Not so Bleak: Being Jewish in Flavian Rome

Following the Jewish War, the Jews took in the Roman imagination the negative place occupied before by various peoples previously defeated by the Romans. Thus, we should rightly expect that the Roman xenophobia should focus in this period on the Jews. And yet, a close reading of the sources reveals an ambiguous situation. Thus, Quintilian, who on one hand in the Institutio Oratoria, presented Moses, the law giver, as the founder of Jewish superstition, on the other hand, he was the rhetor who pleaded in a court to defend no less than Queen Berenice of Judaea, by then a figure much hated in Rome. However the ambiguous situation of the Jews living in Rome is best exemplified by the Epigrams of Martial, which well mirrors the ups and down of the Jews living in Flavian Rome. Martial’s poetry is a real window to understand how the average Roman perceived the Jew as the “other”. Thus, the Epigrams of Martial, once dealing with Jews, depicts Jewish slaves, such as the poet own servant, as well as beggars. And yet Jews also appear in Martial`s poetry as actors and poets, an indication of a certain acculturation, as Menophilus, probably successful enough to arouse the ire of the poet. When dealing with characteristic Jewish traits, the poet focuses on the Shabbath. Moreover, Jewish successful proselytism was still remarked. Thus a careful reading of the literary sources suggest that the position of Jews in Flavian Rome was probably better than previously taught.