“How is the power of Rome maintained? Only by its army. Abolish the legions, and how long, think you, would it be before the Northern barbarians would come pouring over the Rhine and the Danube bent on our overthrow? What part do the Jew and his proselyte take in our common defense? None! Let a Roman subject become a disciple of the synagogue, and though called upon, he obstinately refuses to serve in the army, on the plea that he may have to march or to fight on the Sabbath day, a thing forbidden by his religion. Rome has had to yield to them, and hence the unwritten law exempting Jews and their proselytes from military impressment. The Gaul and the Greek, the Spaniard and the Egyptian, must be told off to defend the empire: you and I, dear Florus, must shed our blood, in order, forsooth, that the Jew may have leisure to trade upon us, and grow rich.” “A piece of injustice, the very thought of which makes one savage,” commented Florus. “The Jew is _in_ the empire, but not _of_ it; he enjoys its advantages, but refuses to pay for them. The wealth made by him in huckstering is not employed to benefit the province where earned, but is sent to the temple at Jerusalem, there to lie dormant. The drain of gold and silver to the temple is so serious a matter as to have affected at times the currency of a province, compelling its governor to forbid the export.[7] “Why this piling up in the temple of treasure, amounting to millions of aurei? Why? Because war cannot be carried on without gold. This hoard, which the Jews would have us regard as merely the religious offerings of pious souls, is in reality being accumulated for the purpose of waging war against Rome.” “I have often thought so myself,” said Florus, who had never thought anything of the kind.