PHILONIS ALEXANDRINI LEGATIO AD GAIUM
PHILONIS ALEXANDRINI LEGATIO AD GAIUM EDITED WITH A N
INTRODUCTION
TRANSLATION A N D COMMENTARY
BY
E. MARY SMALLWOOD Reader in Classics in the Queen's University of Belfast
SECOND EDITION
LEIDEN E. J. BRILL 1970
F I R S T E D I T I O N 1961
Copyright 1970 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or any other means without written permission from the publisher PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
PRAECEPTORIBVS ET
AD1VTORIBVS
CONTENTS Preface
ix
Abbreviations
xi
INTRODUCTION
A. B. C. D. E. F. G.
The situation in Alexandria The prelude to the The riots The embassies to Gaius The settlement Gaius' attack on the temple The treatise Legatio ad Gaium Additional Notes
i
riots
3 14 19 24 27 3 36 44 1
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Synopsis of the Legatio ad Gaium
5
PHILO—THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
53
COMMENTARY
149
Addenda and corrigenda Index
326 33i
PREFACE TO T H E FIRST EDITION The text of Philo's Legatio ad Gaium used in this edition is that of S. Reiter, which appears in volume V I of the edition of the complete works of Philo edited b y L. Cohn, P. Wendland, and S. Reiter, and published b y the firm of Georg Reimer of Berlin between 1896 and 1915. I am indebted to Messrs. Walter de Gruyter and Co. of Berlin, who now incorporate the firm of Georg Reimer, for permission to reprint this text, with a few minor modifications which are noted in the commentary. This edition is designed as a companion volume to the edition of Philo's In Flaccum b y H. B o x (Oxford, 1939). Since the two books are likely to be used in conjunction with one another, full discussion of matters treated at length b y Box in his introduction or commentary is avoided when I am substantially in agreement with him. In my commentary, cross references within the Legatio are usually given simply b y the number of the section, and the abbre viation Leg. is prefixed only where there might otherwise be confusion. Philo's other works are cited b y title (abbreviated) and section, preceded b y Philo's name only where this is required for clarity. In consulting rabbinic sources I have used H. Danby's English translation of the Mishnah (1933), the English translation of the Babylonian Talmud edited by I. Epstein (1935-52), the English translation of the Midrash Rabbah edited b y H. Freedman and M. Simon (1939; second edition, 1951), and M. Schwab's French translation of the Jerusalem Talmud (1871-90). My thanks are due to a number of scholars for help in the prepa ration of this edition: to Professor J. M. C. Toynbee of Cambridge University, who guided the first steps of my researches into the history of the Jews in the Roman empire, and who read and criticized the introduction; to Professor T. A. Sinclair and Mrs. K. M. T. Atkinson of the Queen's University of Belfast, who gave me much valuable advice and help with the translation and with many historical matters respectively; and to my other colleagues in Belfast, to Dr. A. Carlebach, Rabbi of the Hebrew Congregation
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PREFACE
in Belfast, and to Professor A. H. M. Jones and Professor W . K. C. Guthrie of Cambridge University, whom I consulted on various points. Other debts are acknowledged at the appropriate places in the commentary. For the main lines of the interpretation here put forward, however, as well as for any mistakes and errors of judgement, I take all responsibility. I am very grateful to the firm of W . Heinemann for their kindness in allowing me to see the proofs of the forthcoming volume X of the Loeb edition of Philo, which contains F. H. Colson's trans lation of the Legatio together with his introduction and some footnotes, and extensive indices compiled b y J. Earp, and in granting me permission to include in my introduction and commen tary references to this book before its publication. I am also very grateful to the Queen's University of Belfast for a generous grant which has made the publication of this book possible. Finally I wish to record my appreciation of the patience and vigilance both of the compositors and proof-readers of the firm of E. J. Brill, and of the long-suffering friends who shared the labour of proof-reading with me.
PREFACE TO T H E SECOND EDITION This edition is substantially identical with the first, but it in cludes a number of small corrections and additions, many of them made in the light of the detailed and helpful criticisms and sug gestions offered by the following reviewers, to whom my grateful thanks are due: F. W . Kohnke in Gnomon xxxvi (1964), 354-6; V. Nikiprowetzki in Rev. de Philol. deLitUr. et d*Hist. Anc. xxxvii (1963). 308-14; J.-G. Pr6aux in UAntiquiU Classique xxxiii (1964), 180-1; C. Pr6aux in Chronique d'Egypte xxxviii (1963), 185-6; W . H. C. Frend in Class. Rev. n.s. xiii (1963), 60-2; J. H. Thiel in Mnemosyne 4th series xvi (1963), 75-6. Changes which it has been possible to incorporate in the text are indicated b y daggers (f f ) round the revised wording. Changes and additions which it has not been possible to incorporate will be found in the pages of Addenda and Corrigenda printed at the end of the book (pp. 326-9), and are indicated b y asterisks (*) against the original text. A few misprints have been rectified. The Index has been re-written and expanded to about double its previous length.
ABBREVIATIONS AFA: Acta Fratrum Arvalium, ed. A . Pasoli (1950). AJ: Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae. B a l s d o n : J. P. V . D . Balsdon, The Emperor Gaius (1934). Balsdon, JRS: J. P. V . D . Balsdon, " N o t e s concerning the principate o f G a i u s " in JRS x x i v (1934). 3-*4Bell, J. and C : H . I. Bell, Jews and Christians in Egypt (1924). Bell, J. und Gr.: H . I. Bell, Juden und Griechen in rdmischen Alexandria (Beiheft z u m alten Orient I X , 1926). BG U: A egyptische Urkunden aus den kdniglichen Museen zu Berlin. Griechische Urkunden (1895-1934). BJ: Josephus, Bellum Judaicum. BMCCRE: A Catalogue of the Roman Coins in the British Museum. H . Mattingly, Coins of the Roman Empire (1923-50). BMCGC, Palestine (or other place n a m e ) : A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum. G . F. Hill, The Greek Coins of Palestine ( 1 9 1 4 ) . Other countries b y various editors. B o x : Philonis Alexandrini In Flaccum, ed. H . B o x (1939). B . T . : The Babylonian Talmud. CAH: The Cambridge Ancient History. Charlesworth, Trade-routes: M . P. Charlesworth, Trade-routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire (1924). CIG: Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum. CI J: J.-B. Frey, Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum (1936-52). CIL: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinurum. Claudius, Letter: Claudius' Letter to Alexandria (P. Land. 1 9 1 2 ) , published b y Bell, / . and C. C o l s o n : F. H . Colson's forthcoming e d i t i o n o f the Legatio, Xx>eb P h i l o X . C . - W . - R . : Philonis Alexandrini Opera Quae Super sunt, v o l s . I - V e d . L . Conn a n d P . W e n d l a n d , v o l . V I ed. C o h n a n d S. Reiter ( 1 8 9 6 - 1 9 1 5 ) . D a h l : J. C. D a h l , Chrestomathiae Philonianae pars altera site libelli illustres adversus Flaccum et de legations ad Gaium (1802). D e l a u n a y : F. Delaunay, Philon d Alexandria licrits Historiques (1867). E a r p , Index . ..: Indices t o the L o e b Philo, in the f o r t h c o m i n g v o l . X , c o m p i l e d b y J. E a r p . E u s . HE; Praep. Ev.\ Dem. Ev.\ Chron.: Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica; Praeparatio Evangelica; Demonstratio Evangelica; Chronici Canones (Jerome's Latin version). Fl.: Philo, In Flaccum. Gelzer: Gelzer's article o n G a i u s in P . - W . s.v. Iulius (Caligula) n o . 3 3 , coll. l
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381-423. G o o d e n o u g h , Light; Politics; Introduction: E . R . G o o d e n o u g h , By Light, Light, The Mystic Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism ( 1 9 3 5 ) ; The Politics of Philo Judaeus (1938); An Introduction to Philo Judaeus (1940). HThR: Harvard Theological Review. In A p.: Josephus, In Apionem. IGr: Inscriptiones Graecae. IGRR: R . Cagnat, Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas Pertinentes ( 1 9 1 1 - 2 7 ) .
ABBREVIATIONS
XIV
ILS: H . Dessau. Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (1892 - 1 9 1 6 ) . JBL: Journal of Biblical Literature. JE: The Jewish Encyclopedia. Jones, Herods: A . H . M . Jones, The Herods of Judaea (1938). JQR: Jewish Quarterly Review. JRS: Journal of Roman Studies. J.T.: T h e Jerusalem T a l m u d . JThS: Journal of Theological Studies. Leisegang, Indices: I n d e x v o l u m e ( V I I ) of C . - W . - R . , c o m p i l e d b y H . Leisegang (193°)L . and S . : Liddell a n d Scott's Greek L e x i c o n , 9 t h edition, b y H . S. Jones and R . M c K e n z i e . Mace: T h e b o o k s o f Maccabees. Magie, De Vocabulis: D . Magie, De Romanorum Iuris Publici Sacrique Vocabulis Sollemnibus in Graecum Sermonem Conversis (1905). M a n g e y : Philonis Judaei Opera Quae Reperiri Potuerunt Omnia, ed. T . Mangey (1742). Musurillo, A A: H . A . Musurillo, S. J., The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs. Acta Alexandrinorum (1954). OGIS: W . Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae (1903-5). P. followed b y a place n a m e : Papyri. P.Oxy.: The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, ed. B . P. Grenfell, A . S. H u n t , and others (1898). PG: Migne's Patrologia Graeca. PIR : H . Dessau, E . Klebs, a n d P. v o n R o h d e n , Prosopographia Imperii Romani, 1 s t edition (1897-8). PIR : E . Groag a n d A . Stein, Prosopographia Imperii Romani, 2 n d edition 9
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(1933)• PL: Migne's Patrologia Latina. P . - W . : Pauly-Wissowa, Realencychpddie. RB: Revue Biblique. Reiter: Reiter's t e x t o f the Legatio in C . - W . - R . V I . RE J: Revue des Iitudes Juives. Roscher, Lexikon: Ausfiihrliches Lexikon der Griechischen und Rdmischen Mythologie, ed. W . H . R o s c h e r (1884-1937). S. Aug.; Tib.; G.: Suetonius, Divus Augustus; Tiberius; Gaius. Schurer: E . Schurer, Geschichte des Jiidischen Volkes im Zeitalter JesuChristi I, y d a n d 4 t h edition (1901), I I , 4 t h edition (1907), I I I , 4 t h edition (1909). Schwafe: M . S c h w a b , Le Talmud de Jerusalem. Traduit. . . . en Francais (1871-90). SEG: Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. Sen. De Benef.; Dial.; Ep.: Seneca, De Beneficiis; Dialogi; Epistulae. SIG : W . Dittenberger, Sylloge InscriptionumGraecarum, 3rd edition ( 1 9 1 5 - 2 4 ) . T. A.; H.: Tacitus, Annates; Historiae. T u r n e b u s : Philonis Iudaei in Libros Mosis . . . . Eiusdem Libri Singulares, ed. A . Turnebus (1552). W i l l r i c h : H . Willrich, " C a l i g u l a " in Klio iii (1903), 8 5 - 1 1 8 , 288-317, 387-470. W o l f s o n : H . A . W o l f son, Philo. Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Juda ism, Christianity, and Islam (1948). S
| a n d * : see t h e preface t o the s e c o n d edition.
ABBREVIATIONS
XV
PHILO'S PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISES E . R . G o o d e n o u g h ' s abbrevations are used in this edition. T h e in brackets g i v e the v o l u m e s in the L o e b edition o f Philo. Abr. Aet. Agr. Cher. Conf. Cong. Cont. Decal. Det. Ebr. Fug. Gig. Heres Immut. Jos. LA Mig. Mos. Mut. Opif. Plant. Post. Proem. Prob. Provid. QE QG Sac. Sob. Som. Spec. Virt. 1
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De Abrahamo ( V I ) . De Aeternitate Mundi ( I X ) . De Agriculture* ( I I I ) . De Cherubim ( I I ) . De Confusione Linguarum (IV). De Congressu Eruditionis Gratia ( I V ) . De Vita Contemplativa (IX). De Decalogo ( V I I ) . Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiari Soleat ( I I ) . De Ebrietate ( I I I ) . De Fuga et Inventione (V). De Gigantibus (II). Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres ( I V ) . Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis (III). De Josepho ( V I ) . Legum Allegoria ( I ) . De Migratione Abrahami (IV). De Vita Mosis ( V I ) . De Mutatione Nominum ( V ) . De Opificio Mundi ( I ) . De Plantatione (III). De Posteritate Caini ( I I ) . De Praemiis et Poenis ( V I I I ) . Quod Omnis Probus Liber Sit ( I X ) . De Providentia (IX). Quaestiones et Solutiones in Exodum (Supplement I I ) . Quaestiones et Solutiones in Genesin (Supplement I ) . De Sacrificiis Abelis et Caini ( I I ) . De Sobrietate ( I I I ) . De Somniis ( V ) . De Specialibus Legibus ( V I I a n d V I I I ) . De Virtutibus ( V I I I ) .
E x t a n t o n l y in
Armenian.
numbers
INTRODUCTION
A — T H E SITUATION IN A L E X A N D R I A The Legatio is an invective against Gaius, illustrated by various examples of that Emperor's outrageous behaviour and by episodes in which Philo maintains that he showed hostility towards the Jews. The author relates, among other things, the attacks made on the Jews in two places during Gaius' principate—the anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria during the summer of 38 and Gaius' attempt to dedicate the Temple in Jerusalem to the imperial cult—and the fortunes of the embassies to Gaius which the former event occasioned and which gave the treatise its popular title. Save for a chronological link between the movements of the embassies and events in Pales tine, the episodes in the two countries were unconnected with each other. In the Legatio Philo attributes the disturbances in Alexandria in 38 to Gaius' self-deification. He says that the Jews alone refused to recognize Gaius as a god and thereby incurred his anger and hostility, and that the Alexandrian Greeks, realizing this, used it as a pretext for giving expression to their own long-standing hatred for the Jews . Philo arrives at this explanation of the trouble by manipulating the chronology and ante-dating Gaius' demand for divine honours and his consequent hostility towards the Jews . He completely ignores the events in Alexandria (related in the In Flaccum) which led up to the outbreak, and gives no account of the social and political conditions in the city which were the basic cause of the severe friction between the races. The ferocity of the Greek attack on the Jews in 38 is indeed comprehensible only on the assumption that behind it lay a deepseated resentment which had long been smouldering and was ready to burst into flame on the first provocation. It seems clear from Philo's various references to 7roXiTeta that at least one cause of the quarrel was some question concerning the Jews' civic status in l
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Leg. 1 1 5 - 2 0 . See the n o t e o n 1 1 5 jx6vou? y*P 'IouSatou? u7repx£Tcero.
INTRODUCTION
4
Alexandria. At one point in the riots the prefect Flaccus is said to have taken steps to destroy the Jews' nokizelcn and so to deprive them of their political rights ; the purpose of the Jews' embassy to Gaius is described as a campaign about the 7roXiTeia ; and the envoys are made to speak of the fear that their own 7roXiTeia will be destroyed and of a threat to the whole -roXiTeioc of the Jews in general . What, then, was the Jews' civic status in Alexandria, and what is the meaning of the term 7roXiTe£oc in these contexts ? Scholars are agreed on two points. First, Alexandria was a Greek city, in which the main citizen-body was naturally composed of Greeks, although some individual Jews resident in the city obtained its citizenship. For example, Philo's brother Alexander, who held the Greek municipal office of alabarch or arabarch (customs official) under Tiberius and Gaius , and one Demetrius who held it under Claudius , must have had Greek citizenship . In a passage which Box maintains refers to the Alexandrian Jews, Philo speaks of them as occasionally holding the positions of clerk of the market (ayopavofzos) and gymnasiarch- both Greek municipal offices which were obviously confined to possessors of Greek citizenship . 1
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Fl. 5 3 TTJV rife i][icr£poLQ no\ml
s loyibt 'AXeSavSpeTs, ol$ 6 7repl TTJS xaOoXtxcj-rlpas 7coXtTeta^ imxp£[ioLTai xtvSuvoc T % 'IouSauov; Cf. the notes ad loc. A J xviii, 1 5 9 , 2 5 9 ; x i x , 2 7 6 ; x x , 100. O n the mistaken attribution of the n a m e L y s i m a c h u s t o A l e x a n d e r see M. P o h l e n z in Nachrichten von der Akad. der Wissensch. inGtittingen, phil.-hist. K l . 1 9 4 2 , 4 1 3 - 5 , summarized b y E . G . Turner in JRS x l i v (1954), 5 6 ; a n d J. Schwarz in Annuaire de Vlnst. de Philol. et d'Hist. Orientates et Slaves xiii (1953), 595*6. O n t h e identity of the terms arabarch and alabarch, a n d t h e functions of t h e office, see J. Lesquier, " L ' a r a barches d ' £ g y p t e " in Rev. Archiol. 5 t h series vi ( 1 9 1 7 ) , 9 5 - 1 0 3 ; VArmie Romaine d'Egypte (1918), 4 2 1 - 7 ; V . Burr, Tiberius Julius Alexander (1955), 87, n. 4. T h e last t w o w o r k s g i v e the b i b l i o g r a p h y of earlier discussions. Contrast M . I. R o s t o v t z e f f a n d C. B . W e l l e s in Yale Class. Stud, ii ( 1 9 3 1 ) . 49. w h o w i t h o u t discussion render apaP<xpx*)S as "chief o f A r a b s " . 1
* 8
T
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AJ x x , 1 4 7 . • T h e term " G r e e k c i t i z e n s h i p " is used in this edition in preference t o the m o r e usual one, " A l e x a n d r i a n citizenship", since it will b e s h o w n that the J e w s c o u l d b e described as citizens of Alexandria, although in a specialized sense. Prob. 6; B o x , x x i - x x i i . O n the question of the possession of Greek citizen ship b y individual Jews cf. A . Segri, " N o t e sullo Status Civitatis degli Ebrei n e l l ' E g i t t o t o l e m a i c o e imperiale" (in Bulletin de la Sociiti Roy ale d'Archiologie d*Alexandrie x x v i i i (1933), 1 4 3 - 8 2 ) , 163-4, 1 6 6 . 7
THE
SITUATION IN ALEXANDRIA
5
Secondly, the Jews resident in Alexandria were organized as a quasi-autonomous civic community, with a constitution similar to, but not identical with, that of the Greek municipal organization, and they thus formed a city within a city. Their organization is generally known as a 7coXtTeu[x<x b y modern, if not always by ancient, writers. This term, one which covered many concepts, was often used in Hellenistic times to denote "a corporation formed b y mem bers of a race or community domiciled in a foreign state" . W e have evidence for 7roXtTe\i[xaTa of Caunians at Sidon, of Phrygians in Alexandria, and of foreigners of unknown nationality at C o s . The Jews at Berenice in Cyrenaica formed a 7toX(Teufi.a , and in the document known as Aristeas to Philocrates, written in the late second or early first century B.C., the term -roXtTeufxa is used of the Jewish community at Alexandria . Some sort of definite organization as a community was essential for the Jews of the Diaspora, if they were to retain their native customs and religion. The "leaders of the 7toXiTeufxa" whom Josephus, based on Aristeas, mentions as functioning in the Hellenistic period are probably to be identified with the yepooaioc of imperial times . Strabo speaks of an l
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H . S. Jones's definition (JRS x v i (1926), 2 7 ) . F o r a full discussion o f the t e r m -ToXlreufxa a n d its m a n y different meanings see W . R u p p e l , " P o l i t e u m a " in Philologus l x x x i i ( 1 9 2 6 - 7 ) , 2 6 8 - 3 1 2 , 4 3 3 - 5 4 ; cf. M. Engers, "noXCreupia" in Mnemosyne liv (1926), 1 5 4 - 6 1 . * OGIS 5 9 2 , 658 (found at P o m p e i i b u t referring t o A l e x a n d r i a ) , a n d 192. • CIG 5 3 6 1 . Ps.-Aristeas Ep. 3 1 0 (after the p u b l i c reading of the Septuagint trans lation) oravre? ol tepet^ xal T < O V &pfi7)v£a>v ol TTpeaPurepot xal TCOV arco T O U T T O X I T C U ixaxos ol xe fjyoupevoi T O U TTXTJOOU? . . . . I n Josephus* paraphrase the passage runs 7)£tcoaav re iravre? 6 T C lepeu? xal TCOV £pfnqv£ct>v ol TrpeaPurepot xal T O U 7roXiTe6jxaTo; ol TrpoeaTTjxorec . . . . (AJ xii, 108). F o r discussions o f the d a t e of Ps.-Aristeas see H . St. J. T h a c k e r a y ' s translation ( 1 9 1 7 ) , x i i - x i v ; H . T . A n d r e w s in A pocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, ed. R . H . Charles ( 1 9 1 3 ) , I I , 8 5 - 7 ; M. H a d a s ' s edition of Ps.-Aristeas ( 1 9 5 1 ) , 9-54. B o x ( x x v ) , like R u p p e l (op. cit., 280) a n d L . Fuchs (Die Juden Aegyptens in ptolemaischer und romischer Zeit (1924), 89), thinks t h a t in Ps.-Aristeas Ep. 3 1 0 ol 7rpeo(3uTepoi governs b o t h £ptxT)v£cov a n d T W V &nb T O O 7-oXiTeu|iaTos— p r e s u m a b l y in the different senses of "the oldest of the translators a n d the elders (in the political sense) of those belonging t o the TroXlreufxa". If this is right, t h e phrase ol -ipeaPurepot T & V &I:6 T O U -ToXiTeufiaTos m a y b e taken as e v i d e n c e for the existence of a Jewish yepouala in the Hellenistic period. B u t the passage c a n also, a n d perhaps better, b e rendered "the oldest o f the translators a n d ( s o m e o f ) the m e m b e r s o f the -roXlTeupLa". F o r the partitive genitive used as s u b j e c t o r o b j e c t see E . Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik I I , ed. A . D e b r u n ner ( 1 9 5 0 ) , 101 ff.; cf. F. W . Blass,Grammatik des neutestamentlichenGriechisch*, ed. Debrunner (1949), 7 8 . f
