Cleomedes on the Jews
Cleomedes was an ancient Greek astronomer who was the first to remark on the moon illusion (i.e., the optical illusion of the moon seeming a lot closer than it in fact is) and whose work 'On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies' has come down to us more or less complete. Cleomedes is usually thought of being simply an astronomer, but he does have a certain political and philosophical aspect to his work that is usually forgotten.
For example 'On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies' is largely written as a political and intellectual attack on the ideas and followers of Epicurus and spends a lot its pages in intellectual polemic with Epicurean interlocutors. What tends to be forgotten in this analysis however is that while Cleomedes was a foe of Epicurus' ideas and follows. He was also deeply indebted to his fellow astronomer, mathematician and philosopher Poseidonius of Rhodes whose words we know principally through Cleomedes' quotations of them.
As I have discussed elsewhere Poseidonius of Rhodes was quite probably one of the first major intellectual opponents of the jews (1) and seems to be the originator of the argument of the jews worshipping the head of an ass in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem (2) as well the first recorded case of jewish ritual murder. (3)
It is thus no surprise then that in Cleomedes' 'On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies' we find a somewhat oblique mention of the jews.
This is as follows:
'Of these, some, one may say, hail from the brothel, others are like things said at festivals of Demeter by women celebrating the Thesmophoria, and others come from the middle of the prayer-house and those begging in its courtyards.' (4)
What Cleomedes is referring to here is the arguments of the Epicureans and what they are like or from whence they come.
We can see that to Cleomedes the arguments of the Epicureans are immoral (i.e., they come from the brothel), are irrational gibberish (i.e., 'things said at festivals of Demeter') as well as more pointedly worshiping nothing (i.e. come from a jewish prayer-house = 'proseuche' which was an alternative to 'assembly' = 'synagogue' (5) alluding to the common Greek argument that the jews were atheists) and trying to bamboozle the proverbial yokels; by using mysticism to deceive them into thinking they were worshiping a real god as opposed to thin air, into donating money to them (i.e., 'those begging in its courtyards').
This was later pointed out by Juvenal who described the jews as con-artists and beggars who lived on selling their religious mysticism and indeed anything else to the wider world. (6) In essence to both Cleomedes and Juvenal the jews were a significant force for evil in the classical world: a people who were the deceivers and the exploiters of the people in addition to their obvious impiety towards the gods by worshiping thin air at any opportunity.
Thus we can see that like Poseidonius of Rhodes: Cleomedes had clearly identified that the jews were a dangerous people and to be regarded as something more than a nuisance, but rather as a potentially or currently subversive minority exploiting the religious gullibility of the masses.
References
(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.s ubstack.com/p/apollonius-molon-on-the-jews
(2) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/the-golden-ass-of-the-jews-in-the
(3) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/reconstructing-the-first-jewish-ritual
(4) Cleomedes 2:1.91 (Translation of Margaret Williams, 1998, 'The Jews among the Greeks and Romans: A Diaspora Sourcebook', 1st Edition, Duckworth: London, p. 35)
(5) Ibid., p. 33