orion Palms/Water

["Marsha B. Cohen" <73467.1352@compuserve.com>]

One more thought on  "socia palmarum."  The Roman coins minted in commemoration
of "Judaea capta" showed a woman beneath a palm tree as the symbol of the
conquered Jewish people.  According to Josephus
the Essenes were gallant fighters in the 70 CE war against Rome.  Bob Kraft
wrote that Pliny "does not claim that they were obliterated in the recent
catastrophe that demolished Jerusalem and Engedi, but suggests that they live on
as a "gens aeterna"!"  Might "socia palmarum" be, among other things, a
skeptical tweak by Pliny at the Roman presumption that not only the Essenes, but
the Jews, had been destroyed once and for all?

                                                            Marsha

Marsha B. Cohen
Florida Int'l University

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