in many surviving images, ethnicity does not seem to have
been a major cause for trouble except when an uprising took
place. Th is was certainly the case in the First Jewish Revolt
(66–70 c.e.), aft er which the Romans persecuted the Jews.
Th is theme appeared again in the revolt led by the Jewish
leader Bar Kokhba (d. 135 c.e.), aft er which Jews were forbid-
den to enter Jerusalem.
Before these two revolts the attitudes to foreigners in the
Holy Land were mixed. During the period of the Old Tes-
tament the fi erce battles between tribes were commonplace
and ferocious, but by the time of the Roman occupation of
Palestine the situation had relaxed considerably. Trade had
ameliorated the previously hostile tribes in the Holy Land
and presumably elsewhere in the Near East as well. Many for-
eigners were no doubt accepted by locals. Others were viewed
with suspicion.
Th e proximity of areas inhabited by Jews and non-Jews
meant that there were large numbers of telones (c u stoms of-
fi cials or, more commonly, tax collectors) around the river
Galilee. Th ere were certainly Gentiles in Tiberias, an over-
whelmingly Jewish city, and Jews lived in largely Gentile
cities, such as Scythopolis. Although the Jews did exclude
Gentiles from their temples and had several other restric-
tions, relations were generally fairly harmonious. Herod the
Great (r. 37–4 b.c.e.), king of Judea, helped by administering
the Gentile areas in more of a Greco-Roman manner than he
did the Jewish parts of his lands. Th e Romans respected the
Jewish observance of the Sabbath and exempted Jews from
conscription in Roman armies. However, there were occa-
sional tensions, as when Pontius Pilate hung images of the
Roman emperor in Jerusalem and minted coins that were
seen by the Jews as bearing pagan images.
Evidence from the letters of Saint Paul clearly shows a
far more harmonious Near East, whereby travelers from some
parts of the region, or from outside it, were made welcome in
many towns and cities. In Ephesians (2:19), Paul states, “Now
therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners.” Th is is
also borne out by the ease of travel by Romans, who were able
to journey throughout the Roman Empire without any prob-
lems. In addition, a number of them established trading op-
erations outside the empire. Th e emperor Valens (r. 364–378
c.e.) managed to forge a peace treaty with the Goths, allow-
ing Roman traders to have access to parts of modern-day Ro-
mania controlled by the Goths.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY DAVID KELLY
Historically, records have not been kept of the attitudes held by
individuals who were not of social prominence, as history has
been written about the wealthy and powerful and not about
average citizens. Still, there are some characteristics that can
be noted with respect to the ways in which the ancient societ-
ies of Asia and the Pacifi c region viewed outsiders.
Th e largest and most stable culture in the region, China,
has traditionally been a closed society, living in willing iso-
lation from the rest of the world, a tradition that is only be-
ginning to come apart in the 21st century. By far the most
common connection that ancient Chinese and others in the
region had with strangers from foreign lands came through
trade. From the second millennium b.c.e. China was con-
nected by trade with the Near East kingdom of Mesopota-
mia, centered in what is now Iran. By the fi rst century c.e.
there developed an overland trade route from the Roman
Empire to China, dubbed the “Silk Road” because silk was
China’s most coveted export; the secret of its production
was carefully hidden from foreigners until fi ve centuries
later. Although this path ran through many important cit-
ies as it wound from Damascus in the west to China’s far
eastern shore for nearly a thousand years, most Chinese citi-
zens still kept their distance from the traders who traveled
from Europe. Evidence suggests that westerners trading in
China dealt with a limited number of merchants, while most
ordinary citizens had no interaction with them. Th is nar-
row engagement of the East with foreigners was true of other
countries in the area, such as Vietnam and Cambodia, whichDetail of an Ethiopian tribute bearer, from a relief in stairway of
the palace at Persepolis, Persia (modern-day Iran). (Courtesy of the
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)
486 foreigners and barbarians: Asia and the Pacific