FULVIA

(the name of a noble Roman family, Graecized Φουλβία), a lady of Rome who had embraced Judaism, but having been defrauded of a sum of money by a Jewish impostor, complained through her husband Saturninus to the emperor Tiberius, who thereupon proscribed the Jews from the city (Josephus, Ant. 18:3, 5). No contemporary historian notices this expulsion, and it seems to have been but of temporary and partial force, different from the later and more formal edict of Act 18:2. SEE CLAUDIUS.

By: Richard Gottheil, Samuel Krauss

A Roman lady of high station, converted to Judaism through the teachings of a Jew who had sought refuge in Rome to escape punishment. This impostor, together with three others, persuaded her to contribute purple and gold for the Temple at Jerusalem, which contributions they kept for themselves. The discovery of this fraud by the emperor Tiberius through his friend Saturninus, Fulvia's husband, caused the banishment of the Jews from Rome (19 C.E.; Josephus, "Ant." xviii. 3, § 5; comp. Philo, "In Flaccum," § 1; idem, "Legatio ad Caium," § 24; Tacitus, "Annales," ii. 85; Suetonius, "Tiberius," § 36).

Bibliography:

GrÄtz, Gesch. 4th ed., iii. 267;

Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, i. 14, 73;

Prosopographia Imperii Romani, ii. 98.