mihi non stultentia est

jumblr when I make posts about my life experiencing hate crimes as a Jewish woman: WE LOVE YOU WE WILL SURVIVE

jumblr when I make posts about being patrilineal and secular and still very proud to have been raised with a Jewish identity and strong sense of pride: #challengehegemony <3 *150 positive notes*

jumblr when I make posts about the historical reality of Romano-Jewish relations: NONONONO ancient Rome WAS EVIL and THE SOURCE of ALL RACISM and SOCIETAL OPPRESSIOn!!!! there was nothing good about Romans ever it was all CHRISTIAN ANYWAY AND THEY HATED BLACK PEOPLE TOOOOOOOO And WERE HOMOPHOBICCCCCCCCCccc.* They SPECIFICALLY WANTED TO ERASE US AND FORCED US TO EAT PORK IN PUBLIC SQUARES**

also jumblr: ANYWAY I <3 CHRISTIAN ALLIES OF JEWISH PEOPLE it's ok if they make a few mistakes we need anyone who will help us out! why are you mad?

*there is no textual evidence in any Latin text I have studied from this time period and culture that shows evidence of any of these three claims of origins of modern oppression, which, like antisemitism, emerged after the classical period when Roman pagans were hunted to extinction by the newly formed Catholic church, and what we know today as modern misogyny and racism and homophobia began. The earliest I could point to would be the post-classical/early medieval period, which was majority Christian. There is a whole book of the Christian bible dedicated to painting Rome as evil because of the lack of these three hierarchies. Romans were "worldly" because they were tolerant, curious, and generally accepting of other peoples living in their city, they were "sinful" because women had very high status compared to Christian Europe and were professors, businesswomen, and political schemers, and could show boobs, and they were "demonic and lustful" because of widespread polyamory and not separating romance into "gay" or "straight". Marriage was a separate concept, but I stand by what I said when discussing Roman views of romantic love in general.

**real claim I saw someone on here say. Not historically a thing I have ever heard of in Roman times. Romans didn't force anyone to abandon any religion because they had no concept of One True Religion For All. This is absurd and ridiculous. While pork was the most common meat consumed in ancient Italy, and no doubt Romans would have been confused or weirded out/xenophobic about kosher laws, they had no legal infrastructure to persecute people for dietary restrictions. The closest Romans got was executing Christians for murders, temple desecration, forcing their faith on others, and refusing to show loyalty to the emperor (which is a gray area Jewish law wise because it is a temple system and the emperor may be dead, but you are not required to actually believe in Roman religion, and it is political, not the same as true Roman Lares - ancestor spirits which are deities - a bit like leaving coins at the Statue of Liberty if you will). But, as I said, Jews didn't do any of these things because we don't proselytize, so Romans mostly tried to learn our customs instead and made laws allowing the construction of synagogues within Roman cities. Their main beef with us was the whole rebellion thing and after that they disagreed with our legal system and that was the main cultural tension point, along with the Romans being unable to conceive of Jewish rules around conversion and monotheism, since they valiantly attempted to mix their faith with ours (this is how they got the concept of a week, and several other things, a particularly hilarious instance being Horace Sermones 1.9), probably as a very misguided gesture of appreciation/reconciliation. Roman culture in general does this, with Romans living in conquered territories sincerely adopting practices and clothing and other traits with the indigenous populations, often giving rise to fusion cultures with traits of both (see Romano-British, Romano-Egyptian, etc.). Romans didn't do this, but early Christians absolutely did. Just trying to place the blame where it is actually merited.