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up In the district where was the temple of Demos and of the Graces, and that announcement of this he made at the Dionysian festival in the theater, at the representation of the new tragedies, and at the Panathenaean and Eleusinian games," etc. set

From its introductory formula, to

this decree

appears

have been issued under the archon Agathocles.

many modern authorities think, toward the end of the second century b.c, this resolution must have referred to Hyrcanus I. But it is

If he ruled, as

not at all certain that Agathocles is correctly assigned to that time. Besides, Hyrcanus is therein styled " son of Alexander " but only Hyrcanus II. was a son of Alexander; and there being no reason to doubt the correctness of the received text, it is more probable that the Athenian resolution had reference to Hyrcanus II. (see especially Th. Reinach, in " Revue Etudes Juives, " 1899, xxxix. 16-27). This would bring it to about 47-40 B.C., at which time

Hyrcanus, by Caesar's appointment, was " high priest and ethnarch of the Jews. " It appears, then, that ambassadors from the Athenians and Athenian merchants were in the habit of coming to Judea and were well received by Hyrcanus, and that the Athenians expressed their appreciation by voting to him a gold crown and a bronze statue. Similar friendly relations existed in the time of Herod and his descendants. Josephus ("B. J." i. 21, § 11) mentions Athens among the cities which " are full of gifts from Herod. " The Athenians seem to have honored the latter in a manner similar to that in which they honored Hyrcanus for it is probable that an inscription which describes the erection of a statue in honor of Herod refers to Herod the Great. "The People [the Athenians] honor, It reads: through the erection of this monument, the king Herod, the friend of the Romans, for kindly acts " performed by him and for his friendly disposition inscription Another No. 550). iii. 1, ("C. I. A." which deserves notice on account of the variation in the title refers to another Herod, probably Herod of Chalcis, a grandson of Herod the Great, who ruled over the little kingdom of Chalcis in the Lebanon about 41-48. It reads: " The people honor King Herod the Pious, the friend of Csesar, on account of his virtue and benevolence" ty.c. No. 551). The last Jewish princess, Berenice, whose name is associated with that of Titus, was honored in a similar way " The Council of the Areopagus and the Council of Six Hundred and the peoOther Jews pie of the Athenians honor, by the



Honored,

erection of this statue, Julia Berenice, the great queen, daughter of King Ju-

Agrippa, and descendant of great kings who were benefactors of the city. Erected under the supervision of the governor of the city, Tiberius Claudius Theogenes of Pssania " (I.e. No. 556). The de-

lius

scription of Berenice as the " descendant of great kings who were benefactors of the city " corresponds

with the statements of Josephus and with

otfier in-

scriptions.

G

Athenians Athias

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

E. Sch.

.

ATHENS, MODERN"



The Jewish community

hardly thirty years old. One of the oldest families, if not the oldest, is that of Max Rothschild, a Bavarian Jew, who went to Greece in 1883 with' King Otho. The community had neither of Athens

is

synagogue nor rabbi, but a Turkish " hakain " held services in very unsuitable quarters. The majority of the Athenian Jews are of Levantine-Spanish ex-

and

they are mostly Those in better circumstances are mainly of German descent, though some of those from Chalcis and Zante have means. In 1899 the Jews of Athens, on the initiative of M. Haim Cohen of Smyrna, appointed a committee to revise the communal constitution, and, if possible, to find means to erect a modest synagogue. He succeeded in hiring a hall for prayers and obtained from the government a traction,

reside close together



artisans or pedlers.

concession of land for a separate cemetery. The Jews had previously been buried in a corner of the ordinary cemetery. Mention may be made in this connection of the celebrated duchess of Plaisance. This rather eccentric woman who, though not of Jewish in 1855 left origin, had a strong interest in Judaism as a legacy to the community a large tract of land for the erection of a "temple to the God of Israel." Either because the land was far from the city— close to the Olympia grounds and of small value then, or possibly because the community was not at that time actually organized, the legacy was forgotten

—

—

—

and, remaining unclaimed for thirty years, it was forfeited by law. [Paul Lucas, who was at Athens early in the seventeenth century, found only 15 or 20 Jewish homes ("Rev. Et. Juives," xviii. 105).— a.]

M.

d.

ATHIAS, ATIAS,

C.

ATHIA A Spanish fam-

or



by the great number of its scholars and promoters of learning. The name is spelled in

ily distinguished

Hebrew

variously, rVLtfJ, ilK'tO}?, DN'Oy, EWIDJ?, iTTJ?, iTJIK (from an Arabic word meaning " present, " " gift "). As early as the sixteenth century some of its members lived in Italy and Palestine while another branch settled in the cities of Hamburg, Amsterdam, and London. In addition to those mentioned below, the following names are D"t3J?,

WDK,



list of the members of the Portuguese community at Amsterdam in 1675 Abraham Atias, Abraham Atias, "el vie jo," Hayyim Franco Atias, Isaac de Semuel Atias, Isaac de David Atias, Jaha-

found in the



cob Atias, Jahacob Costa Atias (De Castro, "De Syn. der Portug. -Israel. Gem. te Amsterdam," pp. Steinschneider, in " Jewish Quarterly xlviii. et seq.

Review,"

xi. 480).

Abraham Athias Publicly burned, together with Jacob Rodriguez and Rachel Nunez Fernandez, on July 9, 1667, by the Inquisition at Cordova on account of his religion (Kay serling, "Sephardim," p. 263; Grittz, "Gesch. der Juden," x. 270).

Abraham ben Raphael Hezekiah Athias

A



(Hisquia) Amsterdam, 1728-41 (SteinTypographic" in Ersch and Gruber,

printer in

schneider, " Jttd.

"Encyklopadie,"

II.

sec. J. 28, p.

67; idem,

"Cat.

Bodl." No. 7830).

David Israel Athias Hakam of the Portuguese community at Amsterdam from 1728 till his death March 22, 1753. David ben Moses Athias Merchant, born at Leghorn. He was master of several modern languages, among them Servian, Russian, and Turkish, which he learned during his short stay at Constanti:



nople.

He

wrote a book containing proverbs, fables,