Antiquity
Accusation of arson attributed to Jews
70-73·Antioche
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
notables burned in the theater, privileges threatened
A Jew of Antioch named Antiochos publicly denounced his father and other notables of the community as the perpetrators of a plot to burn down the city. The accused were burned alive in the theater, and the crowd demanded that the punishment be extended to all.
A real fire having shortly afterward destroyed the archives quarter, the same accusation was brought again; the legate Gnaeus Collega conducted an inquiry and established that the Jews had no part in it. Titus, urged to expel them from Antioch and to revoke the privileges inscribed on the bronze tablets of the synagogue, refused: the first trial for arson targeting an entire Jewish community ended in an imperial acquittal.
- Period :
- Antiquity
- Type :
- Massacre
- Region :
- Near and Middle East
- Country :
- Turquie
Flavius Josèphe, Guerre des Juifs ; Malalas, Chronographie.