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With these facts in mind, we may infer that the Jewish settlement of ‛Ein Targhuna, in view of its clear paramilitary function, was included within the area of the Roman ager publicus, the previous Ptolemaic royal lands, where plots had doubtless been allotted by the government to the settlers; this inference agrees with the view already expressed, that Jews and other immigrants of the hellenistic period who entered agriculture, could only settle on the royal land, i.e. on the king’s personal estates (οὐσίαι) or on crown domain (βασιλικὴ γῆ).

The precise date of the establishment of the Jewish settlement at ‛Ein Targhuna cannot be determined. The menorah symbol merely furnishes an approximate terminus post quem for the existence of occupation after 70, but does not establish its commencement. A Jewish military colony hardly suits conditions much after the beginning of Roman rule, and is more apposite to the policy of the hellenistic monarchs. The close parallel between the conditions of the colonization of ‛Ein Targhuna and those of the Babylonian-Jewish settlement in Bashan, as well as the identity of geographical names, encourages the conjecture that the ‛Ein Targhuna Jews were also brought to Libya at that time, in the last decades of the ist century B.C., and this is more probable since the form of the placename is Aramaic.[981] This date, indeed, cannot be proved, but two additional remarks can be made: a) a transfer of Roman forces from Syria to Cyrenaica is known in the period of Augustus; b) not a few instances are known in the Ptolemaic kingdom and in Roman Egypt, in which the names of foreign communities or of their former settlements, whether of soldiers or of civilians, were transferred to their new places of colonization. The stationing of Syrian units in Cyrenaica under Augustus is proved by inscriptions at Ajadabia south of Bengazi,[982] and at Zawiat-Mesus on the desert fringe in the south-west of the country.[983] These garrisons included troops from Apameia, and their presence was apparently connected with the great Roman campaign against the Garamantes, the Marmaritae and the Gaetuli between 20 and 2 B.C. approximately.[984] Examples of the transfer of the names of immigrants or of their villages are Samareia, Magdola, Chana’anain and Sandalion in Egypt, all of migrants from Syria;[985] a similar instance is to be found in eastern Cyrenaica itself, namely, Magdalis in the Martuba region,[986] and very probably the name Targhuna was likewise transferred in this way from the Trachon of Auranitis.

7. Cyrene

By surveying the remains relating to the Jews of Teucheira, Berenice, Ptolemais and ‛Ein Targhuna, we have been able to arrive at a certain appreciation of the economic and social position of the Jews of Cyrenaica. The literary and epigraphical evidence suggests that no small part of the Jews of Libya were soldiers and cultivators, but there are some indications that from the 2nd century B.C. a commercial element existed amongst them. Concerning the presence of Jewish craftsmen we can only conjecture. The very restricted archaeological evidence points to stonemasons,[987] potters,[988] perhaps a painter,[989] and mint-workers,[990] weavers,[991] and sailors.[992] We also know of a Jewish slavewoman at Ptolemais,[993] and, of the female slave of publicani at Apollonia.[994] We hear of 3,000 well-to-do Jews at Cyrene in A.D. 73 (εὐπορίᾳ χρημάτων διαφέροντες),[995] and, by contrast, contemporarily, of 2,000 Jews without means (ἄποροι).[996]

Bound up with any estimate of the social and economic position of the Jewish community of the country, is the question of its citizen status. We are forced to assume that the Jewish cultivators, by reason of the circumstances of the settlement of most of them at the beginning of the hellenistic period and in the 2nd century B.C., were concentrated on the crown land and royal estates of the Ptolemies, and did not therefore qualify for citizenship in the Greek towns. The constitutions of the latter, indeed, prohibited non-citizens from acquiring land in their territories.[997] Hence opportunities of obtaining citizenship in the Cyrenean cities would have been open only to those Jews who settled in the cities themselves and got their livelihoods in other branches, i.e. by trade and the handicrafts, but the constitution of Cyrene under Ptolemy Lagos was strongly prejudiced against those engaged in trade and the crafts (pp. 51-2), nor is there reason to think that this situation changed until the Roman period. It is clear, then, that the Jews of the Pentapolis had little prospect of penetrating the ranks of the Greek citizens, and the question whether the Cyrenaican Jews possessed civic rights in the Greek poleis can be answered in advance: if any did possess them, they were not numerous. But this reply is not sufficient, for there are sources that make certain statements on the question; these are both literary and epigraphical.

