A Special Case The Jewish People in the Roman Empire

EXPERIENCING THE ROMAN EMPIRE HIST 1301 | History A Special Case: The Jewish People in the Roman Empire By the time of the Roman Empire, the Jewish people had a long history in the Mediterranean. They had been in the Levant for a long time; the area was first settled there in 6 CE as the Roman province of Judaea. Roman authors had differing opinions towards Jews; some were openly antagonistic, while others were empathetic. Although there was frequently reverence for the ancient history of Judaism, it was tempered by violence and defamation. Numerous Jewish uprisings took place following the establishment of the province of Judaea and the local governing dynasty's assimilation into the empire. Owing to the restructuring of the area, riots periodically occurred in the eastern empire's cities. For example, in 38 CE, riots broke out in Alexandria when emperor portraits were put in synagogues. The worship of the emperor was obviously a problem, but there must have been discontent with the way the Roman government generally treated the Jewish people. 40 saw further rioting; only the emperor Caligula's demise the next year stopped actual warfare from starting. Rome and the Jews did in fact engage in many conflicts throughout the first two centuries of the Common Era. War broke out in 66 CE as a result of tax revolts and Roman pillage of Jerusalem's Second Temple. The Temple was destroyed in 70 AD when Roman soldiers attacked Jerusalem. In 81, Rome built the Arch of Titus in remembrance of Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus, who had led the Roman army during the conflict. The Temple had served as a symbolic centre for the Jewish people, and its destruction caused them to split into various communities based in synagogues around the Mediterranean. The Arch of Titus and the Colosseum (the latter constructed in 79) were paid for with wealth looted from Jerusalem and the Temple. Roman attitudes towards the Jewish people were nuanced and conflicting. For instance, in his Histories, the historian Tacitus describes the events leading up to Titus's conquest of Jerusalem and the quelling of the Jewish uprising. He starts out by summarising Jewish history and customs: "Moses instituted new ceremonies that were very distinct from those of the rest of the human race in order to cement his authority over the race going forward. They embrace everything that we consider taboo and deem everything we hold precious to be profane. Tacitus proceeds to address Jewish practices such as fasting, keeping the Sabbath, and abstaining from pork, all of which his Roman audience would find offensive. Additionally, he says that the prevailing belief among the Romans was that the Jewish people were either from Egypt or Mount Ida on Crete. Roman treatment of the Jewish people was not always seen negatively by the government, and Jewish perceptions of Roman treatment also differed according to the political and cultural context. In his Embassy to Gaius, Philo—an Alexandrian Jewish ambassador dispatched to Rome after the 38 CE riots—recounts explaining to Caligula how previous rulers and officials had given his people special treatment: "[Augustus] knew that the large district of Rome across the river Tiber was owned and inhabited by Jews." The majority of them were former Roman slaves who had been released by their masters without being compelled to change any of their ancestors' traditions after being taken to Italy as hostages during a battle. Philo compares Augustus's seeming support of Judaism with Caligula's animosity against the Jewish people. However, we also learn about Rome's Jewish community. According to Philo, there were synagogues spread throughout the city, and Jews resided in a certain section of it. He also implies that a large number of Jews in Rome were former slaves who had been taken prisoner after a battle. Thus, it would appear that a sizable fraction of the Jewish community consisted of liberated individuals. Archaeological evidence of synagogues and Jewish catacombs in Rome supports some of these assertions by indicating that there was a sizable Jewish community in Rome throughout the imperial era.