What have the romans ever done for the jews?

by gaddarkemalist

As i was watching the life of brian lately, this famous scene https://youtu.be/uvPbj9NX0zc got me wondering what have the romans contributed to the jews' lives? How exactly and to what extend did the romans be helpful for the habitants of judea?

gingeryid

The funny thing about this scene is that there's actually a Talmudic parallel--there's a narratives where Romans are said to have built bridges, roads, and bathhouses (Shabbat 33b, AZ 2b). Though the narrative doesn't really give them credit for them, pointing out that they built these projects to further their domination in various ways, the assumption of the text is that these really were helpful for Judeans, even if that didn't extent to seeing Romans in a positive light. There are also occasional positive references to the government (presumably this means Rome) for keeping public order--also a nice parallel to Monty Python (Avot 3:2).

As for the other items in the scene, it's a little less clear. So it looks like we could fairly credit them with sanitation (presumably baths--I am unaware of any significant sewage construction by the Romans or references to it in Jewish texts, though I could be wrong), roads, and public order. You also could make the case for wine. While wine was a part of the Jewish world long before Rome, there are references to Italian wine being particularly expensive and strong (Mishnah Sanhedrin chap 8 and Gemara ad loc, Eruvin 64b). The availability of Italian wine in Judea would've been in part due to the robust trade networks the Empire had. So while the Romans didn't bring wine, maybe they did improve on it.

As for the remaining items--I am unaware of any significant medical treatments brought by the Romans, though that doesn't mean there weren't any. From what I've read there's nothing suggesting that anyone in Judea thought of medicine as a "Roman thing". As for education--the Romans did not invent the idea of teaching people things. While Greek philosophy was something associated with Rome (which the ancient Rabbis were pretty ambivalent about) the Romans didn't bring it--the Ptolomaic and Selucid Empires did. The years of Roman domination certainly helped spread Greco-Roman culture, but I don't think it really makes sense to credit Rome with it.

Now for the last item, what the sketch mentions first--the aqueduct, which I think is correct to conflate with irrigation. The Romans did not invent water-moving projects in Judea, they've been a feature of the region for a long time. The Romans did build more of them--mostly to serve the cities they built. I am unaware of anything specifically crediting this as being something the Romans brought, though I'm hoping to edit with some more info on Roman Aqueducts in Judea.