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Jews in Constantinople IΔΡΥΜA ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Συγγραφή : Panayotov Alexander (22/12/2008) Για παραπομπή : Panayotov Alexander , "Jews in Constantinople (Byzantine period)", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Κωνσταντινούπολη URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11982> Jews in Constantinople (Byzantine period) Περίληψη : 1. The sources A synagogue in the Copper Market of Constantinople is first mentioned by Theophanes the Confessor (ca760-12th March 817) in relation to the construction of the church of the Mother of God in AD 449-450. According to his description the church was built by Pulcheria the sister of Theodosius II (408-450) and supplanted the existing synagogue. The text of Theophanes’Chronography runs as follows: Then she built the church of the Copper Market for the holy Mother of God, which had previously been a Jewish synagogue.|| However, later in his work Theophanes returns again to the construction of the church stating this time that it was built in AD 576- 577 by Justin II (565-578) : In this year the emperor Justin took away the synagogue of the Hebrews, the one in the Chalkoprateia, and built the church of our Lady, the holy Mother of God, which is near the Great Church. The contradiction between the passages raises questions about the historical reliability of the evidence provided by Theophanes. As Mango has rightly noted, in the latter passage Theophanes re-edits his earlier source on the basis of a later one. A possible explanation for the attribution of the church to Justin II can be found in the description of Constantinople preserved in P£tria K wnstantinoupÒlewj III, 32: The [church of the] holy Mother of God [in] the Copper Market was previously, under Constantine the Great, occupied by Jews who had been there for 132 years and were selling copper handiwork. Theodosius the Little banished them from that place, cleared the site and built the temple of the Mother of God. Then, after an earthquake the temple collapsed, Justin, the former curopalates , built it and donated immovable property. This tenth century source states that at the time of Constantine the Great (306-337) the Copper Market was associated with the Jewish merchants of copper handiwork who had built a synagogue there. This is confirmed by the notation of the anonymous author that the Jews occupied this part of the city for 132 years; they were there from AD 317. The problem is that the latter date is actually an invention of the Patria and has nothing to do with the date of the Jewish establishment in the Copper Market. It is part of a tradition, which probably originated in the ninth century, that placed the foundation of Constantinople in the twelfth year of the accession of Constantine. In this way, it counts 132 years from the foundation of the city until the end of the reign of Theodosius II. The Patria is notoriously unreliable as a historical source and we can conclude safely only that it gives 449 as the date for the conversion of the synagogue and building the church of Theotokos. This agrees with Theophanes. The number of years from the hypothetical date of Constantinople’s foundation simply means that the Jews were there when Constantine founded the city. This is possible evidence that the Jewish community had been established in Byzantion before the actual dedication of the city in AD 330. The last statement of the Patria that Justin II restored the church at Chalkoprateia after an earthquake adding a new chapel for its main relic - the Virgin’s girdle, deserves more attention. It is probably dependent on earlier evidence, provided by George the Monk (or Hamartolos), that the church built by Theodosius II had been destroyed by an earthquake: He built in the Chalkoprateia the temple of the holy Mother of God, which had previously been a Jewish synagogue. The walls of the inland city and the city itself had been destroyed in two diverse intervals [then] the different walls were restored in sixty days. George the Monk’s account was written about half a century after the Chronography of Theophanes, but it already incorporates evidence that an earthquake had destroyed the newly built church of the Mother of God. It remains unknown whether his account is Δημιουργήθηκε στις 26/9/2021 Σελίδα 1/5 IΔΡΥΜA ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Συγγραφή : Panayotov Alexander (22/12/2008) Για παραπομπή : Panayotov Alexander , "Jews in Constantinople (Byzantine period)", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Κωνσταντινούπολη URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11982> Jews in Constantinople (Byzantine period) based on earlier evidence or a later tradition designed to explain the second foundation of the church in the Copper Market. George the Monk does agree with Theophanes about the date of the conversion