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INTRODUCTION
ethnarch holding the chief administrative and judicial power over the Jewish community in his own day, and that official is likely to have functioned also in Hellenistic times . The existence of officials presupposes an assembly to elect them. Philo says that after the death of "the genarch" c. A . D . n a yepouaia was appointed by Augustus to manage Jewish affairs . This may mean only that Augustus transferred the effective power from the ethnarch to an already existing yepouaia, which was alternatively known as ol ipxovrec; , and that the office of ethnarch was temporarily sus pended, not abolished; for Claudius states in an edict of 41 that Augustus did not prevent the appointment of ethnarchs . Possibly the ethnarch functioned, at least for a time after c. n , as chairman of the yepoucrta rather than as an independent authority. He may have been one of the 7rpcoTeuovTe<; TTJC; yepouaia*; mentioned in con nection with an episode in A . D . 73 . The Jewish 7roXtTeofjia had its own record-office , and in jurisdiction was to a large degree in dependent of the gentile authorities . Strabo barely exaggerates when he says that the Jewish community in Alexandria was virtually autonomous . The question which has been long and lengthily debated, and on which there is still no unanimity among scholars, is whether all the Alexandrian Jews as a community (and not merely isolated individuals) possessed Greek citizenship of the city as well as membership of their independent 7roXtTeufxa. The evidence appears to be confusing and contradictory. Before the publication of Clau dius' Letter to Alexandria , Schurer and Juster were among those l
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Apud A J x i v , 1 1 7 xaOlaraxai 8k xal £8vapx*); auraiv, &<; Stotxei re T6 g8vo$ xal Siaira xploet? xal aujipoXalcov £m{ieXEiTat xal 7rpo; av TroXtrela? apxtov auToreXou?. Fl. 74. Genarch is apparently a s y n o n y m for ethnarch. T h e R o m a n prefect mentioned gives the date. Fl. 80; cf. 1 1 7 . A J x i x , 283. BJ vii, 4 1 2 . BGU I V , 1 1 5 1 , 7-8 T6 TCOV 'IOU&XIOV apxetov. Contrast 1 1 3 1 , 1 4 a n d 22 for references t o w h a t w a s clearly the record-office of t h e Greek citizens. See E . R . G o o d e n o u g h , The Jurisprudence of the Jewish Courts in Egypt (1929). Apud A J x i v , 1 1 7 . F o r fuller a c c o u n t s of the constitution o f t h e Jewish TroXlreujxa see Fuchs, op. cit. 90-4; Bell, Juden und Griechen, 1 2 - 3 ; Schurer, I I I , 7 6 - 9 ; B o x , x x v i - x x v i i a n d note o n Fl. 7 4 ; V . T c h e r i k o v e r , Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews, translated b y Sh. A p p l e b a u m (1959), 2 9 6 - 3 0 4 . Cf. R u p p e l , op. ext., 280-3. • P. Lond. 1 9 1 2 , p u b l i s h e d b y Bell, / . and C, 1 -37. 8
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THE SITUATION IN ALEXANDRIA
7
who maintained that the Alexandrian Jews as a body had Greek citizenship, while Willrich, Wilcken, Schubart, Engers, Gelzer, and Fuchs were among those who denied this . Since Bell's publication of the Letter and his discussion of the problem in the light of this new evidence, De Sanctis, Momigliano, and Lewy have been among the minority which continues to support the view that the Jews possessed Greek citizenship , but Bell's dictum (p. 15) that "the total effect of (Claudius') letter is decisively to disprove the idea that the Jews possessed the citizenship" has been accepted b y the majority of scholars, e.g., b y Reinach, H. S. Jones, Tarn, Segre, Box, Scramuzza, and Tcherikover . It would be superfluous to add to the already extensive literature on the subject b y adducing and discussing all the evidence afresh. It is enough to say that, quite apart from Claudius' Letter, the evidence seems to the present writer to indicate that the Jews did not enjoy Greek citizenship; that the passages which suggest that they did are better explained as references to the Jewish 7roXtTcu[xa; and that Claudius' Letter clinches the matter. Only a few points need detailed treatment and emphasis here, in order to clarify the view of the position of the Jews vis-a-vis the Alexandrian Greeks and of their precise status in the city which is adopted in this edition. l
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Schurer, I I I , 1 2 2 - 3 ; Juster, I I , 6 - 1 1 . Willrich, 4 0 3 - 7 ; U . W i l c k e n und L . Mitteis, Grundziige undChrestomathie der Papyruskunde (1912), I, i, 24, and 6 3 ; W . Schubart, "Alexandrinische Urkunden aus der Zeit des A u g u s t u s " (in Archiv fur Papyrusforschung v ( 1 9 1 3 ) , 3 5 - 1 3 1 ) , 1 1 9 - 2 0 ; M . Engers, " D i e staatsrechtliche Stellung der alexandrinischen J u d e n " in Klio xviii (1923), 7 9 - 9 0 ; Gelzer, 4 0 1 ; Fuchs, op. ext., 7 9 - 1 0 5 (published in the same year as Bell, J. andC, but w i t h o u t k n o w l e d g e of i t ) . F u c h s gives the bibliography o f earlier discussions in 85, n. 1 and 2. F o r M o t z o ' s t h e o r y see below, p . 8, n. 6. G . d e Sanctis, " C l a u d i o e i Giudei d'Alessandria" (in Riv. di Filol. Class. lii (1924), 4 7 3 - 5 1 3 ) ; Bell criticizes his arguments as "ingenious rather than c o n v i n c i n g " ( / . undGr., 1 1 ) ; A . Momigliano, The Emperor Claudius and his Achievement (1934), 9 6 - 8 ; H . L e w y , Philon von Alexandrien "Von der Machterweisen Gottes" (1935), d o e s not argue the point, b u t assumes throughout that t h e Jews h a d Greek citizenship. T . R e i n a c h , " L ' e m p e r e u r Claude et les Juifs d'apres un nouveau d o c u m e n t " (in RE J l x x i x (1924), 1 1 3 - 4 4 ) , 1 2 8 ; H . S. Jones, "Claudius a n d the Jewish question at A l e x a n d r i a " (in JRS x v i (1926), 1 7 - 3 5 ) , 2 6 - 9 ; W . W . Tarn a n d G . T . Griffith, Hellenistic Civilization* (1952), 2 2 1 ; Segre, op. cit., 1 5 6 - 8 0 ; B o x , x x - x x x ; M . V . Scramuzza, The Emperor Claudius (1940), 7 4 - 9 ; Tcheri k o v e r , op. cit., 309-28. Cf. Engers in Mnemosyne liv (1926), 1 5 9 ; W i l l r i c h in Hermes lx (1925), 4 8 5 ; M . Briicklmeier, Beitrage zur rechtlichen Stellung der Juden im rdmischen Reich (1939), 1 3 - 9 ; Burr, op. cit., 1 7 ; I. Heinemann in P . - W . Suppl. V s.v. Antisemitismus, coll. 1 0 - 1 2 . a
3
8
INTRODUCTION
The crucial point is that 7toX£tt)<; can mean a member of a 7roX£Teu(ia as well as a member of a 7t6Xi<;. It is unequivocally so used of the members of the Caunian 7toX(Teu[xa at Sidon . The Jews in Sardis had an organization which can confidently be regarded as a 7roXtTcu|i.a, and are referred to in a decree of the city as "the Jewish 7roXtT<xi living in our city" . If 7toX(t7)<; could mean a member of a 7roXtTeu(xa, then, in H . S. Jones's words, "it would be hard to deny that the word 7roXtTeta might be used in the sense of 'the rights appertaining to members of a 7roXtTeufia " . Thus the use of 7toX£tt)S and 7roXiTeta in connection with the Jews' position in Alexan dria need not be regarded as evidence that the Jews had, or claimed to have, citizenship of the Greek nokic; there. Both terms can be interpreted as references to membership of the Jewish 7roX(Teu[xa . l
2
3
4
In Alexandria, however, 7toX(t7)<; and 7roXiTefoc probably carried a special connotation. Technically, Alexandria was an a<mS. Its laws were dwmxol v6|jloi , and some, or most, of its citizens were called aaroC (although it is quite possible that they were popularly 6
6
1
OGIS 592. A J x i v , 2 5 9 - 6 1 ; cf. the phrase 'Iou&xioi TTOXTTOCI 0{i£rcpoi (other M S S fjixfrepoi) in 2 3 5 . T a r n a n d Griffith (op. cit., 2 2 1 , n. 9) regard T T O X I T O U in 2 5 9 as an interpolation. B u t if the w o r d is t a k e n t o mean " m e m b e r s o f the T T O X I Teuna", then the w h o l e phrase "Jewish TTOXITOCI l i v i n g in o u r c i t y " is an accurate description o f the status of those Jews in Sardis. (The suggestion t h a t TTOXTTOU means citizens o f J u d a e a (Briicklmeier, op. cit., 19) d o e s n o t carry c o n v i c t i o n ) . Op. cit., 28. Cf. Bell, / . and C., 1 3 ; B o x , n o t e o n Fl. 53 TTJ; ^jxeT^po^ 8
8
TtoXiTetoc. 4
Strabo, h o w e v e r , seems t o use TcoXiTela in the sense o f 7toXlTeu{jux; apud A J x i v , 1 1 7 , q u o t e d a b o v e , p . 6, n. 1. * P. Oxy. 706, 9. • See, e.g., P. Oxy. 2 7 1 , 3 ( A . D . 56) a n d 4 7 7 , 1 4 ( A . D . 1 3 2 - 3 ) ; D . Comparetti a n d G . Vitelli, Papiri Greco-Egizii III ( 1 9 1 5 ) , 382, 7 9 ( A . D . 2 2 2 / 3 ) ; Gnomon of the rdios Logos (second half o f the second c e n t u r y A . D . ) , 9, 1 3 - 5 , 38-9, 4 5 - 8 , 50-1 (BGU V , i (1919) and ii ( 1 9 3 4 ) ; T . R e i n a c h , " U n c o d e fiscal d e T f i g y p t e r o m a i n e : L e G n o m o n d e l ' l d i o l o g u e " in Nouvelle Rev. Hist, de Droit Francais et Stranger lxiii ( 1 9 1 9 ) , 583-636, a n d x l i v (1920), 5 - 1 3 4 ) . T h e otorol were enrolled in d e m e s ; e p h e b i c training w a s an essential prelude t o d e m e membership, and from this training t h e y were also k n o w n as ol Airo TOO yu[ivaofou (Comparetti and Vitelli, op. cit. I (1906), 7 9 , 25 ( A . D . 6 0 ) ; I I I , 382, 8 1 ) . F o r the l
THE SITUATION IN ALEXANDRIA
9
known as TTOXITOCI as well). Between the Greek citizens and the depressed, unenfranchised class of the native Egyptians (Xocol), who had no civic organization of their own and were subject to the Xaoypacpta, lay various ethnic and quasi-ethnic groups possessed of privileges, but not of Greek citizenship. Such a group was that of the "Macedonians", who in the opinion of Schubart did not enjoy Greek citizenship *, and with whom the early Jewish settlers were equated in status . Another such group was the Jewish community, the 7roXiTat of the Jewish 7toXtTei>{xa, who were subject to 7roXiTtxoi v6(xot . This view that the Jews (and others) occupied an intermedi ate position in Alexandria is supported b y a remark of Philo to the effect that ££voi or (iirotxoi in a city try to obtain equality of prestige with the dto-Tot, are near to the 7TOXIT<XI in status, and differ only slightly from the auroxOove*; . This passage, which Wolfson main tains is a description of the Alexandrian situation, makes it clear that the 7toXiTai were intermediate in status between the <X<JTO£ (Greek citizens) and the auxoxOove^ (natives), by whom Wolfson understands the Egyptian Xaot, designated by Strabo and Josephus by another term for "natives"— imx&pioi . 2
3
4
5
The status of the Jews in Alexandria is further defined towards the end of the In Flaccum. There, in a passage in which the exiled Flaccus is represented as indulging in a remorseful soliloquy, he says with reference to his proclamation instituting the ghetto that in 6
xlviii ( 1 9 1 2 - 3 ) , 5 7 7 - 9 8 ) that t h e " A l e x a n d r i a n J e w s " belonged t o t h e less privileged class o f citizens, while t h e rest o f t h e Jews of A l e x a n d r i a lacked any grade of Greek citizenship, has found little general f a v o u r : see D e Sanctis, op. cit., 493 f.; Segre, op. cit., 1 7 7 ff.; Bell, / . andC, 1 6 , n. 1. O n a V aurox66vG>v Sta^povre^. H . A . W o l f s o n , " P h i l o o n Jewish citizenship in A l e x a n d r i a " in JBL lxiii (1944), 165-8. Strabo xvii, 1, 1 2 , 798; BJ ii, 487. • See below, p p . 2 0 - 1 . 1
8
8
4
6 1
6
1
6
10
INTRODUCTION
it he called the Jews ££voi when they were in fact XOCTOIXOI. The term X<XTOIXO<; (similar to fiiToixoc;—above) meant an alien with the right of residence. Had the Jews had a higher status than this, had they in fact had Greek citizenship, Flaccus (i.e., Philo) could not have failed to describe them as such in this context; for the tendency of the whole passage is to paint Flaccus' sins in the blackest possible tones . It appears, then, that the Jews were aliens with the right of residence in Alexandria, but that they could be described as "cit izens" in the special sense that they were citizens of the Jewish 7uoXtTeu{xa and, as such, had a civic organization which was denied to the Xaoi. Josephus could therefore describe them quite accurately as 7roXiTai , and at the same time give a misleading impression to readers unfamiliar with the Alexandrian situation. The Jews were not members of the Greek citizen-body, and therefore they were technically not "Alexandrians", although that term might be applied to them popularly in the sense of "inhabitants of Alexandria" . The Jews were XOCTOIXOI or metics vis-a-vis the Greeks. They were TTOXITOCI only vis-a-vis each other. There were in fact in Alexandria two parallel citizenships, that of the Greeks and that of the Jews . In prestige the former certainly ranked higher, but in the sum total of their rights there may well have been little difference between them. This is possibly the meaning of Claudius' statement that the Jews had IOY) 7coXtTeta with the Alexandrians , if the phrase is used, not in the technical Hellenistic sense of a grant of potential citizen-rights made b y one city to another , but in the untechnical 1
2
3
4
6
6
1
Fl. 1 7 2 . Cf. Engers in Klio xviii (1923), 83-4 a n d n. 4. A J x i v , 188. W i t h the interpretation o f the Jews' position here outlined cf. H . S. Jones, op. cit., 2 7 - 9 . T h i s seems t o b e the usage in Leg. 194, 350, a n d Fl. 80. Cf. the n o t e o n Leg. 1 8 3 . Cf. Engers in Mnemosyne liv (1926), 1 5 9 . A J x i x , 2 8 1 . " A l e x a n d r i a n " is here presumably used in the popular sense c o v e r i n g b o t h classes o f citizens (see a b o v e , p . 8, n. 6). In A J xii, 8 the Jews are said t o h a v e been too7roXiTai with the " M a c e d o n i a n s " in Alexandria. • O n this see Tarn a n d Griffith, op. cit., 7 2 , 84-7. It is suggested b y these scholars, h o w e v e r (222), that the Jews* tor) 7roXtTeta h a d the technical meaning of "potential citizenship" in t h e sense that a n y J e w o f A l e x a n d r i a c o u l d h a v e Greek citizenship o n d e m a n d . T h i s seems unconvincing, since isopolity implied reciprocity, and the Jews c a n hardly h a v e o p e n e d their TcoXlreuna t o the Greeks in return. Cf. D e Sanctis, op. cit., 496-8; Segre, op. cit., 1 7 4 . In I I I Maccabees (a w o r k of d u b i o u s value), the writer of w h i c h clearly believed that the Jews d i d n o t possess Greek citizenship (iii, 2 1 - 3 ) , the phrase iaoTzoklrac, 'AXe^avSpeuoiv elvat is used in the sense of p r o m o t i n g t h e Jews t o Greek citizenship (ii, 30). 8
3
4
6
THE SITUATION IN ALEXANDRIA
II
sense of the possession of civic rights which were equivalent in their total value, but not identical. The two races with their separate civic organizations apparently existed side b y side fairly peacefully during the Ptolemaic period. Serious hostility began with the Roman annexation of Egypt, although it remained latent for over sixty years. Several times in the course of the campaigns which led to the annexation the Jews supported the Roman invaders—in 55 B.C., when Gabinius rein stated the banished Ptolemy Auletes , in 48-47 B.C., when relief was sent to Caesar, who was besieged in Alexandria , and possibly also in 30 B.C., when Octavian pursued Antony and Cleopatra to Egypt . This cannot have endeared them to their Greek neighbours, who bitterly resented the degradation which their city suffered as a result. Formerly the capital of an independent kingdom, it was henceforth to be merely the port of one of her mistress's chief granaries and the residence of an imperial prefect, with one of the legions of occupation quartered just outside . The Jews not only could be regarded as partly responsible for all this, but they even benefited from the annexation. For they came henceforth under the protection which it was the policy of Rome to grant to the Jews throughout the Empire . Their religious liberty was safeguarded, and they were allowed to preserve intact their civic rights as a quasi-autonomous 7roXiTeufi.a in Alexandria. The Greeks, under standably, grew jealous of the Jews' privileged position, and it was primarily not out of hatred for the Jews as such, but because the Jews were pro-Roman in their sympathies, that the Greeks became anti-Semitic. Petty acts of annoyance directed against the prefect, the ever-present symbol of Roman power, were the only open expression of their resentment at Roman domination that the Greeks could give. But they could make indirect attacks on Rome l
2
3
4
5
1
A J xiv, 9 9 ; BJ i, 1 7 5 . A J x i v , 1 2 7 - 3 6 ; 1 9 3 ; BJ i, 1 8 7 - 9 2 ; In Ap. ii, 6 1 . T h i s is at least suggested b y a reference t o Cleopatra's hostility t o w a r d s t h e J e w s a n d their " s e r v i c e s " t o O c t a v i a n (In Ap. ii, 6 0 - 1 ; o n the manifestly c o r r u p t Iudaeos in 60 see H . St. J. T h a c k e r a y ' s note in the L o e b edition). See the n o t e o n 132 jx6vo? £8UV<XTO PouXyjOel; &pa jxta. W h e t h e r the Greek's m u n i c i pal a u t o n o m y was curtailed is disputed. T h e y had n o POUXTJ under R o m a n rule until the t i m e of Septimius S e v e m s , b u t t h e y m a y h a v e lost it under the P t o l e m i e s . F o r the bibliography of the discussion see Scramuzza, op. ext., 250-2. S o m e scholars h a v e t h o u g h t that t h e y had n o yepouata either; b u t see A . M o m i g l i a n o in JRS x x x i v (1944), 4 * 5 ; Musurillo, AA, 108-10. See the notes o n Leg. 1 1 4 , 1 5 5 - 6 1 , 240, a n d 3 1 1 - 6 . 8
8
4
I I
6
Legatio ad Gaium
2
12
INTRODUCTION
by attacking her proteges, the Jews, who were at hand and were far more vulnerable. By the thirties of our era, after some sixty years of Roman rule, there had grown up in Alexandria a party of extreme patriots or nationalists, who led this opposition to Rome and the anti-Semitism which was associated with it. Philo describes them as "demagogues like Dionysius, record-porers like Lampo, faction-leaders like Isidorus, busybodies, mischief-makers, and disturbers of cities" . The first of these three leaders he does not mention again. Lampo he later characterizes as a "poison-pen" (xaXajxo^axTY);), who, after surviving a maiestas trial under Tiberius, made money in his position of gymnasiarch b y accepting bribes for the falsification of the records of lawsuits . Isidorus "was his equal in rascality, a turbulent fellow, a demagogue, a past master in creating disorder and confusion, a foe to peace and stability, a genius at manu facturing commotions and disorders when they did not exist and at cementing and inflaming them after they had come into being" . Such were the people into whose hands the control of affairs in Alexandria was to fall for some months in 38. A desire to attack Rome through the Jews was not, however, the only reason for the disturbances at that time. As has been seen, the trouble then arose, at least in part, over some question concern ing the Jews' position in the city, and it appears that the long and peaceful coexistence of the two parallel civic organizations had broken down. The most convincing theory of the precise grounds for the increased tension between the two races, which Philo does not explain at all, is that at that time some, at any rate, of the Jews were trading on their already privileged position, and, in reliance on the security which Roman protection gave them, were seeking to improve their fortunes—that they were, in fact, agitating for admission to Greek citizenship, and that in some cases they were perhaps even usurping the privileges of that status in advance. This can be inferred from Claudius' rebuke to the Jews in his Letter in 41, where he bids them remain content with their existing position and not strive to win extra privileges . Philo does not explicitly admit this Jewish claim, probably not wishing to mention l
2
3
4
1
* 8
4
Fl. 20. O n ygoL[i[ioLTox\)(poiv see Colson's n o t e ad loc. ( L o e b P h i l o I X ) . Fl. 128-34. Fl. 1 3 5 , B o x ' s translation. Lines 88-95. Cf. below, p p . 3 0 - 1 .
