Friendship and Alliance’ between the Judaeans under Judas Maccabee and the Romans (1Macc 8: 17–32): A Response to Linda Zollschan’s Rome and Judaea
Friendship and Alliance’ between the Judaeans under Judas Maccabee and the Romans (1Macc 8: 17–32): A Response to Linda Zollschan’s Rome and Judaea

Summary/Abstract: Linda Zollschan promises a highly interdisciplinary study of the report on the fi rstRoman embassy to Rome under Judas Maccabee in 1Macc 8. In part, she argues that the Senatedid not grant the requested alliance, but only informal amicitia; in part, she claims that not evenamicitia was granted but only a declaration of liberty; in part, she proposes that the ambassadorsmisunderstood the result of their mission, since it meant subjection under Rome without effectiveprotection. Further results include the views that the embassy was undertaken in 162 BCE, andthat the account and treaty text is based on the Aramaic report of the ambassadors Eupolemusand Jason. The contradictions and misunderstandings of Zollschan’s book are plentiful and serious.The present study engages with the questions she asks and with the answers she gives, addssubstantially to the recent bibliography in the addressed areas and concludes with very differentassessments: namely, that we should maintain the traditional date of 161/60 BCE for the Judaeanembassy, that the Senate granted a treaty of friendship and alliance, that the Continuator of 1Maccinserted the (highly edited) version he found on a bronze inscription in Jerusalem, and that successwas largely denied to the mission, since the ambassadors returned after Judas had died in battle.

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