BACKSTORY: Pompeii and the Jews

Some of the ruins at Pompeii

Just recently, the Royal Ontario Museum announced a major exhibit on Pompeii. For those that have never been there, Pompeii is an evocative place. It offers an unparalleled view of a Roman city at the height of the empire in the  first century CE, thanks to the fact that the city was almost perfectly preserved for the better part of 2,000 years by the explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE 

Perhaps even more importantly, Pompeii also highlights the fragility of human life and accomplishment, showing how it can all be snuffed out in the historical blink of an eye. 

Pompeii’s discovery in the 18th century ignited a firestorm of interest in the ancient world. It ranks as one of the greatest archeological discoveries of all time, giving us a unique view into the ancient Mediterranean world at the height of Rome’s power in the first century CE.

In Europe, Pompeii’s discovery sparked a renewed interest in ancient Rome and led to the neoclassical style in art and architecture. This new vogue even crossed the Atlantic and had a major impact on emerging styles. In the United States neoclassicism was referred to as the federal style, reaching its zenith with the Capitol building housing the U.S. Congress. That should really come as no surprise since the newly created United States was strongly influenced by the ancient Romans, even naming their upper house the Senate, after its ancient Roman counterpart.

What many people do not realize is that there appears to be a visible Jewish presence at Pompeii. A few have even said that the obliteration of Pompeii was divine retribution for the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans. Amazingly this happened nine years earlier on almost the same day as Pompeii was wiped out by Vesuvius.

The evidence indicates that the majority of Jews arrived in Pompeii after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE  (although it is possible that there had been a Jewish population at Pompeii even earlier). This was a catastrophic period in Jewish history with large numbers of Jews from Judea being deported throughout the Roman Empire. Many people wound up as slaves, especially in Rome, where they were used to build that greatest of ancient structures, the Flavian Amphitheater, more popularly known as the Coliseum. (In an ironic historical twist of fate, many Italians coming from southern Italy after the Second World War worked for Jewish builders and helped build cities such as Toronto into the vibrant centres that they are today).  

In Pompeii, the epigraphic evidence from surviving inscriptions shows that many of the Jews had a lower socio-economic status. This is not uncommon since many were enslaved as a result of the Jewish Revolt; however, others were freedmen, and there were even prostitutes amongst the group. 

Nevertheless there were some Jews who were well off in Pompeii, such as Fabius Eupor, who had the title of princes libertinorum. One inscription refers to an individual called, interestingly enough, Iudaikos, who was a wine merchant, a profession that Jews practised throughout the history of the Roman Empire. The evidence appears to show that Jews even played a role in the municipal life of the city. Another inscription refers to Sodom and Gomorrah, and may even have been scribbled as the volcano was snuffing out the life of the city.

The excavations at Pompeii have given us a bird’s-eye view of a little known Jewish community of the ancient Diaspora. They also show how far afield the Diaspora had spread throughout the Roman Empire, with some scholars believing that Jews may have made up as much as 10 per cent of the Empire’s population. n

Alex Gropper is a teacher of history at the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto and president of the Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies at the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto.