The Missing Link to Poppaea’s Alleged Jewish Sympathy? Aramaic/Hebrew Graffito to Indicate the Presence of Jewish Slaves at villa Oplontis ‘A’ (the so-called villa Poppaeae). PDF

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A Hebrew/Aramaic graffito and Poppaea’s alleged Jewish sympathy Tibor Grüll & László Benke D e pa r t m e n t o f H i s t o r y, U n i v e r s i t y o f P é c s D e p a r t m e n t o f H e b r e w Stud i e s , E ö t v ö s L o r á n d U n i v e r s i t y a b s t r ac t Scholarly research has been...

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A Hebrew/Aramaic graito and Poppaea’s alleged Jewish sympathy Tibor Grüll & lászló benke D e pa r T m e n T o f H i s T o r y, U n i v e r s i T y o f p é c s De pa rT m e n T of H e br e w s T U Di e s, e ö T vös l or á n D U n i v e r s i T y

a b s T r ac T Scholarly research has been looking for evidence that would help to connect villa ‘A’ in Oplontis (Torre Annunziata) to Poppaea Sabina, second wife of Nero, to whom Flavius Josephus referred as theosebēs, that is, as a sympathizer with the Jews. Although this connection as a hypothesis is widely supported, entirely convincing evidence has still not been found. This paper will present a so far unpublished Hebrew/Aramaic inscription that the authors found accidentally in the villa, which may reinforce this long suspected connection and contribute to our understanding of the life and general conditions of the Jewish diaspora living in Campania prior to 79 c e . Hence, the main goal of this article is to call the attention of the scholarly community to a still unknown graito, inviting scholars to contribute to its interpretation.

Jews in irst-century Campania Although the presence of Jews in Italy can be traced back to the Maccabean period (i.e. the mid-second century b c e), Italian Jewry grew to greater importance after Pompey the Great conquered Jerusalem (63 b c e). The Roman general brought back with him great numbers of Jewish prisoners of war who were subsequently sold as slaves. The majority of them, however, were manumitted soon afterwards. The freed slaves were granted Roman citizenship, and settled ‘beyond the Tiber’ (trans Tiberim, Phil. Leg. 155). In the imperial period Jews were dispersed throughout Italy. After Rome, the Jewish community in Puteoli (Dicaearchia, the main port for the trade between Italy and the Orient) was the best known and perhaps the most important one (Ant. 17.23–25; Bell. 2.101–5; CIJ I² 561 = JIWE I 23, gerusiarches). In Campania, Pompeii also supplies some pieces of evidence of Jewish presence. Unfortunately for us, most of the Jewish epitaphs found in 

1. See esp. Mary Beard, The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008). Beard argues that half of Pompeii’s population were slaves,

j o U r n a l o f j e w i s H s T U D i e s | v o l . l x i 1 | n o . 1 | s p r i n G 2 011

36 | j o U r n a l o f j e w i s H s T U D i e s Campanian towns and villages can be dated to the late antiquity (third–fourth centuries c e). However, there is an exception, the relatively well-known funerary inscription of Claudia Aster which goes as follows: [Cl]audia Aster / [H]ierosolymitana / [ca]ptiva. Curam egit / [Ti.] Claudius Aug(usti) libertus / [Pro?]culus. Rogo vos fac(iatis) / [prae]ter legem ne quis / [mi]hi titulum deiciat cu/[ra]m agatis. Vixit annis / XXV (CIL X 1971 = CIJ 410 = JIWE I 26). Claudia, who was a freedwoman of Ti. Claudius [Pro]culus (in turn a freedman of the Emperor himself ), had originally been called Esther, captured in Jerusalem and brought as a slave to Italy or directly to Naples where her epitaph has been found. Considering the historical circumstances, she may have been captured, most probably, in 70 c e , when Titus besieged and occupied Jerusalem. The most interesting pieces of evidence concerning Jewish presence in Campania are the inscriptions and graiti found in places buried by the volcanic eruption in 79 c e , as this date provides us a irm terminus ante quem for all remnants that have come to light in those settlements. In Herculaneum, at the ‘House of the Wooden Lararium’ (V. 32) Della Corte discovered a graito with the name David (in Latin letters) ( JIWE I 41). The name Abdeus Liviae which can be interpreted as ‘servant of Livia’ or ‘Obadiah/Abda, (freedman) of Livia’, occurs on a number of stamped tiles in Herculaneum ( JIWE I 41). In Stabiae there is a ine marble sarcophagus dedicated to a principalis col(oniae) Mis(enensis) called Iulius Longinus by his wife Iulia Maria (CIL IX p. 84. n. 966). We can rightly assume, as in the case of Claudia Aster, that the wife, called Maria, was originally a Jewish slave who had been freed and married by her master Iulius Longinus. The most important traces of Campanian Jews come from the most excavated and largest town of the Vesuvian area: Pompeii. We know of a Jewish wine merchant called Ioudaikos (CIL IV 9757 = JIWE I 40). A certain M. Valerius Abinnericus was another merchant and wine producer of freedman status (CIL IV 5630); some scholars, however, 







