Heritage

Caesarea
10 BCE to 6 CE

Herod founded Caesarea on the site of Strato's Tower and built the city with all the splendor the age afforded.

Upon completion, the city was the largest, most advanced seaport in Palestine. It had a large artificial harbor. Its streets were laid out in a grid and their gutters were flushed by the waxing and waning of the tide. The city also had an amphitheater, a palace, and a Roman temple.
Although Caesarea was home to many Jews, its population became primarily Hellenistic (Greek-speaking inhabitants who worshiped Greco-Roman gods).

When Judea was made a Roman province in 6 CE, the Roman governors chose to make Caesarea their capital.

Sardis
1st century BCE to 616 CE

During the period of Roman rule, the Jewish population of Sardis was large, wealthy, and thoroughly integrated into the life of the city.
The 1st century historian Josephus quotes a Roman document which states that the Jews had a place of assembly in Sardis "from the beginning."

From early writings it is clear that there was a synagogue in Sardis at least from the 1st century BCE.

In 1962 the ruins of a spectacular synagogue were uncovered in Sardis. Dating from the 3rd-5th century CE, it was more than 130 yards long and 20 yards wide. It had a colonnaded forecourt with a central fountain and a vast assembly hall.

Decorated with rich mozaics, the synagogue was located on a main avenue, and was adjacent to the city's Roman gymnasium (school).
The city was destroyed by the Persians in 616 CE.

Alexandria
332 to mid-3rd century BCE

The port of Alexandria was founded in 332 by Alexander the Great. Within a century it became one of the largest cities in the Hellenistic world.

It served as the Egyptian capital under the dynasty of Greek rulers, the Ptolemies, who established a research institute and a vast library in the city. Greek scholars who studied here included Euclid and Archimedes.

Jews lived in Alexandria almost from the time of its founding. In the 3rd century, Jewish scholars in Alexandria began a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

This translation, called the Septuagint, or "seventy," contains slight variations from the later established text of the Bible. The circumstances of its translation remain unclear, but it was probably done for a Jewish readership more literate in Greek than Hebrew.

3rd to 1st century CE

The Jewish community in Alexandria was prosperous and well-educated. Some Jews obtained citizenship in the city and were entitled to the same privileges as the Greeks, and, beginning in 30 BCE, the Romans. Egyptian natives, however, generally had second-class status.

Jewish scholars, steeped in Greek culture, produced a unique blend of Greek and Jewish thinking. The last and most famous of these was the Jewish philosopher Philo (20 BCE to 50 CE).

By the 1st century CE, Alexandria had the largest Jewish community outside of Palestine.
By that time, under Roman rule, tensions between Jews and their neighbors had begun to intensify.

Qumran
150 BCE to 68 CE

At a small fortified settlement in Wadi Qumran, a group of Judeans established a separatist colony in the second half of the 2nd century
According to one theory, the group that founded the colony had its origins among disaffected priests who disapproved of the religious policies instituted by the new Hasmonean rulers of Judah.

Qumran was probably one center of a communal religious order that many scholars have associated with the Essenes. Property was shared. Strict ritual purity was maintained. The communal vision seemed to include hope for a messianic leader who would overthrow the forces of "darkness" and establish a sacred kingdom, obedient to the god of Israel.

Antioch
300 to 142 BCE

Antioch was founded in 300 as the capital of the Seleucid Empire. Jews lived in Antioch from the beginning and had full citizenship rights, which were outlined in a engraved document put on public display.

Jews could, and did, live throughout the city.

In 142 BCE a Jewish uprising in the city brought the support of the Hasmonean army from Judah.
In general, however, relations between Jews and non-Jews in Antioch were peaceful.

64 BCE-70 CE
Antioch became capital of the Roman province of Syria when Rome annexed Syria in 64 BCE.

It was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, with a population of perhaps 250,000, including many Jews.

The Roman general Titus refused to expel Jews from Antioch after the Judean war of 66-70 CE, despite demands from the Hellenistic population.
In Antioch in the 1st century CE the term "Christian" was first applied to those who followed the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Jerusalem
66 to 70 CE

Incompetent and oppressive rule by Roman governors contributed to growing tension between Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants of Judaea.

In 66 CE a group of religious and political zealots in Jerusalem led an armed rebellion against Rome.

The city briefly became capital of an independent Judaea. The Jewish population of Judaea was deeply divided, however. Many feared the Zealots as much or more than the Romans, and the fighting in Jerusalem from 67 to 69 was primarily among Jews, as Zealots fought other nationalists and pro-Roman groups.

When Roman troops laid siege to Jerusalem in 70, the Jewish defense of the city lasted for three months, despite violent divisions among the city's defenders and widespread starvation and disease among its inhabitants.

Zealots established themselves in the Temple precincts, using the Temple and its walled enclosure as a fortress from which to attack the Roman troops. To dislodge the Zealots, the Romans breached the walls of the Temple Mount and set fire to the Temple. The Temple Mount was later stripped of its defenses by the Romans, who reduced much of Jerusalem to rubble.

Greek States
Late 4th century to 146 BCE

Greek soldiers in the armies of Alexander the Great conquered vast territory in the East and returned to Greece with their booty.

After Alexander's death, the Hellenistic kingdoms established across the Near East by his generals depended upon Greeks for key administrative personnel. New opportunities appeared for enterprising Greeks to help develop and rule the Near Eastern lands of Syria and Egypt.

Several cities in Greece became centers of education for the governing elite.

Jews probably reached Greece shortly after Alexander's conquests, some of them as prisoners-of-war.

The earliest known inscription mentioning a Jew is from a small state near Athens in the early 3rd century It speaks of the slave "Moschos, son of Moschion the Judean."

During the Maccabean revolt (167 to 165 BCE) a number of Judeans were taken captive by the Greek forces of Syria, and some of them probably found their way to Greece as slaves.

In 146 BCE, the last league of independent Greek states was conquered by Roman forces and Greece became a Roman province.

Roman Empire
1st century CE

Augustus Caesar established a civil service to administer the vast territories under Roman rule. The empire was gradually internationalized as non-Italians rose to Roman citizenship and even to senatorial rank.

To reduce the population pressure on the city of Rome, 120 new cities were established across the empire for veteran soldiers to settle, and where all the inhabitantswere Roman citizens.

In the eastern provinces many non-Jews learned about and became attracted to Jewish practices. Rome granted Jews legal exemptions that allowed them to live bytheir own nation's laws, even in foreign lands.

This unusual arrangement helped distinguish Jewish communities, but in some cases the gulf between Jewish and non-Jewish communities led to violent clashes.

After the death of the Judean king, Herod the Great (4 BCE), Augustus appointed Herod's son, Archelaus, ethnarch of most of Judea.

In 6 CE Augustus received a delegation of Judean Jews upset with the cruelty of Archelaus' rule. At their request he deposed Archelaus and exiled him to Vienna, in Gaul.

In 14 CE Augustus died and was succeeded by his adopted son Tiberias, an undistinguished ruler, who died in 37 and was succeeded by the arrogant and
inept Caligula.

Caligula's contemptuous rule would probably have led to rebellion in Judea had he not been assassinated in 41 CE.

Intrigue and corruption plagued the imperial family. After 13 years of stable rule under Claudius, the vicious Nero came to power (ruled 54 to 68). Cruel and inept provincial governors led to a revolt in Britain and then to the great Judean revolt of 66, which was not put down until 70 CE.