The maritime activities of Alexandrian Jews are also revealed in a vastly different source, a letter written circa 400 by Synesius, the urbane bishop of Ptolemais. In this letter addressed to his brother, Euoptius, Synesius chronicles the disasters he encountered on a voyage he took from Alexandria to Cyrenaica. Synesius booked passage in Alexandria with a Jewish navicularius named Amarantus, whom he describes as "a teacher of the [Mosaic] law". Not only was the ship's captain Jewish but nearly half of the crew as well. Synesius reports how the ship almost suffered shipwreck owing to the religious practices of the captain — who refused to steer the vessel in the midst of a storm because the Sabbath had begun! [...] Another aspect of Jewish economic life within Alexandria concerns the question of debt, which seems to have been a large problem for some sectors of the community. Synesius' navicularius, Amarantus, "courted death owing to his bankrupt condition". In fact, his crew was unable to replace a torn sail during the storm since the spare one had been pledged as security for a loan.
Christopher Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity - Topography and Social Conflict.
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore & Londres: 1997.
