Roman Siege of Masada

Noah Blough

Mrs. Hatmaker

Latin, 3

11/18/2011

The middle east has been victim to many sacks and assaults, throughout the ages. One of the most recognized and well known is the sacking of Masada. The Romans laid siege to the fort because it is where the Jewish rebels took up camp and made their last stand. Was this act of Roman aggression simply Romans conquering another province, or were Romans trying to wipe out the Jewish race?

The reason why the Jews rebelled because of the growing tension of between the Jews and the Greeks. After the Greeks sacrificed a group of birds Jews started mass protests. They not only started to protest the Greeks, the protested the raised taxes. After a Jewish priest stopped sacrificing to the emperor, the pro Romans king of the Jews requested the help of the Romans. In response the Romans sent a legion which got ambushed and defeated by the Jewish rebels. Then the newly appointed emperor Vespasian sent his son, Titus to take care of the problems in Judea. After Jerusalem was sacked, Titus returned to Rome, a conquering hero. Two years later, a Roman army surrounded the Jewish Fort of Masada.

In 72 The Romans had laid siege to the city of Masada and after a year the Romans broke through the Jewish walls and saw the vast majority of the fort's population murdered each other to prevent themselves becoming slaves. To make sure the Romans knew this, Eleazars ben Ya'ir the leader of the Sicarii (Jewish Rebels), burned all of the buildings in the fort except for the food supply, to let the Romans know they could have held out for longer.

The idea of the Romans trying destroy the Jewish race is not supported by fact. The truth of the matter is that the Romans did not go from town to town killing every Jewish person they encountered. The Romans even treated the Jews with less hatred then they treated the Christians. Yes, the Romans did sack Jerusalem and the holy temples, but they did go through a genocide of the Jewish Race. Even though there were some persecution in years to come, there was no specific focus on the Jews being singled out anymore than anyone else the Romans conquered. To the Romans, the Jews were just a rebelling tribe that needed to be taken care of, which may have called for harsh treatment but not anymore than the Gauls received after Vixgorix.

The main effect of the Roman take over of Jerusalem was the Jewish disphoria across Europe.

Though some people may say the Romans “forcing” the Jews out of their homeland may be the cause for future genocides, one could argue, even if the Romans did not make the Jews disperse, another culture would have. Therefore the Romans and Titus did not in any way shape or form commit genocide or persecution against the Jews.

Sources 

Battle by R.G Grant 

http://www.inrometoday.it/phototour/romanforum/titusarch/index.htm

Adina Samuels

Latin 3

Ms. Hatmaker

18.1.2010

Christian Persecution

     The Roman Empire is well known and regarded for their inclusion of other religions in its own. So why did the Roman Empire attack Christianity with the intensity that they did? The reason is as easy as looking at the death of Jesus of Nazareth. In Christian beliefs, Jesus died as a martyr for human sins. But for Romans, who were there ones that crucified him, Jesus died a criminal and an enemy of Rome. That may be the main reason why Romans persecuted Christians and not Jews. 

     When the Jews had their own nation and the Romans conquered and controlled it, they had an idea of what the Jewish religion was about and what they were doing. Christianity, however, never had the chance to thrive as a nation, so it remained mostly underground. When there is a group of people who practice a religion that no one knows about, rumors can easily emerge. This could be another reason. 
     The rumor that really started the persecution of Christians was under the reign of Nero. In the year 64 a fire started that devastated Rome and ruined its economy. This fire was at first thought to be started by Nero. To avoid trouble from this Nero and his advisor used the Christians as a scapegoat in order to evade the rebellion of the people. This rumor successfully calmed the roman people, and lead to mass execution of the Christians. This set the attitude towards Christians for the next few hundred years.
     After a couple hundred years of minor persecution, the Diocletian took the throne and, backed by Maximian and Galerius, started withdrawing laws that previously protected Christians and issued a series of edicts that demanded they comply with traditional religious practices or die. The first edict stated that Christian churches should be burned down, Christians could not be defended in court, and any Christian of rank would be stripped of their title. At first, the edict was requested to be carried out peacefully by Diocletian. The judges instead listened to Gallerias who requested all Christians to be burned. The rest of the edicts stated that Christians needed to attend ritual sacrifices and if they choose not to they would die.

     This behavior is unfair considering it is based solely on rumors and lies. Among other things, had Nero taken the fall for his actions as opposed to blaming the Christians, a lot of this “drama” could have been avoided.

Sources: http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~james.p.burns/chroma/saints/Persecution.html

Cult of Mithras

Noah Blough

Mrs. Hatmaker

Latin 3, Period -6

December 16^th, 2010

The Cult of Mithras

In ancient Roman society the state religion was polytheistic. This means that the Roman people did not focus their worship on just one god. However, due to the fact that worshiping numerous god can be hard to do, many people joined cults that focused their attention on one god. This did not mean they did not believe in the other gods, they just believed they connect more with one deity. One such deity was Mithras, whose cult was an early rival of Christianity.

Much like the cult, the origins of the god Mithras are mysterious. Many scholars believe that Mithras was first worshiped in Persia or what is now Turkey. He was one of the many gods that did not start out as a Roman god but was adapted over time. It was believed that Mithras killed a bull and when he did, the first man and women came out of the bulls blood, with all other things of nature. From then on, Mithras was the messenger between man and the of life, different gods depending on which religion. Mithras main role is to defend mankind against the god of the dead, which again depends about which culture Mithras was being worshiped in.

