A alent shock to the existing condition of things was given by the great Jewish revolts under Trajan and Hadrian. The latter was due, not wholly but partially, to Hadrian’s prohibition of circumcision (Spartian, Hadrian. 14). This prohibition, so far as we can learn, was quite a general one, issued on grounds of humanity, and not specially directed against the Jews. But the carrying out of such a decree would have been tantamount to a destruction of real legal Judaism. Hadrian’s immediate successor, Antoninus Pius, however, while he retained the prohibition in other instances, once more granted the Jews per- mission to circumcise their children (Digest. xlviii. 8, 11 pr.). Similarly, Septimius Severus forbade only the formal passing over to Judaism (Spartian, Sept. Sev. 17). Of Alexander Severus we are ex- pressly told that he ‘ Judeis privilegia reservavit’ (Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 22). The policy of the Chris- tian Emperors was not always the same, but in general was directed towards preventing the spread of Judaism, without annulling its existing rights.
iv. RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP, AND SOCIAL STAND- InG.—It has already been remarked above that the Jews as a rule, at least in pre-Christian times, lived in Greek cities as foreign settlers, like the Egyptians, Pheenicians, or Syrians. That is to say, they were not citizens, and had no share in the management of municipal affairs. But there were not a few towns where they possessed the citizenship. This was the case especially in such cities as had been newly founded, or whose con- stitution had been reorganized during the Greek
eriod. To the category of the recently founded felons pre-eminently the two capitals of the em- pires of the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, namely, Alexandria and Antioch.
At Alexandria the Jews, we are assured by Josephus, were placed by Alexander the Great on a footing of equality with the Macedonians from the very first founding of the city (c. Apion. ii. 4: els Karoiknow 6€ avrois @dwKxev rémov ’ANéEavdpos Kal tons mapa Tots Maxeddor riwis éréruxov . . . Kal méxpe viv airdvy 7 pudy Thy mpoonyoplay etyev Maxedéves). In another passage Josephus asserts that Alex- ander, by way of rewarding them for their services against the Egyptians, gave them equal rights with the Hellenes, and that the Diadochi further permitted them to call themselves Macedonians (BJ I. xviii. 7: ’ANéEavdpos . . . CSwKev 7d perorketv kata Thy wd €& icoruutas [var. lect. lcovmolpas, prob- ably a corruption of lcomoiplas] mpds rods “EAAnvas. Oréwervev 8’ adrois } ryuh kal mapa Toy Siadédxwr, ob... kal xpnuatifew émrérpevav Maxedévas). In the decree of the emperor Claudius, quoted by Josephus (Ant. XIX. v. 2), it is said that the Jews had been settled side by side with the Alexandrians from the first,
DIASPORA
and that they had obtained equal political rights ‘from the kings’ (toys rodcrelas mapa Tov Bacthéwy rerevxéras). ‘These rights were expressly confirmed to them by Cesar. A brass pillar set up by the latter in Alexandria proclaimed that the Jews were Alexandrian citizens (Ant. xIv. x. 1,c. Apion. ll. 4). Philo likewise notes that the Jews had the legal standing of ’AXctavdpets and not that of the Alyirrio (in Flaccum, § 10 [ed. Mangey, ii. 528)). The annulment of their rights during ‘the perse- cution under Flaccus was merely temporary, for Claudius soon hastened to restore their ancient privileges (Ant. XIX. v. 2). Even after the great war of A.D. 70 the petition of the Alexandrians, that the Jews should be deprived of the citizen- oy was not granted (Ant. XII. iii. 1).
_ Similar condition of things prevailed at Antioch. Here, too, from the founding of the city by Seleucus 1. (Nikator), the Jews had received the same rights of citizenship as the Macedonians and Hellenes (Ant. XII. iii. 1: Zédeveos 6 Nuxdrwp év als éxrisev woheow ev 7H Acla kal rH Kdrw Svpla Kal ev avrg 7H unrpombderAvrioxela modirelas abrods Filwoev kal Tots évorxtabetow icorlwous dmédyvey Maxedédcw Kat "EdAnow, ws Thy modurelay TavTny ere kal vov Ovapévery ; and to a similar effect c. Apion. ii. 4 [Niese, § 39)). In this city also their privileges were set forth on brass tablets (BJ vil. v. 2 [Niese, § 110]). In one passage Josephus expresses himself as if these rights were first conferred upon them by the suc- cessors of Antiochus Epiphanes (BJ vil. iii. 3). But probably he is thinking of a restoration of their privileges after the period of persecution under Epiphanes. When in the time of Vespasian the Antiochenes begged that the Jews might be expelled from the city or deprived of their privi- leges, this petition was refused as in the case of the similar application of the Alexandrians (BJ vil. v. 2 [Niese, §§ 108-111], Ant. XII. iii. 1).
According to the above-cited passage (Ant. XII. iii. 1), Seleucus I. (Nikator) granted the rights of citizenship to the Jews, and placed them on a footing of equality with the Macedonians and Hellenes, not only at Antioch, but in all the cities founded by him in Asia and Syria. The number of these cities was very considerable (Appian, Syr. 57). Even if the statement of Josephus does not justify the conclusion that there were Jewish settlers in all of them, this must have been the case with no inconsiderable proportion.
In all the above instances equality of rights on the part of the Jews was based upon the recent foundation of the cities during the Greek period. In the older cities, if Jews came to settle, they could not obtain the citizenship. There was one contingency, however, which made this possible, namely, if the political constitution of the city came to be organized afresh. Such recastings of their constitution took place frequently at the commencement of the Greek period in the cities of Western Asia Minor. Alexander the Great himself overthrew the oligarchical governments that prevailed there, and replaced them by demo- eratical constitutions (Arrian, I. xviii. 2). This was followed by a series of fluctuating forms in the troubled times of the Diadochi. The definite restoration of autonomy and democracy in the cities of the Ionian coast was essentially the work of Antiochus I. (Theos), B.C. 261-246 (Jos. Ant. XII. ili. 2: Tv yap Idvwv xwnbévtwy éx’ abrovs [scil. Tovs “lovdaious] kal deouévwy rod ’Ayplrmov, iva Tis motrelas, HV avtois edwkev “Avtloyos 6 LedevKou viwvds 6 mapa Tols “EAAnow Ged Aeyouevos, judvoe MeTé\wow, x.7.’. This general testimony of Jose- phus, according to which Antiochus I. bestowed their wohirefa on the Jonians, is confirmed by a number of special inscriptional testimonies). It is probable that at this time of the political re-