GLI EBREI E L’EBRAISMO NELLA LEGISLAZIONE IMPERIALE DA COSTANTINO A GIUSTINIANO

The essay is inspired by a recent monograph by Mariateresa Amabile to carry out “a focus” on a relevant part of the late Roman Empire legislation concerning Jews and the Jewish religion. It deals specifically with the topics covered by the author’s research (the prohibition of circumcision and proselytism, conversion to Christianity and apostasy, curial obligations, marriage bans), highlighting how the legislation issued in the period from Constantine to Justinian, although not always “understandable” only in an anti-Jewish key, it demonstrates, except for a few isolated exceptions, the underlying intention to compress Jewish proselytism in every way and to isolate and marginalize Jews from the political and social reality of the time.