Page 93 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

Alfred Rosenberg

trade: under Caesar, Augustus and Trajan it rose to a greater
significance, and even when the capital ofthe Empire was transferred
under Constantine to the Bosphorus, it did not lose its importance.
It was a marketplace for silk, perfumes, precious stones from India,
vases, gold-, silver- and alabaster-objects from Persia. Lions and
tigers from Asia, panthers and birds from Africa, bronze sculptures
from Corinth and Athens, in short, trade goods and rarities from the
152
whole world, were sold in the forum of Lyons.
When Rome disintegrated and the peoples from the North
rushed in destroying everything before them, this wave swept also
over Lyons and destroyed the peaceful life of the merchant. After
the south ofFrance was later once again overrun, this time by Arabs,
th
the city recovered only in the 8 century. Romans, Burgundians,
Goths and especially many Jews driven out by the Mohammedans,
moved to Lyons. Through cunning trade, especially in slaves, they
acquired great wealth so that Lyons soon became a "New
Jerusalem". 153
The Jews stole into the city and suburbs of the Christians
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and sold them to their co-religionists in Spain and Italy. And since
the Moors in the Iberian peninsula needed eunuchs, they produced
and supplied these as well. Since they were protected by the officials
who preferred to have the rich Jews as friends rather than as enemies,
they soon conducted themselves provocatively and arrogantly with
regard to the locals.
But the Christians still conducted themselves very
cooperatively in relation to the progeny ofAbraham, they observed
the Sabbath more than Sunday, they paid visits to them, they ate
with them during Holy Week, they listened to rabbinical sermons,
etc.
This exaggerated friendliness with regard to the foreigners,
who themselves maintained their religious observances and moral
laws strictly and rigorously without caring about those ofthe locals
152
C. Beaulieu, Histoire du Commerce de Lyon, Lyon, 1838, p. 1 1 . [Histoire du
commerce de I 'Industrie et des fabriques de Lyon depuis leur originejusqu 'a nos
jours.]
153
Beaulieu, op.cit., p. 16.
I54
J. Schudt, Jiidische Merkwurdigkeiten, Frankfurt, 1718, Vol. IV, p.74.
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