“Rome does not seek, nor even wish, to impose her own gods upon any of the subject nations. But how different is the case with the Jew, who compasses sea and land to make one proselyte, and in the person of Poppæa has all but captured the imperial throne itself. Not a city of the empire but has its synagogue, though, forsooth, the Jew will not permit a single Gentile temple to be erected on the so-called holy soil of his own land--nay, would fly to arms should the thing be attempted. “This people are seeking to Judaize the empire, and should this proselytism continue at its present rate of progress, Rome is doomed.” “How so?” asked the startled Florus. “Because mankind, when Judaized, will turn, not to Rome, but to Jerusalem, as the capital of the world, and the seat of ideas. The high priest, and not Cæsar, will wield the scepter of empire; and, since toleration is unknown to the Jew, Oriental barbarism will triumph over Western civilization. Three times a year shall we be compelled to appear at Jerusalem. The laws of the Twelve Tables will give place to the precepts of the rabbis. Homer will be burnt in the market square; the philosophy of Plato superseded by the Pentateuch of Moses. Our circus games, Olympian contests, and theatrical plays will cease. Sculpture will be forbidden; the fairest masterpieces of Phidias will perish beneath the hammer of fanatics. The beautiful temples of Greece will be given over to the flames--there must be but one temple only, that of the jealous Hebrew God. All that gives to life brightness, and beauty, and joy, will vanish forever from the world, and we must find our chief pleasure in circumcision and the synagogue, in fastings and Sabbaths.” “By the gods, Polemo, you frighten me!” exclaimed Florus, contemplating with dismay this picture of a Judaized world. “I trust I do, for then you will the more readily carry out my designs against the hateful race of fanatics, who will do all I have said, if they be not checked. The existence of the Jew and his proselyte ought not to be tolerated by the Roman; their very creed teaches them disloyalty.” “In what way?”