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Communal Institutions. Specific evidence on the details of organization is to be found only at Berenice, where the organized body is called a πολίτευμα in the years 8 B.C.[1058] and A.D. 24/5;[1059] in A.D. 56, it is called συναγωγή.[1060]

The interference with the despatch of the Temple moneys under Augustus is ascribed by Josephus to “the cities” of Cyrenaica.[1061] This ascription suffices to indicate what could have been assumed — that organized Jewish communities existed in each of the chief cities of the country (Cyrene, Berenice, Ptolemais, Apollonia, Teucheira and perhaps Barka). This may be confirmed by the words of the same account,[1062] “and if the sacred money of any of the cities has been seized” (καὶ εἰ τινῶν ἱερὰ χρῄματα ἀφήρηνται τῶν πόλεων); this is clearly a corrupt text, but the Latin translation reads, instead of civitatium, civium, showing that the original had read πολιτών instead of πόλεων — and, as we have seen, the members of Jewish politeumata were also known as πολῖται (see p. 182).

In Book XIV of the Antiquities,[1063] Josephus calls the Jewish communities of Egypt and Libya συντάγματα. This is an interesting term, normally used for military formations, and certainly points to the strongly organized character of the Jewish groups in Cyrenaica.[1064] The Jewish tombs of Teucheira may legitimately be understood to mean that there was an organized Jewish community in the city.

Procopius’ report[1065] of a Jewish “temple” at Boreion (Βόρειον), the modern Bu-Grada on the shore of the Syrtis between Augila and Ajedabia,[1066] can be interpreted to mean that corporate Jewish communities existed at other points in Cyrenaica beside the five towns. Moreover the Berenice Jewish inscription of A.D. 56 calls the congregation ἡ σνναγωγὴ τῶν ἐν Βερνικίδι Ἰουδαίων; this form of the city’s name applied not only to the city, but also to its territory (χώρα), i.e. to its rural area.[1067] It may therefore be inferred that Jews who lived in the country area round the city also belonged to the latter’s politeuma, and the same principle may be applied equally to the other more important settlements of the country.

Only the Berenice inscriptions furnish any information on the officers of the Jewish corporations of the country. These show that the communal leaders here were the archons, whose number grew from seven in the period of 7-8 B.C., to nine in A.D. 24/5, and to ten in A.D. 56. The names of these magistrates, who formed a board possessed of both initiative and executive powers, headed the recorded decisions taken by the general meeting of the community (the politeuma), and in A.D. 56 by the synagogue. The names of the archons head the list of contributors, followed by a priest and concluding with the names of several female congregants. The community meets on sabbaths, on the first day of each month, and on festivals. The politeuma further imposes liturgies and confers honours upon both Jewish and gentile benefactors. The second Berenice inscription and the incidents affecting the halfsheqel show, that the wardens conducted negotiations with Roman officials and sent complaints to the authorities. The politeuma seems also to have borne responsibility for the defrayment of certain taxes to the city.

Places of Prayer. The Jewish place of worship in Berenice in A.D. 56 was known as the synagogue, and this word contemporarily denoted both the community and the building. A fragment of a marble stele found at Cyrene and published in 1963 bore a Greek inscription including the two words [τ]ὴν συναγωγ[ήν]; its letter-style dated it to the ist century B.C. while the appearance of the Roman name Dekmos shows that the inscription was incised after the beginning of Roman rule.[1068] The fragment preserved belonged to the righthand side of the top of the stele, comprising four lines of private names, while the fifth mentioned the synagogue. The upper edge of the stone was rounded off by a moulding, over which were remains of a curved plant-tendril or stalk, and a leaf; it is evident that the head of the stele took the form of a pediment. The legible names are Dekmos, Sosandros, Teimarchos and Leonides, and the accusative form of the word συναγωγή implies that we have here the commemoration of people who had aided in the repair or building of the edifice. We cannot be completely certain that the dedicators were Jews, but the form of the stele, which resembles two of the Berenice resolutions, is in favour of a Jewish identity.

On the other hand P. M. Fraser has published another fragmentary inscription found at Cyrene,[1069] dedicated to Ptolemy Euergetes II and referring to the erection of an unidentified building and its συ[νκύροντα] or annexes, a word used in Egypt in this period for the outbuildings of a Jewish prayerhouse;[1070] accordingly he proposed that the Cyrenean dedication was probably that of a Jewish synagogue.[1071] Unfortunately the places where the two above inscriptions were found have not been recorded, and the building south of the Wadi Belgadir, opposite the Agora, which this writer tentatively suggested might be a synagogue, has turned out on excavation to be an early temenos devoted to Demeter.[1072] It is nevertheless still possible that the Jewish quarter of the city ought to be looked for to south of the Agora, as here was found the fragmentary Jewish lamp to be described below (pp. 234sq.), and another of similar type has since been recovered in the Agora itself.[1073]