Asia Minor 'Asiyah
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
second half of the first century before the common era provoked at Tralles, Laodicea, Miletus, and Ephesus irritating measures, such as the seizure of moneys collected for the Temple, the prohibition of the exercise of the Jewish religion, and even threats of expulsion. Caesar and Augustus, however, assured to the Jews the rights of sojourn and of free worship; yet it is improbable that in the Greek towns they possessed the right of citizenship and a corresponding share of public honors. On the other hand, they enjoyed freedom from conscription, the exemption from which was conferred on them by Dolabella, proconsul in Asia (43 B.C.). Roman officials
seem
to
have departed
lent policy in only one instance
from their benevowhen, in 62 n.c,
—
212
lenism. At the end of the first century Ptolemaeus of Tlos offered to the Jewish community, as a thankoffering for having raised him to the dignity of archon, a burial-ground, which bore the pagan name of "heroon. " This The
Birth of was in conformity with the practise Hellenism, known as the " honorarium decurionati " (present of one who has become a decurion), modeled after the political organization of the city. Only the ordinary formulas of Greek epigraphy are seen in the epitaph of Rufina of Smyrna and in the inscription of Tation of Phoca?a, who erected a synagogue, in return for which he received a crown of gold from the community. Record exists of the marriage of a Jewess to a Greek at Lystra.
Ancient Jewish Communities in Asia Minor.
Modem (Drawn
city-names in
especially for
Roman
type.
" The Jewish Encyclopedia.")
L.Valerius Flaccus confiscated at Laodicea, Apamea, Adramyttium, and Pergamus money intended for Jerusalem. He had to answer for the illegal act before the courts. If the sums seized by Valerius Flaccus really represented the didrachma tax for one year, it might be concluded, according to the calculation of Theodore Reinach, that there were at that time 180,000 Jews in Asia Minor. But this number is possibly ten times too large; for, among nearly 20,000 Greek inscriptions found in Asia Minor, scarcely twenty can be attributed doubtless to Jews. From the beginning of the common era, popular latred toward the Jews seemed to diminish, doubtless through their gradual assimilation with Hel-
As Judaism became and
affected
in turn influenced the
by outside influences,
surrounding society, various hybrid groups grew up side by side with the relatively orthodox elements. Such were the Judaizing pagans: Julia Severa of Akmonia, benefactress of the synagogue and high priestess of the imperial religion; the Porphyrabaphoi of Hierapolis, who mixed practises of entirely Hellenic origin with the observance of the feasts of Passover and Pentecost and the Hypsistarians, or Adorers of the Supreme God. The Sabbatists of Cilicia and the followers of Sambathe at Thyatira were also more or less under the influence of Judaism. Powerful though the effect of the surrounding Hellenism was, the Jewish communities displayed
