Medieval Reception of the Roman Conquest of Jerusalem

In the year 70 CE, the two Roman emperors Titus and Vespasian crushed a Jewish revolt by conquering Jerusalem and destroying the Jewish Temple. This event, however, would only unfold its full potential in hindsight, since Christian observers appropriated it for the matters of Salvation History, that is, the idea of how the divine will guides and structures the course of humankind. The Gospels were all written in the shadow of this event, and it was understood early on as Gods punishment on the Jews for the crucifixion of Christ. The event featured thus as a key narrative in Christianitys origins and self- understanding, wherefore it is not surprising that it appears in literally thousands of medieval texts. This project is devoted to offering a first broad examination of its use in the medieval period, considering Latin texts between c.600 and c.1200, from the post-Roman world and the early monastic exegetes to the crusade movement and the university of Paris. This includes moving beyond a reception history of Flavius Josephus (the main historiographical source on the event), given that there are numerous occurrences that do not (directly) relate to this source. The projects scope becomes possible thanks to the full text databases nowadays available; these permit to capture quickly where, when, and how the conquest appears. These surveys have the goal to create eventually an own database about the reception of the Roman conquest, which will be a valuable and multi-facetted tool for scholarship. Deploying this event is far more than an act of commemoration; it blends with a number of crucial concerns, just as it delivers lenses for perceiving and rationalizing contemporary phenomena, notably contemporary conquests of Jerusalem, but also, for example, anti-Jewish politics. Case studies will therefore examine how the event is used in particular contexts and what meaning it unfolds therein. For instance, the crusade preacher Martin of Len implemented it for explaining the holy citys loss in 1187, suggesting that his audience suffered now a similar divine punishment as the Jews in 70 CE. The project investigates thus why the conquest was used in so many medieval texts, probably more than any other historical event. This straddles a large variety of intellectual and historical contexts but also different genres. Besides chronicles and anti-Jewish treatises, the project explores biblical commentaries and sermon collections; these rich and often unpublished sources hitherto barely considered by historians hold much innovative potential for enhancing our understanding of several historical phenomena. The project will shed new light on various larger issues such as the tenacity and forms of anti-Semitism, or the question of why Jerusalem remained such a contested ground throughout the centuries, or the arbitrary use and abuse of history.