or Jews' Quarter. The word "Ghetto" comes from the Hebrew word _chat_,
broken or dispersed. The Jews first settled here in the time of Pompey
the Great; but it was not till 1556 that the Ghetto was enclosed by
Pope Paul IV. putting gates across the streets. The Jews were not
allowed to be out after sunset or before sunrise, and he compelled the
men to wear yellow hats and the women yellow veils. The old
inhabitants, who were not Jews, were turned out, and obliged to give
up their houses to the Jews on perpetual copy-hold leases, which are
handed down in the families to the present day. Pius IX. abolished the
gates, but it was not till the Italian troops entered Rome that the
Jews obtained full liberty like their fellow-citizens. The lower part
of the houses in the Ghetto are of Roman construction, and there is
very little accumulation of soil there. There are about four thousand
Jews in Rome, and notwithstanding the closeness with which they are
packed and the dirt in which they live, the district is entirely free
from fever.
_Proceeding along_ the Via Rua, we enter the Piazza di S. Maria del
Pianto, the Square of Tears. On the right are several old Roman
houses, with the upper part rebuilt, and the following medieval
inscription, put up in the two thousand two hundred and twenty-first
year of Rome, recording that here was the Forum Judæorum:--
VRBE . ROMA . INPRISTINAM . FORMA ENASCENTE .
LAVR . MANLIVS . RARITAE . ERC . A . PATRI EDIS
SV . NOMNE . MAN II AN . AS . PRO PORT AR .
MEDIOCRITAE . AD . FOR . IVDEOR SIBI . POSTERISQ .
AB . VRB . CON . M. M. CCXXI . L. AN . M. III . D.
PRI . CAL. AVG.
_A short alley on the left leads to the Piazza Scuole. On the right
is_