Overview

     Located directly to the west of Egypt, Cyrenaica was colonized by Dorian Greeks in the late seventh century BCE. Falling to Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, the country subsequently came under the rule of Ptolemy I, who is said to have settled Jews in the region. The country became a Roman province in 74 BCE, and by that time the Jewish population had expanded so greatly that Strabo documents that the Jews living in the capital city of Cyrene were assigned their own special classification.

     From Strabo’s testimony, it is clear that the Jewish organizational scheme in Cyrene resembled that of the Jewish politeuma (quasi-independent community) in Alexandria, though on a smaller scale, since Josephus mentions a Jewish population of only 5,000 in this city in the first century CE compared to a resident Jewish population in Alexandria numbering in the tens of thousands. Strabo’s comments also imply that more than one Jewish politeuma was established in Cyrenaica, and indeed the discovery of two inscriptions from Berenice mentioning a "politeuma of the Jews" confirms this hypothesis. While the details of these organizational schemes remain elusive, each community probably had a degree of civic autonomy and similar privileges as those enjoyed by the Jews in Egypt: the right to assemble on the Sabbath, the right to collect money to send to the Temple, and so forth.

     Currently, the only firm epigraphic evidence for Second Temple synagogues in Cyrenaica comes from the city of Berenice (modern Benghazi), located on the coast of western Cyrenaica, just north of the Gulf of Syrtis.

Note: The abbreviation CJZC stands for the compendium Corpus jüdischer Zeugnisse aus der Cyrenaika. There are two other inscriptions available from Berenice; I hope to display them in the near future. All translations are mine.

This incomplete inscription (CJZC 72), which records the repair of a synagogue in Berenice in 55 CE, is significant for several reasons. To begin with, line five of the monument attests the use of the term synagôgê for a diaspora building during the Second Temple period. While this was apparently the normal term for a synagogue building in Palestine, all other extant inscriptions from the diaspora use the word proseuchê. Curiously, in line three synagôgê is also used in reference to the synagogue congregation.

Secondly, the inscription mentions first the donations of ten archontes and a priest, who each contributed 10 drachmae. In contrast to the other donations, which ranged from 28 to 5 drachmae, the equal contributions of these first eleven donors, as well as their titles, indicates that they constituted the governing body of the synagogue.

Finally, the mention of two female donors attests the participation of women within the economic upkeep of the synagogue, if not its formal leadership. Translation:

In the second year of the emperor Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, on the 6th of Choarch [December, 55 CE].
It was resolved by the congregation
of the Jews in Berenice and its vicinity that (the names of)
those who donated to the repairs of the synagogue be inscribed
on a stele of Parian marble.

Column One

Zenion, son of Zoilos, archôn, 10 drachmae
Isidoros, son of Dositheos, archôn, 10 drachmae
Dositheos, son of Ammonius, archôn, 10 drachmae
Pratis, son of Jonathan, archôn, 10 drachmae
Carnedas, son of Cornelius, archôn, 10 drachmae
Heracleides, son of Heracleides, archôn, 10 drachmae
Thaliarchos, son of Dositheos, archôn, 10 drachmae
Sosibios, son of Jason, archôn, 10 drachmae
Pratomedes, son of Socrates, archôn, 10 drachmae
Antigonos, son of Straton, archôn, 10 drachmae
Cartisthenes, son of Archias, priest, 10 drachmae
Lysanias, son of Lysanias, 25 drachmae
Zenodoros, son of Theophilos, 28 drachmae
Marion (?), [son of ?], 25 drachmae
[ Stone broken]

Column Two

Alexander, son of Euphranor, 5 drachmae
Isidora, daughter of Serapion, 5 drachmae
Zosime, daughter of Terpolius, 5 drachmae
Polon, son of Dositheos, 5 drachmae

© Donald D. Binder, 1997-2007
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