Thehistory of the Jews in the Roman Empire traces the interaction ofJews andRomans during the period of theRoman Empire (27 BC – 476 AD). AJewish diaspora had migrated toRome and to the territories of Roman Europe from theland of Israel,Anatolia,Babylon andAlexandria in response to economic hardship and incessant warfare over the land of Israel between thePtolemaic andSeleucid empires from the 4th to the 1st centuries BC. In Rome, Jewish communities thrived economically. Jews likely became a significant part of the Roman Empire's population in the first century AD, though there is no agreement in academia about the exact numbers and most numbers are speculative at best.
Roman generalPompeyconquered Jerusalem and its surroundings by 63 BC. The Romans deposed the rulingHasmonean dynasty of Judaea (in power fromc. 140 BC) and theRoman Senate declaredHerod the Great "King of the Jews" inc. 40 BC.Judea proper,Samaria andIdumea became theRoman province of Judaea in 6 AD.Jewish–Roman tensions resulted in severalJewish–Roman wars between the years 66 and 135 AD, which resulted in thedestruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple and the institution of theJewish Tax in 70 (those who paid the tax were exempt from the obligation of making sacrifices to theRoman imperial cult).
In 313, Constantine andLicinius issued theEdict of Milan giving official recognition to Christianity as a legal religion.Constantine the Great moved the Roman capital from Rome toConstantinoplec. 330, and with theEdict of Thessalonica in 380, Christianity became thestate church of the Roman Empire. The Christian emperors persecuted their Jewish subjects and restricted their rights.[1]
Even before Rome annexed Judea as a province, the Romans had interacted with Jews from their diasporas settled in Rome for a century and a half. Many cities of the Roman provinces in the eastern Mediterranean contained very large Jewish communities, dispersed from the time of the sixth century BC.[2] Though the Romans guaranteed the practice of Jewish religion, they resented the spread of foreign religions among Roman natives and for this reason expelled the Jews from Rome in 139 BC (as had also happened to the cult of Bacchus in 186 BC).[3]
Before the Roman got involved in Judaean politics, they supported theMaccabean Revolt and Judah Maccabee obtained an alliance with the Roman Republic.[4] Rome's deeper involvement in theEastern Mediterranean dated from 63 BC, following the end of theThird Mithridatic War, when Rome madeSyria a province. After the defeat ofMithridates VI of Pontus, theproconsul Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) remained to secure the area, including a visit to theJerusalem Temple. The former kingHyrcanus II was confirmed asethnarch of the Jews by Julius Caesar in 48 BC.[5] In 37 BC, theHerodian Kingdom was established as a Romanclient kingdom and in 6 AD parts became aprovince of theRoman Empire, namedIudaea Province.[6] Herod's temple was world-famous and important gentiles offered sacrifices for pious reasons, such as Herdod's friendMarcus Agrippa, who offered ahecatomb in 15 BC.[7]
During the first century AD, Roman rule in Judaea was often clumsy and unsuccessful. Due to chronic insolvency, raids on the Temple were frequent and led to outrage, there were numerous bands of brigands and the mixed Greek-Jewish populations in the towns often led to tensions.[8] There were at least three uprisings: one led byJudas of Gamala in 6 AD, another one in 44 AD led by Theudas and in the time of Procurator Felix (52-60 AD).[9] With the slow adoption ofEmperor Worship, relations deteriorated swiftly between the once allies and Jewish refusal to participate in the formalities of state worship was seen as disloyalty. Roman hostility was enthusiastically supported by Greek intellectuals and especially Alexandria, a large Jewish center, was a center of anti-Semitic propaganda.[10][11] These included slanders that the Jews had no claim on Israel, that the Jews worshipped asses and had an ass's head in the temple or that they conducted secret human sacrifices in the temple.[12][13][14] Feldman suggests that the many messianic movements in Judaea around the first and second century AD were likely a source of anxiety to the Romans.[13]
Theefforts of Caligula to install a statue of himself in the Temple (37–41 AD), which required the intervention ofPhilo of Alexandria andHerod Agrippa to prevent, has been proposed as the "first open break between Rome and the Jews"; although problems were already evident during theCensus of Quirinius in 6 AD and underSejanus (before 31 AD). The emperorTiberius had rectified the latter by intervening and ultimately recallingPontius Pilate to Rome.[15] During the time of EmperorNero the Jews seem to have had some influence at the court, possibly through the Jewish actor Alityros and even the emperor's wife, who might have been a symphathiser with the Jews.[13]
In the Greek cities in the east of the Roman empire, tensions often arose between the Greek and Jewish populations. One major point of contention were the privileges granted by certain Roman rulers to the Jews.[16] Writing around 90 AD, the Jewish author Josephus cited decrees by Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Augustus and Claudius, endowing Jewish communities with a number of rights.[17] Central privileges included the right to be exempted frompolis religious rituals and the permission "to follow their ancestral laws, customs and religion". Jews were also exempted from military service and the provision of Roman troops.[18] Contrary to what Josephus wants his readers to believe, the Jews did not have the status ofreligio licita (permitted religion) as this status did not exist in the Roman empire, nor were all Roman decrees concerning the Jews positive. Instead, the regulations were made as a response to individual requests to the emperor. The decrees were deployed by Josephus "as instruments in an ongoing political struggle for status".[19]
