Anti-Semitism has ancient roots. In the age of the Crusades (1095-1291), the Europeans started to regard the Muslim Arabs -which they had first admired- as the enemies of Christianity, and the Christian anti-Judaic polemic dates back to the first or second century CE. But aversion of Arabs and Jews is not a Christian invention. The Romans described their emperor Philippus Arabs (244-249), who was ofArabian descent, in denigratory terms; and Greek and Roman authors describe the Jews in words that are, in a sense, shockingly modern.
Their ideas about Judaism are the subject of the present article. In this first part, several anti-Semitic incidents are described; in the second part, we will discuss the ideas of those who hated the Jews.
The first incidents
For anti-Semitism to arise, the Jews had to be a recognizable minority in a foreign state. Because they worshipped only one God, they were always recognizable; and they became a minority in a foreign state during the Babylonian Captivity. From the sixth century on, there was a substantial Jewish minority in Babylonia.
The first known incident took place in the Achaemenid empire and is mentioned in the biblical book Esther. According to this story, a courtier named Haman came to king Xerxes and said:
There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them. (Esther, 3.8)On 16 May 474 BCE (one day before Passover), a decree was sent to all satraps that they were to kill the Jews on 8 March 473 (13 Adar). However, one of Xerxes' wives, his Jewish queen Esther, intervened and was able to prevent the disaster. Xerxes understood that Haman was unreliable and had him executed, and 'the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them' (Esther, 9.5). They next days, Adar 14 and 15, became a day of feasting and joy, which is called Purim.
It is unclear whether this story refers to a historical event, but there may be some truth to it, because another incident is known from our sources, which shows that anti-Semitism was not discouraged by the Persian authorities. It happened in 410 in Elephantine in Egypt. This was a large garrison, occupied by Jewish soldiers, who had built a temple of their own.
The text known as ANET3 492 is a letter by the priest of Elephantine, Yedoniah, to the Persian governor of Judah. He tells that in July/August 410 the satrap of Egypt, Arsames, was away from his country (to visit king Darius II Nothus). Consequently, he was unable to prevent the Egyptian priest of the local god Chnum and the commander of the garrison, an Iranian named Vidaranag, to proceed against the Jewish temple. The reason for their attack was that the Jews sacrificed lambs, holy animals according to the Egyptians. Vidaranag's son Nefayan and a small army of native Egyptians entered the sanctuary, destroyed the columns and gates and set fire to the roof. The precious cups and candles they took with them.
However, the Jews of Elephantine had their revenge, although it is not exactly clear how. But it is certain that they destroyed the possessions of Vidaranag and killed him ('the dogs have eaten his feet'). On 25 November 407, the Jews asked permission to rebuild their temple. This was granted under the condition that other sacrifices were offered, and that is the last we hear about this incident.
The difference between these two incidents is the motivation. In Esther, the Jews are persecuted because they do not obey the Persian laws but the law of Moses; the Egyptians were angry because of the Jewish religion. These two themes -unlawful and impious behavior- were to become very common complaints.
Antiochus' persecution of the Jews
The next incident is very difficult to interpret. It took place after the Achaemenid empire had been replaced by the kingdom of the Greek Seleucids. One of their kings, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164), persecuted the Jews of Judah, but we do not know why. What is certain, however, is that it all started when the king seized the treasuries of the temple of Jerusalem in September 169 after a successful but expensive campaign against Egypt during the Sixth Syrian War.
This was neither an unusual nor a sacrilegious act. Oriental kings considered the temples in their territories as deposits of precious metal; they could give and take whenever and whatever they liked. However, the Jews were deeply shocked (1 Maccabees, 1.20-28). Even worse, two years earlier, the king had replaced the high priest Jason by Menelaos, who had promised him more tribute. Again, this was a normal oriental practice (at the same time, Antiochus had replaced the high priest of the Esagila complex at Babylon). The problem was that Menelaos wanted to hellenize the cult at Jerusalem, i.e., allow Greek influences.
In 168, the situation worsened. The Romans intervened in the Egyptian war and forced Antiochus to return. Seizing the opportunity, Jason proceeded against Jerusalem, which caused a civil war in Judaea. The king sent a peace-enforcing army, which took Jerusalem and built a military settlement. Because the soldiers needed a sanctuary to perform their religious duties, the Jerusalem temple was rededicated to the Olympian Zeus or Ba'al Šamem. This happened in December 168.
