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Simcha Gross

18 Mar, 10 tweets, 5 min read

The Arch of Titus is one of the most well-known ancient monuments concerning Jewish history.

Built in 82 CE, it depicts the victorious procession of Roman troops carrying Jewish temple vessels, including of course the golden Menorah.

But there was once another arch.

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The Arch was part of a broader visual & ideological program intended to legitimate & bolster the new Flavian dynasty. The defeat of the Jews was therefore inflated, depicted not as a relatively easily won war over a revolting province, but the conquest of a foreign territory.

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We see the development of this program in the coins minted to commemorate the victory. The legend on the more common coins reads "Judea Capta," Judea is conquered, which often depicted a woman, probably the personified Judea, mourning.

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A rarer coin reads Judea Recepta, "recaptured." Acc. to the experts, this legend indicated "the re-subjugation of an old province..precisely what one would have expected after a revolt.." (c.f. Asia Recepta & Armenia capta coins). But conquered sounded better than recaptured.

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@SarahEBond

The Romans also erected a "temple of peace," in which the temple vessels were displayed. The colosseum was built with the funds from these victories. Roman victory and imperial benefaction of public amenities coincide.

For more, see @SarahEBond:

https://twitter.com/SarahEBond/status/1122146058988138496

The Romans also collected a "Jew tax (fiscus judaicus)," about which we have some outstanding collection records from Egypt dating into the second century. This was undoubtedly an onerous additional tax to pay.
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Within this program, one arch was not enough! Reports tell of a 2nd arch with a longer inscription reading: The senate & the people of Rome to the emperor Titus..he subdued the Jewish people & destroyed the city of Jerusalem, which all..before him had..attacked without success..

Recent excavations in the Circus Maximus have uncovered another arch which the archaeologists say is the lost Arch.

telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews…

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The Arch of Titus was therefore one piece in a wide-ranging visual & ideological program that deployed the victory over the Jews to bolster a fledgling dynasty. It meant that real Jews across to empire suffered, through taxes & imagery which emphasized their subordination.

Fin

For the Judea Recepta/Capta discussion see: academia.edu/5972949/Gambas…. For the polychromatic Arch of Titus, see academia.edu/34658470/The_A…

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Simcha Gross

@Simcha_Gross

8 Mar

The relationship between Jews in Judea and Rome resulted in devastation in 70 CE, but the initial encounter c. 160 BCE was more auspicious.

Acc. to 1 Maccabees, Judas Maccabeus sent an embassy "to establish alliance and peace" that was warmly welcomed by the Roman senate.

1/3

The Romans sent their reply to Jerusalem "inscribed on bronze tablets..as a record of peace & alliance."

Inscribing treaties on bronze was common Roman practice.

It said: “May it be well with the Romans & the Jews at sea & on land forever; may sword & enemy be far from them."

They agree to a pact of mutual defense: "if war is first made on Rome or any of its allies in any of their dominions, the Jews will fight alongside them wholeheartedly...In the same way, if war is made on the Jewish nation, the Romans will fight alongside them willingly.."

Fin.

Read 4 tweets

Simcha Gross

@Simcha_Gross

7 Mar

In honor of the meeting between Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani in Iraq, a quick thread on a fascinating encounter in Baghdad between the head of the Babylonian Jewish academy and the Syriac Christian Catholicos almost exactly 1000 years ago.

🧵

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According to a number of sources, a rabbi from Sicily named Maṣliaḥ traveled to Baghdad to study with the head of the rabbinic academy of Pumbedita, Hai Gaon (d. 1038 CE).

This was not uncommon; Baghdad was a common site for semesters abroad for both Jews and Muslims.

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The rabbinic academy disagreed about the interpretation of Psalms 141:5, which is strangely redundant.

Translated literally it would read: "let my head not refuse such head-oils," i.e. "choice/great oils."

The redundancy of head(ראש)-oil on heads (ראש) required explanation.

Read 8 tweets

Simcha Gross

@Simcha_Gross

26 Feb

The book of Esther is in many ways incongruous with other works revered by Jews.

At least three fascinating Jewish responses and strategies emerged before the common era: erasure, supplementation, and reproduction.

🧵 1/6

[Image from the 400 year old Esther Ferrara Scroll]

In the vast collection of works known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, one work in particular is absent: the book of Esther.

While some suggest this may simply be an accident of preservation, others argue that it was absent because it clashed with the sect’s ideology.

In particular, the work lacks any reference to God, observance of ritual or law. Esther also wed a non-Jew, an egregious sin according to the sect, following works like Jubilees that declare: “It is a disgraceful thing for Israelites who give or take [in marriage] foreign women."

Read 6 tweets

Simcha Gross

@Simcha_Gross

24 Feb

The oldest depiction of the Book of Esther was discovered in the synagogue in Dura Europos, destroyed in 256 CE in the war between the Romans and the Sasanians.

The synagogue offers precious insight into the dynamics of Jewish communities on the Roman-Sasanian frontier.

🧵

While the war led to the tragic abandonment of Dura, it also meant that the city laid untouched for millennia. The synagogue paintings were preserved precisely because the synagogue comprised part of the city wall, and it was reinforced with sand during the extended siege.

In this image of the painting program, you can see the height and position of the sand used to reinforce the wall based on what it preserved.

Read 9 tweets

Simcha Gross

@Simcha_Gross

31 Jan

As a grad student, I heard stories about Jewish candidates facing antisemitism on the job market.

This was ancient history I thought, a sign of how far things had come.

Then I was a finalist for an ancient Judaism job at a Christian denominational university.

Strap in.

🧵

I was picked up at the airport by a professor I knew who was a visiting scholar at the university.

As he drove me to campus, he explained that he had volunteered to pick me up so as to warn me that there was no way I was getting the job... because I am Jewish.

2

He explained that the "old guard" on campus would oppose my hire no matter what I did.

I was picked up by a new member of the faculty, who gave me a tour of the campus.

As we set off, she asked me: "so...did the professor who picked you up tell you anything about the job...?"
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Read 16 tweets

Simcha Gross

@Simcha_Gross

13 Dec 20

Hanukkah is most identified with the menorah, which of course commemorates the so-called miracle of oil. Or does it...? A thread. 1/15

The earliest account of Hanukkah is 1 Maccabees. It is highly chronographical, and pretty slim on miraculous details. 2

This all changes with 2 Maccabees. Here we find all sorts of miracles, most famously the story of Heliodorus. But there’s no miracle of oil! The book ends by explaining that the festival commemorates the rededication of the temple. 3

Read 16 tweets

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