Tacitus on the Jews

Before he starts to describe the Roman siege of Jerusalem, Roman historian Tacitus offers an account of Jewish history. It is a curious mix of fact, fiction, and slander. The translation of Histories 5.2-5 was made by Kenneth Wellesley.

Jupiter Ammon. Detail of the Aufidius altar, found in the Via Flaminia, Rome.

[2] The Jews are said to have been refugees from the island of Crete who settled in the remotest corner of Libya in the days when, according to the story, Saturn was driven from his throne by the aggression of Jupiter.note[According to Greek-Roman legend, Jupiter (Greek: Zeus) was born on Crete and overthrew his father Saturn (Kronos). Tacitus rationalizes this myth and seems to believe that Zeus and Kronos were kings.] This is a deduction from the name Judaei by which they became known: the word is to be regarded as a barbarous lengthening of Idaei, the name of the people dwelling around the famous Mount Ida in Crete. A few authorities hold that in the reign of Isis the surplus population of Egypt was evacuated to neighboring lands under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Judas.note["Hierosolymus" and "Judas" are the Greek renderings of the Hebrew words for Jerusalem and Jew.] Many assure us that the Jews are descended from those Ethiopians who were driven by fear and hatred to emigrate from their home country when Cepheus was king.note[According to Greek legend, Cepheus was king of Ethiopia, i.e., the country of the "burnt face people". His daughter Andromeda was married to the hero Perseus.] There are some who say that a motley collection of landless Assyriansnote[This theory is plausible. In Greek and Latin, the word "Assyrian" can indicate everyone living in modern Iraq or Syria. Aramaeans, a tribe to which the Hebrews seem to have been related, also fit within the definition of an Assyrian.] occupied a part of Egypt, and then built cities of their own, inhabiting the lands of the Hebrews and the nearer parts of Syria. Others again find a famous ancestry for the Jews in the Solymi who are mentioned with respect in the epics of Homer:note[The Solymi are mentioned by Homer in the Iliad 6.184 and 204 and in the Odyssey 5.283. They were brave warriors from Lycia. The word Jerusalem was read as 'Hiero-Solyma' or 'holy place of the Solymi'.] this tribe is supposed have founded Jerusalem and named it after themselves.

[3] Most authorities, however, agree on the following account. The whole of Egypt was once plagued by a wasting disease which caused bodily disfigurement. So pharaoh Bocchorisnote[Pharaoh Uahkare Bocchoris ruled 718-712. The date is too late.] went to the oracle of Hammonnote[The oracle was in the western desert, at the Siwa oasis. Its most famous visitor was Alexander the Great.] to ask for a cure, and was told to purify his kingdom by expelling the victims to other lands, as they lay under a divine curse. Thus a multitude of sufferers was rounded up, herded together, and abandoned in the wilderness. Here the exiles tearfully resigned themselves to their fate. But one of them, who was called Moses, urged his companions not to wait passively for help from god or man, for both had deserted them: they should trust to their own initiative and to whatever guidance first helped them to extricate themselves from their present plight. They agreed, and started off at random into the unknown. But exhaustion set in, chiefly through lack of water, and the level plain was already strewn with the bodies of those who had collapsed and were at their last gasp when a herd of wild asses left their pasture and made for the spade of a wooded crag. Moses followed them and was able to bring to light a number of abundant channels of water whose presence he had deduced from a grassy patch of ground. This relieved their thirst. They traveled on for six days without a break, and on the seventh they expelled the previous inhabitants of Canaan, took over their lands and in them built a holy city and temple.

[4] In order to secure the allegiance of his people in the future, Moses prescribed for them a novel religion quite different from those of the rest of mankind. Among the Jews all things are profane that we hold sacred; on the other hand they regard as permissible what seems to us immoral. In the innermost part of the Temple, they consecrated an image of the animal which had delivered them from their wandering and thirst, choosing a ram as beast of sacrifice to demonstrate, so it seems, their contempt for Hammon.note[The Egyptians represented Ammon with a ram's head.] The bull is also offered up, because the Egyptians worship it as Apis.note[The Apis bull was one of the manifestations of the Egyptian god Ptah. Its cult was famous in antiquity since it was described by the Greek researcher Herodotus, Histories 3.28.] They avoid eating pork in memory of their tribulations, as they themselves were once infected with the disease to which this creature is subject.note[Leprosy.]. They still fast frequently as an admission of the hunger they once endured so long, and to symbolize their hurried meal the bread eaten by the Jews is unleavened. We are told that the seventh day was set aside for rest because this marked the end of their toils. In course of time the seductions of idleness made them devote every seventh year to indolence as well. Others say that this is a mark of respect to Saturn, either because they owe the basic principles of their religion to the Idaei, who, we are told, were expelled in the company of Saturn and became the founders of the Jewish race, or because, among the seven stars that rule mankind, the one that describes the highest orbit and exerts the greatest influence is Saturn. A further argument is that most of the heavenly bodies complete their path and revolutions in multiples of seven.

[5] Whatever their origin, these observances are sanctioned by their antiquity. The other practices of the Jews are sinister and revolting, and have entrenched themselves by their very wickedness. Wretches of the most abandoned kind who had no use for the religion of their fathers took to contributing dues and free-will offerings to swell the Jewish exchequer; and other reasons for their increasing wealth way be found in their stubborn loyalty and ready benevolence towards brother Jews. But the rest of the world they confront with the hatred reserved for enemies. They will not feed or intermarry with gentiles. Though a most lascivious people, the Jews avoid sexual intercourse with women of alien race. Among themselves nothing is barred. They have introduced the practice of circumcision to show that they are different from others. Proselytes to Jewry adopt the same practices, and the very first lesson they learn is to despise the gods, shed all feelings of patriotism, and consider parents, children and brothers as readily expendable. However, the Jews see to it that their numbers increase. It is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child,note[Infanticide was a common practice among the Greeks and Romans.] and they think that eternal life is granted to those who die in battle or execution - hence their eagerness to have children, and their contempt for death. Rather than cremate their dead, they prefer to bury them in imitation of the Egyptian fashion, and they have the same concern and beliefs about the world below. But their conception of heavenly things is quite different. The Egyptians worship a variety of animals and half-human, half-bestial forms, whereas the Jewish religion is a purely spiritual monotheism. They hold it to be impious to make idols of perishable materials in the likeness of man: for them, the Most High and Eternal cannot be portrayed by human hands and will never pass away. For this reason they erect no images in their cities, still less in their temples. Their kings are not so flattered, the Roman emperors not so honored. However, their priests used to perform their chants to the flute and drums, crowned with ivy, and a golden vine was discovered in the Temple; and this has led some to imagine that the god thus worshipped was Prince Liber,note[A common title for Dionysus, the god of wine, intoxication and ecstasy.], the conqueror of the East. But the two cults are diametrically opposed. Liber founded a festive and happy cult: the Jewish belief is paradoxical and degraded.