Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

To understand the scope of this study is to understand many of the methodological issues and problems regarding the evidence for such an inquiry. This chapter focuses on the religion and ethno-religious community of the Jews in Roman antiquity as it manifested itself not only in the city of Rome but also in the Greco-Roman Diaspora (from Greek meaning “dispersion”). Geographically, this includes the lands of the Roman empire outside of the territory in the southern Levant which the Jews called “the Land of Israel,” or simply “the Land,” and which, until the mid-second century, Roman authorities called “Judea” and thereafter “Palestine.” This study examines Judaism as a case study of an ethnic, minority religion and community within imperial Roman society – more properly deemed Greco-Roman society east of the Italian peninsula.This chapter's account holds in general terms for the latter half of the first century ce through the first quarter of the fifth century ce, with the most robust body of evidence representing the third, fourth, and early fifth centuries ce. To be sure, Jews were already well established in Rome in noticeable numbers by the time of Cicero (in the first half of the first century bce) and in major Hellenistic cities of the eastern Mediterranean basin by as much as 150 to 200 years earlier. However, the archaeological, inscriptional, and Roman legal record for ... log in or subscribe to read full text