Wartime Rape, the Romans, and the First Jewish Revolt

Updated by: 
Shiran Shevah
Research notes: 
SHS/not checked/06/09/2017
Reference type: 
Journal Article
Author(s): 
Reeder, Caryn A.
year: 
2017
Full title: 

Wartime Rape, the Romans, and the First Jewish Revolt

Journal / Book Title || Series Title: 
Journal for the Study of Judaism
Volume: 
48
Issue / Series Volume: 
3
Abbreviated Series Name: 
JSJ
Pages: 
363-385
Work type: 
Essay/Monograph
Abstract: 

In contrast with the breadth of references to rape in historiographies, narratives, and visual depictions of war across the Greco-Roman world, the relatively few references to rape in stories of the First Jewish Revolt are remarkable: Josephus, J.W. 4.560 and 7.344, 377, 382, 385; 4 Ezra 10:22; Lam. Rab. 1:16; b. Giṭ. 56b, 57b-58a. This paper explores the use and significance of rape as a weapon in Roman warfare as context for interpreting the references to rape in the earliest reflections on the revolt, Josephus’s Jewish War and 4 Ezra, proposing that the limited number of these references in Josephus in particular relates to his larger goal of reconstructing Jewish identity (especially in terms of masculinity) in post-revolt Rome.

URL: 
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15700631-12340149
Label: 
02/10/2017
Record number: 
103 090