Jewish Community of Cyrene

And this same Strabo bears witness in another passage that at the time when Sulla crossed over into Greece in order to wage war against Mithridates, he sent Lucullus to put an end to a sedition that our nation, of whom the habitable earth was full, had raised in Cyrene, where he speaks as follows: “There were four classes of men among those of Cyrene: that of citizens, that of husbandmen, the third of metics, and the fourth of Jews. Now these Jews have already made their way into every city, and it is difficult to find a place in the habitable earth that has not admitted this tribe of men and that is not possessed by them, and it has come to pass that Egypt and Cyrene, inasmuch as they had the same rulers, as well as a great number of other nations, imitate their way of living and maintain large populations of these Jews in a peculiar manner, and rise to greater prosperity with them, and make use of the same laws with that nation also. [ . . . ] In Egypt, therefore, this nation has been powerful because the Jews were originally Egyptians and because the land wherein they inhabit, since they went there, is near to Egypt. They also immigrated to Cyrene, because this land bordered on the government of Egypt, just like Judaea, or rather was formerly under the same government.” And this is what Strabo says.

Translated by William Whiston, adapted by Aaron Samuels.