DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4680#0344
3. THE JEWS IN AKMONIA. 675
firmed by several indications in our inscr. Julia Severa was a high-
priestess in the Imperial cultus, in association successively with her
two husbands, no. 530, 550: so also was Servenia Cornuta, no. 551.
The worship of Poppaea as Sebaste Eubosia seems to have been
maintained by Jews (no. 530). Alexander, the high-priest at Apameia,
was probably a Jew.
The Akmonian Jews, then, seem to have regarded Akmonia as their
fatherland, not merely in name (no. 561), but in reality. They took
the Roman Empire as their country, and in every way showed them-
selves loyal, even to the extent of engaging in the loyal worship of
the Emperors.
The approximation between the Jews and the native population
was not likely to be wholly on one side. The fascination which the
lofty morality and proud separation of the Jewish religion exercised
on the Roman world is well known; and Phrygia was probably even
more likely than other countries to come under that influence. In
no. 23a, according to our interpretation, there is an example of this
Judaizing tendency ; and though no other example can be given, we
must remember that inscr. can rarely throw light on such move-
ments of thought. But the tendency of Paul's Phrygian converts at
Colossae, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch to lapse into Judaistic prac-
tices, and the multitudes that flocked to the synagogue in Antioch,
show how strongly the Jews had affected the district. Moreover the
position of the Jews in Apameia and Akmonia, and the facts related
in § 2, could hardly have come about, unless the native population
had come to some degree under Jewish influence.
These considerations lead up to the question as to the ultimate fate
of the Phrygian Jews. Why do we never hear of them in later
history? The answer must, I think, be that the}7 gradually became
merged in the surrounding people. It may seem improbable that
a large Jewish population should lose its separate character, and be
swallowed up in a race which probably possessed lower intellectual
power and vigour. But the separatism of the Jews is dependent on
their religion; and the evidence of the Talmud is clear, that the
Phrygian Jews failed to maintain their own peculiar religion, and
thus were divided from their brethren. On the one hand they
approximated to the Graeco-Roman civilization, were ardent sup-
porters of the Imperial policy, and engaged in the Imperial cultus (at
least in outward form, and that cultus was never more than an
outward form); on the other hand they were probably to a large
extent Christianized at an early period; and even those who had
taken the Imperial side, and conformed to the State worship, were
¥ 2
firmed by several indications in our inscr. Julia Severa was a high-
priestess in the Imperial cultus, in association successively with her
two husbands, no. 530, 550: so also was Servenia Cornuta, no. 551.
The worship of Poppaea as Sebaste Eubosia seems to have been
maintained by Jews (no. 530). Alexander, the high-priest at Apameia,
was probably a Jew.
The Akmonian Jews, then, seem to have regarded Akmonia as their
fatherland, not merely in name (no. 561), but in reality. They took
the Roman Empire as their country, and in every way showed them-
selves loyal, even to the extent of engaging in the loyal worship of
the Emperors.
The approximation between the Jews and the native population
was not likely to be wholly on one side. The fascination which the
lofty morality and proud separation of the Jewish religion exercised
on the Roman world is well known; and Phrygia was probably even
more likely than other countries to come under that influence. In
no. 23a, according to our interpretation, there is an example of this
Judaizing tendency ; and though no other example can be given, we
must remember that inscr. can rarely throw light on such move-
ments of thought. But the tendency of Paul's Phrygian converts at
Colossae, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch to lapse into Judaistic prac-
tices, and the multitudes that flocked to the synagogue in Antioch,
show how strongly the Jews had affected the district. Moreover the
position of the Jews in Apameia and Akmonia, and the facts related
in § 2, could hardly have come about, unless the native population
had come to some degree under Jewish influence.
These considerations lead up to the question as to the ultimate fate
of the Phrygian Jews. Why do we never hear of them in later
history? The answer must, I think, be that the}7 gradually became
merged in the surrounding people. It may seem improbable that
a large Jewish population should lose its separate character, and be
swallowed up in a race which probably possessed lower intellectual
power and vigour. But the separatism of the Jews is dependent on
their religion; and the evidence of the Talmud is clear, that the
Phrygian Jews failed to maintain their own peculiar religion, and
thus were divided from their brethren. On the one hand they
approximated to the Graeco-Roman civilization, were ardent sup-
porters of the Imperial policy, and engaged in the Imperial cultus (at
least in outward form, and that cultus was never more than an
outward form); on the other hand they were probably to a large
extent Christianized at an early period; and even those who had
taken the Imperial side, and conformed to the State worship, were
¥ 2