The Jewish Diaspora

Forced deportation

Captives to Rome under Pompey

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63 BCELand of Israel → Rome & Central Italy

Why it happened

After Salome Alexandra's death, a Hasmonean civil war between her sons Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II drew Pompey's intervention;1 when Aristobulus's partisans held Jerusalem against him, Pompey stormed the city in 63 BCE and took captives to Rome.1

The migration

Pompey's three-month siege ended when his troops breached the Temple's defences;1 some 12,000 Jewish defenders were slaughtered,1 and Pompey entered the Holy of Holies.1 He carried the deposed Aristobulus II, his younger son Antigonus, and his daughters to Rome; Aristobulus's elder son escaped.1 Some captives were ransomed by fellow Jews, while others were freed by Roman masters.2 Freedmen settled as traders on the right bank of the Tiber and contributed to the Transtiberine Jewish quarter.2 Writing in the 40s CE, Philo attests that the district included emancipated captives who had become Roman citizens while keeping their ancestral observances.3 This deportation enlarged rather than founded Rome's Jewish presence, which is attested before Pompey's conquest.4

Sources

  1. BFlavius Josephus. 94. Jewish Antiquities (Antiquitates Judaicae), Book XIV (trans. William Whiston). The Works of Flavius Josephus, trans. William Whiston (1737) link
  2. BThe Jewish Encyclopedia. 1905. Rome. The Jewish Encyclopedia (Funk & Wagnalls, 1901–1906), vol. 10 10 link
  3. BPhilo of Alexandria. 41. On the Embassy to Gaius (Legatio ad Gaium), §155. The Works of Philo, trans. C. D. Yonge (1855) link
  4. BLeon, Harry J.. 1960. The Jews of Ancient Rome. Jewish Publication Society of America (Philadelphia); updated ed. Hendrickson, 1995 link