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Hadrian’s Policy in Jerusalem and Underlying Imperial Discourses

  • Pedro Giménez de Aragón Sierra
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Narratives of the Roman Empire
This chapter is in the book Narratives of the Roman Empire

Abstract

In this paper, there are four new hypothesis: 1) The Jews were stirred to revolt against Trajan by the decision to build in 117 CE a temple to the goddess Kore, the goddess of the kalathos, and by the dedication to Trajan of the altar of Yahweh on the Temple Mount. 2) Hadrian’s works in the Temple Mount began after Bar Kokhba Revolt, but pre-revolt Hadrian’s discourse on the Jews was completely different. In 117 CE, he gave orders and instructions to Martius Turbo to resolve the conflict between the Jews and legionaries in Jerusalem: the temple of the goddess with the kalathos was moved from the Temple Mount to a higher location beside the camp of the X Fretensis, the cave of the Holy Sepulchre, and a temple dedicated to Jupiter Serapis Optimus in honor to Trajan was building on Golgotha Mount. 3) The goddess of the kalathos whose temple was sited over the cave of the Holy Sepulchre, was not Venus, but the goddess of a thousand names, including Kore, Isis, Tyche, Astarte and Ereshkigal. 4) After the meeting between Hadrian and Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah, no work was carried out on Temple Mount (from 117 to 130). But in 130 CE, after the death of Joshua ben Hananiah, Hadrian wanted to honour the god Yahweh on Mount Gerizim and Temple Mount by dedicating temples to Theos Hypsistos or God Most High. The emperor’s adventus coins in Judea (130–131 CE) suggest that his intention was not yet anti-Jewish. Between the second and fourth centuries CE there was a sect syncretising elements of Judaism and polytheism called the “Hypsistians”. Hadrian probably had a similar syncretistic religious policy in mind in 130–131, which he had been able to carry out on Mount Gerizim without much trouble, and thought he could undertake on Temple Mount as a means to reconcile the Jews and Gentiles in the province of Judea. This was his first Imperial Discourse about Judea.

Abstract

In this paper, there are four new hypothesis: 1) The Jews were stirred to revolt against Trajan by the decision to build in 117 CE a temple to the goddess Kore, the goddess of the kalathos, and by the dedication to Trajan of the altar of Yahweh on the Temple Mount. 2) Hadrian’s works in the Temple Mount began after Bar Kokhba Revolt, but pre-revolt Hadrian’s discourse on the Jews was completely different. In 117 CE, he gave orders and instructions to Martius Turbo to resolve the conflict between the Jews and legionaries in Jerusalem: the temple of the goddess with the kalathos was moved from the Temple Mount to a higher location beside the camp of the X Fretensis, the cave of the Holy Sepulchre, and a temple dedicated to Jupiter Serapis Optimus in honor to Trajan was building on Golgotha Mount. 3) The goddess of the kalathos whose temple was sited over the cave of the Holy Sepulchre, was not Venus, but the goddess of a thousand names, including Kore, Isis, Tyche, Astarte and Ereshkigal. 4) After the meeting between Hadrian and Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah, no work was carried out on Temple Mount (from 117 to 130). But in 130 CE, after the death of Joshua ben Hananiah, Hadrian wanted to honour the god Yahweh on Mount Gerizim and Temple Mount by dedicating temples to Theos Hypsistos or God Most High. The emperor’s adventus coins in Judea (130–131 CE) suggest that his intention was not yet anti-Jewish. Between the second and fourth centuries CE there was a sect syncretising elements of Judaism and polytheism called the “Hypsistians”. Hadrian probably had a similar syncretistic religious policy in mind in 130–131, which he had been able to carry out on Mount Gerizim without much trouble, and thought he could undertake on Temple Mount as a means to reconcile the Jews and Gentiles in the province of Judea. This was his first Imperial Discourse about Judea.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures XI
  5. Introduction: How to Make Rome? Words, Narratives and Rituals in the Shaping of the Roman Empire 1
  6. Part I: The Performative Power of Words: Imperial Power, Law and Political Ritual
  7. The Words of the Senate in Empire-Building and Its Interaction with Local Communities: Discourse and Performance 11
  8. An Empire of Letters and the Power of Presence: Rethinking the Constitutive Performances of Imperial Power and Law 29
  9. Units of Rule in Roman Legislation 47
  10. Staging the Prince’s Words: Performativity and Political Ritual in the First Three Centuries of the Principate 59
  11. Words of the Lord: The ethne and Hadrianus Augustus Restitutor 87
  12. The Leagues and the Territorial Administration of the Roman Empire by Means of Imperial Letters 111
  13. Part II: Empire-Building in the Literary Sources: Rhetoric, Sophist and Historiography
  14. The Message of the Second Sophistic (from Dio of Prusa and Plutarch) 127
  15. Aelius Aristides’ Speech Regarding Rome: Epideictic Rhetoric and Ideological Negotiation 137
  16. Subabsurda Roma: A View of the Roman Imperial State Through the Lens of the Historia Augusta 153
  17. Narratives of Failure: The Botched Campaigns Against Hatra in Roman Historiography 175
  18. Part III: The Performative Power of Rituals: Traditional Religion, Imperial Rituals and New Religious Discourses on the Empire
  19. Animal Sacrifice as Normative Cult Practice in the Roman Empire 199
  20. Rituals that Built the Empire: sunthusia oikoumenes 213
  21. Greek Games for a Roman Emperor: Augustus and the Power of Greek Festivals 227
  22. The Construction of Imperial Narratives Through Virtues 245
  23. Imperial Cult Narratives: The Case of Hispania 263
  24. Words and Rituals for the Dead: Hadrian Among Hellenic Heroes 281
  25. Part IV: Empire-Building in a Provincial Setting: Local Discourses and Imperial Dynamisms
  26. Placing Epiros in the Emperor’s Narrative: Local Initiative and Provincial Discourse at the Time of Hadrian 301
  27. Hadrian’s Policy in Jerusalem and Underlying Imperial Discourses 319
  28. Imperial Power and the Cities: The Hadrianic Narrative of Italica 339
  29. List of Contributors 351
  30. Index of Literary Sources
  31. Index of Epigraphic Sources
  32. Index Personae
  33. Index of Places
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111707020-019

