Tacitus: The Histories Part 37

[466] Ethiopian here means Phoenician. Tradition made Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, king of Joppa.

[467] From Damascus, said Justin, where Abraham was one of their kings, and Trogus Pompeius adds that the name of Abraham was honourably remembered at Damascus. These are variants of the Biblical migration of Abraham.

[468] _Il._ vi. 184; _Od._ v. 282.

[469] Another piece of fanciful philology, based on a misinterpretation of a Greek transliteration of the name Jerusalem. The Solymi are traditionally placed in Lycia. Both Juvenal and Martial use Solymus as equivalent to Judaeus.

[470] The only known King Bocchoris belongs to the eighth century B.C., whereas the Exodus is traditionally placed not later than the sixteenth.

[471] See Exod. xvii.

[472] i.e. an a.s.s. The idea that this animal was sacred to the Jews was so prevalent among 'the Gentiles' that Josephus takes the trouble to refute it.

[473] Cp. Lev. xvi. 3, 'a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.' Tacitus' reasons are of course errors due to the prevalent confusion of Jewish and Egyptian history.

[474] Cp. Luke xviii. 12, 'I fast twice a week.'

[475] Cp. Deut. v. 15.

[476] Cp. Lev. xxv. 4, '... in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.'

[477] The seventh day being named after Cronos or Saturn (cp.

chap. 2, note 464).

[478] Reading _commeent_ (Wolfflin).

[479] This refers to proselytes, who, like Jews resident abroad, contributed annually to the Temple treasury. They numbered at this time about four millions. Romans naturally regarded this diversion of funds with disfavour.

[480] Jewish exclusiveness always roused Roman indignation, and 'hatred of the human race' was the usual charge against Christians (see _Ann._ xv. 44).

[481] The strict regulations of Deut. xxii. &c. give a strange irony to this slander. Most of these libels originated in Alexandria.

[482] 'A people,' says the elder Pliny, 'distinguished by their contemptuous atheism.'

[483] _Agnati_, as used here and in _Germ._ 19 means a child born after the father has made his will and therein specified the number of his children. The mere birth of such a child invalidated any earlier will that the father had made, but the fact of its birth might be concealed by making away with the baby. This crime seems to have been not uncommon, but there is no evidence that 'exposure of infants' was permitted.

[484] Josephus also alludes to this belief that the corruption of disease chained the soul to the buried body, while violent death freed it to live for ever in the air and protect posterity.

[485] Under the kings cremation was an honourable form of burial, but in Babylon the Jews came to regard fire as a sacred element which should not be thus defiled.

[486] This was over the door of the Temple. Aristobulus gave it as a present to Pompey.

[487] Plutarch shared this error, which seems somehow to have been based on a misinterpretation of the Feast of Tabernacles, at which they were to 'take ... the fruit of goodly trees, ...

and willows of the brook; and ... rejoice before the Lord your G.o.d seven days' (Lev. xxiii. 40).

[488] Over Coele-Syria, from the range of Lebanon.

[489] i.e. from Mount Hermon, nearly 9,000 feet high.

[490] Merom; Gennesareth; the Dead Sea.

[491] 'Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain' (Gen. xix. 24).

[492] These were not concentric, but an enemy approaching from the north-west would have to carry all three before reaching the temple, which stood on Mount Moriah at the eastern extremity of the city.

[493] Cp. Luke i. 8-10, where Zacharias entered the temple to burn incense, 'and the whole mult.i.tude of the people were praying without.'

[494] The Seleucids.

[495] Antiochus Epiphanes (176-164 B.C.).

[496] This was really in the reign of Antiochus II (260-245 B.C.).

[497] Of the Hasmonean or Maccabean family.

[498] 63 B.C. when he was called in to decide between Aristobulus II and Hyrca.n.u.s.

[499] At the invitation of the Maccabean Antigonus, who thus recovered the throne.

[500] Ventidius and Sosius were Antony's officers. The former was famous as having begun life as a mule-driver and risen to be a consul and to hold the first triumph over the Parthians.

[501] Herod the Great, who on the return of Antigonus had fled to Rome and chosen the winning side.

[502] One of Herod's slaves.

[503] Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip.

[504] A.D. 40.

[505] A freedman, Procurator of Judaea, A.D. 52-60 (cp. Acts xxiv).

[506] Claudius' mother, Antonia, was the daughter of Antony's first marriage.

[507] A.D. 64-66.

[508] A.D. 67 and 68.

[509] A.D. 69.

[510] Chap. 1.

[511] Jerusalem stands on a rock which rises into three main hills, Zion (south), Acra (north), and Moriah (east). It is not clear to which two of these Tacitus alludes; probably Zion and Moriah.

[512] Of this no traces remain, and the tradition may have been based on the metaphorical prophecy that a fount of living water would issue from the Sanctuary.

[513] i.e. the Galilean towns captured by Vespasian in A.D. 67 and 68.

[514] Simon was a bandit from the east of Jordan; John of Gischala headed a party of refugees from Galilee; Eleazar was the leader of the Jewish war-party, and related to the high priests.