CHAPTER XX

THE FINAL REVOLTS OF THE JEWS

Footnote 354:

Perhaps the “egg laid on the Sabbath” would have excited less comment, if the fact were kept in mind that a decision in a specific case can hardly fail to be particular.

Footnote 355:

C. I. L. ix. 1. 26.

Footnote 356:

Laius outraged Chrysippus, son of Pelops, who had been left in his care. The Euripidean lost play on Oedipus seems to have adopted that version. Pisander, Schol. Eur. Phoen. 1760: πρῶτος δὲ Λάιος τὸν ἀθέμιτον ἔρωτα τοῦτον ἔσχεν.

Footnote 357:

Cf. Philo, De Spec. Leg. 7.

Footnote 358:

Tosefta Ab. Zar. ii. 6.

Footnote 359:

Ziebarth, Kulturbilder aus griechischen Städten, p. 73.

Footnote 360:

In very much earlier times Jews left dedications in the temple of Pan Euhodus. Ditt. Inscr. Or. 74: Θεύδοτος Δωρίωνος Ἰουδαῖος σωθεὶς ἐκ πελάγου. Cf. 73, Πτολεμαῖος Διονυσίου Ἰουδαῖος.

Footnote 361:

This became a standing formula and in inscriptions is regularly abbreviated N. K. C. (Valerius Probus, 4), _i.e. non kalumniae causa_. The use of _k_ for _c_ testifies to the antiquity of the formula.

Footnote 362:

Suet. Domit. 12.

Footnote 363:

Dio Cassius (Xiph.), lxvii. 14.

Footnote 364:

Passed in 81 B.C.E. This law punished offenses as diverse as murder, arson, poisoning, perjury, abortion, and abuse of magisterial power. In every case it was the effect of the act that was considered.

Footnote 365:

Reinach, Textes, p. 197, n. 1.

Footnote 366:

The _polemos shel kitos_ of Mishnah Sota ix. 14 and the Seder Olam.

Quietus was a Moorish chieftain of great military ability. He seems to have hoped for the succession to the throne. After the end of the revolt he was transferred to his native province, Mauretania, by Hadrian, and was ultimately executed for treason.

Footnote 367:

Meg. Taan., Adar 12; Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, 3rd iv. 445 seq.

Footnote 368:

In the case of non-Jews, the Messianic hope was simply the dread of an impending cataclysm. As far as this dread was connected with the failure of the Julian line, it proved groundless. But the Jewish Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of this time are full of prophecies of the end of the world. It was the general belief that the world was very old, and that a fixed cycle, then rapidly coming to its end, determined the limits it would reach.

Footnote 369:

Jerus. Taan. iv. 7, p. 68 d. Ekah Rab. ii. 1.

Footnote 370:

Dio Cassius (Xiph.), lxix. 12; Reinach, Textes, p. 198.

Footnote 371:

Dig. 50, 15, 1, 6.

Footnote 372:

Euseb. Hist. Eccl. IV. vi. 4.

Footnote 373:

Gen. Rab. lxiii. (xxv. 23) makes Hadrian the typical heathen king, as Solomon is the typical Jewish king. His name is followed, as is that of Trajan, by a drastic curse. But there are traditions of a kindlier feeling toward him. Sibyl. v. 248. In the Meg. Taan. the 29th of Adar.

Footnote 374:

Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. IV. vi., quoting Aristo of Pella. Jerome in Ezek. i. 15. It is here that the famous passage of Jerome occurs, which describes the Jews as “buying their tears.” Cf. also Itiner. Burdigal. (Hierosolymitanum), I. v. 22.

Footnote 375:

Vopiscus, Vita Saturn. viii.; Reinach, Textes, p. 326. The authenticity of this letter has been questioned, but the transmission, although indirect, is better documented than in most such cases. Hadrian is known to have written an autobiography, and Phlegon, his freedman, who also wrote his life, no doubt used it. Spartianus, Hadr. i. 1; xiv. 8.

Footnote 376:

The writers Spartianus, Capitolinus, etc., dedicate their work to Diocletian or Constantine. It was suggested by Dessau, Hermes, 24, 337, that these writers never existed, and were invented by a forger of a century later. Mommsen, Hermes, 25, 298, assumed their existence, but regarded the extant works as revised at the time mentioned by Dessau. Other investigators, except H. Peter, accept Mommsen’s conclusions. Whether they are authentic or not, these biographies are alike wretched in style and thought.

Footnote 377:

Paul, Sent. V. xxiii. 14; Dig. 48, 8, 3, 2; 8, 8. The date is not certain; Dig. 48, 8, 3, 4.

Footnote 378:

B. G. U. 347, 82.

Footnote 379:

Dig. 48, 8, 11. pr.

Footnote 380:

Paul, Sent. V. xxii. 3.

Footnote 381:

Lampridius, Vita Alex. 22.

Footnote 382:

Jews made converts even after the prohibition of Theodosius (Jerome, Migne Patrol, 25, p. 199; 26, p. 311). One further ground for doubting the statement of Paul as it appears in the extant texts is the following: In the Digest (48, 8, 4, 2) it is only the physician and the slave that are capitally punished for castration. The owner of the slave (_ibid._ 48, 8, 6) is punished by the loss of half his property. Further, the penalty for circumcision is stated to be the same as that for castration. That was the case not only in Modestinus’ time, who lived after Paul, but as late as Justinian, since it is received into the Digest. Yet Paul, according to the extant text, makes the circumcision of alien slaves a capital crime (V. xxii. 4). The discrepancy can scarcely be reconciled.

Footnote 383:

Capitol. Antoninus Pius, 5.

Footnote 384:

193 C.E. It was on this occasion that the Pretorians offered the imperial purple to the highest bidder.

Footnote 385:

Josephus, Ant. XIV. x.

Footnote 386:

The legend of Polycarp assumes a large and powerful Jewish community. In late Byzantine times, the Jews of Asia Minor were still a powerful factor. The emperor Michael II, a Phrygian, was suspected of Jewish leanings; Theophanes (Contin.), ii. 3 ff.