Their superstition offends me no more than that of the Egyptians." "But it really is above all measure.

At Aelia Capitolina which Hadrian had decorated with several buildings, they refused to sacrifice to the statues of Zeus and Hera.

That is to say they scorn to do homage to me and my husband!" "They are forbidden to worship any other divinity than their own God.
Aelia rose up on the very soil where their ruined Jerusalem had stood, and the statues of which you speak stand in their holy places." "What has that to do with us ?" "You know that even Caius--[Caligula]--could not reduce them by placing his statue in the Holy of Holies of their temple; and Petronius, the governor, had to confess that to subdue them meant to exterminate them." "Then let them meet with the fate they deserve, let them be exterminated!" cried Sabina.
"Exterminated ?" asked the prefect.

"In Alexandria they constitute nearly half of the citizens, that is to say several hundred thousand of obedient subjects, exterminated!" "So many ?" asked the Empress in alarm.

"But that is frightful.
Omnipotent Jove! supposing that mass were to revolt against us! No one ever told me of this danger.