I. Extension

I. EXTENSION
The history of the Jews during the times of Christ is not confined to the narrow limits of the Holy Land. Jewish communities of greater or less magnitude and importance had settled in almost all the countries of the then civilised world. These remained, on the one hand, in constant communication with the mother country, and on the other, in active intercourse with the non-Jewish world, and thus became of great importance both in respect of the internal development of Judaism and its influence upon other civilised nations. The causes of this dispersion were of very different kinds. In former times the Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors of Israel violently deported large masses of the nation into their eastern provinces. This occurred again, though to a less extent, when Pompey e.g. carried off hundreds of Jewish captives to Rome. Of greater importance however were the voluntary emigrations of Jewish settlers during the Graeco-Roman period to the countries bordering on Palestine, and to all the chief towns of the then civilised world for the sake chiefly of trade. It was especially at the commencement of the Hellenistic period, that these migrations were most numerous. The Diadochoi and their successors, for the sake of consolidating their kingdoms, promoted to the uttermost of their power the intermingling of the different nationalities, and consequently migrations from one province to another. They were also frequently in need of great masses of settlers for their newly founded towns. And in both of these interests the rights of citizenship or other privileges were in many places granted without further ceremony to immigrants. Attracted by these circumstances, large numbers of Jews also were induced to settle in other lands. Adverse events at home may also have contributed their part, and especially the exposed situation of Palestine, which in all complications between Egyyt and Syria became the scene of war. This induced many thousand Jews to emigrate to the neighbouring countries of Syria and Egypt, where, especially in the capitals Antioch and Alexandria, and in all the newly founded Hellenistic cities, valuable privileges were bestowed upon them. They next resorted to Asia Minor, particularly the towns of the Ionic coast, as well as to all the more important ports and commercial cities of the Mediterranean Sea.
Hence the Sibyllist was able, about the year 140 B.C., to say of the Jewish people, that every land and every sea was filled with them.[2033] About the same time (139-138 B.C.) the Roman Senate despatched a circular in favour of the Jews to the kings of Egypt, Syria, Pergamos, Cappadocia and Parthia, and to a great number of provinces, towns and islands of the Mediterranean Sea (1Ma_15:16-24). It may hence be safely inferred, that there was then already a greater or less number of Jews in all these lands.[2034] Strabo, speaking of the time of Sulla, says (about 85 B.C.), that the Jewish people had already come into every city, and that it was not easy to find a place in the world which had not received this race, and was not occupied by them.[2035] Josephus[2036] too and Philo[2037] express themselves incidentally in a similar manner. The extent of the Jewish dispersion is most amply described in the epistle of Agrippa to Caligula, given by Philo. Jerusalem—it is here said—is the capital not only of Judaea, but of most countries, by reason of the colonies which it has sent out on fitting occasions into the neighbouring lands of Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, Coelesyria, and the still more remote Pamphylia and Cilicia, into most parts of Asia as far as Bithynia, and into the most distant corners of Pontus; also to Europe, Thessaly, Boeotia, Macedonia, Etolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth, and the most and best parts of Peloponnesus. And not only is the continent full of Jewish settlements, but also the more important islands,—Euboea, Cyprus, Crete,—to say nothing of the lands beyond the Euphrates. For all, with the exception of a small portion of Babylon and those satrapies which embrace the fertile land lying around it, have Jewish inhabitants.[2038] The Acts of the Apostles also mention Jews and their associates from Parthia, Media, Elam, and Mesopotamia, from Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Cyrene, from Rome, Crete and Arabia (Acts 2:9-11).
[2033] Orac. Sibyll. 3:271: Πᾶσα δὲ γαῖα σέθεν πλήρης καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα.
[2034] a Besides the kings of Egypt, Syria, Pergamos, Cappadocia and Parthia, there are also named in 1Ma_15:16-24 : Sampsame (Samsun on the Black Sea?), Sparta, Sicyon (in Peloponnesus), the islands of Delos and Samos, the town of Gortyna in Crete, the country of Caria with the towns of Myndoe, Halicarnassus and Cnidos, the islands of Cos and Rhodes, the country of Lycia with the town of Phasaelis, the country of Pamphylia with the town Side, the Phoenician town Aradus, and finally Cyprus and Cyrene.
[2035] b Strabo in Joseph. Antt. xiv. 7. 2: εἰς πᾶσαν πόλιν ἤδη παρεληλύθει, καὶ τόπον οὐκ ἔστι ῥᾳδίως εὑρεῖν τῆς οἰκουμένης ὃς οὐ παραδέδεκται τοῦτο τὸ φῦλον, μηδʼ ἐπικρατεῖται ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ.
[2036] Joseph. Bell. Jud. ii. 16. 4 (Bekker, p. 188): οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης δῆμος ὁ μὴ μοῖραν ὑμετέραν ἔχων. Bell. Jud. vii. 3. 3: τὸ γὰρ Ἰουδαίων γένος πολὺ μὲν κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην παρέσπαρται τοῖς ἐπιχωρίοις.
[2037] Philo, In Flaccum, § 7 (Mang. ii. 524): Ἰουδαίους γὰρ χώρα μία διὰ πολυανθρωπίαν οὐ χωρεῖ. Ἧς αἰτίας ἕνεκα τἀς πλείστας καὶ εὐδαιμονεστάτας τῶν ἐν Εὐρώπῃ καὶ Ἀσίᾳ κατά τε νήσους καὶ ἠπείρους ἐκνέμονται, μητρόπολιν μὲν τὴν Ἱερόπολιν ἡγούμενοι, καθʼ ἣν ἵδρυται ὁ τοῦ ὑψίστου θεοῦ νεὼς ἅγιος· ἃς δʼ ἔλαχον ἐκ πατέρων καὶ πάππων καὶ προπάππων καὶ τῶν ἔτι ἄνω προγόνων οἰκεῖν ἕκαστοι, πατρίδας νομίζοντες, ἐν αἷς ἐγεννήθησαν καὶ ἐτράφησαν· εἰς ἐνίας δὲ καὶ κτιζομένας εὐθὺς ἦλθον ἀποικίαν στειλάμενοι, τοῖς κτίσταις χαριζόμενοι.
[2038] Philo, Legat. ad Cajum, § 36, Mang. ii. 587.
In Mesopotamia, Media, and Babylonia lived the descendants of those members of the kingdom of the ten tribes and of the kingdom of Judah who had once been carried away thither by the Assyrians and Chaldeans.[2039] The “ten tribes” never returned at all from captivity,[2040] and even in the times of Akiba there were disputes as to whether they would ever do so.[2041] Nor must the return of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin be conceived of as complete. Nay, these exiles subsequently received fresh accessions. For the Persian king Artaxerxes Ochus, on his return from his Egyptian campaign (about 340 B.C.), brought with him Jewish captives also, and planted them in Hyrcania on the Caspian Sea.[2042] These Jewish settlements may also have been increased by voluntary additions. From all these causes the Jews in those provinces were numbered, not by thousands, but by millions.[2043] Since they dwelt on the eastern borders of the Roman Empire,—till Trajan, as subjects of the Parthians, and subsequently as inhabitants of those eastern provinces which could never be securely maintained by the Romans,[2044]—their attitude was always of political importance to the empire. P. Petronius, legate of Syria, esteemed it dangerous in the year 40 B.C. to excite in them a hostile disposition towards Rome.[2045] During the Vespasian war the insurgents sought to incite their coreligionists beyond the Euphrates to hostilities against Rome.[2046] It was a great peril for Trajan in his advance against the Parthians to be menaced in his rear by the insurrection of the Mesopotamian Jews (see § 21). Josephus names the strong cities of Nehardea (Νάαρδα) and Nisibis, the former on the Euphrates, the latter in its valley, as the chief dwelling places of the Babylonian and Mesopotamian Jews.[2047] Both cities were in subsequent centuries chief seats of Talmudic Judaism, and are therefore frequently mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud.[2048]
[2039] Comp. on the different deportations, Winer, Realwörterb., art. “Exil.” On the localities, see note 14, below.