THE SITUATION IN ALEXANDRIA
13
it after the rebuff administered b y Claudius, and preferring to represent his people as the victims of unprovoked aggression. When the Jews already possessed substantial rights as members of a 7roXireu{xa, what reason had they for coveting Greek citizenship as well ? It has been argued that the latter was for them a steppingstone to Roman citizenship *. It is, indeed, clear from the case of Pliny's Egyptian doctor that an Egyptian normally had to have Greek citizenship of Alexandria before being allowed to receive Roman citizenship . The Jew Tiberius Julius Alexander inherited Greek citizenship from his father, Alexander the alabarch, and at some point became a Roman citizen. But this does not prove that Greek citizenship of Alexandria had to precede Roman citizenship for an Alexandrian Jew, and to the present writer's knowledge there is no evidence to show that this was in fact the case . If the point of the regulation for Egyptians was simply that some training in civic life was required as a prelude to admission to Roman citizen ship, it is possible that the training given by membership of the Alexandrian 7roXtTei»{xa counted as adequate for Jews. If that was so, there was no need for them to agitate for Greek citizenship in order to qualify for Roman. It was probably rather for the sake of its higher social and political prestige that some of the Jews coveted Greek citizenship. 2
3
The possession of Greek citizenship, however, would have involved considerable difficulties for a practising Jew. For the religious life of a Greek city was bound up with its municipal life, and citizenship involved a moral obligation to join in the city's religious activities . Yet it was impossible for a practising Jew to fulfil this obligation, since it entailed apostasy. Again, if the Jews were admitted to the £
5
1
E.g., b y Scramuzza, op. cit., 7 7 ; Bell, / . undGr., 1 2 . Pliny, Ep. x, 5 , 6 , and 7. It was o b v i o u s l y b y an oversight that this E g y p t i a n had been allowed t o p r o c e e d straight t o R o m a n citizenship. Alexandrian citizenship h a d t o b e granted t o h i m subsequently, in o r d e r t o rectify the irregularity. Cf. E . G . Turner in JRS x l i v (1954). 54Cf. M o t z o , op. cit., 584-5 for the religious duties i n v o l v e d in m e m b e r s h i p of a d e m e . B u t his o n l y evidence is a v e r y fragmentary papyrus o f the third century B . C . Cf. I I Mace, iv, 9 - 1 5 , where A n t i o c h u s Epiphanes* establishment o f the £9*3 Pcla in Jerusalem meant the introduction of " n e w c u s t o m s forbidden b y the L a w " . H e r o d the Great's establishment of Greek g a m e s is similarly d e s c r i b ed as a violation of national tradition (AJ x v , 267 f f . ) . 1
8
4
5
INTRODUCTION
14
In view of this it seems probable that the demand for Greek citizen ship was confined to a "modernist" party among the Jews—to Jews who were anxious to gain the social and political advantages which Greek citizenship would give them, even at the price of some slackening of their religious principles—while the stricter, orthodox Jews were content with the status quo and had no wish to be put into a position in which obedience to the laws of their religion would be difficult . To the liberal, "modernist" party presumably belonged those individuals who had succeeded in obtaining Greek citizenship. But most Jews of this type were probably not ready to go so far as to abandon their religion, although they would countenance some compromise. If, therefore, they coveted Greek citizenship, they may at the same time have wanted exemption from those features of municipal life in which they could not conscientiously participate. But to ask for the advantages of Greek citizenship and then to repudiate some of its obligations as incompatible with their national religion was to attempt to make the best of both worlds. It was a selfish aspiration and one which the Greeks justifiably opposed. Indeed, the Greeks would have preferred to see the Jews' privileges reduced rather than increased. l
B - T H E P R E L U D E TO T H E RIOTS It was thus to a city simmering with discontent that Aulus Avillius Flaccus went as prefect of Egypt late in 32 or early in 33. Philo says that for the first five of his six years there he governed excellently , and this glowing testimonial, coming from an enemy, must be true in essence, even if it is somewhat exaggerated in order to make the contrast between Flaccus' early virtues and his later villainies more pointed. At some time during this period Flaccus came into conflict with the Greek nationalists. One of them, Isi dorus, felt that he had lost Flaccus' confidence—Philo gives no explanation of this—and in revenge organized and paid a gang of hooligans and idlers from the rowdy clubs (6taaot, auvo8ot,or xX~vai) which he controlled, to insult the prefect in doggerel verse (none of it, unfortunately, preserved) recited in the gymnasium. Flaccus arrested some of the disturbers, who promptly revealed the origin 2
1
T h e writer d o e s n o t a c c e p t the v i e w of Bell ( / . andC, 1 6 ; / . undGr., a n d B o x (xlix) t h a t the Jews all wanted Greek citizenship. Fl. 1-8. 1
17)
THE PRELUDE TO THE RIOTS
15
ator and the organization of the demonstration. The Greek popul ation in general was so angry at the slur which the episode would cast on their city's good name, that at the subsequent trial, when Isidorus was publicly accused of responsibility, uproar broke out and he thought it prudent to withdraw into voluntary exile. Flaccus mistakenly supposed that this meant that trouble was at an end . Although it is not recorded, Isidorus must have slipped back into Alexandria later; for in the early months of 38 he is again found stirring up trouble there. It was probably after this outburst, and in the hope of preventing any repetition of it, that Flaccus sup pressed the clubs —presumably because they counted as collegia. Meanwhile another factor had entered into the situation. The accession of Gaius had made Flaccus' position precarious. His close friendship with Tiberius did not endear him to the new Emperor, and he feared retribution for the part which he had played in the banishment of Gaius' mother . The executions, during the first year of Gaius' principate, of Tiberius' grandson Gemellus and of Tiberius' friend Macro, who might have stood between Flaccus and Gaius' displeasure, reduced the prefect to despair. The fall of Macro may well have given him especial cause for alarm, since it seems likely that Isidorus had a hand in it, and Flaccus had to face the possibility that Isidorus would seek vengeance for his exile by em ploying the same tactics against himself. In his preoccupation with personal anxieties, Flaccus let his rule deteriorate . One example of this deterioration is recorded. When Gaius' accession became known in Alexandria, the Jewish community passed a resolution in his honour. Assuming that Flaccus would not give leave for a Jewish embassy to take the resolution to Rome , the Jews asked him to forward it. He promised to do so, and to send a covering letter testifying to his own experience of Jewish loyalty. Well over a year later the Jews discovered that their resolution had still not reached Gaius. Philo attributes this to l
2
3
4
5
1
FL 1 3 5 - 4 5 . FL 4. FL 9 and 1 5 8 . FL 1 0 - 1 6 . F o r Isidorus' connection with the fall of M a c r o see the n o t e o n Leg. 5 9 ou 7toXXa!s Garepov ^)|i£pai$, fin. A l t h o u g h the control o f egress from E g y p t w a s less strict in R o m a n than in P t o l e m a i c times (Strabo ii, 3, 5, 1 0 1 ) , a permit from the prefect was n e e d e d : see FL 9 7 ; P. Oxy. 1 2 7 1 ( A . D . 2 4 6 ) ; a n d Gnomon of the Idios Logos 64, 66, 68 (references a b o v e , p . 8, n. 6). 1
1
4
6
i6
INTRODUCTION
deliberate malice on Flaccus' part, saying that he had suppressed the document in order that the Jews alone might appear to be disloyal, and the Jews described Flaccus' action as a "plot" against them . But since Philo makes no suggestion elsewhere that Flaccus showed any animosity or unfairness towards the Jews before the summer of 38, it seems probable that the Jews were making a false deduction from subsequent events, and that the real explanation of Flaccus' failure to forward the resolution was that in his personal distress at Gaius' accession he pigeon-holed it and genuinely forgot about it. In the early summer of 38, when Macro's death had reduced Flaccus to complete despair, the nationalists conceived the cunning idea of using his fear and insecurity for their own purposes. Hitherto his enemies, they now posed as his friends. Their leaders, Isidorus, Lampo, and Dionysius, offered, at a price, to take the place of Gemellus and Macro in standing between Flaccus and a possible attack by Gaius—although Philo does not explain at all how they proposed to do this. Their price was to be the "surrender" of the Jews to the nationalists. Flaccus yielded to this temptation and accepted the bargain which they offered . Soon afterwards the nationalists sought to cement the alliance by conferring "miserable honours" on Flaccus . l
2
3
Philo does not say why the Greeks were hostile to the Jews and wanted them "surrendered" to them, or what the Greeks proposed to do once they had the Jews at their mercy. For the riots which ensued occurred after feelings had been exarcerbated by the arrival of the Jewish king Agrippa I , and it is not necessary to suppose that physical assault and religious persecution were in the Greeks' minds when they made their agreement with Flaccus. It has been argued above (pp. 12-4) that there was friction between the two races at the time over the question of the Jews' civic status and the 4
1
Fl. 9 7 - 1 0 3 . Bell thinks ( / . undGr., 1 7 - 8 ) that the resolution w a s perhaps framed later, o n G a i u s ' r e c o v e r y from his illness (on w h i c h see Leg. 1 4 - 2 1 a n d n o t e s ) . In that case o n e w o n d e r s w h y P h i l o does n o t mention the precise occasion. T h e general tenor o f 9 7 and 103 suggests rather the beginning o f Gaius' principate. T h e deterioration of Flaccus' rule d a t e d from his receipt of the news o f Gaius' accession (Fl. 9), although it b e c a m e m o r e p r o n o u n c e d after the deaths o f Gemellus and M a c r o (Fl. 1 6 ) . Fl. 18-24. Cf. A d d i t i o n a l N o t e I, p p . 4 4 - 5 . • Fl. 4 1 . F o r A g r i p p a see the n o t e o n 1 7 9 . 1
4
THE PRELUDE TO THE RIOTS
17
agitation of some of them for admission to full Greek citizenship. What the Greeks apparently wanted was a ruling from Flaccus which would end any Jewish hopes of the advancement of their community as a whole to full Greek citizenship and would confine it strictly to the rights officially granted b y the Ptolemies or even reduce those rights. Flaccus began to keep his compact with the Greeks by showing what Philo describes as bias against the Jews in deciding lawsuits, and b y refusing Jewish petitioners access to h i m . This bias may have consisted, not of actual injustice, as Philo insinuates, but of a careful scrutiny of the legal basis of every Jewish claim and the rejection of claims based on privileges usurped by the Jews in the course of time and never legally ratified . Flaccus' purpose was presumably to accustom the Jews gradually to a loss of preferential treatment, in the hope that later they would accept a ruling about their status without commotion. A settlement might perhaps have been reached peacefully, had not the unexpected visit of Agrippa in August, 38 caused the situation to develop on entirely different lines. Agrippa was on his way, at long last, to the kingdom in northern Palestine which Gaius had granted to him nearly eighteen months earlier, soon after his accession. He had intended to travel via Greece and the Aegean rather than by the quicker sea-route via Alexandria—no doubt in order to avoid the possibility of an em barrassing encounter with Philo's brother, Alexander the alabarch, to whom he still owed the twenty thousand drachmae borrowed some two years previously, when he had called at Alexandria in the course of his impecunious flight from his Palestinian creditors to Rome. But when the Emperor insisted that the quick sea-route was preferable and that he should wait for the etesian winds and travel that way, Agrippa politely followed his advice . He suc ceeded in avoiding publicity when he reached Alexandria b y riding at anchor off Pharos until nightfall and slipping ashore unnoticed after dark. His plan of departing equally unostentatiously, however, failed—Philo does not say why . Somehow the Jews learned of his presence in the city. Puzzled b y the change in Flaccus' attitude l
2
3
4
1
Fl. 24. B o x ' s interpretation, x l . Fl. 2 5 - 6 . O n the sea-routes between Italy and the L e v a n t and o n the etesian w i n d s see the notes o n Leg. 250. * Fl. 2 7 - 8 . 1
8
i8
INTRODUCTION
towards them, and alarmed lest they had offended Gaius, they hoped that Agrippa, as a personal friend of the Emperor, might be able to help them. They told him of Flaccus* suppression of the resolution which they had passed in Gaius' honour, and gave him another copy, which he sent to Rome, together with a letter explaining its tardy arrival and a memorandum from the Jews dealing with their position in Alexandria and complaining of the unprecedented treat ment which they were receiving from Flaccus. Any good effect which Agrippa's advocacy and the Jews' me morandum might have had was then nullified b y an impulsive and provocative action which brought calamity in its train. Agrippa and his body-guard made an ostentatious parade through Alexan dria, presumably designed to impress the Greeks and Flaccus and perhaps to overawe the latter into treating the Jews better. Whether this was the Jews' idea pressed on a reluctant Agrippa, or the king's own idea of the best way of helping his compatriots , we do not know, since Philo gives no indication of what lay behind it, and indeed passes the whole episode over very rapidly, as if aware that it had made a wrong psychological approach to the situation. Had Agrippa tackled Flaccus in private, he might have secured some improvement in the Jews' position b y stressing his own influence with Gaius. As it was, the parade merely inflamed the Greeks' jealousy at the Jews having a king while they had been deprived of theirs, and it gave the nationalist leaders another weapon to use against Flaccus. They feigned indignation on his behalf, saying that the parade was an act of disrespect to the prefect and was aimed at overshadowing him, and they worked on his nervousness b y sug gesting that it was the prelude to his dismissal . 1
2
3
Flaccus believed this allegation, and while keeping up an ap pearance of cordiality towards Agrippa, he took secret revenge b y failing to prevent the Greek counter-demonstrations. The Greek mob began b y congregating in the gymnasium and chanting gibes against Agrippa composed for the occasion b y writers of mimes. The fact that this insult went unpunished encouraged the mob to go further. A parody of Agrippa's procession was held. The harmless local idiot named Carabas ("Cabbage") was made to play the part of king, attired in a carpet for a cloak and a piece of bark for a 1
1
8
Fl. 1 0 3 ; Leg. 1 7 8 - 9 a n d notes ad loc. A s B o x thinks (xli). Fl. 2 9 - 3 1 .
THE PRELUDE TO THE RIOTS
19
crown; he held a sceptre of papyrus and was attended b y a body guard of young man carrying sticks for lances. He was paraded to the gymnasium, placed on the platform there, and approached b y a stream of pseudo-courtiers, -litigants, ;.nd -petitioners, while the crowd hailed him as "Marin", the Aramaic word for "our king". The allusion was obvious and the insult deadly . Flaccus did nothing to stop or punish this performance , and b y this failure in his duty he took upon himself part of the responsibility for the insult to Gaius' friend and so became liable to suffer with the Greeks the unpredictable consequences of the Emperor's wrath, if Agrippa complained to him. Yet the precariousness of his personal position which had led to the original alliance with the nationalists, together with the honours which they had granted to him, prevented his breaking with them. For two or three months from this point on, Flaccus was a tool in the Greeks' hands, and the control of events largely lay with them. l
2
C - T H E RIOTS The Legatio picks up the story at this point. Philo's two accounts of the riots in August, 38, supplement each other, although they do not agree in every detail. Both describe a two-fold attack made by the Greeks on the Jews—a serious infringement of their religious liberty consisting of the destruction of some of the synagogues and the desecration of others, and an attempt to undermine the Jews' civic position b y the institution of a ghetto; the enforcement of the latter led to widespread rioting and anarchy, in which many Jewish lives were lost, much Jewish property destroyed, and heavy suf fering inflicted. The Greek mob, emboldened b y the impunity which it was en joying after the Carabas episode, now used the prefect's impotence as an opportunity for further Jew-baiting. Bands of Greeks burnt or rased to the ground many synagogues in the parts of Alexandria where comparatively few Jews lived, regardless of the fact that the consequent destruction of dedications in honour of the Emperors which had been placed in them might bring trouble upon them. 1
Fl. 32-9. It was p r o b a b l y at this p o i n t that prudence dictated a h a s t y and unobtrusive departure for A g r i p p a . T h e r e is n o reference t o this, b u t he figures in n o n e of the subsequent events in Alexandria. » Fl. 40.
20
INTRODUCTION 1
The synagogues in the so-called "Jewish districts" could not be treated in this way, because any attempt to do so would inevitably have been observed and resisted. These the Greeks rendered unfit for Jewish use b y the much quicker method of setting up a portrait of Gaius in each, perhaps with Flaccus* sanction . An old fourhorse chariot from the gymnasium was dragged into the largest synagogue. Such Jewish resistance as may have occurred was in effective, and probably few, if any, synagogues in the whole city remained intact and undesecrated . During the attack on the synagogues, or more probably after it was over, the Greeks turned to the achievement of their real aim— an attack on the Jews' present civic status and their claims for advancement. Feeling was running so high by this time that it was obviously unlikely that this aim could be realized without rioting. But the nationalists had to get the ruling which they wanted before any report of the Carabas episode reached Rome to prejudice Gaius against the Greeks, should the quarrel be referred to him; and Flaccus, now facing not only his former personal danger from Gaius but also the possibility of being brought to book for not curbing the recent disturbances, dared not risk antagonizing the nationalists and so forfeiting their support (for what it was worth). It was there fore clearly at the nationalists' demand, although Philo does not say so, that Flaccus attacked the rights of the Jewish 7roXiTei>(jL<x by issuing a proclamation in which he declared that the Jews were "aliens and foreigners" in Alexandria . By this measure he apparent ly degraded them from their legal position of xaxoixoi (resident aliens) to that of £6voi. Presumably this constituted an attack on the Jews' 7roXtTeu[ia in that its development had depended on the Jews' status as XCCTOIXOI and that its existence was consequently jeopardized when that status was lost. As 56voi the Jews were now to have the right of domicile in one section only of the five into which Alexandria was divided—the section assigned to the original Jewish settlers early in the city's history and designated "Jewish". B y the first century A . D . the Jewish community had expanded so 2
3
4
6
1
See b e l o w . Cf. the note o n 1 3 4 etx6va$ yap £v arraaais [ikv ISpuovro Tatou. Fl. 4 1 - 5 3 ; Leg. 1 3 2 - 7 and see the notes ad loc. F o r arguments t o support the interpretation here g i v e n of the a t t a c k o n the synagogues see Additional Note II, pp. 45-7. Fl. 5 3 - 4 ££voo$ xal £703X080$. See a b o v e , p p . 9 - 1 0 . 8
8
4
5
THE RIOTS
21
much that a second section of the city also was largely, although probably not exclusively, populated by Jews and known as "Jew ish", while smaller numbers of Jews lived scattered throughout the other three sections as well. The Jews were now to lose the privi lege acquired in the course of time, but never legally granted to them, of residing in all parts of the city, and were to be restricted to the one original Jewish section, which thus became the first ghetto in the Roman world It was left to the Greeks, or they took it upon themselves, to put this ruling into effect. The more prudent Jews living outside the new ghetto probably withdrew to it at once, but an anti-Jewish riot was nevertheless soon in full swing. For the Greeks proceeded to drive into the ghetto many of the Jews whom they found else where, and tortured and massacred others. Obviously the ghetto was too small to accommodate the whole Jewish community, and many Jews were forced to "overflow" outside the city on to the beaches in the neighbourhood of the municipal rubbish-heaps and of the cemeteries. The Greeks meanwhile looted the Jewish shops which were still closed in mourning for Gaius* sister, Drusilla, and plundered over four hundred abandoned Jewish homes outside the ghetto . The Jews in the ghetto were reduced to poverty, because they were unable to carry on their ordinary trades and professions, and food supplies soon ran short there. This shortage, combined with severe overcrowding and the exposure from which those on the beaches suffered, led to the outbreak of an epidemic. When the threat of starvation forced some Jews to venture out of the ghetto to the city markets in search of provisions, they were lynched b y the Greeks in numerous ingeniously disgusting ways. Even Jewish traders arriving at the port were robbed of their merchandise and murdered . 2
3
The narrative in the Legatio goes no further than this, and for the end, as for the beginning, of the story of the disturbances in the summer of 38 we depend on the In Flaccum. At some point during the riots Flaccus held a conference with the Jewish leaders, apparent 1
Fl- 5 5 ; Leg. 1 2 4 . It is w r o n g t o speak, as d o , e.g., Willrich (406), W i l c k e n (in W i l c k e n u n d Mitteis, op. cit. I, i, 24), a n d B a l s d o n (132-3) o f the P t o l e m a i c Jewish district as a " g h e t t o " . A special residence had been granted t o the early Jewish settlers as a privilege. Their descendants h a d n o t hitherto been confined t o it as a disability. Cf. B o x , x l i v , n. 5. 9
•
Fl. 94. Fl. 5 5 - 7 2 ; Leg.
121-31.
