What does it all mean?
This is where the archeology has been found.
Hi, how are you?
Look at that.
I need a planter.
A shrine to a bellybutton.
Is this a rock of salt?
Look at that!
No one gets into this place?
Whoa! Don't take me too far.
Now that's naked archeology.
[theme music]
[SIMCHA] Rome.
The heart and foundation of the Christian Church,
home to some of the most magnificent structures
on the planet, and some of the tastiest dishes.
It is a beautiful goddess above ground
and a dark guardian of the most intricate tombs below.
There is no doubt that Rome, in all its splendor,
is distinctly Roman... or is there?
Some say that over two-thousand years ago
many of the influences on Romans,
from the way they built their buildings,
to the ways in which they prayed,
to the food that they ate,
to the ways that they buried and venerated their dead,
all of these were influenced by their sworn enemies...
The Jews.
But that just sounds like the musings
of a proud Jewish grandmother?
Just as the Scottish grandmother believes
that all great things were created by the Celts
or the Greek-grandma can prove that the best inventions,
sports and disciplines have Greek roots.
Can we really uncover evidence
of a Jewish inspired ancient Rome?
Didn't Rome conquer Judea?
How could the customs and religion
of the conquered transform the conquerors?
To answer these questions I need to dig deep
into the Jewish history of Rome.
I'm standing right at the forum.
This was the heart of ancient Rome.
This is the place where the tourists flock
because this was it. This was downtown,
the senate building, all the great structures,
the big business, the power game
was right here, the heart.
[SIMCHA] And it was right here in CE
that the Roman emperor Vespasian decided
to send his many legions into Jerusalem.
The city had been occupied by Rome
for some odd years and now
the Jews had revolted and so Rome sacked the city.
They burgled the many riches from Jerusalem's temple
and knocked it down.
They returned to Rome
with over , Jewish slaves in tow,
and they paraded them right through this forum.
But Roman historian Lea Cline tells me
that it would have been a horrific
and sad parade for many of the onlookers.
Were talking about the defeat of Judea
but meanwhile there were Jews in Rome,
I mean Rome was not just Romans.
There were probably synagogual communities in Rome.
That's a lot.
That's a lot of synogogual communities
but they were named after the emperor
so they took it seriously that they were Roman
and Jewish at the same time.
They went to the baseball games.
Absolutely.
They certainly played Roman and they did everything
that a Roman would do
except for their own particular needs as Jews
and their own religious traditions.
There were at least Jews
in Rome in the first century CE.
Not counting slaves.
Not counting slaves.
Roman citizens who were Jewish.
That's a lot of citizens.
Which means that they certainly had a voice in Rome
[SIMCHA] They had a voice
and now with the influx of slaves...
, more hands... albeit sl*ve hands.
And it's what those hands did that you might find surprising.
Within a stone's throw of the Forum
is the greatest monument of the Roman Empire.
The Coliseum!
And while it has stood for almost years
as an example of brilliant Roman engineering
and architecture, historian Alan Epstein tells me,
thousands of its builders have never been truly recognized.
The Coliseum begins to be built
immediately after the conquest of the Jews in AD.
In conquering the Jews, the Romans are conquering
a people who's obviously much older than they are.
The Romans as a people could only
for the past several hundred years before those conquests
they could till the soil and they could fight.
They were farmers and they were warriors.
There wasn't much else.
When they begin to conquer the other peoples
in the Mediterranean now they're elevating their culture
because they're conquering people
who have older traditions.
Now obviously Jews have been masons
for thousands of years going back to Jerusalem,
to BC and what you get is the intelligence
of building together with the Roman genius
because remember they are great builders.
They are fabulous engineers.
And so together the Romans and the Jewish slaves
who were brought back as teachers
for building build this amazing amphitheatre
that of course is the largest amphitheatre in the Roman world.
[SIMCHA] Slaves, but master builders ...
there are probably countless buttresses and joints
in this megalithic amphitheatre that are crafted
and inspired by Jewish master masons.
Still standing after two millennia,
that's some nice work.
But when the job was done the demand for slaves slumped.
Because of huge supply,
the bottom dropped out of the sl*ve market in Rome.
