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religion, which was followed by a general defection in Ifrael towards the end of this century. Notwithstanding which, fome of their learned refumed the work of the thalmud foon after; or, if you will believe the Jewish writers, even before the perfecution ceased, (which it did not but with the Perfian monarchy, which the Saracens made themselves mafters of) and finished it, according to them, about the close of this century, or the beginning of the next, after which it was dif perfed throughout all the east, and it was univerfally agreed that nothing fhould be added to or taken from it (L).

THE only thing more, worth taking notice of, under this The fect of epocha, was the rife of the fect called Sebureans, or Scepticks, Sebuat the head of which was R. Jofi. Thefe doctors pretended reans, to doubt of every thing, and feem to have started up to oppose A.C.476. the infallibility which the Talmudifts attributed to their Tal mud; but whether by openly queftioning its authority, or the fenfe of its decifions, we cannot affirm. However, their pyrrhonism become fo odious to the reft of the Jews, that it proved but of short duration, it having begun to appear only about the close of this 5th century, and being driven out of the

1R. GANTZ TZEMACH, p 121.

(L) We have formerly taken notice of the impoffibility of reconciling the anachronifms and contradictions of the Jewish chronologers; and in the part we are now upon, the author, tho' one of the beft of them, not only contradicts other hiftorians, but himself alfo. For if rabbi Afce, the first compiler of the work, died, as he affirms, A. C. 427, and his fon Huna was chofen prefident of the academy of Sora, an. 455, and reigned 13 years, during which the Jews lived in great tranquility, and highly favoured by the king, till the time of the perfecution above-mentioned, and if that could not begin till the year 474, latted 73 years, and the thalmud was not finished till some time after that had ceafed; then it is plain it could

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not be fo till the year 547, even
by his own account, and yet he
affirms that work to have been
compleated by the close of the
5th century (4).

It would be ftill more diffi-
cult to reconcile him to other
hiftorians, even to thofe of his
nation. The latter all agree
that the perfecution which was
raised by Ifdegerd, the laft king
of Perfia, laited seventy-three
years, that is, till the Saracens
put an end to it by the conqueft
of that monarchy; they must
therefore be mistaken, either in
the time of Afe's death, or elfe
in the time of the completing
the thalmud, and have ante-
dated this last by near 50 years.
But thefe are fmall overfights
among them, and fuch as eve-
ry one muft overlook, that is
converfant with their historians.

(4) Gantz Tzemach, ub. fup.

world,

fucceeded

by the

Gaons.

world, before the middle of the next, by the Gaonim, or Gaons, a new fet of doctors, who took that pompous title upon them, which fignifies fublime or excellent, and became the idols of the academies, and of the people, as we shall fee under the next century, unto which it is now time to haften (M). Jews perTHE 6th century began with a perfecution of the Jews of fecuted in the difperfion, as well as of the ten tribes in the east, under Perfia, un- Cavades, a prince of a fierce and proud difpofition, who wantder Cava- ed to force all his fubjects, Chriftians as well as Jews and des. others, to embrace the Perfian religion. A ftrange caufe of this perfecution is, by fome authors, affigned, which the reader may fee in the margin (N), and which proved fo violent, that

(M) Some critics (5) have looked upon the Nephthalites, by whom, Agathias tells us (6', Perozes was defeated in the war which he waged against them, to have been the defcendants of the tribe of Nephthali, carried away captive by Tiglath Pilefer (7), to the frontiers of Perfia, where they are affirmed to have been fettled many ages before the war (8). But as Procopius, in the place abovequoted, calls them Ephalites, and fays nothing of their being defcended from that tribe, but from that of the White Huns, who lived on the frontiers of Perfia, near the river Oxus, and Agathias himself, who hath mifcalled them Naphthalites, acknowleges them to be of that, and not of Jewish extract, we fhall fay no more of them. As for the farther account of that war, and of Perozes's treachery and punishment, the reader may fee an account in a former volume ‡.

(N). We are told by two Christian writers (9), that Ca

vades, having befieged a caftle, in which was a vaft treasure depofited, and kept by demons, he had found all his military efforts against it abortive; and being very eager to make himfelf master of it, sent for his magi, for the Manichees, Jews and Chriftians, to drive away those demons, and that those laft were the only ones that could do it; upon which he ftript the former of their privileges, and gave them to the Chriftians. But this account is conradicted by other hiftorians, who affirm that he perfecuted the Chriftians as well as the Jers.