many of them Jews brought from Israel after the Roman destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 c e . More on Pompeii’s vestiges of possible Jewish origin later. 2. According to D. Noy ( JIWE I 26, p. 45) Proculus (?) was manumitted by Claudius or Nero. He may have been Jewish himself, since there were many Jewish freedmen in Italy at this time, see G. Fuks, ‘Where Have All the Freedmen Gone?’, JJS 36 (1985), pp. 25–32. 3. Contra H. Solin, ‘Juden und Syrer in der römischen Welt’, ANRW II.29.2 (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1983), pp. 587–789, esp. 648–649; cf. D. Noy, JIWE I 26, p. 45. 4. S. Treggiari, ‘Jobs in the Household of Livia’, PBSR 43 (1975), pp. 48–77. 5. J. B. Frey, ‘Les Juifs à Pompei’, RB 42 (1953), pp. 365–84.

a H e b r e w/a r a m a i c G r a f f i T o | 37 doubt that the cognomen was a Latinised form of the Hebrew name Abner. There are several Jewish names written on the walls of Pompeian houses: Maria, employee (or slave) of the textile shop of a certain M. Terentius Eudoxus (VI. xiii. 6) (CIL IV 1507); Martha, a slave in the household of A. Rustius Verus (IX. viii. 6) (CIL IV 3763, 5244); a second Maria, another slave in the thermopolium Asellinae on the Via dell’Abbondanza (IX. ii. 2) (CIL IV 7866); and, inally, a third Maria who served in the so-called ‘House of the Fourth Style’ (I. viii. 17) (CIL IV 8224 ). Ancient Hebrew/Aramaic graiti have also been found in Pompeii, like the one discovered in the hall annexed to the ‘House of the Cryptoporticus’ (I. vi. 2). It was brought to light by Moshe Ginsburger in 1931, subsequently copied by J.-B. Frey, and inally published by M. Della Corte. Unfortunately, the text has not been satifactorily deciphered and it has almost entirely disappeared by now. There are other signs indicating that Jews lived in signiicant number in Pompeii prior to its destruction. A part of the graiti – and even frescoes – echo names and themes from the Hebrew Bible. Perhaps the most widely known is the one found on the wall of a humble house (IX. i. 26), with a clear reference to Genesis: Sodom[a] Gomor[a] (CIL IV 4976 = JIWE I 38). The ominous words were written with large Latin letters, with charcoal, 1.8 metres above loor level. (There are two inscriptions in Greek with Latin letters alluding to the Book of Genesis, Megiste Genesis and Genesis (CIL IV 4300, 4321), although they can be read as allusions to a Greek name as well.) A unique and most interesting document attesting Jewish presence in Pompeii was found in the vestibule of a modest house (XI. i. 14). The carefully carved inscription is clearly readable as H ER EM , preceded by another word cut in larger Latin letters: P OI N I U M ( JIWE I 39). There is almost a general agreement among scholars that the irst word is a Hebrew expression (HRM) transcribed in Latin characters, viz. ‘ban’ or ‘curse’; while the other word is 







