Wissowa’s RE, art. ‘Abu-Simbel’]. The J ewish | migration to Egypt in the time of the Persians is
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not regarded by pseudo-Aristeas as a voluntary one ; cf. §35, ed. Wendland). See also ‘ Additional Note’ at end of this article.
Whether as early as the time of Alexander the Great any considerable numbers of Jews migrated to Egypt, we know not. But we may trust the statement of Josephus, that, at the founding of Alexandria by the monarch just named, Jewish settlers were from the first incorporated among the citizens (BJ I. xviii. 7, ¢. Apion. ii. 4). Con- firmation of this is supplied by the decree of the emperor Claudius (ap. Jos. Ant. XIX. v. 2), accord- ing to which the Jews in Alexandria were settled there from the very first (ros mpwrots evO0 Katpois) along with the Alexandrians. Larger masses appear to have first come to Egypt under Ptolemy Lagi. According to pseudo-Hecateus, we are to think in this instance of voluntary migrations (Jos. c. Apion. i, 22 [Niese, § 194]: ov oNyar 6€ Kat Mera Tov ’AdeEdvdpov Odvaroy eis Aiyurroy kal Powilkyv Heréornoay dia rhv ev Dupla ordow, cf. § 186). According to pseudo-Aristeas, on the other hand, Ptolemy Lagi transplanted Jewish prisoners in large numbers to Egypt. The details of his narra- tive belong, indeed, to the realm of romance. Ptolemy, we are told, carried captive to Egypt 100,000 Jews. Of these he armed 30,000 able- bodied men, whom he employed to do garrison duty in the fortresses of the country (§ 13: ag’ év oel Tpels wupiddas KabowNoas dvdpGv ékexrav els THY XSpav karw@Kicev év rots ppovpios). The old men, the children, and the women, he is said to have handed over as slaves to his soldiers, on demand, as compen- sation for their services (Aristew Epist., ed. Wend- land, §§ 12-14, ef. 35-36). Afterwards Ptolemy Philadelphus is stated to have procured the freedom of all these Jewish slaves by paying to the owners twenty drachmz per slave (§§ 15-27, 37). Since Josephus, in relating the same narrative (c. Apion. ii. 4 [Niese, §§ 44-47], Ant. XII. i.), simply repro- duces the account of pseudo-Aristeas [in the first cited passage this is self-apparent, and in the other at least probable], the latter is our only witness. But, in spite of the romantic character of the narrative in question, this much at least is credible, that Ptolemy Lagi brought Jewish prisoners to Egypt and set them to garrison duty in the fortresses. For the fact that Ptolemy Lagi took Jerusalem by storm is unimpeachably vouched for by Agatharchides (Jos. c. Apion. i. 22 [Niese, §§ 209-211], Ant. xu. i.; ef. Appian, Syr. 50). And the employment of Jews for garrison work in strongholds is confirmed by the circumstance that at a still later period we hear of a ‘Jews’ camp’ (‘Iovdalwy orparéredov, castra Judeorwm) in various places (see further, on this, below).
At Alexandria, in the time of the Diadochi, a special quarter, separated from the rest of the city, was assigned to the Jews, ‘in order that they might be able to live a purer life by mixing less with foreigners’ (Jos. BJ 1. xviii. 7; from ¢. Apion. ii. 4 it might appear as if this quarter had already been assigned to the Jews by Alexander the Great, but, according to the manifestly more exact account in BJ It. xviii. 7, this was first done by the Diadochi; cf. also Strabo ap. Jos. Ant. XIV. vii. 2). This Jewish quarter stretched along the harbour- less strand in the neighbourhood of the royal palace (c. Apion. ii. 4 [Niese, § 33]: mpos ddluevor Oddaccar, § 36 mpods rots Baciduxols), to the east, therefore, of the promontory of Lochias on the north-east of the city. The separation came afterwards, indeed, not to be strictly maintained, for Philo tells us that not a few Jews had their dwelling - places scattered about in the other quarters of the city. But even in Philo’s time two of the five city- divisions were called ‘the Jewish,’ because they were predominantly inhabited by Jews (Philo,
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in Flaccum, § 8 [ed. Mangey, ii. 525]). We learn from this that the Jews constituted something like two-fifths of the population of Alexandria. Accord- ing to Josephus, the fourth city-division was in- habited by Jews (BJ I. xviii, 8: 7d Kadovmevoy Aé\ra, the city-divisions being named after the first five letters of the alphabet).
The total number of Jews in Egypt is reckoned by Philo in his own time at about a million (in Flaccum, § 6 [ed. Mangey, ii. 523]). He remarks in this connexion that they had their dwellings ‘as far as the borders of Ethiopia’ (uéype ray dpluy Ai@orlas). This general statement is confirmed by many special testimonies, of which the following are the most important :—
a. Lower Egypt. To the east of the Delta, in the nome of Heliopolis (and near to Leontopolis, which must not, however, be confounded with the better known Leontopolis situated much farther to the north), lay the Jewish temple (formerly a temple of Bubastis), which owed its origin to the Jewish high priest Onias in the time of Ptolemy Philometor (Jos. Ant. XIII. iii. 2: év Aedvrwy moder rod ‘HXtoroNlrov; see more fully, regarding this temple, below, p. 107°). The region was known as h’Ovlov xdpa (Ant. XIV. viii. 1, BJ 1. ix. 4). With this we should probably connect the ‘vicus Jude- orum’ mentioned in the Itinerarium Antonina (ed. Parthey et Pinder, p. 75). But the ‘castra Judzeorum’ mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum Orientis (ed. Bocking, i. 69) is presumably different, although also situated in the same neighbourhood. At the spot where, according to the statement of distances given in the J¢tiner. Anton., the ‘vicus Judeeorum’ should be sought, there is still a Tedd el-Jehudiyeh, in proximity to which a temple of Bubastis had once stood. Another Tedd el- Jehudiyeh, which, according to Naville, has ‘quite the appearance of a fortress,’ lies farther south (see Naville, Seventh Memoir of the Egypt. Explor. Fund, London, 1890). Weshould probably identify the first named Zell el-Jehudiyeh (not, as Naville, the more southern one] with the building of Onias, and the other with the ‘castra Judeorum.’ While these places lay to the east of the Delta, Josephus in his account of Cesar mentions an ‘lovdaiwy orparémedov, Which, from the context of the narra- tive, must have lain to the west of it (Ant. XIV. viii. 2, BJ 1. ix. 4). It cannot therefore be the same as the ‘castra Judseorum’ mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum. The existence of various ‘Jews’ camps’ is readily intelligible in the light of the statements quoted above from pseudo-Aristeas. Likewise in the Delta, in its southern portion, lies Athribis, where, according to an inscription of the Ptolemaic period found there, a certain Ptolemzus, son of Epikydes, chief of the police, acting in con- junction with the resident Jews, built a synagogue to the most high God (Ilro\euatos "Hmixvdov 6 émisrdrns Tay pudakirey Kat ol év’AOplBer Tovdator riyv mposerxiy beg Iwiorw, RET xvii. 2385-238 = Bulletin de corresp. hellén. xiii. 178-182).