In a previous thread, Tacitus (c. 100 CE), a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire, was upheld because he was supposed to have mentioned Christ. This is what he says of the Jews:
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]Some say that the Jews were fugitives from the island of Crete, who settled on the nearest coast
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]of Africa about the time when Saturn was driven from his throne by the power of Jupiter. Evidence of
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]this is sought in the name (...) Others assert that in the reign of Isis the overflowing population of Egypt,
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]led by Hierosolymus and Judas, discharged itself into the neighbouring countries. Many, again, say that
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]they were a race of Ethiopian origin, who in the time of king Cepheus were driven by fear and hatred of
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]their neighbours to seek a new dwelling-place. Others describe them as an Assyrian horde who, not
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]having sufficient territory, took possession of part of Egypt, and founded cities of their own in what is
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]called the Hebrew country, lying on the borders of Syria. Others, again, assign a very distinguished
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]origin to the Jews, alleging that they were the Solymi, a nation celebrated in the poems of Homer, who
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]called the city which they founded Hierosolyma after their own name. Most writers, however, agree in
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]stating that once a disease, which horribly disfigured the body, broke out over Egypt; that king
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond][COLOR=#000000][FONT=TimesNewRomanPSMT][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]Bocchoris, seeking a remedy, consulted the oracle of Hammon, and was bidden to cleanse his realm, and
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]to convey into some foreign land this race detested by the gods. The people, who had been collected after
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]diligent search, finding themselves left in a desert, sat for the most part in a stupor of grief, till one of the
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]exiles, Moses by name, warned them not to look for any relief from God or man, forsaken as they were
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]of both, but to trust to themselves, taking for their heaven-sent leader that man who should first help
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]them to be quit of their present misery. They agreed, and in utter ignorance began to advance at random.
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]Nothing, however, distressed them so much as the scarcity of water, and they had sunk ready to perish in
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]all directions over the plain, when a herd of donkeys was seen to retire from their pasture to a rock
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]shaded by trees. Moses followed them, and, guided by the appearance of a grassy spot, discovered an
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]abundant spring of water. This furnished relief. After a continuous journey for six days, on the seventh
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]they possessed themselves of a country, from which they expelled the inhabitants, and in which they
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]founded a city and a temple. Moses, wishing to secure for the future his authority over the nation, gave
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]them a novel form of worship, opposed to all that is practised by other men. Things sacred with us, with
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]them have no sanctity, while they allow what with us is forbidden. In their holy place they have
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]consecrated an image of the animal by whose guidance they found deliverance from their long and thirsty
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]wanderings. They slay the ram, seemingly in derision of Hammon, and they sacrifice the ox, because the
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]Egyptians worship it as Apis. They abstain from swine's flesh, in consideration of what they suffered
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]when they were infected by the leprosy to which this animal is liable. By their frequent fasts they still
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]bear witness to the long hunger of former days, and the Jewish bread, made without leaven, is retained as
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]a memorial of their hurried seizure of corn. We are told that the rest of the seventh day was adopted,
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]because this day brought with it a termination of their toils; after a while the charm of indolence
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]beguilded them into giving up the seventh year also to inaction. But others say that it is an observance in
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]honour of Saturn, either from the primitive elements of their faith having been transmitted from the
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]Idaei, who are said to have shared the flight of that God, and to have founded the race, or from the
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]circumstance that of the seven stars which rule the destinies of men Saturn moves in the highest orbit and
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]with the mightiest power, and that many of the heavenly bodies complete their revolutions and courses in
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]multiples of seven. This worship, however introduced, is upheld by its antiquity; all their other customs,
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]which are at once perverse and disgusting, owe their strength to their very badness. The most degraded
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]out of other races, scorning their national beliefs, brought to them their contributions and presents. This
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]augmented the wealth of the Jews, as also did the fact, that among themselves they are inflexibly honest
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]and ever ready to show compassion, though they regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]enemies. They sit apart at meals, they sleep apart, and though, as a nation, they are singularly prone to
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; among themselves nothing is unlawful.
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]Circumcision was adopted by them as a mark of difference from other men. Those who come over to their
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]religion adopt the practice, and have this lesson first instilled into them, to despise all gods, to disown
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]their country, and set at nought parents, children, and brethren. Still they provide for the increase of their
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]numbers. It is a crime among them to kill any newly-born infant. They hold that the souls of all who
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]perish in battle or by the hands of the executioner are immortal. Hence a passion for propagating their
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]race and a contempt for death. They are wont to bury rather than to burn their dead, following in this
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]the Egyptian custom; they bestow the same care on the dead, and they hold the same belief about the
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]lower world. Quite different is their faith about things divine. The Egyptians worship many animals
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]and images of monstrous form; the Jews have purely mental conceptions of Deity, as one in essence. They
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]call those profane who make representations of God in human shape out of perishable materials. They
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]believe that Being to be supreme and eternal, neither capable of representation, nor of decay. They
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]therefore do not allow any images to stand in their cities, much less in their temples. This flattery is not
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]paid to their kings, nor this honour to our Emperors. From the fact, however, that their priests used to
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]chant to the music of flutes and cymbals, and to wear garlands of ivy, and that a golden vine was found
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]in the temple, some have thought that they worshipped father Liber, the conqueror of the East, though
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]their institutions do not by any means harmonize with the theory; for Liber established a festive and
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond-Italic]cheerful worship, while the Jewish religion is tasteless and mean [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Garamond](History V:2-5).[/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR]