According to the (biased) books of the Maccabees, Antiochus forbade the Jewish religion (1 Maccabees, 1.41-62; 2 Maccabees, 6.6-9). The usual offerings were forbidden -pigs had to be sacrificed instead-, circumcision was no longer allowed, book scrolls were burnt, and people who still followed Mosaic law were burnt alive. (2 Maccabees6-7 offers terrifying descriptions of these martyrdoms, which are elaborated ad nauseam in 4 Maccabees 5-18.) Orthodox Jews who had fled to the desert, were attacked during a sabbath.
Many pious Jews -they are usually called the Hasidim- joined the revolt of Judas the Maccabaean, who lead a small force against the Seleucid army and defeated it. His enemies were unable to strike back, because they were occupied with a war against the Armenians. After several victories, Judas liberated Jerusalem (165), cleansed the temple -annually celebrated by the Jews at the Hanuka festival- and defeated the Seleucids. The situation normalized when Antiochus IV died in November/December 164; his successor Antiochus V made an end to the persecution. This was not the end of the struggle, however, and in 152 Judas' brother Jonathan was recognized as high-priest. In fact, this meant that the independence of Judah was recognized. The family of Judas and Jonathan became the new royal dynasty of Judaea, theHasmonaeans.
It is unclear why Antiochus IV decided to persecute the Jews. It was a most unusual step, because religious tolerance was the normal policy in Antiquity; kings seldom intervened in the cultic practices. However, there is one parallel: the Roman emperor Hadrian, who was a great admirer of Greek culture, tried to root out Judaism (130 CE). He also forbade circumcision and the study of the law of Moses. This event is discussed here. It is possible that Antiochus abhorred Judaism because he was thoroughly hellenized.
Possible, but not very likely. The same king was not above a sacred marriage to the Syrian goddess Atargatis - an act that no Greek would aprove of. The fact that pigs had to be offered is another argument against the theory that Antiochus wanted to hellenize the country: the Greeks did not sacrifice pigs.
Probably, something else was going on in Judaea. It has been assumed that Menelaos was the architect of the king's decree, seeing an opportunity to hellenize his country and to show his loyalty to the Greek king. From a conservative Jewish point of view, the high priest had turned against his own people.
Later generations have called Antiochus IV a defender of hellenism because he attacked Judaism. His action is often called anti-Semitic, but in reality, things were far more complex than simple Judaeophobia.
Pogroms in Alexandria
According to a modern estimate, Alexandria had a million inhabitants: the native Egyptian population, the Greek elite, and some 150,000 Jews. The Greek kings usually treated the Jews kindly; for example, king Ptolemy II Philadelphus (282-246) had paid for the translation of the Bible into Greek. His grandson Ptolemy IV Philopator (222-205) had other thoughts, however.
The Jewish legend has it that he visited Jerusalem in 217 and was so impressed by its beauty, that he wanted to enter the temple. The high priest invoked God's help to prevent this sacrilege, and indeed, the king was punished by a stroke. He returned to Egypt, where he decided to avenge himself on the Jews of Alexandria, who were told that they could only save their lives by sacrificing to the god Dionysus. When they refused, they were imprisoned in the stadium, where five hundred elephants were to trample them. A miraculous intervention by two angels saved the Jews' lives, and Ptolemy repented.
This legend can be found in the Third Book of Maccabees. There may be some truth in it, because the story of the elephants is also told by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Against the Greeks 2.5), although he calls the king Ptolemy VIII Euergetes Physcon (145-116), who is otherwise known for his kindness towards the Jews.We know a lot more about another Alexandrine pogrom: in 38 CE, some seventy years after Egypt had become part of the Roman empire. Our main source is a text called Against Flaccus, written by the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c.20 BCE - 50 CE). Aulus Avilius Flaccus was the Roman governor of Egypt between 32 and 38 and, according to Philo, a complete villain. According to Philo, Flaccus had not sent the Jewish declaration of loyalty to Caligula, when he became emperor (in 37). This may be a lie, but what is certain is that Flaccus was unable to control the outbreak of violence in August/September 38, and even encouraged it.
There had always been tensions between the three population groups of Alexandria: the Greeks despised the Jews, and Egyptians hated them because the Jews had privileges which they did not possess. In July 38, the Jewish king Herod Agrippa visited Alexandria on a mission from the Roman emperor Caligula. When he was insulted, Flaccus did nothing to punish those guilty of lese majesty. According to Philo, this encouraged the populace to demand that statues of Caligula had to be placed in the synagogues.This demand was a trick of the Greek elite of Alexandria, people who hated the Romans and detested the Jews. It was intended to bring the Roman governor into trouble: if he allowed it to happen, the Jews would be furious and he would be forced to use violence against them; if he refused, he would have to explain himself in Rome to an emperor who was reportedly insane.