Because of their one-sided viewpoint, the authenticity of the decrees has been questioned many times, but they are now thought to be largely authentic.[20][21][19][22] Still, Josephus gave only one side of the story by leaving out negative decisions and pretending that the rulings were universal.[23] This way, he carried out an ideological message showing that the Romans allowed the Jews to carry out their own customs and rituals; the Jews were protected in the past and were still protected by these decisions in his own time. However, Romans seem to have been opposed in general to Jewish missionary activities.[24][25]
Though Jews seem to have been numerous in the Roman Empire, there is no consensus on the number of Jews in the Roman Empire.[26] Some authors have suggested as high as 7 million people.[1][27] but this estimation has been questioned.[28][29]. Speficially, the number seems to be based on the misreading of a medieval text of the 13th-century author Bar Hebraeus.[30]
In 66 AD, theFirst Jewish–Roman War began after a Graeco-Jewish lawsuit in which the Greek party won. Violence escalated when the Roman governorGessius Florus plundered the Temple treasury, followed by the suspension of sacrifices at the temple in honour of the people and the emperor of Rome and the massacre of several civilians as well as the Roman garrison.[31] The revolt was both a civil war between the Greek and the Jews as well as between various Jewish factions, specifically theHellenised Jews and more traditional Jews.[32] The revolt was ultimately crushed by the future Roman emperorsVespasian andTitus.[32] During thesiege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the Temple and plundered its artifacts, including themenorah, and its inhabitants killed or enslaved.[33] In the aftermath of the anti-semitic sentiment continued to spread and the fall of Jerusalem was taken as evidence that God hated the Jews, such as by the authorPhilostratus orTacitus who repeated also previous Greek anti-semitic smears.[34] Nevertheless, the Romans did not reverse their policy of toleration of the Jews and did not diminish the privileges granted to Jewish communites across the empire, with the only retribution being the conversion of theTemple tax into a humiliating poll tax called theFiscus Judaicus for the upkeep oftemple of Jupiter Capitolinus.[35]
According to rabbinic sources,Yohanan ben Zakkai, a prominentPharisaic leader who had opposed the revolt, was smuggled out of Jerusalem in a coffin and was able to obtain permission from the Roman authorities to set up a center for regulation of the Jewish religion atJamnia. Both Yohanan and the synagogue of Jamnia became normative instutions in Judaism and established many Jewish rules while also completing the canonization of theTanakh.[36] Yohanan's pupilJoshua ben Hananiah urged the Jews to accept Roman suzerainity and it is likely that many rabbis were reconciled with Roman rule.[35] The Jewish leaders of Alexandria even handed over 600Sicarii, who had fled after the defeat to Egypt, to the Roman authorities in order to prove their loyalty and restore the relation.[35] Under Emperor Domitian thefiscus iudaicus was collected strictly and converts to Judaism punished, but this seems to have ended under Emperor Nerva and also theDiaspora Revolt in 115-117 did not change Roman policy.[37]
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Jews continued to live in their land in significant numbers, untilSextus Julius Severus devastated the region while crushing theBar Kokhba revolt of 132–136. Hadrian had been initially friendly to Judaism, but he became increasingly hostile towards Eastern religion and Judaism (possibly due to the influence of Tacitus), with a particular dislike of circumcision.[34]Hadrian's plan to establish aRoman colony on the ruins of Jerusalem, and a possible ban oncircumcision, sparked this Jewish rebellion—the last major attempt at regaining independence. UnderSimon bar Kokhba, the rebels established a short-lived state, but the Romans soon amassed a large force and brutally crushed the revolt. 985 villages were destroyed and most of the Jewish population of central Judaea was essentially wiped out—either killed, sold into slavery, or forced to flee.[38] Survivors were banished from Jerusalem and its surroundings, and the Jewish population shifted toGalilee.[39]
After the supression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135, Hadrian rebuild Jerusalem under the nameAelia Capitolina, repopulated it with Greek-speakers and forbid Jews to enter it on pain of death. This law might not have been enforced very strictly and the Jews were able to get permission to visit theWailing Wall on the anniversary of its destruction (Tisha B'Av).[40] Hadrian also renamed theprovince of Judaea toSyria Palaestina, maybe in an attempt to erase thehistorical ties of the Jewish people to the region.[41] Other explanations have also been proposed,[42] andRonald Syme suggested that the renaming efforts preceded and helped precipitate the rebellion.[43] The unsuccessful revolt was followed by several draconian measures against many Jewish observances, but these were alleviated by Hadrian's successorAntoninus Pius.[37] The official policy seems to have been to tolerate and protect Judaism so long as it posed no threat, through attempts at proselytising, to the state cult or social order.[25]
In spite of the failure of theBar Kokhba revolt, Jews remained in the land of Israel in significant numbers. The Jews who remained there went through numerous experiences and armed conflicts against consecutive occupiers of the Land. Some of the most famous and important Jewish texts were composed in Israeli cities at this time. The completion of theMishnah is a prominent example.
