Making One’s Mark in a Pagan and Christian World

Abstract

This chapter examines graffiti associated with the public lives of Jews from Tyre and Asia Minor, showing that they serve as evidence of Jewish participation in public entertainments in the Greco-Roman world. When Jews and their neighbors inscribed graffiti in structures such as theaters and hippodromes, they activated their participation in public spectacles and public life. Numerous examples of public graffiti can be found in theaters and in the ancient city of Aphrodisias, while commercial graffiti exist in the reused Sebasteion and the so-called South Agora, also in Aphrodisias. These markings, the chapter argues, reveal that during periods of burgeoning anti-Jewish legislation and religious polemic, Jews reserved seats for themselves as spectators of public entertainments and drew menorahs where they sold their wares in public markets. They even attest to the presence of Jewish women in commercial settings.