A Jewish Gladiator

In the archaeological excavations at Pompeii, Italy, a helmet was found with, on its front, a menorah — or rather a palm tree with seven branches, a symbol seen on the coins of Judea. A helmet probably made at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and probably a helmet that belonged to a Jewish gladiator. This symbol was not found on the helmets of the other gladiators, which bear only pagan symbols. The coins with a palm tree belonged to the emperors Vespasian and Titus and to the Jews who fought in the war against the Romans in the years 66-74 of our era. Until the war of Bar Kokhba the palm tree was the symbol of the Jews of Judea. So we can say that this helmet must have belonged to a Jewish gladiator.

Would it be possible for a Jew to be a gladiator? Normally not, but we know through the historian Josephus that many Jews taken prisoner by the Romans in the war of the Maccabees had to fight as gladiators, and those who had the luck to survive could be free and were allowed to wear their own helmet. The case of this anonymous Jewish gladiator is more special because he had the chance to put his menorah in the form of a palm, to go to Pompeii, and unfortunately to die under the lava of Vesuvius. Josephus tells us something else: 2,000 years ago Herod organized games every five years in honour of Augustus, the first Roman emperor, in Jerusalem and in Caesarea, a city on the shore of the Mediterranean bearing the same name as 'Kayseri'.

Pompeii was not as important a city as Rome, but inscriptions with Jewish names such as 'Youdaikos' and 'Mari' were found. This shows us that the people of Pompeii seem to have been tolerant enough to accept people of another ethnicity and culture. This helmet was found in the barracks (kışla) of the gladiators, under the lava and ash left by the eruption of the volcano 'Vesuvius' in the year 79 of our era. What is interesting about this helmet is the symbol of the Menorah seen on its front, like a date palm with branches of dates. Many helmets were found, as it was a barracks, but this was the only one bearing this symbol, next to the other helmets, which were decorated with symbols of pagan iconography.

Was this symbol of the date palm accepted in that period as the flag of Judea, also seen on the coins of the same geography? Only, do not confuse it with the coins produced in cities such as Carthage (Africa, Tunisia) or Ephesus, where the date palm is seen with the goddess Artemis. One exception is the coin found at Tiberias, a city built in honour of the emperor Tiberius, where the date palm signifies agriculture rather than geography. It is believed that this gladiator was a Jewish soldier captured by the Romans in the war of the year 70, taken to Pompeii as a prisoner of war, and that to escape this penalty he had to fight as a gladiator and defeat his rivals. Once in Pompeii, being a hero (gibor), he was not afraid to have a helmet showing his Jewish identity.

Still according to Josephus, the Jewish gladiators in Jerusalem and Caesarea did not allow killing. Jewish criminals were punished on the cross like the Christians, and not in the arena of the amphitheatre like a gladiator. A similar example comes from the Jewish community of Smyrna (İzmir) in the second century of our era. Jews are found in every century, in every nation, in every field and in every kind of trade, working with ardour and reaching every kind of important rank, as we see in our own era too. We hope our descendants will reach the highest missions with great dignity and pride, bringing to all the ardour of carrying and passing on the torch of glory and peace to future generations. Adapted from an article by Samuel Rocca, who was born in Milan, Italy, made aliyah to Jerusalem and became curator of the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem.