him to tarry over a Sabbath. As he `went towards Rome,' and reached Capua, he would meet

Jews there, as we infer from the tombstone of one `Alfius Juda,' who had been `Archon' of the

Jews, and `Archisynagogus' in Capua. As he neared the city, he found in Anxur (Terracina) a

Synagogue.53 In Rome itself the Jewish community was organized as in other places.54 It sounds

strange, as after these many centuries we again read the names of the Archons of their various

Synagogues, all Roman, such as Claudius, Asteris, Julian (who was Archon alike of the

Campesian and the Agrippesian Synagogue priest, the son of Julian the Archisynagogus, or chief

of the eldership of the Augustesian Synagogue). And so in other places. On these tombstones

we find names of Jewish Synagogue-dignitaries, in every centre of population, in Pompeii, in

Venusia, the birthplace of Horace; in Jewish catacombs; and similarly Jewish inscriptions in

Africa, in Asia, in the islands of the Mediterranean, in Ægina, in Patræ, in Athens. Even where as

yet records of their early settlements have not been discovered, we still infer their presence, as

we remember the almost incredible extent of Roman commerce, which led to such large

settlements in Britain, or as we discover among the tombstones those of `Syrian' merchants, as

in Spain (where St. Paul hoped to preach, no doubt, also to his own countrymen), throughout

Gaul, and even in the remotest parts of Germany.55 Thus the statements of Josephus and of

Philo, as to the dispersion of Israel throughout all lands of the known world, are fully borne out.

But the special importance of the Jewish community in Rome lay in its contiguity to the seat of

the government of the world, where every movement could be watched and influenced, and

where it could lend support to the wants and wishes of that compact body which, however

widely scattered, was one in heart and feeling, in thought and purpose, in faith and practice, in

suffering and in prosperity.56 Thus, when upon the death of Herod a deputation from Palestine

appeared in the capital to seek the restoration of their Theocracy under a Roman protectorate,57

no less than 8,000 of the Roman Jews joined it. And in case of need they could find powerful

friends, not only among the Herodian princes, but among court favourites who were Jews, like

the actor of whom Josephus speaks;58 among those who were inclined towards Judaism, like

Poppæa, the dissolute wife of Nero, whose coffin as that of a Jewess was laid among the urns of

the emperors;59 or among real proselytes, like those of all ranks who, from superstition or

conviction, had identified themselves with the Synagogue.60