6. Solin, ‘Juden und Syrer’, p. 676 (he classiies this name only as ‘semitische Name’), cf. AE 1958, 278; CIL VI 29329. 7. Martha was not exclusively Jewish but a common Semitic name; cf. Solin, ‘Juden und Syrer’, pp. 634–7; IJO I, App. 13–14. (We would like to thank our anonymous reviewers for calling our attention to this and other important distinctions.) 8. M. Della Corte, ‘Fabius Eupor, princeps libertinorum e gli elementi giudaici in Pompeii’, AAP N.S. 3 (1949–50), p. 347. 9. C. Giordano and I. Kahn, ‘Il Cherem biblico in Pompei antica’, RAAN 49 (1974), pp. 167–76. Paradoxically, this inscription was accepted by H. Solin as the only irm evidence of Jews at Pompeii (Solin, ‘Juden und Syrer’, p. 727), but according to D. Noy, its Jewish authorship is uncertain ( JIWE I 39, p. 59).

38 | j o U r n a l o f j e w i s H s T U D i e s the Latin form of the Greek noun poinē meaning ‘punishment’ (cf. Lat. poena). A star with ive points (hotam Shelomo in Hebrew) also belongs here, as the pentagram was widely used by Jews as a magic symbol averting misfortune and calamities. Finally, it is worth noting that in 1882, at the excavation of house VIII. v. 24, a series of frescoes were discovered (now at the National Museum of Naples, Inv.-No. 113.197), which originally served as the decoration of the garden. One of the caricature-like paintings clearly represents the widely known ‘judgement of Salomon’ from the Hebrew Bible (1 Kgs 3:16–28). Giordano and Kahn thought the picture was a parody painted by an Alexandrian artist (or by a Pompeian painter who imitated an Alexandrian model). According to a new interpretation this frescoe was not intended as a mockery directed against the Jews, but as a parody of Greek philosophy represented in the bottom left corner by Socrates and Aristotle. 0







The villa ‘of Poppaea’ at Oplontis Oplontis, among all Vesuvian archaeological sites buried at the eruption on 24 August 79 c e , ofers – similarly to Stabiae – signiicant architectural evidence of the Pompeii suburbs. The group of buildings found under the modern town of Torre Annunziata indeed seems to have formed a city suburb, administratively subject to the jurisdiction of Pompeii, with its typical array of villas and a few public buildings (most of all, an uncovered spa in Punta Oncino). The irst phase of the site dates to the second century b c e , showing that Oplontis was occupied in the late Samnite period before the construction of Roman villas. In some parts of the settlement the villas are rather scattered, while in other parts they are closely grouped and connected, 10. It is important to note, however, that there are diferent readings of the word; cf. Noy in JIWE I 39. 11. Pentagrams with or without inscriptions were found in hiding caves in Judaea: J. Patrich and R. Rubin, ‘Les grote de el-’Aleiliyat et la Laure de Saint-Firmin’, RB 91 (1984), pp. 381–7; J. Patrich, ‘Inscriptions araméennes juives dans ls grottes d’el-’Aleiliyat’, RB 92 (1985), pp. 265–73; id., ‘Hideouts in the Judean Wilderness: Jewish Revolutionaries and Christian Ascetics Sought Shelter and Protection in Clifside Caves’, BAR 15 (1989), pp. 32–42. However, the pentagram appears throughout antiquity in diferent cultural and religious contexts and was not an exclusively, or even particularly, Jewish symbol; cf. C. J. de Vogel, Pythagoras and Early Pythagoreanism: An Interpretation of Neglected Evidence on the Philosopher Pythagoras (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1966), pp. 28–51. 12. C. Giordano and I. Kahn, The Jews in Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, and in the Cities of Campania Felix, 3rd edition (Bardi, Roma, 2006), pp. 57–60; cf. J. Gutmann, ‘Was There Biblical Art at Pompeii?’ Antike Kunst 15 (1972), pp. 122–4. 13. T. Feder, ‘Solomon, Socrates and Aristotle’, BAR 34 (2008), pp. 32–6.