[2040] Joseph. Antt. xi. 5. 2. 4 Ezra 13:39-47. Origen, Epist. ad Africanum, § 14.
[2041] Sanhedrin x. 3, fin.: “The ten tribes never return, for it is said of them (Deuteronomy 29:27): He will cast them into another land, as it is this day. As then this day departs and never returns, so too are they to depart and never return. As the day becomes dark and then again light, so will it one day be light again to the ten tribes with whom it was dark.”
[2042] Syncellus, ed. Dindorf, i. 486: Ὦχος Ἀρταξέρξου παῖς εἰς Αἴγυπτον στρατεύων μερικὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν εἷλεν Ἰουδαίων, ὧν τοὺς μὲν ἐν Ὑρκανίᾳ κατῴκισε πρὸς τῇ Κασπίᾳ θαλάσσῃ, τοὺς δὲ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι, οἵ καὶ μέχρι νῦν εἰσιν αὐτόθι, ὡς πολλοὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἱστοροῦσιν. Orosius, iii. 7: Tune etiam Ochus, qui et Artaxerxes, post transactum in Aegypto maximum diutunumque bellum plurimos Judaeorum in transmigrationem egit atque in Hyrcania ad Caspium mare habitare praecepit: quos ibi usque in hodiernum diem amplissimi generis sui incrementis consistere atque exim quandoque erupturos opinio est. Kürzer in the Chronik des Eusebius und Hieronymus ad annum Abr. 1657 (ed. Schoene, ii. 112 sq.). Syucellus alone speaks of a settlement in Babylon; other authorities mention only the settlement in Hyrcania on the Caspian Sea.
[2043] Joseph. Antt. xi. 5. 2: Αἱ δὲ δέκα φυλαὶ πέραν εἰσὶν Εὐφράτου ἕως δεῦρο, μυριάδες ἄπειροι καὶ ἀριθμῷ γνωσθῆναι μὴ δυνάμεναι. Antt. xv. 2. 2: ἐν Βαβυλῶνι … ἔνθα καὶ πλῆθος ἦν Ἰουδαίων. On the history of the Babylonian Jews, comp. especially Antt. xviii. 9. Reference is sometimes at least made in the Mishna to the Jews of Babylonia and Media. See Shekalim iii. 4 (the half-shekel tax of Babylonia and Media); Challa iv. 11 (the first-born not accepted from Babylonia); Joma vi. 4 (the Babylonians plucked the wool of the scape-goat on the day of atonement); Menachoth xi. 7 (Babylonian priests); Baba mezia iv. 7, Shabbath vi. 6 (Median Jwessses); Baba kamma ix. 5 = Baba mezia iv. 7 (restitution for plundered property is binding as far as Media); Shabbath ii. 1, Nasir v. 4, Baba bathra v. 2 (Nabum the Mede). The Book of Tobit also proves that Jews dwelt in Media (Tob_1:14; Tob_3:7, etc.).
[2044] On the political history, see Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, vol. i. (1881) pp. 435-438.
[2045] Philo, Legat. ad Cajum, § 33, Mang. ii. 578.
[2046] Joseph. Bell. Jud. vi. 6. 2 (p. 108, line 19 sq., ed. Bekker). Titus reproaches the Jews that καὶ πρεσβεῖαι μὲν ὑμῶν πρὸς τοὺς ὑπὲρ Εὐφράτην ἐπὶ νεωτερισμῷ.
[2047] Joseph. Antt. xviii. 9.1 and 9, fin. On Nehardea (נהרדעא), see Pauly’s Real-Enc. v. 375 sq. (s.v. Naarda). Bitter, Erdkunde, x. 146. Hamburger, Real-Enc. für Bibel und Talmud, ii. 852 sq. On Nisbis, Pauly’s Real-Enc. v. 659 sq. Ritter, Erdkunde, xi. 413 sqq. Nisibis was not on the Euphrates, as might appear from Josephus, but on the Mygdonius, an affluent of the Chaboras, which again is an affluent of the Euphrates. It formed the centre of the localities mentioned 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 18:11, to which the members of the kingdom of the ten tribes were carried by the Assyrians (see Gesenius’ Thesaurus, and Winer’s Realwörterbuch on the articles חֲלַח, חָבוֹר, נּוֹזָן, מָדַי, Halach, Habor, Gozan, Media; and the commentaries on 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 18:11). Nehardea, on the other hand, lay farther southward in Babylonia proper. Thus around Nisibis were grouped the descendants of the ten tribes, and around Nehardea the descendants of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, increased in both instances by subsequent additions. For Rabbinical matter on the abode of the ten tribes, see Lightfoot, Horae Hebr. in epist. 1 ad Corinthios, addenda ad c. xiv. (Opp. ed. Roterodam. ii. 929-932); Hamburger, Real-Enc. ii. 1281 sqq. (art. “Zehn Stämme”). Comp. also 4 Ezra 13:39-47, and above, p. 170.
[2048] See Berliner Beiträge zur Geographie und Ethnographie Babyloniens im Talmud und Midrash (Berlin 1881), pp. 47 sqq., 53 sq. נהרדעא is also already mentioned in the Mishna, Jebamoth xvi. 7.
Josephus names Syria as the country in which was the largest percentage of Jewish inhabitants, and its capital, Antioch, was especially distinguished in this respect.[2049] Other cities of Syria also numbered their Jewish inhabitants by thousands; this was the case with Damascus, where, according to the statement of Josephus, 10,000 or (according to another passage) 18,000 Jews are said to have been assassinated at the time of the war.[2050] Philo tells us of Asia also, as of Syria, that Jews dwelt in large numbers in every city.[2051] Aristotle, during his sojourn in Asia Minor (348-345 B.C.), had a meeting with an educated Jew, who had come thither, who Ἑλληνικὸς ἦν οὐ τῇ διαλέκτῳ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ. Clearchus, a disciple of Aristotle, gives in his book on sleep further particulars concerning this meeting.[2052] Antiochus the Great settled 2000 Jewish families from Mesopotamia and Babylonia in Phrygia and Lydia.[2053] And to mention nothing else, the Roman edicts in favour of the Jews communicated by Josephus (Antt. xiv. 10, xvi. 6), and the entire history of the Apostle Paul, show how widely the Jews had spread over the whole of Asia Minor. The statement of Agrippa in his epistle cited above, that Jews had settled in Bithynia and in the most distant corners of Pontus,[2054] is abundantly confirmed by the Jewish inscriptions in the Greek language found in the Crimea.[2055]
[2049] Bell. Jud. vii. 3. 3: Τὸ γὰρ Ἰουδαίων γένος πολὺ μὲν κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην παρέσπαρται τοῖς ἐπιχωρίοις, πλεῖστον δὲ τῇ Συρίᾳ κατὰ τὴν γειτνίασιν ἀναμεμιγμένον, ἐξαιρέτως δʼ ἐπὶ τῆς Ἀντιοχείας ἡν πολὺ διὰ τὸ τῆς πόλεως μέγεθος. Comp. Hamburger, Real-Enc. s.v. Antiochien.
[2050] 10,000, Bell. Jud. ii. 20. 2. 18,000, Bell. Jud. vii. 8. 7 (p. 161, 27, ed. Bekker).
[2051] Philo, ad Legat. Cajum, § 33, Mang. ii. 582: Ιουδαῖοι καθʼ ἑκάστην πόλιν εἰσὶ παμπληθεῖς Ἀσίας τε καὶ Συρίας.
[2052] The account of Clearchus is preserved by Josephus, contra Apionem, i. 22 (p. 200 sq., ed. Bekker). Eusebius, Praep. evang. ix. 5, has the history from Josephus. Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom. i. 15. 70, also briefly notices the matter. Comp. Müller, Fragmenta Hist. Graec. ii. 323 sq. Gutschmid, Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Orients (1876), p. 77.