Slaves once worth a few large aureus
were now sold for a few dupondii-
that's going from gold to bronze for you Barbarians out there.
It was a good thing for the Jewish slaves though,
because it meant that many of them
were able to buy back their freedom.
And you might be surprised that after that
most of them didn't leave Rome. Why?
[SIMCHA] It's around CE in Rome,
years after the legions sacked Jerusalem
and brought home thousands of Jewish slaves
to build things like the Coliseum.
Many slaves have bought their own freedom
but they're not going back to Judea.
After tossing their Roman captors
they find themselves injected into a Jewish community
so well established that it offers
a welcome home away from home.
Flash forward years
to the long-standing Jewish area in Rome.
And I get the details from Alan Epstein.
Remember that this was a city for the most part
where Jews were not particularly mistreated
throughout the centuries.
One of the reasons of course is because
there had been such an old Jewish community.
This is the longest continuous Jewish community
in the world since at least BC.
That's the first documented presence of Jews.
So at least years and no other city
can claim this continuous presence of Jews
that Rome has.
[SIMCHA] The first Jews came here voluntarily
long before the Roman conquest of Judea,
they came in BCE, during the Maccabean era.
The Book of Maccabees tells us
that they came as envoys to negotiate protection
from the invading Syrians.
The Romans were happy to oblige
and lend their brawn to help Judea maintain its independence.
Many of these Jews stayed in Rome
and organized a Jewish community.
The reason why they come here
is because Rome has become the masters of the universe.
They've conquered the western Mediterranean.
They're now going toward the eastern Mediterranean and so-
This was where the action was.
Where the action is.
It makes sense to send a delegation
of ambassadors and merchants
and begin to open up trade with these people
who are now obviously going to rule the roost here.
[SIMCHA] And with the establishment
of such a strong Jewish community in Rome
came all of the cross-cultural influences
that you would expect.
From restaurants to synagogues,
from food all the way to religion.
But before we taste the transitions in theology
lets sample the conversions of cuisine.
There is a particularly tasty dish
that has been on the Roman menu for over two millennia.
Jewish artichokes.
Jewish artichokes, right.
You know, these artichokes are pressed between bricks
and fried and of course, you know, fried food
and, and very, very well baked food
has always been part of the Jewish tradition
in order to stave off health hazards.
High cholesterol is a Jewish thing.
Is a Jewish trait, right.
These artichokes have been made this way
for thousands of years and they taste yummy still!
Bon appetite.
[SIMCHA] And it wasn't just tasty Jewish food recipes
that tantalized Romans' tongues in st and nd Century Rome.
There were some Jewish recipes for the soul
that caught the Roman appetite.
This was a time when Rome was in great religious transition.
It would take less than years
after Rome sacked Jerusalem,
for the Roman Empire to switch from a pagan,
multi-god religion to the single-god Christianity.
And who was responsible for giving birth to that?
Let's face it. All the original popes were Jews
because Peter was a Jew
and all of the original apostles and disciples.
These were Jews who said that Jesus was in fact the messiah.
And so at the beginning there was no real separation
between Christians and Jews.
It was only after the famous Saint Paul,
he was the one who set out all of the first rules
and the first principles of Christianity
and the thing that he said that has great significance
is he said you don't have to limit this to Jews.
Of course it is the fulfillment of Judaism
but that's really secondary to the idea
that all the world should hear the good news.
Convert the gentiles he said. Convert everyone.
It's now something tha is open to the whole world
and that universal religion spills out
all through the Roman Empire.
[SIMCHA] So... the Jewish inspired Jesus-following,
Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah
gives birth to Christianity.
Paul makes it extremely palatable for gentiles
and Christianity becomes a tasty dish for many Roman souls.
AND before the very hard and fast lines were drawn
between Roman Pagan, Roman Christian
and Roman Jew,
there seems to be a significant absorption
of an entirely Jewish ritual.
Suddenly the majority of people in Rome
begin to change the ways they bury their dead.
[SIMCHA] By the beginning of the th Century,
Christianity had taken hold of Rome.
The "good word" hatched in Jerusalem
and handed off by the Apostles Peter and Paul,
is now the "official word" and religion of the Roman Empire.
Its roots, as we now know, can be traced to Jewish origin.
