Ancient Jewish Diaspora

The shah had divine authority. He was God's chosen one, and held his hand. Shahs were God's regent on earth. To justify it, they propagated monotheism in the lands they conquered. For Persians, Ahuramazda was the only true god, and each subject nation had to have one God to confirm the shah as the King of Kings—the Shahanshah. Law was important to the Persians, and even Greeks said Persians were just. The Iranian word for law " data " entered Hebrew from the Persians. Two systems operated, local law based on local custom, and imperial law, the decrees of the shahanshah. Darius hoped for rule by consent and so to pass off his laws to local communities consensually as religious restoration. The great Persian scholar, A T Olmstead affirms that Darius meant to set a code of law for the whole empire. Thiery Petit noted the actions of Darius in Egypt were part of a wide program of legislation. The scriptures say that Yehouah put Cyrus in charge of the world. Egyptian inscriptians say that Ra made Darius king of Egypt. Darius built a large new temple to Amun-Ra, the Egyptian god closest in nature to Ahuramazda, at the oasis of el-Khargeh. A letter to his Egyptian satrap tells him to intervene in the appointment of high priests, proving that emperors could not avoid interfering in influential positions like the priesthood. It is imperative that the posts most influential on the people had to be king's men. The Demotic Chronicle of Egypt takes the same attitude of the judgement of God on Egypt as the Deuteronomic History does on the Jews. Persian propaganda was used in Egypt as elsewhere. The Persians did in Egypt what they did in Yehud, a finding important for Egyptology. religious purity and the purity of the ruling caste of priests, the Jewish Magi. Marriages outside of Zoroastrianism violated Zoroastrian law, so he purged the priesthood. The Babylonian year began at the vernal equinox and the Iranian new year at the autumnal equinox. Then the Achaemenian kings fully adopted the Babylonian calendar and Babylonian month names, with a religious and a civil year, reflected in the Jewish calendar. The spring festival was the important New Year festival for Zoroastrians, beginning on " No Roz " (Norouz), New Day in Persian. The Babylonian calendar began in Nisanu at the corn harvest with an akitu or ritual placing of the images of the gods from the temples to the outside of the city boundaries, a festival full of pageantry lasting a week. The Persians copied the whole festival, and they made it their New Year festival.

The diverse descriptions in the Hebrew Bible of Judahites/Israelites in Egypt reflect the dynamics of the geo-political relations between Yehud and Egypt, mainly during the Persian period. The different descriptions of the Judahite inhabitants in Egypt in Jeremiah 24:8, 42:7–22, and 44 and in Exodus 5 may indicate the changes of the attitude towards the Egyptian diaspora during the Persian period. A similar phenomenon is found in the priestly literature between Ezekiel 20 and Exodus 6. The changes in the pentateuchal texts may reflect the geo-political situation of the period from the revolt of Inaros (460 BCE) to the end of the reign of Darius II (404 BCE). A later redactional layer in the Pentateuch that is marked by a strong anti-Egyptian sentiment may have been a scribal response to pro-Egyptian positions in both Yehud and Egyptian diaspora during the 28th to 30th Egyptian Dynasties (404–343 BCE). The positive oracle towards Egypt and Egyptian diaspora in Isaiah 19:18–25 may reflect the period of Ptolemaic hegemony
in Palestine around 300–200 BCE.

Jewish participation in the cult of Roman emperors was a highly sensitive question in the imperial period. We are aware that there was a strict prohibition on setting up altars, shrines, statues or any images in honour of the rulers. But was this ban expanded to honorific inscriptions as well? We are informed by Philo of Alexandria how the Jews of Jerusalem protested against a ‘shield of virtue’ (clipeus virtutis) made by the governor Pontius Pilate, because its text contained religiously forbidden expressions. On the other hand, Philo also has stated that synagogues all over the Roman Empire were intended to show reverence for benefactors of the Augustan house. Synagogue dedications to the Ptolemaic rulers have been preserved in Egypt already. We are also aware from epigraphic sources that synagogues in Rome were named after Herod, Agrippa, Augustus, and the Severuses. The so-called Mindius Faustus-inscription of the synagogue of Ostia was dedicated “for the welfare of our Augustus”, viz. an unnamed emperor. A synagogue at Intercisa (Dunaújváros, Hungary), was dedicated to the “Eternal God and to the Lord Emperors”; and the synagogue at Mursa (Osijek, Croatia) was dedicated to Septimius Severus and his two sons Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla) and Septimius Geta, as well as their mother Julia Domna. The names of two Severan emperors turned up on an enigmatic Greek inscription even at Qasyun (Israel).

