Quote:The next main factor was that the Diaspora had to deal with being a minority in many places where the major religion was Christianity (which became the official religion of the Roman empire shortly after the whole scattering the Jews thing they did),
This is inaccurate. Cyrus ended the "Babylonian Captivity" at the beginning of the 6th century BCE, but most Jews did not return to Palestine. Some remained in Mesopotamia, some moved on to Syria (and this is possibly the origin of confessional Judaism among the Aramaeans, although no one can say with certainty), and some moved beyond Palestine to Egypt where a great many became mercenary troops acting as a sort of police force for the Persians. Scholars consider that the disaposra begtins in the 6th century BCE and continues thereafter for centuries.
The Alexandrine conquest did not affect the Jewish population of Palestine, as they did not participate in the Persian resistance, which was feeble and ineffective. Judas Macabee lead a semi-successful revolt against the Hellenistic Seleucid empire circa 165 BCE, which lead to some further migration, but as they became a semi-independent client state as a result of the revolt, there was little reason for them to leave. Keep in mind that a majority of the Jews who had been removed from Palestine during the Babylonian captivity had never returned.
The animus against Jews in the Hellenistic world predates the rise of Christianity. Correspondence of the emperor Claudius survives in which he complains with some asperity about the strife between Jews and Greeks in Alexandria in Egypt, both of which communities apparently sent memorials to the emperor to complain about the other community. This was considerably less than 20 years after the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, and well before christianity had spread through the Hellenistic world. The rebellion of the Zealots which was crushed by Titus (circa 70 CE) lead to the expulsion of some Jews, but those who had taken no part suffered no penalties. Many of those who had been exiled were allowed to return by the emperor Hadrian in the second decade of the second century. However, he thought better of his generosity, and removed many of those believed to be insurrectionists to North Africa. There was another Jewish uprising in the third decade of the second century (all of these can be provided accurate dates with a little research). The rebellion waxed and waned into the fourth decade, and when it was finally crushed, Hadrian sold many of the Jews into slavery, mostly in North Africa.
All of these events took place well before christianity had any influence in the Roman Empire. The Jewish diaspora can be taken to have lasted between about 600 BCE and roughly 140 CE, and it had nothing to do with christianity. It had a great deal to do with pig-headed Jewish zealots. The success of Judas Maccabee may have left them with the erroneous belief that they could succeed against the Romans as they had against the Hellenistic Seleucids--a fatal error if true. Often, the early persecution of christians arose because they were seen as just another sect of Judaism
Christianity was not officially tolerated in the Roman Empire until the 4th century CE. Contrary to christian propaganda, there is no evidence that Constantine ever became a christian, but he ended the persecution of christians, even before he made himself emperor. He convened the Council of Nicea to create a unified christian church (325 CE), but he did so for political reasons, and the evidence is that he neither understood no showed any interest in the theological controversies.
His sons--Constantine II, Constantius and Constans--became embroiled in church controversies, unsuccessfully attempting to reconcile the split between the Bishop of Rome and the Catholics, and the Orthodx, and the Arians. Constantius' attempts to reconcile the Arians and the rest of the church were a failure. His successor, Julian, is known to the christians as Julian the Apostate, because he was unashamedly pagan.
I do not dispute for a moment the "blood libel" issue, but it is important to realize the the Jewish Diaspora really had nothing to do with christianity, that it took place over centuries, and well before christinaity rose to prominence, and that subsequently, the Jews were the hapless victims of an obsessive christian hatred. They were already well spread throughout southwest Asia, Africa and Europe before that particularly virulent bigotry took hold.