[2053] Antt. xii. 3. 4.
[2054] Philo, ed. Mang. ii. 587: ἄχρι Βιθυνίας καὶ τῶν τοῦ Πόντου μυχῶν. Comp. also Acts 18:2 (Aquila, a Jew of Pontus).
[2055] See a Jewish inscription from Pantikapaion (on the Cimmerian Bosphorus) of the year 377 aer. Bosp. = A.D. 81, in the Corp. Inscr. Graec. vol. ii. p. 1005 (addenda, n. 2114bb). Another from Anapa (also in the Crimea) of the year 338 aer. Bosp. = A.D. 42 in Stephani, Pererga archaeologica (Bulletin de l’Académie de St, Pétersburg, vol. i. 1860, col. 244 sqq.). See also Caspari, Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, iii. (1875) p. 269. The Hebrew inscriptions from the Crimea, some of which Chwolsen thought might be referred to even the first century after Christ (Chwolsen, Achtzehn hebräische Grabschriften aus der Krim, Mémoires de l’Académie impériale des sciences de St. Pétersbourg, vii.e Série, vol. ix. 1866, No. 7), are much more modern, the dates which decide the question having been fabricated by Firkowitsch. See the proof in Strack (A. Firkowitsch und seine Entdeckungen, ein Grabstein der hebräischen Grabschriften der Krim, Leipzig 1876) and Harkavy (Altjüdische Denkmäler aus der Krim, Mémoires de l’Académie impériale des sciences de St. Pétersbourg, vii.e Série, vol. xxiv. 1876, No. 1). The fact of the forgery was subsequently acknowledged to at least a limited extent by Chwolsen himself (in his Corpus Inscriptionum Hebraicarum, Petersburg 1882). Comp. also Kautzsch in the Theol. Litztg. 1883, p. 319 sqq.
But most important with regard to the history of civilisation was the Jewish Dispersion in Egypt and especially in Alexandria.[2056] Long before the time of Alexander the Great Jewish immigrants were already found there. Psammetichus I. is said to have had Jewish mercenaries in his army in his war against the Ethiopians, 650 B.C.[2057] In the time of Jeremiah a large train of Jewish emigrants went into Egypt, for fear of the Chaldees and in opposition to the will of the prophet (Jeremiah 42, 43; for the occasion, see Jeremiah 41). They settled in various parts of Egypt, in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph and Pathros (Jeremiah 44);[2058] and though many of them embraced the religion of Egypt and many were extirpated by war, still a remnant was left. A forcible deportation of Jewish colonists to Egypt is said to have taken place in the time of the Persian supremacy.[2059] Their most flourishing period however does not begin till the time of Alexander the Great. As early as the foundation of Alexandria, Jewish settlers were attracted to it by the bestowal upon them of the rights of citizenship,[2060] Large numbers of Jews afterwards came to Egypt chiefly under Ptolemy I. Lagos, some as prisoners of war and some as voluntary immigrants. They were employed by Ptolemy as mercenaries, especially for garrisoning fortified places.[2061] In Alexandria a special quarter apart from the rest of the city was, in the times of the Diadochoi, assigned to the Jews, “that they might lead a purer life by mingling less with foreigners.”[2062] This Jewish quarter lay on the harbourless coast, in the neighbourhood of the royal palace, and therefore in the north-eastern part of the town.[2063] This severance was not afterwards strictly maintained. For according to Philo there were Jewish houses of prayer in all parts of the city,[2064] and many Jews dwelt scattered through all its quarters.[2065] But even Philo says also, that of the five districts of the town, which were named after the first, five letters of the alphabet, two were called “the Jewish,” because they were chiefly inhabited by Jews.[2066] The separation was however on the whole maintained, and we shall find the Jewish quarter still in the same place, viz. in the east of the town, in Philo’s time.[2067] According to an incidental notice in Josephus, the Jews dwelt chiefly in the “ so-called Delta,” i.e. in the fourth district of the town.[2068] Philo estimates the entire number of the Jewish inhabitants of Egypt at about a million in his days.[2069] The Jews of Alexandria and Egypt took, in conformity with their large numbers and importance, a prominent part in all the chief conflicts between the Jewish and the heathen world, in the great persecution under Caligula (see § 17c) and in the insurrections in the times of Nero, Vespasian[2070] and Trajan (see § 21).[2071] The very history of these conflicts is at the same time a proof of the continued importance of the Egyptian Jews in the Roman period also. But besides the Jews properly so called, there were also Samaritans dwelling in Egypt. Ptolemy I. Lagos, when he conquered Palestine, carried away with him many captives, not only from Judaea and Jerusalem, but also “from Samaria and Mount Gerizim,” and settled them in Egypt.[2072] In the time of Ptolemy VI. Philometor the Jews and Samaritans are said to have brought their dispute, as to whether Jerusalem or Gerizim was the true place of worship, before the tribunal of the king.[2073] Hadrian in his letter to Servianus says of the Samaritans in Egypt as well as of the Jews and Christians dwelling there, that they were all of them “astrologers, haruspices and quacks.”[2074] In a work of one Bishop Eulogius we are told of a synod held by him against the Samaritans. If we are to understand, that he is Eulogius of Alexandria, elsewhere spoken of, the flourishing condition of the Samaritans in Egypt during the sixth century after Christ would be proved.[2075]
[2056] Comp. Cless, De coloniis Judaeorum in Aegyptum terrasque cum Aegypto conjunctas post Mosen deductis, P. I., Stuttg. 1832. Hamburger, Real-Enc. art. “Alexandrien.” See other literature in Reuse, Gesch. der heil. Schriften Alten Testaments, § 430.
[2057] Ariateae, epist. ed. M. Schmidt, in Merx’ Archiv für wissenschaftl. Erforschung des A. T. vol. i. p. 255 (Havercamp’s Josephus, ii. 2. 104), enumerates the three following chief emigrations of Jews to Egypt, from Ptolemy I. backwards: Ἐκεῖνος γὰρ (i.e. Ptolemy Lagos) ἐπελθὼν τὰ κατὰ κοίλην Συρίαν καὶ Φοινίκην ἅπαντα, συγχρώμενος εὐημερίᾳ μετʼ ἀνδρείας, τοὺς μὲν μετῴκιζεν, οὓς δὲ ἠχμαλώτιζε, φόβῳ πανθʼ ὑποχείρια ποιούμενος· ἐν ὅσῳ καὶ πρὸς δέκα μυριάδας ἐκ τῆς τῶν Ἰουδαίων χώρας εἰς Αἴγυπτον μετήγαγεν· ἀφʼ ὧν ὡσεὶ τρεῖς μυριάδας καθοπλίσας ἀνδρῶν ἐκλεκτῶν εἰς τὴν χώραν κατῴκισεν ἐν τοῖς φρουρίοις· ἤδη μέν καὶ πρότερον ἱκανῶν εἰσεληλυθότων σὺν τῷ Πέρσῃ, καὶ πρὸ τούτων ἑτέρων συμμαχιῶν ἐξαπεσταλμένων πρὸς τὸν τῶν Αἰθιόπων βασιλέα μάχεσθαι σὺν Ψαμμητίχῳ· ἀλλʼ οὐ τοσοῦτοι τῷ πλήθει παρεγενήθησαν, ὅσους Πτολεμαῖος ὁ τοῦ Λάγου μετήγαγε. That Psammetichus had foreign mercenaries in his army is evidenced elsewhere also; see Cless, De coloniis, pp. 4-7, and Pauly’s Real-Enc. vi. 1.167 sq.
[2058] מִגְדֹּל and תַּחְפַּנְחֵס (= Daphne) are situate in the neighbourhood of Pelusium, i.e. on the north-eastern boundary of Lower Egypt. נֹף or מֹף is Memphis on the southern extremity of the Delta. פַּתְרוֹס is Upper Egypt. See the commentaries and the articles on this matter in Gesenius’ Thesaurus and Winer’s Realwörterb.
