Early Jewish Diaspora Communities: Rome

Textual sources attest to a Jewish presence in Rome as early as the mid-second century BCE, as three successive Jewish embassies traveled there (ca. 174–161 BCE). At this stage, Judaea and Rome appear to have maintained a relatively positive relationship, the former receiving protection and the latter license to interfere within the destabilized political environment of the Levant. Roman rule in the Near East was thus on the verge of including Judaea within its imperial orbit. We first receive word of Jews living in the city of Rome through a Roman decree expelling them from the city in 139 BCE. The original Jewish inhabitants of Rome are thought to have been itinerant foreigners with limited civil rights (Latin, peregrini), and in this particular instance, Jews were banished on the grounds of introducing a foreign cult. How these initial Jewish residents arrived in Rome may relate to the early alliances between Rome and Judaea in the second century, which may have encouraged Jewish merchant activity in southern Italy, and by extension in Rome.

Not long after Pompey’s seizure of Jerusalem and entry into the Jewish Temple in 63 BCE, a triumphal celebration was held in Rome in honor of his successful eastern campaigns. Jewish war captives were transported to Rome, including Aristobulus II and his family (see Roman Conquest of Judaea). Soon after, we learn from both the Roman orator Cicero and the Jewish philosopher Philo of a growing Jewish presence in Rome. The propraetor of Asia Lucius Valerius Flaccus became the target of legal action in October 59 BCE and was charged with extortion. Among the injured plaintiffs seeking restitution were the Jewish communities of Asia, who claimed the governor seized the gold they would donate annually to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. In his defense of Flaccus, Cicero mentions a Jewish community of substantial population that wielded significant influence. The specific causes for this growing Jewish presence are uncertain. Philo’s defense of Caesar as an ally to the Jews likewise indicates a growing Jewish population, one that Philo claims consists largely of freedmen who had originally arrived in Rome as wartime captives.

Periodic expulsion of the Jews, whether selective in its application or en masse, is attested under more than one emperor during the first century CE. In an effort to suppress religious activity considered foreign and potentially hostile to Roman traditions (externae caerimoniae), practitioners of both Egyptian and Jewish religious cults were banished from Rome in 19 CE, during the reign of Tiberius, although some young Jews were repopulated on the island of Sardinia for the reported purpose of combatting “banditry.” The Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius both acknowledge that Jews facing exile could remain in Rome if they renounced their religious practices. The New Testament book of Acts and the historian Dio Cassius offer two contrasting versions of the temporary expulsion of the Jews from Rome during the rule of Claudius around 50 CE. Dio Cassius claims that the Jews proved too numerous to ban altogether, such that prohibitions against Judaism were restricted to right of assembly. The book of Acts, like Suetonius’ brief statement on the matter, speaks of “all Jews” having to leave Rome. Some scholars have attempted to reconcile these two sources by arguing for an earlier ban on assemblies (41 CE) and a later expulsion (49 CE) directed at the destabilizing members of the Jewish community.