a H e b r e w/a r a m a i c G r a f f i T o | 39 leading one to infer that there was an urban pattern that we can indeed regard as a pagus of Pompeii: this would also explain its indication with a distinct place name on the Tabula Peutingeriana. Several villas have been found in the Oplontis area, whether situated on the seashore as villae maritimae, or further back on the slopes of the volcano; among the latter, for example, the villa of L. Crassius Tertius was a business centre processing agricultural products, particularly wine and oil. More importantly, Oplontis is remarkable for the so-called ‘Villa A’, a grandiose and luxurious residential complex commonly known, since its exploration led by Alfonso de Franciscis, as the ‘Villa of Poppaea’, and believed to be part of the extensive land holdings of the imperial family along the coast of Campania. The villa is on the lower slopes of Vesuvius, where the Tabula Peutingeriana locates Oplontis, a short distance from the sea and not far from the coast road that must have connected, since archaic times, the settlements of the southern part of the Gulf of Cumae. Based on the analysis of mosaics, wall-paintings, masonry, and pottery inds, there were at least four, if not ive, stages of construction. The initial construction dates to c. 50 b c e; while a second phase to c. 1 c e: the latter involved work at the northern side of the central core and may have included the construction of the bath. A third phase, dating to after 45 c e , may have included the renovation of the bath complex and sections of the central axis. 





14. For the place name see De Franciscis, ‘La villa romana di Oplontis’, In Neue Forschungen in Pompeji, ed. B. Andreae and H. Kyrieleis (Aurel Bongers, Recklinghausen, 1975), pp. 9–39; M. Prosperi, ‘Oplontis: Suburbio di Pompei dalla Tabula Peutingeriana’, Antiqua 4:15 (Oct.–Dec. 1979), pp. 21–6. See also the description of this part of the Gulf of Naples given in the Augustan age by the geographer Strabo Geogr. 5.247. 15. This villa was discovered in 1974, 250 metres east of the Villa of Poppaea, during the construction of a school; and it was subsequently named upon the inding of a bronze seal bearing the name of L. Crassius Tertius. For a detailed description of the villas at Oplontis, see W. F. Jashemski, ‘Recently Excavated Gardens and Cultivated Land of the Villas at Boscoreale and Oplontis’, In Ancient Roman Villa Gardens. Ed. Elisabeth Blair MacDougall (Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, 1987), pp. 33–75; for the villa of L. Crassius Tertius, esp. 33–4. 16. For a detailed account on the villa, see A. de Franciscis, ‘La villa romana di Oplontis’, FA 18–19 (1963–64), p. 7420; id., ‘La villa romana di Oplontis’, PP 153 (1973), pp. 453–66; id., ‘La villa romana di Oplontis’ (as in n. 14), pp. 9–39; S. De Caro, ‘Sculture dalla villa di Poppea di Oplontis’, CronPomp 2 (1976), pp. 184–225; C. Malandrino, Oplontis (Lofredo, Napoli, 1977); A. de Franciscis, ‘La dama di Oplonti’, In Eikones, Studien zum Griechischen und Römischen Bildnis: Festschrift Hans Jucker zum Sechzigsten Geburtstag Gewidmet, Beiheft Antike Kunst 12 (Francke, Bern, 1980), pp. 115–17; W. F. Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii (Caratzas, New Rochelle, NY, 1979), vol. I. pp. 289–314; S. De Caro, ‘The Sculptures of the Villa of Poppaea at Oplontis: A Preliminary Report’, In Ancient Roman Villa Gardens. Ed. E. Blair MacDougall (Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, 1987), pp. 77–133; Jashemski, ‘Recently Excavated Gardens’ (as in n. 15).

40 | joU r na l of j ew isH sTU Di es A fourth stage, most probably between 50 and 60 c e , involved the reduction of the swimming pool and included the construction of the eastern wing. The ifth phase constituted work under way at the time of the eruption: the oldest part of the complex, which dates from the mid-irst century c e , was being expanded in 79 c e. This, in some scholars’ view, conirms the ‘Poppaea hypothesis’: in fact, the complex seems to have been transferred (after Poppaea’s death?) to a new owner who ordered some reconstruction. The villa was partially explored in the nineteenth century, beginning in the Bourbon period, but its complete excavation and careful documentation was only carried out between 1964 and 1984, by Alfonso de Franciscis and Stefano de Caro. The new Oplontis Project, sponsored by the University of Texas (Austin), began in 2005. Unfortunately, an estimated 60 per cent of the villa still lies uncovered. Most inds, including numerous marble statues, are still held in stores, awaiting accurate treatment. A comprehensive description of the complex would lead us far beyond the limits of this paper. Suice it to indicate its dimensions here: it extends for about 130 meters in length and 110 meters in width, smaller only than the magniicent Villa of Papyri in Herculaneum, which extends on about 5,600 square metres, as opposed to the about 5000 square-metre area of the villa in Oplontis. 