In this period thetannaim andamoraim were activerabbis who organized and debated the Jewishoral law. A major catalyst in Judaism isJudah haNasi, who was a wealthy rabbi and one of the last tannaim, oral interpreters of the Law. He was in good standing with Roman authority figures, which aided in his ascent to being the Patriarch of the Jewish community in Palestine. The decisions of thetannaim are contained in theMishnah,Beraita,Tosefta, and variousMidrash compilations. TheMishnah was completed shortly after 200 CE, probably by Judah haNasi. The commentaries of theamoraim upon the Mishnah are compiled in theJerusalem Talmud, which was completed around 400 AD, probably inTiberias.
In 351, the Jewish population inSepphoris, under the leadership of Patricius, started arevolt against the rule ofConstantius Gallus, brother-in-law of EmperorConstantius II. The revolt was eventually subdued by Gallus' general,Ursicinus.
According to tradition, in 359Hillel II created theHebrew calendar, which is alunisolar calendarbased on math rather than observation. Until then, the entire Jewish community outside the land of Israel depended on the observational calendar sanctioned by theSanhedrin; this was necessary for the proper observance of the Jewish holy days. However, danger threatened the participants in that sanction and the messengers who communicated their decisions to distant communities. As the religious persecutions continued, Hillel determined to provide an authorized calendar for all time to come that was not dependent on observation at Jerusalem.
Julian, the only emperor to reject Christianity after theconversion of Constantine, allowed the Jews to return to "holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt" and to rebuild the Temple. However Julian waskilled in battle on 26 June 363 in his failed campaign against theSassanid Empire.
In the 380s, emperorTheodosius I instituted religious uniformity as the official policy of the empire so that many new regultations and statutes were imposed on non-Christians.[44] From the fifth century onwards, Roman legislation increasingly prohibited Jews to engage in various occupations, including the legal profession, the military and the upper ranks of Roman administration and evidence for Jewish men holding high status decreases after this century.[45][46]
During theByzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 many Jews sided against theEastern Roman Empire in theJewish revolt against Heraclius, which successfully assisted the invading Persian Sassanids in conquering all of Roman Egypt and Syria. In reaction to this further anti-Jewish measures were enacted throughout the Eastern Roman realm and as far away asMerovingian France.[47] Soon thereafter, 634, theMuslim conquests began, during which many Jews initially rose up again against their Eastern Roman rulers.[48]
Following the 1st-centuryGreat Revolt and the 2nd-centuryBar Kokhba revolt, the destruction ofJudea exerted a decisive influence upon the dispersion of theJewish people throughout the world, as the center of worship shifted from theSecond Temple to Rabbinic authority.
