Jews in the Roman Army?

[D B Campbell]

"Sons of Israel in Caesar’s Service" by Andrew J. Schoenfeld is available online: http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/shofar/v024/24.3schoenfeld.pdf

I was about to direct you to Applebaum's 1971 paper, but this one is much more accessible and more up-to-date.

[recondicom]

I’m particularly inclined to believe it. If Herod was a Roman citizen and if he maintained the frontiers vs Syrians and others then he probably used Jews in his army. After the battle of Actium, Herod took Anthony’s position in the territories. The VI Legion (ferrata) was with Anthony and the new Legion VI Vitrix was with Octavius. And… there was Herod in command of both. (VI Spanish)
I’m most interested in the beginning of the Diaspora which in my opinion is the movement of the VI Legion to the South of France and Catalonia to maintain the land (Gaul) conquered by Cesar (1 million slaves; 1 million dead; 1 million displaced)… As for the Mithras God that… is an evolution of Sassenes’s doctrines.
The doctrines of the Roman Church diverged from Gnostic and Kabala ( Zohar) followers at the French/Spanish land, notably at the delta of the river Hebrew (Ebro). The invasion of Spain by muslims and the historic evolution of power landed the Jews (ghettos) in the 20 th century and the II world war. IMHO.

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Recondicom,

Please add your real (first) name to your signature. It's a forum rule.

[Sardaukar]

Well, St. Paul would have been eligible for service in Roman Army, being a citizen. I think I recall some source stating that his father had been tentmaker for Roman Army and had been rewarded citizenship that way. That Paul was citizen, is clearly demonstrated by being able to travel to Rome and appeal to Emperor, something that was only available for Roman citizens.

I don't think he got citizenship by being a phariseus (which he apparently was before conversion)...and I think it'd be quite rare for such religious figure in Judaism to also be Roman citizen.

Judaism had lot of religious taboos that made both service as Roman civil servant or service in legions extremely difficult. Lot of Jewish figures seemingly had denounced their religion, to be able to serve in Roman bureaucracy.

So, I'd be quite surprised if Jewish population was present in Roman legions in any meaningful numbers. Auxilia, on the other hand, might have been totally different thing.

[recondicom]

As many believe so it goes. The centurion in the New Testament: I was wondering whether he spoke latin or Hebrew to Christ. As for the reverence of his tone one may think it was the word of some translator. Perhaps, the the sick man was a soldier. He heard of Jesus maybe in latin.
Vale.

[Robert Vermaat]

The centurion in the New Testament: I was wondering whether he spoke latin or Hebrew to Christ.

In all probability, neither. A Roman would not have understood Hebrew and a Hebrew would not have understood Latin. Greek was probably a far more commaon language for a Roman in the east (and maybe he was of Greek descent, I don't recall whether a scriptures say whether he was a Roman). If he had been raised in the area, he would have been able to speak Arameic, which I think would have been understandable to most.

[recondicom]

At Alexandria: Cleopatra had a major fallout with the Jews as the Books were being translated into (surviving?) greek. The underlying fact is a bilingual (possibly Hebrew) ability of few translators. In another passage, some of the followers of Jesus are unclean Jews and accused of being the sons and daughters of sin (not keeping hebrew customs) and being absorbed into the society (Roman and otherwise)… Actually, the accusers are very upset at the rabbi for teaching the unclean the underlying doctrine of the scriptures.
Vale

[tDub248]

The centurion in the New Testament: I was wondering whether he spoke latin or Hebrew to Christ.

(and maybe he was of Greek descent, I don't recall whether a scriptures say whether he was a Roman)

All I can add is Acts 10:1 in the New American Standard version says: "Now there was a man at (A)Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was (B)called the Italian cohort,"

This is a fascinating topic though! I love it!

[Idomeneas]

I would also speculate that greek was the most common used language in the area between Romans and natives. About Jews in the legions. I think too that some people could ''bent'' some rules in order to get into the roman world. History is full of people that denied ethnic or religious beliefs in order to make their lives easier.
For example in Syria there is a population that speak Greek with distinctive Cretan accent. These people are of Cretan origin, and converted to Islam during the Turkish occupation. After the liberation of the island they were considered traitors and left the island. Today there are people there that havent being to Crete ever, but keep the Cretan customs and language along with being muslim. They consider themselves 100% Cretans and many speak so clear that is almost unbelievable.

[Ordovices]

I can see a Judean farm boy deciding he wants more of a future than following a plow , looking at the rear end of oxen . So he runs away from his village , signs up for the auxillarys and follows the Legion rules.
Upon retirement , he returns to his native village with Roman citizenship and alot of saved up back pay . He could be the richest man in his village then able to buy property and marry well . He then resumes an observant Jewish life and eventually dies an Observant religious Jew.
Other young men from the vilage would follow his example of leave broke/come home rich.
In a few generations a back water village could aquire a serious population of Roman Citizens .

[recondicom]

I can see a Judean farm boy deciding he wants more of a future than following a plow , looking at the rear end of oxen . So he runs away from his village , signs up for the auxillarys and follows the Legion rules.
Upon retirement , he returns to his native village with Roman citizenship and alot of saved up back pay . He could be the richest man in his village then able to buy property and marry well . He then resumes an observant Jewish life and eventually dies an Observant religious Jew.
Other young men from the vilage would follow his example of leave broke/come home rich.
In a few generations a back water village could aquire a serious population of Roman Citizens .

Phillip the Arab comes to mind. (Imperator with claims of Christian beliefs).
Vale.

[Yitzhak]

There is a story of a Jewish mercenary in service to a hellenistic king- I think Ptolemy- who when listening to arguements over what omen a circling bird portends, shoots the bird and kills it. In essense saying "silly greeks, its just a bird". I don't know where I read this, does anyone know the reference? It might be one of the early christian writers.

That's from Pseudo-Hecatæus. Specifically the work "On the Jews". It was written in Hecatæus' name, but is clearly not one of his actual works.