beginning of the third century and onward (see, for example, Levine 2000; Frey
1936 –52; Noy 1993–5; Noy and Horbury 1992; Noy and Bloedhorn 2004;
Noy et al. 2004; see also Linder 1987). Moreover, a good deal of what may be
gleaned from the literary evidence for the preceding century, for example, from the
earliest Christian literature, Philo, and Josephus (all c. mid-first to the early second
century ce), can still be safely applied to the third through early fifth centuries, while
the opposite is not the case. Finally, any relevant evidence from the early rabbinic
movement comes from a literary record which begins at the end of the second
century only.
The nearly-four-centuries-long span of this study covers a period during which the
pagan imperial Roman power was at its height in western and southern Europe,
the Mediterranean basin, and adjacent Near East under Claudius’ successors. The
period ends before the mid-fifth century ceafter the reign of Theodosius II, the
sponsor of the first great codification of Roman law, with an increasingly divided
empire – east and west – and with the latter succumbing to Visigothic/Gothic encroach-
ment. Pagan Greco-Roman religious cults thrived for more than two-and-a-half
centuries of this nearly four-century span, among them Hellenized and Romanized
versions of Middle Eastern and Egyptian religions, and the imperial cult reached its
zenith. At the beginning of this period Christianity was but a smattering of small,
relatively insignificant communities meeting in the private homes of patrons in the
Levant and in some of the larger mercantile centers of Asia Minor. After the first
quarter of the fourth century ce, under Constantine and his successors, Christianity
ascended to the status of a state-promoted religion, displacing the imperial cult and
ultimately wiping out the public practice of pagan religion.
For the most part, Jews and Judaism in the Greco-Roman Diaspora thrived and
developed as long as Greco-Roman pagan religions were in a healthy state, as the afore-
mentioned burgeoning of evidence during the late Roman period indicates. The two
disastrous rebellions against Rome by Jews in the Land of Israel, the Great Revolt,
which resulted in the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the permanent
cessation of its cult in 70 ce, and the Bar Kochba rebellion, put down in 135 ce,
had little negative, lasting impact upon Greco-Roman Diaspora Jews and Judaism.
Neither did a limited rebellion of Diaspora Jews in several Mediterranean cities c.
115 ce. As we shall see, the main structures and institutions of the Jews’ community
and their Judaism were well established and flourishing before the Great Revolt, and
minor setbacks aside, continued to flourish during the nearly four centuries under study.
However, the first decades of the fifth century mark a turning point, as Roman
legislation and policy increasingly mention Jews, pagans, and Christian heretics in
the same breath (Linder 1987: 63). While Jews and Judaism in the Roman world
did not suffer the fate of paganism under Christian Roman rule, the first decades
of the fifth century are characterized by increased systematic intolerance of Judaism
and the annulment of centuries-long privileges of members of the Roman Jewish
communities (Linder 1987: 63–76). For example, long-standing exemptions from
imperial services, and from civic liturgies and magistracies for those Jewish decurions
who are heavily involved in service to the synagogue and Jewish community (see
below, “Constituent roles and institutions within the synagogue/community”), are
346 Jack N. Lightstone