[2059] Aristeas speaks of such a one in two passages; see one in note 24, above; the other, ed. Schmidt, p. 260, Havercamp’s Josephus, ii. 2. 107. Comp. also Cless, De coloniis, pp. 11-13.
[2060] Apion. ii. 4. Antt. xix. 5. 2.
[2061] Hecateus in Joseph. Apion. i. 22 (Bekker, p. 203, lin. 31 sq.): οὐκ ὀλίγαι δὲ [μυριάδες] καὶ μετὰ τὸν Ἀλεξάνδρου θάνατον εἰς Αἴγυπτον καὶ Φοινίκην μετέστησαν διὰ τὴν ἐν Συρίᾳ στάσιν. Further particulars in the passage quoted note 24 from Aristeas, and Josephus, Antt. xii. 1.
[2062] Bell. Jud. ii. 18. 7: (οἱ διάδοχοι) τόπον ἴδιον αὐτοῖς ἀφώρισαν, ὅπως καθαρωτέραν ἔχοιεν τὴν δίαιταν, ἧττον ἐπιμισγομένων τῶν ἀλλοφύλων. Strabo in Joseph. Antt. xiv. 7. 2: χωρὶς δὲ τῆς τῶν Ἀλεξανδρέων πόλεως ἀφώριστο μέγα μέρος τῷ ἔθνει τούτῳ. According to Joseph. Apion. ii. 4, it might appear as though Alexander the Great had assigned this special quarter to the Jews. But, according to the evidently more accurate statement in Bell. Jud. ii. 18. 7, this was first done by the Diadochoi. Comp. J. G. Müller, Des Flavius Josephus Schrift gegen den Apion (1877), p. 239.
[2063] Josephus, c. Apion. ii. 4, init. (cited from Apion): ἐλθόντες ἀπὸ Συρίας ᾤχησαν πρὸς ἀλίμενον θάλασσαν, γειτνιάσαντες ταῖς τῶν κυμάτων ἐκβολαῖς .… (Josephus himself also says): πρὸς τοῖς βασιλείοις ἦσαν ἱδρυμένοι. The great harbour of Alexandria, along which lay the greater part of the town, is bounded on the west by the island of Pharos and the mole connecting the island with the continent, on the east by the promontory of Lochias, which juts out from the mainland into the sea (see especially the plan in Kiepert, Zur Topographie des alten Alexandria, Berlin 1872; also M. Erdmanh, Zur Kunde der hellenistischen Städtegründungen, Strassburger Progr. 1883, pp. 10-23). On the promontory of Lochias and in its neighbourhood lay the royal citadel, with the numerous buildings appertaining to it (Strabo, xvii. 1. 9, p. 794), which together made up a fifth of the town (Plinius, v. 10, 62; see in general Panly’s Real-Enc. i. 1. 789 sq.). Hence the Jewish quarter lay on the coast east of the promontory of Lochias.
[2064] Philo, Legat. ad Cajum, § 20, Mang. ii. 565.
[2065] Philo, In Flaccum, § 8, Mang. ii. 525. See the next note.
[2066] Philo, In Flaccum, § 8, Mang. ii. 525: Πέντε μοῖραι τῆς πόλεώς εἰσιν. ἐπώνυμοι τῶν πρώτων στοιχείων τῆς ἐγγραμμάτου φωνῆς· τούτων δύο Ἰουδαϊκαὶ λέγονται, διὰ τὸ πλείστους Ἰουδαίους ἐν ταύταις κατοικεῖν. Οἰκοῦσι δὲ καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις οὐκ ὀλίγοι σποράδες. The division of Alexandria into five districts and their appellation after the first five letters of the alphabet is also testified elsewhere. See Pseudo-Callisthenes, i. 32 (ed. Meusel in Fleckeisen’s Jahrbb. für class. Philol. Supplemental, vol. v.): Θεμελιώσας δὲ τὸ πλεῖστον μέρος τῆς πόλεως Ἀλέξανδρος, καὶ χωρογραφήσας ἐπέγραψε γράμματα πέντε· α β γ δ ε. The second of these districts is mentioned in an inscription of the time of Antoninus Pius: Τιβέριος Ἰούλιος Ἀλέξανδρος ….. τῶν ἀγορανομηκότων ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς εὐθηνίας τοῦ Β γράμματος (see Lumbroso in the Annali dell’ Instituto di corrsp. archeol. 1875, p. 15; Bursian’s Jahresbericht, f. 1874-75, vol. ii. p. 305; Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, i. 1881, p. 455).
[2067] Josephus expressly says, c. Apion. ii. 4, that the Jews did not subsequently relinquish the place occupied by them (κατέσχονως μηδʼ ὕστερον ἐκπεσεῖν).
[2068] Bell. Jud. ii. 18. 8: εἰς τὸ καλούμενον Δέλτα· συνῴκιστο γὰρ ἐκεῖ τὸ Ιουδαϊκόν).
[2069] Philo, In Flaccum, § 6, Mang. ii. 523: οὐκ ἀποδέουσι μυριάδων ἑκατὸν οἱ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν καὶ τὴν χώραν Ἰουδαῖοι κατοικοῦντες ἀπὸ τοῦ πρὸς Λιβύην καταβαθμοῦ μέχρι τῶν ὁρίων Αἰθιοπίας.
[2070] Bell. Jud. ii. 18. 7-8, vii. 10.
[2071] Comp. on the Alexandrian persecutions of the Jews, the Rabbinical passages cited by Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. col. 99, s.v. אלכסנדריא.
[2072] Joseph. Antt. xii. 1: πολλοὺς αἰχμαλώτους λαβὼν ἀπό τε τῆς ὀρεινῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ τῶν περὶ τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα τόπων καὶ τῆς Σαμαρείτιδος καὶ τῶν ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῷ Γαριζείν, κατῴκισεν ἅπαντας εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἀγαγών.
[2073] Antt. xiii. 3. 4. Comp. xii. 1, fin.
[2074] Vopisc. vita Saturnini, c. 8 (in the Scriptores historiae Augustae): nemo illic archisynagogus Judaeorum, nemo Samarites, nemo Christianorum presbyter non mathematicus, non haruspex, non aliptes.
[2075] We know the work of this Eulogius only from the information given in Photius, Biblioth. cod. 230, s. fin. (ed. Bekker, p. 285). Photius esteemed the author to be Eulogius of Alexandria (at the end of the 6th century), which however is not consistent with the fact, that the synod is said to have been held in the seventh year of the Emperor Marcianus (450-457). The only alternative is either to alter Marcianus into Mauricius, who reigned from A.D. 582 to 602 (as e.g. Fabricius-Harles, Biblioth. gr. x. 754), or to think of some other Eulogius, perhaps the bishop of Philadelphia, in Palestine, who signed the acts of the Council of Chalcedon 451 (as e.g. Tillemont and Ceillier; see in general, Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, s.v. Eulogius). In the latter case his work would be taken no account of in the history of the Egyptian Samaritans.
The Jewish Dispersion penetrated from Egypt farther westward. It was very numerously represented in Cyrenaica. Ptolemy I. Lagos had already sent Jewish settlers thither.[2076] According to Strabo, the inhabitants of the city of Cyrene were in Sulla’s time (about 85 B.C.) divided into four classes: 1. citizens, 2. agriculturists, 3. metoikoi, 4. Jews.[2077] At that time the Jews were already playing a prominent part in the disturbances in Cyrene, which Lucullus had to allay during his accidental presence there.[2078] The Jews at Cyrene seem to have been at all times quite specially disposed to insurrection. In the time of Vespasian the after-piece of the war was played out here,[2079] and in the time of Trajan Cyrenaica was a main seat of the great Jewish revolt (see above, § 21).[2080] We may also safely assume, that Jewish settlements likewise existed still farther westward. Only single traces of such are however to be discovered with any certainty.[2081]
[2076] Joseph. Apion. ii. 4. Comp. on the history of Cyrenaica, Thrige, Res Cyrenensium, Hafniae 1828. Clinton, Fasti Helleneci, iii. 394-398. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, i. (1881) pp. 457-464, and the literature there cited. On the geography, Forbiger, Handb. der alten Geographie, ii. 825-832.
