Jewish Catacombs

Book excerpt: This slender well-written book is packed with easy-toread information about the structure of the Jewish community of Rome and the politics and history of the city where it developed and grew. Not an easy task because very little documentation has survived to the present day; Elsa Laurenzi is honest enough to inform the reader of this difficulty and avoids making “easy” but unfounded statements. Instead she takes the reader by the hand and illustrates the customs and culture of a society that was part of a much larger society, as different as it was tolerant, one that knew how to integrate different and contrasting forms of reality. Using a glossary inserted into the text, she uses the sources available - ancient authors, epigraphic texts, archaeological remains – to provide useful and accurate explanations about a terminology not everyone may be familiar with.