The Archaeologist

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What did the Romans think of the Jews?

Let’s discuss the Roman Empire's perception of the Jewish people and how they were treated as conquered people. The Jews were exceptional in that being a part of the Roman Empire was against their religion. The Romans allowed for religious freedom provided that the conquered people did not mind adding another god to their Pantheon.

However, the Jewish people believed in only one god and refused to worship pagan idols, which led to conflicts with the Romans. This created a problem as the Jewish people believed in a theocratic system of government, which placed all sovereignty and authority in the hands of God.

The Roman Empire's perception of the Jewish people was that they belonged to a dark and repulsive force. Cicero, a Roman senator and orator, said that the Jews were a nation of rascals and deceivers. The speaker also discusses how his previous videos on Celtic and Germanic peoples were perceived as racist and how he aims to be tough but fair in this series.

In this video, we’ll delve further into the history of ancient Rome and some little' troublemakers. There were three wars waged between the Jewish people and Rome, and in this video, DJ Peach focuses on the first one, the creatively named "First Jewish War". A war that altered the very nature of Jewish worship to this day with the destruction of the second Jewish temple Enjoy!