Flaccus was forced to order the statues to be placed, and this encouraged people to attack the synagogues: the gardens were destroyed, the buildings set afire. Philo says that this was done by the Alexandrian mob, but the assaults had been well-organized. They were planned.
From now on, the Jews were trapped. They had been living in all five quarters of the city; now they were ordered to live in one part, close together. It may be that Flaccus thought that this segregation would help the Jews, because it now became impossible to attack them as individuals. Whatever the motive, the result was the first known ghetto in history. Of course, the houses the Jews had left, were plundered by the Egyptian and Greek mob.
It was impossible for the Jews to leave their quarter: they were stoned, clubbed, or burned and the dead bodies were mutilated. Others were brought to the arena or crucified. Philo gives a shocking eyewitness account. Thousands must have perished, and -according to Philo- Flaccus did nothing to prevent it; instead, he sided with the attackers. Members of the Jewish council were arrested and whipped in the theater to celebrate the birthday of the emperor; others were crucified (31 August, a sabbath).
After this, the situation seems to have relaxed a bit: as long as they stayed in their ghetto, the Jews were more or less save; the governor had shown the Greeks that he was one of them, and it is possible that he now had the credit to persuade the mob to calm down. It was a cynical solution, but the killing may have ceased.
By now, prince Agrippa had reported to the emperor. Caligula immediately sent an officer to Alexandria, who arrested Flaccus in the first week of October. Philo notes that this happened during the festival of Tabernacles, suggesting that the arrest was a divine intervention; he delights in his description of Flaccus' trial, exile and violent death.
The next governor allowed the Jews of Alexandria to explain what had happened in Rome. Unfortunately, Caligula had by now turned into a cruel tyrant and did not sympathize with the Jews. However, before things could get worse, Caligula was assassinated (24 January 41). The new emperor, Claudius, was able to normalize the situation, but it is not exactly clear how he did it, because Philo's narrative breaks off before the death of Caligula.
This was the best known anti-Semitic incident from Antiquity. There were some other events (go here for the story of a second pogrom in Alexandria), but it is unclear whether they were really anti-Semitic in nature. E.g., the emperor Tiberius expelled Jews from Rome in 19 CE, but this seems to have been a police measure after riots. This was certainly the case when Claudius expelled Jews in 49 or 50: they had been quarreling 'because of the agitator Christ'. Other incidents are related to war and are atypical.
We must now turn to the ideology of those who attacked the Jews.
Ideas
The ancient anti-Semitic ideas are well known to us. Even though the most notorious anti-Jewish libel, the five books of Egyptian history by Apion of Alexandria (c.20 BCE - 45 CE), are now lost, they were used by other authors, such as the Roman historian Tacitus (55-c.120) - and his works survive. The text of his description of the Jews can be read over here. Moreover, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote a book Against Apion; this is also a source for Apion's ideas.
But Apion was not the only one who detested the Jews. The following accusations were common.
- The Exodus-story was inverted. The Jews were considered to be the descendants of lepers, who had been exiled by the Egyptians. In Antiquity, statements like these were considered extremely insulting.
- Because the Jews were said to have been rescued in the desert by a wild ass, the Jews were believed to venerate this animal as their God. A similar statement can be found in the Symposium of the Greek philosopher Plutarch of Chaeronea (c.45-120), where he says that the object of the Jewish cult was the pig.
- The Jews did not worship the usual gods, like others did. This was, of course, true, but was held against the Jews, who were sometimes considered to be responsible for the divine anger when disasters befell a community. It should be added, however, that many Greeks and Romans were fascinated by the radical monotheism of the Jews, which was philosophically elegant.
- In their temple in Jerusalem, the Jews sacrificed human beings. For example, it was widely believed that when the Roman general Pompey took the city and entered the temple, he liberated a Greek prisoner who was being fattened for the sacrifice.
- Jews were considered to be lazy: this was clear to all Greeks and Romans, because the Jews maintained the sabbath. This thought can be found in the Fourteenth satire of the Roman poet Juvenal (c.67-c.145).
- The Jews had strange customs. The Food and Purity Laws -the difference was never clear to the Greeks and Romans- were the object of many jokes, sometimes good-natured, usually not.
- Those who followed the Law of Moses were thought to ignore the law of the state in which they resided. Of all accusations against the Jews, this one is the oldest; we have encountered it in the story about Esther.