This article represents a response to the excavation report by Seyer and Lotz. Weiss discusses the location of the Limyra building within the city as well as its building constructions and its raw materials. Weiss compares the Limyra building with diaspora synagogues with regard to its architectural layout and orientation as well as with regard to the functionality of its excavated rooms and its water basin. Weiss discusses also the chancel screens with the menorah depic-tions and the date of structure in Limyra. As in other Diaspora synagogues, the location of the building, its construction on an earlier structure, the use of spolia, a water installation, and an ornate bima with a decorated chancel screen are the major elements supporting an argument for an identification of the Limyra building as a synagogue but only further excavations could warrant a clear identification.

This is the final typescript (AAM) of a chapter that will appear in Nicholas Allen, ed., Passion, Persecution and Epiphany in Early Jewish Literature.
After surveying the range of senses of Greek pathos, from suffering to emotion, incidentally arguing that the pathe of 4 Maccabees are much more instances of suffering than emotions (as usually translated), this essay explores the senses of this key term in Josephus' Judaean War. It finds that, although Josephus fuses the two senses, suffering is primary; emotion (suffering of the mind) follows from that.
Finally, this emphasis on suffering connects with a deeply tragic view of political relations, which today we would call 'realist'.

Pendant le Haut-Empire, les autorités romaines s'opposèrent aux Juifs par trois fois, d'abord lors d'une première révolte qui eut pour théâtre la Palestine entre 66 et 73/74 et qui trouva son point d'orgue avec la chute du second Temple de Jérusalem en 70, puis une deuxième fois à la fin du règne de Trajan entre 115 ou 116 et 117, et enfin au moment de la révolte dite de « bar Kokhba » de 132 à 135. L'originalité de la deuxième rébellion fut d'affecter non pas la seule Judée, mais aussi et surtout les communautés de la diaspora, depuis la Cyrénaïque et l'Égypte jusqu'à Chypre et à la Mésopotamie.

This is my contribution to a conference honouring Professor Lucio Troiani in Pavia. It is about to appear in Livia Capponi, ed., Tra Politica e Religione: I Guidei nel Mondo Greco-Romano. Studi in onore di Lucio Troiani (Milan: Jouvence/Antiquitas), 225–46.
The essay argues (developing J. Price 1994) that the homeland // diaspora dichotomy, which remains fundamental to much research on Roman Judaea and Judaeans, inhibits historical understanding of the lived situation in the poleis of southern Syria, especially the origins of the war with Rome. These categories were not available to first-century residents of Caesarea, Ascalon, Idumaea, Scythopolis, or Sepphoris. Although there may be heuristic value in using them for some trans-temporal questions, they become a distraction if our interest is understanding events and their motives in the first century CE.

The series focuses on the evolution of Jewish language, literature, communal life and religious ideology outside of the Land of Israel and in relation to it. The approach is inter-disciplinary with an emphasis on mutual infl uences between Jews and their non-Jewish environment. The series welcomes studies that span different periods and a variety of geographical areas. Priests in Exile is the fi rst comprehensive scholarly opus in English to reconstruct the history of the mysterious Temple of Onias, a Jewish temple built by a Jerusalemite high priest in his Egyptian exile that functioned in parallel with the Temple of Jerusalem. Piotrkowski's book addresses a topic that is mysterious, important and anomalous: a Jewish community of mercenary priests in the (Egyptian) Diaspora in which the priestly sacrifi cial ritual was carried out daily over a period of more than two hundred years until the fi rst century CE, outlasting the Jerusalem Temple. Although the book focuses on the very circumscribed topic of the parallel Temple it casts a wide net, placing the story in the context of Jewish Diaspora life in ancient times. Ancient topics and texts are brought to bear, including papyri, epigraphy, archaeology, as well as the modern literature. Piotrkowski sheds new light on a fascinating episode of ancient Jewish history that is usually left in the dark. 106 RD 4