Some Jews were sold as slaves or transported as captives after the fall of Judea, others joined the existing diaspora, while still others remained in the region and began work on theJerusalem Talmud. The Jews in the diaspora were generally accepted into theRoman Empire, but with therise of Christianity, restrictions grew. Forced expulsions and persecution resulted in substantial shifts in the international centers of Jewish life to which far-flung communities often looked, although not always unified, due to the Jewish people's dispersion itself. Jewish communities were thereby largely expelled fromSyria Palaestina and sent to various Roman provinces in the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. The Roman Jewry came to develop a character associated with the urban middle class in the modern age.[49]
A Jewish diaspora existed for several centuries before the fall of theSecond Temple, and their dwelling in other countries for the most part was not a result of compulsory dislocation.[50] Before the middle of the first century AD, in addition to Judea, Syria and Babylonia, large Jewish communities existed in the Roman provinces of Egypt,Crete and Cyrenaica, and in Rome itself;[51] after theSiege of Jerusalem in 63 BC, when theHasmonean kingdom became aprotectorate of Rome, emigration intensified.Many Jews became citizens of other parts of theRoman Empire.Josephus, the book ofActs in theNew Testament, as well as otherPauline texts, make frequent reference to the large populations ofHellenised Jews in the cities of the Roman world.It is commonly claimed that the diaspora began with Rome's twofold crushing of Jewish national aspirations. David Aberbach, for one, has argued that much of the European Jewish diaspora, by which he means exile or voluntary migration, originated with the Jewish wars which occurred between 66 and 135 AD.[52]: 224 Martin Goodman states that it is only after the destruction of Jerusalem that Jews are found in northern Europe and along the western Mediterranean coast.[53] This widespread popular belief holds that there was a sudden expulsion of Jews from Judea/Syria Palaestina and that this was crucial for the establishment of the diaspora.[54]Israel Bartal contends thatShlomo Sand is incorrect in ascribing this view to most Jewish study scholars,[55] instead arguing that this view is negligible among serious Jewish study scholars.[56] These scholars argue that the growth of diaspora Jewish communities was a gradual process that occurred over the centuries, starting with the Assyrian destruction of Israel, the Babylonian destruction of Judah, the Roman destruction of Judea, and the subsequent rule of Christians and Muslims. After the revolt, the Jewish religious and cultural center shifted to the Babylonian Jewish community and its scholars. For the generations that followed, the destruction of the Second Temple event came to represent a fundamental insight about the Jews who had become a dispossessed and persecuted people for much of their history.[57] Following theBar Kokhba revolt Jews were reduced to a mainly diaspora people.[58]
Erich S. Gruen maintains that focusing on the destruction of the Temple misses the point that already before this, the diaspora was well established. Compulsory dislocation of people cannot explain more than a fraction of the eventual diaspora.[59] Avrum Ehrlich also states that already well before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, more Jews lived in the Diaspora than in Israel.[60] Jonathan Adelman estimated that around 60% of Jews lived in the diaspora during the Second Temple period.[61]Of critical importance to the reshaping of Jewish tradition from the Temple-based religion to the traditions of the Diaspora was the development of the interpretations of the Torah found in theMishnah andTalmud.
According to the article on Rome inThe Jewish Encyclopedia, Jews have lived in Rome for over 2,000 years, longer than in any other European city. They might have come there originally fromAlexandria, drawn by the lively commercial intercourse between those two cities.[62] In 139 BC and again in 19 AD, the small community of Roman Jews were expelled from the city, likely as they attemptedproselytising Romans.[24] Nevertheless, the banishments were brief andCicero noted in hisPro Flacco around 59 BC how numerous Jews were in Rome and how influential in the assemblies.[3]
The Jewish Encyclopedia connects the two civil wars raging during the last decades of the first century BC,one in Judea between the twoHasmonean brothersHyrcanus II andAristobulus II, andone in the Roman republic between Julius Caesar and Pompey, and describes the evolution of the Jewish population in Rome:
... the Jewish community in Rome grew very rapidly. The Jews who were taken to Rome as prisoners were either ransomed by their coreligionists or set free by their Roman masters, who found their peculiar custom obnoxious. They settled as traders on the right bank of theTiber, and thus originated the Jewish quarter in Rome.
By the 1st century C.E. perhaps 10 percent of the Roman Empire, or about 7 million people, were Jews, with about 2.5 million in Judea, Samaria & Galilee. These population figures are very unreliable, but they are probably fairly accurate in regard to percentages. Such an explosion in population could not have been caused entirely by natural birthrate, but conversion must have played an important part.
The number comes from a comment made by the thirteenth century author known as Bar Hebraeus. Tcherikover suspected that Bar Hebraeus was confused, but was unable to prove it, though he had already provided a number of reasons about the high numbers. Shortly after the publication of the Hebrew edition of the Hebrew edition of Tcherikover's book, Judah Rosenthal pointed out that that Bar Hebraeus' number is identical to the number found in Eusebius' Chronica, but in the Eusebian passage the number specifies the total number of Roman citizens (not Jews) as determined by a census in the reign of Claudius.
Although the myth of an exile from the Jewish homeland (Palestine) does exist in popular Israeli culture, it is negligible in serious Jewish historical discussions.(Israel Bartal, dean of humanities at the Hebrew University)
Experts dismiss the popular notion that the Jews were expelled from Palestine in one fell swoop in A.D. 70. Yet while the destruction of Jerusalem and Second Temple by the Romans did not create the Diaspora, it caused a momentous change in the Jews' sense of themselves and their position in the world.