And although the Romans at the time
might not have cared to admit it, the roots and influences
of their on-and-off-again enemy, the Jews,
could be found deep under Roman soil.
This is the entrance to a wine cellar
for an upscale restaurant in Rome.
But it was once a columbarium:
a vault built to contain the ashes of the Roman dead.
And its here, that I meet with historian Mino Carbone
to learn more about the evolution
of Roman burial practice.
We're in the wine cellar in Rome which used to be a tomb.
It's what Romans used before the Common Era,
before Christianity.
So this is before they started inhumation.
Before they started burying the bodies
they cremated them. They brought it here.
They put just the urns in some particular niches.
The urns, like that niche over there?
Very good.
An original urn in the niche?
In the niche over there.
Have a look just here.
This niche, this is a very perfect columbaria intact.
We can see the niche and then we can see inside
two holes in which they left just the urn.
Then at the end they added on the top
just marble stone with the name written on the marble.
Looking at this rock which is closing an original niche
and behind this rock
there's still probably an urn with ashes.
But then they started putting it in the catacombs,
entire bodies.
In the catacombs, very good.
Rome according to the of the geology of the country
is very suitable to create these kind of locules,
just a place where people can get buried without any coffin.
The tufa stone is very soft.
It was very easy to go underground to create
a line of tombs to leave the body there
and wait for the resurrection.
In my personal opinion started from the Jewish,
the first Jewish that came to live in Rome so now.
So the Jews and Christians and maybe Judeo-Christians?
Maybe Judeo-Christians together
because it was a mixture, a merging between the Jew,
Judea tradition to the Christian ones
and they start to create this kind of cementarium
which means a place to sleep so they left the body
to lie down until the resurrection.
[SIMCHA] Back in Jerusalem,
for the entire first century, the archaeology shows
that Jews buried their dead in a unique way.
They would first lay the body in a rock-hewn tomb,
on a carved out shelf called an arcosolia.
After a year the bones were gathered
and put inside a small stone coffin called an ossuary.
The ossuary was then placed in a carved out niche
inside the tomb.
Could this Jewish tradition have moved to Rome
and influenced the early Christian burial practices?
The archaeology shows that around the nd century
the Romans switched from columbaria to catacombs
no longer cremating, but leaving the body intact
on a carved out rock shelf.
So it was a transition from tombs for ashes to tombs for bodies.
Yes just a kind of continuity.
And you, you think it has, the transition in style
of burial has something to do with the idea of resurrection.
I'm quite sure that this tradition started
because they wanted to commemorate
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm quite sure of this.
And right now you say there's really good wine here.
Yes, the temperature is perfect.
[speaks Italian]
Did you know the secret of a good wine is when you-
Is a good tomb. -Is a good tomb.
It gives it a good body.
C'mon Simcha!
[SIMCHA] Mino and Franco were
distracting me with wine.
But I managed to move from grapes back to graves.
If the Romans switched from cremation to inhumation
because of a Jewish influence
where is the archaeological evidence in Rome?
The answer lies below suburbia,
underneath the summer residence
of one of the most infamous fascist dictators.
[SIMCHA] For thousands of years
Rome has hidden a massive matrix of Christian catacombs
under its surface.
But it wasn't until
that some of the oldest catacombs were discovered
underneath the summer residence
of none other than the fascist front-man, Mussolini.
Over burial niches were found
carved into long tunnels below the dictator's tennis courts.
And what was most interesting was the artwork
and inscriptions on the catacomb walls.
They showed that these tombs were not Christian.
Catacomb chaperone, Micaela Vitale
guides me through the maze.
We can only stay down here for minutes at a time
because of the high levels of CO and Radon gas.
How old is this?
From the end of the st century Common Era.
Common Era... a body used to be put here.
Yes.
There's a skull here. This is incredible.
It's in perfect shape.
This is called a Cobicola.
Cobicola, Arcosolia with the arch.
They closed it up? -Yes.
So the bones were not exposed in ancient times.
No, no absolutely not.
And these are still sealed here down here?
Yes.
This is actually the way they all would have been right?
Right.
See this is very clear here.
[SIMCHA] Tomb raiders have broken
most of the seals that covered these graves,
but at one time the names of the dead
were inscribed on brick and plaster.