[2077] Strabo in Joseph. Antt. xiv. 7. 2: τέτταρες δʼ ἦσαν ἐν τῇ πόλει τῶν Κυρηναίων, ἥ τε τῶν πολιτῶν καὶ ἡ τῶν γεωργῶν, τρίτη δʼ ἡ τῶν μετοίκων καὶ τετάρτη ἡ τῶν Ἰουδαίων.
[2078] Strabo in Joseph. Antt. xiv. 7. 2. On the doings of Lucullus in Cyrene, see Plutarch. Lucull. 2. Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, i. 459. His main object was to requisition ships for Sulla. But he had also internal disturbances to compose, the condition of Cyrene, which was not organized as a province till 74 B.C., being still very disordered.
[2079] Joseph. Bell. Jud. vii. 11; Vita, 76.
[2080] Comp. on the history of the Jews in Cyrene, 1Ma_15:23 (also above, p. 221); Antt. xvi. 6. 1, 5; and the inscription of Berenike, Corp. Inter. Graec. n. 5361. Jews of Cyrene are mentioned 2Ma_2:23 (Jason of Cyrene), Matthew 27:32 = Mark 15:21 = Luke 23:26 (Simon of Cyrene); Acts 2:10 (Cyrenians at the feast of Pentecost at Jerusalem); Acts 6:9 (synagogue of the Cyrenians in Jerusalem); Acts 11:20 (Cyrenians come from Jerusalem to Antioch); Acts 13:1 (Lucius of Cyrene at Antioch).
[2081] A Jewish inscription Pompejo Restuto Judeo at Citra, in Leon Renier, Inscriptions de l’Algérie (Paris 1855), n. 2072 = Corp. lnscr. Lat. vol. viii. n. 7155. A pater sinagogae upon an inscription at Sitifis in Mauritania in Orelli-Henzen, Inscr. Lat. vol. iii. n. 6145 = Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. viii. n. 8499. That there were Jews in Carthage in Tertullian’s time appears from the commencement of his work, adv. Judaeos. Freidländer, De Judaeorum coloniis (Königsberg Progr. 1876), refers to a passage of Procopius (De aedif. vi. 2, ed. Dindorf, iii. 334).
The diffusion of the Jews in Greece is already evident from the history of the Apostle Paul, who found Jewish synagogues in Thessalonica, Beroea, Athens and Corinth (Acts 17:1; Acts 17:10; Acts 17:17; Acts 18:4; Acts 18:7). This is confirmed by the expressions of Agrippa in the above-mentioned epistle to Caligula.[2082] There were also Jews in almost all the islands of the Grecian Archipelago and the Mediterranean Sea, and in some of these in large numbers, In the epistle Euböa, Cyprus and Crete are decidedly mentioned.[2083] And if we only know this expressly in a smaller measure of the smaller islands, the reason lies in the scantiness of our sources of information.[2084]
[2082] Comp. also Corp. Inscr. Graec. vol. iv. n. 9900 (a Jewish inscription at Athens), n. 9896 (at Patras in Achaia).
[2083] Philo, Legat. ad Cajum, § 36, Mang. ii. 587. Comp. on Cyprus, Acts 13:4 sqq. Joseph. Antt. 10. 4, and the history of the great insurrection under Trajan (§ 21, above); on Crete, Joseph. Antt. xvii. 12. 1; Bell. Jud. ii. 7. 1; Vita, 76.
[2084] Comp. 1Ma_15:23 (on this see above, p. 221. Delos, Samos, Cos and Rhodes are named). Corp. Inscr. Graec. n. 9894 (a Jewish inscription at Algina); Joseph. Antt. xvii. 12, 1; Bell. Jud. ii. 7. 1 (Melos); Antt. xiv. 10. 8 (Paros); Antt. xiv. 10. 8 and 14 (Delos); Antt. xiv. 7. 2 and 10. 15 (Cos).
In Italy Rome was the seat of a Jewish community numbered by thousands.[2085] The first appearance of Jews in Rome dates from the time of the Maccabees. Judas Maccabaeus sent an embassy to the Senate to conclude an alliance with Rome, or, to speak more correctly, to obtain an assurance of its friendship and assistance (1Ma_8:17-32). His brother and successor Jonathan followed his example (1Ma_12:1-4; 1Ma_12:16). Of greater importance was the embassy, which Simon the third of the Maccabaean brothers sent to Rome in the year 140-139 B.C. It effected an actual offensive and defensive alliance with the Romans (1Ma_14:24; 1Ma_15:15-24). During their prolonged sojourn at Rome the envoys or their retinue seem also to have attempted a religious propaganda. For it is this that is alluded to in the certainly somewhat confused notice in Valerius Maximus, i. 3. 2: Idem (viz. the praetor Hispalus) Judaeos, qui Sabazi Jovis cultu Romanos inficere mores conati erant, repetere domos suas coegit).[2086] Jupiter Zabazius is indeed a Phrygian deity.[2087] Since however Judaeos is certified by the text, his appellation in our passage undoubtedly rests upon a confusion of the Jewish Sabaoth (Zebaoth) with Sabazius.[2088] The event here related happened however (according to the immediately preceding words in Valerius Maximus) during the consulate of Popilius Laenas and L. Calpurnius Piso (B.C. 139), i.e. exactly at the time of Simon’s embassy, to which it is most probably to be referred. It may also be inferred from it, that no Jews then dwelt permanently in Rome. The settlement there of a great number of Jews dates only from the time of Pompey. After his conquest of Jerusalem in the year 63 B.C., he brought numerous Jewish prisoners of war with him to Rome. They were then sold as slaves; but many of them were soon set at liberty, their strict adherence to their Jewish customs being inconvenient to their masters. Endowed with the privileges of Roman citizenship, they settled beyond the Tiber and formed an independent Jewish community.[2089] From that time onwards the Jewish colony in Trastevere formed no unimportant factor in Roman life. When Cicero, in the year 59 B.C., made his oration in defence of Flaccus, we find many Jews present among the auditors.[2090] At the death of Caesar, the great protector of the Jews, a multitude of the latter made lamentation at his bier during whole nights.[2091] In the time of Augustus they were already numbered by thousands. Josephus at least tells us that 8000 Roman Jews joined the deputation which came from Palestine to Rome in the year 4 B.C.[2092] In the time of Tiberius repressive measures commenced. According to Josephus, the whole Jewish population was banished from Rome A.D. 19, because a few Jews had swindled a noble female proselyte named Fulvia of large sums of money under the pretext of sending them to the temple at Jerusalem.[2093] Four thousand Jews capable of bearing arms were on this account deported to Sardinia to fight against the brigands in that island; the rest were banished from the city. Such are the accounts of Tacitus,[2094] Suetonius,[2095] and Josephus,[2096] whose statements essentially agree. According to the contemporary narrative of Philo, these measures were chiefly carried out by the then powerful Sejanus.[2097] After his overthrow, A.D. 31, Tiberius perceived that the Jews had been slandered without cause by Sejanus, and commanded the authorities (ὑπάρχοις) in all places not to molest the Jews, nor to prevent the practice of their customs.[2098] It may here be assumed that a return to Rome was also allowed them; and this explains the fact that Philo should, so early as the time of Caligula, again take for granted the existence of the Jewish community. The reign of Claudius began with a general Edict of Toleration in favour of the Jews.[2099] But this emperor also subsequently found himself obliged to take measures against them. According to the short accounts in the Acts and Suetonius, an actual expulsion of the Jews took place under Claudius.[2100] According however to the evidently more accurate account of Dio Cassius, Claudius only prohibited the assemblies of the Jews, because their expulsion could not be carried out without great tumult.[2101] This prohibition was indeed equal to a prohibition of the free exercise of their religion, and would certainly have the result of inducing many to leave the city. Its date cannot be accurately determined; it was probably promulgated in the later times of Claudius.