Thursday, August 15, 2024

Why is the Gallus Revolt forgotten?

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: Jews And Christians In Roman Palestine (Philip Jenkins).
In other words, the Gallus Revolt of the 350s looks like a straight linear successor or rerun of those earlier and vastly more famous risings, although as I say, it is unknown to non-specialists. It makes nonsense of the idea that the Jewish population was so thoroughly and irrevocably purged after the 130s, and it must remind us of the strong Jewish community that paralleled and confronted the rising Christianity within Palestine itself, with its legendary center at Caesarea Maritima. Inevitably, our sense of actual population statistics is shaky, but there must have been thriving Jewish rural communities.
For more on the Gallus Revolt and the recent numismatic discovery underlying this essay, see here. And for a bit more on the revolt, see here.

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