The Jews tell us of a fatal quarrel which happened between the prince of the captivity and the chief of the academy, under the reign of Cavades, in which the former used the latter with fo much infolence and barbarity, that his tears and prayers brought fuch a peftilence upon the prince's family, that they all died of it, except a child then in his mother's womb. Chanina (that was the

c. 4, & feq. Mele&t. 1. ii. p. 564.

(5) Vid. Skicard Taaric. p. 130. & aut. ab eo citat. (6) Lib. iv. c. 11. (7) 2 Kings, xv. 29. xvi. paff. (8) Vid. Procop, bell. Perf. l. naff Ben. Irael. Esperanza de Ifrael, a 25. (9) Theodor, Cedren, annal. p. 297.

academic

that we read of no lefs than four of their princes of the captivity, who fucceeded each other within the fpace of nine years; but whether they were depofed or put to death by that monarch, doth not appear. Thefe were Huna, to whom they give but two years reign; Acha, who reigned three; Tettana, who reigned four; and Zeutra, who having been miraculously preferved, as we obferved in the laft note, reigned twenty years. In his time arofe the famed Meir, a learned rabbi, and great miracle-monger, who having declared war against the Perfian king, with only 400 men, was very fuccefsful against him, during feven years; after which his men. having polluted themselves with strange flesh (O), he was defeated, taken and put to death by the Perfians. These went thence into the city, where Zeutra refided, and plundered it, after which they took that prince, and the prefident of the council, and hanged them on a bridge. His family were forced The chief to betake themselves to flight, and his fon and heir, Zeutra II. of the capretired into Judea, where he became prince of the fenate or tivity fanhedrin. This, the Jewish hiftorians tell us, was the fource hanged, of that feries of misfortunes which attended them in Perfia; A.Č. 522. infomuch, that their great master Hahonai, never dared fhew

academic chief being reproved in a dream, for having deftroyed the princely race, began to repent of it; and upon confulting with fome of the other Jewish doctors, whether there might not be fome sprout left of that family, was told that the prince's daughter was pregnant, and not far from her time; upon which he went immediately to her house, and never left her day nor night, hail or fhine, hot or cold, till he was delivered; and then took upon him to bring up the child, which proved a fon, and was called Zeutra. In the mean time, the princely dignity being vacant, Papbra, who was allied to that houfe, bought it of the king, and enjoyed it, till Zeutra, the right heir, was fifteen years old, at which time he obtained it of that monarch, and Paphra was not only stripped of it, but pu

nifhed with fudden death, for
having obtained that dignity by
money.

(0) The Jews do not tell us
the occafion of this war; nor is
it eafy to guess whether it gave
rife to the perfecution we are
now fpeaking of, or whether it
was undertaken to fupprefs it.
And as they are perfons that
prefer dealing in miracles and
prodigies, rather than in exact
or regular hiftory, they tell us
that this Meir had obtained the
fame miraculous fiery pillar that
had formerly guided the I-
raelites in the wildernefs, gain-
ed frequent victories over the
Perfians, and raised vaft contri-
butions, till his men fuffered
themselves to be debauched by
the Perfian women to commit
feveral fins against their law,
after which they came to the
untimely end we have mention-
ed above.

Jews perfecuted under

his face, during the fpace of thirty years, that is, during the whole time of Cavades's reign m.

THEY fared still worfe under his fucceffor Chofroes the great; whose favour they had endeavoured to gain, by persuading him to break off his negotiations about a peace with the Chofroes; emperor Juftinian, which was then in great forwardness; by promising to him, that if he would go on with the war, they would furnish him with fifty thousand men, by whose help he might make himself master of Jerufalem, one of the richeft cities in the world. The king had fo far given into that treacherous project, that he had broke off all the negotiations A.C.589. with the emperor, and made feveral preparations towards putting it in execution, when word was brought to him, that those perfons who had been employed in it had been feized and put to death, after having made a full discovery of the defign. He purfued his war however, and with fuccefs his frequent inroads into Syria and Palestine +: but that did not hinder him from making the Jews fhare in the common calamities of the war with the reft; nor from shutting up all their academies in the east, which quite extinguished their love of learning, whilst their present prince, being forced to go into Judea, and to exercise a function vastly beneath him, the eastern Jews were quite deftitute of chiefs".

