dagblog - Comments for "Common traits bind Jews and Chinese "

Circumstantial evidence: the

Lurker — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 22:32:09 +0000

Circumstantial evidence: the Second Temple of Herod and Jesus was the grandest public building in the Empire. As well as the Temple, Herod built many other vast projects, including the artificial harbour at Caesaria, and palaces at Massada and Herodion. Herod didn't have any colonies to pay tribute, so his income came from taxes. Construction on that scale would require a very large tax base.

Let's just say all these

Anonymous PP — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 16:34:53 +0000

In reply to Dio's 580,000 Jews killed in

Let's just say all these numbers are suspicious & good for indicative purposes only.

Dio's 580,000 Jews killed in

Aaron Carine — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 12:09:32 +0000

In reply to My guess is that PP's half a

Dio's 580,000 Jews killed in the 2nd century revolt is credible, if it includes deaths from all causes(although Dio says it excludes deaths from hunger, pestilence etc.).

My guess is that PP's half a

Aaron Carine — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 12:06:03 +0000

In reply to That would have to be a

My guess is that PP's half a million is derived from Dio Cassius, who said that 240,000 perished in a Jewish revolt in Cyprus and over 100,000 in another revolt in Cyrene(around 116-117 AD) I don't think any historian takes those numbers seriously; classical historians were always throwing around ridiculously inflated numbers. Since the Jews in Cyprus were outnumbered, it's almost inconceivable that they could have killed so many.

That would have to be a

Anonymous PP — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 07:38:20 +0000

In reply to I read somewhere that around

That would have to be a hugely populated little province of Judea there with not very big Jerusalem capital along with other regions compared to totals for Gaul, Britannia, Iberia, Greece, Northern Africa and Rome (Italy) itself. Estimated population of the Roman Empire under Augustus is about 45-55 million. China's population at the time was roughly 60 million. Perhaps a more likely figure for Jewish population at its height might be 5-8%.

I am surprised to learn that during the Kitos War the Jews killed a bit fewer than half a million people around the Roman Empire, which might have had some guessing about where their allegiances lay ;-) During the 3rd war, over a half million Jews were killed with the population disperssed, also with a large number of Roman dead, though seems it didn't end Jewish insurrections around Palestine and other regions in later centuries, including the short-lived Persian alliance against the Byzantines (Thanks for piquing my curiosity about the period.)

No doubt, but that is not the

EmmaZahn — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 02:57:09 +0000

In reply to There have been Chinese Jews

No doubt, but that is not the point of the post although I am not really sure what the point of that big, sloppy wet kiss is.

I read somewhere that around

Lurker — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 22:04:21 +0000

In reply to Common traits bind Jews and Chinese

I read somewhere that around the time of Jesus there were roughly the same number of Jews as Chinese in the world, and that Jews constituted more than 10% of the Roman Empire. What changed all that were the two revolts against Rome, which both ended in failure and the slaughter and exile of the Jews. Imagine a world with one and a half billion Jews!

There have been Chinese Jews

Peter Schwartz — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 21:37:33 +0000

In reply to Common traits bind Jews and Chinese

There have been Chinese Jews in the past.

One of the oddest posts I

EmmaZahn — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 21:15:08 +0000

In reply to Common traits bind Jews and Chinese

One of the oddest posts I ever read. My jaw dropped so many times I finally just gaped in astonishment to the end.