This essay will look at whether or not the Jews were proselytising as the Roman writers of the time believed, and how you judge what the Romans wrote in order to understand whether that was their goal. One must briefly look at the Jewish background to attempt to find if there was any evidence that could support the idea that the Jews were sent out into the world to convert others to their religious beliefs. This would lead the way for the Romans to be correct in their assumption that they were going out of their way to collect converts or whether this has been misinterpreted.
In the beginning, the Jews were banished from their own kingdom by their own God and sent to Babylon to live . After they returned to their lands, King Artaxerxes of Persia, sent a letter to Ezra informing Ezra that this gift of gold and silver that he sent them, should be used to buy offerings for sacrifices in the name of your god . Moreover, the king told him that he should also
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There is also a hint of the Romans being somewhat afraid of their god, which may have allowed them to get away with causing problems for both the law and in turn the Roman people. Dio Cassius goes on to say that the Jews arrived in “Rome in great numbers” and started assimilating many of the Roman people. However, eventually “Tiberius banished most of them from the country” . While Suetonius says that they caused many “disturbances” and were also banished from Rome. Horace tells that because they are becoming a large majority group, they would insist that you convert to their religious beliefs .
The Jews also caused problems within the assemblies. The most likely purpose was to gain attention in order to gain followers. Of which Cicero says they gather in large crowds