Talmudic legends about the Roman emperors

TALMUD WATCH: Rome says Nero died. The Talmud gives him a very different ending. Jewish legends recast Rome’s emperors in extraordinary ways, from Nero converting and becoming Rabbi Meir’s ancestor to Titus tormented by a gnat, Hadrian outwitted by rabbis and Antoninus drawn toward Judaism after Rome destroyed Jerusalem (Liran Friedmann, YNetNews).

On June 9, 68 CE, Emperor Nero died outside Rome after being declared a public enemy and abandoned by much of the political establishment. Or did he? Roman historians say yes. Jewish tradition has another version entirely. According to the Babylonian Talmud, Nero did not simply disappear from history. He fled a Roman campaign against Jerusalem, converted to Judaism and eventually became an ancestor of Rabbi Meir, one of the greatest rabbis of the Mishnah.

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The Talmudic story about Nero has come up before, but it's fun to revisit. It is not remotely credible, but the Roman account of his death isn't credible either. For commentary, see here and links.

The stories about the other emperors are similarly not credible but entertaining. For another legend about Yohanan ben Zakkai and Vespasian, see here. For a bit more on the legends about "Antoninus," see here.

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