Category Archives: Meals and banqueting  ‘Come! Plunge the knife
into the baby’: Tertullian’s not-so-subtle retort  On previous
occasions I have discussed some common ethnic stereotypes that
were at work when a given Greek or Roman author described the
worldviews and practices of other peoples, and sometimes these
views were reflected in novels as well (go here or here, for
instance). Sometimes peoples outside of one’s own cultural group
were viewed as inferior, barbarous, and dangerous. In
particular, a common accusation against minority cultural groups
was the claim that such “dangerous” people engaged in human
sacrifice followed by a cannibalistic meal.  Judeans (Jews) and
Christians were among the minority cultural groups accused of
such fiendish activity. Thus, for instance, the Roman historian
Dio Cassius (writing in the early third century) describes the
revolt of Judeans in Cyrene, who were “destroying both the
Romans and the Greeks”: he claims that “they would eat the flesh
of their victims, make bel