Evidence for the villa’s attribution to Poppaea Alfonso de Franciscis – who was in charge of the excavation and restoration of the villa – provided a irst thorough description on the buildings, which, as he believed and expressed in several studies, in its last but one period of ownership may have belonged to Poppaea Sabina, Emperor Nero’s ill-fated wife. He argued that after Poppaea’s death the villa fell under new ownership, and there it remained until it was buried by the eruption. De Franciscis 0

17. M. L. Thomas and J. R. Clarke, ‘The Oplontis Project 2005–6: Observations on the Construction History of Villa A at Torre Annunziata (Archaeological Reports and Notes)’, JRA 20 (2007), pp. 222–32. 18. More on the attribution to Poppaea Sabina later. 19. For villas in Italy in general, see A. G. McKay, Houses, Villas, and Palaces in the Roman World (Cornell, Ithaca N.Y., 1975); D. E. Johnston, Roman Villas, Shire Archaeology 11 (Shire, Aylesbury, 1983); J. T. Smith, Roman villas: a Study in Social Structure (Routledge, London, 1997); A. Marzano, ed. Roman Villas in Central Italy: A Social and Economic Study, Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition 30 (Brill, Leiden–Boston, 2007). 20. See his works listed in n. 16.

a H e b r e w/a r a m a i c G r a f f i T o | 4 1 based his attribution on a series of convergent pieces of evidence discovered in and around the villa. Firstly, an amphora bears, on its neck, the painted inscription Secundo Poppeae (‘of Secundus, [servant or freedman] of Poppaea’). One might suppose that the amphora was destined to be transported away from the villa, and thus the name in the inscription might indicate an addressee in some other place. However, de Franciscis contended that the amphora itself had been produced in Hispania, and delivered to Oplontis, for a certain Secundus, who may have been a libertine procurator of Poppaea. The assumption that a certain Secundus lived in the villa was also conirmed by the discovery of the same name, in the form of SIICVN, in a graito on the bottom of a late Italic terra sigillata plate (according to a widespread custom in the era) found among the furnishings. It appears to be well founded, therefore, that a certain Poppaea owned slaves in the villa, but she could be of course any woman of that gens, not necessarily Poppaea Augusta. Moreover, a wine-jar stamp was also discovered here, reading C. Arriani [A]mphionis. The stamp may be related to a wax tablet found in Herculaneum, dated with the consuls to 63 c e , which reads In Pompeiano in iglinis Arrianis Poppaeae Aug(ustae). The publishers of the tablet interpreted it as a clear evidence indicating that Poppaea Augusta must have had a landed property in the Pompeian area. An indirect piece of evidence for the attribution was the magniicence of the villa that clearly suggests that it once belonged to a wealthy individual of high esteem: the exquisite positioning of its porticoes, reaching out, on the one side, towards the seashore, and facing, on the other, irst the vines and then the forests on the irst slopes of Mount Vesuvius; the unusual dimensions of the natatio; the elaborately aligned lowerbeds, real as well as painted, for the delight of those who wandered about in the quarter of otium adjacent to it, all seem to conirm de Franciscis’ idea that the villa formed the property 







21. As for the epigraphical material preserved in the villa, we rely on A. De Franciscis, ‘Beryllos e la villa di Poppea ad Oplontis’, In Studies in Classical Art and Archaeology. A Tribute to P. H. von Blanckenhagen. Edd. G. Kopcke and M. B. Moore (J. J. Augustin, New York, 1979), pp. 231–4. 22. ‘Essa è di fabbrica spagnola’, De Franciscis, ‘Beryllos e la villa’ (as in n. 21), p. 231. 23. Of course, since Secundus – as other names that de...