Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

10591

Tacitus, Histories, 5.13.1
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1. Cicero, Pro Flacco, 67 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 67. Italia et ex omnibus nostris provinciis Hierosolymam exportari soleret, Flaccus sanxit edicto ne ex Asia exportari liceret. quis est, iudices, qui hoc non vere laudare possit? exportari aurum non oportere cum saepe antea senatus tum me consule gravissime iudicavit. huic autem barbarae superstitioni resistere severitatis, multitudinem Iudaeorum flagrantem non numquam in contionibus pro re publica contemnere gravitatis summae fuit. at Cn. Pompeius captis Hierosolymis victor ex illo fano nihil attigit.
2. Josephus Flavius, Jewish War, 6.216, 7.218-7.219 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) 6.216. That they had begun with their own hands to burn down that temple which we have preserved hitherto; and that therefore they deserved to eat such food as this was. 7.218. He also laid a tribute upon the Jews wheresoever they were, and enjoined every one of them to bring two drachmae every year into the Capitol, as they used to pay the same to the temple at Jerusalem. And this was the state of the Jewish affairs at this time. 7.219. 1. And now, in the fourth year of the reign of Vespasian, it came to pass that Antiochus, the king of Commagene, with all his family, fell into very great calamities. The occasion was this:
3. Juvenal, Satires, 14.100 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
4. Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, 3.7.21 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) 3.7.21.  The vices of the children bring hatred on their parents; founders of cities are detested for concentrating a race which is a curse to others, as for example the founder of the Jewish superstition; the laws of Gracchus are hated, and we abhor any loathsome example of vice that has been handed down to posterity, such as the criminal form of lust which a Persian is said to have been the first to practise on a woman of Samos.
5. Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, 3.7.21 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) 3.7.21.  The vices of the children bring hatred on their parents; founders of cities are detested for concentrating a race which is a curse to others, as for example the founder of the Jewish superstition; the laws of Gracchus are hated, and we abhor any loathsome example of vice that has been handed down to posterity, such as the criminal form of lust which a Persian is said to have been the first to practise on a woman of Samos.
6. Tacitus, Annals, 2.85, 4.13.1, 4.64.1, 12.43.1, 15.47.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 2.85.  In the same year, bounds were set to female profligacy by stringent resolutions of the senate; and it was laid down that no woman should trade in her body, if her father, grandfather, or husband had been a Roman knight. For Vistilia, the daughter of a praetorian family, had advertised her venality on the aediles' list — the normal procedure among our ancestors, who imagined the unchaste to be sufficiently punished by the avowal of their infamy. Her husband, Titidius Labeo, was also required to explain why, in view of his wife's manifest guilt, he had not invoked the penalty of the law. As he pleaded that sixty days, not yet elapsed, were allowed for deliberation, it was thought enough to pass sentence on Vistilia, who was removed to the island of Seriphos. — Another debate dealt with the proscription of the Egyptian and Jewish rites, and a senatorial edict directed that four thousand descendants of enfranchised slaves, tainted with that superstition and suitable in point of age, were to be shipped to Sardinia and there employed in suppressing brigandage: "if they succumbed to the pestilential climate, it was a cheap loss." The rest had orders to leave Italy, unless they had renounced their impious ceremonial by a given date. 4.13.1.  Meanwhile Tiberius had in no way relaxed his attention to public business, but, accepting work as a consolation, was dealing with judicial cases at Rome and petitions from the provinces. On his proposal, senatorial resolutions were passed to relieve the towns of Cibyra in Asia and Aegium in Achaia, both damaged by earthquake, by remitting their tribute for three years. Vibius Serenus, too, the proconsul of Further Spain, was condemned on a charge of public violence, and deported, as the result of his savage character, to the island of Amorgus. Carsidius Sacerdos, accused of supplying grain to a public enemy in the person of Tacfarinas, was acquitted; and the same charge failed against Gaius Gracchus. Gracchus had been taken in earliest infancy by his father Sempronius to share his banishment in the company of landless men, destitute of all liberal achievements; later, he eked out a livelihood by mean trading transactions in Africa and Sicily: yet even so he failed to escape the hazards reserved for rank and fortune. Indeed, had not Aelius Lamia and Lucius Apronius, former governors of Africa, come to the rescue of his innocence, he would have been swept to ruin by the fame of his calamitous house and the disasters of his father. 4.64.1.  The disaster had not yet faded from memory, when a fierce outbreak of fire affected the city to an unusual degree by burning down the Caelian Hill. "It was a fatal year, and the sovereign's decision to absent himself had been adopted under an evil star" — so men began to remark, converting, as is the habit of the crowd, the fortuitous into the culpable, when the Caesar checked the critics by a distribution of money in proportion to loss sustained. Thanks were returned to him; in the senate, by the noble; in the streets, by the voice of the people: for without respect of persons, and without the intercession of relatives, he had aided with his liberality even unknown sufferers whom he had himself encouraged to apply. Proposals were added that the Caelian Hill should for the future be known as the Augustan, since, with all around on fire, the one thing to remain unscathed had been a bust of Tiberius in the house of the senator Junius. "The same," it was said, "had happened formerly to Claudia Quinta; whose statue, twice escaped from the fury of the flames, our ancestors had dedicated in the temple of the Mother of the Gods. The Claudian race was sacrosanct and acceptable to Heaven, and additional solemnity should be given to the ground on which the gods had shown so notable an honour to the sovereign. 12.43.1.  Many prodigies occurred during the year. Ominous birds took their seat on the Capitol; houses were overturned by repeated shocks of earthquake, and, as the panic spread, the weak were trampled underfoot in the trepidation of the crowd. A shortage of corn, again, and the famine which resulted, were construed as a supernatural warning. Nor were the complaints always whispered. Claudius, sitting in judgement, was surrounded by a wildly clamorous mob, and, driven into the farthest corner of the Forum, was there subjected to violent pressure, until, with the help of a body of troops, he forced a way through the hostile throng. It was established that the capital had provisions for fifteen days, no more; and the crisis was relieved only by the especial grace of the gods and the mildness of the winter. And yet, Heaven knows, in the past, Italy exported supplies for the legions into remote provinces; nor is sterility the trouble now, but we cultivate Africa and Egypt by preference, and the life of the Roman nation has been staked upon cargo-boats and accidents. 