The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, preserves an unusual parallel timeline linking the rise of Rome with the suffering of Israel in Egypt. Two brothers—Remus and Romulus—arose as the first kings of Rome during the reign of Jotham, King of Judah. According to the chronicle, their mother died giving birth to them, and God appointed a she-wolf to nurse the twins until they were grown.
Romulus built the city of Roma, appointed one hundred elders as counselors, and erected its walls. After him came Numa Pompilius, who added two months to the Roman calendar—January and February—since the Romans originally counted only ten months in a year. Tullus Hostilius was the first king to clothe himself in purple robes. In all, seven kings ruled Rome for 240 years, after which Rome went without a monarch for 464 years until Julius Caesar.
The chronicle then pivots abruptly to Egypt, where a new Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph. The Egyptians worshipped a flying ox called Sarapis that appeared daily at the fourth hour, rising from the river to sing hymns in the sky before vanishing again. Pharaoh imposed crushing slavery on Israel—the people were forced to dig channels, carry manure in pots on their shoulders, and build the fortified cities of Pithom and Piramses. The Egyptians decreed three punishments: hard labor, field slavery, and drowning every Hebrew male infant in the Nile. But God sent an angel to the fields where Hebrew women gave birth in secret, who washed their children and placed two miraculous stones in their hands—one giving milk, the other honey.