22
INTRODUCTION
ly in the hope of finding a way out of the prevailing anarchy—but without success . The final outburst of fanatical hatred occurred on Gaius* birthday, 31st August, with a demonstration which Flaccus himself was at least partly responsible for organizing. Some time before that date he had arrested thirty-eight members of the Jewish yepoixjta. Philo implies that this was a gratuitous assault on innocent people, but the fact that it was Flaccus and not the Greeks who made the arrest suggests that there were some grounds for it. The offence of the Jewish elders is a matter of conjecture. It is conceivable that they had instigated some sort of return-attack upon the Greeks; for other Jews also were in Flaccus* custody and were punished with them. Their punishment was made a public spectacle for the amusement of the Greeks on Gaius* birth day. The thirty-eight elders were marched through the streets to the theatre and there scourged, so severely that some died as a result. Other Jews were also tortured and hanged in the same place, and the entertainment was then continued with music, mimes, and dancing . To judge from the order of Philo's narrative, it was after this that Flaccus had the Jews' homes searched for weapons, but found none . In the course of the search a number of women were arrested, including some gentiles (Box suggests gentile wives of Jewish husbands), who were immediately released. Pork was offered to the Jewesses to eat, and some ate it in order to avoid the tortures in flicted on those who refused . After this the persecution seems to have died down, although the elders who survived the scourging were kept in prison and although b y a month or more later, in mid-October, the Jews had not yet sufficiently recovered in spirits l
2
3
4
1
FL 7 6 ; n o details are given. Fl. 7 3 - 8 5 . Philo explains that scourging w a s a punishment t o w h i c h the unenfranchised E g y p t i a n s were liable, while the Jews had hitherto shared w i t h the Greeks the privilege o f being beaten with the flat o f the s w o r d instead. B o x interprets this incident t o mean that this, like the right t o reside in all parts of Alexandria, w a s a privilege w h i c h had long been allowed t o the Jews in practice, b u t had never been theirs b y legal right. A s the Jews were b y Flaccus' proclamation reduced t o the bare rights formally granted t o them, t h e y n o w lost that privilege (xliv, x l v i - x l v i i ) . Fl. 86-94. O n the unsuccessful search for w e a p o n s see B o x , lx-lxii. FL 9 5 - 6 and B o x ' s n o t e ad loc. H e includes "the forcible eating of p o r k b y Jewesses" a m o n g the entertainments o f 3 1 s t A u g u s t (xlvii). It is possible t h a t Philo's narrative is s o m e w h a t confused; the search for w e a p o n s m a y h a v e occurred before that date, and the thirty-eight elders a n d the other J e w s m a y h a v e been arrested in c o n n e c t i o n w i t h it. 8
8
4
THE RIOTS
23
or in material circumstances to be able to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles . At that point a detachment of soldiers arrived from Rome with a warrant for Flaccus* arrest, and the Jews immediately broke into hymns of praise for their deliverance . W e are not told whether Flaccus was charged with maladministration and his failure to prevent the riots, or whether he had to face political accusations connected with his earlier relations with Gaius' enemies. Gaius must have decided on the arrest some time in September, probably after receiving Agrippa's letter from Alexandria explaining Flaccus' suppression of the resolution passed by the Jews in Gaius' honour eighteen months earlier, and the accompanying memorandum on Flaccus' treatment of the Jews during the weeks before the riots . Flaccus reached Rome to find Isidorus and Lampo among his accusers —an indication of the value of their promise of protection. He was found guilty of whatever charges were preferred against him and banished to Andros. The last quarter of the In Flaccum recounts his journey into exile, his misery and remorse, and his execution. l
2
3
4
Although Philo does not admit it, the Jews must have been allowed to return to their homes after Flaccus' arrest. Apart from the improbability that the whole community could have lived in the small ghetto and on the seashore for some two years and a half, until Claudius re-established their rights, the fact that a year after the riots the Jews were in a position to offer a hecatomb for sacrifice suggests a fairly speedy return to normal conditions . At the same time, as feelings cooled, they probably quietly resumed possession of the synagogues, repairing and reconsecrating them . 6
6
1
Fl. 1 1 6 - 8 . Bell refers Philo's a c c o u n t of an a t t e m p t b y an unnamed prefect of E g y p t t o forbid Sabbath-observance (Som. ii, 123-9) t o Flaccus a n d the disturbances of 38 ( / . und Gr., 2 1 ) . B u t this interpretation is b y n o means c e r t a i n ; see Colson's note in the L o e b Philo V , 609. Fl. 104-24. See a b o v e , p p . 1 5 - 1 8 . G o o d e n o u g h , however, thinks that Flaccus was a t t a c k e d for h a v i n g belonged t o the faction supporting Gemellus (Intro duction, 7 4 ) . If Isidorus had assisted in M a c r o ' s o v e r t h r o w (above, p . 1 5 ) , his accusations against Flaccus m a y also h a v e been political, and u n c o n n e c t e d w i t h the Alexandrian situation. Fl. 1 2 5 - 7 . Leg. 356 and n o t e xara TTJV £X7r(8a T T J ; repjJLOvtxrj; vbaj;. Cf. G o o d e n o u g h , I.e. Cf. the n o t e o n 3 7 0 TZOTOLTZ^ y^votT* 5v $ xptaic. Schurer (I, 500) and BeU (/. und Gr. 2 2 - 3 ) , however, think t h a t the synagogues remained closed. 1
3
4
6
6
t
24
INTRODUCTION
D - T H E EMBASSIES T O GAIUS Whether Gaius already knew about the riots or not when he had Flaccus arrested, it was obvious that information could not be long delayed in reaching him. The Jews and the Greeks, aware of this, took steps to send embassies to the Emperor, the latter to try to exculpate themselves for the recent upheavals and to secure a ruling which would keep the Jews in the inferior position to which they had been relegated, and the former to complain of, and seek redress for, the wrongs which the Greeks had inflicted on them. The embassies were apparently not able to sail until a year later, in the winter of 39-40, quite possibly because Flaccus' successor, Vitrasius Pollio, conducted a lengthy investigation into the quarrel before issuing the necessary exit-permits . l
Our knowledge of the embassies is derived almost entirely from the Legatio, since the meagre paragraph which Josephus devotes to them adds little. Philo himself led the Jewish delegation of five members, while the Greek delegation included the anti-Semitic writer Apion, Isidorus, and perhaps L a m p o . The two parties probably arrived in Italy in the early months of 40, while Gaius was still away on his northern campaign. While waiting for an audience they employed their time profitably in trying to secure powerful friends at court. The Greeks were the more successful in this. B y bribery and promises of favours they won the ear of the Egyptian (or more probably Alexandrian) freedman Helicon, Gaius' chamberlain, who had great influence over the Emperor and used the opportunities which his intimacy gave him to indulge in anti-Semitic propaganda. The Jews' counter-efforts to bring him over to their side failed completely . The Jews then decided to draw up a memorandum about "their sufferings and their claims", and this they submitted to Gaius either at or before their first hearing . It dealt, no doubt, principally with the two matters which it was the object of the embassy to lay before the Emperor—that of the 2
3
4
6
1
See Additional N o t e I I I , p p . 4 7 - 5 0 , for discussion of the date of the embassies' v o y a g e s . * A J xviii, 257-60. AJ, I.e.; note o n Leg. 1 7 2 TCOV 'AXe£av8p£
0
4
6
THE EMBASSIES TO GAIUS
25 l
Greek attack on the Alexandrian synagogues , which raised the whole question of the Jews' religious liberty and their exemption from participation in the imperial cult, and that of their civic rights and position in Alexandria, which Flaccus' proclamation had under mined . But the Jews' "claims" may have comprised more than merely a plea for a return to the situation before the riots, to be effected by the abolition of the ghetto, b y the restoration of the Jews' status as xaTotxot and hence the reinstatement of their 7roXiT e u f i a , and b y the reaffirmation of their privilege of religious liberty. Their envoys may also have been commissioned to voice the opinions of those Alexandrian Jews who wanted full Greek citizenship to be thrown open to them as a community, and the "claims" may have included a statement of the case for an improvement in the Jews' position by admission to Greek citizenship . But if so, this matter was probably regarded as less important than the regaining of the rights previously held and now lost. If such a claim for in creased privileges was made, it was bound to be opposed b y the Greeks, even if they grudgingly conceded the claim for a return to the status quo ante on the grounds of precedent. 2
3
When Gaius returned to Italy in the spring of 40, he did not enter Rome, but remained technically outside the city until his ovation on 31st August. He granted the Jews a brief preliminary audience on the right bank of the Tiber, outside the pomoerium, probably towards the end of May, when he is known to have been in the vicinity of Rome. He received them graciously and dismissed them almost immediately with a promise to listen to their case when he had time. We are not told whether the Greeks were among the other embassies received on the same occasion, but it is probable that they were. The bystanders and Philo's four companions re garded Gaius' attitude towards the Jews as portending success for their cause, but Philo himself could not help suspecting that this
1
Leg. 1 9 1 7repl Trpoaeux&v. Leg. 1 9 3 - 4 ; 349 {xeTa7rc|X90fvre? &Y<*>v£aaa6at T & V xrepl T T J ; TtoXtreta? i y & v a . T h e reason w h y this request, if it was made, w o u l d h a v e t o be laid before the E m p e r o r , and c o u l d n o t b e decided locally e v e n under peaceful c o n d i t i o n s , w a s the fact, m a d e clear b y , e.g., the case of P l i n y ' s d o c t o r ( a b o v e , p . 1 3 ) , a sentence in Claudius' Letter (53-7), a n d an inscription of the early third c e n t u r y A . D . from Sardis (IGRR I V , 1 5 1 9 ) . that the E m p e r o r controlled ad missions t o Greek citizenship in Alexandria. Cf. In Ap. ii, 4 1 , 7 2 . A n y o n e introducing an unqualified person i n t o the c i t i z e n - b o d y was tried before the prefect (Gnomon of the Idios Logos 40; references a b o v e , p . 8, n. 6). 8
8
26
INTRODUCTION
singling out of his embassy for a speedy answer meant that the decision was to be given against them . When, shortly after this, Gaius went down to Campania to pass the summer there until his ovation, the Jews, and presumably the Greeks also, followed him, and spent their time formulating their case, in constant expectation of the promised longer hearing. While they were waiting there, the news of Gaius* order for the conversion of the Temple in Je rusalem into a temple of the imperial cult reached them, and this clear indication of Gaius* hostility towards Judaism made them realize that the chances of their getting favourable answers to the questions referred to him were now greatly reduced . l
2
The second hearing of the Jewish and Greek embassies did not occur until after Gaius' ovation, and was held in the gardens of Lamia and Maecenas on the Esquiline. Philo represents the whole interview as a farce. Gaius was having alterations and decorations done to a mansion in the gardens, and the interview was punctuated b y tours of inspection of the buildings, discussions of fittings, and the giving of instructions to the contractors. There must be a good deal of truth in this description, but the interview was nevertheless rather more serious than Philo tries to make out. For he has to admit that Gaius listened to some of the Jews' arguments about their political position . 3
The actual question of the desecration of the Alexandrian syna gogues was not explicitly raised at all, but there was some indecisive discussion of the wider issue of the Jews' exemption from partici pation in the imperial cult in general. For when Gaius answered the Jews' greeting with a sneer about their refusal to acknowledge his divinity, which the Greeks took as a clear indication that the de cision would be given in their favour, Isidorus seized this oppor tunity^ of trying to prejudice the issue b y alleging that the Jews alone among Gaius' subjects had omitted to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving for his recovery from his illness—an omission which was tantamount to disloyalty. This was a false allegation, as the Jews were quick to point out. They reminded Gaius that they had sacrificed hecatombs not only on that occasion but also at his accession and in anticipation of a victory over the Germans. Gaius retorted with perfect truth that these had been sacrifices for him 1
8
8
Leg. 1 8 1 - 4 . Leg. 185-96. See below, p p . 3 1 ff. Leg. 364.
27
THE EMBASSIES TO GAIUS
and were not the same as sacrifices to him, which was what he wanted: i.e., he resented the Jews' privilege of exemption from participation in the imperial cult. Leaving unsettled the question of whether they should retain that privilege, Gaius next sought to satisfy his curiosity on a matter which amused and puzzled the gentiles—the reason for the Jews' abstention from pork. He ap parently found their simple answer that dietary laws varied from people to people adequate, for he then turned to the second of the questions under discussion, that of the political position of the Alexandrian Jews, asking the envoys to explain what rights they had in the city. But he soon wearied of their (no doubt detailed) exposition, and as they talked he wandered round the buildings, paying more attention to matters of glazing and interior decorating than to the patient orators who trailed behind him. The interview ended, however, on a better note than the Jews by this time dared to hope. Gaius dismissed them with nothing worse than the con descending remark that he thought them lunatics rather than criminals for refusing to recognize his godhead . l
After this interview the envoys waited in fear and suspense for the Emperor's decision on the questions submitted to him . What decision, if any, Gaius eventually gave neither Philo nor Josephus indicates. Probably he gave none at all. For the questions were still open when Claudius acceded, and it is very likely that at that time the two embassies were still waiting ineffectively in Rome. 2
E - T H E SETTLEMENT The Alexandrian Jews greeted the news of Gaius' death with a retaliatory attack on their persecutors the Greeks, having spent the time since the riots of 38 in procuring the weapons which they had lacked previously and apparently also in calling in their compatriots from Syria and Egypt as allies . The prefect restored order on instructions from Claudius . Meanwhile in Rome the new Emperor had begun to deal with the Jewish question in Alexandria b y the issue of an edict aimed at giving an immediate, and perhaps only provisional, answer to a 3
4
5
1
8
8
4
6
Leg. Leg. A J
351-68. 368-72. xix,
278
ht
STTXOIS
9jv.
A n inference from Claudius' prohibition in his Letter AJ xix, 279.
Legatio ad Gaium
(96-8). 3
28
INTRODUCTION
pressing problem. His final and considered opinion was to be given some months later in his Letter to Alexandria (published there in November, 41), after the dispute had been laid before him by fresh deputations. The edict restored to the Jews the rights which they had enjoyed in Alexandria before the principate of Gaius, including the right of religious liberty . It thus reinstated the 7roXtTeu(jLa and safeguarded the synagogues. It said nothing, however, about the question of a possible improvement in the Jews' civic status. Shortly afterwards, presumably in the hope of forestalling any repetition of the Alexandrian incidents, Claudius addressed a similar edict to the rest of the empire, confirming for the Jews everywhere the same general privileges . Referring in his Letter to the edict addressed to Alexandria, Claudius says that he has confirmed the Jewish rights there "after hearing both sides" . Some time in the spring or summer of 41 the l
2
3
1
A J x i x , 280-5. A J x i x , 286-01. In the preamble t o the second edict Claudius' titles include consul designatus II, w h i c h is absent from the edict addressed t o Alexandria. In the early empire the consuls for the following year were chosen at the March elections, if those for the current year were t o hold office for the w h o l e of it (Mommsen, Romisches Staatsrecht I (1887), 588-9). There is n o record of suffects having replaced Cn. Sentius Saturninus, Gaius' colleague as consul ordinarius for 4 1 , o r Q . P o m p o n i u s Secundus, w h o t o o k Gaius* place after a few d a y s (see, however, P . - W . s.vv. Sentius 12, c o l . 1 5 3 5 , a n d Pomponius 72, coll. 2349-50). Moreover, A g r i p p a I a n d his" brother H e r o d , w h o m Claudius h a d just appointed king of Chalcis, h a d a hand in the issue of b o t h edicts (AJ x i x , 279, 288), and the former left R o m e for Palestine i m m e d i a t e l y afterwards (AJ x i x , 292). H e is m o r e likely t o h a v e sailed s o o n after the March elections than after those in O c t o b e r . It therefore seems p r o b a b l e (assuming that Jose p h u s has reproduced the d o c u m e n t s accurately) that the edict addressed t o Alexandria was framed before, and the other after, March, 4 1 . Josephus* statement that the Jews attacked the Greeks in A l e x a n d r i a " w h e n Gaius died*' must mean " w h e n t h e y heard the news of Gaius* death*'. T h e normal sea-route from R o m e t o Syria was via Alexandria, and the news is likely t o have been brought b y the messengers w h o t o o k it t o the legate o f S y r i a ; these had a " g o o d v o y a g e " (BJ ii, 203), b u t this p r o b a b l y means well o v e r a m o n t h in the winter. (Cf. the bibliography in the note o n Leg. 1 9 9 TrapaT^OirjxTai v\>v.) It is therefore v e r y unlikely that the Jewish a t t a c k began before March, o r t h a t information a b o u t it reached R o m e before April o r M a y . In that case an e d i c t issued before March c a n n o t have been aimed, as Josephus implies that it was, at checking the recrudescence of violence in Alexandria, b u t w a s issued in ignorance of it. Cf. Balsdon, 144, n. 1. 2
3
3
Lines 87-8. H . S. Jones takes the discrepancy between this a n d Josephus' attribution of b o t h edicts t o the influence of the Jewish princes t o mean t h a t in his Letter Claudius is not referring t o the edict q u o t e d b y Josephus (JRS x v i , (1926), 25). B u t the corollary of this is the unlikely hypothesis t h a t Claudius sent t w o edicts, substantially similar in content, t o Alexandria within a few
THE SETTLEMENT
29
Greeks in Alexandria sent a second embassy, numbering eleven or twelve men , to Rome with the ostensible primary purpose of con gratulating Claudius on his accession, but with the important sub sidiary purposes of making various requests and of trying to get from the new Emperor the ruling on the Jewish question which the earlier embassy had failed to get from Gaius; the recent recurrence of violence in the city also needed explaining. The Jews, as was to be expected, sent a counter-embassy—or rather two embassies . These deputations can hardly have been the representatives of the two sides whose views Claudius heard before issuing his edict. For they can no more have reached Rome by March, 41, the ap parent terminus ante quern for the framing of that edict, than the l
2
months. It is m u c h more p r o b a b l e that the t w o statements are t o b e taken as complementary—that the Jewish princes urged Claudius t o h o l d an inquiry into t h e quarrel and t o a t t e m p t t o settle it, and that Claudius tactfully o m i t t e d t o mention this w h e n writing t o Alexandria, where A g r i p p a was n o t persona grata. Letter, 16-20. O n the number see Bell, / . and C , 30, note o n line 1 9 ; H . S. Jones in JRSxvi (1926), 18. I n / . und Gr., 25 Bell states without argument that there were p r o b a b l y twelve Greeks. Letter, 90-2. See H . Willrich, " Z u m Brief des Kaisers Claudius an die Alexandriner" in Hermes lx (1925), 482-9. In / . andGr., 26-7 Bell a c c e p t s this correction of / . and C , 18, where he postulates o n l y o n e Jewish embassy. W h a t cleavage within the Jewish c o m m u n i t y these t w o embassies represented is a matter of conjecture. T h e m o s t c o n v i n c i n g suggestion seems t o the present writer t o be that o f Willrich, n a m e l y that o n e e m b a s s y represented Jews w h o wanted admission t o Greek citizenship (i.e., Hellenized, " m o d e r n i s t " Jews), while the other represented those w h o repudiated a n y claim t o Greek citizenship as being incompatible with their religion (i.e., the o r t h o d o x ) and w h o were asking the E m p e r o r merely for the preservation of their former privileges ( " A u s d e m neugefundenen Brief des Kaisers Claudius" in Wiener Blatter fur die Freunde der Antike iv (1926), 3 1 - 5 ) . B o x , w h o holds that the J e w s as a c o m m u n i t y wanted Greek citizenship, interprets the less precise formulation of Willrich's t h e o r y in Hermes lx as meaning that " s o m e Jews of Alexandria, feeling a repugnance towards t h e e p h e b i c training, o w i n g t o t h e exhibition of the nude male form, m a y h a v e sent a separate e m b a s s y t o Claudius t o represent their views a n d presumably t o petition for s o m e special arrangement in their c a s e " ( x x i x ) . B u t it has already been argued ( p p . 13-4) that it is unlikely that the w h o l e Jewish c o m m u n i t y wanted Greek citizenship, and furthermore the lyrfiziat. was apparently n o t o p e n t o all Greek citizens b u t o n l y t o a certain section of t h e m (see a b o v e , p . 8, n. 6). Balsdon p u t s forward the alternative t h e o r y (144) that the t w o embassies were representatives respectively o f the minority of Alexandrian Jews w h o possessed Greek citizenship, and of the great mass of Jews w h o d i d not. B u t were the former numerous e n o u g h t o send a separate embassy, and would t h e y have wished t o advertise their nationality b y s o d o i n g ? H a v i n g obtained the c o v e t e d Greek citizenship, t h e y w o u l d surely h a v e felt themselves adequately represented b y the Greek dele gation. 1
8
INTRODUCTION
30
information about the recurrence of violence in Alexandria which greeted the news of Gaius* death can have done . Balsdon's sugges tion that the two parties heard were the embassies of Philo and Isidorus which were still waiting in Rome is entirely plausible. For the fact that neither Isidorus' nor Apion's name appears in the list of the members of the congratulatory delegation suggests that they had not yet returned to Alexandria when the latter delegation was chosen and set out . If b y January, 41, the delegations of Philo and Isidorus had obtained no answer from Gaius to the appeals which they had made to him some months earlier, it was only natural for them to ask the new Emperor for a hearing, in the hope of getting from him the decision which they had failed to get from his predecessor. l
2
3
Some time later Claudius gave a hearing to the Greek congratu latory delegation and its Jewish antagonists, and tried to discover from their presentations of their respective cases where lay the ultimate responsibility for the disturbances of recent years; but without success . When, therefore, in his Letter to Alexandria, which dealt with all the matters laid before him b y the Greeks, he came to the Jewish question, he had to content himself with a rebuke for the disturbances and a warning against any repetition of them, addressed to both sides impartially , before stating the conclusions which he had finally reached on that question. These were that the Jews were old-established residents in Alexandria, and as such were to be allowed to retain the religious liberty which Rome had guar anteed to them since the annexation of Egypt and which his recent 4
6
1
See a b o v e , p . 28, n. 2.
