appearance of the “History of the Jews” in 1830 caused no small consternation among the orthodox, but among the Jews themselves it was exceptionally well received.  Dean Milman wrote several hymns, including “Ride on, ride on in majesty,” “When our heads are bowed in woe.”  Although this history carries the Jewish race down to modern times, it is included in the section of THE WORLD’S GREATEST BOOKS treating of ancient history, as it is the history of an ancient race, not of a definite country.

I.—­Dissolution of the Jewish States

By the destruction of Jerusalem and of the fortified cities of Machaerus and Masada, which had held out after it, the political existence of the Jewish nation was annihilated; it was never again recognised as one of the states or kingdoms of the world.  We have now to trace a despised and obscure race in almost every region of the world.  We are called back, indeed, for a short time to Palestine, to relate new scenes of revolt, ruin, and persecution.  Not long after the dissolution of the Jewish state it revived again in appearance, under the form of two separate communities—­one under a sovereignty purely spiritual, the other partly spiritual and partly temporal, but each, comprehending all the Jewish families in the two great divisions of the world.  At the head of the Jews on this side of the Euphrates appeared the Patriarch of the West; the chief of the Mesopotamian communities, assumed the striking but more temporal title of Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity.

That Judaism should have thus survived is one of the most marvellous of historic phenomena.  But, for the most part, the populous cities beyond the Jordan, the dominions of Agrippa, and Samaria escaped the devastation; and, according to tradition, the sanhedrin was spared in the general wreck.

After a brief interval of peace for the Jews scattered through the world during the reign of Nerva, their settlements in Babylonia, Egypt, Cyrene, and Judea broke out in rebellion against the intolerant religious policy of the otherwise sagacious and upright Trajan.  Great atrocities were committed by revolting Jews in Egypt, and the retaliation was terrible.  It is said that 220,000 Jews fell before the remorseless vengeance of their enemies.  The flame spread to Cyprus, where it was quenched by Hadrian, afterwards emperor.  He expelled the Jews from the island.  When Hadrian ascended the throne, in 117 A.D., he issued an edict which was tantamount to the total suppression of Judaism, for it interdicted circumcision, the reading of the law, and the observance of the Sabbath.