This article discusses recent Francophone and Anglophone research on physiocracy. In particular, it focuses on how the new intellectual history and the consequent emergence of a "histoire historique de la pensee" found original expression in the methodological evolution of this field of study. Indeed, scholars are no longer interested only in physiocratic "ideas", but also, if not above all, in the concrete historical reality in which they took shape and sought to gain ground. Historiography has paid attention to the biographical and social trajectories of its exponents, their political action, as well as the scientific practices, literary strategies and pedagogical approaches aimed at promoting, disseminating and publicising the physiocratic project. This confirmed that, far from being ethereal, knowledge processes interact with the "context" in which they are situated. Significantly, this circumstance is further confirmed by studies on the international circulation of physiocracy, which highlight that the reception of this theory had a creative and pragmatic character inspired by hermeneutic freedom: as a true "matiere vivante", it was adapted to the specific economic, social and political problems of the countries where it was imported.
Between 1915 and 1945, the desire for European unification, as an antidote to the two world wars that had devastated the continent, was a particularly pressing issue, involving intellectuals from a wide variety of backgrounds: within this diverse front, the Jewish component played a significant role. This essay analyses the motivations that led some Italian Jewish intellectuals (Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani, Claudio Treves, Nello and Carlo Rosselli, Carlo Ginzburg, Eugenio Colorni) to embrace the European solution. All positioned on the composite socialist front, each arrived at the idea of creating a United States of Europe by drawing on their own cultural background, but in all of them, albeit in different ways, a Jewish legacy is recognisable, thus providing an original response to the "crisis of civilisation" that had called into question their own emancipation.
The essay analyzes the contribution of Late Enlightenment thought to the development of a new universalism and humanism of the moderns, as a response to global war and colonialism in the second half of the 18th century. While the philosophical reflection of the early 18th century focused on religious critique and tolerance, in the second half of the century, new economic, political, and social issues emerged, interpreted in light of the epistemological revolution of the Encyclopedic and the new human sciences. In particular, this essay focuses on the philosophical contribution and universalism of Diderot, Herder, and Filangieri.
After the civil war against the Marians, Lucius Cornelius Sulla distributed to his veterans a large amount of land in Italy and presumably combined this reform with a reduction of grain distributions in Rome; nevertheless, Cornelian agrarian laws had weak effects on the economic system of the first century BCE: literary sources (in particular the oratio Lepidi and the Ciceronian speeches de lege agraria) show that Sulla did not reinforce durably the class of smallholders and that his efforts to forbid the concentration of land property were superficial and ambiguous.
Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Europe witnessed a profound transformation in military culture, which increasingly involved governments and public opinion in crucial issues concerning the economic, civil, and political life of the continent. The aim of this essay is to reflect on the central role that the Enlightenment played in redefining these issues, promoting the ideal of perpetual peace as a humanistic response to the horrors of modern warfare particularly the Seven Years' War, which paved the way for the final crisis of the Ancien Regime and the Western imperial and colonial system, ushering in the era of the Atlantic revolutions.
This contribution examines the ancient evidence on the participation of Christians in the Jewish diaspora revolt under Trajan. An analysis of the names and figures of the leaders of the revolt suggests that among them there was a king, Lucuas, and various generals, but no messianic figure. It is inferred that Christians could have participated in the revolt without betraying their faith; the subsequent Christian tradition, namely Eusebius, represented the end of the diaspora revolt as the landmark beyond which the "parting of the ways" between the two religions became irreversible. Furthermore, this paper investigates the figure and role of the historian Appian of Alexandria during the revolt, suggesting that he was chased through the Arabian desert by the Jewish rebels for being a descendant of the grammarian Apion of Oasis and Alexandria, arch-enemy of the Jews in the Julio-Claudian period, and polemical target of Josephus' Against Apion. Most probably, this had a decisive impact on both the anti-Jewish stance in Appian's work, and on the loss of the most anti-Jewish (and anti-Christian) parts of it, namely the Egyptian and Judean books, in the post-Eusebian Christian tradition.
Presenting some hitherto unknown documents, the essay retraces the season of destruction and censure of Hebrew books in the State of the Church that begun with the burning of the Talmud on the stake in Rome on 9th of September 1553. In particular, it focuses on the action of a censor of Hebrew books, a convert sent in the Legation of Romagna in 1554 by the Holy Office, and on an episode of the activity of the inquisitorial commissioner dispatched to Ancona in mid-1555 to persecute the local community of Portuguese Jews suspected of apostasy.
