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)

What do you want to know?

Ask our AI widget and get answers from this website