This is the final typescript (AAM) of a chapter now in press in George van Kooten and Jacques van Ruiten, eds., Intolerance, Polemics, and Debate in Antiquity in Antiquity :  Politico-Cultural, Philosophical, and Religious Forms of Critical Conversation (Leiden: Brill, 2019).
This essay begins with the observation that, whereas Philo and Josephus normally  harmonise Judaean and Graeco-Roman values, and remove causes of antipathy or misunderstanding, when it comes to the widespread perception of Judaean aloofness from others (Diodorus through Tacitus), instead of denying it they rather assume it to be true and celebrate it. The paper explores the possible reasons for that, with special reference to Plato's Laws and Diodorus Siculus, and general reference to Spartan and other cultures.

Exile, displacement, wandering, loss: in Biblical tradition and in later rabbinic commentary, in the medieval poems of Yehudah ha-Levi and the modern political screeds of Theodor Herzl, the idea of diaspora has dominated Jewish identity. In its religious mode, "diaspora," perceived as punitive, has served as a penitential device. The people sin, and God uses foreign armies (Babylonians for the first exile, Romans for the second exile) as the instruments of his wrath, to call the people to repentance. In its secular mode, "diaspora" has served as Zionism's foil. Modern Jews renounce their exile, take control of their history,

Articolo presenta in un modo conciso le principali convinzioni degli Ebrei riguardanti il tempio di  Gerusalemme.  Queste  convinzioni  sono  simili  a  quelle  degli  abitanti  dell’antica  Mesopotamia,  Egitto e Siria. Dopo aver spiegato l’architettura del tempio situato a monte Moria, l’autore presenta le prescrizioni cultiche di purità ed impurità rituale. Un po’ di spazio viene dedicato anche alla critica della istituzione del tempio e sopratutto del sacerdozio.

In scholarly literature, one frequently encounters the claim that Artapanus supplies the only
reference to the building of the Temple of Onias in the entire extant corpus of Jewish-Hellenistic
literature. While this assumption has found acceptance, this article wishes to investigate that
claim. While Artapanus indeed incorporated a reference to the building of a temple by Jews in
Heliopolis—the same place, where Josephus located the Temple of Onias—it seems, however,
that what Artapanus had in mind was not the Jewish Temple of Onias, but the famed Egyptian
Temple of Atum-Ra. This insight is supported by passages of ancient Hellenistic writers such as
Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, who, as Artapanus, contain similar references, to which the
latter appears to allude. Artapanus’ note may thus be explained by the notion that the piece of
information about Jews being responsible for the building of a famous Egyptian temple fulfills an
apologetic purpose and served to aggrandize the Jewish presence in the Egyptian Diaspora.

Konferenz
PRIENE VON DER SPÄTKLASSIK BIS ZUM MITTELALTER. ERGEBNISSE UND PERSPEKTIVEN DER FORSCHUNGEN SEIT 1998

26.-28. 03. 2018
Frankfurt am Main, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität,
organisiert durch Wulf Raeck,
Hörsaalzentrum HS 8, Campus Westend

Montag, 26. 3. 2018

  9.30 Begrüßung und Eröffnung durch
            Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Hollender,  Dekanin des Fachbereichs Sprach- und
            Kulturwissenschaften
            Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şahin, Universität Bursa
            Prof. Dr. Wulf Raeck, ehem. Leiter der Priene-Grabung

  10.00 Susanne Prillwitz (Heidelberg)
            Siedlergepäck? Zu Verteilung, Charakter und Stellenwert der ältesten Funde aus Priene

10.30 Daniel Kah (Stuttgart)
          Priene im 3. Jh. v. Chr.: Die Polis zwischen innerer Demokratie und äußerer Königsherrschaft

11.00 Jesko Fildhuth (Istanbul)
          Die byzantinischen Städte des unteren Mäandertals im Vergleich

11.30 Diskussion

12.00  Mittagspause

13.00 Ulrich Mania (Istanbul)
            Prienes Gymnasien und ihre Baugeschichte als Indikator wirtschaftlicher und städtebaulicher
            Umbrüche

13.30  Bernhard Weisser (Berlin)
            Die Münzen von Priene im Kontext

14.00  Frank Rumscheid (Bonn)
            ,Lampons Geldbeutel' und weitere Hausbefunde mit Münzen in der Insula D2

14.30  Diskussion

15.00 Kaffeepause 

15.30  Göknur Çetinkaya (Bursa)
            Cults in Priene in the Light of Archaeological and Epigraphical Finds

16.00  Marie Christine Junghans (Frankfurt a. M.)
            Das Bauopfer in AEG 19 und die `Efeurankenkännchen´ aus Priene.

