Citaat:
Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Het Oosten
As early as the third century BCE Jewish communities sprang up in the Aegean islands, Greece, Asia Minor, Cyrenaica, Italy and Egypt.[30]: 8–11 In Palestine, under the favourable auspices of the long period of peace - almost a whole century - which followed the advent of the Ptolemies, the new ways were to flourish. By means of all kinds of contacts, and particularly thanks to the development of commerce, Hellenism infiltrated on all sides in varying degrees. The ports of the Mediterranean coast were indispensable to commerce and, from the very beginning of the Hellenistic period, underwent great development. In the Western diaspora Greek quickly became dominant in Jewish life and little sign remains of profound contact with Hebrew or Aramaic, the latter probably being the more prevalent. The proportion of Jews in the diaspora in relation to the size of the nation as a whole increased steadily throughout the Hellenistic era and reached astonishing dimensions in the early Roman period, particularly in Alexandria. It was not least for this reason that the Jewish people became a major political factor, especially since the Jews in the diaspora, notwithstanding strong cultural, social and religious tensions, remained firmly united with their homeland.[31] Smallwood writes that,'It is reasonable to conjecture that many, such as the settlement in Puteoli attested in 4 BCE went back to the late (pre-Roman Empire) Roman Republic or early Empire and originated in voluntary emigration and the lure of trade and commerce."
De Joodse diaspora kan zeker ook ontstaan zijn om de Joden verjaagd werden uit hun eigen land. Maar dat hoeft niet zo te zijn. Zeker niet in de Oudheid.
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U hebt gelijk. De Joodse diaspora gaat ver terug tot de republiek voor de Romeinse keizertijd en was niet noodzakelijk het gevolg van een militaire actie. Die vrijwillige diaspora was reeds bezig van in de Hellinistische tijd.
Rome was, na de Punische oorlogen tegen Carthago, een zeer aantrekkelijke handelsmetropool geworden.