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4 Jewishness under the Romans (63 BCE–132 CE)

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The Boundaries of Jewishness in the Southern Levant 200 BCE–132 CE
This chapter is in the book The Boundaries of Jewishness in the Southern Levant 200 BCE–132 CE
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110787450-0044 Jewishness under the Romans (63 BCE–132 CE)With Pompey’s conquest of Judea in 63 BCE, the Hasmonean kingdom came under the imperium populi Romani (“power of the Roman people”) and the period of Hasmonean independence came to an end (exogenous shift).1This introduced a period of regularly changing political boundaries and administrative structures and an increasingly diverse ethnic demographic. The lapse of the Hasmonean alliance with Rome during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus meant that there were no diplomatic ties between the Hasmoneans and Romans (network of per-sonal alliances), likely leading to Pompey’s pro-Hellenistic policy (institutional frameworks) and the liberation of the cities conquered by the Hasmoneans. This both reinforced the relevance of ethnic classification and elevated Greeks above Jews (distribution of power). In Roman-controlled Judea, the small Roman demo-graphic became the new privileged ethnos above both Greeks and Jews, with most others at the bottom and categorized as “Syrians.”Julius Caesar’s designation of the Jerusalem high priest John Hyrcanus II as “ethnarch of the Jews” and the designation of the Jews as “friends and allies” of the Roman people with its associated privileges in 47 BCE reintroduced Jewish privilege in relation to Greeks, both still subordinate to Romans. This privileged position increasingly dissolved during the reign of Herod (37–4 BCE), who por-trayed himself as a Hellenistic king, while never discriminating against the Jewish majority within his kingdom. While the field characteristics do not appear to have changed amidst the regularly changing administration of Roman Judea between 4 BCE and 66 CE, the outcome of the first Jewish War with Rome (66–70 CE) rein-centivized ethnic classification with the imposition of the fiscus Iudaicus and demoted the Jewish ethnos below that of Syrians in and around Roman Judea.The discussion of strategies of boundary making addresses eight texts whose composition can be safely located in or around Roman Judea between 63 BCE and 132 CE: The Psalms of Solomon, the War Scroll, the Habakkuk Pesher, the Nahum 1 For a succinct discussion of Roman ethnicity, see Louise Revell, Ways of Being Roman: Dis-courses of Identity in the Roman West (Philadelphia: Oxbow, 2016), esp. 19–60. Cf., Andrew Wal-lace-Hadrill, Rome’s Cultural Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008); Gary D. Farney, Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Competition in Republican Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Emma Dench, Romulus’ Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alex-ander to the Age of Hadrian (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); Ray Laurence, “Territory, Ethnonyms and Geography: The Construction of Identity in Roman Italy,” in Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire, ed. Ray Laurence and Joanne Berry (London: Routledge, 1998), 95–110; Erich S. Gruen, Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome, Cornell Studies in Classical Philology 52 (New York: Cornell University Press, 1992).
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110787450-0044 Jewishness under the Romans (63 BCE–132 CE)With Pompey’s conquest of Judea in 63 BCE, the Hasmonean kingdom came under the imperium populi Romani (“power of the Roman people”) and the period of Hasmonean independence came to an end (exogenous shift).1This introduced a period of regularly changing political boundaries and administrative structures and an increasingly diverse ethnic demographic. The lapse of the Hasmonean alliance with Rome during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus meant that there were no diplomatic ties between the Hasmoneans and Romans (network of per-sonal alliances), likely leading to Pompey’s pro-Hellenistic policy (institutional frameworks) and the liberation of the cities conquered by the Hasmoneans. This both reinforced the relevance of ethnic classification and elevated Greeks above Jews (distribution of power). In Roman-controlled Judea, the small Roman demo-graphic became the new privileged ethnos above both Greeks and Jews, with most others at the bottom and categorized as “Syrians.”Julius Caesar’s designation of the Jerusalem high priest John Hyrcanus II as “ethnarch of the Jews” and the designation of the Jews as “friends and allies” of the Roman people with its associated privileges in 47 BCE reintroduced Jewish privilege in relation to Greeks, both still subordinate to Romans. This privileged position increasingly dissolved during the reign of Herod (37–4 BCE), who por-trayed himself as a Hellenistic king, while never discriminating against the Jewish majority within his kingdom. While the field characteristics do not appear to have changed amidst the regularly changing administration of Roman Judea between 4 BCE and 66 CE, the outcome of the first Jewish War with Rome (66–70 CE) rein-centivized ethnic classification with the imposition of the fiscus Iudaicus and demoted the Jewish ethnos below that of Syrians in and around Roman Judea.The discussion of strategies of boundary making addresses eight texts whose composition can be safely located in or around Roman Judea between 63 BCE and 132 CE: The Psalms of Solomon, the War Scroll, the Habakkuk Pesher, the Nahum 1 For a succinct discussion of Roman ethnicity, see Louise Revell, Ways of Being Roman: Dis-courses of Identity in the Roman West (Philadelphia: Oxbow, 2016), esp. 19–60. Cf., Andrew Wal-lace-Hadrill, Rome’s Cultural Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008); Gary D. Farney, Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Competition in Republican Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Emma Dench, Romulus’ Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alex-ander to the Age of Hadrian (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); Ray Laurence, “Territory, Ethnonyms and Geography: The Construction of Identity in Roman Italy,” in Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire, ed. Ray Laurence and Joanne Berry (London: Routledge, 1998), 95–110; Erich S. Gruen, Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome, Cornell Studies in Classical Philology 52 (New York: Cornell University Press, 1992).
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Figures and Tables XI
  5. Abbreviations XIII
  6. 1 Introduction and Methodology 1
  7. 2 Jewishness under the Seleucids (200–129 BCE) 43
  8. 3 Jewishness under the Hasmoneans (129–63 BCE) 109
  9. 4 Jewishness under the Romans (63 BCE–132 CE) 166
  10. 5 Conclusion 237
  11. 6 Appendix 1 247
  12. Bibliography 255
  13. Index of subjects 289
  14. Index of ancient sources 293
  15. Index of modern authors 311
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110787450-004

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Figures and Tables XI
  5. Abbreviations XIII
  6. 1 Introduction and Methodology 1
  7. 2 Jewishness under the Seleucids (200–129 BCE) 43
  8. 3 Jewishness under the Hasmoneans (129–63 BCE) 109
  9. 4 Jewishness under the Romans (63 BCE–132 CE) 166
  10. 5 Conclusion 237
  11. 6 Appendix 1 247
  12. Bibliography 255
  13. Index of subjects 289
  14. Index of ancient sources 293
  15. Index of modern authors 311
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