The synagogue of the Libertines,— These were Jews born at Rome, whose grandfathers had been in slavery there, and then made free. Great numbers of Jews taken captive by Pompey, and carried into Italy, were set at liberty, and obtained their freedom from their masters. Their children, therefore, would be libertini, in the proper sense of the word. Agreeably to this, the Jews banished from Rome by Tiberius are spoken of by Tacitus as of the libertine race, who might easily constitute one of the 480 synagogues, said to have been at Jerusalem.

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