15.47.1.  At the close of the year, report was busy with portents heralding disaster to come — lightning-flashes in numbers never exceeded, a comet (a phenomenon to which Nero always made atonement in noble blood); two-headed embryos, human or of the other animals, thrown out in public or discovered in the sacrifices where it is the rule to kill pregt victims. Again, in the territory of Placentia, a calf was born close to the road with the head grown to a leg; and there followed an interpretation of the soothsayers, stating that another head was being prepared for the world; but it would be neither strong nor secret, as it had been repressed in the womb, and had been brought forth at the wayside.
7. Tacitus, Histories, 1.3.2, 2.4, 2.50.2, 5.5, 5.5.1-5.5.2, 5.5.4-5.5.5, 5.7-5.8, 5.8.2-5.8.3, 5.13 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 2.4.  After Titus had examined the treasures, the gifts made by kings, and all those other things which the Greeks from their delight in ancient tales attribute to a dim antiquity, he asked the oracle first with regard to his voyage. On learning that his path was open and the sea favourable, he slew many victims and then questioned indirectly about himself. When Sostratus, for such was the priest's name, saw that the entrails were uniformly favourable and that the goddess favoured great undertakings, he made at the moment a brief reply in the usual fashion, but asked for a private interview in which he disclosed the future. Greatly encouraged, Titus sailed on to his father; his arrival brought a great accession of confidence to the provincials and to the troops, who were in a state of anxious uncertainty. Vespasian had almost put an end to the war with the Jews. The siege of Jerusalem, however, remained, a task rendered difficult and arduous by the character of the mountain-citadel and the obstinate superstition of the Jews rather than by any adequate resources which the besieged possessed to withstand the inevitable hardships of a siege. As we have stated above, Vespasian himself had three legions experienced in war. Mucianus was in command of four in a peaceful province, but a spirit of emulation and the glory won by the neighbouring army had banished from his troops all inclination to idleness, and just as dangers and toils had given Vespasian's troops power of resistance, so those of Mucianus had gained vigour from unbroken repose and that love of war which springs from inexperience. Both generals had auxiliary infantry and cavalry, as well as fleets and allied kings; while each possessed a famous name, though a different reputation. 5.5.  Whatever their origin, these rites are maintained by their antiquity: the other customs of the Jews are base and abominable, and owe their persistence to their depravity. For the worst rascals among other peoples, renouncing their ancestral religions, always kept sending tribute and contributions to Jerusalem, thereby increasing the wealth of the Jews; again, the Jews are extremely loyal toward one another, and always ready to show compassion, but toward every other people they feel only hate and enmity. They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart, and although as a race, they are prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; yet among themselves nothing is unlawful. They adopted circumcision to distinguish themselves from other peoples by this difference. Those who are converted to their ways follow the same practice, and the earliest lesson they receive is to despise the gods, to disown their country, and to regard their parents, children, and brothers as of little account. However, they take thought to increase their numbers; for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born child, and they believe that the souls of those who are killed in battle or by the executioner are immortal: hence comes their passion for begetting children, and their scorn of death. They bury the body rather than burn it, thus following the Egyptians' custom; they likewise bestow the same care on the dead, and hold the same belief about the world below; but their ideas of heavenly things are quite the opposite. The Egyptians worship many animals and monstrous images; the Jews conceive of one god only, and that with the mind alone: they regard as impious those who make from perishable materials representations of gods in man's image; that supreme and eternal being is to them incapable of representation and without end. Therefore they set up no statues in their cities, still less in their temples; this flattery is not paid their kings, nor this honour given to the Caesars. But since their priests used to chant to the accompaniment of pipes and cymbals and to wear garlands of ivy, and because a golden vine was found in their temple, some have thought that they were devotees of Father Liber, the conqueror of the East, in spite of the incongruity of their customs. For Liber established festive rites of a joyous nature, while the ways of the Jews are preposterous and mean. 5.7.  Not far from this lake is a plain which, according to report, was once fertile and the site of great cities, but which was later devastated by lightning; and it is said that traces of this disaster still exist there, and that the very ground looks burnt and has lost its fertility. In fact, all the plants there, whether wild or cultivated, turn black, become sterile, and seem to wither into dust, either in leaf or in flower or after they have reached their usual mature form. Now for my part, although I should grant that famous cities were once destroyed by fire from heaven, I still think that it is the exhalations from the lake that infect the ground and poison the atmosphere about this district, and that this is the reason that crops and fruits decay, since both soil and climate are deleterious. The river Belus also empties into the Jewish Sea; around its mouth a kind of sand is gathered, which when mixed with soda is fused into glass. The beach is of moderate size, but it furnishes an inexhaustible supply. 5.8.  