Flavius Josephus writes that the Jews of Cyrene enjoyed equal rights before the law (ισονομία) with the inhabitants of their city — and had received this privilege “from the ancient kings”.[998] He further reports[999] that Augustus reconfirmed to them the privilege of ίσοτελεία (equality in payment of taxes). Strabo[1000] had stated that the Jews constituted one of the four classes into which Cyrene was divided, namely, the Cyreneans, the aliens of Greek origin (μέτοικοι), the peasants and the Jews. Josephus’ statement was made in relation to events under Augustus (circa 31-13 B.C.), but he says that their status was granted to the Jews by the “ancient kings”. Strabo’s grouping belongs to the period of transition from Ptolemaic to Roman provincial rule, that is, between 96 and 74 B.C., and in relation to the happenings of the year 88/6 B.C., when Lucullus arrived at Cyrene. The two writers’ statements appear to conflict, since Strabo’s classification puts the Jews, to all appearance, outside the ranks of the citizens, and the question is whether the status of Cyrenean Jewry changed between the Ptolemaic period and the imposition of Roman rule, or whether one of the two statements is erroneous.

The very fact that the Jews belonged, according to Strabo, neither to the metics nor to the peasants suggests that they held a special position. Rostovtzeff rightly observed[1001] that Strabo’s fourfold division corresponded to that of the population of hellenistic Egypt, namely, the citizens of Greek cities, Greeks who were not citizens of such, aliens organized in their own organizations (πολιτεύματα), and native Egyptians. The question is, of course, how far the Egyptian analogy may be applied to Cyrene. As for Josephus, scholarly criticism suspects him of inaccuracy, and sometimes of distortion of the truth, since his statements were made in the heat of controversy concerning Jewish status in the Empire as a whole and in Greek society in particular, and with an apologetic motive.

Cyrenean inscriptions, nevertheless, contain evidence, of which part has been already cited, which shows that there were Jews among the citizens of Ptolemais, such as Itthalammon son of Apellas, and very probably his fellow delegate Simon son of Simon. The ephebe stele of 3-2 B.C. records, as we may note, several other theophoric names, especially Timotheus son of Onasion, which perhaps belonged to Jews. In 1961 an ephebe stele from Cyrene was published[1002] figuring several names whose Jewish identity is indisputable. They begin in the year A.D. 3-4, and among 88 names appear five obvious Jews: Bar Tubas son of Bar Tub[r]as, Bar Tubas son of Bar Tubas (a second time), Ela(s)zaros son of Elazaros, Agathocles son of Elazaros, and Julius son of Jesus. Simion (Σιμίων) son of Pothion may also be Jewish, as the second iota of his name must indicate a transliteration of the Hebrew letter ‛ayin. The list may include other Jews whose identity is concealed from us by their purely Greek names.[1003] Additional lists for the years 20, 23, 24, 27 and 28 were incised on the left and right sides of the same stele in inferior and irregular letters; the years are numbered by the era of Actium. They include the names Cheirias son of Jesus and Itthalammon son of Itthalammon. Finally the city of Cyrene has yielded a list of high ranking magistrates, the nomophylakes (νομοφύλακες) for the years A.D. 60 and 61, among them being recorded the name Elazaros son of Jason.[1004] We shall speak of this man and of the Jewish ephebes, at a later stage; in the meantime the evidence suffices to show that some Jews had penetrated the gymnasium of the city of Ptolemais at the end of the 1st century B.C., and were citizens of their polis;[1005] by the beginning of the 1st century of the present era a group of young Jews were pupils in the gymnasium of Cyrene, so that it may be assumed that they were prospective citizens as well, as is demonstrated by the election of Elazaros son of Jason to the responsible office of nomophylax under Nero.