The Jewish Diaspora

Migration

Settlement in Cyrenaica

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300 BCEAlexandria & Hellenistic Egypt → Cyrenaica

Why it happened

Ptolemy I Soter (r. 305–282 BCE), extending Lagid control over the Cyrenaican Pentapolis, planted Jewish military colonists there—as he had in Egypt's fortresses—to garrison its cities and bind the region to his crown.12

The migration

From about 300 BCE Jews spread across the five Greek cities of the Pentapolis—Cyrene, Berenice, Teuchira, Ptolemais and Apollonia—arriving from Ptolemaic Egypt as soldier-settlers, farmers and traders.123 Strabo, quoted by Josephus, ranked the Jews as one of Cyrene's four recognized classes, beside citizens, farmers and resident aliens.4 At Berenice (modern Benghazi) a self-governing Jewish community with its own board of archons met in an amphitheater and worshipped in a synagogue, as Roman-era inscriptions attest.5 Cyrenaica produced Jason of Cyrene, whose lost history underlies 2 Maccabees,1 and Simon of Cyrene of the Gospels.6 This flourishing was annihilated in the Diaspora Revolt of 115–117 CE, when rebels under a leader called Andreas by Cassius Dio and Lukuas by later writers7 devastated the province; Dio reports 220,000 dead and Cyrene was left in ruins.81

Sources

  1. B2007. Cyrene. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (Gale) link
  2. BFlavius Josephus. 95. Against Apion, Book 2 (2.44). The Works of Flavius Josephus, trans. William Whiston link
  3. BApplebaum S. 1979. Jews and Greeks in Ancient Cyrene. E. J. Brill, Leiden (Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity 28)
  4. BFlavius Josephus. 94. Antiquities of the Jews, Book 14 (14.115, quoting Strabo of Amaseia). The Works of Flavius Josephus, trans. William Whiston link
  5. C2000. Libya Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library link
  6. BMark the Evangelist (trad.). 70. Gospel of Mark 15:21. New Testament (King James Version) link
  7. BPucci Ben Zeev M. 2006. The uprisings in the Jewish Diaspora, 116–117. The Cambridge History of Judaism, Vol. 4: The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period, ed. Steven T. Katz, Cambridge University Press 93–104. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521772488.005
  8. BCassius Dio. 1925. Roman History, Book 68.32 (Epitome of Xiphilinus). Loeb Classical Library, trans. E. Cary, via LacusCurtius link