[2102] From the words of Suetonius it might indeed be inferred, that it was occasioned by the disturbances, which arose within Judaism in consequence of the preaching of Christ.[2103] This edict of Claudius had also but transient consequences. Such measures were not capable of extirpating the firmly rooted Jewish community, or of even permanently weakening it. It was already, chiefly by means of its numerous proselytes, too much intertwined with Roman life for its complete suppression to be successful. The Jews, when expelled from the city, emigrated to the neighbourhood, perhaps to Aricia,[2104] soon to return thence to their old abodes. Their history in Rome may be summed up in the words of Dio Cassius: Often suppressed, they nevertheless mightily increased, so that they achieved even the free exercise of their customs.[2105] The aristocratic Roman indeed looked down upon them with contempt. But the numerous lampoons of the satirists are just so many evidences of the notice they attracted in Roman society.[2106] Even from the time of Augustus direct relations of Jews to the imperial court are not lacking; nay, in the reign of Nero the Empress Poppaea seems herself to have been inclined to Judaism.[2107] By degrees they spread farther in the city also. The quarter in Trastevere was no longer their only one. We find them subsequently in the Campus Martins, and in the midst of the Roman commercial world in the Subura (see below, No. 2). Juvenal jests at the fact, that the sacred grove of Egeria, before the Porta Capena, was leased to Jews and swarmed with Jewish beggars (Sat. iii. 12-16). The settlement of Jews in various quarters of the town, and their continued prosperity down to the later imperial times, are also especially evidenced by Jewish burying grounds, some of them the discovery of recent times. Of these, the five following are now known:[2108] (1) A somewhat insignificant cemetery before the Porta Portuensis, discovered by Bosio in the year 1602. This was certainly the burial-place of the Jews in Trastevere. The knowledge of the locality was afterwards lost, and all efforts for its re-discovery have hitherto been unsuccessful.[2109] (2) A large cemetery, discovered in the beginning of the sixth decade of this century, on the Via Appia in the Vigna Randanini (somewhat farther out than the catacomb of Callistus). To it we owe our acquaintance with a large number of Romano-Jewish inscriptions.[2110] (3) In the year 1867 (or 1866) a Jewish cemetery, of which de Rossi gives a short account, was discovered in the vineyard of Count Cimarra, also on the Via Appia, nearly opposite the catacomb of Callistus.[2111] (4) A Jewish cemetery on the Via Labicana, therefore in the neighbourhood of the Esquinal and Viminal, of perhaps the date of the Antonines, was pointed out by Marucchi in the year 1883.[2112] (5) There was also in Porto (at the mouth of the Tiber) a Jewish cemetery, from which are derived many of the Jewish epitaphs with which we have for a long time been acquainted.[2113] The antiquity of this cemetery, and of the inscriptions contained in it, can only be approximately determined. They may date chiefly from the second to the fourth centuries after Christ.
[2085] Comp. on the Jews in Rome, Migliore, Ad inscriptionem Flaviae Antoninae commentarius sive de antiquis Judaeis Italicis exercitatio epigraphica (MS. of the Vatican library, n. 9143, cited by Engeström). Auer, Die Juden in Rom unmittelbar vor und nach Christi Geburt (Zeitschr. für die gesammte kathol. Theol. vol. iv. No. 1, 1852, pp. 56-105). Hausrath, Neutestamentl. Zeitgesch., 2nd ed. iii. 383-392 (1st ed. iii. 71-81). Renan, Paulus, p. 131 sqq. Engeström, Om Judarne i Rom under äldre tider och deras katakomber, Upsala 1876. Huidekoper, Judaism at Rome, New York 1876. Schürer, Die Gemeindeverfassung der Juden in Rom in der Kaiserteit, Leipzig 1879. Hamburger, Real-Enc. für Bibel und Talmud, Div. ii. pp. 1083-1037 (art. “Rom”). Hild, Les juifs à Rome devant l’opinion et dans la littérature (Revue des études juives, vol. viii. 1884, pp. 1-37, and continuation). Hudson, History of the Jews in Rome, 2nd ed. London 1884 (394 pp.). The works and articles of Levy, Garrucci and others on the inscriptions of the Jewish catacombs in Rome (see above, § 2).
[2086] There is a large hiatus in the first book of the text of Valerius Maximus. Two extracts from his works, which have been preserved to us, that of Julius Paris and that of Januarius Nepotianus (both given by Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, iii. 3, 1828) help to fill it up. (For the hiatus, see also Kempt’s edition of Valerius Maximus, 1854.) The passage with which we are concerned is given above, according to the extract of Paria. In the extract of Nepotianus this same passage runs as follows: Judaeos quoque, qui Romanis tradere sacra sua conati erant, idem Hippalus urbe exterminavit; arasque privatas e publicis locis abiecit. Since then both summarizers have the word Judaeos, it must without doubt have existed in Valerius Maximus. It is wanting only in the printed common text derived from a bad transcript from Paris, which I followed in the first edition of this book.
[2087] Comp. on Sabazius, Georgii in Pauly’s Real-Enc. vii. 1, 615-621. Lenormant in the Revue archéologique, new series, vol. xxviii. 1874, pp. 800 sqq., 880 sqq., xxix, 1875, p. 43 sqq. On his worship in Rome, Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii. 1878, p. 80 sq.; Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. vi. n. 429, 430. Cicero already knows of the Sabazia (De natura deorum, iii. 23. 58).
[2088] Zebaoth is indeed not a proper name. The Hebrew Jahveh Zebaoth having however been rendered by κύριος Σαβαώθ (by the LXX. especially in Isaiah, see Trommius’ Concordance, the form Σαβαώθ being better evidenced than Σαββαώθ), Σαβαώθ has in fact been treated as a name of God by Jews, Christians and heathen, see Orac. Sibyll. 1:804, 816, 2:240, 12:132 (ed. Friedlieb, x. 132). Celsus in Origen, c. Cels. i. 24, v. 41, 45. The Gnostics in Irenaeus, i. 30. 5; Origen, c. Cels. vi. 81, 32; Epiphanius, haer. xxvi. 10, xl. 2. Many Gnostics (see Baudissin, Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, No. 1, 1876, p. 187 sqq.); Origen himself, Exhortatio ad martyrium, c. 46; Hieronyoms, epist. 25 ad Marcellam de decem nominitus Dei (Opp. ed. Vallarsi, i. 130). Also in similar anonymous treatises on the names of God (Hieronymi Opp. ed. Vallarsi, iii. 749 sq. Legarde, Onomastica sacra, pp. 160, 205 sq.). The Hebrew Sabbath is certainly out of the question, as it is not possible to see how that could be understood as the name of the Deity.
[2089] Philo, Legat. ad Cajum, § 23, Mang. ii. 568: Πῶς οὖν ἀπεδέχετο (scil. Augustus) τὴν πέραν τοῦ Τιβέρεως ποταμοῦ μεγάλην τῆς Ῥώμης ἀποτομὴν, ἣν οὐκ ἠγνόει κατεχομένην καὶ οἰκουμένην πρὸς Ἰουδαίων; Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ ἦσαν οἱ πλείους ἀπελευθερωθέντες. Αἰχμάλωτοι γὰρ ἀχθέντες εἰς Ἰταλίαν ὑπὸ τῶν κτησαμένων ἠλευθερώθησαν, οὐδὲν τῶν πατρίων παραχαράξαι βιασθέντες.
[2090] Cicero, pro Flacco, 28.
[2091] Sueton. Caesar, 84: In summo publico luctu exterarum gentium multitudo circulatim suo quaeque more lamentata est, praecipueque Judaei, qui etiam noctibus continuis bustum frequentarunt.
[2092] Antt. xvii. 11. 1; Bell. Jud. ii. 6. 1.
[2093] Antt. xviii. 3. 5.