8
143.
8
Cf. the n o t e o n Leg. 1 7 2 T G > V 'AXe5av8p£tov ol Tzpiafeiq. T h e names of the m e m b e r s of the t w o Jewish delegations sent t o Claudius are n o t recorded. St. Jerome mentions P h i l o ' s membership of the e m b a s s y t o Gaius and then a second j o u r n e y of his t o R o m e t o visit Claudius, adding that in R o m e he m e t St. Peter (De Viris Illust. xi=PL. X X I I I , 658-9). Eusebius records a similar tradition and says that during his visit in Claudius' principate Philo read "his a c c o u n t of Gaius' i m p i e t y " t o the senate (HE ii, 1 7 , 1, and 1 8 , 8 ) . T h e meeting with St. Peter a n d the reading in the senate are certainly apocryphal, b u t there m a y be s o m e truth in the story of the visit t o Claudius. If so, it p r o b a b l y d o e s not mean, as G o o d e n o u g h thinks (Light, 79, n. 50), that Philo actually m a d e a second j o u r n e y t o R o m e ; it is rather a reference t o his continued presence t h e r e at the time of Claudius' accession. Letter, 7 3 - 7 . Letter, 7 7 - 8 2 . 4
6
THE SETTLEMENT
31
1
edict had restored , but that they were to remain content with their existing position and extensive advantages in a city to which they did not really belong, and were not to try either to get their rights extended or to usurp privileges which were not legally theirs . In other words, the Jews were to be content with the status and rights of their TroXiTeojxa, and were to cease irritating the Greeks either b y agitating for legal admission to Greek citizenship or by trying to acquire it by irregular means. Thus the restoration of the Jews' 7roXtTeu[jLa and of their religious liberty effected some months earlier by Claudius* edict was now confirmed, but the question of a possible improvement in their civic status, which the edict had not touched, was decided in favour of the Greeks by a definite rejection of the Jewish claim. It was a statesmanlike and impartial solution, aimed both at rectifying the harm done to the Jews during Gaius* principate and at pacifying the Greeks . 2
3
F - G A I U S * ATTACK ON T H E TEMPLE The troubles in Palestine during the last year of Gaius* life are recounted by Josephus in both his historical works as well as by Philo in the Legatio, and they receive a brief notice from Tacitus . The versions of the two Jewish writers differ considerably, both in the details of the incident and in the indications which they give of its chronology, and in some places they contradict rather than supplement each other. The discrepencies have been the subject of much discussion, and several attempts have been made to recon cile them or dovetail them into one another . On general grounds 4
5
1
Letter, 82-8. * Letter, 88-95. W h e t h e r the phrase £7ua7ra(peiv ( ? iTreiaTrafeiv) yuixvamapxtxotc xoa|jL7jTixot^ i y w a t means " t o force their w a y i n t o games run b y the g y m nasiarchs and c o s m e t a e " o r " t o force their w a y into the elections for the offices o f . . . . " (see Bell, / . and C , 3 7 ) , the general sense of the prohibition is the s a m e : the J e w s are n o t t o exercise privileges b e l o n g i n g o n l y t o Greek citizens. F o r fuller studies of Claudius' t r e a t m e n t of the Jewish p r o b l e m in A l e x a n dria see Bell, / . and C, 1 0 - 2 1 ; / . und Gr., 2 4 - 7 ; H . S. Jones, "Claudius a n d the Jewish question at A l e x a n d r i a " in JRS x v i (1926), 1 7 - 3 5 ; T . Reinach, " L ' e m pereur Claude et les Juifs d'apres un n o u v e a u d o c u m e n t " in RE J l x x i x (1924), 113-44. Leg. 1 8 4 - 3 4 8 ; AJ xviii, 2 6 1 - 3 1 0 ; BJ ii, 184-203; T . H. v , 9. F o r the b i b l i o g r a p h y a n d for a r g u m e n t s in favour of the chronological scheme a d o p t e d in this edition see t h e present writer, " T h e c h r o n o l o g y of Gaius* a t t e m p t t o desecrate the T e m p l e " in Latomus x v i ( 1 9 5 7 ) , 3 ' 7 ' » the notes o n Leg. 1 9 9 ff. 3
4
5
1
INTRODUCTION
32
Philo is, in the present writer's opinion, to be preferred to Josephus as an authority for the incident. First, although he was not a Pal estinian, he was a contemporary of the events which he is des cribing and to some extent a participant in them; for Gaius' attack on the Temple was linked in its chronology with the movements of Philo's embassy b y the fact that information about it reached that embassy in Italy, and Philo was almost certainly in touch with Agrippa I there at the time of the latter's successful intercession on behalf of the Temple . Therefore, although the Legatio does not comprise a straightforward history, the indications of chronology in it are likely to be more reliable than those of Josephus, who was writing some fifty years later. Secondly, Josephus' account includes "fairy-tale" elements, the presence of which tells against the credibility of the whole—rain from a cloudless sky , a sumptuous banquet followed b y the offer of a boon , and an order to commit suicide, delayed in transit until it was invalid . Thirdly, the fact that the chronological indications which Josephus gives for the opening of the episode are not acceptable throws doubt on the reliability of the rest of his narrative. For these reasons, in the account of the general course of events here given Philo's version is followed in preference to that of Josephus, where the two seem to be irreconcilable. l
2
3
4
5
During the winter of 39-40 the Jews in Jamnia destroyed an altar which had been built b y the Greek minority resident in the town for the express purpose, according to Philo, of annoying their fellow-townsmen. The Greeks reported the destruction to Herennius Capito, the procurator of the imperial estate in which Jamnia lay, who informed Gaius. During the spring Gaius, egged on by his anti-Semitic courtiers, Helicon and the Ascalonite actor Apelles, decided, that, as a punishment for the Jewish outrage, a colossal gilded statue of himself in the guise of Zeus should be made and erected in the Temple, thus converting it into a shrine of the imperial
1
See the note o n Leg. 276. A J xviii, 285. A J xviii, 289-300. A J x v i i i , 3 0 3 - 1 0 ; BJ ii, 2 0 3 ; discussed in the n o t e o n Leg. 2 5 9 l7ratvd>v aurfcv. A J x v i i i , 2 6 1 , discussed in the note o n Leg. 207 xeXeuei y«P IleTpwvtcp TG> T7fc Luptag aTrdtarj; uTtapxco. 1
8
4
6
GAIUS' ATTACK ON THE TEMPLE
33
l
c u l t . He instructed P. Petronius, the legate of Syria, to have a statue made and to take two of the four legions comprising the garrison of his province with him when he went to Jerusalem to set the statue in position, in order to crush any resistance which the Jews might offer . Petronius, realizing the folly of Gaius' decision and fearing that the Jews of the eastern Diaspora would join in the opposition which the Jews of Palestine would inevitably offer to the desecration of the Temple, began to carry out his orders without enthusiasm. The fact that the statue was not sent out from Rome ready-made but had to be constructed locally gave him time to consider how best to proceed. He wrote to Gaius, merely acknowledging his order formally and notifying him of his plan of action . After making arrangements for the construction of the statue in Sidon, at a safe distance from Palestine, he summoned the Jewish leaders, probably to his headquarters at Antioch, for the purpose of informing them of the Emperor's command and of urging them to try to persuade the rest of the population to submit to the desecration quietly. He can hardly have been surprised when his suggestion met with a flat refusal; the Jewish leaders said that they would rather die than witness such an outrage . Stiff opposition was clearly to be expected as soon as the Jews at large heard the news, and Petronius therefore immediately collected two legions and marched south to Ptolemais in Phoenicia, just north of the t Galilaean f frontier. It was by now about May, 40, and the grain harvest was at its height when at Ptolemais Petronius was confronted by a vast concourse of J e w s men, women, and children—who had streamed out from their province to stage mass demonstrations before him. Their repeated protestations that they would rather be killed or commit suicide than suffer the defilement of the Temple made Petronius realize that, if he insisted on carrying out Gaius* command, a Jewish revolt would result . He refused the permission for which the Jews asked 2
3
4
5
6
1
Leg. 199-206. Leg. 2 0 7 - 8 ; A J x v i i i , 2 6 1 ; BJ ii, 1 8 5 . A J xviii, 262. Leg. 209-24. O n t h e p l a c e o f Petronius* conference with the Jewish leaders see the n o t e o n 222 (xeTa7r£|i7reTai. Leg. 249. Leg. 2 2 5 - 4 4 ; A J x v i i i , 2 6 2 - 9 ; B J ii, 1 8 7 , 1 9 2 . Tacitus' statement t h a t the J e w s t o o k u p a r m s (H. v . 9) is discussed in the n o t e o n Leg. 226. 8
8
4
6
6
34
INTRODUCTION l
to send an embassy to plead their case before Gaius , and, leaving f his troops at Ptolemais, he hurried with his personal staff to Tiberias, the capital of Galilee which had just come under the rule of Agrippa I.f There further appeals were made and further mass demonstrations occurred, this time of considerable duration. During the course of them Petronius conferred with a number of the Jewish leaders, who begged him to write to Gaius on their behalf. Their pleas, together with the obvious earnestness of the common people, who reiterated the assurance given by the demonstrators at Ptolemais that they would willingly die in the defence of the sanctity of the Temple, confirmed Petronius' conviction that a revolt was imminent and decided him to write to Gaius, even at the risk of bringing the imperial wrath down on his own head . In his letter he apologized for the fact that the statue had not yet been set up in the Temple, and blamed the delay partly on the time taken over its construction and partly on Jewish opposition. The Jews, he explained, had conscientious objections to the scheme, so strong that they were neglecting the agricultural operations of the season, and he was afraid lest they might deliberately destroy the standing corn in the fields, and perhaps even sabotage the fruitcrop in the autumn; the famine which was likely to result would be inconvenient when Gaius travelled, as he intended to do in the near future, to Alexandria via the coasts of Syria and Palestine. He mentioned the impending danger of a Jewish revolt and the loss of revenue which this would entail, and finally openly suggested that the project should be dropped . At the same time he sought to gain further delay by instructing the craftsmen employed on the statue to work as slowly and carefully as possible . 1
3
4
5
Petronius' letter annoyed Gaius greatly, but in his reply he concealed the irritation which he felt at the legate's presumption in pleading the Jews' cause and in offering him advice—for he realiz ed that a provincial governor with an army behind him was a dangerous person to provoke—and he merely instructed him to proceed with the dedication of the statue as quickly as possible, since the harvest was bound to be in by the time his reply arrived . fl
1
• • 4
• •
Leg. 2 3 9 - 4 1 . 247. f BJ ii, 1 9 2 ; cf. 2 0 1 . t A J xviii, 269-83; BJ ii, 1 9 3 - 2 0 1 ; Leg. 248 a n d the n o t e Leg. 2 4 8 - 5 4 ; A J xviii, 287, 3 0 2 ; BJ ii, 202. Leg. 246 a n d note. Leg. 254-60.
ImaxlXkuv.
GAIUS' ATTACK ON THE TEMPLE
35
It was late August or early September b y the time this letter reached Petronius, who had remained at Ptolemais with his troops while awaiting it in order to keep an eye on the situation in Palestine . Even after its arrival he still managed to find some excuse, unknown to us, for continuing to postpone the execution of Gaius* instruc tions for a further month or more. Then unexpected news came. Shortly before Petronius had made Gaius* order known to the Jewish leaders, Agrippa I had left his kingdom for Italy, perhaps with the intention of being present at Gaius* ovation on 31st August. He arrived there in complete ignorance of the whole affair some time in August, soon after Gaius had dispatched his reply to Petronius* letter . Gaius was still fuming with rage at the con tents of Petronius* letter, and realized that Agrippa was noticing that there was something amiss. One day in September, when they were back in Rome after the ovation, he told Agrippa about his order for the desecration of the Temple and about the attitude which the Jews had taken up. The shock of this totally unexpected dis closure was so great that Agrippa was seized with a stroke and collapsed. When he had recovered sufficiently from the illness which followed, he wrote Gaius a lengthy, reasoned, and well-documented letter, begging him to follow the example of his imperial predeces sors and their subordinates, who had always shown toleration and even favour towards the Jews, and not to violate the sanctity of the Temple. This made more impression on Gaius than Petronius' letter had done, and out of consideration for his friendship with Agrippa he agreed to cancel his order . He accordingly wrote to Petronius, instructing him to abandon the whole project and dismiss his army. The Jews in their turn, he said, were to repay the consider ation which he thus showed for their feelings b y refraining from molesting any attempts made b y gentile residents to introduce the imperial cult outside Jerusalem . Petronius* relief must have been great when in October, 40, or later he received this letter and was able to set the Jews free from fear and to take his army back to Antioch. l
2
3
4
According to Philo, after rescinding his order at Agrippa's re1
See the n o t e o n Leg. 248 imoT&Xciv. Leg. 2 6 1 . Leg. 2 6 1 - 3 3 3 . Leg. 333-4. O n Josephus* version o f Gaius' letter t o P e t r o n i u s (AJ x v i i i , 300-1) see the n o t e o n Leg. 333 [Lrftzv lizl TCO fepa> T W V 'IouSalwv I T I vewxepov xiveiv. 1
8
4
36
INTRODUCTION
quest, Gaius later went back on his word and reissued it, but with the difference that he now proposed to have the statue made in Rome, to take it with him on his forthcoming eastern tour, and to have it erected in the Temple without warning the Jews in advance of his purpose. This change of mind, if it is historical, must belong to the last few months of Gaius' life . But no attempt was ever made to implement the decision, for on 24th January, 41, the Emperor was assassinated. Had such an attempt been made, a largescale Jewish revolt would undoubtedly have followed. The timely daggers of Cassius Chaerea and his associates thus prevented the disastrous events of 66-70 from being ante-dated b y twenty-five years. l
G - T H E T R E A T I S E LEGATIO AD GAIUM Seven codices were used by Reiter for his text of the Legatio, namely: Parisinus Graecus 435, eleventh century (C) Laurentianus X 20, early thirteenth century (M) Monacensis Graecus 459, thirteenth century (A) Venetus Graecus 40, fourteenth century (H) Vaticano-Palatinus Graecus 248, fourteenth century (G) Bononiensis Graecus 3568, fourteenth-fifteenth century ( 0 ) Parisinus Graecus 433, sixteenth century (L)
2
Of these L and C were used by Turnebus for the Legatio in his editio princeps (1552), and M and A in addition b y Mangey (1742). On A and H depend families of codices not used individually by Reiter. M, although not a member of the A family, is closely con nected with A in that both are derived, through different channels, from the same archetype. L is a member of the H family, but it holds a unique place therein, in that it has been corrected from the fourteenth century codex Vaticanus 379, and that two treatises, absent from the H family, have been added to it from the same codex. For the text of Philo no one MS is consistently superior. C, although the oldest, is not textually the best, since it contains many 1
Leg. 3 3 7 - 8 and notes. T h e greater p a r t o f this c o d e x is o c c u p i e d b y Josephus* BJ. treatise of Philo is included. a
N o other
THE
TREATISE LEGATIO AD GAIUM
37
mistakes in spelling, accentuation, and the division of words. The MSS of the Legatio clearly fall into two groups, one reading being frequently common to CGO, which derive from a common arche type, and a different one to MAH, as the apparatus criticus of any page of Reiter* s edition shows. The former group tends to be the more reliable, but many correct readings are preserved b y the latter. The codices of Philo are fully discussed b y Cohn in C.-W.-R. I and IV Prolegomena. For those used for the text of the Legatio see especially I, iv-xvii, xxxi-xxxv, IV, i-ii, and VI, xxxviii. These codices are discussed b y Reiter with reference to details of the text of the Legatio in VI, lviii-lxxii. On the editions of Turnebus, Mangey, and others see I, lxx-lxxxii, and V I , lxxii-lxxvi. Our knowledge of the title of the treatise now generally referred to as Legatio ad Gaium and of the structure of Philo's historical works in general depends on the evidence of the titles given in the codices and on allusions to the treatise in later writers, of which those of Eusebius are the most numerous and the most important. Philo makes no cross reference from the Legatio to the In Flaccum or vice versa. CGOM give as the title OtXcovo? dcpeT&v a (a omitted by M) 6 !<m TYJ; auTou izpeofizioLc; 7cpo<; Taiov. The H family gives the abbreviation Ilepi aperwv xal Tzpzafizicu; npbq Tatov, while the A family has OtXtovo? 'IouSatou l<JToptareavox p ^ f i o s xal &y£ki[LO$
7repl TCOV XOCTIX T6V Tatov TTjs a m a s TYJS 7rp6s dbrav TO 'Iou&aUov !0vos a7cex0eta<; OCUTOO. The second part of this last title is no more than a quotation from the last section of the treatise as we have it. Eusebius makes five references to Philo's historical works relevant to the present discussion, ( i ) In HE ii, 5, 1 he says that Philo "has related in five books what happened to the Jews in the time of Gaius; in this single work he describes Gaius' insanity, telling how he declared himself a god and perpetrated innumerable outrageous acts during his principate, and the sufferings of the Jews in his time, and the embassy on which he himself was sent to the city of Rome on behalf of his compatriots in Alexandria, and the story of how, when he appeared before Gaius on behalf of his ancestral laws, he received nothing but laughter and ridicule, and almost endangered his life". This summarizes the contents of our Legatio. (2) After xal
1
1
6[io0.
