The place of Jews in the various Hellenistic cities in the Greek and Roman world has been the focus of a variety of studies.2 What is often overlooked is possibly the most important Hellenistic city for Jews in the ancient world: the Hellenistic city of Jerusalem itself. Here we have not just a city in which Jews lived as a minority population and semi-outsiders (except for the very few Jews who were citizens). Rather, we have a city which was created and run by Jews and in which the vast majority of citizens – if not every one – were themselves Jews.