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12. Tacitus and the Defamation of the Jews 267 12. Tacitusand the Defamation of the Jews Jews do not fare very well at the handsofCornelius Tacitus. The great consular historian devoted thirteen chapters to them at the beginning of Book Vofhis His- tories,chapters constituting adigression from his main text,but aremarkably extensive one. Tacitus sets them at the point whereheintends to embark on the narrative of the Roman siegeofJerusalem in 70 CE. The reason, as he puts it,isthat,since he is about to relatethe demise of afamous city,hethought it appropriatetosay something about its origins.¹ The opening sends its own sig- nal. Tacitus employs the phrase famosa urbs, acharacteristicallyTacitean touch, i.e. “infamous” or “notorious” city,rather than “renowned” or “celebrated”.And matters seem to go downhill from that point on. This excursus is the longest extant discussion of the Jews by anyGreek or Latin author—or rather by anypagan author.Henceitmerits aspotlight for the treatment of ancient attitudes towardJews. Anditdoes so on more than one count.The digression arguablycontains some of the most hostile comments on record regardingthatpeople.² Among other remarks, Tacitusbrands the Jews as arace of men hated by the gods.³ They regard as profane everythingthat we (Romans) hold as sacred—and vice versa.⁴ Their practices are base and wicked, and prevail through their own depravity.⁵ They are apeople most especiallyin- clined to lust.Although they won’tsleep with gentiles, among themselvesthere is nothing they won’tdo(nihil inlicitum). Those who cross over to their ways scorn the gods, abandon their own nation, and hold their parents,siblings, and children cheap.⁶ Jewish rites are sordid and ridiculous.⁷ Jews throughout their history werethe most despised of subject peoples and the basest of nations.⁸ Tac. Hist. ..: sed quoniam famosae urbis supremum diem tradituri sumus congruensvidetur primordia eius aperire. On the harsh and unusual languageemployed, see K. Rosen “Der Historiker als Prophet: Tac- itus und die Juden”, Gymnasium, (), –;R.S.Bloch AntikeVorstellungen vom Judentum: Der Judenexkurs des Tacitus im Rahmender griechisch-römischenEthnographie (Stutt- gart, ), –. Tac. Hist. ... Tac. Hist. ... Tac. Hist. ... Tac. Hist. ...Cf. Juv. Sat. .–. Tac. Hist. ... Tac. Hist. ... 266 12. Tacitusand the Defamation of the Jews That is pretty strongstuff. One should hardlybesurprised that Tacitushas been reckoned as the quintessential pagan anti-Semite, the Jew-baiter,arepre- sentative of fierceRomananimosity towardJews, indeedofits most virulent strain. That view prevails almost without dissent.⁹ Even thosewho have found some favorableallusions to Jews in this dark text ascribe them to Tacitus’ sour- ces rather than to Tacitus himself.¹⁰ An odd conclusion. If so, did Tacitus trans- mit thosefavorable views inadvertently? This historian almostnever did any- thing inadvertently. Modern scholars have without exceptiontaken the digression on the Jews as an authentic reflection of Tacitean animosity.¹¹ An immediate question arises. Just whyshould Tacitus have expressed such offensive opinions about the Jews?The question has important bearing upon our understanding of the historian himself. Although his remarks have often been taken as exemplifying Roman reactions in general and hence awindow on broader attitudes towardalien religions, they do not,infact,fit neatlyinto such apicture. So, e.g.,I.Levy “Taciteetl’origine du people juif”, Latomus, (), –;B.Wardy “Jewish Religion in Pagan Literature during the LateRepublic and EarlyEmpire”, ANRW, II.. (), , –;J.G.Gager TheOrigins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudestoward Judaism in Paganand Christian Antiquity (Oxford, ), –, ;Y.Lewy “Tacitus on the Jews”,in J. Dan, Binah, vol. : Studies in JewishHistory (New York, ), –;L.H. Feldman “Pro-Jew- ish Intimations in Tacitus’ Account of Jewish Origins”, REJ, (), –;R.Mellor Tacitus (London, ), , , ;Z.Yavetz “Judeophobia in Classical Antiquity:ADifferent Approach”, JJS, (), ; “Latin Authors on Jews and Dacians”, Historia, (), – ;K.Rosen “Der Historiker als Prophet,” –;J.M.G. Barclay Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora (Edinburgh, ), –, –;P.Schäfer Judeophobia:Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World (Cambridge,Mass., ), –, –.See the valuablereview of scholarship by Bloch AntikeVorstellungen vom Judentum, –.Although he shares the view that Tacitus’ portrait is ahostile one, Bloch offers amorenuanced and complex analysis that sets the author apart from simplistic anti-Semites; op. cit. –. Feldman “Pro-Jewish Intimations in Tacitus’ Account of Jewish Origins”, –, – ;(), –.See also D. Rokeah “Tacitus and Ancient Antisemitism”, REJ, (), –,for whom Tacitus embraced earlier Greek denunciations of the Jews,but transmitted some favorable traditions as well. Yavetz “Latin Authors on Jews and Dacians,” ,acknowledgesonlyhostileGreek sources.None givesmuch credittoTacitus’ own shaping of the portrait The greatestofTacitean scholars,Sir Ronald Syme, surprisingly evinced almost no interest in the matter.The morethan pages of his magisterial two-volume work on the historian de- vote onlyafew lines to the subjectofTacitus on the Jews.The opinion expressed, however,takes the standardline: “Tacitus appears to nourish in hypertrophyall the prejudices of an imperial race.His anger bears most heavilyupon the Greeks and the Jews”.Jews are “beyond the pale”; R. Syme Tacitus, vols.