38
INTRODUCTION
quoting verbatim Josephus' account of the Alexandrian riots and the embassies to Gaius (HE ii, 5, 2 - 5 = , 4 / xviii, 257-60), Eusebius goes on "In the Legatio which he composed Philo himself relates accurately the details of what he did at that time. Most of this I shall pass over, mentioning only those points which give my readers a clear picture of the events which happened to the Jews both then and not long afterwards as a result of the crimes against Christ"; he then mentions as topics dealt with by Philo in this work the anti-Jewish policy of Sejanus (in terms which recall Leg. 160), an attack by Pilate on the Temple , and the very serious injuries inflicted on the Jews by Gaius. To illustrate the last point he quotes Leg. 346 verbatim. The next sentence runs "The same writer relates countless other indescribable atrocities, perpetrated on the Jews in Alexandria under the aforesaid Emperor, in the second of the books entitled On the Virtues" (HE ii, 5, 6-6, 3). This could be a reference to the In Flaccum or to the Legatio, as both include des criptions of the Alexandrian riots. (3) In HE ii, 18, 8, at the end of his catalogue of Philo's works, Eusebius mentions "his account of Gaius' impiety, which he entitled, in mockery and irony, On the Virtues". (4) In the Chronicle Eusebius says that Philo described Sejanus' anti-Jewish policy in libro Legationis secundo (Tib. X X I ) . (5) A little further on in the same work he says that Philo recorded the attack on the Alexandrian Jews in eo libro cui "Flaccus" inscribitur (Gaius I-II). l
2
3
Ioannes Damascenus quotes in the Sacra Parallela from works entitled TOC xaxa (or npbc) OXaxxov, and TO (or T £ ) npo$ Tatov or 7rp6s Taiov nptofizioi . Photius mentions X6yo? ou Y) emy?*?*) Fcuo; i\iey6[izvo$ xal OXaxxos Y; OXaxxtov ^ey6fxevoc, a phrase on which Schurer comments "also zwei X6yoi" . From these passages two conclusions can be drawn about the structure of Philo's historical works. First, the distinction which Eusebius (Chronicle) and the later writers make between Philo's 4
5
1
On the discrepancy between Leg. 299-305 and Eusebius* s u m m a r y of P h i l o ' s a c c o u n t of Pilate here, see the note o n Leg. 299 imxpuaou; &<m®*$ • • • • TWV dcrnjyoptufiivcjv. T h e reading of the last six w o r d s is discussed b e l o w . F o r rj6o; in the sense o f " m o c k e r y " or " i r o n y " see W . Kroll in Philologus l x x v (1918), 73*4References in Schurer, I I I , 6 7 7 , n. 1 1 8 ; C . - W . - R . V I , xl, 1, lix. O n the compilation itself see C . - W . - R . I, lxiii-lxvii. Bibliotheca c o d . 105. Schurer, I I I , 6 7 7 . 8
8
4
6
THE TREATISE LEGATIO AD GAIUM
39
work on Flaccus and his other work suggests that our In Flaccum and our Legatio are to be regarded as separate works and not as parts of the same work. Secondly, the first four passages of Euse bius, taken together, indicate that Philo wrote a work in five books dealing with Jewish fortunes under Gaius and alternatively en titled Ilepl 'Apercov and *H npeajleia (Legatio). Of this work our Legatio formed the whole or a part. The most puzzling remark of Eusebius is the last sentence of the second passage. The accepted text, h SeuT^pw auYYP*f l 4> Ypa^ev Ilepl 'Apcrcov, can only be translated "in the second treatise entitled On the Virtues". With this reading the words Seurepov ouYYpa{jLfi.a could not mean the second book of the treatise in five books, but must mean another, distinct work. Goodenough identifies this second treatise with the In Flaccum . This would harmonize with Eusebius* summary of the contents of the second treatise. The reading of two MSS, however, &v erceypa^ev, gives a meaning in accordance with Rufinus* rendering in secundo operis sui de virtutibus libro . As Ilepl 'Apertov clearly was an alternative title to H npea^eia, while there is no evidence that it was ever used as an alternative title for the In Flaccum, the adoption of the reading which makes HE ii, 6, 3 a reference to a part of the work in five books is attractive. JL JLaTt
x
2
C
Before considering the problem of the relation between the five books entitled Ilepl 'Apercov or H npea(3ei<x and the extant Legatio, a word must be said about these alternative titles. It seems likely that "The Embassy" was a subtitle, whether given by Philo or later, to a work principally entitled "On the Virtues", and that it tended to displace the original title, the meaning of which was not readily understood outside Jewish circles. Eusebius himself mis understood it when he wrote in HE ii, 18, 8 that Philo entitled his account of Gaius* impiety Ilepl 'Ape-roW "in mockery and irony". The majority of scholars now seem to be of the opinion that the phrase is not used ironically to mean "On Gaius' Vices" , but is f
3
1
Politics, 9 - 1 0 . See K i r s o p p Lake's edition ( L o e b ) , notes ad loc.\ Colson in his In troduction, xviii, n o t e c. Cf. Schurer, I I I , 6 8 1 - 2 , with L . Cohn's c o m m e n t in "Einleitung u n d Chronologie der Schriften P h i l o s " (in Philologus Suppl. V I I (1899). 389-436), 424Colson, h o w e v e r , thinks this interpretation n o t c o m p l e t e l y impossible (see his Introduction, x i v - x v ) . M. L . Massebieau regarded the title as an ironical reference t o the dcperafc (Leg. 8 1 , 9 1 , 98) o f the deities with w h o m Gaius 8
8
40
INTRODUCTION
used in the specifically Jewish sense of apeTY)=0eta Suvajxi;. This sense of the word is found in the Septuagint and in the New Testa ment. The title, perhaps originally made more precise in the form Ilepl 'Apertov 0eou, would mean "the manifestation of God's power in the defence of His chosen people" . The theme underlying this treatise and the In Flaccum is the belief that the vengeance of God is bound to descend on the persecutors of the Jews, whose rights are thereby vindicated . Schurer, like most students of the problem of Philo's work in five books, supposed that a good deal of his historical writings had been lost besides the section at the beginning of the In Flaccum on Sejanus' anti-Jewish policy, which is presupposed by the opening words of the treatise as extant , and the missing palinode promised at the end of the Legatio. He thought that the In Flaccum and the Legatio were both parts of the treatise Ilepl 'Ape-rcov in five books, since Eusebius' catalogue of Philo's works in HE ii, 18, otherwise fairly complete, mentions no other historical work. He suggested that the first of the five books was introductory, the second covered the attacks of Sejanus and Pilate, the third was our In Flaccum, the fourth our Legatio, which he regarded as complete in itself, and the last the palinode . This theory is now rejected b y many scholars . For it disregards both the clear distinction drawn by l
2
3
4
6
e q u a t e d himself; " L e classement des oeuvres d e P h i l o n " (in Bibliothhque de VEcole des Hautes Etudes\ Sciences Religieuses i (1899), 1 - 9 1 ) , 7 7 , n. 2. Isaiah xlii, 8 a n d 1 2 ; xliii, 2 1 ; lxiii, 7 ; I Peter ii, 9 ; II Peter i, 3. See further S. Reiter, "'Apery) und der Titel v o n Philos Legatio" in 'ETTITUJXJSIOV H. Swoboda dargebracht (1927), 2 2 8 - 3 7 ; B o x , x x x v i i i ; Colson in his Introduction, x v - x v i ; cf. W . W e b e r in Hermes 1 ( 1 9 1 5 ) , 7 2 - 5 . Other suggestions h a v e been m a d e : e.g., Delaunay t h o u g h t t h a t the reference was t o the Jews' courage in withstanding Gaius' a t t a c k on the T e m p l e (88); H . Leisegang d e v e l o p e d this thesis and suggested that the t h e m e o f the treatise was the " v i r t u e " w h i c h the Jews were" driven b y Gaius t o display in their opposition t o his claim t o d i v inity ("Philons Schrift iiber die Gesandtschaft der alexandrinischen Juden u n d den Kaiser Gaius Caligula" in JBL lvii (1938), 3 7 7 - 4 0 5 ) . * See the a c c o u n t of Flaccus* punishment with w h i c h the In Flaccum e n d s ; cf. the note o n Leg. 3 7 3 TYJV 7raXivco8iav. See B o x , xxxiii ff. I I I , 6 7 7 - 8 3 ; cf. I, 5 0 1 , n. 1 7 4 . T h e view expressed in the fourth edition is substantially the s a m e as that in the second (1886), 855-60, and is not greatly modified as a result of his acquaintance with the w o r k of Massebieau and Conn (see b e l o w ) . • It is, however, accepted b y Bell, / . and C, 1 6 ; H . S. Jones in JRS x v i (1926), 2 2 ; H . L e w y , Philon von Alexandrien "Von der Machterweisen Gottes" (1935). 7. 1
8
4
THE TREATISE LEGATIO AD GAIUM
41
Eusebius and others between Philo's work on Flaccus and his other work, and the fact that the MSS give the treatises separately and under distinct titles; and Schurer's attempt to reconcile Eusebius' statement that the Jewish troubles in Alexandria were described ev Seo-repco auYYP«fi.[iaTt with the position of third which he assigns to the In Flaccum where they are related most fully does not carry conviction. Massebieau , stressing the differences of emphasis and the lack of co-ordination between the In Flaccum and the Legatio, and C o h n , stressing the distinction drawn b y Eusebius and others between Philo's works on Flaccus and Gaius respectively, denied that the two treatises could have formed parts of the same work. They argued therefore that Philo wrote two historical works—the In Flaccum, originally beginning with the lost section on Sejanus, and the five books entitled Ilepl 'Apexcov or ' H npe
2
3
4
5
6
1
Op. cit., 7 2 - 8 . Op. cit., 4 2 1 - 4 . Delaunay had previously observed "la transition est ici peu i n d i q u e e " (274, n. 2). See Reiter, appar. crit. p . 189, 1. See Reiter, appar. crit. p . 2 1 9 , 5. Cf. Delaunay, 3 8 1 , n. 2. • See Reiter, appar. crit. p . 208, 20. Cf. Colson's n o t e ad loc. D e l a u n a y suggested (325, n. 2) that there was a lacuna between 161 and 1 6 2 , b u t later scholars have n o t followed him, and n o n e is marked at that point b y Reiter. 8
8
4
6
42
INTRODUCTION
was introductory, containing the first chapter of our Legatio (1-7) and an account of the dispatch of the embassies. Book II dealt with the persecutions of Sejanus and Pilate (Eus. Chron. Tib. X X I ; HE ii, 5, 7) and the Jewish sufferings in Alexandria under Gaius (HE ii, 6, 3 ) , and included our Leg. 8-177. Book III comprised Leg. 178-348, and covered Gaius' attempt to set up his statue in the Temple. Book IV comprised Leg. 349-73, the story of the envoys' second hearing. Book V was the palinode. This theory that our Legatio is an abridgement or mutilation of a work in five books is accepted b y Juster, Goodenough, Reiter, and Box, who discusses the whole problem . Balsdon expresses no preference as between the theories of Schurer and Massebieau-Cohn. l
2
3
4
More recently Colson has produced a different theory about the "five books", based on two main points. First, on the evidence of Eusebius, HE ii, 5, 6-7 earlier scholars assumed that Philo devoted a whole book, or a large part of one, to Jewish sufferings at the hands of Sejanus and Pilate. But, Colson argues, in that passage Eusebius is not giving a list of Philo's works but is merely concerned to show that Jewish sufferings dated from the Crucifixion, and the passages about Sejanus and Pilate in our Legatio (159-61; 299-305), although short, are adequate to illustrate his thesis. There is no need to postulate a fuller, lost account of the activities of either. Indeed, the statement in HE ii, 5, 1 that the "five books" were concerned with Gaius' principate does not support the idea that a full description of persecutions under Tiberius was included. Secondly, Colson denies Massebieau's and Cohn's contention that there are serious lacunae in the Legatio as we have it . He main tains, with Schurer , that the work is not a historical treatise giving a straightforward account of the dispatch and fortunes of the Jewish embassy, as its popular title misleadingly suggests, but an invective 5
6
1
On the interpretation o f HE ii, 6, 3 see a b o v e , p . 3 9 . If G o o d e n o u g h ' s interpretation of it is accepted, it does n o t invalidate the Massebieau-Cohn theory, o r that of Colson (below) a b o u t the division o f the material into five b o o k s , since those theories coincide in regarding the In Flaccum as a separate w o r k . It merely r e m o v e s o n e piece of corroborative evidence for the details of the division. Juster, I, 6, n. 2 ; G o o d e n o u g h , Politics, 9 ; Reiter, l x ; B o x , x x x i i - x x x v i i . 221-2. In his Introduction, x v i - x x v i . See especially his c o m m e n t s o n the generally accepted lacuna after section 7 (Introduction, x x - x x i ) . • I, 5 0 1 , n. 1 7 4 . 2
3
4
6
THE TREATISE LEGATIO AD GAIUM
43
against Gaius, the embassy being introduced merely when Philo relates his personal experiences as illustrations of his main theme; and that in such a work sudden transitions are not out of place. In effect, then, Colson has reverted to Schurer's belief that, apart from the missing palinode, the Legatio as we have it is complete, although he differs widely from him in his conception of its relation to the "five books". For he suggests that our Legatio in itself consti tuted four of the five books (the fifth being the palinode), distri buted as follows. Book I, consisting of Leg. 1-113, dealt with Gaius* general degeneration. Book II comprised Leg. 114-61, covering the Alexandrian riots and the contrast which they offered to the pre vious treatment of the Jews under Roman rule; it thus contained both the topics which Eusebius places in the "second book"—the Alexandrian riots (HE ii, 6, 3) and Sejanus* anti-Jewish policy (Chron. Tib. X X I ) . Book III comprised Leg. 162-348 and covered events outside Alexandria—the envoys' first hearing and Gaius' attack on the Temple. Book IV, consisting of Leg. 349 to the end, described the envoys' second hearing. Colson argues that the short ness of book IV is no obstacle to his theory. Schurer, Massebieau, and Cohn agree in regarding the missing palinode as the last of the "five books". Eusebius says that in his five books Philo related "what happened to the Jews in the time of Gaius". There is no great difficulty in supposing that this phrase was used loosely to cover the events immediately after his death as well, if they were the subject of the palinode . A greater difficulty lies in the fact that Eusebius* summary of the contents of the five books (HE ii, 5, 1) ends with a reference to Gaius' hearing of the embassies and does not mention the subject-matter of the palinode. This strongly suggests that the five books ended with the end of our Legatio and that the palinode was a projected sixth book which death prevented Philo from writing. To meet this difficulty Colson offers a possible alternative division of our treatise into five books, his "inordinately long" book III being subdivided between sections 260 and 261. But this, he comments, "would not be very logical, as the story of the statue is a continuous whole which does not admit of any real break". The problem of the structure of Philo's historical works and his "five books" is one for which a certain solution is probably un attainable. l
1
See t h e n o t e o n Leg. 3 7 3 rrjv 7roXivcp8tav.
Legatio ad Gaium
4
A D D I T I O N A L NOTES I (see p . 16 and the n o t e o n Leg. 3 5 5 6 'ImScopo;)
P. Oxy. 1089 records an apparently clandestine meeting between Flaccus and the nationalists Isidorus and Dionysius in the temple of Sarapis. The meeting has sometimes been connected with the agreement made between the two parties early in 38 for the "sur render" of the Jews. A. S. Hunt suggested in his original publication of the papyrus that the "elder" who figures in the scene was a member of the Jewish yepouaia (The Oxyrhynchus Papyri VIII (1911), 116). A. von Premerstein, who re-edited the text, followed up this suggestion b y interpreting the papyrus as a description of an episode, not recorded by Philo, in the negotiations of the nation alists with Flaccus in the early summer of 38. Restoring g[x|7rXo]o<; in the lacuna in lines 56-7, he held that the nationalists were asking for an exit-permit for a journey to Rome (cf. above, p. 15, n. 5), and that Flaccus was demanding the high bribe of five talents for it ("Zu den sogenannten alexandrinischen Marty rerakten" in Philologus Suppl. X V I , Heft ii (1923), 4-14). Box accepted von Premerstein's restoration and interpretation (lvi-lvii). Bell placed the episode somewhat later, thinking that it might refer to the time after the riots, before the dispatch of the embassies to Gaius (J. und Gr. 21-2). t
Later, however, von Premerstein linked P. Oxy. 1089 with the "yepovaia-papyrus" (P. Giessen 46), which he published in Schriften der Ludwigs-Universitdt zu Giessen v (1939). He suggested there that the. "elder" was a member of a Greek yepouata in Alexandria, and that the episode related in P. Oxy. 1089 had after all nothing to do with the Jewish question. Musurillo in his re-publication of P. Oxy. 1089 (A A, 93-104) is inclined to accept this last view of the identity of the "elder". He describes von Premerstein's restoration of S[x|7rXo]o; in lines 56-7, on which the theory of the exit-permit is based, as "impos sible. Not only is the word too long for the lacuna, but the c is certainly at the end of 1. 56, its middle bar being extended in the usual space-filling flourish. The theory of an exit-permit is indeed
ADDITIONAL NOTES
45
attractive, but it cannot be based on this passage". In his treatment of the document Musurillo is much more cautious than von Premer stein, who was apt to build fanciful interpretations on drastic restorations. He concludes that, if we leave aside all conjecture, we can be certain only that Flaccus is represented as conducting some underhand business with the Greeks. Although the large sum of money mentioned may have been Flaccus* price for conniving at the Jewish persecution, there is no proof that the negotiations had any connection at all with that event. Musurillo suggests that the document may represent the prefect engaging in usury. In any case, even if the interpretation of the document were secure, it is doubtful whether it should be regarded as fully historical or as merely as piece of historical fiction. It is therefore wiser to leave it out of any attempt at reconstructing what went on behind the scenes in Alexandria during 38.
II (see p p . 1 9 ff. and Leg.
132-7)
In the In Flaccum Philo mentions only the desecration of the synagogues b y the introduction of portraits of Gaius, while in the much fuller account in the Legatio he describes also the destruction of many by arson and demolition. In the In Flaccum the attack on the synagogues precedes that on the Jews' civic rights, while in the Legatio the order of events is reversed. Several scholars, accepting the order of events in the In Flaccum, have interpreted the attack on the synagogues as meaning that, when the excitement of the Carabas episode had died down, the Greeks realized that they were in danger of suffering reprisals from Agrippa's friend Gaius when it was reported to him, and so attempt ed to distract his attention b y a specious display of loyalty: they would place the Emperor's portraits in the synagogues. So, e.g., Bell, / . and C, 16; / . undGr., 19; and in JRS xxxi (1941), 6-7; H. S. Jones in JRS xvi (1926), 23; S. Tracy, Philo Judaeus and the Roman Principate (1933), 27-8; Box, xlii-xliii. This is certainly a very attractive theory in itself, and it provides a reason for the out break of violence against the Jewish community, which must other wise be attributed to wanton viciousness on the part of the Greeks. But apart from the fact that there is no definite statement of this
46
INTRODUCTION
motivation in either of Philo's accounts, two considerations tell against this interpretation of the episode. First, it would have been risky (as Box admits, I.e.) for the Greeks to try to atone for an insult to Agrippa by an onslaught on the religion of his nationals, which it had hitherto been the policy of Rome to protect. The second and more important point is that in the account in the Legatio Philo says, after speaking of the burning and demolition of many of the synagogues, "the synagogues which (the Greeks) could not destroy either by fire or by demolition, because large numbers of Jews lived crowded together close by, they outraged in a different way, which involved the overthrow of our laws and customs. They placed portraits of Gaius in all of t h e m . . . " (Leg. 134). It seems clear from this significant passage that the Greeks' primary aim was to deprive the Jews of their places of worship b y destroying them. Desecration was resorted to only as a second-best in cases where wholesale destruction proved impracticable. Erecting an effigy of Gaius and performing an act of worship before it could be done more quickly and unobtrusively than destroying a building or burning it down, and therefore this method of rendering the synagogues unfit for Jewish worship was adopted in areas sufficiently thickly popu lated by Jews for attempts at demolition or arson to be observed and resisted. The placing of portraits of Gaius in the synagogues was, as Philo says in Leg. 137, merely a means to the end of injuring the Jews, and not an end in itself. Indeed, had the Greeks really wanted to honour Gaius, they would not have incidentally brought about the destruction of the dedications made in honour of the Emperors by the Jews in the synagogues (Leg. 133). On the whole, therefore, it seems most probable that the Greek mob, excited by the success of the Carabas episode, simply lost control of itself and acted com pletely recklessly in disregard of possible consequences, and that the motive behind its behaviour was not self-protection but mere jealousy and hatred of the Jews. If the motivation suggested by Bell and others for the attack on the synagogues is rejected, there is then no necessity to suppose that this attack preceded that on the Jews' civic rights and the accompanying riots. It is quite possible that the attack on the synagogues occurred while the riots were in progress. But if a choice must be made between the order of events in the two treatises, that given in the In Flaccum seems preferable. When Philo says that desecration was effected in areas where "large numbers of Jews
ADDITIONAL NOTES
47
lived crowded together" (Leg. 134), he seems to be describing parts of Alexandria before the institution of the ghetto rather than the ghetto itself. If this interpretation is correct, the phrase supports the order of events given in the In Flaccum. Furthermore, from the Greek point of view the attack on the Jews' civic rights was a more serious thing than the attack on their religion, and the latter can have been regarded as a prelude to the achievement of the former— their real aim. From the Jewish point of view, however, the attack on their religion was the more serious offence, and Box makes the convincing suggestion that in the Legatio, where wider issues than merely the Alexandrian situation are under discussion, "to have mentioned the Alexandrian pogrom after dwelling on the signifi cance of the innovation in Jewish religious law would have been an anti-climax" (lviii-lix). Philo does not say that the Jews resisted the Greek attack on the synagogues, but Box maintains that this is a "necessary de duction" from his account (lix), and Bell says "ohne Frage leisteten die Juden Widerstand" ( / . und Gr. 20). The argument that the damage done to some of the synagogues was the result of Jewish resistance to the Greek attempt to place portraits of Gaius in them depends on the interpretation of the motive behind the Greek attack as self-defence, and this has by implication already been answered. But Box makes the point that Philo's remark that Flaccus used his authority to "fan the discord" in Alexandria and thus "filled almost the whole world with civil war", since there was danger that other cities might follow the example of Alexandria in attacking the synagogues (Fl. 44-5), would be pointless, had not a situation which could be described as civil war actually resulted from the Alexandrian attack (lix-lx). It is in any case inherently improbable that the Jews would have stood by and watched the destruction and desecration of their synagogues without lifting a finger in their defence. Even if, as Box argues, Philo is right in saying that the Jews were unarmed at the time (Fl. 86 ff.; Box, lx-lxii), a fanatical crowd can offer considerable resistance with improvised weapons such as stones. t
Ill (see p . 24 and Leg. 190) The Jewish envoys sent to Gaius made their voyage to Italy in the middle of winter—xet[icovo<; [iiaou 8ie7rXeii(jafxev (Leg. 190).
4
8
INTRODUCTION
Presumably the Greek envoys did also. Neither party would have wished to run the risk of letting the other get in first with its version of the events of August, 38. Whether the winter in question was that of 38-9 or that of 39-40 the chronological indications in Philo do not show conclusively. Modern opinion is divided on the subject, Schurer (I, 501, n. 174) and Balsdon (JRS, 21-4) having argued in favour of the later year, which seems the more probable to the present writer. At first sight it would appear that 38-9 is the obvious date for the voyage, and that the envoys set out almost immediately after the arrest of Flaccus. But one serious objection can be raised to that dating on general grounds. The embassies were given two hearings by Gaius, the second of which certainly took place in September, 40, or later (see the notes on Leg. 188 and 351). The first must have taken place either in the spring or summer of 39, before Gaius left Rome for his northern campaign, or in the early summer of 40 after his return from the North. If the envoys sailed in 38-9, then either they were kept waiting in Italy for their first hearing for over a year, or, assuming that they were granted their first hearing in 39, there was a gap of over a year between it and their second hearing. It is not impossible that one of these things happened, but Philo's account gives no indication that an unreasonably long delay o c curred at any point, and this suggests that the voyage was made in 39-40. Two details in the Legatio support the later of the two possible dates for the first hearing and thus indirectly the later year for the voyage. First, at the time when the Jews were received by Gaius, many other embassies from all parts of the world were also waiting for audiences (Leg. 182). This suggests that the date was soon after Gaius' return from the North, the embassies having accumulated in Italy during his absence. Secondly, in the interval between the arrival ol the embassies in Italy and the first hearing, the Greeks discussed with Helicon Gaius' plan for visiting Alexandria "soon" (Leg. 172). In the spring and summer of 39 this visit could hardly have been described as likely to take place "soon"—if indeed it was mooted at all so early—since plans were then already afoot for the northern campaigns, which were to occupy the following winter (see the note on Leg. 356 x a x a TY)V eknlSx TTJS TepfxavixYJ^ V(XT);). A year later, however, the proposal to visit Alexandria was well known, and it appears from the anxiety felt in May or June,
ADDITIONAL NOTES
49
40, for the Palestinian harvest that Gaius was expected to make his journey in the late summer of that year (Leg. 249-53 and notes); this could have been described as "soon" during the spring. A small point supporting 39-40 as the year of the voyage is the fact that the first hearing was held outside the pomoerium. Although this is no proof that it was held at the end of May, 40, it is compat ible with this dating, since Gaius did not cross the pomoerium on his return from the North at that time, but stayed outside Rome until his ovation (see the note on 181 trv/z 8e e x T&V fjLYjrpaxov e£io>v xyj7to>v).
