Byzantine law granted toleration to Jews [Theodosian Code 16.8.21],
although there were occasional attempts at forced conversion [Leo
VI, Novels], but there was a general prejudice against Jews. The
following account of the fall of Jerusalem to the Persians in
614, by the monk Antiochus Stategos, who live din the monastary
(lavra) of St. Sabas inJerusalem, shows this attitude. It provides
a Byzantine version of the later blood libel.
It also, of course, may reflect Jewish resistance to Byzantine
restrictions an oppression.
Finally, it might be noted that, despite Antiochus' account,
the Persians of this period seem to have been significantly more
tolerant of religious diversity than almost any contemporary government.
They began the system, long continued and later known (under the
Turks) as the Millet system by which each religious group
governed itself in religious and family matters.
The beginning of the struggle of the Persians with the Christians
of Jerusalem was on the 15th April, in the second indiction, in
the fourth year of the Emperor Heraclius. They spent twenty days
in the struggle. And they shot from their ballistas with such
violence, that on the twenty-first day they broke down the city
wall. Thereupon the evil; foemen entered the city in great fury,
like infuriated wild beasts and irritated serpents. The men however,
who defended the city wall fled, and hid themselves in caverns,
fosses and cisterns in order to save themselves; and the people
in crowds fled into churches and altars; and there they destroyed
them. For the enemy entered in a mighty wrath, gnashing their
teeth in violent fury; like evil beasts they roared, bellowed
like lions, hissed like ferocious serpents, and slew all whom
they found. Lile mad dogs they tore with their teeth the flesh
of the faithful, and respected non at all, neither male nor female,
neither young nor old, neither child nor baby, neither priest
no monk, neither virgin nor widow….
Meanwhile the evil Persians, who had no pity in their hearts,
raced to every place in the city and with one accord extirpated
all the people. Anyone who ran away in terror they caught hold
of; and if any cried out from fear, they roared at them with gashing
teeth, and by breaking their teeth on the ground forced them to
close their mouths. They slaughtered tender infants on the ground,
and then with loud yelps called their parents. The parents bewailed
the children with vociferations and sobbings, but were promptly
despatched along with them. Any that were caught armed were massacred
with their own weapons. Those who ran swiftly were pierced with
arrows, the unresisting and quiet they slew without mercy. They
listened not to the appeals of supplicants, nor pitied youthful
beuty nor had compassion on old men's age, nor blushed before
the humility of the clergy. On the contrary they destroyed persons
of every age, massacred them like animals, cut them into pieces,
mowed sundry of them down like cabbages, so that all alike had
severally to drain the cup full of bitterness. Lamentation and
terror might be seen in Jerusale. Holy churches were burned with
fire, other were demolished, majestic altars fell prone, sacred
crosses were trampled underfoot, life-giving icons were spat upon
by the unclean. Then their wrath fell upon priests and deacons;
they slew them in their churches like dumb animals.
****
Thereupon the vile Jews, enemies of the truth and haters of Christ,
when they perceived that the Christians were given over into the
hands of the enemy, rejoiced exceedingly, because they detested
the Christians; and they conceived an evil plan in keeping with
their vileness about the people. For in the eyes of the Persians
their importance was great, because they were the betrayers of
the Christians. And in this season then the Jews approached the
edge of the reservoir and called out to the children of God, while
they were shut up therein, and said to them: "If ye would
escape from death, become Jews and deny Christ; and then ye shall
step up from your place and join us. We will ransom you with our
money, and ye shall be benefited by us." But their plot and
desire were not fulfilled, their labours proved to be in vain;
because the children of the Holy Church chose death for Christ's
sake rather than to live in godlessness: and they reckoned it
better for their flesh to be punished, rather than their souls
ruined, so that their portion were not with the Jews. And when
the unclean Jews saw the steadfast uprightness of the Christians
and their immovable faith, then they were agitated with lively
ire, like evil beasts, and thereupon imagined an other plot. As
of old they bought the Lord from the Jews with silver, so they
purchased Christians out of the reservoir; for they gave the Persians
silver, and they bought a Christian and slew him like a sheep.
The Christians however rejoiced because they were being slain
for Christ's sake and shed their blood for His blood, and took
on themselves death in return for His death....
When the people were carried into Persia, and the Jews were left
in Jerusalem, they began with their own hands to demolish and
burn such of the holy churches as were left standing....
How many souls were slain in the reservoir of Mamel! How many
perished of hunger and thirst! How many priests and monks were
massacred by the sword! How many infants were crushed under foot,
or perished by hunger and thirst, or languished through fear and
horror of the foe! How many maidens, refusing their abominable
outrages, were given over to death by the enemy! How many parents
perished on top of their own children! How many of the people
were bought up by the Jews and butchered, and became confessors
of Christ! How many persons, fathers, mothers, and tender infants,
having concealed themselves in fosses and cisterns, perished of
darkness and hunger! How many fled into the Church of the Anastasis,
into that of Sion and other churches, and were therein massacred
and consumed with fire! Who can count the multitude of the corpses
of those who were massacred in Jerusalem?
Source:
Translated by F. Conybeare, "Antiochus Strategos' Account
of the Sack of Jerusalem (614)," English Historical Review 25 [1910], p 506-508. Reprinted in Deno Geanokoplos, Byzantium,
(Chicago: 1984), 334-335, 266-67
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© Paul Halsall June 1997
