The Jews under Roman rule: From Pompey to Diocletian (Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity)

613 Pages·1976·12.66 MB·English

by  E. Mary Smallwood

THE JEWS
UNDER ROMAN RULE
STUDIES IN JUDAISM
IN LATE ANTIQUITY
EDITED BY
JACOB NEUSNER
VOLUME TWENTY
E. MARY SMALLWOOD
THE JEWS
UNDER ROMAN RULE
LEIDEN
E. J. BRILL
1976
THE JEWS
UNDER ROMAN RULE
From Pompey to Diocletian
BY
E. MARY SMALLWOOD
Reader in Classics
at the Queen's University of Belfast
With 3 maps
LEIDEN
E. J. BRILL
1976
ISBN 90 04 04491 4
Copyright 1976 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche
or any other means without written permission from the publisher
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
Preface vn
Abbreviations ix
Maps
The Eastern Mediterranean xv
Palestine xvi
Jerusalem xvn
The Herodian Family xx
I. Introduction 1
II. The Hasmonaean client prince 21
III. Herod's rise to power 44
IV. The Idumaean client king 60
V. The transition from client kingdom to province . .. 105
VI. The Diaspora and Jewish religious liberty 120
VII. The province of Judaea, A.D. 6-41 144
VIII. Philip, Antipas and Agrippa I 181
IX. The Jews in Rome under the Julio-Claudians . . .. 201
X. The Jews in Egypt and Alexandria 220
XI. The province of Judaea, A.D. 44-66 256
XII. The war of A.D. 66-70 293
XIII. The new dispensation in Judaea 331
XIV. The Diaspora A.D. 66-70 and later 356
XV. The Jewish revolt of A.D. 115-17 389
XVI. The revolt of Bar Cochba 428
XVII. The Antonine period 467
XVIII. The Severan period 487
XIX. The Diaspora in the second and third centuries A.D. . 507
XX. Palestine in the third century A.D 526
XXI. Conclusion 539
Appendices 546
Index 575

PREFACE
This book was ready for the press in August, 1973, and there is
little work published since that date of which I have been able to
take account. Unfortunately, the financial difficulties which were then
beginning to beset British publishers prevented the book from being
put into immediate production. After long delay I approached my
old friends Brill, who gave it a prompt and warm welcome to their
series "Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity", and have published it
with their customary speed and efficiency. The care and accuracy of
their compositors and proof-readers left little work to be done by me
and by the noble team of friends and colleagues who gave me invalu­
able help with the reading of the first proof and whose patience and
vigilance I here acknowledge with gratitude.
Much of the book was put into its final shape during a year of
study-leave spent at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton,
where the blessings bestowed on scholars include expert secretarial
assistance. The immaculate typescript of the first sixteen chapters and
the appendixes which I brought home was largely the work of
Mrs. M. Van Sant.
I record here my gratitude to the Queen's University of Belfast
for financial assistance with numerous visits to libraries in Cambridge
in connection with the preparation of this book, and with a visit to
Israel in the spring of 1973, where many scholars gave generously of
their time to elucidate problems for me and to introduce me to recent
work, written and archaeological, done in their country. To them and
to the many scholars in Britain and America whom I consulted on
various points this book owes much. For errors of fact or judgement
I alone am responsible.
The index does not aim at being completely comprehensive. Casual
references to persons, places, etc. included in the index are omitted,
and likewise references to matters of purely Roman history which are
mentioned for chronological and similar reasons only. Roman officials
are indexed, with unashamed inconsistency, under the name by
which they are most frequently referred to in the text; e.g., Porcius
Festus is indexed under his cognomen^ Tineius Rufus under his nomen,
and Pontius Pilatus under the familiar anglicisation of his cognomen.
Would the average reader look for Cicero under Tullius?
December, 1975 E. MARY SMALLWOOD

ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviations of the following are not included: books of the Bible and the
Apocrypha; tractates of the Mishnah and Talmuds; Latin and Greek works identi­
fiable from the author's name; periodicals not shortened to initials.
A A The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs, Acta Alexandrinorum, ed. H.
Musurillo (1954).
AASOR Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
Abel, GP F. M. Abel, Geographie de la Palestine (1933-8).
,HP , Histoire de la Palestine depuis la conquete d'Alexandre
jusqtfa ^invasion arabe (1952).
, / and II Mace. , Les Livres des Maccabees (an edition of I and II Mace,
1949).
ACM The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, ed. H. Musurillo (1972).
AE UAnnee £pigraphique.
AJ Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae.
AJPh American Journal of Philology.
Amm. Marc. Ammianus Marcellinus.
Ap. Josephus, In Apionem.
APOT The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, in
English, ed. R. H. Charles (1913).
App., BC Appian, Bellum Civile.
, Mith. , Bellum Mithridaticum.
, $yr. , Bellum Syriacum.
Arist., Ad Phil. Aristeas, Epistula ad Philocratem.
ARN (Goldin) Aboth de-Rabbi Nathan, transl. J. Goldin (= The Fathers
According to Rabbi Nathan, Yale U.P., 1955).
Aur. Vict., Epit. Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus.
, Lib. , Liber de Caesaribus.
Avi-Yonah, GJZT M. Avi-Yonah, Geschichte der Juden im Zeitalter des Talmud,
in den Tagen von Rom und By^anz (1962).
,HL , The Holy Land from the Persian to the Arab conquest; a
historical geography (1966).
, Map , A Map of Roman Palestine (revised ed., 1940).
Baron S. W. Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jem I and
II (revised ed., 1952).
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
Bernand, Memnon A. and E. Bernand, Les Inscriptions grecques et la tines du
Colosse de Memnon (1960).
BGU Aegyptische Urkunden aus den kbniglichen Museen f(U Berlin.
Griechische Urkunden (1895-1934).
BJ Josephus, Bellum Judaicum.
BMC, Imp. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, ed. H.
Mattingly (1923—).
BMC, Pal. Greek Coins of Palestine in the British Museum, ed. G. F. Hill
(1914).
BMC, followed by a Other volumes in the above series.
place-name
X ABBREVIATIONS
Box, Fl. See under Fl.
BT The Babylonian Talmud, followed by the name of the
tractate; English translation ed. I. Epstein (1935-48).
Buchler, Economic A. Buchler, The Economic Conditions of Judaea after the De­
Conditions struction of the Second Temple (1912).
, Sepphoris , The Social and Political Leaders of the Jewish Community
of Sepphoris in the Second and Third centuries (1910).
CAH The Cambridge Ancient History.
CCL Corpus Christianorum Latinorum.
Chron. Pasch. Chronicon Paschale, ed. L. Dindorf, in Corpus Scriptorum
Historiae By^antinae (1832).
Cic, Pro Fl. Cicero, Pro Flacco.
cij Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum, ed. J. B. Frey (1936-52).
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.
Cod. Just. Codex Justiniani.
Cod. Th. Codex Theodosianus.
CPh Classical Philology.
CPJ Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum, ed. V. A. Tcherikover and
A. Fuks (1957-64).
Corbishley, Chronology T. Corbishley, 'The chronology of Herod's reign' in JThS
xxxvi (1935), 22-32.
CQ The Classical Quarterly.
CRAI Compies Rendus de I Academie des Inscriptions.
Dig. Digesta Justiniani.
Dio Cassius Dio.
Diod. Sic. Diodorus Siculus.
DJD Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (1955—).
Downey, Antioch G. Downey, A History of Antioch in Syria, from Seleucus to
the Arab Conquest (1961).
Driver, Scrolls G. R. Driver, The Judaean Scrolls: the problem and a solution
(1965).
Eck W. Eck, Senatoren von Vespasian bis Hadrian (1970).
BJ Encyclopedia Judaica (1971-2).
Epiph., Haer. Epiphanius, Adversus Octaginta Haereses.
Eus., Chron. Eusebius, Chronicon (Jerome's version).
, DE , Demonstratio Evangelica.
, HE , Historia Ecclesiastica.
, MP , Liber de Martyribus Palaestinae.
, Onom. , Onomasticon.
,PE , Praeparatio Evangelica.
Feldman L. H. Feldman, Loeb edition of AJ xviii-xx (1965).
FGrH F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (1940—).
FHG C. Muller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum (1841-72).
FIRA Fontes Iuris Romani Anteiustiniani*, ed. S. Riccobono and
others (1940-3).
Fl. Philo, In Flaccum, ed. H. Box (1939).
Frend, Martyrdom W. H. C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early
Church', a study of a conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus
(1965).