The conquest of the Near East by Alexander of Macedon began a new era in the history of this region. This pregnant event was quite differently perceived and judged by contemporaries in conquered lands, Palestine among them. To those, the Macedonian’s victory over the Persians meant little more than one hegemonist replacing another. It must have been with concern, or perhaps with hope, that they awaited possible changes under the new political arrangement. We know little about Alexander’s direct rule over Palestine, but the historical evidence we have suggests that the behavior of local populations in the area did not always meet the expectations of Macedonian conquerors. One example may be seen in the attitude of the Jerusalem Temple’s high priest, who, despite Alexander’s superiority at arms, firmly declared his loyalty to the Persian king (Jos. AJ 11, 317–319), while some in Samaria’s elites chose to follow their self-interest and did not hesitate to join the conqueror (Jos. AJ 11, 321–324; 340–345). Although local elites and communities declared their willingness to cooperate with the Macedonian monarch, there were no avoiding tensions and conflicts between locals and newcomers. One such instance was a mutiny in Samaria city against the Macedonians, during which the Syrian governor Andromachus was killed. In retaliation, the rebellion was quenched in blood and Macedonian settlers were brought into Samaria.

* This text was delivered at the 9th Congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies, Ravenna, July 25–29, 2010.

Eusebius’ Chronika was a remarkable achievement in the field of ancient chronography, not least as the conclusion of extensive research running since the beginning of the Hellenistic period. It was a double work, composed some time before AD 311 and expanded shortly after AD 325. The first part, now usually called Chronographia, was a detailed introduction, aiming at collecting the raw material from all sources then available, and setting out the plan of the project. The second part, known as Kanones (Chronikoi Kanones), which carried its own preface, was a grand exposition (utilising the data of the first part) in the form of a table consisting of up to nine parallel columns to be read across, thus presenting a synchronistic universal history at a glance. Only fragments survive of the Greek original, primarily in George the Syncellus (ca. AD 800) and an anonymous excerptor (known as ‘Excerpta Eusebiana’ from a MS of the 15th century AD). But we have a nearly complete Armenian translation (earliest copy ca. 13th century AD), a Latin translation of the second part by Jerome (with his own preface and extended to AD 380/1), as well as two Syriac epitomes, one of which is believed to have been compiled by Joshua the Stylite (8th century AD), and other witnesses including two very early Arab chroniclers, one being Agapius of Hierapolis, ca. AD 942.

The city of Dura-Europos in modern day Syria provides a microcosm of multi-ethnic and multi-religious life in the late ancient Near East. Although there are debates as to the exact date of the conquest of the city, the year 256 CE appears to be the most plausible date in which the King of Kings, Šāpur I took Dura. In the third century, the city was abandoned and so the life of Dura came to an end after more than half a millennium of existence. Its apparent sudden abandonment has made it a wonderful archaeological playground for studying life in the third century CE on the border of the Irano-Hellenic world of antiquity. The city had changed hands several times since its creation in the fourth century BCE by the Seleucids to when Mithradates II (113 BCE) conquered it and brought it into the Arsacid imperial orbit, where it remained for three centuries. The Arsacid control of a trading town or as it was once called a caravan town, works well with the story that Mithradates II, several years before the takeover of Dura-Europos, had concluded an agreement with the Chinese Emperor Wudi for trade cooperation. In the larger scheme of things, these activities, no matter how accurate the dating is, suggest the idea that the Arsacids may have been thinking of the creation of a large trade network as part of what modern historians have called the “Silk Road.” Dura was subsequently conquered in the second century CE by Emperor Trajan (115–117 CE) and later, in 165 CE, by Avidius Cassius, after which it stayed in Roman hands for almost a century. The Sasanians in turn conquered the city in 256 CE.

The present article deals with the problem of the presumably Hebrew inscription on the coronation sword of Polish kings, known as the “Szczerbiec”. Our objective is not to recall or reconstruct the complexity of its history. It is rather to expose some elements of the sword’s bizarre haps and mishaps, as far as they may cast some light on the emergence of the inscription and its meaning. The main purpose of our attempt is to present one possible consistent reading of the inscription, taking into account some historical and linguistic data. Our proposal draws from some previous reconstructions, both past and current. Finally, however, we hope to offer an original interpretation of the inscription.

There is no need to prove the significant role played by legends, myths and stereotypes in the history of the world. Also in the Polish lands, we can find many stories connected with the history of the Jews. There is still no comprehensive study on legends concerning Jews in mediaeval Poland, but we already have the book by Haya Bar-Itzhak, a professor of Comparative Hebrew Literature at the Haifa University. An exception here may be the well-known legend about the love affair between King Kazimierz Wielki (Casimir the Great) and the Jewish girl Esther, which has been widely described in many works. Of special importance is the book written by the eminent literary historian and linguist, Chone Shmeruk, entitled “Legenda o Esterce w literaturze jidysz i polskiej” (The Legend of Esther in Yiddish and Polish Literature).

When I came to Kraków for the first time several years ago and tried to get some information about the Jewish Kraków, among the first-hand information I was offered in the bookshops were a few small booklets with legends about the Jews in this town. This is nothing special, for wherever one goes as a tourist one gets the same genre of literature: local legends and tales. It seems, therefore, that the popular legends indeed offer the first-hand information about the specific climate and the self-estimation of the inhabitants at a specific place. It is obviously the tales of a city that infuse life to its stones and places more than all exact historical data one can gather. The legend gives, so to speak, a short-hand résumé of the most typical and central features as well as the spirit of a place.

The year 1815 saw the emergence of a new State on the map of Europe – the Free City of Kraków, which, because of its affiliation to the small group of European Republics, was also referred to as the Republic of Kraków. The Free City of Kraków stretched along the left bank of the River Vistula, bordering to the west with the Kingdom of Prussia, to the north and east with the Kingdom of Poland and to the south with the Austrian Empire. Its total surface area was 1150 km², which – apart from Kraków which became the capital – also contained three small private towns, Chrzanów, Nowa Góra and Trzebinia, as well as 244 villages.

La littérature française est prodigue en figures de femmes juives. Au fil du temps, l’image de « la Juive » se fixe dans la mentalité occidentale, mythe reflétant de grandes tendances politiques, historiques, sociales et intellectuelles et évoluant avec elles. Elle émerge au Moyen Âge et au XIXe siècle et connaît l’épanouissement comme la « belle Juive ». Ce personnage fictif et polymorphe porte certains traits constants qui constituent l’essence même de sa figure exemplaire et traduisent le rapport ambivalent de l’Occident à l’Autre. Car « chaque époque et chaque société recréent ses propres “autres” » (Said 2005: 358) et le Juif est l’Autre par excellence. Sa marginalisation s’opère par l’exclusion religieuse, par la juridiction antijuive, par une certaine imperméabilité culturelle, qui obère les échanges. Dans ce contexte, la « belle Juive » révèle le degré d’interdépendances et d’interactions entre les sociétés non juive et juive. Parallèlement, cet archétype traduit aussi, dans une sphère plus individuelle, le fantasme de l’Autre comme objet du désir et de l’interdit, d’autant plus troublant que le Juif, bien que socialement identifié, se (con)fond physiquement.

* This is a slightly revised version of my paper held at the international conference “700 Years of Jewish Presence in Kraków” organized by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and Department of Jewish Studies of the Jagiellonian University: Kraków, 26–28 September, 2005.