On the other hand, at or just before the first hearing the Jews gave Gaius a memorandum which was an epitome of the one sent via Agrippa I "a short time before" (7rp6 oXtyou, Leg. 179). The date of the earlier memorandum is fixed as August, 38, when Agrippa was in Alexandria. If the first hearing was held in May, 40, the earlier memorandum had been sent nearly two years previously, whereas if the hearing was held in the spring or summer of 39, it had been sent less than one year previously. The phrase 7rpo oXiyov could more easily cover the shorter period than the longer one, and thus is evidence for placing the first hearing in 39 and the voy age in the preceding winter. But it is not impossible that it could cover the longer period, and its use does not preclude the date May, 40, for the first hearing. Bell takes the fact that Isidorus (named as one of the Greek en voys) and Lampo appeared among Flaccus' accusers in Rome late in 38 as proof that the Greeks had by then already sent an embassy (/. und Gr. 22). But it is possible that Isidorus (and perhaps Lampo also) travelled to Rome in 38 and again in 39. There are difficulties involved in dating the voyage to the winter of 39-40, but they are not insuperable. First, that dating makes the rival parties in Alexandria wait for over a year after the riots before attempting to put their cases to Gaius. This delay can, however, be accounted for. The prefect's permission was needed for any delegation to go to Rome (above, p. 15, n. 5), and there may have been a hiatus between the arrest of Flaccus and the arrival of his successor, C. Vitrasius Pollio, during which there was no prefect to give this permission. The earliest Egyptian document mentioning Pollio by name as prefect is dated 28th April, 39 (ILS 8899). A document referring to an anonymous prefect is dated b y A. Stein to 20th October, 38, and taken as evidence that Pollio t
50
INTRODUCTION
took up residence very soon after Flaccus' arrest (Die Prdfekten von Aegypten in der rdmischen Kaiserzeit (1950), 26-7). But if this is correct, there is still no certainty that Pollio let the embassies sail at once. For it is probable that he held an investigation into the quarrel first, and that may have taken a considerable time. The second difficulty is perhaps more serious. Why should the envoys have risked the dangers and discomforts of a winter voyage in 39-40, when they knew that Gaius was out of reach at the time, instead of waiting until the spring ? (The Jews' sacrifice of a heca tomb "in anticipation of a victory over the Germans" (Leg. 356) shows that Gaius' campaign was well known in the East.) For the undertaking of a sea-journey in winter, when travelling was avoided as far as possible and essential travelling was done by preference along the slower but safer land-routes, presupposes urgency. But it is compatible with human nature to suppose that the delegations rushed off as soon as Pollio had finished his inquiries and given them their exit-permits, in order to be ready to meet Gaius imme diately he returned; and they could not be sure how soon that would be.
SYNOPSIS OF T H E LEGATIO i- 78- 13. 14- 21. 22- 73. 74-112. 114-119. 120-131. I32-I37138-140. 141-142. 143-153. 154-158. 159-161. 162-165. 166-171. 172-177. 178-179. 180-183. 184-196. 197-206. 207-224. 225-242. 243-253. 254-260. 261-275. 276-329.
AD
GAIUM
Introduction. Gaius' accession. Gaius' illness. The deaths of Gemellus, Macro, and Silanus. Gaius' self-deification. Gaius' attitude towards the Jews. The anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria; the ghetto. The Greek attack on the synagogues in Alexandria. The previous immunity of the synagogues from attack. Eulogy on Tiberius. Eulogy on Augustus. Augustus' treatment of the Jews. Tiberius' treatment of the Jews. The attitude of the Alexandrian Greeks to the deification of Gaius. The influence of Helicon on Gaius. The negotiations of the Greek and Jewish embassies with Helicon. The Jews' memorandum to Gaius. The first hearing of the Jewish embassy. Gaius' order for the desecration of the Temple. The incident at Jamnia. Petronius' receipt of Gaius' order and his preparations for carrying it out. The Jews' mass demonstrations of protest. Petronius' reaction and his letter to Gaius. Gaius' receipt of Petronius' letter, and his reply. Agrippa I's collapse on hearing of Gaius' order for the desecration of the Temple. Agrippa's memorandum to Gaius:—the position of Je rusalem and the attitude of the Jews towards the city (278-289); the respect shown b y M. Vipsanius Agrippa and others for the Temple (290-298); Tiberius' prohib ition of Pontius Pilate's introduction of votive shields into Jerusalem (299-305); the sanctity of the Holy of
52
SYNOPSIS OF THE LEGATIO AD GAIUM
Holies (306-308); Augustus* protection of Jewish religious liberty (309-318); Livia's gifts to the Temple (319-320); an appeal to precedent (321-322); Gaius' former kindness 330-338. 339-348. 349-367. 368-372. 373-
to Agrippa (323-329). The cancellation and subsequent re-issue of Gaius' order. Gaius' inconsistency. The second hearing of the Jewish and Greek embassies. The despair of the Jewish envoys. Conclusion.
<MAQNOS APETQN nPQTON O ESTI THE A Y T O Y IIPESBEIAS IIPOS TAION
PHILO T H E EMBASSY TO GAIUS
PHILO
T H E EMBASSY TO GAIUS 1
2
3
4
5
6
1 How long are we old men to go on being children ? Physically we are greybeards because of the lapse of time, but mentally we are mere babes in our stupidity, regarding Chance, which is the most unstable of things, as the most reliable, and Nature, which is the most steadfast, as the least secure. For we change and transpose our actions as in games of draughts, looking upon the things of Chance as more lasting than the things of Nature, and upon the order of Nature as less secure than the things of Chance. The reason is that we judge the present without any forethought for the future, using the erring senses in preference to the unerring intellect. For the eyes take in only the visible present, whereas the reason reaches right out to the invisible future. Yet we obscure the vision of our reason, which is sharper than the vision of our physical eyes, confusing it by drunkenness and gluttony in some cases and in others b y the greatest evil of all, ignorance. However, even though some people have become sceptical about God's providential care for all mankind, and especially for "the race of suppliants" which is the particular concern of the Father and King of the world, the Origin of all things, yet surely the present critical time and the many important questions now being settled should serve to convince them of it. This race is called Israel in the Chaldaean language, or, if the name is translated into Greek, "seeing God". In my opinion this faculty is the most valuable of all possessions, whether individual or communal. For if the sight of elders or teachers or rulers or parents rouses the beholders to respect, orderly behaviour, and a desire for a life of self-control, how strong a foundation for goodness and nobility may we expect to find in souls which have looked beyond all that is created and been trained to contemplate the uncreated and the divine, the prime Good and Beautiful and Happy and Blessed, or, if the truth must be told, that which is better than the Good, more beautiful than the Beauti ful, more blessed than Blessedness, happier than Happiness itself, and indeed, anything which is more perfect than the qualities just mentioned? For the reason does not manage to ascend to the entirely inaccessible and impalpable God, but it sinks and falls back through its inability to find the right words to use as steps to describe, I do not say Reality—for not even if the whole heaven became an articulate voice would it command words accurate and appropriate for that—but the Powers which are its body-guard. These are the Creative Power, the Ruling Power, the Foreseeing
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Power, and such of the other Powers as are both beneficial and 7 punitive—that is, if even the punitive Powers are to be classed among the beneficial ones, not only because they form part of laws and ordinances (for law is bound to be made up of two elements, the rewarding of the good and the punishment of the wicked), but because even punishment acts as a deterrent and a sobering influence, often even on wrong-doers, or, failing that, at any rate on their associates. For ordinary people are reformed by punishments inflicted on others, as they are afraid of suffering in a similar way themselves. 8 2 For after Tiberius Caesar's death Gaius inherited an empire over the whole earth and sea, which was at peace with itself, under good laws, and experiencing complete harmony between all its regions, North, South, East, and West: barbarian was at one with Greek and Greek with barbarian, the soldiery with the civil authorities and the civilians with the men on active service, sharing and enjoying peace together. Surely everyone who saw this was amazed and astounded at his extraordinary and indescribable pros9 peritv? He had succeeded to a huge accumulated fortune f to h a n d f : abundant treasuries; silver and cold, some in bullion, some in coined money, and some in articles of luxury such as drinking-cups and other vessels produced for exhibition; abundant infantry, cavalry, and naval forces; revenues pouring in as if from i o inexhaustible springs; and an empire not merely consisting of most of the most essential parts of the world—although, of course, one might legitimately describe these parts as a world bounded by the two rivers, the Euphrates and the Rhine, the latter forming a frontier with Germany and the more barbarous tribes, while the Euphrates forms a frontier with Parthia and the Sarmatian and Scythian tribes which are no less savage than the Germans—but, as I have already said, an empire stretching from the sunrise to the sunset and comprising lands both within and beyond the Ocean. At all this the Roman people, the whole of Italy, and the nations n of both Asia and Europe rejoiced. For they were all delighted with him as they had been with no previous Emperor, not because they were looking forward to obtaining and enjoying benefits as individuals or communities, but because they believed that they now possessed a consummation of good fortune, with happiness 12 attending it. At any rate, there was nothing to be seen throughout the cities but altars, victims, sacrifices, people in white clothes, garlanded and cheerful, showing their goodwill by their happy faces, banquets, religious assemblies, musical competitions, horse races, revels, night-celebrations to the music of flutes and the lyre, enjoyment, recreation, holidays, and every kind of pleasure 13 appealing to every sense. At that time the rich had no advantage over the poor, nor the nobility over the common people, nor creditors over their debtors, and masters were no better off than their slaves; for this period gave people political equality, so that
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GAIUS
the "age of Cronos" described by the poets ceased to be regarded as a poetic fiction, because of the prosperity and plenty, the freedom from grief and fear, and the festivities which went on by day and night, in private houses and in public places alike, and 14 continued without a break for the first seven months. But in the eighth month a serious illness attacked Gaius, who had exchanged the more moderate, and therefore healthier, mode of life which he had followed hitherto, during Tiberius' lifetime, for a life of luxury. Heavy drinking and a taste for delicacies, an appetite insatiable even on a swollen stomach, hot baths at the wrong time, emetics followed immediately by further drinking and the gluttony which goes with it, indecent behaviour with boys and women, and all the vices which destroy soul and body and the bonds which unite them attacked him simultaneously. The wages of self-control are health and strength, while those of a lack of self-control are weakness and an illness which may prove fatal. 15 3 The news of Gaius' illness spread widely, as the seas were still open—it was the early autumn, the time when seafarers make their last voyage and return from their trading-stations all over the world to their own ports and havens, especially those who are trying to avoid wintering abroad. People then gave up their lives of luxury and went about with long faces; every house and every city became anxious and dejected; their recent joy wavered, 16 counter-balanced by a grief equally keen. All parts of the habitable world were ill with Gaius; but they were suffering from a more serious illness than that which had seized him. For his illness was merely physical, whereas theirs was universal, affecting their mental health, their peace, their hopes, and their participation in 17 and enjoyment of good things. They began to discuss again the many serious evils which anarchy breeds—famine, war, devastation, ravaging of fields, loss of property, arrests, and the desperate fear of slavery or death; this fear no doctor could cure, and the only 18 remedy lay in the recovery of Gaius. When therefore his disease began to abate, even people at the ends of the earth soon heard of it—for nothing is swifter than rumour—and every city was in suspense, constantly thirsting for better news, until the good tidings of his complete return to health was brought by travellers. At this every continent and every island turned back afresh to the 19 same jubilations, regarding Gaius' preservation as its own. Never within living memory had any single land or single nation felt such joy at the preservation and restoration of a ruler as the whole world felt at Gaius' accession and again at his recovery from his 20 illness. People rejoiced as if they were now just beginning to change from a nomadic, savage life to a gregarious, communal life, to move from the f isolation of pens and mountain huts f to walled cities, and to give up an existence without a guardian for an organ ized life under a guardian, a sort of herdsman or shepherd of the domesticated flock. But they had no conception of the real sit-
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35
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
21 uation. For the human mind is blind to the appreciation of its true interests, since it is more capable of making guesses and con jectures than of really knowing. 22 4 Now in this case, within a short time Gaius, who had been regarded as a saviour and benefactor who would pour fresh streams of blessings on Asia and Europe to the lasting happiness of each man individually and everyone communally, began to play his master card, as the saying is, changing to brutality, or rather, openly displaying the savagery which he had concealed under a cloak of 23 hypocrisy. He murdered his cousin, who had been left joint heir to the empire and was a closer heir than he was himself, since he was Tiberius' grandson by adoption, whereas the other was his grandson by birth. He alleged that he was guilty of conspiracy, although his age did not admit of such an accusation; for the poor 24 lad was only just passing from childhood to adolescence. According to some people, if Tiberius had lived a little longer, Gaius would have been got rid of, as he had become the object of very grave suspicions, and the genuine grandson would then have been declared 25 sole princeps and sole heir to his grandfather's empire. But Tiberius was carried off by Fate before bringing his plans to fulfilment. Gaius, however, thought that he would avoid the unpopularity which would result from overstepping his rights vis-a-vis his partner by 26 outmanoeuvring him. His trick was as follows: he convened the officials and said, "In accordance with the intention of the late Tiberius, it is my will that this boy, who is my cousin by birth but my brother in affection, shall share the imperial power. But you can see for yourselves that he is still quite a child, and needs guard27 ians, teachers, and attendants. What greater advantage could there be than for one single mind and body not to bear the heavy burden of the principate, but to have someone who will be able to lighten it and help to bear its weight ? So in view of my superiority to attendants, teachers, and guardians, I here and now declare myself his father and him my son." 28 5 With this speech he deceived both his audience and the boy. For the adoption was a bait, consisting not of the principate for which the boy hoped, but of the removal of what he already had. Gaius then began to plot against his co-heir and lawful partner with complete security and in disregard of everybody. For in Roman law a father has absolute power over his son, quite apart from the fact that imperial authority is answerable to no-one, since no-one has the courage or the power to call an emperor to account for any 29 of his actions. So f regarding him as a competitor who had drawn a " b y e " in a match, and showing no pity for their joint upbringing, their relationship, or the other's youth, he f threw him to the ground—an ill-fated boy, doomed to an early death, his co-emperor and co-heir who had once even been expected to be sole emperor be cause he was most closely related to Tiberius. (Grandsons are gener30 ally counted as sons by their grandfathers if their fathers die.) The
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
story is that the boy was actually told to commit suicide. A centurion and a military tribune were standing beside him, under orders not to take part in the crime, on the grounds that it was not permissible for the grandsons of emperors to be killed at other people's hands. (For Gaius gave heed to legality in the midst of illegality, and to holiness in the midst of unholiness, and thus mocked at the very nature of truth.) He did not know what to do, since he had never seen anyone killed, and had not yet been drilled in the military exercises which comprise the training and preparation of boys who are being educated as rulers because of the constant threat of war. So first he stretched out his neck and asked the officers present to kill him. They could not bring themselves to do this. So he took the sword and inquired in his ignorance and inexperience where the most vital place was, in order to end his doomed life with a welldirected blow. They gave their instructions as teachers of misery, and showed him the spot where he had to drive the sword home. He learnt his first and last lesson, and under compulsion became his own executioner—poor lad! 6 When Gaius had completed this his first and most difficult contest, and no partner in the principate was still left around whom any disaffected people or suspects could rally, he immediately entered the arena for a second combat. This was with Macro, who had co-operated with him in all the affairs of state, not only after his accession—for it is a mark of flattery to pay court to success— but before that as well, with a view to his securing the principate. For Tiberius was a man of profound common-sense and the cleverest of all his contemporaries at knowing a person's secret intentions, and he surpassed them as much in sagacity as in rank. He often suspected that Gaius was ill-disposed towards the whole Claudian house and devoted only to his mother's family—which made him afraid that his grandson would perish, if left alone while still a child—and that he was unsuited for the high position of emperor because of his unsociable and unco-operative disposition and the inconsistency of his character. For eccentricity and crazy tenden cies were appearing, and he preserved no logicality in either his words or his actions. Macro did his best, as far as lay within his competence, to cure these faults, allaying Tiberius' suspicions par ticularly on occasions when his mind seemed to be tortured by continual fear for his grandson. He represented Gaius as friendly and obedient and so deeply devoted to his cousin that out of affection for him he would be prepared to give up his claim to the throne in his sole favour. He added that modesty was a disadvantage to many people, and that because of his modesty Gaius, who was of an ingenuous disposition, was believed to be crafty. When these plausible arguments failed to convince Tiberius, Macro gave him a firm pledge, saying, "I guarantee it to you. I deserve to be be lieved. I have given plenty of proofs of my exceptional loyalty to the imperial house and to Tiberius by taking charge of the
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64
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
38 attack on Sejanus which led to his downfall." On the whole, he succeeded in his praises of Gaius—if we are justified in describing as "praises" the speeches of defence made against the accusations born of suspicion and the veiled, obscure charges. For on the whole, Macro gave Tiberius eulogies of Gaius as glowing as those generally 39 reserved for brothers or legitimate sons, or even more so. According to the most widespread gossip, the reason for this was not only that Macro, who had the greatest, or indeed the whole, power in the government, was being courted b y Gaius in return, but also that Macro's wife, for a reason which was not stated, was encouraging her husband and egging him on every day not to relax in any way his efforts to help the young Gaius. A wife, particularly a wanton one, is a very clever creature at paralysing and perverting her husband's judgement; for her knowledge of her own guilt makes 40 her fawn on him all the more. Macro, however, did not realize that his marriage and his home were being broken, and regarded her fawning as the purest goodwill. So he was deceived and did not see that as a result of her manoeuvres he was accepting his bitterest enemies as his dearest friends. 41 7 Accordingly, in the knowledge that he had saved Gaius countless times when he was on the brink of destruction, he began to give him advice directly and frankly. Like a good craftsman, he wanted his own handiwork to survive intact, and not to be destroy 42 ed b y itself or b y any other agent. So whenever he saw Gaius asleep at a dinner-party, he would wake him up, in the interests both of propriety and of his safety, since a sleeping man is an easy prey for conspirators. Or whenever he saw him watching dancers with wild excitement or occasionally joining in the dance, or roaring with laughter like a schoolboy at comedians who indulged in obscen ities and ribaldry instead of smiling at them in a dignified way, or carried away by the music of lyre-players or choirs, and sometimes even joining in the songs, he would nudge him as he sat or reclined 43 next to him, and try to restrain him. Often he would lean over and whisper a gentle warning in his ear, in order that no-one else should hear, and say, " Y o u ought not to be like any of the people here, or indeed like any other human being, when you are watching or listening or using any of your other senses, but in every activity of life you ought to excel in proportion as your rank is more elevated. 44 It is wrong for the princeps who rules land and sea to be overcome b y a song or a dance or a scurrilous joke or anything of that sort. Rather, he should always remember, wherever he is, that he is the Princeps, a kind of shepherd and herdsman, who takes from any source whatever, whether word or deed, improving lessons and ap45 plies them to himself." Then another time he would say, "When you attend shows in the theatre or gymnasium or circus, pay at tention not to the actions performed but to the moral achievement 46 in those actions. Argue with yourself as follows: If some people work as hard as this at things which are of no value to human life
• W A Q N O S A P E T O N I1PQTON
65
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
but simply provide delight and pleasure for the spectators, so that they are praised and admired and receive presents and honours and garlands when their names are proclaimed, what ought the expert in the highest and greatest art to do? The greatest and best art of all is that of government. We owe it to this that all the fertile, deep land on plains and hills is farmed, and that merchant-ships safely navigate every sea to exchange the goods which countries offer to each other in their desire to associate, receiving what they need and sending their surplus products away in return. Jealousy has never got control of the whole habitable world, or even of large sections of it such as the whole of Europe or Asia; but like a poison ous snake, it hides by creeping into small places such as a single individual or a single house, or, if it is feeling very bold, a single city. It does not approach the larger circle of a nation or country, particu larly since the family of you Augusti began its effective rule over the world at large. For your family has banished all the evils which used to flourish and be found in our midst over the frontiers to the ends of the earth and the depths of Tartarus, while it has brought those benefits and blessings which had been, as it were, in exile back from the limits of earth and sea to the world which we inhabit. All these things have been committed to your hand alone to govern. Seeing, then, that Nature has escorted you to a lofty pos ition in the stern and put the helm into your hand, steer the com mon ship of mankind safely, making it your chief delight and pleasure to do good to your subjects. Different individuals have different contributions which they are under obligation to make in their own cities. The ruler's peculiar contribution is the introduction of wise proposals for his subjects, the correct execution of these proposals, and the lavish bestowal of benefits with a generous hand and heart, with the single exception of those benefits which it is proper to hold back in view of the uncertainty of the future." 8 The unfortunate man used arguments like these as a charm to improve Gaius. But Gaius was a quarrelsome and cantankerous person, and turned his mind in the opposite direction, as if that was what he had been encouraged to do. He had the audacity to snub his mentor outright, and sometimes when he saw him approaching in the distance, he would say to the bystanders, "Here comes the schoolmaster of one who no longer needs to learn, the tutor of one who is no longer a child, and the adviser of one wiser than himself. He thinks that an Emperor should obey his subject, and sets himself up as an expert and an instructor in the science of ruling, although I have no idea where he learnt the principles of government. Right from my cradle I have had thousands of teachers—parents, brothers, uncles, cousins, grandfathers, ances tors right back to the founders of the family, all the relations on both my father's and my mother's sides who acquired independent power—quite apart from the fact that even their actual conception embodied some royal potentialities for government. For justasphys-
