Greco ed ebraico nelle catacombe di Venosa

Greek and Hebrew in the Catacombs of Venosa. From the time of the earliest studies on the epitaphs of the Jewish catacombs of Venosa, various theories concerning the languages of the local Jews have been expressed. Much credit has been given to the hypothesis according to which the most ancient epitaphs were in Greek, being mostly located in the outermost part of the catacomb, and that these were gradually replaced by texts in Latin and, finally, by those in Hebrew. In this brief review, some of the main theses expressed in this proposition are reexamined, and it is shown that, contrary to what has often been written, it is not yet possible at this point in time to ascertain just how well the Jews of Venosa knew and used Greek: if the evidence points to anything, it is that they were deeply Latinized.