16.00 Diskussion

16.30 Kaffeepause

17.00  Berthild Gossel-Raeck (Frankfurt a. M.)
            Dachziegel und Ziegeldächer im antiken und mittelalterlichen Priene 

17.30  Gamze Bayram (Bursa): Untersuchungen zu Ziegelstempeln von Priene

18.00  Florian Schimpf (Mainz)
            Hohlmaßsteine aus Priene im überregionalen Vergleich

18.30 Diskussion



Dienstag, 27. 3. 2018

9.30  Norbert Benecke (Berlin)
          Zum Stand der archäozoologischen Untersuchungen in Priene *

10.00  Wolf Rüdiger Teegen (München)
          Anthropologische Untersuchungen zu mittelalterlichen Bestattungen in Priene im regionalen
          und überregionalen Vergleich *

10.30 Diskussion

11.00 Kaffeepause

11.30 Selma Gün (Köln)
          Neues zu Skulpturen aus Priene

12.00  Ursula Mandel (Frankfurt a. M.)
            Göttin und Braut. Ein Applikenrelief und ikonographisch Verwandtes in der Kleinkunst Prienes

12.30 Diskussion

13.00  Mittagspause

14.00  Laura Picht (Frankfurt a. M.)
            Thymiaterien und Lichthäuschen aus dem `Felsheiligtum Ost´

14.30  Zeynep Yılmaz (Istanbul)
            Nur Konsum oder auch Produktion? Herkunft und Herstellung kaiserzeitlicher und spätantiker
            Keramik in Priene

15.00 Nadin Burkhardt (Eichstätt)
          Lichtkelch und Trinkgefäß. Die Funde aus der Synagoge im Westquartier von Priene

16.00  Diskussion

16.30  Kaffeepause

17.00  Ibrahim Hakan Mert (Bursa)
            Grabbauten aus der Ostnekropole von Priene

17.30  Buğra Kuru (Bursa)
            Das Gräberfeld westlich der Basilika in der Ostnekropole

18.00  Diskussion

19.15 Abendvortrag: Wulf Raeck (Frankfurt a. M.): Priene von Pytheos bis zu den Palaiologen. Die Ergebnisse der Forschungen seit 1998 (Ort: I. G. 411)

Anschließend Umtrunk und Imbiss in der Abgussammlung



Mittwoch, 28. 3. 2018


9.00  Axel Filges (Frankfurt a. M.)
          Bestandsaufnahme des Areals südlich vom Demeterheiligtum (FHW): Kultplatz, Wohnviertel
          oder Nutzfläche? *

9.30  Alexander von Kienlin (Braunschweig)
          Das Prytaneion von Priene

10.00 Diskussion

10.30 Kaffeepause

11.00 Eva Winter (Jena)
          Die Bebauung zwischen Theaterstraße und Felsbarre – zwischen Natur und Regelhaftigkeit?

11.30  Ulrich Ruppe (Frankfurt a. M.) – Julian Ulbrich (Bonn) – Lars Heinze (Köln)
            Eine Wasserversorgungsanlage an der Stadtmauer von Priene

12.00 Diskussion

12.30 Abschlussdiskussion: Bilanzen und Perspektiven der Prieneforschung

(mit * gekennzeichnete Beiträge werden verlesen, da die Autoren nicht persönlich teilnehmen können)

Th e aim of this paper is to trace back the roots of rabbinic traditions cconcerning Egyptian Jews and Alexandrians in particular. Th ese traditions may be either of Alexandrian or of Palestinian origin. Some early traditions have not changed, while some of them have undergone dramatic changes. While at the beginning of the Mishnah and Talmud period Egyptian Jewry was a part of halakhic realm, the last generations of tanaim treated them while shaping the ideology that puts Eretz Israel in the middle of the Jewish Universe. Neutral episodes get another connotation that has nothing to do with the Alexandrian Jewish Community — hardly existing by that time. Th e amoraim conceiving the aft ermath of Judean rebellions unite the experience of Palestinian Jewry and that of the Alexandrian and, broader still, the North-African diaspora at the time of the emperor Trajan. Th us they revise the traditional attitude towards the Egyptian Jews according to the Torah prescriptions.

