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Military Service and the Integration of Jews into the Roman Empire
Series: - The Brill Reference Library of Judaism, Volume: 72
Author:
According to Raúl González Salinero, the plurality of religious expressions within Judaism prior to the predominance of the rabbinical current disproves the assumption according to which some Jewish customs and precepts (especially the Sabbath) prevented Jews from joining the Roman army without renouncing their ancestral culture. The military exemption occasionally granted to the Jews by the Roman authorities was compatible with their voluntary enlistment (as it was in the Hellenistic armies) in order to obtain Roman citizenship. As the sources attest, Judaism did not pose any insurmountable obstacle to integration of the Jews into the Roman world. They achieved a noteworthy presence in the Roman army by the fourth century CE, at which time the Church’s influence over imperial power led to their exclusion from the
militia armata.
Raúl González Salinero, Ph.D. (1997), University of Salamanca, is a Lecturer in Ancient History at UNED (Madrid). He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Universities of Parma, Sorbonne-Paris IV, Bari Aldo Moro, Cambridge, and Bologna.
"González-Salinero has written the
sine qua non for any study of Jews in the Roman army.
Anyone interested in ancient Jewish history, the Roman army, or indeed the question of the intersection of ethnicity and military service will benefit from reading this book."
- Jonathan Roth, San Jose State University, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2022.11.25.
Anyone interested in ancient Jewish history, the Roman army, or indeed the question of the intersection of ethnicity and military service will benefit from reading this book."
- Jonathan Roth, San Jose State University, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2022.11.25.
Preface
List of Figures
Introduction
1 Jewish Military Service in Hellenistic Armies
1 Precedents
2 Under the Ptolemies
3 Under the Seleucids
4 Apologetics and Historical Reality
2 Jewish Exemptions from Military Service in the Late Republic and the Augustan Principate
1 Jews and the Recruitment of Auxilia
2 Military Exemption as a Jewish Privilege
3 A Legal Precedent?
3 Jewish Soldiers in the Roman Army during the High Empire
1 Exceptional Recruitment
2 Jewish Troops in Roman Service
3 Material Evidence
4 Dura-Europos
5 The Presence of Jews in the Imperial Army: Conditions and Historical Evolution
4 During the Later Roman Empire
1 Material Evidence
2 Under the Christian Empire
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Violence and the Use of Arms on Sabbath
Appendix 2: The Inscription of Rufinus the Soldier, from the Via Appia Pignatelli Catacomb (Rome)
Appendix 3: A Critical Rereading of the Inscription of Flavia Optata Found in Concordia
Prosopographic Map
Sources
Bibliography
Analytical Index
List of Figures
Introduction
1 Jewish Military Service in Hellenistic Armies
1 Precedents
2 Under the Ptolemies
3 Under the Seleucids
4 Apologetics and Historical Reality
2 Jewish Exemptions from Military Service in the Late Republic and the Augustan Principate
1 Jews and the Recruitment of Auxilia
2 Military Exemption as a Jewish Privilege
3 A Legal Precedent?
3 Jewish Soldiers in the Roman Army during the High Empire
1 Exceptional Recruitment
2 Jewish Troops in Roman Service
3 Material Evidence
4 Dura-Europos
5 The Presence of Jews in the Imperial Army: Conditions and Historical Evolution
4 During the Later Roman Empire
1 Material Evidence
2 Under the Christian Empire
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Violence and the Use of Arms on Sabbath
Appendix 2: The Inscription of Rufinus the Soldier, from the Via Appia Pignatelli Catacomb (Rome)
Appendix 3: A Critical Rereading of the Inscription of Flavia Optata Found in Concordia
Prosopographic Map
Sources
Bibliography
Analytical Index
All interested in Ancient History, Ancient Rome, Roman Army, Jewish History, Ancient and Late Judaism, Classics, and Early Christianity.