the great mass of them, not only pardoned them, but also conferred upon them many benefits. In the year 51 they were again driven from the city by Claudius. But they always returned. Titus brought a great number of Jewish captives to Rome. Among them was Berenice, the beautiful daughter of Agrippa Herodes I., whom he made his mistress, and would have made his wife but for fear of the Romans. Vespasian and Titus permitted the Jews to remain at Rome; but they were treated with a sort of contempt; nor did Titus deem it consistent with his dignity to assume from his conquest of them the title of Judaicus. They were now obliged to offer to the Capitoline Jupiter the tribute which they had been accustomed to pay into the treasury of their temple. Domitian confined them, singularly enough, to the valley of Egeria, where they seem to have lived in gipsy fashion, their whole furniture being a basket and a bundle of hay. Nunc sacri fontis nemus et delubra locantur Like the gipsies, too, they picked up some money by fortune-telling: Ere minuto From these and other arts they fell into such contempt that it was a reproach to have been seen in one of their synagogues; though the worship of Isis, Mithras, Priapus, Et si ob gravitatem coeli interissent, vile damnum.'-Tac. Ann. ii. 85. Cf. Joseph. Ant. lib. xviii. c. 3 (4); Suet. Tib. 36. 2 Juvenal, Sat. iii. 13. or any other outlandish deity, might be attended with impunity. After the time of Domitian we have few notices of the Jews at Rome; though no doubt great numbers of them repaired thither after the second overthrow of Jerusalem by Hadrian. Alexander Severus allowed them to settle in the Trastevere, which seems to have been peopled by Jews till a late period of the middle ages, as the Bridge of S. Angelo was called the Jews' Bridge.1 But to return from this digression. Vespasian may probably have found room for his Temple of Peace, a splendid monument of his Jewish triumphs, from the space having been cleared by Nero's fire, and not again entirely occupied. It is certain at least that Nero's insane extravagance in laying out his gardens afforded Vespasian the opportunity of building his amphitheatre, the greatest architectural wonder of the world. Augustus appears to have entertained the idea of erecting an amphitheatre in the middle of the city; but, seeing the many more necessary and pressing works which he was compelled to undertake, he was probably deterred by the cost. A new amphitheatre had indeed now become necessary, as that of Statilius Taurus had been destroyed in the fire of Nero.3 The expanse of ground covered by Nero's lake offered an excellent site for such a building. It seems probable that the arena was considerably lower than it is at present, since it was sometimes converted into a Naumachia, on which occasions the water would have been supplied by Nero's aqueduct, which, as we have seen, he had brought hither to feed his lake. It forms no part of our purpose to enter into a minute description of this wonderful structure. Its form is an ellipsis, the length of the major axis from the outside wall being 620 feet, and of 1 An account of the Jews in Rome, from Pompey to Nero, will be found in Aringhi, Roma Subterranea, 1. ii. c. 23. Cf. Gregorovius, Figuren, &c. 2 Suet. Vesp. 9. 3 Dion Cass. lxii. 18. |