This book discusses, from a modern scholarly perspective, various aspects of ancient Jewish history, literature, culture, and religion between the 8th century BCE and Late Antiquity (2nd— 7th centuries CE). The author argues that the events and processes discussed have made a lasting impact on the world we are living in today.

The beginning of the period under review saw the creation and publication of the first version of the Torah of Moses in written form (the Book of Deuteronomy), which was subsequently expanded and edited. The first version of ancient Jewish history, the Books Joshua — Kings (or “the First Prophets”), was written in the same era. Thus, the nucleus of the Hebrew Bible was born — the collection of Holy Scriptures which later became “the Old Testament” for Christians and whose traditions inspired the Prophet Muhammad.

Monotheism gradually took hold of the Jewish society in the same period, and Jerusalem and its Temple became the only cultic centre for most of its members. The Judeans were exiled from their land but succeeded to return and rebuild the Temple, to repopulate Jerusalem, and to delineate the borders of the community. The paradigm of “exile and return” has shaped Jewish identity until today, as well as influenced the whole Western culture. In the words of the prophet Zechariah, the period of Persian rule in Judea was “a day of small things”. However, in retrospect, this was the day when Judaism was born, and Judeans became Jews.

The encounter between Greek and Jewish cultures and lifestyles in the wake of Alexander the Great’s campaigns to the East proved to be one of the most creative conflicts and syntheses in the history of humankind. Without it, neither the emergence and spread of Christianity, nor the advent of the Mishnah would have been thinkable. The Hasmonean Revolt – another result of the Judeo-Greek encounter — brought about not only the consolidation of Judaism, but also the creation of the independent State of Judea, the expansion of its borders, and the dramatic increase in Jewish population through forcible conversion to Judaism.

The period of Hasmonean rule witnessed the development of Jewish faith in the afterlife (particularly, in the resurrection of the dead), as well as the blossoming of messianic ideas, both of which found expression in early Christianity. Sects and parties flourished in this context, and one of them — the Pharisees — later defined the fortunes of Jewish religion and society. At the turn of the era, some radical interpretations of monotheism were born. Messiahs, preachers, and other divinely inspired fanatics led the Jews in three revolts against Rome. Their main goals included the achievement of political independence and the establishment of theocracy. Ultimately, very similar goals are still being actively pursued by extreme believers in one God today, especially in the Middle East.

Jewish Diaspora — the first real diaspora in history — appeared and expanded in the same period. Its members interpreted the Torah through the lens of Greek thought, thus laying the foundations of medieval philosophy. Living far away from Jerusalem and its cultic centre, they devised novel Judaic paradigms which did well without the Temple, and thus created Judaism of the Torah and the Holy People.

Although the Roman empire decisively defeated the Jews on the battlefield, destroyed the Temple and turned Judea into Palestine, less than two hundred years passed before it fully surrendered to the followers of a miracle worker and preacher from Galilee, who had been executed in Jerusalem on the order of a Roman prefect. Over the same period, the Jews succeeded to create a system of religion and guidelines for a society that enabled them — the only ones from among the peoples of the ancient world — to survive and flourish, from Late Antiquity and to the present day.

