One of the freedmen ventured to say that so far as he had an opportunity of observing them they seemed sober and industrious.
“Sobriety and industry,” replied the soldier, “are admirable virtues if the man who possesses them is a patriot. If he is not, they do but make him more dangerous. These Jews are a turbulent, discontented and disloyal lot. I saw something of them when I was in command of one of the legions in the time of Caius Caesar. (Footnote: Commonly known by the name of Caligula.) They got into a state of furious excitement for some trifle or other, and there was very nearly a rebellion.”
“My nephew,” said the Emperor, “was, I think, a little unreasonable. He wanted to set up a statue of himself in their chief temple, and they objected to it. I cannot but think that they were in the right.”
[82] “You are very kind, Sire, to say so, but for my part I hold that the dogs should have felt honoured by the proposal. Who are they to flout at Caesar’s statue?”
“My friend,” said the Emperor, with a dignity which he sometimes knew how to assume, “you are scarcely an authority on such matters. But what think you,” he went on, turning to Narcissus, “of these Jews?”
“Sire,” said the freedman, “I do not deny that they are temperate and hard-working; but this does not necessarily make them good citizens or good neighbours. The fact is that they push our people out of the best places, and they make themselves masters. They have always got money at command, and they lend it. I know something about money lending; I was once in the business myself, and I still have agents who employ part of my capital in that way. They tell me that in nine cases out of ten when they have an application for a loan, they find that a Jew has got a first mortgage on the house, or the stock-in-trade, or the tools, or whatever it is that the man wants to borrow on. They always take care to have the best in any matter they meddle with.”
“But are they extortionate?” asked the Emperor.
“I can’t say that they are, and yet they are [83] unpopular; of that I am quite certain, though it is difficult to say why. It would certainly please the people generally if they were banished from Rome.”
“Banished from Rome!” cried Claudius. “That would be harsh dealing.”
“I am sure, Sire,” said Narcissus, “there are precedents, but your Highness is better acquainted with these things than any of us. Was there not something of the kind done with the Greek professors some two hundred years ago?”
This artful appeal to the Emperor’s erudition had the effect which it was intended to have. Claudius mounted his hobby and was fairly carried away.
“Yes,” said he, “you are right. One hundred and ninety-nine years ago, to be exact, the Greek philosophers and teachers of rhetoric were banished by the censors of Rome.” He went on with a list of precedents which we need not be at pains to repeat, finishing up with a recent example. “As many living persons remember, in the third year of Tiberius, the astrologers were banished from Rome; I myself have more than once contemplated doing the same thing.”
By this time the Emperor had talked himself into a complete forgetfulness of the events of the case, and showed no hesitation in signing the [84] decree, artfully made ready for the opportunity.
As the council broke up, Narcissus whispered to Pallas
“After all, our millions may not be so badly laid out; there will be some shipwrecks, I take it, pretty soon; and it will be strange if there are not some valuables to be picked up on the shore.”
THE PROCLAMATION
[85] THE Imperial Chancery was busily employed for many hours of the night that followed the council described in the preceding chapter, in multiplying copies of the proclamation by which the decree of banishment was to be made known throughout the length and breadth of Rome. The document ran thus:
“IN THE TENTH YEAR OF CLAUDIUS DRUSUS NERO GERMANICUS, AUGUSTUS, CONSUL FOR THE TENTH TIME.
“THE EMPEROR BY THE ADVICE OF HIS TRUSTY COUNSELLORS HEREBY DECREES THE BANISHMENT OF THE PEOPLE KNOWN BY THE NAME OF JEWS. ALL PERSONS BELONGING TO THIS NATION MUST QUIT THE CITY OF ROME ON OR BEFORE THE FIFTEENTH DAY FOLLOWING THE DATE OF THIS PROCLAMATION. IT SHALL BE LAWFUL FOR THEM TO CARRY AWAY WHATEVER PROPERTY THEY MAY POSSESS. AND ONE SO BANISHED WHO MAY BE FOUND IN THE SAID CITY OF ROME [86] AFTER THE DAY MENTIONED ABOVE SHALL BE LIABLE TO DEATH AND THE CONFISCATION OF ALL HIS GOODS.”
This was posted up in all the quarters of the city. It so happened that our two friends saw it for the first time as they were on the way together to Seneca’s house. Vestinius had been busily employed all the night in command of a detachment told off to cope with a great fire, and had been asleep all day; the Corsican had spent the morning at Ostia looking after some necessary repairs to his ship. This had kept him so busily employed that he had barely time to keep his appointment in Rome. Accordingly he had hired a carriage which had taken him to the barracks exactly at the hour at which he had arranged to meet the centurion.
They had not walked many yards, however, from the barracks when one of the posters attracted them.
“By the Twin Brothers,” cried the Corsican, when he had read it, “this is a disaster! It means nothing less than ruin. What will my employer do? Fourteen days to collect his property and to put it into shape for carrying away. Why, he could hardly do it in fourteen years. You must excuse me; I must go and see him at once. And it makes it all the worse that [87] he is laid up. They told me at his house this morning that he was a little better, but he certainly cannot be moved for weeks, and who is to manage for him? It would be a great trouble at any time, his being laid aside, for he is the only man who knows about his business from end to end; but now, I cannot conceive what we shall do.”
“I can understand what you mean. But I don’t think that it will be of any use for you to go to him now. On the contrary you cannot do better, in my judgment, than keep this appointment. Seneca is a great man; he is a power at court; if there is anything to be done by private influence, he is the man to help you. You cannot do better, I take it, than to ask his counsel.”
The Corsican acknowledged the justice of the remark, and made no further difficulty about fulfilling his engagement with Seneca. It is not necessary to describe the dinner. If it was not sumptuous for a millionaire it was certainly elaborate for a philosopher, and the guests, if they desired to share an entertainment which they might look back to and talk about in years to come, had no reason to be disappointed. Seneca suited his conversation to his company, and seemed to have no difficulty in doing so. The [88] sailor found that he knew all about ships; the centurion discovered that he was practically at home in all the details of local administration. After dinner, when the slaves had finished their service and retired, the Corsican put before his host the case of Manasseh.
“I don’t particularly like this people,” he said, “but the old man has been my very good friend, and I should be sorry to see him wronged. His case is very hard. It is bad enough at any time to be driven from his home, and now, when it may cost him his life to be moved, it is downright cruelty.”
Seneca, though he was too familiar with the ways of courts, and had had too plain a lesson of the need of caution, to be outspoken, was very sympathetic. In the ordinary course of things he would have been invited to attend the council, and it was a distinct affront that he had been left out. Whether he would have been able to resist with success the policy of the freedmen was more than doubtful, and this in a way reconciled him to the neglect. To the policy itself he was wholly adverse. He saw clearly enough that the qualities that made the Jews unpopular went at the same time to make them useful citizens. If they were frugal and industrious, and keen traders and apt to make a profit out of any business in [89] which they might engage, so much the better, not for themselves only, but also for the State. The Commonwealth, he was sure, could not afford to lose men of energy and resource and keep the indolent and shiftless. What if they did enrich themselves? they were benefiting the country at the same time, and this was exactly what the unhelpful and improvident creatures who resented their superiority were sure never to do. The question of the moment, however, was what was to be done in this particular case. After turning the subject over in his mind for a few minutes, he gave the result of his reflections.