There were of course very many Jews in Alexandria who were not legally Alexandrians. Josephus' assertion did not and could not mean that every Jew in the city was, by the very fact of his residence, an Alexandrian. Nowhere in the ancient world could citizenship be acquired except by birth or by special decree. Jews who emigrated from Palestine to Alexandria, and were permitted to remain there, were metics, and became Alexandrians only if they were specially awarded that designation. But that was just as true for a foreign Greek or a foreign Macedonian, since at Alexandria " Macedonian " was a class of citizenship, not an ethnic term. Those who assisted in the founding of the city were undoubtedly classified either as " Macedones " or " Alexandreis," and the tradition that Jews were among them is based upon other authority than Josephus. It is not enough, therefore, if one desires to refute Josephus, to show that there were Jews in Egypt who were not " Alexandreis." Undoubtedly there were thousands of them. But if, in the papyri, we do find Jews among the " Macedones " and others among the " Alexandreis," the statements of Josephus on the subject are strikingly confirmed, for he says no more than that there were Jews in both these categories.
Is this Max Radin character right or wrong in assuming this?
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