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Ilan, Tal
2015.
A Companion to Josephus.
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210.
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Ladies' Aid: Gentile Noblewomen as Saviors and Benefactors in the Antiquities*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2011
Extract
Three women in Josephus's Antiquities are well known for their purported devotion to Jewish religious practices: Poppaea Sabina, the consort/wife of the emperor Nero, whom Josephus describes as “God-fearing” (θɛοσɛβής); Fulvia, a Roman convert of consular rank whom he pegs as the source of the expulsion of Jews from Rome under Tiberius; and Helena, Queen of Adiabene, also a convert to Judaism. In this article, I show that the stories of these three Gentile noble women, who share an interest in Jewish religious practices, are part of a larger narrative pattern in the Antiquities that repeatedly characterizes Gentile women of high standing as saviors and benefactors of the Jewish people. According to Josephus, imperial women intercede on behalf of Jewish aristocrats before every Julio-Claudian emperor, often with ramifications for the entire Jewish people. He also claims that Domitia, the wife of the emperor Domitian, was one of his own patrons. Patronage on behalf of the Jewish community is integral to the stories of both Fulvia and Queen Helena of Adiabene. Furthermore, the salvific acts of foreign noblewomen feature prominently in Josephus's retelling of the story of Moses early in the Antiquities.
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References
1 Josephus refers to Poppaea both in the Antiquities (20.195) and the Life (16) as the γννή of Nero. Roman sources indicate that she was first Nero's consort (58 CE), and then his wife (62 CE). For the ascription θεοσεβής, see Ant. 20.195.
2 Josephus, Ant. 18.81–84Google Scholar.
3 Ibid. 20.17-53.
4 See, for example, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “Rhetorical Situation and Historical Reconstruction in 1 Corinthians,” NTS 33 (1987) 386-403; eadem.Text and Reality—Reality as Text: The Problem of a Feminist Historical and Social Reconstruction Based on Texts,” StTh 43 (1989) 19-34; eadem, , But She Said: Feminist Practices of Biblical Interpretation (Boston: Beacon, 1992) 80–101Google Scholar.
5 For discussion of the historical reconstruction of Roman imperial women's benefaction on behalf of the Jews, see Matthews, Ladies First, chapter 2.
6 Josephus, Ant. 17.10Google Scholar ; idem Bell. 1.566.
7 See, for example, Suzanne Dixon, “A Family Business: Women's Role in Patronage and Politics at Rome 80-44 B.C.,” Classica et Mediaevalia 34 (1983) 91-112, esp. 101-9.
8 Josephus, Ant. 16.139Google Scholar.
9 Ibid. 17.146, 190; 18.31; idem Bell. 2.167.
10 See Millar, Fergus, The Emperor in the Roman World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977) 139–44Google Scholar (on gifts), and 153-58 (on inheritances and legacies).
11 Josephus, Ant. 17.10Google Scholar.
12 Compare Philo In Flaccum and Legatio ad Gaium; Dio 59.8.2; 24.1; 60.8.2-3; Ada Isidori; Yaakov Meshorer, ed., Ancient Jewish Coinage (2 vols.; Dix Hills, NY: Amphora, 1982) 2. 51-54, pi. 9.
13 Daniel R. Schwartz assigns the Antonia passages in the Antiquities to a source he designates as Vita Agrippa and categorizes as a novel, Jewish(Agrippa I: The Last King of Judaea [Tubingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1990], 1–37)Google Scholar.
14 Josephus, Ant. 18.143Google Scholar.
15 Ibid. 18.164-65.
16 Ibid. 18.184-86.
17 Ibid. 18.202-3.
18 Ibid. 18.236.
19 Ibid. 19.292-96.
20 Ibid. 18.203-4; compare Gen 39:21-23.
21 Josephus, Ant. 18.237Google Scholar ; compare Gen 41:14.
22 Josephus, Ant. 18.195–202Google Scholar ; compare Gen 40:12-15, 17-19. Schwartz, Agrippa 1, 34. For a study of other Hellenistic adaptations of the Joseph motif, see Wills, Lawrence M., The Jew in the Court of the Foreign King: Ancient Jewish Court Legends (HDR 26; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990)Google Scholar.
