None of this, of course, suggests that the experience of Jews in the Dias-
pora was everywhere and always untroubled, serene, and harmonious. Out-
bursts of violence and turbulence occasionally shattered their existence.
Most notoriously, tensions among Greeks, Egyptians, and Jews in Alexan-
dria, exacerbated by insensitive Roman overlordship, resulted in a bloody
assault on Jews in 38c.e.A quarter century later, the outbreak of Jewish re-
bellion against Roman rule in Palestine also had reverberations in the Dias-
pora. The Jews of Alexandria were victimized by a riot in 66c.e.and, when
they retaliated, encountered fierce Roman reprisals administered by
Tiberius Julius Alexander, himself a Jew now in Roman service. The temple
at Leontopolis in Egypt, which had stood for more than two centuries, also
suffered destruction in that upheaval. A still wider Diaspora rebellion oc-
curred in 116c.e., involving Jews in Cyrene, Egypt, Cyprus, and possibly
Mesopotamia. What caused these uprisings remains unknown. But the Ro-
man crackdown, ordered by the emperor Trajan, was harsh, terminating the
existence of many Jewish communities in these regions.
Episodes of this sort cause little surprise in the circumstances of rival-
ries and tensions in multiethnic societies. What is noteworthy, however, is
their remarkable rarity. Given that our sources dwell on violence and up-
heaval when they can, the relative absence of such turmoil in our evidence
is particularly significant. Even in Egypt, over a period of four centuries,
the outbreak of hostilities is very much the exception rather than the
norm. Elsewhere in the Diaspora, in Italy, mainland Greece, Asia Minor,
and Babylon, no serious disquiet stands on record — and Jewish commu-
nities continued to thrive.bibliography
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Barclay, John M. G. 1996.Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora.Edinburgh: Clark.
¾¾¾, ed. 2004.Negotiating Diaspora: Jewish Strategies in the Roman Empire.
London: Clark.
Bartlett, John R., ed. 2002.Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman Cities.London:
Routledge.
Cappelletti, Silvia. 2006.The Jewish Community of Rome from the Second Century
b.c.to the Third Centuryc.e.Leiden: Brill.
Cohen, Shaye J. D., and Ernest S. Frerichs, eds. 1993.Diasporas in Antiquity.At-
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