Rome and the East
potamia to Iran, central Asia, and Afghanistan.^15 By contrast, we have from
Judaea the example of a society close to the Mediterranean seaboard, whose
culture was very early deeply affected by Hellenism,^16 and where the speak-
ing of Greek was clearly widespread,^17 but which consciously maintained
and developed a local culture and tradition within its Hellenised environ-
ment. We could hardly ask for a neater example of the conflict of cultures
than the story of R. Gamaliel II elaborately justifying his use of the baths at
Akko-Ptolemais, in spite of the presence there of a statue of Aphrodite.^18
Moreover, we have at least one case where a change of political regime
does seem to be immediately reflected in the predominance of Greek as an
official language. In both language and art the kingdom of Nabataea, an-
nexed in ,^19 belonged to the Aramaic-Greek world mentioned above. But
while the Nabataean language, as is shown by inscriptions,^20 persisted at least
until the early fourth century, the ‘‘archive of Babatha,’’ discovered in ,
and now fully published, shows that to a significant extent Nabataean was
abandoned in legal documents and replaced by Greek within a few years of
the establishment of the province.^21
. See the brilliant survey by E. Bickerman, ‘‘The Seleucids and the Achaemenids,’’Per-
siaeilmondogreco-romano(n. ), ; P. Bernard, ‘‘Aï Khanum on the Oxus: A Hellenistic City
in Central Asia,’’Proc. Brit. Acad. (): ; L. Robert, ‘‘De Delphes à l’Oxus. Inscriptions
grecques nouvelles de la Bactriane,’’CRAI(): ; and in general D. Schlumberger,
L’Orient hellénisé().
. See M. Hengel,Judentum und Hellenismus: Studien zu ihrer Begegnung unter besonderer
BerücksichtigungPalästinasbiszurMittedes.Jh.v.Chr. (), and F. Millar, ‘‘The Background
to the Maccabean Revolution: Reflections on Martin Hengel’s ‘Judaism and Hellenism,’ ’’
JournalofJewishStudies (): – ( chapter of the present volume).
. The evidence, from a variety of periods, is collected by J. N. Sevenster,DoYou Know
Greek? How Much Greek Could the First Jewish Christians Have Known?().
. Mishnah,Abodah Zarah, : (ed. Danby, ). On the more permissive attitude to
representational art which developed in the second and third centuries, see, e.g., C. H.
Kraeling,The Excavations at Dura Europos, Final ReportVIII, I:The Synagogue(), –;
E. E. Urbach, ‘‘The Rabbinical Laws of Idolatry in the Second and Third Centuries in the
Light of Archaeological and Historical Facts,’’IEJ (): , .
. See G. W. Bowersock, ‘‘The Annexation and Initial Garrison of Arabia,’’ZPE
(): .
. See the excellent survey of J. Starcky, ‘‘Pétra et la Nabatène,’’Dictionnaire de la Bible,
Supp. VII (), –, esp. .
. See N. Lewis,The Documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters: Greek
Papyri(); Y. Yadin, J. C. Greenfield, A. Yardeni, and B. Levine,The Documents from the
Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters: Hebrew, Aramaic and Nabatean Aramaic Papyri(),