As poet T.S. Eliot observes about tradition, it incorporates " the historical sense. .. [which] involves a perception, not only of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that. .. the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. " 17 is as considerable a cause of black America's creative genius as are race, politics, class, social life, and the ways that these identities are intersectional. In her short essay " There is No Hierarchy of Oppressions, " civil rights activist Audre Lord asserts that, " oppression and the intolerance of difference come in all shapes and sizes and colors and sexualities; and that among those of us who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children, there can be no hierarchies of oppression. " 20 Subjection of any identity, whether of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion or ideology, concerns all people who are oppressed. Liberation movements must be in concert because of intersectional identities, histories, and goals. In the heterogeneous urban environment, people of all different backgrounds must be united to not only live together prosperously but also create equality and justice for all. Though this allure is typically explained as a racial difference, its modern incarnation should also be conflated with spatial difference. White people's enchantment with black culture is rooted in a suburban malaise coupled with an urban fetishism. Suburbia's model has been regularized and mass-produced throughout almost every major American metropolitan area brainstorm speculations on the perception of conspiracy theories amongst various sectors of internet based media platforms and how the exponential growth of " discredible " sources such as user made youtube documentaries and " truth movements " and the once were " whistlenblowers " should be examined as crucial sociopolitical patterns that of which present us with a profoundly puzzingly paradox, if not just by intuition for the millenial generations. Why the majority of baby boomers are not relevant (duè`` due to being children of the golden age, mom and dad living the american dream. Being the children of the most severely intoxicated generation when it came to propaganda " creating of wants " how it was different for different parts of american culture class society all tied in to why we can actually consider the election and the grammy awards to be the same kind of distracting ceremony , the death of the celebrity because of personalized media algorithms and the shift in adolescent identities drive states for example, they can nuture their undeveloped egos in the palm of their hand 24 hours a day so why would they look any further?

*WORLD PREMIERE OF FILM IN UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN IN FALL 2018*

Have you ever wondered about the true story about Christianity’s emergence?
What was its relationship with Judaism or with other cultures in the Graeco-Roman World?
Were you ever curious about what life was like in Ancient times?

BE PREPARED TO QUESTION WHAT YOU WERE TAUGHT

University of Michigan’s Professor Yaron Eliav follows the Apostle Paul's adventures in Athens and seeks to understand how one man had such a huge impact on world history and culture. In a provocative documentary film, shot among the magical ruins of Athens and its beautiful museums, Eliav explores the truly remarkable way in which Paul - one of the most misunderstood characters in history - planted the seeds of what will one day grow into Western Civilization.

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Paul in Athens will be screened for the first time ever in Fall 2018.

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The presence of Jews on Cyprus during Ptolemaic and Roman rule, although attested by diverse historical sources, has not been convincingly identified archaeologically. However, the pottery style named Cypriot Sigillata A, may provide oblique evidence of the Jewish Diaspora on Cyprus, or at least its end. This paper will propose a causal relationship between two seemingly unrelated facts: the historically attested destruction of the Jewish Community 115-117 CE during the Diaspora Revolt; and, the sudden disappearance of Cypriot Sigillata A from the archaeological record by 150CE.

The contribution “Opferterminologie im Sirachbuch” explores references to cultic topics in the Greek book of Sirach with special attention to differences to the Hebrew text, wherever it is extant. Various terminological peculiarities indicate that the translator, who executes his work in Egypt and reflects on the task of translating in the prologue, employs considerable poetic license and has a significant distance from the actual cult at the temple in Jerusalem. Eberhart conjectures, therefore, that the translator knew the sacrificial cult at the early Jewish temple in Leontopolis, which was established by a Jewish high priest, and adapted his text to such local practices.

Jewish participation in the cult of Roman emperors was a highly sensitive question in the imperial period. We are aware that there was a strict prohibition on setting up altars, shrines, statues or any images in honour of the rulers. But was this ban expanded to honorific inscriptions as well? We are informed by Philo of Alexandria how the Jews of Jerusalem protested against a ‘shield of virtue’ (clipeus virtutis) made by the governor Pontius Pilate, because its text contained religiously forbidden expressions. On the other hand, Philo also has stated that synagogues all over the Roman Empire were intended to show reverence for benefactors of the Augustan house. Synagogue dedications to the Ptolemaic rulers have been preserved in Egypt already. We are also aware from epigraphic sources that synagogues in Rome were named after Herod, Agrippa, Augustus, and the Severuses. The so-called Mindius Faustus-inscription of the synagogue of Ostia was dedicated “for the welfare of our Augustus”, viz. an unnamed emperor. A synagogue at Intercisa (Dunaújváros, Hungary), was dedicated to the “Eternal God and to the Lord Emperors”; and the synagogue at Mursa (Osijek, Croatia) was dedicated to Septimius Severus and his two sons Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla) and Septimius Geta, as well as their mother Julia Domna. The names of two Severan emperors turned up on an enigmatic Greek inscription even at Qasyun (Israel).