The earliest witness to the existence of a Jewish colony in Italy (i.e. probably in Rome) is Cicero,
pro Flacco, 28, from whom we learn that already
in the time of Flaccus (i.e. B.C. 62-61) Italy was one of the places from which Jewish money was It was just then
that the Jewish community at Rome received a
98 DIASPORA
large reinforcement through those of their country- men whom Pompey brought there as prisoners of war (B.C. 61). The latter were sold as slaves, but were soon afterwards set at liberty, as they proved an awkward possession to their masters (Philo, Legatio ad Gaiwm, § 23 [ed. Mangey, ii. 568)). There were many Jews in the audience when Cicero delivered his speech in defence of Flaccus, in the year B.C. 59 (Cicero, /.c.). On the death of Cesar, their great protector, a multitude of Jews continued their lamentations for whole nights be- side his funeral pyre (Sueton. Cwsar, 84). In the time of Augustus the Jews were already counted by thousands ; we are told that a Jewish deputa- tion, which came to Rome after the death of Herod, was joined on its arrival by 8000 Jews (Jos. Ant. XVI. xi. 1; BJ. vi. 1). By the time of Tiberius repressive measures had begun. A resolution of the Senate was passed in the year A.D. 19, whereby all the Jews in Rome capable of bearing arms were deported to Sardinia to perform military service there, while the rest were banished from the city (Jos. Ant. XVIII. iii. 5; Sueton. Tiber. 36; Tac. Annal. ii. 85; the last named speaks of banish- ment from Jéaly). This measure was inspired mainly by Sejanus; after the fall of the latter, in A.D. 31, Tiberius once more adopted a friendly policy towards the Jews (Philo, Legatio ad Gaiwm, § 24 [ed. Mangey, ii. 569]). We may therefore suppose that he granted them permission to return to the city. In any case, they had once more gathered in Rome at the time of Claudius, for he, too, made an attempt to expel them from the city. Suetonius tells us that this step was taken owing to the violent tumults ‘impulsore Chresto’ [%.e. occa- sioned by the preaching of Christ]. But the edict of banishment, issued probably in the year 49, was not enforced, but restricted simply to a prohibiting of any assembling on the part of the Jews (a decree of expulsion is spoken of in Ac 18? and by Sueton. Claud. 25; but, according to Dio Cass. lx. 6, Claudius, owing to the difficulty of carrying it into effect, contented himself with withdrawing from the Jews the right of assembly [éxéAevoce wh ouva- OpolferOa]. The year 49 is given as the date by Orosius [VII. vi. 15], who appeals, incorrectly indeed, to Josephus). Since the prohibition of assembling was equivalent to a prohibition of worship, the existence of the Jews in Rome was seriously endangered. But they succeeded, we know not how, in surviving even this crisis as well as many later ones, for, as Dio Cassius (xxxvii. 17) sums up their history, ‘though often oppressed, they always exhibited the most vigorous power of growth.’ Educated Roman society looked down on them with contempt. The satirists, Horace, Persius, Martial, Juvenal, made them the butt of their wit (cf. Hausrath, Newtest. Zeitgeschichte?, iii. 383-392). Yet they constituted a factor of no little importance in public life. Even at the Im- perial court they entered into manifold relations, whether as slaves or as officials of higher rank. The Jewish societies of the Avyovorjo.w and the ’Aypummyovot (See, on these, below, § il.) were in all probability societies formed of placemen of Augus- tus and Agrippa. The empress Livia had a Jewish slave, Akme (Jos. Ant. XVIL. v. 7; BJ I. xxxii. 6, xxxiil, 7). The emperor Claudius had friendly relations with Alexander [var. lect. Lysimachus], the Jewish alabarch of Alexandria, who had served his mother Antonia as minister of finance (Jos. Ant. XIX. v. 1). At the court of Nero we find a Jewish actor, Alityrus (Jos. Vita, 3). Poppzea herself is spoken of as Ocoref7js, and she was always ready to lend her aid in obtaining a favourable response from the emperor to petitions brought to him by Jews (Jos. Ant. Xx. viii. 11; Vita, 3).
The dwellings of the Jews were situated at first
Neen
DIASPORA
and predominantly in the division of the city across the Tiber, which they occupied entirely in the time of Augustus (Philo, Legatio ad Gaium, § 23 [ed. Mangey, ii. 568]: tiv wépay rod TrBépews morauod peyddny THs ‘Pouns amoromny, iv ovK ayyvoet Karexouevny Kal olkoumerny mpos Lovdalwv). But ata later period they spread into other divisions of the city as well. We find them in the Campus Martius and in the very midst of the Roman business world, namely, in the Subura (see below, § ii.). Juvenal makes the jocular assertion that the sacred grove of Egeria before the Porta Capena was let to Jews and swarmed with Jewish beggars (Sat. ili. 12-16). As to the internal organization of the communities and the stage of culture they had reached, we derive information from the numerous tomb-inscriptions, composed for the most part in bad Greek but also in Latin, which have been found in the subterranean burying-places before the gates of Rome. These belong to somewhere between the 2nd and 4th cent. A.D. The Greek tomb-inscriptions known up to about fifty years ago are collected in CJG iv. Nos. 9901-9926. They emanate probably for the most part from a cemetery before the Porta Portuensis which was discovered in 1602, but whose site is now unknown. Rich materials were supplied by the cemetery discovered some forty years ago in the Vigna Randanini on the Via Appia (cf. Garrucci, Cimitero degli anticha Ebrei scoperto recentemente in Vigna Kandanini, Roma, 1862; also the same author’s Dissertazioni archeologiche di vario argomento, vol. ii, Roma, 1865, pp. 150-192). Since then some other ceme- teries have been discovered, but these do not con- tain many inscriptions. Five inscriptions from a cemetery in Porto are given, from communications of de Rossi, by Derenbourg in Mélanges Renier, 1887, pp. 437-441. For some Latin ones, see CL vi. Nos. 29756-29763. A complete collection of all the Jewish-Greek and Latin tomb-inscriptions at Rome known down to 1896 is given by Vogelstein- Rieger in Geschichte der Juden im Kom, 1. [1896] 459-483. See also Berliner, Geschichte der Juden in Rom, i. [1893].