This slender well-written book is packed with easy-toread information about the structure of the Jewish community of Rome and the politics and history of the city where it developed and grew. Not an easy task because very little documentation has survived to the present day; Elsa Laurenzi is honest enough to inform the reader of this difficulty and avoids making “easy” but unfounded statements. Instead she takes the reader by the hand and illustrates the customs and culture of a society that was part of a much larger society, as different as it was tolerant, one that knew how to integrate different and contrasting forms of reality. Using a glossary inserted into the text, she uses the sources available - ancient authors, epigraphic texts, archaeological remains – to provide useful and accurate explanations about a terminology not everyone may be familiar with.

This comprehensive inventory of all known sarcophagi from the Jewish catacombs of Rome, is the first specialized treatment of this subject in monograph form. It describes and analyses each sarcophagus and provides full reference material which it critically examines. This work thus fills a lacuna in the literature on this field, which has up to now been confined to the treatment of early Christian and pagan sarcophagi of the period. �We have here a complete overview of the Jewish sarcophagi of ancient Rome, all of them illustrated by photographs and provided with extensive bibliographies. This work thus fills a lacuna in the literature on this field.� Journal for the Study of Judaism �Until this book, however, no one has attempted to assemble all of the Jewish sarcophagi separately in one place and to provide relevant information in the form of a well-ordered catalogue. For this reason, Konikoff's book provides a welcome resource for anyone interested in the material evidence of ancient Judaism and forms a good beginning for study of the sarcophagi, especially from a bibliographic point of view.� Gnomon .

It was long believed that Roman Jews lived in complete isolation. This book offers a refutation of this thesis. It focuses on the Jewish community in third and fourth-century Rome, and in particular on how this community related to the larger, non-Jewish world that surrounded it. Jewish archaeological remains and Jewish funerary inscriptions from Rome are examined from various angles, and compared to pagan and early Christian material and epigraphical remains. The author has shown great comprehensiveness, thoroughness, and accuracy in examining this epigraphic evidence. He also discusses the enigmatic legal treatise called the Collatio. This volume proposes a new way in which the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in late antiquity can be studied. As such, it is an important and useful addition to the literature on Roman Jewry in the middle Empire.

Jewish Diaspora in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods from first to the eighth centuries C.E. is the subject of this work. The author thoroughly investigates origin, symbolism and significance of the mainly synagogal and funerary art forms in the Diaspora. Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Diaspora is the companion volume to the successful Ancient Jewish Art and Archeaeology in the Land of Israel (1988) by the same author. The geographical area covered includes Syria, Asia Minor, North Africa and Mediterranean Europe. The first section examines the characteristic features of Diaspora Art synagogue architecture and art (including the Torah shrine and mosaic pavements). Another section deals with burial and funerary practices. Of special importance are the sections on the Biblical scenes, designs and iconography of the Dura Europos synagogue, and the Jewish symbols such as the Menorah, ritual objects, the Ark, the conch and the Torah Scrolls. The book is richly illustrated with more than 325 drawings and photographs, some in colour.

The history of the Jews in Italy is the longest continuous one of European Jewry and lasted for more than two millennia. It started in the days of the Roman Republic and continued through the Middle Ages to Modern Times. Jewish Italy served as melting pot throughout its history, first for migrants from East to West and eventually from all over the Mediterranean littoral and beyond. Some of them moved on from Italy to other countries, while the majority stayed on in the country for generations. This volume of their history covers the first seven centuries of Jewish presence on the peninsula from the days of the Maccabees to Pope Gregory the Great. It is based on archaeological finds in Rome and elsewhere in Italy, on relevant literary and legal sources and on other records.

A collection of essays published previously. Ch. 8 (pp. 171-197), "Roman Policy towards the Jews: Expulsions from the City of Rome during the First Century C.E.", first appeared in "Classical Antiquity" 13 (1994). The present version contains an appendix: "Review of Botermann's Judenedikt der Kaisers Claudius (1996)" (pp. 191-197).