The Mirthras cult was consisted only of men, no women were allowed to join. The temples of worship are now called by scholars, mithraeum. They were either in caves or in places that were built to replicate a cave. This is because Mithras was supposedly born in a cave and the people who worshiped him wanted to acknowledge this belief. Most mithraeums were found on the Roman frontier such as the border of Germania and at Hadrian Wall. This implies that there was heavy worship among Roman soldiers. This is most likely because the Roman legion was the vitality of the Roman Empire and they drew the connection to Mithras who is the vitality of mankind.

Very little is known about the initiation ceremony. It is believed that people who were applying to the cult needed to experience three elements of pain and discomfort. These were most likely heat, cold, and hunger. After a person has entered the cult, they progress through different levels. The average amount of levels for a person to get through is four. People who are more religious would have been able to get to level seven of worship. Each level was represented by a totem, such as a raven or a soldier, and would also be associated with a planet, such as Mercury or Saturn. For example, the first level was Corax and its totem was a crow and its planet was Mecury.

To conclude, not much is know about this cult because it was kept very secrete in Roman society. Though what scholars know of this cult backs up the idea on how open Romans were in including other peoples religion into their own.

Work Cited

http://www.romanarmy.net/mithras.htm#ref12

http://ecole.evansville.edu/articles/mithraism.html

Mithras killing the bull whose blood creates all living things.

Temple to Mithras in Germany

The Cult of Cybele

Adina S.

Ms. Hatmaker

Latin 3

16.12.2010

The Cult of Cybele

The Cult of Cybele began in Asia Minor. Cybele was a goddess known as a healer and a protector from enemies, and was considered responsible for good crops and military victories. She was also referred to as Magna Mater. Her home was Mount Ida, near the city of Troy. In 194 BCE, a temple was built on the Palatine Hill. New games were initiated to celebrate her. Her popularity grew very quickly and by the end of the Roman Republic the cult of Cybele had become one of the most important. Her temple was visited by some of the most powerful people of Rome.

According to myth, Cybele discovered that her lover Attis was unfaithful. Jealous, she made him go mad and mutilate himself under a pine tree, where he bled to death. Regretting what she had done, Cybele mourned her loss. This however, caused a lot of negative aspects to Cybele’s cult. Cybele's religion was a bloody cult that required its priests and priestesses and other followers to cut themselves during some rituals. The priests even castrated themselves at their initiation. Festival days were celebrated with the goddess going through the streets, and having people banging cymbals and drums, wearing bright attire and heavy jewelry. This caused a very negative view of the Cult from the Roman Christians. By the 4^th Century Emperor Valentinian II banned the Cult and passed laws that allowed secret followers to be punished. Those who still followed the cult were tortured, forced to commit suicide, or buried alive. This caused the Cult to go extinct by the 6^th Century AD.

Sources:

http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/religion/cultcybele.htm

http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Cr-Dr/Cybele.html

Adina S.

11.30.2010

Curses and Religion in Late Antiquity

Curses have been found to be used for revenge, marriage, love, competitive rivalry, or for witnesses in court. They influenced actions or happiness of others. The curse was supposed to appeal to a god or another supernatural being in order for them to carry out the curse; usually to hurt or impair an enemy.  This was done by invoking multiple deities into the curse. Repetition was also used in curses, along with magic words, drawings, sacrifices and the location chosen to bury the tablet. Some were even written backwards. The curse was often written on lead tablets, however this didn’t exclude them being on other materials such as wood, papyrus, and stone. Those written on lead tablets and stone have been better preserved over the years. Curses have been around for a long time. Today archeologists are still discovering several curse tablets and they are very helpful, as “they provide much unexplained evidence into the religious beliefs and practices, language, private lives of citizens, and the influences of ancient magic arts.” (http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/ArchaeologyAndCurses.html)

In the Roman state, religion was also very important. They had sacrifices and rituals to keep a good “relationship” with their gods, and encouraged others to “identify their own gods with Roman gods who shared some of the same characteristics.” (Religion and Romanization, 61)

The Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by Roman forces at the end of the Jewish revolt of AD 66–70. This didn’t, nevertheless, stop the Jews from rebuilding the Temple and continue to worship. “Hostility to Rome for the destruction of the Temple did not prevent Jews within the Roman and Byzantine empires integrating into mainstream culture, but the Christianization of the empire, and not least the adoption of Palaestina as a Christian Holy Land.” (http://www.ocla.ox.ac.uk/sect_jjw.shtml)

Constantine ended the persecution of Christianity by issuing the Edict of Milan in 313. Therefore the Pagan religion was no longer the only acceptable religion in the state. While the temples were shut in 356 there is still evidence that traditional sacrifices occurred. Under the ruling of Julian, Roman Emperor from 355 to 363, however, the temples were reopened and State religious sacrifices were legalized. There were a few back and forth’s until finally Theodosius made it illegal again, once and for all ending “an era of religious toleration.”(Wikipedia) He also stated Rome to be a Christian Empire and with the edict of Thessalonica created several laws against pagan practices. However, it took until the 7th century for the population to abandon some of their pagan customs. This leads to believe that cursing and sacrifices, though made illegal were around for centuries after, and most likely adapted into Christianity in different forms.

Sources:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization#Late_Antiquity_.284th-6th_centuries.29

-http://www.ocla.ox.ac.uk/sect_jjw.shtml

-http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/ArchaeologyAndCurses.html

-The third Cambridge Latin book Page 42, 61-62.

Noah Blough Picutre

http://www.the-romans.co.uk/g7/35.curse_tablet.jpg