JEWSthan other Jewish women.^42 The Persianized Jewish notables at Ne-
hardea wore tall hats, had retinues mounted on horses and mules, and
could influence officials.^43 Having ten servants made a man a notable,
and wealthy Jews lived in mansions with columned reception halls
and banquet rooms surrounded by gardens.^44
However, the great majority of Jews were laborers, peasants, and
slaves in the towns and villages of the Sawad.^45 They were engaged
in the production, processing, and distribution of grain, wool, linen,
and wine. Slaves, acquired by purchase or inheritance, appear to have
been fairly common among them. Female slaves were employed as
domestic labor to bake, spin, and weave and were included in a bride's
dowry. Slaves with manufacturing skills were valuable and were em-
ployed as craftsmen. There is an early fourth-century reference to a
slave who was an expert perforator of pearls and to a slave who was
a tailor. The slaves of a debtor could be seized by his creditor and
forced to work for him.^46
Many Jews were of moderate means but most lived in poverty.
Peasants outside of villages lived in reed hutsY The reputation that
the people of Paphunia, Naresh, and Nehar Peqod nearby, had for
being thieves, and the estimate that most of the thieves in Pumbaditha
and Nehardea were Jews^48 is an indication of their poverty.
Beginning in about the fourth century, conditions seem to have
become even more intolerable for Jewish laborers and peasants. Wealthy
Jewish landlords took advantage of the problems of small farmers
whose property was sold for debts to increase their own estates. In
the late Sasanian period, independent small farmers in the Sawad were
being replaced by estates with villages of tenant farmers or slaves. By
the fourth century, investment in commerce brought a better return
than agriculture for Jews of moderate means. Also by the fourth cen-
tury, Jews who could not afford to pay the poll tax became debtor-
slaves to the rabbis who paid the tax for them.^49
42 j. M. Fiey, "Topography of Al-Mada'in," Sumer 23 (1967), 15; Newman, Agri-
cultural Life, p. 27; Obermeyer, Landschaft Babylonien, pp. 173-74; Rodkinson, Tal-
mud, Xl, "Baba Kama," 275-76.
43 Neusner, Talmudic Judaism, p. 144.
.. Newman, Agricultural Life, p. 26; Rodkinson, Talmud, II, "Sabbath," 352.
4S Neusner, History, p. 134; Newman, Agricultural Life, pp. 24-25.
46 Newman, Agricultural Life, pp. 68-72.
47 Ibid., pp. 24-25.
48 Berliner, Geographie, pp. 52, 54, 58; Rodkinson, Talmud, XVIII, "Abuda Zara,"
150.
49 Newman, Agricultural Life, pp. 33-34, 37, 175; Rodkinson, Talmud, XII, "Baba
Metzia," 181, 288; idem, XIII, "Baba Bathra," 133.'211