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4 results

  • 14 - The Good, the Bad and the Middling

  • from Part III - Ethnicity and Identity in the Roman Empire
  • Edited by Jonathan J. Price, Tel-Aviv University, Margalit Finkelberg, Tel-Aviv University, Yuval Shahar, Tel-Aviv University
  • Book:
    Rome: An Empire of Many Nations
    Published online:
    14 April 2022
    Print publication:
    21 April 2022, pp 239-259
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  • Summary

    Talmudic literature, throughout all its chronological phases, relates to various Roman emperors. Nine emperors are mentioned explicitly by name, and among these are six who are especially notable, from three different periods. First, the period of the major Jewish revolts: Vespasian and Titus are mentioned for the War of the Destruction of the Temple, Trajan for the Diaspora revolts and Hadrian for the Bar Kochba Revolt. These are the “wicked” emperors of Talmudic literature, with Hadrian presented as the worst of all. Second, the golden age of relations between Judaea and Rome in the Severan period: “Antoninus,” usually identified with Caracalla, is presented as the “good” emperor par excellence. Finally, in the middle of the scale between the “wicked” and the “good” emperors we find Diocletian, the interesting emperor whose presence is strongly felt, as he was responsible for the development of the whole region.

  • 14 - The Good, the Bad and the Middling

  • from Part III - Ethnicity and Identity in the Roman Empire
  • Edited by Jonathan J. Price, Tel-Aviv University, Margalit Finkelberg, Tel-Aviv University, Yuval Shahar, Tel-Aviv University
  • Book:
    Rome: An Empire of Many Nations
    Published online:
    04 August 2021
    Print publication:
    23 September 2021, pp 239-259

  • Summary

    Talmudic literature, throughout all its chronological phases, relates to various Roman emperors. Nine emperors are mentioned explicitly by name, and among these are six who are especially notable, from three different periods. First, the period of the major Jewish revolts: Vespasian and Titus are mentioned for the War of the Destruction of the Temple, Trajan for the Diaspora revolts and Hadrian for the Bar Kochba Revolt. These are the “wicked” emperors of Talmudic literature, with Hadrian presented as the worst of all. Second, the golden age of relations between Judaea and Rome in the Severan period: “Antoninus,” usually identified with Caracalla, is presented as the “good” emperor par excellence. Finally, in the middle of the scale between the “wicked” and the “good” emperors we find Diocletian, the interesting emperor whose presence is strongly felt, as he was responsible for the development of the whole region.

  • 31 - The Political, Social, and Economic History of Babylonian Jewry, 224–638 CE

    • By Isaiah Gafni, Sol Rosenbloom Professor of Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Edited by Steven T. Katz, Boston University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Judaism
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    22 June 2006, pp 792-820

  • Summary

    The fall of the Parthian monarchy and the succession of the Sasanian dynasty mark a major turning point in the political and religious history of Iran. The nature of the Parthian monarchy certainly encouraged a degree of Jewish self-rule, and geonic sources speak in general terms of the existence of the office during the Second Temple period. In truth, only in talmudic literature does a more complete picture of this office emerge, one that draws much from a comparison of the Exilarchate with the Patriarchate of Roman Palestine. The economic life of Babylonian Jewry was not segregated from the surrounding population, and the Babylonian Talmud suggests not only the proximity of Jews and Gentiles but also a large measure of daily interaction and co-operation. Social interaction between Jews and other groups assumes a common language of discourse, and, in the case of Babylonia, that language was Babylonian Aramaic.

  • 28 - Jewish magic in late antiquity

    • By Michael Swartz, Professor of Hebrew and Religious Studies, Ohio State University
  • Edited by Steven T. Katz, Boston University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Judaism
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    22 June 2006, pp 699-720

  • Summary

    The study of Jewish magic has important historical value outside the light it sheds on the religious nature of ancient Jewish society. Understanding Jewish magic additionally allows one to understand a major component of the lives and ideas of the rabbinic class. Anthropologists and historians of religion have come to question whether the mere use of the term "magic" prejudices the reader to accept the phenomenon under study as more primitive or inferior to official religious expression. This chapter begins with a brief account of the evidence in talmudic literature of magic and rabbinic discourse concerning this phenomenon. Since magical texts themselves are the best witnesses to the nature of magic, the chapter follows with a survey of the worldviews, rhetoric, and ritual practices embedded in amulet texts from Palestine, Babylonian magical bowls, heikhalot literature, and other esoteric sources from the rabbinic period.