Jews and Their "Contempt for Death"

Proselytes to Jewry adopt the same practices, and the very first lesson they learn is to despise the gods, shed all feelings of patriotism, and consider parents, children and brothers as readily expendable. However, the Jews see to it that their numbers increase. It is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child [11], and they think that eternal life is granted to those who die in battle or execution - hence their eagerness to have children, and their contempt for death.

Source: Livius.Org.  "Tacitus on the Jews."  Kenneth Wellesley, Translator: "Tacitus, Histories, 5.2-5: http://www.livius.org/am-ao/antisemitism/antisemitism-t.html

I came across the above while noodling into the literature on anti-Semitism (and "Judeophobia") online.

Tacitus himself has become a part of the study of the histories of historians.  Here, for counterpoint to the above, is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry for him:

Tacitus' historical style combines various approaches to history into a method of his own (owing some debt to Sallust): seamlessly blending straightforward descriptions of events, pointed moral lessons, and tightly-focused dramatic accounts, his historiography contains deep, and often pessimistic, insights into the workings of the human mind and the nature of power.

Tacitus' own declaration regarding his approach to history is famous (Ann. I,1):

inde consilium mihi ... tradere ... sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo.

Hence my purpose is to relate ... without either anger or zeal, from any motives to which I am far removed.

There has been much scholarly discussion about Tacitus' "neutrality" (or "partiality" to others, which would make the quote above no more than a figure of speech).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus

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