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THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES of LEONTOPOLIS and VENOSAI Few

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THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES of LEONTOPOLIS and VENOSAI Few THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF LEONTOPOLIS AND VENOSAI DAVID Noy Few Diaspora Jewish communities of the ancient world have left inscriptions in significant numbers. The city of Rome is the obvious exception, with over 500 epitaphs. The two biggest collec­ tions after that are 77 epitaphs and one dedication from Leonto­ polis (now Tell el-Yehoudieh) on the edge of the Nile Delta2 and 76 epitaphs from Venosa (ancient Venusia) in southern Italy.3 The two sites differ substantially in date as well as in location, but there are still interesting similarities and contrasts to be found between them. Further light is shed on them by comparison with other groups of contemporary non-:Jewish inscriptions from the $ame areas. The evidence is not sufficient to produce a full picture of the communities, but it is the best material available for under­ standing some of the ideas and idiosyncracies of DiasporaJews in and around the Roman Empire. 1. Leontopolis The beginning and end of the history of the Jewish temple at Leontopolis are known from Josephus. There is some contra- 1 This paper was written as part of my work as research assistant for the Jewish Inscriptions Project at the University of Cambridge and for Dr Tessa Rajak at the University of Reading (both posts funded by the British Academy). I am very grateful to Dr Rajak and to Dr William Horbury for their co-operation and encouragement. 2 W. Horbury & D. Noy, The Jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt (Cambridge: 1992; henceforth JIGRE) nos. 29-105, with the addition of the inscription published by P. J. Sijpesteijn, "Inscriptions from Egypt," Chro­ nique d'Egypte 65 (1990) 122-5 no. 1, which appeared too late for inclusion but is almost certainly from the same group. 3 Cl] nos. 569-619; B. Lifshitz, revised edition of Cl] (New York: 1975) nos. 619a-e. Other inscriptions have been published in a series of articles by C. Colafemmina: "Nova e vetera nella catacomba ebraica di Venosa," Studi storici (Bari: 1974) 87-95; "Nuove iscrizioni ebraiche a Venosa," Studi in memoria di P. Adiuto Putignani (Taranto: 1975) 41-6; "Nuove scoperte nella catacomba ebraica di Venosa," Vetera Christianorum 15 (1978) 369-381; "Tre iscrizioni ebraiche inedite," VeteTa Christianorum 20 (1983) 443-7. A new edition of all the Jewish inscriptions of Western Europe up to AD 700 is currently being prepared by the Jewish Inscriptions Project. THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF LEONTOPOLIS AND VENOSA 163 diction between his versions of the temple's foundation, but it is probable that permission to build was granted by Ptolemy VI Philometor to Onias IV in the 150s BC.4 Onias had failed to become High Priest at Jerusalem, and took over the derelict site of an Egyptian temple on the eastern edge of the southern part of the Nile delta. His Jewish temple was closed by Vespasian in AD 73/4. It is not certain that the existence of the Jewish community at Leontopolis was exactly co-terminous with the temple, since Jews could have settled there earlier (as Josephus perhaps im­ plies), and would not necessarily have left immediately after the temple was closed. However, it is unlikely that they were there before the first half of the 2nd century BC, or that the community survived the revolt of AD 115-7. The site known in Arabic as Tell el-Yehoudieh was first excavated by Naville and Griffith for the Egypt Exploration Fund in the 1880s. There were further excavations by Flinders Petrie (1890s), du Mesnil du Buisson (1929) and Adam (1951).5 The main interest was in finding the site of the temple, which Naville and Flinders Petrie claimed to have done, although their inter­ pretation of the remains they found has been regarded by some as rather imaginative. Du Mesnil du Buisson ("Le temple d'Onias" 64) referred to the so-called remains of the temple as "Mr Petrie's miserable building", and Petrie's understanding of the site seems to have been influenced more by Josephus's description than by the archaeological remains which were actually found. However, the identification of the settlement as Leontopolis has been univer­ sally accepted. Tell el-Yehoudieh matches the geographical de­ tails given by Josephus. There was a temple of Bast there, which also matches what Josephus says. The tombstones show a high proportion of biblical or Hebrew-derived names (including many 4 Josephus, J. w: 7 §426-436; Ant. 12 §387-8, 13 §62-73. The evidence about the foundation is discussed by M. Delcor, "Le temple d'Onias en Egypte," RB 75 (1968) 188-205. 5 E. Naville, "The Mound of the Jew and the City of Onias," Egypt Exploration Fund, 7th Memoir (extra volume for 1888-9, London: 1890) 3-30; F. Ll. Griffith, "The Antiquities of Tell el-Yahoudieh," ibid. 33-76; W. M. Flinders Petrie, Hyksos and Israelite Cities (London: 1906); R. du Mesnil du Buisson, "Compte rendue sommaire d'une mission a Tell el-Yahoudiye," BIFAO 29 (1929) 155-177; R. du Mesnil du Buisson, "Le temple d'Onias et le camp Hyksos a Tell el Yahoudiye," BIFAO 35 (1935) 59-71; S. Adam, "Recent Discoveries in the Eastern Delta," Annales du Service des Antiquites de l'Egypte 55 (1958) 301-324. .
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