JEWS IN THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE IN LATE ANTIQUITY: MIGRATION, INTEGRATION, SEPARATION

Jewish urban settlements in Western Europe were mainly established in the first two centuries CE, and spread into more rural areas in Late Antiquity. Although founded by migrants they must have been maintained primarily by natural reproduction. In many places there was considerable integration, with Jews holding leading offices in their cities. From the late 4th century this changed, with Jews losing their legal rights, sometimes being forcibly baptised, and otherwise reacting to their compulsory separation with increasing use of Hebrew instead of Latin and Greek. These issues are investigated in the light of events on Minorca in 418 and of the trilingual Jewish epitaph from Tortosa.