Alexandria riot (66)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Extensive riots erupted in
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
, Roman Egypt, in 66 CE, in parallel with the outbreak of the
First Jewish–Roman War The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt ( he, המרד הגדול '), or The Jewish War, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire, fought in Roman-controlled ...
in neighbouring
Roman Judea Judaea ( la, Iudaea ; grc, Ἰουδαία, translit=Ioudaíā ) was a Roman province which incorporated the regions of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea from 6 CE, extending over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms o ...
. With the rising tension between the Greeks and the Jews the Alexandrines had organized a public assembly to deliberate about an embassy to
Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unti ...
, and a great number of Jews came flocking to the amphitheater. When the Alexandrines saw the Jews they attacked them. They killed the majority of the Jews and those who were captured were burned alive. The Jews wanted retaliation for what the Greeks had done and threatened to do it with violence. The Roman Prefect of Egypt, Gaius Caecina Tuscus, had failed to deal with the riots. In May 66, Tuscus was replaced by
Tiberius Julius Alexander Tiberius Julius Alexander (fl. 1st century) was an equestrian governor and general in the Roman Empire. Born into a wealthy Jewish family of Alexandria but abandoning or neglecting the Jewish religion, he rose to become the 2nd procurator of Ju ...
, himself from a Jewish family, who was able to restrain the rioters. Tiberius privately sent for the principal men of the Jews, and convinced them to be quiet, and not provoke the Roman army against them. But the seditious did not take the threat seriously, and reproached him for so uttering threats. The governor now understood that those who were most riotous would not be pacified unless some great calamity would overtake them. He sent out the two Roman legions that were in the city ( Legio III Cyrenaica and the
Legio XXII Deiotariana Legio XXII Deiotariana ("Deiotarus' Twenty-Second Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army, founded ca. 48 BC and disbanded during the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136. Its cognomen comes from Deiotarus, a Celtic king of Galatia. Its emb ...
), together with 5,000 other soldiers, to punish the Jews. They were permitted not only to kill them, but to plunder them of what they had, and to set fire to their houses. The Romans showed no mercy to the infants, had no regard for the aged, and went on in the slaughter of persons of every age; over 50,000 Jews lay dead in the streets. Tiberius Julius Alexander eventually took mercy on the Jews and called off the attacks. This was but one of many riots that broke out in not only Alexandria, but also in Damascus, Caesarea and in many other places. During the events, the prefect Julius Alexander attacked the Jewish quarter of the city.


Historic perspective

The tensions between the Jews and Greco-Romans in Alexandria began after the riots of 38 CE, with another violent event following in 55 CE. Later, the Jewish–Roman wars had a great impact on Alexandria, with the major Jewish community of the city engaging in extensive riots in 66 CE. A much greater violence followed 50 years later, when in 117 CE, the Jews of Alexandria participated in the great disturbances of the
Kitos War The Kitos War (115–117; he, מרד הגלויות, mered ha-galuyot, or ''mered ha-tfutzot''; "rebellion of the diaspora" la, Tumultus Iudaicus) was one of the major Jewish–Roman wars (66–136). The rebellions erupted in 115, when most ...
, succeeding in destroying much of the Greek city before the Roman Army descended upon the city to quell the revolt.


See also

* Jewish–Roman wars *
Alexandrian riots (38) The Alexandrian pogrom, or Alexandrian riots were attacks directed against Jews in 38 CE in Roman Alexandria, Egypt. The Roman emperor Caligula had few reasons to trust the prefect of Egypt, Aulus Avilius Flaccus. Flaccus had been loyal to Tibe ...
*
History of the Jews in the Roman Empire The history of the Jews in the Roman Empire ( la, Iudaeorum Romanum) traces the interaction of Jews and Romans during the period of the Roman Empire (27 BCE – CE 476). A Jewish diaspora had migrated to Rome and to the territories of Roman Eu ...


References

{{Ancient Roman Wars, state=collapsed Roman Alexandria Jews and Judaism in the Roman Empire Jews of Roman Alexandria 1st century in Egypt 66 60s in the Roman Empire 60s conflicts First Jewish–Roman War