Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/454

 JEWS

390

JEWS

the Empire. A garrison of SOO men occupied the ruins of Jerusalem to prevent its reconstruction by the re- Ugious zeal of its former inhabitants, and in order to do away with all possible pretenders to the Jewish Throne or to the Messianic dignity a strict search was made for

SelEUCUS I, NiCATOR

all who claimed descent from the royal House of David. I'ndcr Domitian (a. d. 81-96), the Fiscus Judaicus, or tax of two drachmas established by Vespasian for the temple of Jupiter Capitohnus, was exacted from the Jews with the utmost rigour, and they were involved in the persecutions which this tjTant carried on against Christians. The reign of Nerva (a. d. 96-98) gave a brief interval of peace to the Jews; but in that of Tra- jan (98-117), while the Roman legions had been with- drawn from Africa to fight against Parthia, the Jewish population of Egypt and Cyrene took up arms against the Greeks of those districts, and on both sides dread- ful atrocities were committed. Thence the flame spread to Cyprus where the Jews massacred, we are told, 240,000 of their fellow-citizens. Hadrian sent forces to suppress the uprising in that island, and for- bade any Jew to set his foot on its soil. Next, the re- volt in Egypt and Cyrene was put down. Meanwhile the Jews of Mesopotamia, dissatisfied with the Romans who had just conquered the Parthians, endeavoured to get rid of the Fiscus Judaicus now imposed upon them. Their insurrection was soon suppressed by Lucius Quintus, who was then appointed to the government of Judea, where it is probable that disturbances were feared.

The next year (a. d. 117), Hadrian became emperor. This was a fortunate occurrence for the Jews of Baby- lonia, for as the new Cssar gave up Trajan's conquests beyond the Euphrates, they came again under the milder rule of their ancient sovereigns. But it proved most unfortunate for the Jewish population of the Ro- man world. Hadrian issued an edict forbidding cir- cumcision, the reading of the Law, and the oliservance of the Sabbath. He next made known his intention to establish a Roman colony in Jerusalem, and to erect a fane to Jupiter on the site of Yahweh's fallen Temple. At this juncture, it was announced that the Messias had just appeared. His name, Bar-Cochba, "Son of the Star", seemed to fulfil the ancient prophecy: "a star shall rise out of Jacob" (Numb.,xxiv, 17). Rabbi Aqiba, the most learned and venerated of the Sanhe- drists of the day, distinctly acknowletlged the claims of the new Messias. Jewish warriors of all countries flocked around Bar-Cochba, and he maintained his cause against Hadrian for two years. But Roman tactics and discipline gradually prevailed. The Jew- ish strongholds fell one after another before Julius Severus, the Roman general; Jerusalem was taken; and at length (a. d. 13.5), the fortress of Bither, the last refuge of the rebels, was captured and razed to the ground. Bar-Cochba had been slain; and sometime later. Rabbi Aqiba was seized and executed, but liis seven leading pupils fortunately escaped to Nisibis and Nahardea. Dreadful massacres followed the suppres- sion of the revolt; of the fugitives who escaped death many fled to Araljia, whence that country obtained its Jewish population; and the rest were sold into slavery. To annihilate for ever all hopes of the restoration of a Jewish kingdom, a new city was founded on the site of

Jerusalem and peopled by a colony of foreigners. The city received the name of ^EUa Capitolina, and no Jew was allowed to reside in it or even approach its envi- rons. The Christians, now fully distinguished from the Jews, were permitted to establish themselves within the walls, and ^lia became the seat of a flour- ishing bishopric.

Under Antoninus Pius (138-161), Hadrian's laws were repealed, and the active persecution against the Jews came to an end. Aqiba's disciples then re- turned to Palestine and reorganized the Sanhedrin at LIsha, in Galilee (140), under the presidency of Simon IL the son of Gamaliel II. Simon's patriarchate was not free from the petty oppression of the Roman officials, which the Palestinian Jews particularly felt and resented. On the occasion, therefore, of the war- like preparations of the Parthians against Rome, a fresh revolt broke out in Judea during the last year of Antoninus's reign. It was speedily suppressed under the next emperor, Marcus Aurehus (161-180), and fol- lowed by a re-enactment of Hadrian's extreme meas- ures which, however, were soon annulled or never carried out. In 165, Rabbi Juda I succeeded Simon II as president of the Sanhedrin and patriarch of the West. The most important of his acts is the comple- tion of the Mishna oral Law (about ISO), which, concurrently with the Bible, became the principal source of rabbinical study, and a kind of constitution which even now holds together the scattered members of the Jewish race. As Rabbi Juda was in office for over thirty years, he was the last Jewish patriarch who had to complain of the vexations of the pagan rulers of Rome. Under Caracalla (211-217), the Jews received the right of citizenship; and under his successors the various disabilities by which they had been affected were gradually removed. Even such rabid perse- cutors of the Christians as Decius (249-251), Valerian (253-260), and Diocletian (284-305) left the Jews unmolested. During this period of peace, the pa- triarchs of the West frequently sent their legates to the various synagogues to ascertain their actual condition and collect the tax from which Juda III and his suc- cessors drew their income. In Babjdonia, the Jewish communities and schools were flourishing under the princes of the Captivity, and except for a short space of time immediately after the conquest of the Par- tliians by the neo-Persians, and during the ephemeral rule of Odenathus at Palmyra, they enjoyed quiet and independence. The condition of the Jews in Arabia and China, at this time, is not known with any degree of certainty.

(6) Christian Emperors and Barbarian Kings {320- 628). — The accession of Christianity to the throne of

Ptolemy HI, Edergetes Antiochi's HI, the Gueat

the Cicsars by the conversion of Constantine, opens a new era in the history of the Jews. The equality of rights to which the pagan emperors had admitted them was gradually restricted by the head of the Christian State. Under Constantine (306-337), the restrictions were few in number, and due to his inter- est in the welfare of his Christian subjects and in the promotion of the true religion. He made the passage from Christianity to Judaism a penal offence; pro- hibited the Jews from circumcising their Christian