Jewish Rebellion in Cyrene
Trajan therefore departed thence, and a little later began to fail in health.
Meanwhile the Jews in the region of Cyrene had put a certain Andreas at their head, and were destroying both the Romans and the Greeks. They would eat the flesh of their victims, make belts for themselves of their entrails, anoint themselves with their blood and wear their skins for clothing; many they sawed in two, from the head downwards; others they gave to wild beasts, and still others they forced to fight as gladiators. In all two hundred and twenty thousand persons perished. In Egypt, too, they perpetrated many similar outrages, and in Cyprus, under the leadership of a certain Artemion. There, also, two hundred and forty thousand perished, and for this reason no Jew may set foot on that island, but even if one of them is driven upon its shores by a storm he is put to death. Among others who subdued the Jews was Lusius, who was sent by Trajan.
Credits
Dio Cassius, Roman History 68.32.1–3, from Dio Cassius, vol. VIII, trans. Earnest Cary, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 176 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1925), pp. 421–23.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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Cyrene came under Ptolemaic rule in 321 BCE and was part of the Egyptian Empire until it fell to the Romans in 96 BCE. After 74 BCE, it became a part of Roman Cyrenaica, the capital of which was Cyrene.
Jews were sent to Cyrene in the early third century BCE by Ptolemy I Soter (r. 323–285 BCE) and were guaranteed civic equality under the Ptolemies. Josephus quotes the ancient Roman historian Strabo’s description of the Jews of Cyrene as one of the city’s four “classes of men.” Strabo goes on to describe the Jews as spread throughout the Roman Empire, noting that there are many in the empire who have adopted their ways and that where the Jews live there is greater prosperity. Josephus also recounts how Jonathan, one of the Sicarii, escaped to Cyrene and tried to incite the Jews of Cyrene to rebellion after Jerusalem fell. Scholars point to this event, among others, to argue that there must have been close relations between Jerusalem and Cyrene. Like other diaspora communities, the Jews of Cyrene sent donations to Jerusalem for the support of the Temple.
Dio Cassius recounts the participation of the Jews of Cyrene the bitter Jewish uprising of 115–117 CE against the Roman Empire. Suppressed finally by the Roman legions, the city of Cyrene was ruined.
