in other cities of the Roman East were used widely in Jerusalem as well. In these respects and others, Jerusalem differed little from any other Greco-Roman city. Nevertheless, despite the profound impact of the Persian and Greco-Roman worlds, Jerusalem always retained a distinctive Jewish character, which found expression in its demography, calendar, holidays, religious institutions, forms of worship, historical memories, and other facets of urban life. Walking through the city’s streets in the first
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