The third stage of Jewish relations consists of an adjustment of the Jews to the rapidly centralizing empire, of which the administrative center was moving eastward. The center of wealth and culture had always been in the East. The reforms of Hadrian and his successors prepared the way for the formal recognition of the new state of things in the Constitutio Antonina, the Edict of Caracalla, which gave Roman citizenship to almost all the freedmen of the empire. This is the great period of Roman law, when, in consequence of the enormously extended application of the civil law, a great impetus was given to the scientific analysis and application of juristic principles. Out of this grew the bureaucratic system perfected by Diocletian, and begun perhaps by Alexander Severus, in which, as told in the last chapter, the attempt was made to classify every form of human activity in its relation to the state.
A new stage of Jewish relations begins with the dominance of Christianity; and that, as was stated at the beginning of this study, lies outside of its scope.
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To what extent the Jews of the present day or those of earlier times may be considered racially pure, depends upon what criteria of race are adopted. At present there is no general agreement among ethnologists on this subject. The historical data are very uncertain. At all events absolute racial unity of the Jews of the Dispersion cannot be maintained. The facts of their vigorous propaganda and their extensive slave-property are too well attested. But it is wholly impossible to determine how far the admixture went.
The best edition of Philo is the still unfinished one which is being prepared by two German scholars, Wendland and Cohen. In this the _Apologia_ has not yet appeared. Earlier editions are those of Mangey (1742) and Holtze (1851).
Philo’s works were translated into English by C. D. Yonge (Bohn’s Library, London, 1854).
In Greek the two commonest editions of Josephus’ works are those of Niese (1887-1895) and of Naber (1896). Neither completely satisfies all the demands that may be made for the adequate presentation of the text.
The old English translation of W. Whiston, so widely circulated both in England and America, is very inaccurate. The revision of this translation by A. R. Shilleto (1889-1890) has only slightly improved it.