reftored THEY did, however, recover their liberty before the year by Hor- was at an end, under Hormifdas III. (and the academy of Punmifdas, debita was again opened under the famed R. Chanan Mehij A.C. 589. cha, who became chief both of that and of the new set of doctors called Gaons, or excellent) and enjoyed it during the 12 years of his reign; when that prince was murdered by his fon Chofroes II. as we have seen elsewhere *. This last did not, however, quietly enjoy the fruits of his parricide; his fon Varames declared himself against him, as he had before done against his father, and foon after defeated, drove him out of Perfia, and obliged him to feek for fuccour from the emperor Mauricius, who lent him fome forces and generals. These had many a bloody contest with Varames, who had got a ftrong party in the kingdom, and the Jews likewife by Chof in his intereft. Thefe laft, whom the Greek hiftorian ftiles, a roes II. faithlefs, unquiet, impericus, turbulent, and implacable nation, A.C.615. being then powerful enough in Perfia to fir up the subjects

Perfecuted

against their princes, and virulent enough to ftrengthen the

* See

m Seder Olam Zuta cum. not. Meieri, vid. & IMBON. Bibliot. Rabin. tom. v. p. 46. BASNAG. ub. fup. 1. viii. c. 9. + See Anc. Hift. vol. xi. p, 122. n THEOPHAN Chronogr. p. 152. Anc. Hift. ibid. p. 124, & feq. Q THEOPHYL. SIMOCAT. in Maur, lib. v. c. 7. Vid. BASNAG. ub. fup. § 7.

rebels

rebels against them. At length Chofroes having the upper hand over Varames, made them pay dear for their perfidy. Those

of Antioch were the first that felt the dire effects of his refent- Butchered ment, when that city (P) was taken by Mebodes the Roman at Antigeneral, who immediately put vaft numbers of them to the och. fword, and many more to the most cruel deaths, reducing the reft to the most deplorable flavery P.

CHOSROES, however, was no fooner feated on the Reconciled Perfian throne, but he was reconciled to them, and received to Choffome fignal fervices from them; especially in the war which roes. he waged against Phocas, the murderer of Mauricius, wherein he made a most dreadful havock of them both in Syria and Paleftine, andtook the city of Jerufalem +. They feem even to have acted in concert with him, seeing he was no fooner master of that metropolis, than he delivered up all the Christians prisoners into their hands, though he could not but know that they only bought them with a design of fatiating their 90,000 Chriftians implacable hatred against them, as they accordingly did, info- butchered much, that no lefs than ninety thousand of them were unmercifully butchered by them 9.

by them.

THIS is farther confirmed by what Elmakin, and other Attempt on Arabian authors add of the Jews attempt upon Tyre, at the the city of time when Chofroes was befieging Conftantinople, and all the Tyrefruf forces of Syria and Judea were drawn out to fuccour that trated. capital. They, taking the advantage of that juncture, had combined to murder all the Tyrians, on Eafter-day, and to seize upon that important place, and were actually come to the walls of it, but were ftoutly repulfed by the inhabitants, who had had timely notice of their defign. Upon this difappointment, the Jews difperfed themselves about the country, fell foul on the churches of the Chriftians, and burnt a vast number of them; but were at length cut off by the Tyrians, who fallied out againft, and made a terrible slaughter of them ". This fhews that they were doing the Perfian king's work, if they were not really hired by him to it. We have feen his fad catastrophe in a former chapter'.

We are now come to the 7th century, the beginning of Jews unwhich was signalized not only by the tranfactions above-nam- der Mo

Id. ibid. See Anc. Hift. vol. xi. p. 138, & feq. THEO-
PHAN. ub. fup. p. 252. I ELMAK. p. 271. PATRICEDES. p. 236.
HOTTING. Hift. Orient. lib. i. c. 3.
P. 139, & feq.

(P) Not the metropolis of Syria, but a new city of that name; and so exactly built after its model, by Chofroes I. that

MOD. HIST. VOL. XIII.

See Anc. Hift. ibid.

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