By October 19, 2016 Read More →

10 C.E. – 66 C.E. Petronius

PetroniusCircumcision

Circumcision was particularly abhorrent to the Romans: the novelist Petronius describes a slave who has “only two faults… he is circumcised and he snores”, and Tacitus includes circumcision in his list of “abominable and base” Jewish customs.

Source: Satyricon, 68:4-8, in Stern 1976, 442.; Contra Apionem, 2. 123; Rajak 1992, 18. Dr. Joan Goodnick Westenholz. The Jewish Presence in Ancient Rome (p. 31)

Comments are closed.