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Imaginary Jewish revolt and Roman Triumph


Caesar CXXXVII

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According to the H.A. (16.7) in 202 Severus allowed his son Antoninus/Caracala to celebrate a Triumph for his victory against the Jews . Scholars worked very hard to find in the sources more detailes/clues about a Jewish revolt but alas , they did not find any . One scholar (Stern) had enough , he came to a conclusion that no such Jewish campaign had ever existed .

 

IMHO , Stern is right . Any objections ?

We know how many Triumphs Caracala celebrated .

Edited by Caesar CXXXVII
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According to the H.A. (16.7) in 202 Severus allowed his son Antoninus/Caracala to celebrate a Triumph for his victory against the Jews . Scholars worked very hard to find in the sources more detailes/clues about a Jewish revolt but alas , they did not find any . One scholar (Stern) had enough , he came to a conclusion that no such Jewish campaign had ever existed .

 

IMHO , Stern is right . Any objections ?

We know how many Triumphs Caracala celebrated .

 

Considering the source... the Historia Augusta, I doubt the accuracy when compared to other sources.

 

From the Life of Severus: 16

For this feat, likewise, the soldiers declared his son, Bassianus Antoninus, co-emperor; he had already been named Caesar and was now in his thirteenth year. And to Geta, his younger son, they gave the name Caesar, and called him in addition Antoninus, as several men relate in their writings. To celebrate the bestowal of these names Severus gave the soldiers an enormous donative, none other, in truth, than liberty to plunder the Parthian capital, a privilege for which they had been clamouring. He then returned victorious to Syria. But when the senators offered him a triumph for the Parthian campaign, he declined it because he was so afflicted with gout that he was unable to stand upright in his chariot. Notwithstanding this, he gave permission that his son should celebrate a triumph; for the senate had decreed to him a triumph over Judaea because of the successes achieved by Severus in Syria.

 

Cassius Dio, a contemporary of both Severus and Caracalla, makes no mention of a Judaean revolt or triumph. Even Severus did not celebrate a traditional triumph for his Parthian campaign, but rather celebrated the 10 year anniversary of his accession in 202 followed by the Secular games in 204. I agree completely with Stern that no triumph for Caracalla took place.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It does seem a bit odd. I know he marched against parthia (never got there though - pays to be careful when you stop by the roadside to relieve yourself) but despite his sympathy for military life I haven't read of any campaigning in judaea at all. Is it possible that this is a distorted record of another episode like the one in alexandria?

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  • 1 month later...

Probably a mistake by the author of the Historia Augusta (it's indeed a dubious source).

 

It's also goes against all that we know about the Roman-Jewish relationship during the times of the Severan dynasty. from rabinnic legends we know of the good relationships between the Severan emperors and the leader of the Jews in Judea, also in it's time there seem to be a tendency toward accepting the Roman occupetion.

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