What was “Jewish Egypt” like after the defeat of 117 CE? The evidence of tax receipts on ostraca is both objective and appalling. Ever since the year 70, which saw the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, any Jew in the Roman Empire was subjected to a special tax. The Emperor Vespasian decreed that, in […]
One undisputed fact remains: the brief idyll between the benevolent imperial couple (e.g. Trajan and Plotina) and the Jews was soon to be shattered by the revolt of 115. The reaction of the Roman government fulfilled the desire of Hermaiskos to see the emperor support his “own people” instead of defending the “impious Jews.” And […]
We do know that the embassies (e.g. Jews and Pagans from Alexandria) or trial must have taken place before Trajan left Rome in November 113 C.E. to make war on the Parthians. CPJUD. II 157, Col. 2 When the winter was over they arrived in Rome. The Emperor learned that the Jewish and Alexandrian envoys […]
The Temple Mount/ The Jewish Revolt TACITUS (E.G. ROME’S GREATEST HISTORIAN) REFERS TO JEWS AND JUDAEA IN SEVERAL PLACES IN THE HISTORIES AND ANNALS. His main treatment of the subject, however, is to be found in the excursus at the beginning of Historiae, Book V, Sections 2-13 (No. 281). This is the most detailed account […]
Jews and Christians In his Lives of the Caesars, Suetonius gives some valuable information about Jews in the early imperial period, and for part of the data is the only source. This applies to his statements concerning the mourning among the Jews at the death of Julius Caesar (No. 302); the attitude of Augustus to […]
Destruction of the Second Temple, Sabbath, Tisha B’Av De Superstitione, 8, p. 169C (p549) But the Jews, because it was the Sabbath day, sat in their places immovable, while the enemy were planting ladders against the walls and capturing the defences, and they did not get up, but remained there, fast bound in the toils […]
This 15th-century manuscript, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, contains the portion of Josephus’s Testimonium Flavianum that refers to Jesus (highlighted in blue). The first sentence of the manuscript, highlighted in green, is believed by the majority of scholars to be based on the original writings of Josephus but contains later additions likely made by Christian […]
Josephus tells us that, after the fall of Masada (The Jewish War 7, 420-36), some fighters, having escaped from the disaster and taken refuge in Egypt, had attempted to foment a revolutionary movement within the ranks of the Jews of Egypt. The prefect of Egypt, Tiberius Julius Lupus, brought news of this to the ears […]
The Jewish War 6, 241, 251-56 Toward the end of 69 or the beginning of 70, Vespasian appointed Tiberius Julius Alexander to the staff of his son Titus, who was in charge of the war against the Jews. In Josephus’ eyes, this was a distinction and a token of gratitude on the emperor’s part toward […]
In 69 Tiberius was at work preparing the accession of Vespasian, who needed Egyptian support in order to be proclaimed emperor. Our prefect knew this and, on July 1, 69, he had his troops and the people of Alexandria swear allegiance to Vespasian. A mere scrap of papyrus bears witness to the festivities Tiberius organized […]