of the synagogue, but disagrees with him concerning the original builder of the church – asserting that this was Theodosius II not his sister Pulcheria. The problem is that it is not clear whether the church was built during the reign of Theodosius II (408-450) or during Pulcheria’s own reign (450-453). As shall be seen later, the Augusta probably converted the synagogue into a church during the last years of her brother’s reign. In accordance with that conclusion, patriarch Nicephorus I Callistus (ca750/758 - 5th April 828), a contemporary of Theophanes, notes that the confiscation of the synagogue and the building of the church took place during the reign of Pulcheria: Then she constructed the temple in the Chalkoprateia reshaping the Jewish synagogue, it is beautiful and at same time designed with great splendour, a Divine home built for the Mother of God seen all around. Nevertheless, some sources follow the usual practice of attributing the major building projects in the capital to the reigning emperor. For examples see the later accounts of Georgius Cedrenus and Michael Glycas (XIIth century) and Joel (first half of the XIIIth century) make no exception. However, in the twelfth century chronicle of John Zonaras there is an intriguing story, which implies that the synagogue was built illegally during the reign of Theodosius I (379-394). The text runs as follows: During the absence of the emperor in the West the Jews paid honour to the prefect of the city Honoratus in order to build a costly synagogue in the Copper Market and he granted his permission, for he professed Hellenic beliefs. Yet, that irritated the people of the city and they cursed the prefect, but he did not pay any attention to their blasphemies. Then, one night, violating the law, they set the synagogue on fire and burned it down. The prefect wrote to the emperor Theodosius about that and he laid penalty on those who had dared to burn the synagogue to pay all the expenses allowing it to be built again. The great Ambrosius learnt about that, since the emperor resided at that time in the city of Milan and was celebrating one of the Dominical feasts in the church, and spoke to the emperor: To what end you emperor are insulting the One who made you a king from a common man, entrusted you with the flock that He remitted with His blood, and who then put a crown on your squalid head, denying Him with your decision, most honoured, to have Christians pay the Jews and coercing them in the middle of the city, in which Christ is proclaimed and the cross adored, to built a synagogue of the murderers of Christ? Ashamed the emperor justified himself: And to allow bishop the lawless and shameless crowd to do as they like in well-ordered cities? But, is it right to permit emperor responded the divine Ambrosius, the Jews to have a synagogue in the centre of a pious city and to whisper blasphemies in the ears of the pious? I do not believe that this was your judgement, orthodox Augustus. After that, Theodosius calmed down, revoked the penalty on the Byzantines and strongly prohibited the Jews from possessing a synagogue within the queen of cities. Zonaras locates his story in the period between AD 390 and 394 when, during his Western campaign, Theodosius I resided in Milan. The text reveals that the Jews of Constantinople bribed the prefect ( parcoj) of the city, Honoratus, in order to gain permission to build synagogue in the Copper Market. The prefect, himself a pagan, granted his approval and even patronised the construction. His decision provoked disturbances in the city and the mob burned the building. The emperor, informed by Honoratus, ruled that the synagogue should be rebuilt at the expense of the arsonists. The law, promulgated by Theodosius I in AD 393 granting protection to Jewish assemblies and synagogues in the empire against Christian assaults testifies that such acts of violence were not exceptional in that period. As Linder has recently observed, the frequent legislation on this matter indicates that the imperial government was less than successful in enforcing these laws. What follows in the narrative of Zonaras is a dialogue between Theodosius and Ambrosius very similar to the one that, according to Sozomen and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, took place after the massacre of AD 390 in Thessalonica. The Emperor, faulted for his decision by Ambrosius, pleaded that it was in accordance with the law, but after a passionate speech delivered from the bishop he rescinded his judgement. Theodosius even forbade the construction of new synagogues in Constantinople, ruling that they can be built only on the city’s outskirts. It is not improbable to consider the last note of Zonaras as a reflection of the conditions under which the Jewish population of Constantinople lived in the twelfth century; the very time of his life and work.
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