A great part of Judea is covered with scattered villages, but there are some towns also; Jerusalem is the capital of the Jews. In it was a temple possessing enormous riches. The first line of fortifications protected the city, the next the palace, and the innermost wall the temple. Only a Jew might approach its doors, and all save the priests were forbidden to cross the threshold. While the East was under the dominion of the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, the Jews were regarded as the meanest of their subjects: but after the Macedonians gained supremacy, King Antiochus endeavoured to abolish Jewish superstition and to introduce Greek civilization; the war with the Parthians, however, prevented his improving this basest of peoples; for it was exactly at that time that Arsaces had revolted. Later on, since the power of Macedon had waned, the Parthians were not yet come to their strength, and the Romans were far away, the Jews selected their own kings. These in turn were expelled by the fickle mob; but recovering their throne by force of arms, they banished citizens, destroyed towns, killed brothers, wives, and parents, and dared essay every other kind of royal crime without hesitation; but they fostered the national superstition, for they had assumed the priesthood to support their civil authority. 5.13.  Prodigies had indeed occurred, but to avert them either by victims or by vows is held unlawful by a people which, though prone to superstition, is opposed to all propitiatory rites. Contending hosts were seen meeting in the skies, arms flashed, and suddenly the temple was illumined with fire from the clouds. of a sudden the doors of the shrine opened and a superhuman voice cried: "The gods are departing": at the same moment the mighty stir of their going was heard. Few interpreted these omens as fearful; the majority firmly believed that their ancient priestly writings contained the prophecy that this was the very time when the East should grow strong and that men starting from Judea should possess the world. This mysterious prophecy had in reality pointed to Vespasian and Titus, but the common people, as is the way of human ambition, interpreted these great destinies in their own favour, and could not be turned to the truth even by adversity. We have heard that the total number of the besieged of every age and both sexes was six hundred thousand; there were arms for all who could use them, and the number ready to fight was larger than could have been anticipated from the total population. Both men and women showed the same determination; and if they were to be forced to change their home, they feared life more than death. Such was the city and people against which Titus Caesar now proceeded; since the nature of the ground did not allow him to assault or employ any sudden operations, he decided to use earthworks and mantlets; the legions were assigned to their several tasks, and there was a respite of fighting until they made ready every device for storming a town that the ancients had ever employed or modern ingenuity invented.
8. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 66.7.2 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
barbarism	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
baruch (benedictus) de spinoza	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 273
christianity	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 278, 284
cilicians	Schwartz (2008), 2 Maccabees, 252
circumcision	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 273
daphne	Schwartz (2008), 2 Maccabees, 252
decline,of religion	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 164
domitian	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
earthquakes,prodigial	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 164
earthquakes	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 164
eduard wolff	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 284
eugen fischer	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 284
expiation	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156
flavians	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 277
foreign,prodigies	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 164
foreigners,and religion	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156
friedrich nietzsche	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 284
genre,as strategy	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156
georg andresen	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 284
gerhard kittel	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 284
germany	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 284
gods,agency deduced	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 164
gods,and vengeance	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156
gods,intervention	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156
ira deorum	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 164
israelites	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 273
jean bodin	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 277
jean henri dotteville	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 277, 278
jerusalem,second temple	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
jerusalem	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 277, 278; Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
jesus	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 277
jewish	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 278
johann g. müller	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 278
judaea	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
judaean/jewish,identity	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
judaean/jewish,tax	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
judaean/jewish	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
judaism	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
justus lipsius	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 277
mediterranean	Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 185
michel de montaigne	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 277
misanthropy	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 277, 284
motifs (thematic),greek,see also under greek	Schwartz (2008), 2 Maccabees, 253
mysians	Schwartz (2008), 2 Maccabees, 252
national socialism	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 284
nature,and prodigies	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156
nero,offends gods	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156
omens,in tacitus	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156, 164
popilius laenas'	Schwartz (2008), 2 Maccabees, 253
prodigies,as wrath of gods	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156
prodigies,assessment	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156, 164
prodigies,in historiography	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 164
prodigies,in tacitus	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156, 164
prodigies,reporting	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 164
prodigies,under tiberius (lack of)	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 164
rome	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
sacrifice	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 273
tacitus	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
uelut,and interpretation	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156
vespasian	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 278; Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
violence,cultural (symbolic)	Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 155
wilhelm heraeus	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 284