All this teaches us in unmistakable language that even before the beginning of the Christian era, Jews in considerable numbers established themselves in the capital of the Roman empire, and that before long they attained to a position of marked prosperity and power, thanks not only to their own industry and intelligence, but also to the good-will of some of the emperors. When Caesar died, it is said, the Jews kept vigil at his tomb for three nights. But the history of the Jews in Italy is remarkable not only for its antiquity. It is remarkable also for its uninterrupted glory and magnificence. Italy, it has been said, is the one country in which there has never been such a thing as Jewish persecution on a large scale. In England and in France there were periods when the Jews were banished. In Italy they were spared such a wholesale calamity. This is not to say that the Jews of Italy were not called upon time and again to face hardship and misery. This is not to say that now and then one city or another did not try to expel them. Nor is this meant to cover up the fact that in Rome, from the year 1555 to the year 1848, the Jews were made to live in a ghetto, which contributed beyond measure to their material and spiritual degradation. In Italy, as everywhere else, the Jews had more than their share of sorrow and misery to endure, owing to the fanaticism of popes and the vacillation of the masses. But the one thing that never did occur was a wholesale expulsion of the Jews from all her domain, similar to the one from England in 1290, from France in 1393, and from Spain in 1492. As a result, the history of the Jews of Italy affords today a record of uninterrupted activity and glory, extending over more than the entire period of Christian history. In every century of Italian Jewish history, we find men and movements of importance, bearing witness to the energy of the Jew and to the opportunities for its exercise. And this long period of the past is worthily crowned by the position that the Jews occupy in the Italy of today. Though their number is small, there being but about forty thousand of them in Italy, their influence is striking, seeing that in every sphere they have risen to exalted positions, unsurpassed, in this respect, if equalled, by their brethren in any other part of the world. When we try to account for this, various facts have to be considered. First, there is the condition of the country. Then, the character of the people. And, finally, the part of the Jew himself.