[2094] Annal. ii. 85: Actum et de sacris Aegyptiis Judaicisque pellendis factumque patrum consultum, ut quattuor milia libertini generis ea superstitione infecta, quis idonea aetas, in insulam Sardiniam veherentur, coercendis illic latrociniis et, si ob gravitatem caeli interissent, vile damnum; ceteri cederent Italia, nisi certam ante diem profanos ritus exuissent.
[2095] Vita Tiber. 36: Externas caerimonias, Aegyptios Judaicosque ritus compescuit, coactis qui superstitione ea tenebantur religiosas vestes cum instrumento omni comburere. Judaeorum juventutem per speciem sacramenti in provincias gravioris caeli distribuit, reliquos gentis ejusdem vel similia sectantes urbe summovit, sub poena perpetuae servitutis nisi obtemperassent.
[2096] Josephus (Antt. xviii. 3. 5) says expressly, that 4000 Jews were chosen for military service and sent to Sardinia. Tacitus gives the same number, but speaks of Egyptians and Jews. According to Tacitus, the rest had been expelled from Italy; according to Josephus, only from Rome. Suetonius agrees more with Josephus. On the chronology, comp. Volkmar, Die Religionsverfolgung unter Kaiser Tiberius und die Chronologie des FL Josephus in der Pilatus-Periode (Jahrbb. für prot. Theol. 1885, pp. 136-143). Volkmar correctly concludes, that Josephus (Antt. xviii. 8. 6) means the same expulsion of Jews as Tacitus, and that it took place (according to the narrative of Tacitus) A.D. 19.
[2097] Euseb. Chron. ad ann. Abr. 2050 (ed. Schoene, ii. 150), from the Armenian: Seianus Tiberii procurator, qui intimus erat consiliarius regis, universim gentem Judaeorum deperdendam exposcebat. Meminit autem huius Philon in secunda relatione. Syncellus, ed. Dindorf, i. 621: Σηιανὸς ἔπαρχος Τιβερίου Καίσαρος περὶ τελείας ἀπωλείας τοῦ ἔθνους τῶν Ἰουδαίων πολλὰ σὺν ἐβούλευε τῷ Καίσαρι, ὡς Φίλων Ἰουδαῖος ἐξ Ἀλεξανδρείας διάγων ἱστορεῖ ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ τῆς περὶ αὐτοῦ πρεσβείας. Hieronymus, Chron. (in Euseb. Chron. ed. Schoene, ii. 151): Seianus praefectus Tiberii qui spud eum plurimum poterat instantissime cohortatur, ut gentem Judaeorum deleat. Filo meminit in libro legationis secundo. The same information, according to the same work of Philo, is also found in Euseb. Hist. eccl. ii. 5. 7. Comp. on this work of Philo, § 34, below.
[2098] Philo, Legat. ad Cajum, § 24, ed. Mang. ii. 569.
[2099] Joseph. Antt. xix. 5. 2, 3.
[2100] Acts 18:2 : διὰ τὸ διατεταχέναι Κλαύδιον χωρίζεσθαι πάντας τοὺς Ἰουδαίους ἀπὸ τῆς Ῥώμης. Sueton. Claud. 25: Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit.
[2101] Dio Cass. lx. 6: τούς τε Ἰουδαίους πλεονάσαντας αὖθις, ὥστε χαλεπῶς ἂν ἄνευ ταραχῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου σφῶν τῆς πόλεως εἰρχθῆναι, οὐκ ἐξήλασε μέν, τῷ δὲ δὴ πατρίῳ βίῳ χρωμένους ἐκέλευσε μὴ συναθροίζεσθαι. In Dio Cassius this notice stands at the beginning of the reign of Claudius, while the measure related in the Acts of the Apostles probably took place much later (see note 69). Dio Cassius however is not here giving as yet a chronological narrative, but only describing the general characteristics of Claudius (this to me seems certain notwithstanding the remarks to the contrary of H. Lehmann, Studien zur Gesch. des apost. Zeitalters, pp. 2-4, with the words λέξω δὲ καθʼ ἕκαστον ὧν ἐποΐησε, c. 3. Dio passes over not to a chronological narrative, but to a description of the good side of Claudius). It is not credible that an unfavourable edict against the Jews should be carried into effect in the early days of Claudius, who was just then issuing an edict for their toleration. The edict therefore mentioned by Dio Cassius is most probably identical with that of Suetonius. For it would indeed be strange if one should mention the former and the other the latter. The expulit of Suetonius must be understood according to the analogy of Suetonius, Tiber. 36: expulit et mathematicos, sed deprecantibus … veniam dedit. The expulsion was indeed contemplated, but when it was perceived that it would encounter difficulties, it was abandoned. This also explains the silence of Tacitus and Josephus.
[2102] The year might be accurately determined if this edict were identical with that mentioned by Tacitus of the year 52. Tac. Annal. xii. 52: De mathematicis Italia pellendis factum senatus consultum atrox et irritum. But the mathematici cannot possibly mean the Jewish community at Rome. In the Chronicle of Eusebius and Jerome the expulsion of the Jews by Claudius is not mentioned. Orosius alone, vii. 6. 15 (ed. Zangemeister, 1882), gives a precise date for this edict: Anno ejusdem nono expulsos per Claudium Urbe Judaeos Josephus refert. Since however Josephus makes no mention at all of the matter, the statement is certainly incorrect with respect to authority and therefore probably unreliable with respect to matter. It is moreover probable, from the connection of the Acts of the Apostles (observe the προσφάτως, Acts 18:2), that the edict was issued about A.D. 50-52. Comp. in general, Anger, De temporum in actis apostolorum ratione (1833), p. 116 sqq. Wieseler, Chronologie des apostol. Zeitalters, pp. 120-128. Winer, RWB. i. 231 sq. (art. “Claudius”). H. Lehmann, Studien zur Geschichte des apostolischen Zeitalters (1856), pp. 1-9. Lewin, Fasti Sacri (London 1865), n. 1773, 1774. Keim, art. “Claudius,” in Schenkel’s Bilellex.
[2103] On Chrestus = Cristus, see Hug, Einl. in das N. T. (4th ed.) ii. 335. Credner, Einl. in das N. T. p. 381. Hilgenfeld, Einl. in das N. T. p. 303 sq. Huidekoper, Judaism at Rome, p. 229 sq.
[2104] This is intimated by the scholiast on Juvenal, iv. 117: qui ud portam Aricinam sive ad clivum mendicaret inter Judaeos, qui ad Ariciam transierant ex Urbe missi.
[2105] Dio Cass. xxxvii. 17: ἔστι καὶ παρὰ τοῖς Ῥωμαῖοις τὸ γένος τοῦτο, κολουσθὲν μὲν πολλάκις, αὐξηθὲν δὲ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον, ὥστε καὶ ἐς παῥρʼησίαν τῆς νομίσεως ἐκνικῆσαι.
[2106] On the social position of the Jews in Rome, see the literature cited above, note 52, especially Hausrath, Neutestamentl. Zeitgesch. 2nd ed. iii. 383-392.