23 For the entire incident, see Ant. 20.118-36. The parallel account in Josephus Bell. 2.232-46 is similar on several points, but it does not suggest the participation of Agrippina in the matter.
24 , JosephusAnt. 20.135-36Google Scholar. κάν πɛριεγενοντο τών’ lονδαίων, εί μή περ ‘Aγρίππας ό νεώτερος 
τούς μέν άναβάντας πρός αύτόν έκέλευσεν άναιρεθήναι. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are taken from the Loeb Classical Library.
25 For example, Suetonius Claud. 25.5: “But these and other acts, and in fact almost the whole conduct of his reign, were dictated not so much by his own judgment as that of his wives and freedmen, since he nearly always acted in accordance with their interests and desires.” See also Suetonius Claud. 29.1; Tacitus Ann. 12.1.1; Dio 60.2.4-5. E. Mary Smallwood notes that Josephus “paints a typical literary picture of Claudius as the tool of his wives and freedmen,” but she conflates the accounts in the Antiquities and the War (The Jews under Roman Rule from Pompey to Diocletian [Leiden: Brill, 1976] 267–68)Google Scholar.
26 Josephus Bell. 2.245: “At Rome Caesar gave his hearing to Cumanus and the Samaritans in the presence of Agrippa, who made a spirited defence on behalf of the Jews, while Cumanus on his side was supported by many eminent persons. The emperor condemned the Samaritans, ordered three of their most prominent men to be executed, and banished Cumanus.”
27 For discussions of the anti-Agrippa II tendency of Antiquities 20, see Cohen, Shaye J. D., Josephus in Galilee and Rome: his Vita and Development as a Historian (Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition 8; Leiden: Brill, 1979) 177–78Google Scholar ; and Daniel R. Schwartz, “KATA TOYTON TON KAIRON: Josephus1 Source on Agrippa II,” JQR 72 (1982) 241-68, esp. 241-42. These two scholars, however, do not discuss the decentering of Agrippa in the Cumanus episode in the Antiquities.
28 Josephus, Ant. 20.189–96Google Scholar.
29 Josephus, Vita 13–16Google Scholar . Schwartz suggests that Josephus relies on a source written by a Jerusalemite priest for Ant. 20.189-96 (“KATA TOYTON TON KAIPON,” 241-68).
30 My translation. On θεοσεβής see discussion below. Josephus Ant. 20.195. NéNέρων δέ 
31 Friedlander, Ludwig, Roman Life and Manners Under the Early Empire (4 vols.; London: Routledge, 1908-1913) 1. 257Google Scholar.
32 E. Mary Small wood, “The Alleged Jewish Tendencies of Poppaea Sabina,” JTS 10 (1959) 329-335, esp. 333. Smallwood reaches this conclusion by taking at face value the testimony of Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio on Poppaea's hedonism.
33 Margaret H. Williams, “θεοσεβής γάρ ήν’—The Jewish Tendencies of Poppaea Sabina” JTS 39 (1988) 97-111, esp. 106-8.
34 Richard A. Horsley, “High Priests and the Politics of Roman Palestine: A Contextual Analysis of the Evidence of Josephus,” JSJ 17 (1986) 23-55, esp. 33. As examples of this tendency, he cites the passage concerning the High Priest Joazar (Ant. 17.204-8) and John the Baptist (Ant. 18.116-19).
