A journey of six days from thence brings you to the large city of Rome, the metropolis of all Christendom. Two hundred Jews live there, who are very much respected, and pay tribute to no one. Some of them are officers in the service of pope Alexander[128], who is the chief ecclesiastic and head of the Christian church. The principal of the many eminent Jews resident here are R. Daniel and R. Jechiel. The latter is one of the pope's officers, a handsome, prudent, and wise man, who frequents the pope's palace, being the steward of his household and minister of his private property. R. Jechiel is a descendant of R. Nathan, the author of the book Aruch and its comments[129]. There are likewise at Rome, R. Joab, son of the rabbi R. Solomon, R. Menachem, the president of the university, R. Jechiel, who resides in Trastevere, and R. Benjamin, son of R. Shabthai of blessed memory. The city of Rome is divided into two parts by the river Tiber, which runs through it. In the first of these divisions you see the large place of worship called St. Peter of Rome, on the site of the extensive palace of Julius Cæsar. The city contains numerous buildings and structures entirely different from all other buildings upon the face of the earth. The extent of ground covered by the ruined and inhabited parts of Rome amounts to four-and-twenty miles. You there find eighty halls of the eighty eminent kings who were all called Imperator, from king Tarquin to king Pepin, the father of Charles (Charlemagne), who first conquered Spain and wrested it from the Mohammedans[130]. In the outskirts of Rome is the palace of Titus, who was rejected by three hundred senators in consequence of his having wasted three years in the conquest of Jerusalem, which, according to their will, he ought to have accomplished in two years. There is likewise the hall of the palace of king Vespasianus, a very large and strong building; also the hall of king Galba, containing 360 windows, equal in number to the days of the year. The circumference of this palace is nearly three miles. A battle was fought here in times of yore, and in the palace fell more than a hundred thousand, whose bones are hung up there even to the present day. The king caused a representation of the battle to be drawn, army against army, the men, the horses, and all their accoutrements being sculptured in marble, in order to preserve a memorial of the wars of antiquity. You there find also a cave under ground containing the king and his queen upon their thrones, surrounded by about one hundred nobles of their court, all embalmed by physicians and in good preservation to this day.