a permission to scourge, and use lesser punishments in their synagogues, and also to apprehend and send to Jerusalem greater delinquents, who deserved a more severe animadversion. We know it included a permission to send annually from every part of the Roman empire large sums of money to Jerusalem, which was of far greater consequence than their sending now and then a delinquent to be punished. Not only those who were born of Jewish parents, but all who were proselyted to the Jewish religion, contributed to the expenses of divine worship at Jerusalem, and usually sent many voluntary offerings besides. The amount of these collections was so great, that the governors of provinces were sometimes uneasy at it, and for that reason seized the money, and laid a restraint on the Jews that they should send no more, as did Flaccus in Asia $. Titus, in the speech he made to the Jews after having taken Jerusalem, sets this matter in a just light: "The kindness of the Romans, says Cæsar, has ex"cited you against the Romans. We first of all gave you the country to inhabit, and placed over you kings of your own nation. Afterwards (that "is, when Judæa was made a Roman province) we preserved to you your own country laws, and per

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Pessimus quisque spretis religionibus patriis tributa et stipes illuc congerebant. Unde auctæ Judæorum res. Tac. Hist. 1. 5.

n. 5.

s Cum aurum Judæorum nomine quotannis ex Italia et ex omnibus vestris provinciis Hierosolymam exportari soleret, Flaccus sanxit edicto, ne ex Asia exportari liceret. Cic. pro Flacco, c. 28. (67.) This was much more frequently done by the governors or magistrates of particular cities. Vid. Jos. Antiq. I. 16. c. 2. §. 3. et c. 6.

But what is most

"mitted you to live, not only among yourselves, but " with others also as you would. "of all, we suffered you to raise a tribute, and col"lect offerings for the Deity, and neither admonished

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nor forbad those who offered them, although you, "our enemies, became richer than ourselves, and "armed yourselves against us with our own money'.' Titus represents it as an instance of greater kindness in the Romans, that they suffered the Jews to collect money in all the provinces, and convey it to Jerusalem, than permitting them the use of their own laws; and at the same time shews, that it was of far more dangerous consequence to the Roman power ".

There is a decree of Julius Cæsar extant, wherein is a clause, giving a power to the high priest of the Jews to determine all differences that should happen about the Jewish institution. This clause most certainly relates to those Jews who inhabited foreign places under the Roman dominion. For it is therein decreed, that Hyrcanus and his sons should be ethnarchs of the Jews, and enjoy the high-priesthood for ever, according to their country laws. This constituted him and his sons after him judges of all

t Jos. Bell. Jud. 1. 6. c. 6. §. 2. p. 1284, fin.

u This seems also to be the sense of Tacitus, when he adds those words, Unde auctæ Judæorum res.

* *Ἂν δὲ μεταξὺ γένηταί τις ζήτησις περὶ τῆς Ἰουδαίων ἀγωγῆς, ἀρέσκει μοι κρίσιν γενέσθαι παρ' αὐτοῦ, vel potius παρ' αὐτοῖς, ut apud Cod. Lugd. Batavos præstantissimos quondam Isaac. Vossii. Jos. Antiq. l. 14. c. 10. §. 2. because the grant runs all along to him, and to his sons, who were to be his successors. The sons indeed were yet to be born when the grant was made, nor do we read that he ever had a son..

who were within the ethnarchy granted him. The other clause therefore, whereby he and his sons after him are made judges of all differences that should happen about the Jewish institution, must unquestionably relate to those who inhabited places that were not within his own dominion. For which reason this law was sent by Julius Cæsar, when second time dictator, to the magistrates of Sidon, and ordered to be laid up among their public records. He also commanded it to be engraven in copper tables both in Greek and Latin, and to be dedicated. To what end, if it did not concern them? And how could it concern them any otherwise, than that they should permit the high priest of the Jewish nation to determine all religious differences among the Jews which inhabited with them; and when the case required it, should suffer such of them as had transgressed the Mosaic institution to be sent to Jerusalem, to be there tried before him?

It is true, there is another decree of Julius Cæsar, which conveys some rights in Sidon to Hyrcanus and his sons: "The fourth of what was sown was "to be paid him by way of tribute every other year. "Besides which, they were to pay him tithe in the

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same manner as had been paid to his ancestors y." Which is a very good reason why this decree, making over such rights, should be sent to Sidon, and be placed among their records; but can be no reason why the former decree, specifying no such rights, should be sent there. Sidon was at this time a free city. The constituting Hyrcanus ethnarch and high priest of the Jews, could give him no right to any

y Joseph. Antiq. lib. 14. c. 10. §. 6.

thing in Sidon without a specific grant, which is accordingly made him in this latter decree.

There is another decree of the same Julius Cæsar, preserved by Josephus, together with the foregoing, and immediately following the first named, whereby he makes the high priest and ethnarch gf the Jews, patron of the injured Jews". That this is to be understood of all the Jews throughout the whole Roman empire is evident, from that it is ordered to be engraven in Roman and Greek letters upon copper tables, which were to be dedicated in the Capitol, and at Sidon and Tyre, and Ascalon, and in the temples; and it is commanded, that this decree be carried to all questors and governors of every city, and to those states and kingdoms which were in friendship with the Romans. And we find that Hyrcanus did frequently interpose in behalf of the Jews injured in Asia and other parts, and obtained redress for them ". Now, for my own part, I cannot make the least doubt, but that the first-mentioned decree of Julius Cæsar, constituting Hyrcanus judge of all the differences that should happen about the Jewish institution, was sent (not to Sidon only, but) to all the questors and governors of every city, and to all states and kingdoms in friendship with the Romans, in the very same manner with this, which makes him patron of the injured Jews. It may indeed be here asked, Why then is not this expressed as well in the one decree as in the other? and I am fully of the opinion, that so it was in the original decree; but our misfortune is, that we have

parts only, and not the whole of these decrees, transmitted down to us b.

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That the Jews had a court in every city where any considerable number of them inhabited, to decide all controversies that should happen among them in religious affairs, cannot, I think, admit of a doubt since without this they could not well live agreeably to their own laws, and since it is so fully expressed in the decree of Lucius Antonius, directed to the magistrates of Sardis: "The Jews came to "me, and signified that they held assemblies of their own according to their country laws from the beginning, and had a place of their own in which "they determined affairs and controversies that arose among themselves: and petitioning me, that "it might be lawful for them to continue this, I de"creed to permit them "." To whom should appeals lie from these courts? Was it not natural that the Jews should desire, that in all affairs too difficult to be determined by these courts, they should remit the cause to the high priest and sanhedrim at Jerusalem? This is the very thing granted them by the forementioned decree of Julius Cæsar d.

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We have no particular account, indeed, that they

b Vid. §. 3. et 5. et not. ad §. 3. et 7.

Antiq. l. 14. c. 10. §. 17.

dIt was for this great favour, probably, that the Jews discovered such excessive sorrow at his death: In summo publico luctu exterarum gentium multitudo circulatim suo quæque more lamentata est, præcipueque Judæi, qui etiam noctibus continuis bustum frequentarunt. Suet. Jul. c. 84. n. 8: whereas the Roman people remained there but one night. Vid. Not. Pitisci. Appian. B. C. 11. p. 521.