35 That Josephus's rhetoric is effective, even for modern readers, is clear from Williams's conclusions; she is content to isolate Poppaea's motives as stemming from personal piety, arguing: “For Josephus, her intervention on the Jews behalf was directly attributable to her reverence for their God.” Citing Poppaea's benefaction described in Wit. 13-16, she continues, “This Jewish dimension to her ‘θεοσέβεια’ would also account for her other intervention on the Jews behalf that [Josephus] records.” (Williams, “θεοσεβής γάρ ήν,” 107). For a discussion of events described in Vita 13-16, see below.
36 In reading Josephus's highlighting of Poppaea's piety as a rhetorical cover for the political implications of her actions, I call into question the argument that while Josephus in the War understands Judaism as a national and political entity, in the Antiquities he understands it more as a religion. (See discussion of this distinction in Shaye J. D. Cohen, “Respect for Judaism by Gentiles According to Josephus,” HTR 80 [1987] 409-30, esp. 427 n. 53.) Josephus may in fact describe Judaism primarily in religious terms in this later work, but if his descriptions are rhetorical arguments, rather than mirror reflections of his knowledge of the actual workings of Judaism, one must conclude that he knows more about the political implications of having sympathy for Judaism than he readily admits.
37 … even in affliction, they had not forgotten the pious practices of religion, and sup-ported themselves on figs and nuts” (Vita 14).
38 Ibid. 13.
39 Josephus, Ant. 20.215Google Scholar.
40 Cohen, , Josephus in Galilee and Rome, 61Google Scholar.
41 Josephus, Vita 429Google Scholar.
42 See, for example, Cohen, “Respect for Judaism,” 424-25; Lawrence H. Schiffman, “The Conversion of the Royal House of Adiabene in Josephus and Rabbinic Sources,” in Feldman, Louis H. and Hata, Gohei, eds., Josephus, Judaism, and Christianity (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987) 293–312Google Scholar.
43 Josephus, Ant. 20.49–53Google Scholar , esp. 20.52.
44 For a detailed analysis of the Fulvia story, which, I argue, must be understood as integrally linked to the story of the expulsion of Isis worshippers from Rome in Ant. 18.65-80, see my Ladies First, Chapter 1 (forthcoming).
45 Artapanus (Eusebius, Praep. Ev. 9.27.1-16) names the Pharaoh's daughter Merris. On Thermuthis as the traditional name for this woman, see Tessa Rajak, “Moses in Ethiopia: Legend and Literature,” JJS 29 (1978) 111-22, esp. 119.
46 Exod. R. 1.26, Deut. R. 11.10, Yashar Exod. 131b-32b.
47 Josephus Ant. 2.232-33, my translation and emphasis, καί πιτε κομίσασα τόν Mωνσήν 
.
48 Ibid. 2.234-36. In the rabbinic tradition it is the angel Gabriel, not the Pharaoh's daughter, who intercedes to save him from death. For further discussion of this passage, see Louis H. Feldman, “Josephus Portrait of Moses,” JQR 82 (1992) 285-328, esp. 305-6.
49 A reference to Moses' near brush with death in infancy referred to above.
50 Josephus Ant. 2.242-43, my translation: κελεύει ό βασιλεύς τήν θυγατέρα παρασξείν τόν 
.
51 Braun, Martin, History and Romance in Graeco-Oriental Literature (1938; reprinted New York/ London: Garland, 1987) 97–102Google Scholar ; see also Mielentz, “Tarpeius,” PW 4 (1932) 2330-43, esp. 2337-38.
52 Num 12:1 (LXX), “And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of the Ethiopian wife whom Moses took; for he had taken an Ethiopian wife.”
53 Ezekiel the Tragedian solves the problem of Num 12:1 by making Midian one and the same place with Ethiopia (Exodus 60); in Artapanus, the Ethiopian wife disappears altogether. See Rajak,“Moses in Ethiopia,” 118; Braun, History and Romance, 97-98.
