The _contio_ was a formal assembly of citizens, called by a magistrate holding _imperium_. The purpose was generally to hear projected legislation either favorably or unfavorably discussed. No one spoke except the magistrate or those whom he designated. The _contio_ took no action except to indicate its assent by acclamation, or its dissent equally emphatically. At the actual legislative assembly, for which the _contiones_ were preparations, no discussion whatever took place. The law was presented to be accepted or refused. It will be seen that a mass of Orientals who less than two years before had been Aramaic-speaking slaves can scarcely have been a power in such gatherings as these. Footnote 241: Philo, Leg. ad. Gaium, 23. Footnote 242: The language of the inscriptions in the various Jewish cemeteries at Rome is almost always Greek, as is that of most of the monuments in the Christian catacombs. Latin is rare and generally later. But these monuments belong to Jews who lived several generations after 63 B.C.E. As far as Palestine is concerned, both inscriptions and literature leave no doubt that the masses spoke only Aramaic or Hebrew. Footnote 243: Caesar, Bell. Gall. II. xxxiii. 7; III. xvi. 4. Footnote 244: Foucart, Mém. sur l’affranchissement des esclaves. Footnote 245: Suet. Div. Iul. 84, 76, 80. Footnote 246: The pretensions of the senatorial party to be the only true Romans were not altogether unfounded. The terms _boni_ and _optimates_ which they gave themselves were perhaps consciously adapted from the καλοὶ κἀγαθοί of Athens. The importance of _nobilitas_ as a criterion of true Roman blood lay in the fact that it attested lineage in a wholly unmistakable way. We may compare the insistence of Nehemiah upon documentary evidence of Israelitish blood (Neh. vii. 61, 64). Footnote 247: Pro Flacco, 15, 36, compared with 26, 62 seq. Footnote 248: Cf. ch. XIV., notes 11, 12. Footnote 249: The chief political asset of the triumvirs was the orientalized plebs of the city, whose origin and poverty would combine to make them bitterly detest the organized tax-farmers. Now Crassus, one of the triumvirs, was himself the head of a powerful financial group. It may be that the tax-farmers persecuted by Gabinius belonged to a rival organization, or that Crassus had withdrawn from that form of speculation before 60 B.C.E. In the case of Flaccus, the complaint of the tax-financier Decianus was a pretext, or else Decianus may have been forethoughtful enough to have joined the right syndicate. Footnote 250: Cicero ad Att. ii. 9. Footnote 251: Augustinus, De Civ. Dei, iv. 31, 2. CHAPTER XVI JEWS IN ROME DURING THE EARLY EMPIRE Footnote 252: