tive feature of Jewish observance. Caustic comments on the Jews appear in
the work of Juvenal, in a combination of cultural and class snobbery. In the
second centuryc.e., Tacitus, a Roman senator and historian, wrote exten-
sively about the Jews, calling their rites “base and abominable” and declar-
ing that they “owe their persistence to their depravity....theJewsareex-
tremely loyal toward one another...buttowardeveryother people they
feel only hate and enmity.” In particular, Tacitus lamented their influence
on Roman society, since they teach converts “to despise the gods, to dis-
own their country, and to regard their parents, children, and brothers as of
little account.” His account of Jewish customs ends with the observation:
“the ways of the Jews are preposterous and mean” (Histories5.5.1-5).
On the other hand, extant sources show that the Jews of Rome also at-
tracted sympathy, winning admirers and imitators among ordinary citi-
zens and even, in certain cases, among the higher echelons of society. We
hear of notable figures who supported the Jews, among whom was Nero’s
wife, Poppaea Sabina, who exerted her patronage on behalf of Judean
priests who had been sent to Rome on trial.
Concerning the social integration of the Jews in Roman society, we
know very little. They left no written records at all, a fact for which differ-
ent explanations have been put forward in contemporary research, all of
them speculative. Philo and Josephus tell us that the bulk of the Jewish
population of the capital descended from Jewish prisoners brought to
Rome and sold as slaves after the conquest of Pompey in 63b.c.e.Other
slaves arrived after the numerous failed revolts that followed, and a con-
spicuous number reached Rome after the defeat of the Judean rebellion in
70 c.e.In time, many Jews gained their freedom. Josephus was certainly
not the only Jew granted Roman citizenship (Vita423). Many Jews were
entitled to the corn dole (Philo,Legat.158) and may have gained citizen-
ship on manumission. Yet, on the whole, it appears that Jews did not
achieve leading positions in Roman society. Philo states that in the reign of
Augustus Jews were settled mainly on the right bank of the Tiber, in an
area of generally poor residences, far from the heart of Rome, a location
that suggests a generally humble mode of life. That Jews were not an eco-
nomically and socially significant presence in the city may explain why we
do not hear of episodes of tension or conflict between them and their
neighbors. The case of the relations between the Jews and their neighbors
in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean, however, is different.375
Jews among Greeks and RomansEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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