54 Exod 2:18-20 LXX, my emphasis. Παραγένοντο δέ πρός ‘αγονήλ τόν πατήρα αντων. ό 
. αύτόν, όπως øάγη άρτον. Philo follows the tradition that the daughters have slighted Moses, and dishonored their father. See also Vit. Mos. 1.58: “The girls went home in high glee, and told the story of the unexpected event to their father, who thence conceived a strong desire to see the stranger, which he showed by censuring them for their ingratitude. “What possessed you,” he said, “to let him depart… ? Did you ever have to charge me with unsociable ways? Do you not expect that you may again fall in with those who would wrong you? Those who forget kindness are sure to lack defenders. Still, your error is not yet past cure. …”
55 Josephus Ant. 2.261. αί δ’ εύεργετηθείσαι Παρήσαν Πρόν τόν Πατέρα τήν τε ύβριν τών 
.
56 Such is the case with Antonia, Agrippina, Poppaea, Thermuthis, and Tharbis.
57 The glaring exception to this pattern is, of course, the story of Fulvia, whose willingness to offer up benefactions has disastrous consequences for the Jews.
58 For his pornographic depiction of Messalina, see Juvenal 6.114-35. For some allegations of her adulterous affairs, see Tacitus Ann. 11.12; 11.31.2; 11.36; 13.11.2.
59 Plutarch's praise of Antonia in Ant. 87.3 is representative of her reputation. On her image in art, see Katherine Patricia Erhart, “A Portrait of Antonia Minor in the Fogg Art Museum, and Its Iconographical Tradition,” AJA 82 (1978) 193-212.
60 Due, no doubt, to the sensational character of the purported means of the crime, poisoned mushrooms. Compare with Suetonius Claud. 44.2-6; Juvenal, 5.147; 6.620-21; Tacitus Ann. 12.66-67; Pliny Hist. Nat. 22.92.
61 Ant. 20.151. See also his reference to the death of Claudius in 20.148, “It was reported by some [λόγος ήν παρά τινων] that he had been poisoned by his wife Agrippina” (my emphasis).
62 Tacitus Ann. 13.45: famae numquam pepercit, maritos et adulteros non distinguens; neque adfectui suo aut alieno obnoxia, unde utilitas ostenderetur, illuc libidinem transferebat.
63 For example, Ant. 15.93; see also Bell. 1.243, 359; 7.302.
64 For example, Ant. 15.77; see also Bell. 7.300-2. On the function of Cleopatra in Augustan propaganda, see Hughes-Hallett, Lucy, Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions (London: Bloomsbury, 1990) 36–69Google Scholar . Zanker, Paul, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Jerome Lectures 16; Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988) 58–60Google Scholar.
65 Betsy Halpern Amaru, “Portraits of Biblical Women in Josephus Antiquities,” JJS 39 (1988) 143-70.
66 Exod. R. 1.22.
67 Josephus Ant. 2.212-16. Feldman, “Josephus Portrait of Moses,” 299-300.
68 Josephus, Ant. 13.431Google Scholar.
69 Ibid. 18.255. Tal Ilan has argued that the portraits of domineering Hasmonean and Herodian women are the literary creations of Josephus's source, Nicolaus of Damascus, and that Josephus himself, when working without sources, has little to say about women. See, “Josephus and Nicolaus on Women,” in Hubert Cancik, Herman Lichtenberger, and Peter Schafer, eds., Geschichte—Tradition—Reflection: Festschrift fur Martin Hengel turn 70. Geburtstag (3 vols.; Tubingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1996) 1. 221-62.
70 Sailer, Richard P., Personal Patronage Under the Early Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
71 In this sense, they function like the Asiarchs in the book of Acts, those prominent public officials who do not convert to Christianity, but who nevertheless befriend the Apostle Paul and protect him at a time when his security is jeopardized (Acts 19:31).
