Cp. Lev. xxv. 4, '... in the seventh year shall be a
sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto the Lord:
thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.'

[477] The seventh day being named after Cronos or Saturn (cp.
chap. 2, note 464).

[478] Reading _commeent_ (Woelfflin).

[479] This refers to proselytes, who, like Jews resident
abroad, contributed annually to the Temple treasury. They
numbered at this time about four millions. Romans naturally
regarded this diversion of funds with disfavour.

[480] Jewish exclusiveness always roused Roman indignation,
and 'hatred of the human race' was the usual charge against
Christians (see _Ann._ xv. 44).

[481] The strict regulations of Deut. xxii. &c. give a strange
irony to this slander. Most of these libels originated in
Alexandria.

[482] 'A people,' says the elder Pliny, 'distinguished by
their contemptuous atheism.'

[483] _Agnati_, as used here and in _Germ._ 19 means a child
born after the father has made his will and therein specified
the number of his children. The mere birth of such a child
invalidated any earlier will that the father had made, but the
fact of its birth might be concealed by making away with the
baby. This crime seems to have been not uncommon, but there is
no evidence that 'exposure of infants' was permitted.

[484] Josephus also alludes to this belief that the corruption
of disease chained the soul to the buried body, while violent
death freed it to live for ever in the air and protect
posterity.

[485] Under the kings cremation was an honourable form of
burial, but in Babylon the Jews came to regard fire as a
sacred element which should not be thus defiled.

[486] This was over the door of the Temple. Aristobulus gave
it as a present to Pompey.

[487] Plutarch shared this error, which seems somehow to have
been based on a misinterpretation of the Feast of Tabernacles,
at which they were to 'take ... the fruit of goodly trees, ...
and willows of the brook; and ... rejoice before the Lord your
God seven days' (Lev. xxiii. 40).

[488] Over Coele-Syria, from the range of Lebanon.

[489] i.e. from Mou