Very few of the inscriptions
have survived but their origin cannot be mistaken.
So what does it say here? Do you know?
Yes this is 'Insadicada' it's the formula for 'here lies.'
Here lies.
Yuda, no Judah, this is Judah.
So it is a Jewish name, a Hebrew name.
[SIMCHA] Micaela shows me more inscriptions
and more Jewish names.
The evidence strongly suggests that
these year old catacombs are entirely Jewish.
And then Micaela shows me the treasure gem!
Wow.
This is an arcosolia. This is the temple.
The temple? Oh! Wow!
This is breath taking! Oh my goodness!
Menorah with the lights burning.
Next to it is you have temple oil like in Hanukkah right,
you have the temple oil it will be needed again.
Next to it you have the temple
with the torah scrolls in the centre.
And we have the sun, the star and the moon.
The star, that's the star of the Messiah,
referencing the line in the Bible:
star will come out of Judah referring to the Messiah.
So this is belief in the rebuilding of the Temple.
Yes.
Belief in end of days.
Belief in resurrection. Belief in the Messiah
Belief in... -In everything.
In everything! WOW!
It's all encoded in this stuff. It's incredible.
[SIMCHA] This arcosolia, decorated with some
of the most important symbols of the Jewish faith,
proves without a doubt that these catacombs,
the oldest found in Rome, are Jewish.
It's powerful evidence that the burial rituals
were brought from Jerusalem to Rome.
Do you think this is related to secondary burial
you find in Jerusalem?
I don't know but I think so.
It looks like the tombs you find in Jerusalem.
Yes it's true.
But here the stone is softer and we have no ossuaries.
[SIMCHA] But the absence of ossuaries
could simply suggest a burial ritual that was changing.
And there seems to be evidence here
of the something else as well.
Some of the symbols on these walls
just might show the arrival of Judeo Christianity to Rome.
Oh look at that! Christian, my friend!
No, no, no absolutely not.
Why not?
Because it's of the fabric of...
What are you talking about? This is a fish.
No please. It's not a fish.
It's a mark with the finger. They made a sign
to count every brick that go out from the factory.
So it's a mark made by the people
who were fabricating this brick.
Yes.
How do you know that?
Because all of the Roman bricks have this kind of sign.
This sign. This sign like...
This signs.
Many of this kind or round signs.
Just to keep count.
Just to keep count yes.
It sure looks like a fish.
[SIMCHA] Micaela doesn't see early Christian symbols
in these Jewish catacombs, but I see them everywhere!
This is a dolphin, not a Jewish symbol
but around the trident.
This is clearly the tail of a dolphin
with three prongs in the tail.
This is very interesting because the dolphin...
Is not a Jewish symbol.
It's a symbol of what?
Of the passage to the other world.
To the other world. -Yes.
So basically in Pagan symbolism, the dolphin,
just like the dolphin accompanies ships...
They accompany the ships.
They accompany the spirits to the other world.
Could be. Yes.
The trident represents Neptune.
Sure.
The trident together with the dolphin...
you could say that it's a Judeo-Christian symbol.
I'm sorry to say that because the Trident could be
the trinity and the dolphin represents resurrection.
It's taken over from Pagan symbolism.
But it's not for Jews.
Well if it's Jews who might have believed
in Jesus as Messiah.
Well you have to agree that the dolphin
and the trident is not a typical Jewish symbol.
No I don't think so.
So there's a mystery?
Sure yes. You can say yes.
[SIMCHA] The mysteries of who influenced
who and where exactly the sources of tradition
can be traced will forever plague the archaeologist.
We may never know if these ancient catacombs
actually contain the remains
of the Jewish men and women, and later Jewish-Christians,
who provided the theological stepping stones
that led to Roman Christianity.
But I think we've uncovered enough possibilities
in the tombs, the religions, the food, and the
buildings of Rome to say with confidence
02x09 - Jewish Rome
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Show examines biblical stories and tries to find proof for them by exploring the Holy Land looking for archaeological evidence, personal inferences, deductions, and interviews with scholars and experts.
Show examines biblical stories and tries to find proof for them by exploring the Holy Land looking for archaeological evidence, personal inferences, deductions, and interviews with scholars and experts.