72 ILS 8403. Hospes, quod deico, paullum est, asta ac pellege. Heic est sepulcrum hau pulcrumpulcraifeminae. Nomenparentes nominarunt Claudiam. Suom mareitum corde deilexit souo. Gnatos duos creavit, horunc alterum in terra linquit, alium sub terra locat. Sermone lepido, turn autem incessu commodo. Domum servavit, lanam fecit. Dixi. Abei. For English translation, see Leflcowitz, Mary R. and Fant, Maureen B., Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook in Translation (2d ed.; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1992) 16 no. 39Google Scholar.
73 Suetonius, Aug. 64.2Google Scholar.
74 Juvenal 6.287-91. Praestabat castas humilisfortuna Latinas quondam, nee vitiis contingi parva sinebant tecta labor somnique breves et vellere Tusco vexatae duraeque manus ac proximus urbi Hannibal et stantes Collina turre mariti. With David S. Wiesen (“The Verbal Basis of Juvenal's Satiric Vision,” ANRW 233.1 [1989] 708-33), I read these cliches as ironic, rather than as evidence of Juvenal's moral indignation.
75 Dixon, “A Family Business,” 91; Susan Fischler, “The Public Position of Women in the Imperial Household in the Julio-Claudian Period” (Ph.D. diss., Oxford University, 1989) 7-30; Hallet, Judith P., Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) 29–30Google Scholar ; Tom Hillard, “On the Stage, Behind the Curtain,” in Garlick, Barbara, Dixon, Suzanne, and Allen, Pauline, eds., Stereotypes of Women in Power: Historical Perspectives and Revisionist Views (Contributions in Women's Studies 125; New York: Greenwood, 1992) 37–63Google Scholar ; Riet van Bremen, “Women and Wealth,” in Cameron, Averil and Kuhrt, Amelie, eds., Images of Women in Antiquity (Detroit: Wayne State University, 1985) 223–42Google Scholar ; eadem, , The Limits of Participation: Women and Civic Life in the Greek East in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (Dutch Monographs on Ancient History and Archaeology 15; Amsterdam: Gieben, 1996Google Scholar ); Mary Taliaferro Boatwright, “Plancia Magna of Perge: Women's Roles and Status in Roman Asia Minor,” in Pomeroy, Sarah B., ed., Women's History and Ancient His-tory (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991) 249–72Google Scholar.
76 Susan Fischler, Public Position of Women, and eadem, “Social Stereotypes and Historical Analysis: The Case of Imperial Women at Rome,” in Archer, Leonie J., Fischler, Susan, and Wyke, Maria. eds., Women in Ancient Societies: An Illusion of the Night (London: Macmillan, 1994) 115–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Hillard, Tom, “Republican Politics, Women, and the Evidence,” Helios 16 (1989) 165–82Google Scholar.
77 Hillard, “Republican Politics,” 176.
78 Fischler, “Social Stereotypes,” 122.
79 This seems also to be the case in the Ada Isidori, where the women of the court are said to be in attendence when Claudius hears the case of Isidorus. See Musurillo, Herbert A., ed., The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs: Ada Alexandrinorum (Oxford: Clarendon, 1954) 18–27Google Scholar , 117-140.
80 Kate Cooper, “Insinuations of Womanly Influence: An Aspect of the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy,” JRomS 82 (1992) 150-64. See now the expansion of this argument in eadem, , The Virgin and the Bride: Idealized Womanhood in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996)Google Scholar.
81 Cooper, “Womanly Influence,” 153.
82 Plutarch, Anton. 66.7Google Scholar.
83 Ibid. 31.3. τούτον άΠαντες είσηγούντο τόν γόν γάμον, έλΠίζοντες τέν Όκταουίαν έπί κάλλει 
.
84 Passages speaking of high status Gentile women in Acts include Acts 16:14; 17:4, 12. For analysis of these passages, see Ladies First, chapters 3 and 4. Note also that the only woman included in Stephen's recitation of salvation history in Acts 7 is an elite Gentile, the Pharaoh's daughter, credited for her rescue of Moses.
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