t ime l ine sUsAN KIKoLeR


Sicut Judaeis allows Jews to profess their own religion and to hold property.


MIDDLE AGEs


12C After centuries of invasion and decline, more stable political and economic conditions allow the Jewish community to recover. The main institutions remain in Trastevere: synagogues, including one in Vicolo dell’Atleta, the rabbinical tribunal and the cemetery, situated between the Church of San Salvatore a Ripa and Porta Portese.Astreet near the Church of Santa Cecilia is called Ruga Judeorum.


1260’s Benjamin of Tudela visits Rome and finds a thriving and prosperous community including the lexicologist Nathan benYechiel, author of the Talmud compendium Sefer Arukh (Ordered Book).


The Arch of Titus: Jewish prisoners of war carrying treasure from the Temple IN ANCIENT ROME


161 BCE – The first documented link between Jews and Rome when the Maccabees send two envoys to the Roman Senate to request assistance against the Seleucids.


63-61 BCE After Pompey invades Judea, Jewish prisoners of war are sent to Rome as slaves. Later emissaries and merchants begin to settle. 30,000 are believed to be in Rome and 40/50,000 in Italy overall. Jews are generally treated well. Julius Caesar exempts Jews from military service, Augustus schedules grain distribution on days other than Shabbat, but under Tiberius 4,000 young Jewish conscripts are exiled to Sardinia.


12 BCE Asynagogue is founded by slaves freed byAgrippa while a further synagogue is established in 14 CE.


19 CE and 49-51 CE Jews are briefly expelled from Rome.


66-73 After Titus conquers Jerusalem and destroys the Temple (70CE) thousands of Jewish prisoners of war are brought to Rome as slaves. TheArch of Titus is erected with friezes depicting his triumph over the Jews, and the captured treasures from the Temple are brought to Rome.


80 Rabbi Gamliel leads a delegation of rabbis to Rome. Other Jewish scholars arrive in 95-96. By the first half of the second century there is an established


14 JewIsh ReNAIssANCe oCtoBeR 2011


Jewish community comprising physicians, actors, shopkeepers and peddlers – who are satirized in the poems of Juvenal and Martial.


Jews settle throughout Rome: Trastevere, CampusMartius, Porta Capena, Subura, the Esquiline. In this period up to 12 synagogues are established together with a yeshiva headed byMattia ben Heresh. The Jewish community is organised with official representatives, rabbis and even important female officials – the mater synagogue.


212 Caracalla grants Jews Roman citizenship.


ChRIsTIANITy ARRIvEs


312 Constantine makes Christianity the official religion. In 325 the Council of Nicaea officially separates the two religions. Discrimination begins against Jews as citizens, excluding them from public office. Later codices of Theodosius and Justinian protect Jews within Christian society while limiting their civic freedoms further.


387-388 and 493-526 Synagogues are destroyed by Christian mobs.


455 Vandals capture Rome and the treasures from the Temple are taken to Africa.


590 – 604 Pope Gregory, following a request for protection, in his Papal bull


13th c. Jews gradually move across the Tiber beyond the Pons Judeorum (Jewish Bridge) to Portico d’Ottavia and the Theatre ofMarcellus.Another Ruga Judeorum, later called Via Rua del Ghetto, links the area to another Jewish area called Platea Judea. It is a time of great cultural activity. Famous translators and copyists, including a woman, Paola the daughter of Avraham ha-Sofer, spread rare Jewish codices and Islamic and Greek culture throughout Italy and beyond. Rome is home to famous philosophers, scientists and scholars including the poet Immanuel of Rome, a contemporary of Dante, who composes sonnets in Hebrew.


1215 The 4thLateran council obliges Jews to wear a distinguishing badge.


1239 Pope Gregory IX orders copies of the Talmud confiscated and later burned.


End of 13th c. Rome declines when the Papal court moves toAvignon.Many Jews also leave.


1348 Plague devastates the remaining community.


End of 15th c. French, German and Spanish Jews settle in Rome from the countryside and other Papal cities.After the expulsions from Spain, Navarre, Portugal and Sicily in 1492 large numbers of Jews settle in Rome, encouraged by the popes, especially in theMercatello area, later called the Piazza delle Cinque Scole. There is friction between the newcomers and the established residents over official positions. However, integration is helped by close proximity and Roman dialect is used between Jews and the Christian society. Renaissance popes Julius II, the Medici Leo X and Clement VII are well


t h e J e w s o f R o m e


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