Lulianos and Paphos (alt. sp. Julianus and Pappus, second-century CE) were two wealthy Jewish brothers who lived in

Laodicea on the Lycus Laodicea on the Lycus ( ''Laodikeia pros tou Lykou''; , also transliterated as ''Laodiceia'' or ''Laodikeia'') ( or archaically as ) was a rich ancient Greek city in Asia Minor, now Turkey, on the river Lycus (Çürüksu). It was located in the ...

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, contemporaries with

Joshua ben Hananiah Joshua ben Hananiah ( ''Yəhōšūaʿ ben Ḥănanyā''; d. 131 CE), also known as Rabbi Yehoshua, was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Second Temple. He is the eighth-most-frequently mentioned sage in t ...

, and who suffered

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloqui ...

at the hands of the Roman

legate Legate may refer to: People * Bartholomew Legate (1575–1611), English martyr * Julie Anne Legate (born 1972), Canadian linguistics professor * William LeGate (born 1994), American entrepreneur Political and religious offices *Legatus, a hig ...

. An anecdote about the lives of these two illustrious Grecian-Jewish citizens has come down in the

Midrashic ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

literature stating that, during the days of

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

, the emperor mulled over the thought of rebuilding Israel's Temple. When the news reached Lulianos and Paphos who were very wealthy, they set-up tables from Acco to

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

, hoping thereby to allow Jewish pilgrims to exchange their local currency for coins in specie, or else provide other basic needs for the people before proceeding on to Jerusalem. In the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

is mentioned the "slain of Lydia" (another name for Laodicea on the Lycus) and which Talmudic commentators have explained to be referring to two Jewish brothers with Hellenized names, Julian (Lulianos) of

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

and Paphos, the son of Judah, who willingly made themselves martyrs to save the entire Jewish population of Laodicea from annihilation. Their real names were Shamayah and Ahiyah. According to ancient Jewish accounts, a non Jewish child had been found slain in their city. The blame for the child's murder was laid upon the Jews of that city. The governor intervened by threatening to kill all the Jews of the city, unless the perpetrator of the vile act would deliver himself up to be punished. When no one could be found to take responsibility for the act and the governor was insistent on punishing all the Jews, Lulianos and Paphos, being "wholly righteous men," willingly took responsibility for the death of the child and were duly executed. Their deaths on the fifth day of the lunar month

Adar Adar (Hebrew: , ; from Akkadian ''adaru'') is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the religious year on the Hebrew calendar, roughly corresponding to the month of March in the Gregorian calendar. It is a month of 29 days. ...

were marked by public fasting among Jews, each year on the anniversary of their deaths.

Account of martyrdom

According to the Talmud and Midrash, Lulianos' and Paphos' executioner was a man named Trajanus (''Turyannos''). When Trajanus desired to kill Lulianos and Paphos, elsewhere described as being on account of their confessing to the murder of a young gentile girl, the daughter of a king, who was found slain in the city –– for the gentiles of that city had laid the blame upon the Jews of the city, and they were about to take vengeance upon the entire Jewish population until Lulianos and his brother, Paphos, confessed to the murder (which they had not committed, but only confessed to save the lives of their fellow countrymen), the two men were summoned before Trajanus for questioning. Trajanus began their trial by mocking them, saying to them: "If you are from the nation of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, let your God come and save you from my hand, just as He saved Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar." To this they replied: "Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were full-fledged righteous people, and they were worthy that a miracle should be performed for them, and Nebuchadnezzar was a worthy king, and it was fitting that a miracle be performed through him, but you are merely an unjust commoner, and one who is not fitting that a miracle be performed through him, seeing that we have been condemned to destruction by the Omnipresent or our misdeeds And if you do not kill us, the Omnipresent has many other executioners. And if men do not kill us, the Omnipresent has many bears and lions in His world that can hurt us and kill us. Instead, the Holy One, Blessed be He, placed us into your hands only so that He will avenge our blood in the future." No sooner had he killed them than dispatches (''tabula'') arrived from Rome (others say two officials, or two emissaries, carrying orders against their execution), but since the act had already been done by the Roman soldier, he, himself, was sentenced to die by way of "cudgeling" (''

fustuarium In the military of ancient Rome, ''fustuarium'' (Greek ξυλοκοπία, ''xylokopia''.) or ''fustuarium supplicium'' ("the punishment of cudgeling") was a severe form of military discipline in which a soldier was cudgeled to death. It is des ...

''), a form of capital punishment inflicted upon Roman soldiers for the highest military offenses. Some scholars ascribe these events to

Lusius Quietus Lusius Quietus (, ; , ) was a Roman Berber general and 11th legate of Judaea from 117. He was the principal commander against the Jewish rebellion known as the Kitos War (''Kitos'' is a later corruption of ''Quietus''). He was notably one of t ...

of Lysia, when he was appointed Roman governor of

Judaea Judea or Judaea (; ; , ; ) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the prese ...

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

, and who was later punished by Hadrian the emperor. The difficulty, however, with this assumption is that the primary sources all place these events in Laodicea, a place in Asia Minor and far away from the jurisdiction of Lusius Quietus.

Reaction

The deliverance of the city's Jewish community was received with relief by world's Jewry, and the day on which their executioner had been killed himself, the 12th day of the lunar month

, was transcribed in the Jewish record books and in the '' Scroll of Fasting'' as a day of public celebration, and one whereon it was forbidden for Jews to fast. Later, the day of celebration was cancelled, since two great rabbis,

Abtalion Abtalion ( ''ʾAḇṭalyōn'') or Avtalyon (Modern Hebrew) was a rabbinic sage in the early pre-Mishnaic era. He was a leader of the Pharisees during the 1st century BCE, and by tradition the vice-president of the great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. H ...

and Shemaiah, were known to have been executed some years earlier on the same day.

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

(''Taanit'' 2:11 2a–b

Account of martyrdom

Reaction

Notes

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Further reading