A similar protection was extended to the Jews during the reign of Philip the Arabian—another sovereign about whom similar fancies are entertained by Jewish writers, and with no more reason, apparently, than in the other instances. The Christians also experienced the same merciful sway. But with the accession of Decius, A.D. 249, the persecution of the Christians, which had slumbered, with only some slight and partial renewals, since the time of Aurelius, broke out with greater violence than ever, and continued to rage, with rare intermissions, through the reigns of successive emperors, until the accession of Constantine. There is little or nothing to record respecting the Jews during this period, so far as those of the West are concerned, unless the war waged by one of the most powerful of the later occupants of the Imperial throne, Aurelian, with Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, may be thought to have some relation to Jewish affairs. This princess is said to have been a descendant of the Asmonæan family, or, at all events, of Jewish birth,[45] and to have been brought up in the Jewish faith. Some go so far as to say she was a zealous professor of it.[46] It is certain that she built splendid synagogues for the use of the Jews, and advanced them to the highest posts of dignity. The celebrated Paul of Samosata,[47] who enjoyed her special favour, has been thought to have attempted to effect a reconciliation between Christianity and Judaism, insisting on the necessity of the rite of circumcision, and teaching that Jesus was, although a man, one in whom the Divine Λόγος dwelt. This, it is thought, may have had her approval. If such was really his design, it proved, as might have been expected, a total failure, both parties alike rejecting his teaching. After the fall of Zenobia, he was deprived of his office, and vanished into obscurity. But in any case her history belongs more properly to that of the Eastern Jews, that large section of the Hebrew race which had spread far to the eastward of the great river, and who dwelt under the rule of the Patriarch, known by the title of the ‘Prince of the Captivity.’ It will be proper now to turn to their affairs. FOOTNOTES: [37] According to others, it was the daughter of Aurelius who was healed. A deputation had been sent to protest against the severe edicts of Verus. The celebrated mystic, Simon ben Jochai, was the envoy, and he cast an evil spirit out of the Emperor’s daughter. The Rabbins assert also that Antoninus received circumcision. But their testimony on this, as on many similar matters, cannot be relied on. [38] Thus it is mentioned that the Jews were more forward than the heathen in bringing faggots to burn the Christian martyr Polycarp—‘as is their habit,’ says the historian (_Polyc. Martyr._ xiii.). [39] Origen affirms that the power of the patriarchs was little less than that of a king (Orig., _Epist. ad Afric._). [40] The Presidents of the Sanhedrin are said to have been—