Lulianos and Paphos

Lulianos and Paphos (alt. sp. Julianus and Pappus, second-century CE) were two wealthy Jewish brothers who lived in Laodicea on the Lycus in Anatolia, contemporaries with Joshua ben Hananiah,^[1] and who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Roman legate.

An anecdote about the lives of these two illustrious Grecian-Jewish citizens has come down in the Midrashic literature stating that, during the days of Hadrian, the emperor mulled over the thought of rebuilding Israel's Temple. When the news reached Lulianos and Paphos who were very wealthy, they set-up tables from Acco to Antioch, hoping thereby to allow Jewish pilgrims to exchange their local currency for coins in specie, or else provide other basic needs for the people before proceeding on to Jerusalem.

In the Babylonian Talmud^[2] is mentioned the "slain of Lydia" [sic] (another name for Laodicea on the Lycus)^[3] and which Talmudic commentators have explained to be referring to two Jewish brothers with Hellenized names, Julian (Lulianos) of Alexandria and Paphos, the son of Judah,^[4] who willingly made themselves martyrs to save the entire Jewish population of Laodicea from annihilation. Their real names were Shamayah and Ahiyah. According to ancient Jewish accounts,^[5] a non Jewish child had been found slain in their city. The blame for the child's murder was laid upon the Jews of that city. The governor intervened by threatening to kill all the Jews of the city, unless the perpetrator of the vile act would deliver himself up to be punished. When no one could be found to take responsibility for the act and the governor was insistent on punishing all the Jews, Lulianos and Paphos, being "wholly righteous men,"^[6] willingly took responsibility for the death of the child and were duly executed. Their deaths on the fifth day of the lunar month Adar were marked by public fasting among Jews, each year on the anniversary of their deaths.^[7]