Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe: Volume 2, The City of Rome

Although there was a substantial Jewish population in Western Europe from at least the first century B C , literary evidence for it before the end of the sixth century A D is very sparse, amounting to a few mainly hostile references by R o m a n writers and some material of doubtful historical value in rabbinic and hagiographic sources. Knowledge of the Jewish communities of the West is therefore almost entirely dependent on inscriptions, which contain information on community organization, the use of biblical texts and religious symbols, linguistic habits, naming practices and social status, and burial customs and beliefs about life after death. This volume, the second of a two-volume w o r k , concentrates on the inscriptions of the City of Rome. Hitherto it has been necessary to consult specialist publications to gain a complete picture of the inscriptions: this book fills a notable g a p in the market.

Jewish inscriptions of Western Europe Volume 2

JEWISH I N S C R I P T I O N S OF WESTERN EUROPE Volume 2

The City of Rome

DAVID NOY

C

A

M

B

R

I

D

G

E

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP 40 West 20th Street, N e w York, N Y 10011-4211, U S A 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1995 First published 1995 Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data applied for

I S B N 0 521 44202 8 hardback

CUP

CONTENTS

Preface Monteverde Inscriptions found 1904-6 Inscription found 1911 Inscriptions found 1913 Inscriptions found 1919 Inscriptions known in 18th century Small fragments Vigna Randanini Inscriptions Vigna Cimarra Via Casilina (formerly Labicana) Villa Torlonia Lower catacomb Upper catacomb Lower or upper catacomb Other sites in Rome Unknown provenance Glass and other objects App.l: Non-Jewish inscriptions concerning Jews App.2: Dis Manibus in possibly Jewish inscriptions App.3: Inscription probably not from Rome App.4: Inscriptions not considered Jewish Index Bibliography Abbreviations Concordance with CIJ Addenda to JIWE i Plates

vn

ix 1 10 122 123 129 145 164 173 182 332 337 341 347 396 410 415 435 469 486 489 496 497 512 550 563 565 571 573

PREFACE This book completes the work of the Jewish Inscriptions Project in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, following Jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt and Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe i. The Project has been funded by the British Academy, with an additional grant from the Bethune Baker Fund. The work was finished after I joined the Classics Department of St David's University College, Lampeter. The book aims to collect all Jewish inscriptions from the city of Rome which can be dated before A.D.700, updating and replacing the relevant part of J.B. Prey's Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum (1936). Some of Fray's omissions and errors were corrected by his reviewers, and by Leon (1960) and Lifshitz in his revised edition of 1975. Other inscriptions have been published more recently. The same criteria have been used for determining an inscription's 'Jewishness' as in JIWE i. In most cases this means provenance from a Jewish catacomb. The problem of possibly pagan inscriptions being reused in the catacombs is discussed in the introductions to individual sections and in App.2. Inscriptions from outside the catacombs are treated as Jewish if they use Hebrew or Aramaic, or if they contain specifically Jewish terminology, formulae, names or symbols. The entry for each inscription is arranged as in JIWE i. For the inscriptions published in CIJ and by Leon, the T e x t follows' section notes if there are significant differences between the version given here and their versions. If there is no such comment, it can be assumed that my text agrees with theirs, except that the CIJ practice of 'correcting* spellings has not been followed here, and restorations which make unjustified assumptions about gender are not followed. The translations keep as closely as possible to the word-order of the Greek or Latin, and therefore sometimes have a rather unnatural English structure. Deviations from standard letter forms are noted. In the Greek inscriptions, the standard forms of alpha, epsilon, sigma and omega were respectively A , € , C and GO. In Latin, E was

IX

PREFACE normal. These forms are therefore not noted. Approximate representations of the forms of other letters are given; these are not to scale and not intended to be exact. The epigraphic conventions are the same as in JIWE i: (abc) = resolution of an abbreviation; [abc] = restoration of lost text; = correction where letters were omitted or written incorrectly in the inscription; {abc} = superfluous text to be ignored; [[a&c]] = text erased on the stone. [...] = lost text where the number of letters is known approximately but no restoration is suggested; [ - - ] = lost text of uncertain length. A dot beneath a letter means that the reading is doubtful. ' = space left by the inscriber. | = end of a line; || = end of the fifth line. v a c

Variations from standard spelling have been noted in the apparatus for each inscription, except in the case of mxai and eipf|VT|, which were written as m e / K e i T E / K i i o a and ipf|VT| so frequently that it would be superfluous to mark each occurrence. The common omission of f| before KOI|IT|GI|Yn-

right: -Kuq |

x|po(pe(T) | (menorah) ov.

left: Oe68o|xoxpocpecov; I omitted on stone left 11.4-6: CIJ yXx>KOx[a]x[a\; Leon yta)io)T[&]T©

