Cosa pensavano i Romani degli Ebrei?

During the Roman Republic and under Augustus, Jews were seen as an ethnic minority professing an oriental cult. The Romans despised them as culturally inferior and feared them as they generally feared foreign influence. Cicero's alleged antisemitism in his defense of Valerius Flaccus was merely an opportunistic attack. From Augustus to Hadrian, a negative attitude toward the Jewish religion became dominant. The Jews' refusal to adapt to their Roman-Hellenistic environment on religious grounds was interpreted as political hostility. Tacitus and other writers denounced Jewish proselytism. Under the Antonine and the Severan emperors the relaxation of traditional values resulted in greater tolerance for the Jews. Even after the triumph of Christianity, the pagan aristocracy and intellectuals maintained this tolerance up to the 5th century when discrimination and legal restrictions spread and Roman society, under the influence of anti-Jewish Christian literature, became permeated by antisemitic trends.