- Jews were believed to be antisocial. They separated from the other people living in the ancient Mediterranean world. (As a matter of fact, pious Jews were forced to live in the neighborhood of their synagogues -there was a maximum distance they were allowed to walk on a sabbath-, which explains the existence of Jewish quarters. For example, in Rome, the quarter on the other side of the Tiber was entirely Jewish. So, the Jews were indeed separated from the others, but this does not mean that they were antisocial.)
- The 'mutilation of genitals' was considered barbarous. The Greeks and Romans thought that the Jews circumcised their boys to prevent them from assimilating. In 132, the Roman emperorHadrian tried to root out this practice, which led to war. Probably, he was influenced by Greek philosophical ideas about the integrity of the body (which was, after all, the vehicle of the soul). This may also apply to the persecution by Antiochus IV.
These are all very unkind ideas. However, few would deny that the Jews were human beings. The Greek author Philostratus (170-c.244) makes precisely this claim in his vie romanc�e of the first-century charismatic teacher Apollonius of Tyana.
For the Jews have long been in revolt [...] against humanity; and a race that has made its own a life apart and irreconcilable, that cannot share with the rest of mankind in the pleasures of the table nor join in their libations or prayers or sacrifices, are separated from ourselves by a greater gulf than divides us from Susa or Bactra or the more distant Indies.[Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 5.33;
tr. F.C. Conybeare]
This statement, which does not necessarily represent Philostratus' own opinions, is probably the strongest expression of Judaeophobia in Antiquity. It is remarkable, because Philostratus was a courtier of the Roman emperors Septimius Severus (193-211) and Caracalla (211-217), who were unusually kind towards the Jews.
Evaluation
The words of Philostratus -'they are in revolt against humanity'- are shockingly similar to certain remarks by politicians of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Hitler writes in the second chapter of Mein Kampf (1925):
Wherever I went, I began to see Jews, and the more I saw, the more sharply they became distinguished in my eyes from the rest of humanity.
And when we read the story of the Alexandrine pogrom, we cannot help but think about the gradual isolation of and the violence against the Jews during the Second World War. It is tempting to compare ancient and modern anti-Semitism.
Tempting though this may be, this would be mistaken. There are three very important differences between nineteenth- and twentieth-century anti-Semitism and its ancient predecessor.
In the first place, the most frequent accusation made by Christian authors, was that the Jews had killed Jesus of Nazareth; in other words, modern anti-Semitism was in the first place a religious hatred. This important aspect is absent from ancient anti-Semitism.
In the second place, the economic accusations were absent. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, many believed that the European Jews were looking for economic world domination; there was some discussion whether this dominance was to be liberal or marxist (both Ricardo and Marx were Jews), but many people knew for certain that the Jews were trying to dominate world trade. In Antiquity, it is the other way round: the Jews are despised because they were very poor. (An example can be found at the beginning of the Third satire of Juvenal.)
The third and most important difference is that the more elaborate aspects of racism were absent in Antiquity. In the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, many serious scientists believed that they could establish the characteristics of human races; in their theories, Jews were always recognizable because they had -for example- large noses and dark eyes. This biological racism is (to the best of my knowledge) completely absent from our ancient sources.
The accusations that were made by the ancients are absent from the anti-Semitic writings of the modern age. Few anti-Semitic writers in the nineteenth and twentieth century have believed the inverted Exodus-story and the other accusations mentioned above. The exception is the accusation of human sacrifice, which has been made frequently in European history.
This leaves us with two completely different types of anti-Semitism, or even three: an ancient type, a Christian type (in which the accusation of killing Christ was the central theme), and a modern type, in which economic and biological accusations were important. The only thing they have in common is an irrational hatred of the Jews.
Tacitus on the Jews
Jupiter Ammon. Detail of the Aufidius altar, found in the Via Flaminia, Rome. Cripta di Balbo, Rome (Italy)
[2] The Jews are said to have been refugees from the island of Crete who settled in the remotest corner of Libya in the days when, according to the story, Saturn was driven from his throne by the aggression of Jupiter.note This is a deduction from the name Judaei by which they became known: the word is to be regarded as a barbarous lengthening of Idaei, the name of the people dwelling around the famous Mount Ida in Crete. A few authorities hold that in the reign of Isis the surplus population of Egypt was evacuated to neighboring lands under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Judas.note Many assure us that the Jews are descended from those Ethiopians who were driven by fear and hatred to emigrate from their home country when Cepheus was king.note There are some who say that a motley collection of landless Assyriansnote occupied a part of Egypt, and then built cities of their own, inhabiting the lands of the Hebrews and the nearer parts of Syria. Others again find a famous ancestry for the Jews in the Solymi who are mentioned with respect in the epics of Homer:note this tribe is supposed have founded Jerusalem and named it after themselves.