If only I who reared (?) you, Justus my child, could place you in a golden coffin. Now, Lord, (grant?) his sleep in peace. (Receive?) the infant Justus, incomparable in (the keeping of) your ordinance. Here I lie, Justus, aged 4 years 8 months, being dear to my foster-father. Theodotus the foster-father for (my) dearest child. Schneider Graziosi (1915), pp.29-30 no.45 (from the stone); Vaccari (1917), pp.31-6 (from the stone); Miiller & Bees (1919), pp.26-8 nos.17-18 (photographs); Vaccari (1922), pp.44-7, tav.IV (photogi-aph); Jalabert & Mouterde (1926), cols.685-6 fig.5875 (facsimile from Miiller & Bees); CIJ i (1936), pp.279-280 no.358 (photogi-aph); i (1975), pp.34-5; Leon (1960), pp.127, 317-8; van der Horst (1991), pp.31-2, 52, 116, 145-6 (follows CIJ). 2

Leon (1927b), p.392; Frey (1932), p.148; Ferrua (1936a), pp.467 n.2, 468 n.l; (1941), pp.36-7; Delling (1951), p.523; Cavallin (1974), p.170 n.8; Fischer (1978), p.218; Perna (1982), p.334; Wasserstein (1982), p.269; Reynolds & Tannenbaum (1987), p.101; van der Horst (1992), p.54.

Found near the stairs to the lower level: left part (two pieces) 26th Dec. 1904, right part (three pieces) partly 16th Nov. and partly 26th Dec. 1904. Schneider Graziosi and Vaccari recognized that all the pieces belonged together, although Miiller & Bees did not. The shape 29

MONTEVERDE and size are those of a loculus closure. The text began in the central part, then continued in what should have been the right margin, and finished by using the left margin. Vaccari's interpretation of the text on the right is followed here. The epitaph has considerable literary pretensions. It begins with 2 k dactyllic feet; there is a complete pentameter from aap^; centre 1.4 begins with 2 k dactyllic feet. It seems to have been composed at least partly by assembling metrical tags (cf. JIGRE 37). There is some similarity to the LXX text of Ps. iv 9, and the epithets are reminiscent of IGUR 1670, ... TEKVQ) d c w K p i i q ) Kcci ytoicuTdftp ... However, the interpretation of the inscription is not always clear. OeydjiEVoq (centre 1.2) should probably be understood as Gpey&UEVOi;, as in the translation above, rather than 6ay&|i£V0Ki)x&[xq)/-Tn/-xot1?]S; Muller [u]ico 1.3: A written for A 1.4: menorah on left omitted by CIJ

Here lies Aper, archon of the Calcaresians. [his/your?] sleep. Julius (had this) made for ....

In

peace

Miiller (1912), pp.129-131 no.5 (photograph); Schneider Graziosi (1915), p.20 no.13 (from the stone); Muller & Bees (1919), pp.96-7 no.107 (photograph); CIJ i (1936), p.240 no.304 (photogi-aph; from Muller); Leon (1960), p.309 (from the stone). Leon (1927b), p.393; (1928a), p.207; Schiirer revised iii.i (1986), pp.97 n.32, 98 n.38; Vismara (1986), pp.382-3, 388.

Six pieces found 20th-29th Sep. 1906. Other finds during this period (nos.24, 45, 68) were from the quarry area, so this inscription is probably from there too. One fragment shown in Miiller's photograph on the left, containing part of the left-hand menorah, had been lost when the CIJ photograph was taken. This piece does not appear to have made an exact fit with the rest of the plaque which survives. The title archon is the commonest one among the Roman Jews (cf. Williams (1995)), but it occurred elsewhere too (e.g. among the Jews at Benghazi, where there were 7 or 9 simultaneously; CJZC 701). Tertullian, de Cor. ix 1, mentions it as a typical Jewish title. A t 60

MONTEVERDE Rome, it always occurs in inscriptions which are at least likely to be Jewish, except for IGUR 65, dated 399, where it translates vicarius Italiae. A text probably written by someone with a Syriac background in late 3rd-century Africa (de solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis d.n. Jesu Christi et Johannis Baptistae, PL Suppl.I, col.564; cf. Talley (1986), pp.92-4), refers to Jews appointing magistrates called archontes in September for their new year. There are parallels for a group of people called Calcaresians: CIL vi 9223 (fragment of cippus) salvo Aug(usto) felices calcarienses; 9224 (small marble Vaschetta') Iulius Papario et Alfius Maximus sodalibus calcaresibus d(ono) d(ederunt) ex voto. These were both found near the Baths of Diocletian. The people are thought to have been limeburners, although individual lime-burners are usually called calcariarii (CIL vi 93811, x 3947). It is possible that the synagogue name refers to a locality rather than to a group of Jewish limeburners; Momigliano (1931), p.289, notes that a region near the Circo Flaminio was later known as Calcaria. The end of the inscription consists of a term of relationship, probably mop (as restored in Muller & Bees and CIJ, but possibly dSsXcpop if there was no preceding ooo), or 'A7tp(p or awe), followed by the commemorator's name, which was presumably Julius. Deissmann ap. Muller & Bees thought the word was 'IovSaToQ, but there is no name for that to agree with.

70 (CIJ i 356): Monteverde: 3rd-4th century (?). Greek. Museo Vaticano, lapidario ebraico ex-Lateranense; inv.no.30758. White marble plaque, 63 x 21 x 3 cm., with lower third unused; some letters damaged by weathering. Bar over numeral. Letters 4.4-3.9 cm., with serifs; lulab 5.0. Text follows Leon's interpretation and my reading (1993). *Io\)X,ia|v6(; ev|6&5e KelTxoa £n|