The Late Roman Period in History and Memory

The failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt left the province of Palestine decisively under Roman imperial control by 135 CE, crushing the hopes of those Jews who retained aspirations for renewed sovereignty in their former homeland. Until the middle of the third century CE, two Roman legions were assigned to the region, and the infusion of thousands of Roman troops (amounting to about ten thousand people) needing food and lodging helped fuel a gradual expansion of the local economy. The construction of new roads also fostered higher levels of urbanization and infrastructure. However, Roman rule had become more directly administered and may have reduced, to varying degrees, local Jewish autonomy within the larger imperial orbit. Roman rule in the east rested on the shoulders of city councilors who before the Diocletianic reforms were still responsible for local tax collection. It nonetheless remains unclear how much authority town councillors, rabbis, or legal professionals retained or how responsible any Jewish leaders were for the affairs of their local communities.

Following the Second Jewish Revolt, a series of political and religious shifts transformed Palestine. Jews, however, were already a predominantly diasporic population, with deep roots in several locations, from Rome to Babylonia. Many Jews continued to live in the Mediterranean provinces following the Jewish revolts, well into late antiquity. During the late Roman period, the proper legal status of these diaspora Jews became a concern; while in theory they were loyal to their provincial cities, Jews were often still religiously attached to Judea. In the first century BCE, the Roman rulers Julius Caesar and Augustus had relied to some degree on precedents established by the earlier Ptolemies and the Seleucids, maintaining an uneasy alliance with the Jews. In principle, they guaranteed nation status to the Judeans and certain rights of assembly and religious practice to the diaspora communities. Following the two Jewish rebellions, however, with the Jews now paying a special tax and experiencing more intrusive forms of imperial authority, the question emerged as to which specific rights had been lost and which retained. By the early third century, the Constitutio Antoniniana (212 CE), enacted by the emperor Caracalla, afforded citizen rights to all free subjects (Latin, libertus, “emancipated slave”) living in the Roman Empire. It remains unclear whether Jews were included among the beneficiaries of Caracalla’s decree. There is ample evidence from Asia Minor and elsewhere for Jews acquiring citizenship in 212, although there is little evidence from Palestine. But in Roman legal theory, the Jews continued to constitute a national entity (though a deprivileged one after 70 CE) and thus perhaps were granted citizenship in Palestine too.

The legal status of the Jews was clarified during the early Byzantine period with the creation of the Theodosian Code, a compilation of Roman imperial legislation from Constantine through Theodosius II (ca. 312–438 CE). As Christianity grew increasingly aligned with the imperial arm of the Roman Empire, Jews, along with other non-Christian groups, struggled to maintain legitimacy. The decrees in the Theodosian Code, especially those directed at Jews, exerted Roman power, but only in the spheres of civil and criminal law. Matters involving specific religious laws were generally assigned to the authority of Jewish courts overseen by the Jewish patriarch.

In the early third century, as non-Jewish sources attest, the patriarch (Heb., nasi, “exalted one”) emerged as the leading communal official of Palestine and the diaspora. In the fourth century, the nasi became an important imperial official holding senatorial rank. The Severan emperors (193–235 CE) promoted greater integration and inclusion of indigenous peoples; their support likely facilitated the formation of the Jewish patriarchate. In 425 CE, however, the patriarchate was abolished, perhaps as part of a trend toward intolerance in Roman imperial laws dealing with non-Christian peoples.

The Roman east in the period between the emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305 CE) and the Islamic conquest of Palestine (636–637 CE) is often referred to as the early Byzantine period.¹ In a political sense, the period began with Constantine’s transfer of Rome’s imperial headquarters to Byzantium, which the emperor renamed Constantinople. Over the course of the early Byzantine period, Christianity gradually emerged as the official religion of the late Roman Empire. This had serious ramifications for Jewish and other non-Christian populations; their legal rights were progressively reduced by Christian legislation, and their sacred sites were increasingly compromised by new Christian building projects. This took a long time to happen and did not really set in until the fifth century.

New religious developments in Palestine and the diaspora accompanied Constantine’s reign as emperor, from 306 to 337 CE. The former Jewish homeland—with Jerusalem figuring prominently—became fair game for the construction of Christian holy sites and monumental architecture. Jerusalem also became the destination for a new wave of Christian pilgrimage. A project of establishing God’s redemptive presence within Jerusalem gained increasing currency with the alleged discovery of the remains of the tomb of Jesus by Constantine’s mother Helena.

Read more about the late Roman period: 

• Laws Governing Jews in the Late Roman Period 

• Christianizing, Dechristianizing, and Rechristianizing Jerusalem

• Early Conflicts between Christians and Jews

• The Patriarchate