The absence of the phrase Asarah Harugei Malkhut in the Talmud is indicative of its post-Talmudic origin. Unfortunately, a more accurate dating of this phrase and the martyrological story it entitles is yet to be established. Attempts to determine the story's exact place and time of composition are still being made. What has been established with certainty is the legendary characteristic of the narrative.

P. Bloch has already connected the story of the ten with the mystical Heikhalot Rabbati. Bloch has proposed that the emergence of the ten in the legend took place in the late sixth or seventh century. In his opinion, the book Heikhalot Rabbati is the product of Italian Jewry in response to religious persecutions during these centuries. According to Bloch, out of these mystical mores and the everyday experiences of Italian Jews, the story of Asarah Harugei Malkhut was born. Although present research on the Heikhalot literature has disputed some of Bloch's conclusions, his instinctive association of the legend with the Italian Jewry of the Byzantine Empire deserves attention. His suggestion provides for us significant leads in the long historical trail of the ten martyrs' legendary trial.

This chapter will show that Byzantine Jewry played a major role in the transmission and transmutation of the martyrological tradition of the past. Byzantine Jewry's greatest contribution to the evolution of Jewish martyrdom, in my opinion, is the reversal of the rabbinic restrictions on voluntary death.