[3] Most authorities, however, agree on the following account. The whole of Egypt was once plagued by a wasting disease which caused bodily disfigurement. So pharaoh Bocchorisnote went to the oracle of Hammonnote to ask for a cure, and was told to purify his kingdom by expelling the victims to other lands, as they lay under a divine curse. Thus a multitude of sufferers was rounded up, herded together, and abandoned in the wilderness. Here the exiles tearfully resigned themselves to their fate. But one of them, who was called Moses, urged his companions not to wait passively for help from god or man, for both had deserted them: they should trust to their own initiative and to whatever guidance first helped them to extricate themselves from their present plight. They agreed, and started off at random into the unknown. But exhaustion set in, chiefly through lack of water, and the level plain was already strewn with the bodies of those who had collapsed and were at their last gasp when a herd of wild asses left their pasture and made for the spade of a wooded crag. Moses followed them and was able to bring to light a number of abundant channels of water whose presence he had deduced from a grassy patch of ground. This relieved their thirst. They traveled on for six days without a break, and on the seventh they expelled the previous inhabitants of Canaan, took over their lands and in them built a holy city and temple.
[4] In order to secure the allegiance of his people in the future, Moses prescribed for them a novel religion quite different from those of the rest of mankind. Among the Jews all things are profane that we hold sacred; on the other hand they regard as permissible what seems to us immoral. In the innermost part of the Temple, they consecrated an image of the animal which had delivered them from their wandering and thirst, choosing a ram as beast of sacrifice to demonstrate, so it seems, their contempt for Hammon.note The bull is also offered up, because the Egyptians worship it as Apis.note They avoid eating pork in memory of their tribulations, as they themselves were once infected with the disease to which this creature is subject.note. They still fast frequently as an admission of the hunger they once endured so long, and to symbolize their hurried meal the bread eaten by the Jews is unleavened. We are told that the seventh day was set aside for rest because this marked the end of their toils. In course of time the seductions of idleness made them devote every seventh year to indolence as well. Others say that this is a mark of respect to Saturn, either because they owe the basic principles of their religion to the Idaei, who, we are told, were expelled in the company of Saturn and became the founders of the Jewish race, or because, among the seven stars that rule mankind, the one that describes the highest orbit and exerts the greatest influence is Saturn. A further argument is that most of the heavenly bodies complete their path and revolutions in multiples of seven.
[5] Whatever their origin, these observances are sanctioned by their antiquity. The other practices of the Jews are sinister and revolting, and have entrenched themselves by their very wickedness. Wretches of the most abandoned kind who had no use for the religion of their fathers took to contributing dues and free-will offerings to swell the Jewish exchequer; and other reasons for their increasing wealth way be found in their stubborn loyalty and ready benevolence towards brother Jews. But the rest of the world they confront with the hatred reserved for enemies. They will not feed or intermarry with gentiles. Though a most lascivious people, the Jews avoid sexual intercourse with women of alien race. Among themselves nothing is barred. They have introduced the practice of circumcision to show that they are different from others. Proselytes to Jewry adopt the same practices, and the very first lesson they learn is to despise the gods, shed all feelings of patriotism, and consider parents, children and brothers as readily expendable. However, the Jews see to it that their numbers increase. It is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child,note and they think that eternal life is granted to those who die in battle or execution - hence their eagerness to have children, and their contempt for death. Rather than cremate their dead, they prefer to bury them in imitation of the Egyptian fashion, and they have the same concern and beliefs about the world below. But their conception of heavenly things is quite different. The Egyptians worship a variety of animals and half-human, half-bestial forms, whereas the Jewish religion is a purely spiritual monotheism. They hold it to be impious to make idols of perishable materials in the likeness of man: for them, the Most High and Eternal cannot be portrayed by human hands and will never pass away. For this reason they erect no images in their cities, still less in their temples. Their kings are not so flattered, the Roman emperors not so honored. However, their priests used to perform their chants to the flute and drums, crowned with ivy, and a golden vine was discovered in the Temple; and this has led some to imagine that the god thus worshipped was Prince Liber,note, the conqueror of the East. But the two cults are diametrically opposed. Liber founded a festive and happy cult: the Jewish belief is paradoxical and degraded.