History of the Jews in the Roman Empire

The history of the Jews in the Roman Empire (Latin: Iudaeorum Romanum) traces the interaction of Jews and Romans during the period of the Roman Empire (27 BCE – CE 476). A Jewish diaspora had migrated to Rome and to the territories of Roman Europe from the land of Israel, Anatolia, Babylon and Alexandria in response to economic hardship and incessant warfare over the land of Israel between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires from the 4th to the 1st centuries BCE. In Rome, Jewish communities thrived economically. Jews became a significant part of the Roman Empire's population in the first century CE, with some estimates as high as 7 million people;^[1]^[2] however, this estimation has been questioned.^[3]^[4]

Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem and its surroundings by 63 BCE. The Romans deposed the ruling Hasmonean dynasty of Judaea (in power from c. 140 BCE) and the Roman Senate declared Herod the Great "King of the Jews" in c. 40 BCE. Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea became the Roman province of Judaea in 6 CE. Jewish–Roman tensions resulted in several Jewish–Roman wars between the years 66 and 135 CE, which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple and the institution of the Jewish Tax in 70 (those who paid the tax were exempt from the obligation of making sacrifices to the Roman imperial cult).

In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan giving official recognition to Christianity as a legal religion. Constantine the Great moved the Roman capital from Rome to Constantinople ("New Rome") c. 330, sometimes considered the start of the Byzantine Empire, and with the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire. The Christian emperors persecuted their Jewish subjects and restricted their rights.^[1]

^ ^a ^b Barraclough, Geoffrey, ed. (1981) [1978]. Spectrum–Times Atlas van de Wereldgeschiedenis [The Times Atlas of World History] (in Dutch). Het Spectrum. pp. 102–103.
^ Pasachoff, Naomi E.; Littman, Robert J. (1995). A Concise History of the Jewish People. Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield (published 2005). p. 68. ISBN 9780742543669. Retrieved 27 May 2021. By the 1st century C.E. perhaps 10 percent of the Roman Empire, or about 7 million people, were Jews, with about 2.5 million in Judea, Samaria & Galilee. These population figures are very unreliable, but they are probably fairly accurate in regard to percentages. Such an explosion in population could not have been caused entirely by natural birthrate, but conversion must have played an important part.
^ McGing, Brian: Population and proselytism: how many Jews were there in the ancient world?, in Bartlett, John R. (ed.): Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman Cities. Routledge, 2002.
^ Feldman, Louis H.: Judaism And Hellenism Reconsidered. p. 185. Brill, 2006.

[times-1] Barraclough, Geoffrey, ed. (1981) [1978]. Spectrum–Times Atlas van de Wereldgeschiedenis [The Times Atlas of World History] (in Dutch). Het Spectrum. pp. 102–103.

[2] Pasachoff, Naomi E.; Littman, Robert J. (1995). A Concise History of the Jewish People. Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield (published 2005). p. 68. ISBN 9780742543669. Retrieved 27 May 2021. By the 1st century C.E. perhaps 10 percent of the Roman Empire, or about 7 million people, were Jews, with about 2.5 million in Judea, Samaria & Galilee. These population figures are very unreliable, but they are probably fairly accurate in regard to percentages. Such an explosion in population could not have been caused entirely by natural birthrate, but conversion must have played an important part.

[3] McGing, Brian: Population and proselytism: how many Jews were there in the ancient world?, in Bartlett, John R. (ed.): Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman Cities. Routledge, 2002.

[4] Feldman, Louis H.: Judaism And Hellenism Reconsidered. p. 185. Brill, 2006.

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