In 38 CE, the laws that governed the established Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt under Roman rule were abrogated in a manner repeated later in Nazi Germany. In this valuable contribution to understanding of the riots, Gambetti (history, College of Staten Island, CUNY) focuses on Philo's eyewitness accounts of the event. She concludes that the riots were not a spontaneous expression of social conflict, but the end result of changing political rule. Appendices include a chronology of the riots, information on the succession of rulers, a map of the city with notes on its topography, and regulations on ethnic populations. The volume is based on the author's dissertation in ancient history and Mediterranean archeology at the University of California, Berkeley. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)