Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. - Seth Schwartz

146 CHAPTER FOUR When R. Aha died, the star (Venus) was visible at noon. When R. Hanan died, the statues (andartaya) bent over. ...

JEWS OR PAGANS? 147 This may have had a polemical thrust, even beyond what some of the stories explicitly indicate. Perhaps this ...

148 CHAPTER FOUR completelyinaccessible.Wemayinferfromthestoriesinourpassage,though, that on the whole the depaganization of Tib ...

JEWS OR PAGANS? 149 changed drastically in that ossilegiu mhad mostly disappeared—but never botheredtolegislateaboutitordenounce ...

150 CHAPTER FOUR below. The failure of Jews to inscribe pious expressions and iconographic, linguistic, and other markers of Jew ...

JEWS OR PAGANS? 151 paid 54,000 sesterces (13,500 denarii) per annum, a vast fortune worth some fortytimes minimum subsistence w ...

152 CHAPTER FOUR Unlike the previous examples, this inscription has ambitions. Its second half is written in an approximation of ...

JEWS OR PAGANS? 153 bly also an allusion to his military prowess) and Menogenes, having “lived life,” still lives for his friend ...

154 CHAPTER FOUR or controversial dating and function and Beth Shearim, with its basilica.^87 These findsconfir mthei mpression ...

JEWS OR PAGANS? 155 burial practice was now (third-fourth century)under way in some circles.^91 In theverysameperiodtheJewsofRom ...

156 CHAPTER FOUR Christian catacombs at Rome, was alsofound inthe necropolis. The archway design, too, is inscrutable (it could ...

JEWS OR PAGANS? 157 name of the owner of the hall, Socrates, and to the left, a crude graffito of a menorah.Avigadwasevidentlyri ...

158 CHAPTER FOUR I Justus, Leontes’ son, lie dead, son of Sappho, I who have plucked the fruit of all wisdom have left the light ...

JEWS OR PAGANS? 159 Thenormalcy oflifein theJewishcitiesand townsseemsto haveextended to religion, at least in part. The evidenc ...

160 CHAPTER FOUR “runningoutofsteam”andtheimageryinanycasesometimeshadanallegori- calcharacter(Dionysus=Prosperity).^105 Attheve ...

JEWS OR PAGANS? 161 altar. These items remind us that a sharp distinction between public and pri- vate, self-evident to us and p ...

FIVE THE RABBIS AND URBAN CULTURE W EHAVEALREADYSEENthattherabbissharedaterritorywith Greco-Roman urbanity.^1 They, too, were co ...

THE RABBIS AND URBAN CULTURE 163 intothelifeoftheircities,giventhattheintegrativepressuresexertedonthem, as would-be elites, wer ...

164 CHAPTER FIVE Yet the rabbis did live in the cities and wished to win the support of their Jewish inhabitants, whose religiou ...

THE RABBIS AND URBAN CULTURE 165 be a priori futile, if not meaningless. What I argue, though, is that the rabbis’ misprision, w ...