This book explores the benefits and pitfalls of writing about an archaeologically rich but literarily poor topic. The results of this inquiry are strongly revisionist: the Jews in ancient Asia Minor, or Anatolia, are shown to have been far from the perfect balance of integration in their host cities and self-preservation that scholars have long ascribed to them. Rather, the Jews experienced conflict and poverty, struggling to carve out a place for themselves in the Greek cities of Asia. Jewish communal institutions played little role before late antiquity, but Jews sometimes achieved a diffuse sense of community through trade guild membership and participation in theatrical events. Surprisingly, many of them actually expressed pride in their Roman identities, but rarely––or never––their local civic identities. Even during the Jews’ brief period of prosperity and heightened civic engagement, circa 400 CE, their lives were characterized by strong localism, featuring many elements that distinguish them sharply from Jews elsewhere in the Roman Empire.

 

Tackling a history shrouded in myth and fiction, The Jews of Asia Minor reconciles literary and archaeological evidence to create a detailed analysis of the evolving history of Jews in Asia Minor under Roman law.