Description
Book SynopsisAccording 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.
Trade Review"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.
Table of ContentsPreface 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
