Tumultus Judaicus
Tumultus Iudaicus was the Roman language regulation with which in the city of Cyrene at the beginning of the reign of Emperor Hadrian on inscriptions on restored public buildings and streets the uprising of the Jews (" Diaspora uprising ") from 115 to 117 AD as the reason for the now resolved Destruction was documented.
Historical background
In addition to large areas of Jewish settlement in Babylonia and Egypt, there were also numerous diaspora communities in the Syrian region and in northern Mesopotamia at the time of Emperor Trajan . Other communities existed in Cyrenaica (in today's East Libya) and in almost all important port and trading cities in the eastern Mediterranean and of course in Rome.
During his campaign against the Parthians , Emperor Trajan came under strong military pressure when the "diaspora uprising" of the Jews broke out in 115 AD in Mesopotamia, Syria, Cyprus, Egypt and in Cyrenaica. The context and goals of these surveys are largely unclear, but they tied up Trajan's strong military forces so that he had to accept the reconquest of the Parthians. The unrest could not be ended until 117 AD, the year of Trajan's death, in the east by Lusius Quietus and in North Africa by Quintus Marcius Turbo . The new emperor Hadrian was only confronted with minor uprisings by the Jews, but had to do a lot of reconstruction work and recolonization, because in its scope in terms of destruction and deaths, this lesser-known second Jewish-Roman war (after Lusius Quietus also the Kitos war in many languages called) with the first armed conflict (“ Jewish War ”, 66–70 AD) and the third military conflict (“ Bar Kochba uprising ”, 132–134 AD) quite comparable. So reports Cassius Dio hundreds of thousands of dead in Cyrenaica and Egypt, as well as Cyprus.
Destruction and reconstruction in Cyrene
In the Roman province of Kyrenaica, the leader of the uprising was a Jew named Lukuas (also Lukas or Andreas) who may have had a messianic motivation. It left great damage to temples and public buildings in Cyrene and carried the rebellion on to Egypt. It is possible that the destruction in the city was partly due to its recapture by the Romans.
In a more recent work, F. Ziosi analyzes eleven well-known inscriptions from Cyrene that come from Roman milestones, parts of buildings and dedication plaques. The largely identical texts or text fragments are written in Latin, three of which are also in Greek. You name Emperor Hadrian as the instigator of the reconstruction after the destruction of the tumultus Iudaicus , i.e. the diaspora uprising of the Jews. Above all, the author investigates the questions why the inscriptions are in Latin in the region, which is predominantly inhabited by Greeks, why the reconstruction could take place so quickly - the inscriptions are dated to 118 and 119 AD - and why the uprising of the Jews consistently assigned the term tumultus ( Greek ταράχωι ) and cited as the reason for the reconstruction work.
According to Ziosi's deliberations, the damage to the city may not have been quite as severe and therefore easier to repair than one might infer from the inscriptions found. The Latin texts were supposed to proclaim before the new emperor Hadrian how quickly and efficiently the strong Rome - and above all the unnamed local governor! - was able to restore order and was able to rebuild a large part of the city badly hit by the coup in a short time. In his literature search, Ziosi found only 26 inscriptions in which the word tumultus appears. 9 of them belong to the diaspora uprising in the city of Cyrene. The term tumultus , which is obviously used as an official language regulation, reflects - in contrast to the term bellum - a certain unpredictability of the rebellion of the Jews.
Hadrian inscription on the Trajan baths
One of the inscriptions that still exist in Cyrene today is on the Trajan baths and can be translated as follows:
| Supplemented Latin text | German translation |
| Imp (erator) Caesar, divi Traiani
Parthici fil (ius), divi Nervae nepos, Traianus Hadrianus Aug (ustus), pontif (ex) max (imus), trib (unicia) potest (as) III, co (n) s (ul) III, balineum cum porticibus et sphaeristeris ceterisque adiacentibus, quae tumultu Iudaico diruta et exusta erant, civitati Cyrenensium restitui iussit. |
The Emperor and Caesar, the divine Traianus
Parthicus son, grandson of the divine Nerva, Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, high priest, 3 times endowed with tribunician authority, 3 times consul, ordered the bathing facility with the portico and the ball game rooms as well as the other adjacent [buildings], which were torn down and cremated by the Jewish riot, to be restored for the citizenship of Cyrene. |
Emperor mentioned in the text:
- "Traianus Hadrianus Augustus" (76-138, Emperor: 117-138) with the imperial title "Imperator Caesar" and three other titles / functions
- divus Traianus Parthicus (53–117, Emperor: 98–117) After his death, Trajan was raised to the status of god of the state (divus = deified), Parthicus is one of Trajan's victorious names alongside Germanicus and Dacicus.
- divus Nerva (30–98, Emperor: 96–98) Emperor Nerva established the adoptive empire with the adoption of Trajan in AD 97.
literature
- F. Ziosi: Sulle iscrizioni relative alla ricostruzione di Cirene dopo il tumultus Iudaicus e sul loro contesto . In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy . Volume 172, Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn 2010, 239–248 (Italian).
- Miriam Pucci Ben Zeew, Diaspora Judaism in Turmoil 116/117 CE. Ancient Sources and Modern Insights (Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and Religion) , Dudley, Leuven 2005, ISBN 9-04-291605-2
Web links
- Cassius Dio, Roman History Book 68, Chapter 32 (English Translation)
- F. Ziosi, Sulle iscrizioni relative alla ricostruzione di Cirene dopo il tumultus Iudaicus e sul loro contesto (Italian specialist article)