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1 - Political, social, and economic life in the Land of Israel, 66–c. 235

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Seth Schwartz
Edited by
Steven T. Katz
Seth Schwartz
Affiliation:
Department of History, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York
Steven T. Katz
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Summary

THE AFTERMATH OF THE DESTUCTION

The failure of the Jewish revolt against Rome (66–73/4 ce) brought about a comprehensive transformation of life in Palestine: the old political system was replaced by direct Roman rule, the Roman army became a permanent presence, the size of the population and the ratio of Jews to pagans changed. And these changes necessarily caused further changes in social, economic, and religious life, though in many cases we can do little more than speculate about their character.

a demography

According to the most responsible estimates, Palestine reached its maximum sustainable pre-modern population of approximately one million in the middle of the first century. Probably about half of this population was Jewish. However, Josephus claims that 1.1 million people died in the siege of Jerusalem alone, and 97,000 were enslaved (Bell. 6.420–1). These figures, especially the former, are clearly impossible. Furthermore, we may infer from the course of the Bar Kochba Revolt, two generations later, that even the district of Judea, where the damage from the Great Revolt was concentrated, retained a fairly large Jewish population. Undoubtedly many Jews were killed or enslaved, or died of disease or starvation during the siege, but it is difficult to go beyond such unsatisfactory generalizations. It may be speculated that casualty rates were higher in Judaea than in the other Jewish districts of the country, Galilee, Peraea, and Idumaea.

Keywords

economic liferabbinic literatureBar Kochba Revoltpolitical systemRoman PalestineRoman Empire
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Judaism , pp. 23 - 52
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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