(Oxford, ), . 12. Tacitus and the Defamation of the Jews 267 The vast majority of preserved comments about Jews by Romanwriters and intellectuals in the earlyand highEmpire deliverarather different impression.¹² Such writers werenot,ofcourse, great advocatesoradmirers of Jews. But their comments,onthe whole, do not fall into the category of intense antipathy. They weregenerallydismissive or scornful rather than malicious. They puzzled over the observanceofthe Sabbath, they found monotheism foolish, they wondered whyanyone would exclude pork from his diet,and they regarded circumcision as mutilation of the genitals. So, for instance, Seneca made the crack that,by observing the Sabbath, Jews use up one seventh of their livesinidleness.¹³ Plinythe Elder indeedclaims to know of ariver in Judaea that dries up every Sabbath. One should presumablyinfer that even Jewishrivers take one daya week off.¹⁴ Abstention from pork struck the Romans as especiallybizarre. Petronius concluded thatsince Jews don’ttouch pork, they must worship apig-god (porci- num numen).¹⁵ Juvenal observed that Judaea is the one place in the world where pigsmust be happiest,for they can live to aripe old age.¹⁶ Plutarch went to the lengths of inventing afull-scale dialogue in which the interlocutors debated whether Jews shrank from pork out of reverencefor the hogorabhorrenceof that creature.Itisnot easy to takethe arguments on either side as entirelyseri- ous. The spokesman who maintainedthatJews honored the animal suggested that pigsfirst dugupthe soil with their projectingsnouts, thereby prompting men to conceive the idea of inventing the plow from which Jews learned to farm the soil. And the interlocutor on the otherside offered as one explanation for Jewish distaste for pork that pigs’ eyes are so twisted and pointed downward that they can never see anything abovethem unless they are carried upside down.¹⁷ That hardlyseems acompellingreason for refraining from swine’s flesh. One maywell suspect that Plutarch washaving his own little joke in this fictitious after-dinner debate. Circumcision provoked asimilar combination of perplexity,misinformation, and amused disdain. Petronius remarks about atalented Jewish slave who pos- Forafuller discussion, see E.S.Gruen “Roman Perspectivesonthe Jews in the Ageofthe Great Revolt”,inA.M. Berlin and J.A. Overman, TheFirstJewishRevolt: Archaeology, History, and Ideology (London, ), –; Diaspora: Jews Amidst Greeks and Romans (Cambridge, Mass., a), –. Seneca apud Augustine, CD, .. Pliny, NH, .. Petronius, fr. Juv. Sat. .–;cf. .–. Plut. Quaest. Conv. .–. 268 12. Tacitus and the Defamation of the Jews sesses manyskills that he has but two faults:heiscircumcised and he snores,— never mind that he is also cross-eyed.¹⁸ And Juvenal observes thatJews are so exclusive in keepingtheir own companythat they decline even to give directions in the street to thosewho are not circumcised—quite afeat since men were not in the habit of goingabout unclothed.¹⁹ In short, most Romans writing in the earlyEmpire who deigned to takeno- tice of this alienpeople contented themselveswith superficial appearancesand impressions. As aconsequence, they retailed shallow,half-baked, and misin- formedopinions. They wereeither indifferent to Jews or derided them with mock- ery. Whyshould Tacitus be anydifferent?Did he carry abitterness and anger that set him apart?Somescholars have indeed detected adeep-seated antago- nism and proposed reasons for it.Anumber of explanations have made the rounds.Tacitus sought, so it is claimed, to justify Rome’sdestruction of the Tem- ple in Jerusalem and thus felt apressingneed to blacken Jews, their beliefs, and their practices as forcefullyaspossible.²⁰ On adifferent view,Jewishproselytism enraged Tacitus. The historian was furiousthat this defeated people should still be in Rome and elsewhereconverting good gentilestotheirwicked creed and un- derminingRoman morals.²¹ Or elsehis intense aversion represented anxiety about this rebellious folk who continued to multiply, rejected Romandeities, grew in strength, and threatened Roman values.²² The digression has elsewhere simplybeen dismissed as the productofanti-Semitism,
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