12-22-2009, 11:09 PM
First post, so I apologize for any etiquette issues I may have missed. I'm also extremely new to Roman military stuff, so please be patient with me.
I'm interested in the Auxilia in rural Galilee before the Jewish War. Luke 7:1-10 describes a centurion living in Capernaum. Some scholars have argued that this must be a centurion in the auxiliary army [Saddington, D. B. “The Centurion in Matthew 8:5-13: Consideration of the Proposal of Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., and Tat-Siong Benny Liew.” Journal of Biblical Literature 125 (2006): 140-142.].
My impression is that the auxiliary troops in Galilee would have been Jewish (contrast the claim in Luke 7:9), like it seems Cohors I Sebastena was - being the continuation of Herod the Great's army. I've found a few books that deal with the army under Herod the Great [Shatzman, Israel. The Armies of the Hasmonaeans and Herod: From Hellenistic to Roman Frameworks. Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 25. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1991. and Rocca, Samuel. Herod's Judea: A Mediterranean State in the Classical World. Edited by Peter Sch?fer, Annette Y. Reed, Seth Schwartz, and Azzan Yadin. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 122. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008.], but nothing about during the tetrarchy. Josephus doesn't really provide us with much information about the military under Herod Antipas, as far as I can tell and the surviving diplomas are too late to offer much information about anything but the tail-end of the period before the Jewish War (the mid-to-late 60s).
So any help regarding this passage would be greatly appreciated. Here are my questions, in short:
1) What ethnicity - setting aside the issue of Luke 7:9 - would a centurion in a small Galilean town most likely have been before 70 CE? For various reasons, I'm interested in ALL the possibilities from the 20 CE until about 64 (i.e., from Jesus' ministry until the War began). My impression is that centurions in the auxilia were commissioned from local aristocratic families, promoted through the ranks of the auxiliary century or sometimes transferred from the Roman Imperial Army during this time. [Gillam, J. F. “The Appointment of Auxiliary Centurions.” Transactions of the American Philological Society 88 (1957): 155-168.]
2) What would have the religious freedoms of Jewish centurions and other foot-soldiers in auxiliary units in Galilee have been? Josephus notes that Jews were afforded an exceptional status in that they were not conscripted (Josephus, Ant. 16.28.), which makes me suspect that soldiers had similar leniency with respect to the pantheon that civilians did. However, Sabbath observance seems practically impossible even in the auxilia.
3) Is there anything important I should know beyond these issues?
I've got access to several academic databases and excellent libraries, so I can get access to books and journals rather easily. Any help getting me on the right track will be immensely appreciated, even if it's just listing articles that I should have read before I asked these questions.
Many thanks and happy holidays.
I'm interested in the Auxilia in rural Galilee before the Jewish War. Luke 7:1-10 describes a centurion living in Capernaum. Some scholars have argued that this must be a centurion in the auxiliary army [Saddington, D. B. “The Centurion in Matthew 8:5-13: Consideration of the Proposal of Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., and Tat-Siong Benny Liew.” Journal of Biblical Literature 125 (2006): 140-142.].
My impression is that the auxiliary troops in Galilee would have been Jewish (contrast the claim in Luke 7:9), like it seems Cohors I Sebastena was - being the continuation of Herod the Great's army. I've found a few books that deal with the army under Herod the Great [Shatzman, Israel. The Armies of the Hasmonaeans and Herod: From Hellenistic to Roman Frameworks. Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 25. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1991. and Rocca, Samuel. Herod's Judea: A Mediterranean State in the Classical World. Edited by Peter Sch?fer, Annette Y. Reed, Seth Schwartz, and Azzan Yadin. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 122. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008.], but nothing about during the tetrarchy. Josephus doesn't really provide us with much information about the military under Herod Antipas, as far as I can tell and the surviving diplomas are too late to offer much information about anything but the tail-end of the period before the Jewish War (the mid-to-late 60s).
So any help regarding this passage would be greatly appreciated. Here are my questions, in short:
1) What ethnicity - setting aside the issue of Luke 7:9 - would a centurion in a small Galilean town most likely have been before 70 CE? For various reasons, I'm interested in ALL the possibilities from the 20 CE until about 64 (i.e., from Jesus' ministry until the War began). My impression is that centurions in the auxilia were commissioned from local aristocratic families, promoted through the ranks of the auxiliary century or sometimes transferred from the Roman Imperial Army during this time. [Gillam, J. F. “The Appointment of Auxiliary Centurions.” Transactions of the American Philological Society 88 (1957): 155-168.]
2) What would have the religious freedoms of Jewish centurions and other foot-soldiers in auxiliary units in Galilee have been? Josephus notes that Jews were afforded an exceptional status in that they were not conscripted (Josephus, Ant. 16.28.), which makes me suspect that soldiers had similar leniency with respect to the pantheon that civilians did. However, Sabbath observance seems practically impossible even in the auxilia.
3) Is there anything important I should know beyond these issues?
I've got access to several academic databases and excellent libraries, so I can get access to books and journals rather easily. Any help getting me on the right track will be immensely appreciated, even if it's just listing articles that I should have read before I asked these questions.
Many thanks and happy holidays.
Chris Zeichmann - New Testament Ph.D.
