12 Judaea in the Early Years of Hadrian's Reign
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12 JUDAEA IN THE EARLY YEARS OF HADRIAN'S REIGN* (with I. Roll) Mommsen doubted that the legion VI Fmata was in Judaea at all, questioning the truth of Dio's statement that it was based there. 1 Ritterling has shown that, not later than 152, it was in garrison in Galilee, at Caparcotna, called 'Legio' by Eusebius. 2 The arrival of the legion was dated by von Rohden from the time of the Second Jewish Revolt, 132-5.3 Mc Elderry preferred to make it earlier, A.D. 11 7, noting that Lusius Quietus, Trajan's governor ofJudaea in that year was a consularis. 4 The date at which Judaea became a consular province with two legions has remained a problem ever since. 5 If we * This paper was written in the framework of the activities of the Israel Mile stones Committee. For various suggestions and comments we are grateful to Prof. S. Applebaum and Prof. M. Gichon. Further we would like to record the great assistance afforded by Mr. I. Ben-Shalom and Dr. A. Oppenheimer in interpreting Jewish sources. 1 Note on GIL iii 6641. Dio IV 23 (113). 2 Rheinisches Museum, 58 (1903), 633-5; P-W, xii, s.v. 'Legio', col. 1591. Caparcotna is mentioned as castra of VI Ferr. in GIL iii, 6814-16; W.M. Ramsay, ]RS 6 (1916), 129-31; B. Levick, ]RS 48 (1958), 75-6; AE 1920.78. See: 'Caporcotani' on the Tabula Peuti.ngeriana (ed. Miller, segm. x, 1-2); Ka1tapKO'tVE'i in Ptolemy, v, 15, 4. The name is derived from Kefar 'Otnay, a village mentioned in Jewish sources, inhab ited both before and after the Second Revolt by Jews and Samaritans: Mishna, Gittin, 1:5; 7:7; Tos. Gittin, 1:4 (ed. Zuckermandel, 323) and 7:9 (331); Tos. Demai, 5:3 (56); Tos. Bekhoroth, 7:3 (541); cf.: h Bekhoroth, 55a. Named 'Legio' by Eusebius, Onomasticon (ed. Klostermann), 14, 21; 28, 26 et passim. Later: urbs Maximianopolis, cf.: Hieronymus ap. Migne, Patr. Lat., xxv, 1589; Hierocles, ~necdemesis, 720, 10; Itinerarium Burdigalmse (ed. Geyer), 19:19. Ultimately Arabic 'el-Lejjfm'. For further references, see: M. Avi Yonah, Gazetteer ef Roman Pal.estine (1976) s.v. 'Legio', 74. See also: S. Applebaum, Prol.egOTT1£11a to the Study ef the Second Jewish Revolt (1976), 29. For a rooftile-stamp of VI Ferr. discovered on the site, cf. G. Schumacher, Tell El Mutesellim, i (1908), 175, fig. 261; for a plan of the area: ibid., Tafel i. 3 de Pal.estina et Arabia prouinciis Romanis, quaestiones sel.ectae (1885 ), 30 ff. 4 GQ, 2 (1908), 110-3; 3 (1909), 53. 5 Judaea was the first province with a praetorian legate who served both as gov ernor and as commander of a legion. The legion was based at Jerusalem while the residence of the governor was in Caesarea. This raises the question how the legate could fulfil both tasks adequately. He must have had deputies in Caesarea andJerusa lem. By the time of the outbreak of the Second Revolt the provincial governor was JUDAEA IN TIIE EARLY YEARS OF HADRIAN'S REIGN 183 are not mistaken, at least 20 scholars have expressed opinions on this question and on the related problem of the identity of the first legion, stationed in the province of Arabia after its formation. The present state of the debate has been set forth by G.W. Bowersock and there is no need to recapitulate what he has written. 6 Before presenting new evidence we shall briefly review some of the facts. Mc Elderry, followed by M. Avi-Yonah, attached importance to the fact that Lusius Quietus was of consular rank while serving as Governor ofJudaea in 117 after he had suppressed the Jewish rebel lion in Mesopotamia. 7 It has rightly been observed that under the special circumstances of the time his rank did not necessarily reflect the formal status of the province. 8 It may be added that there is no reason to believe that he had two legions at his disposal. 9 Q Tineius Rufus, governor of Judaea at the outbreak of the Second Revolt in 132, had been suffect in 127. 10 This indicates that the change of the rank of the legate to that of a consular must have occurred before this time. Pflaum has shown that the rank of the procurator of Judaea had risen by 123. This entails a rise in the rank of the legate as well. 11 LJ.F. Keppie has argued convincingly that there appears to no longer in personal command of the legion in Jerusalem, where, according to Dio, the new colony, cause of the revolt, was being built. 6 ]RS 65 (1975), 184. 7 CQ, 2 (1908), 111; M. Avi-Yonah, IE] 23 (1973), 212-3. 8 E. Schurer, The History of the Jews in the Age of Jesus Christ, i, ed. G. Vermes and F. Millar (1973), 518; LJ.F. Keppie, Latomus, 32 (1973), 859---60. For Lusius Qui etus, see: Groag, P-W, xiii, col. 1874 ff.; PIK2. L. 439; consul in absence: R. Syme, JRS 48 (1958), 9. See also: E.M. Smallwood, The Jews under Roman Rul.e (1976), 550. 9 The X Fret. took part in Trajan's campaign, c(: GIL vi 1838 = ILS 2727; AE 1935.167; for Trajan's forces, see: F.A. Lepper, Trajan's Parthian War (1948), 173-8. In Judaea Lusius Quietus certainly had with him his Mauri and vexillation of III Cyr., for which see: GIL iii 13587 = [LS 4393. It is not impossible that he had other troops as well, c( E.M. Smallwood, Historia, 11 (1962), 509 with n. 36 and op. cit. (supra, n. 8), 422, n. 136 and 426-7. An inscription of an eques numerorum Maurorum from Neapolis (Shechem) is generally believed to belong to the Severan period: M. Avi-Yonah, QPAP 12 (1946), 93-4 = AE 1948, 148; M. Speidel, ANRW ii, 3, p. 214. However, Applebaum, op. cit., (supra, n. 2) does not exclude the possibility that it belongs to Trajan's time (pp. 47-8). 10 Schurer, op. cit. (supra, n. 8), 518. The publication of the relevant fragment of the Fasti Ostiensis (Inscr. Italiae, xiii, i, 205) provided the first indication that Judaea became a consular province before the Second Revolt, cf. R. Syme, ]RS 52 (1962), 90; Smallwood, op. cit. (supra, n. 8), 550. W. Eck, Senatoren von Vespasian bis Hadrian ( 1970), 18, n. 88 suggested that the 'Aquila' mentioned by Epiphanius, de mens. et pond., 14 might be L. Statius Aquila (cos. suffect I 16); cf. AE 1936, 97. 11 IE] 19 (1969), 232-3; c(J.-P. Rey-Coquais, Mel. Univ. St. Joseph, 46 (1970-1), 243. .