The Jews of the Graeco-Roman Diaspora whether there was a Jewish Bible in Latin remains wholly uncertain.^8 The
social, intellectual, and religious history of the Jews in the Latin-speaking
environment of the western half of the later Roman Empire remains a largely
unexplored field. Fortunately we have some evidence, however scattered,
which allows rather more direct access to the Judaism of the diaspora in the
Greek-speaking part of the Empire.
The Diaspora in a Greek Environment
The diaspora of the eastern part of the Empire has certainly left far fuller evi-
dence, both documentary and archaeological, than is available for the West;
and some of this evidence needs to be set out, to establish a framework, be-
fore we look at the much more complex issue of the relations between reli-
gious groups. But as it happens, some, though not all, of the archaeological
evidence itself also illustrates with the greatest clarity the effects of religious
conflict, above all in the fifth century.
We may begin with the well-known synagogue at Stobi in ancient Mace-
donia. A substantial inscription of the late second or early third century
records that a private house was made over to the Jewish community and
converted for use as a synagogue. If the conditions of its use were broken, a
very large fine was to be paid to thepatriarchēs: this was surely not theNasior
Ethnarchēs, far away in Palestine (the forerunner of the fourth-centuryPatri-
archa), whose rise to power had hardly begun.^9 More probably, legal evidence
suggests (see text to n. above), this will have been a local official. Later
the synagogue was replaced by a more elaborate one. But before the end of
the fourth century this synagogue was to be destroyed, and replaced by a
Christian basilica built directly on the site.^10
A very similar story is revealed by the Belgian excavations at the great
city of Apamea in Syria. For near the centre of the city, not far from the fa-
mous Great Colonnade which runs north-south, and some metres south
of the main east-west street, the excavators discovered the mosaic floor of
a late fourth-century synagogue, with nineteen mosaic inscriptions record-
ing the names of those who paid for the laying of the mosaic in and around
the year .^11 The mosaics are strictly geometric and non-representational;
. Colorni (n. ), ff.
. M. D. Goodman,State and Subject in Roman Galilee,..–(), ff.
. Schürer, Vermes, and Millar,HistoryIII., –. SeeIJudOI, ff., no. Mac.
. J. C. Balty,Guide d’Apamée(), ff.; Janine Balty,Mosaïques d’Apamée(), ff.
See nowIJudOIII, ff., nos. Syr–.