LAMINE 5 is out

The Roman Empire, after a brief interlude under Julian, made a decision about Jerusalem: it wasn't Jewish. Over in the "Chaldaean" Iraq, angry Jews put some choice touches on their Talmud there, which you may read in Peter Schäfer's Jesus in the Talmud. When the Sasanians took Jerusalem, the Jews got to act on their impulses.

It... wasn't pretty. We've long had Gideon Avni, "The Persian Conquest of Jerusalem (614 c.e.)—An Archaeological Assessment", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 357 (February 2010), 35-48; from which, G Greatrex, "Khusro II and the Christians of the Roman Empire", Studia Patristica (Peeters Publishers, 2006), 14.51 exculpated the shah, if not quite exonerated him. A key document, probably an eyewitness document, was Strategios' homily which he composed on behalf of his abbot.

Sean Anthony and Stephen Shoemaker have now edited this homily, from its translations, and double-translated the result into English. And it's a LAMINE imprint! which means we get to read it for $0, although you might want to buy it in print anyway.

My main critique is that some of the footnotes are long; likewise the digressions to splat this or that argument by other scholars. Shoemaker is notorious for this latter habit. I can only repeat my earlier comments which is put them in appendices. I kind-of get why, oh, Patricia Crone might want to pad out the main text with a lengthy digression (Slaves on Horses, only 80 pages, spent many of those about the... Mongols). But in this case, the main text is the homily. All that introductory fluff doesn't need to be long.

If/when you get past all that, you will learn that, yeah, the invasion wasn't pretty. The churches weren't destroyed; but they suffered a lot of fire-fire-fire. The authors also blockquote Avni on the "mass burials". (All too common around there.)

Strategios reports that the Persians did the initial damage, and then took the survivors into the reservoir of Mamilla. They first plucked out those with skills, to be deported. (A common Persian practice.) Those left behind were offered to the Jews who, we can surmise, came in from elsewhere. Christians who renounced Christ could become the Jews' slaves. But the Christians refused. At which point the Jews bought them up anyway - to be slaughtered.

The Sasanians quickly moved to fix the damage - we're told Yazdîn dipped into his own funds - if only to keep the tourist drachmata and dinerii flowing. But the population sank; and many monasteries became easy prey for opportunistic "Saracens".

BACKDATE 12/17