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures XI
  5. Introduction: How to Make Rome? Words, Narratives and Rituals in the Shaping of the Roman Empire 1
  6. Part I: The Performative Power of Words: Imperial Power, Law and Political Ritual
  7. The Words of the Senate in Empire-Building and Its Interaction with Local Communities: Discourse and Performance 11
  8. An Empire of Letters and the Power of Presence: Rethinking the Constitutive Performances of Imperial Power and Law 29
  9. Units of Rule in Roman Legislation 47
  10. Staging the Prince’s Words: Performativity and Political Ritual in the First Three Centuries of the Principate 59
  11. Words of the Lord: The ethne and Hadrianus Augustus Restitutor 87
  12. The Leagues and the Territorial Administration of the Roman Empire by Means of Imperial Letters 111
  13. Part II: Empire-Building in the Literary Sources: Rhetoric, Sophist and Historiography
  14. The Message of the Second Sophistic (from Dio of Prusa and Plutarch) 127
  15. Aelius Aristides’ Speech Regarding Rome: Epideictic Rhetoric and Ideological Negotiation 137
  16. Subabsurda Roma: A View of the Roman Imperial State Through the Lens of the Historia Augusta 153
  17. Narratives of Failure: The Botched Campaigns Against Hatra in Roman Historiography 175
  18. Part III: The Performative Power of Rituals: Traditional Religion, Imperial Rituals and New Religious Discourses on the Empire
  19. Animal Sacrifice as Normative Cult Practice in the Roman Empire 199
  20. Rituals that Built the Empire: sunthusia oikoumenes 213
  21. Greek Games for a Roman Emperor: Augustus and the Power of Greek Festivals 227
  22. The Construction of Imperial Narratives Through Virtues 245
  23. Imperial Cult Narratives: The Case of Hispania 263
  24. Words and Rituals for the Dead: Hadrian Among Hellenic Heroes 281
  25. Part IV: Empire-Building in a Provincial Setting: Local Discourses and Imperial Dynamisms
  26. Placing Epiros in the Emperor’s Narrative: Local Initiative and Provincial Discourse at the Time of Hadrian 301
  27. Hadrian’s Policy in Jerusalem and Underlying Imperial Discourses 319
  28. Imperial Power and the Cities: The Hadrianic Narrative of Italica 339
  29. List of Contributors 351
  30. Index of Literary Sources
  31. Index of Epigraphic Sources
  32. Index Personae
  33. Index of Places
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