In the Greek language the lexical sphere of consanguinity is represented by the terms genos and ethnos and their derivatives. These two terms are widely used to designate the Jews, both in works by Judeo-Hellenistic authors and in pagan sources of Roman times. As it has been noted, in the contexts in which they are used, the two terms generally do not appear to have been chosen to emphasize consanguinity. However, in the Roman world the widespread use of expressions linked to the idea of descent, even if used with a generic value, could in fact have contributed to the formation of an imaginary of the Jews as a group specifically characterized by consanguinity.
The authority of the written Torah as a source of legal obligation is an integral part of the vision of Judaism of authors such as Josephus Flavius. The article takes as its starting point Doron Mendels' observations on the leadership role of priests in ethnic groups subject to the Hellenistic kingdoms and Jonathan Vroom's observations on the difference between second-century BCE texts that treat the Law of Moses as a practical authority, i.e., as an unquestionable source of obligation, and those that instead evoke an epistemic, i.e., persuasive, authority, such as the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The picture presented in Ezra and Nehemiah can be better clarified with the help of the fragment of Hecataeus in Diodorus Siculus XL in which the role of priests (particularly the high priest) as guardians and charismatic interpreters of the Law is treated.
Tacitus' ethnographic excursus on Jerusalem and Judaea in Historiae V has given rise to a debate about its character and purpose, in comparison with other ancient Greek and Roman sources on Judaism, and in light of the historian's political and historical vision. Over time, ancient and modern debates about Judaism have made too much of this digression, attributing to it a role and an importance that may be disproportionate. It is useful to reconsider the excursus from the perspective of its ancient readers, within the literary conventions of the historiographical genre.
This paper examine how the Hasmoneans and their supporters interpreted, staged and legitimised the acts of violence they committed between 167 and 76 BC in order to establish, maintain and expand their rule in Judea and southern Syria. To do this, I will first outline the various measures and their biblical justifications in the context of the Hasmonean wars of self-assertion and expansion from the perspective of the most important literary sources; then, with the help of archaeological evidence, I will attempt to show how the Hasmoneans used purity and violence as arguments to legitimise their rule. The article is not primarily concerned with the actual motives and actions of the Hasmoneans, but rather with their self-representation to the Judean public. It turns out that the Hasmoneans may have exaggerated the extent of their violence in order to increase the acceptance of their rule among the Judean population by allegedly approximating Deuteronomistic models.
The Bar Kochba uprising was a massive challenge for Rome. The losses of the Roman troops were considerable at the beginning of the revolt. Bar Kochba succeeded in developing a military-administrative structure within a limited area, which showed him and his supporters that a Jewish state had been established. However, due to the massive deployment of Roman troops from other provinces, especially Syria and Arabia, the revolt was crushed at the beginning of the year 136. It thus lasted four years, as it had begun before April 132. The result was a huge loss of life for the Jewish people, which also applied to the Romans. The center of Jewish life shifted to Galilee; the Jewish future was not determined by the military -political leader Bar Kochba, but by Rabbi Judah, ha-Nasi, a master of religion and Law.
This paper briefly analyzes the factors which, according to Doron Mendels, most characterized Jewish nationalism from the time of the Maccabees until the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE: the Temple, territory, kingship and army. The aim is to show how Mendels does not escape from the trap of the BJ by giving in to the determinism and theology of the historian Flavius Josephus: the basic thesis of The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Nationalism is that the nationalist resurgence in Judea in 66 CE was an inevitable phenomenon, ineluctably destined to lead to the clash between the Romans and the Jews.
This article presents the case study of Thietmar, Bishop of Merseburg and author of the Chronicon, who not only transcribed the deeds and lives of the Kings of Saxony but also elaborated a peculiar narrative of Otto III, one of the few sources of information about him, lacking a biography. This absence makes the lexicon used by Thietmar even more valuable, as he recovers a peculiar terminology to characterize Otto III's politics.
During the First Jewish War (66-70 CE), "a new principle" of understanding and waging war was established among some radical sectors of the pars Judaica: a war to theion, holy or divine by definition (BJ 5. 164). This marked a radical ideological shift in the fides towards Rome, which saw the lestai/lestrikoi involved no longer as mere latrones, i.e. irregular fighters, but as true rebelles who challenged the Roman ethic of war by waging a bloody rebellio. The overabundance of aireseis in the first century CE no authoritatively recognized leaders, not even the priestly elite set the stage for the outbreak of rebellion.
