‘WANTED: R. MEIR!’

Abstract

The search for and apprehension of criminals became, under the Imperial administration, more efficient than it had been under the Republic, or in Greece. Could portraits of wanted criminals be publicly displayed? Succour may be found in a source from a literary corpus largely neglected by classical scholars. The Babylonian Talmud, Avoda Zara (‘Idolatry’), 17b-l 8b relates that after the leading sage of the day, R. Meir, had offended the Roman authorities, “they carved the likeness of R. Meir on the gate of Rome and they said: whoever sees this face shall bring him in’ (18b). The story, though obviously legendary, still possesses some real Sitz im Leben. It will not do to credit the inventors of the story — which may have grown in stages (while not inconceivably containing a kernel of truth) — with the fabrication of this detail, in particular because they belonged to a society that famously abhorred graven images. A likeness could presumably be produced by an artist from memory; various examples of such images from ancient sources are cited in the article. We will have to postulate ‘WANTED!’ portraits only in those rare cases when there was both an artist available and he had seen the subject beforehand. The Roman Empire being what it was, there is no need to postulate a general application of such measures. It may have depended, like so much else, on the willingness or initiative of the governor and on the available means (in this case the artist). That a governor of such an unruly province as Judaea, or Syria-Palaestina, would have special reasons to combat criminal activities and would go to some lengths to catch evil-doers, seems reasonable. Our story may be taken as providing evidence for the occasional public posting of portraits of wanted criminals.