[2107] The names Αὐγουστήσιοι and Ἀγριππήσιοι, borne by two Jewish communities in Rome (see below, No. 2), point to the relations of Jews to Augustus and Agrippa. The Empress Livia had a Jewish female slave of the name of Akme (Joseph. Antt. xvii. 5. 7; Bell. Jud. i. 32. 6, 33. 7). Upon an inscription of the time of Claudius, a [Cl]audia Aster [Hi]erosolymitana [ca]ptiva, evidently a Jewish female slave of Claudius, is mentioned (Orelli-Henzen, Inscr. Lat. n. 5302 = Mommsen, Inscr. Regni Neap. n. 6467 = Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. x. n. 1971). We find a Jewish comedian Alityrus at the court of Nero (Joseph. Vita, 3). Poppaea is herself designated as θεοσεβής, and was always ready to advocate Jewish petitions with the emperor (Joseph. Antt. xx. 8. 11; Vita, 3). Tacitus, Annal. xvi. 6, remarks of her, that after her death she was not burnt according to Roman custom, but embalmed “after the fashion of foreign kings.” The Jewish historian Josephus lived in Rome under Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, honoured and assisted by the kindness of all three emperors (Joseph. Vita, 76). In the person of Domitian’s cousin Flavius Clemens, not Judaism indeed, but Christianity, which proceeded from Judaism, penetrated even the imperial family (for so are Dio Case. lxvii. 14, and Sueton. Domit. 15, now universally and correctly understood). Of later date may perhaps be mentioned also the Jewish playfellow (conlusor) of Caracalla (Spartian. Caracalla, 1; also Görres, Zeitschr. f. Wissenschaftl. Theol. 1884, p. 147 sqq.). We must remember too the active relations of Herod and his dynasty with Augustus and his successors. Most of Herod’s sons were brought up at Rome. Agrippa I. spent the greater part of his life in Rome, remaining there till his nomination as king; as a boy he was on terms of friendship with Drusus, the son of Tiberius (Joseph. Antt. xviii. 6. 1), and afterwards with Caligula. The intimate relations of Agrippa II. and Berenice with Vespasian and Titus are well known; and lastly, it is worthy of remark how frequently the Gentile names of emperors are found among Jewish names upon inscriptions. The following occur, and that in tolerably large numbers: Julius, Claudius, Flavius, Aelius, Aurelius, Valerius. Even though these names may frequently refer not to the old families, but to later emperors (Constantine the Great’s full name e.g. being C. Flavius Valerius Aurelius Claudius Const.), still they certainly prove a close relation of the Jews to the emperors. Comp. also Harnack’s article on the Christiane at the imperial court (Princeton Review, July 1878, pp. 289-280).
[2108] Comp. the summary in Kraus, Roma Sotterranea (1st. ed. 1878), p. 489 sq.; and Caspari, Quellen zur Gesch. des Taufsymbols, iii. 1875, p. 271 sq.
[2109] Garrucci, Cimitero degli antichi Ebrei, p. 3.
[2110] Comp. Garrucci, Cimitero degli antichi Ebrei scoperto recentemente in Vigna Randanini, Rome 1862. The same, Dissertazioni archeologiche di vario argomento, vol. ii. Roma 1865, pp. 150-192. On the situation of the cemetery, see the plan in De Rossi, Bullettino di Archeologia cristiana (1st series), vol. v. 1867, p. 3, and the explanation, p. 16.
[2111] De Rossi, Bullettino, v. 16.
[2112]a Marucchi in de Rossi’s Bullettino, 1883, p. 79 sq.
[2113] See de Rossi, Bullettino, iv. 1866, p. 40. The inscriptions known down to the year 1850 are collected in Corp. Inter. Graec. vol. iv. n. 9901 9926. Comp. the literature on the inscriptions, § 2, above.
Besides Jews properly so called, there were in Rome (as in Alexandria) Samaritans also. A Samaritan of the name of Thallus, a freedman of the Emperor Tiberius, once lent a large sum to Agrippa I. in Rome.[2114] The existence of a Samaritan community in Rome, in the time of the Ostrogoth king Theodoric, is evidenced by a letter of this king to the knight Arigernus, which is embodied in the collection of letters of Cassiodorus.[2115] That the Samaritans were by no means without importance in the Roman Empire in later imperial times, is shown by the frequent reference to them in imperial legislation.[2116]
[2114] Joseph. Antt. xviii. 6. 4.
[2115] Cassiodor. Variarum, iii. 45 (Opp. ed. Garetius): Arigerno Viro Illustri Comiti Theodoricus Rex.… Defensores itaque sacrosanctae Romanae ecclesiae conquesti sunt, beatae recordationis quondam Simplicium domum in sacratissima Urbe positam ab Eufrasio Acolyto instrumentis factis solemniter comparasse; quam per annorum longa curricula ecclesiam Romanam quieto jure suggerunt possedisse et in usus alienos transtulisse securitate dominii. Nunc autem existere Samareae superstitionis populum improba fronte duratum, qui Synagogam ibidem fuisse iniquis conatibus mentiatur.
[2116] Codex Theodosianus (ed. Haeuel), xiii. 5. 18, xvi. 8. 16, u. 28. Novell. Justin. 129, u. 144.
After the Jewish community in Rome, that of Puteoli (Dikäarchia) is presumably the most ancient in Italy. In this chief trading port of Italy with the East, we find Jews so early as B.C. 4, immediately after the death of Herod the Great.[2117] Their presence cannot be pointed out in other parts of Italy till later imperial times; this does not however permit any negative inference as to the date of their settlement.[2118] Much material in the way of inscriptions has recently been furnished especially by the discovery of the catacomb of Venosa (Venusia in Apulia, the birthplace of Horace). Its inscriptions in Greek, Latin and Hebrew are, according to Mommsen’s judgment, of the sixth century after Christ.[2119] We likewise meet with Jewish communities in various parts of Gaul and Spain in later imperial times. In respect of dates, what has been said with regard to Italy holds good here also.[2120]
[2117] Joseph. Antt. xvii. 12. 1; Bell. Jud. ii. 7. 1. There was also a Christian church here so early as A.D. 61 (Acts 28:13-14).
[2118] See the information in Friedländer, Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms, vol. iii. (1871) pp. 511, 512. The same, De Judaeorum coloniis (Königsberg Progr. 1876), pp. 1, 2. Renan, L’Antichrist (1873), p. 8. For Lower Italy, also Ascoli, Iscrizioni (1880), pp. 33-38. The places in which they are found are especially the following: Genoa (Cassiodor. Variar. ii. 27), Milan (Cassiodor. Variar. v. 37), Brescia (inscription, Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. v. n. 4411), Aquileia (Roman inscription in Garrucci, Cimitero, p. 62), Bologna (Ambrosius, Exhortatio virginitatis, c. 1), Ravenna (Anonymus Valesii, cc. 81-82, in the appendix to most editions of Ammianus Marcellinus), Capua (inscription in Mommsen, Inscr. Regni Neap. 3657 = Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. x. n. 3905), Naples (Procop. Bell. Gotth. i. 8 and 10, ed. Dindorf, vol. ii. pp. 44 and 53), Venosa (see next note), Syracuse (inscription, Corp. Inscr. Graec. n. 9895), Palermo, Messina, Agrigentum (Letters of Gregory the Great). In Apulia and Calabria the official posts of the different communities could not be regularly filled up, because the Jewish inhabitants refused to undertake them (edict of the Emperors Honorius and Arcadius of the year 398 in the Codex Theodosianus, xii. 1. 158: Vacillare per Apuliam Calabriamque plurimos ordines civitatum comperimus, quia Judaicae superstitionis sunt, et quadam se lege, quae in Orientis partibus lata est, necessitate subeundorum muerum aestimant defendendos).
[2119] The catacomb was discovered as early as 1858, and described in two memoirs (by De Angelis and Smith and by D’Aloe). The MSS. of both memoirs however lay buried in the archives of the museum at Naples, till their contents were recently made known (1) in Ascoli’s Iscrizioni inedite o mal note greche latine ebraiche di antichi sepolchri giudaici del Napolitano, Torino e Roma, 1880, and (2) in Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. ix. (1883), n. 6195-6214, comp. 647, 648. Hirschfeld had already given a short notice on the catacomb (Bullettino dell’ Instituto di corrisp. archeol. 1867, pp. 148-152). Comp. also Theol. Literaturztg. 1880, pp. 485-488. Grätz, Monatsschr. 1880, p. 433 sqq. Lenormant, La catacombe juive de Venosa (Revue des études juives, vol. vi. n. 12, 1883, pp. 200-207). Besides the inscriptions in the catacomb, dated Hebrew epitaphs of Venosa of the ninth century are also known. See Ascoli’s above-named work; Theol. Litztg. 1880, p. 485.
[2120] See the information in Friedländer’s above-named work. With respect to Spain, we mention only the inscription Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. ii. n. 1982.