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6S
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
ical and mental resemblances as regards appearance, attitudes, movements, plans, and actions are preserved within the seminal Logoi, so it is likely that some resemblance to a capacity for govern ment will also be roughly sketched out within the same Logoi. 56 f When I was fashioned to be an Emperor even before my birth, in Nature's workshop, my mother's womb, does a mere nobody f dare to instruct me? Does the ignorant dare to instruct the learned? Where do people who were recently mere private individuals get the right to pry into the deliberations of the heart of a princeps ? But they have such bare-faced audacity that they dare to play the hierophant and perform the rites of government, although they could 57 hardly pass the tests to be admitted as onlookers." After this he began taking pains to alienate himself gradually from Macro and trumping up false but credible and convincing charges against him. For quick-witted and masterful natures are clever at inventing 58 plausible arguments. These were the kind of statements that he ascribed to Macro: "Gaius is my handiwork, the work of Macro. I played a greater part in his birth than his parents did, or at least no less a part. Not just once, but three times he would have been removed when Tiberius thirsted for his blood, had it not been for me and my pleas. What is more, since I had the military forces under my command when Tiberius died, I immediately brought them over to his side, pointing out that a single individual was needed; and so the principate remains complete and undivided." 59 Some people were convinced of the truth of these allegations, un aware of the deceptive ways of the speaker. For the falsity and complexity of his character were not yet apparent. But only a few days later the unhappy Macro was got rid of with his wife, and thus paid the ultimate penalty as a reward for his excessive good60 will. Such is the gratitude one gets for kindness to the ungrateful. In return for the help they have received, they visit the severest punishments on their benefactors. Macro, for instance, had in truth gone about all his business with intense zeal and earnest endeavour, first to save Gaius and then to ensure that he alone inherited the 61 principate. Yet these were his wages. The story is that the un fortunate man was forced to commit suicide, and that his wife suffered the same fate, although she was believed once to have been intimate with Gaius. But they say that no pledges of love are reliable, because love is a passion quickly satiated. 62 9 After Macro and his family had been sacrificed, Gaius set to work on a third, and even more horrible, piece of treachery. His father-in-law had been Marcus Silanus, a man of considerable spirit and distinguished family. After his daughter's untimely death Silanus continued to pay attention to Gaius, showing the affection of an actual father rather than that of a father-in-law. He supposed that by thus turning his son-in-law into a son he would receive affection in return according to the law of equality. He was quite 63 unaware that he was completely and utterly mistaken. For he kept
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
on making the sort of remarks that guardians make, omitting nothing which might serve to improve and help Gaius* character, life, and government. He regarded his own very high birth and their relationship by marriage as giving him an excellent startingpoint for speaking freely. For his daughter had not died long enough before that the rights of her relations had been weakened; on the contrary, she was still almost breathing, and the last traces of physical life still survived and lingered in her body. Gaius, however, took Silanus' advice as impudence, because he looked upon himself as the most sensible and intelligent, and also the most courageous and virtuous, of all men, and hated his instructors more than his avowed enemies. So, regarding Silanus also as a nuisance who would restrain the violence of his impulses, he bade a final farewell to his dead wife's spirit, quite happy to remove her father who had become his father-in-law, and treacherously murdered him. 10 By this time the successive murders of prominent people had made the matter notorious, so that everyone was discussing these irreparable crimes, not openly (for they were afraid) but in whispers. Then the tune changed; for a crowd is inconsistent in every respect, in purpose, word, and deed. People could not believe that Gaius, who had previously been regarded as good, kind, fair, and public-spirited, had undergone such a complete transforma tion; so they looked for excuses for him, and after some searching they found them. This was the sort of thing that they said about his cousin and co-heir: "Sovereignty cannot be shared. Nature's ordinance on this point is unchangeable. Gaius, being the stronger, anticipated what he would otherwise have suffered at the hands of the weaker. This is self-defence, not murder. Perhaps it is even providential and for the good of the whole human race that the lad has been got rid of. For people were taking sides, some with the one and some with the other—the sort of situation that gives rise to riots, civil wars, and foreign wars. What is better than peace ? Peace springs from right government. The only right government is one which avoids quarrels and intrigues, and this sets everything else right." About Macro they said, "He had far too high an opinion of himself. He did not take in the Delphic motto, 'Know thyself. People say that knowledge causes happiness and ignorance unhappiness. What was the matter with Macro, that he changed places and set himself, the subject, in the position of ruler, and Gaius, the'Emperor, in the subject's place? It is the business of the princeps to command, which is what Macro did, and the busi ness of the subject to obey, which he thought Gaius ought to submit t o . " Thus without investigation they called advice commands and the counsellor the ruler, because they were either too stupid to understand or so obsequious that they gave a completely fresh meaning to words and the things which they denoted alike. About Silanus they said, "Silanus made a fool of himself b y thinking that a father-in-law has as much influence over a son-in-law as a real
OIAQNOS APETftN nPOTON
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
father has over his son. Yet even fathers stand aside if they remain private citizens while their sons obtain high magistracies and positions of authority, gladly taking second place. But this fool, who was no longer even Gaius' father-in-law, interfered in things which lay outside his sphere, without understanding that their relationship by marriage had died with the death of his daughter. Marriages form a bond between unconnected families, which brings strangers together into relationship. But when this bond has been broken, the partnership is broken too, especially when the bond has been broken by the irreparable event of the death of the woman given in marriage to the unrelated family." This was the sort of chatter that went on in every gathering, with the desire that the Emperor should not appear cruel playing the largest part in it. For since people had hoped that goodness and kindness such as no previous Emperor had shown dwelt in Gaius' soul, they found it entirely incredible that he should have undergone such a violent and complete reversal of character. 11 When therefore Gaius had won the three contests just described with the three most important sections of the community, two of them sections of the state, namely the senatorial and eques trian orders, and the third his own family, he assumed that by getting the better of the most powerful and influential people he had inspired the most terrible fear in all the others—in the senators by the murder of Silanus, who had been second to no-one in the senate, in the equites b y the murder of Macro, who had been a sort of chorus-leader among them and held the first place in honour and glory, and in all his family b y the murder of his cousin and co-heir. He then no longer consented to remain within the bounds of human nature, but he soared above them and aspired to being regarded as a god. People say that at the beginning of this mental derangement he used the following argument: "The keepers of animals, oxherds, goatherds, and shepherds, are not themselves oxen or goats or sheep, but human beings, who have been given a higher destiny and con dition ; in the same way one must suppose that I, who am the herds man of the noblest herd, the human race, am a superior being, above the human plane and endowed with a higher and more divine destiny." Having impressed this idea on his mind, the fool began to carry a fantasy about with him, believing it to be an absolute truth. Then, when once his courage had risen and he had risked introduc ing this blasphemous deification of himself to the masses, he tried to act in an appropriate and consistent way and advanced little by little to the top as if up a ladder. He began to equate himself first with the so-called demi-gods, Dionysus, Heracles, and the Dioscuri, making a mockery of Trophonius, Amphiareus, Amphilochus, and the rest, oracles, rites and all, when he compared their powers with his own. Then, as in a theatre, he put first one costume and then another, sometimes a lion-skin and club, both gilded, when he was arrayed as Heracles, and sometimes a cap on his head, when he
OIAONOS A P E T O N
nPOTON
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74
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
dressed up as the Dioscuri; at other times he dressed up as Dionysus 80 with ivy, thyrsus, and fawn-skins. He resolved to differ from the demi-gods in that, whereas each of them had his own honours and did not lay claim to those which the others shared, his jealous greed appropriated the honours of all of them alike, or rather, appropriated the demi-gods themselves. He did not change into triple-bodied Geryon in order to mislead those who saw him by the number of his bodies, but he performed the incredible feat of transforming and remodelling the substance of his single body into a multitude of different shapes, like the Egyptian Proteus, whom Homer repre sented as undergoing changes of every kind, into the elements and 81 into the animals and plants which spring from them. Yet what need had you, Gaius, of the emblems with which the images of the deities just mentioned are usually adorned? You should have emulated their virtues. Heracles purged land and sea, and under took labours which were indispensible and beneficial for all mankind, in order to remove what was harmful and destructive in each of these 82 elements. Dionysus cultivated the vine and extracted from it the drink which is the most delicious and at the same time the most beneficial to mind and body alike. He makes the mind content, forgetful of its troubles, and optimistic, and renders the body 83 healthier, stronger, and more active; in private life he improves the individual; he enables large families and clans to exchange an austere and laborious existence for a relaxed and gay mode of life; and for every city, both Greek and foreign, he provides a succession of festivities, celebrations, feasts, and banquets. For undiluted wine 84 is responsible for all these things which I have mentioned. Again, legend has it that the Dioscuri shared their immortality. For since one was mortal and the other immortal, the one who was thought worthy of the higher destiny did not consider it right to act selfishly 85 instead of showing affection for his brother. He drew a mental picture of eternity, and argued that he himself would live for ever while his brother would be dead for ever, and that he would receive with his immortality grief which would be immortal for his brother. So he contrived an amazing exchange, giving himself a mixture of mortality and his brother a mixture of immortality, and thus caused inequality, the origin of wrong, to disappear in equality, which is the source of right. 86 12 All these demi-gods, Gaius, were, and still are, admired for the good, works which they initiated, and were deemed worthy of worship and of the highest honours. Tell us yourself now, what similar achievement have you about which to boast and swell with pride ? 87 T o begin with the Dioscuri—Did you imitate them in brotherly love ? No, you ruthlessly murdered your brother and co-heir in the bloom of his youth, you iron-hearted, pitiless creature, and later on you banished your sisters. Did they too perhaps make you afraid that 88 you would be deposed? Did you imitate Dionysus? Have you discovered new blessings, as he did? Did you fill the world with
cMAQNOS APETON IIPOTON
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Legatio ad Gaium
6
76
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
89 j o y ? Are Europe and Asia too small to contain your gifts? You certainly invented new arts and sciences, but you did so as a univ ersal destroyer and murderer. With them you change pleasure and joy into pain and grief and a life which is no life for all men everywhere. Your insatiable and incessant greed appropriates all the valuables and treasures of other people, from East and West and other parts of the world, all that lies to the South and to the North. In return you give or send to them the products of your own bitterness, and all the harm and injury which are the usual offspring of ac cursed and poisonous souls. Has this made you appear to us as the 90 new Dionysus? Or did you emulate Heracles by your unwearied toil and unflagging courage? Did you fill continents and islands with order, justice, prosperity, plenty, and an abundance of the other blessings which profound peace creates?—you ignoble wretch, you utter coward, you who have emptied the cities of all that makes for stability and happiness, and filled them with all that 91 makes for riot and tumult and the deepest misery! Tell me, Gaius— Is it on these contributions which you have made to our destruction that you base your claim for a share of immortality, in order to render these miseries everlasting instead of short-lived and ephe meral ? No. I consider that even if you had seemed to have become a god, your wicked practices would have changed you back complete ly into a mortal. For if virtues make a man immortal, vices destroy 92 him completely. So do not enrol yourself among the Dioscuri, the most devoted pair of brothers, after murdering and ruining your own brother and sisters. And do not share the honour paid to He racles and Dionysus, the benefactors of human life, after ill-treating and destroying their work. 93 13 Gaius' madness, his wild and frenzied insanity, reached such a pitch that he went beyond the demi-gods and began to climb higher and to go in for the worship paid to the greater gods, Hermes, Apollo, and Ares, who are supposed to be of divine parentage on 94 both sides. It was the worship due to Hermes first. He dressed up with herald's staff, sandals, and cloak, displaying order amid dis order, consistency amid confusion, and reason amid mental de95 rangement. Then, when he saw fit, he discarded these attributes and changed his appearance and dress to those of Apollo. He wore a radiate crown, grasped a bow and arrows in his left hand, and held out the Graces in his right hand, as if it were correct to have good things re^dy at hand to proffer and to let them hold the superior position, on the right, while subordinating punishments and assign96 ing the inferior position, on the left, to them. Well-trained choirs at once took up their positions, singing paeans to him—choirs which had shortly before been calling him Bacchus, Evaeus, and Lyaeus, and chanting hymns in his honour, when he assumed the 97 costume of Dionysus. Often he would put on a breastplate and march forth sword in hand with helmet and shield, and be hailed as Ares. On either side of him marched the attendants of this new
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Ares, a rabble of murderers and executioners, who would undertake despicable services for him when he was in a murderous frame of mind and thirsted for human blood. Then people who witnessed this were amazed at the illogicality of it all, and wondered how a man whose actions were the opposite of those of the gods to whose honours he laid claim could fail to realize that he should cultivate their virtues, although he dressed up in the insignia of each of them in turn. Yet these ornaments and decorations are attached to the images and statues of the gods as symbols signifying the help which the gods thus revered bestow on the human race. Hermes wears sandals with outstretched wings. W h y ? Surely it is because it is right that the interpreter and prophet of divine matters, the functions from which Hermes takes his name, should be very swiftfooted and practically fly in his urgent haste when bringing good news. (For not only a god but even a sensible man shrinks from carrying bad news.) People ought to be in a hurry to bring good and profitable news, just as they ought to be dilatory in bringing unwelcome news—if indeed permission is not given for it to be hushed up. Again, Hermes takes a herald's staff to symbolize treaties of friendship. Armistices occur and hostilities are ended by means of heralds who negotiate peace. Wars conducted without heralds cause endless suffering to aggressors and defenders alike. For what purpose did Gaius take Hermes' sandals ? Was it in order that he might lose no time in broadcasting his universally notorious deeds of shame and horror, which should have been hushed up? Yet what need was there of rapid movement ? W h y , even by staying where he was he showered untold evils on top of evils on all parts of the world, as if from inexhaustible springs. What need was there of a herald's staff for one who never said or did anything conducive to peace, but filled every house and city, in Greece and in foreign lands alike, with civil wars ? Let him lay aside his role of Hermes and make atonement for having assumed an unsuitable title and falsely borne his name. 14 Which of Apollo's characteristics does he reproduce? He wears a radiate crown, and the craftsman has represented the sun's rays quite well. But is the sun or the light in general welcome to him ? Does he not rather welcome night and darkness and anything that is gloomier than darkness for the perpetration of his lawless deeds? Good deeds need the light of mid-day to show them off, but shameful deeds, they say, need the depths of Tartarus, into which they should be herded to be hidden there as they deserve to be. Let him transpose the things in his two hands and not falsify their relative positions. Let him carry the bows and arrows prominently in his right hand; for he knows how to hurl weapons and shoot arrows with good aim at men, women, whole families, and populous cities so as to destroy them utterly. Let him either discard the Graces at once or keep them in the shade in his left hand. For he defiled their beauty by casting covetous and greedy glances at
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
large fortunes in order to confiscate them arbitrarily—and then on top of that their owners were murdered, ruined because of their prosperity. Again, he remodelled Apollo's medical skill quite well. Apollo discovered life-giving drugs for healing people, and took it upon himself to cure the diseases inflicted by others, because he was by nature and habit an exceptionally humane god. Gaius, on the other hand, brought disease upon the healthy, mutilation upon the sound, and in general unnatural, premature, and cruel deaths upon the living. Regardless of expense he devised every possible method of destruction whereby he would have destroyed the most distinguished element in every city by this time, had he not been carried off by Justice first. His devices were ready to use against public officials and wealthy men, especially those in Rome and Italy, who had such vast treasures of gold and silver that, if all the wealth of all the rest of the world were collected together from its very boundaries, it would be found to amount to much less. There fore this enemy of his city, this devourer of his people, this bane and destructive pest began to cast out of his country everything conducive to peace, as if he were at his wits' end. It is said that Apollo is not only a good doctor but also a good prophet, foretelling the future through his oracles for the good of mankind, in order that a man may not be in the dark about the unknown future and so, unseeingly like a blind man, run headlong and stumble into blunders under the impression that they are the most profitable course, but instead may have foreknowledge of the future as if it were already present, and look at it with his mind just as he looks at things in front of him with his physical eyes, and so be on his guard to avoid any irreparable disaster. Is it right to compare with these oracles the sinister oracles of Gaius, which foretold want, disgrace, exile, and death for people in public offices and prominent positions everywhere ? What common ground is there between Apollo and a man whose conduct has not suggested any kinship or relationship ? Let this pseudo-Paean cease from copying the real Paean; for the form of a god does not come into being as easily as counterfeit money. 1 5 One might expect absolutely anything rather than that a body and mind such as Gaius had, both of them effeminate and enervated, could ever have resembled Ares' physical and mental prowess. But Gaius kept on changing his various masks as on a stage, and so misled his audience by his deceptive appearances. Well then,'let us not examine any of his physical or mental charac teristics, since all his attitudes and movements are completely dif ferent from those of the god in question. We know, do we not, that the might of Ares—not the Ares of fable but the Ares who belongs to the Logos in Nature, whose province is courage—averts evil and helps and defends the injured, as his very name shows ? For I imag ine that the name of Ares, who ends wars and creates peace, is de rived from apyjyeiv, to help. The other was the enemy of peace and
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
the comrade of war, who transformed the settled order into uproar and faction. 1 6 Have we learnt, then, from this study so far that Gaius ought not to be compared to any of the gods or demi-gods, since he does not possess the same nature or substance or even purpose ? But lust is apparently a blind thing, especially when it is accom panied b y conceit and ambition coupled with the supreme power. This ruined us Jews, who had formerly enjoyed good fortune. It was only of the Jews that Gaius was suspicious, on the grounds that they were the only people who deliberately opposed him and had been taught from their very cradles, as it were, b y their parents, tutors, and teachers, and—more than that—by their holy Laws and even by their unwritten customs, to believe that the Father and Creator of the universe is one God. All other men, women, cities, nations, countries, and regions of the world—I can almost say the whole inhabited earth—although they deplored what was happening, flattered Gaius none the less, glorifying him more than was reason able, and so increasing his vanity. Some people even introduced into Italy the barbaric custom of proskynesis, and thus debased the nobility of Roman freedom. But one single race, f the Jews, stood apart and f was suspected of being likely to resist, since it was used to accepting death as willingly as if it were immortality in order not to allow any of their ancestral traditions, even the smallest, to be abrogated; for, as in the case of buildings, the removal of a single part causes even those parts which still seem to be standing firmly to crack and subside and crash down with it into the gap. But the change being effected was not a small one but an absolutely fundamental one, namely the apparent transformation of the created, destructible nature of man into the uncreated, indestructible nature of God, which the Jewish nation judged to be the most horrible of blasphemies; for God would change into man sooner than man into God. This was quite apart from the acceptance of the other supreme evils of unbelief in, and ingratitude towards, the Benefactor of the whole world, W h o b y His own might gives good things in lavish abundance to all parts of the universe. 1 7 Accordingly, total and truceless war was waged against the Jewish nation. What heavier burden could a slave have than a hostile owner? Subjects are the slaves of an Emperor, and even if this was not the case under any of Gaius' predecessors, because they ruled reasonably and legally, yet it was the case under Gaius, who had cut all humanity out of his heart and made a cult of illegality; for he regarded himself as the law, and broke the laws of the law givers of every country as if they were empty words. So we were enrolled not simply as slaves but as the lowest of slaves, when the Emperor turned into a tyrant. 1 8 When the promiscuous and unruly Alexandrian mob dis covered this, it supposed that a most opportune moment had come its way and attacked us. It unmasked the hatred which had long
OIAQNOS APETON
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4
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
been smouldering and threw everything into chaos and confusion. 121 As if we had been surrendered by the Emperor to sufferings admit ted to be of the severest kind or had been defeated in war, they attacked us with insane and bestial fury. They invaded our homes and drove the householders out, wives and children and all, so as 122 to leave the houses unoccupied. They no longer waited for the darkness of night in fear of arrest, like burglars, to steal our furniture and treasures, but they carried them off openly in broad daylight, and displayed them to those they met, as people do who have in herited things or bought them from their owners. If several people agreed to join forces to plunder, they divided out their loot in the middle of the market-place, often before the eyes of its real owners, 123 jeering and laughing at them as they did so. This was terrible in itself, of course. Wealthy men became paupers and well-to-do people penniless, suddenly deprived of hearth and home although they were innocent of any crime, and driven out of their own houses as exiles, to live in the open air day and night and die either of sun124 stroke or of exposure by night. Yet this is easier reading than what follows. For the Greeks f herded together many thousands of men, women, and children from f the whole city into a very small part of it, like sheep or cattle into a pen. They supposed that within a few days they would find piles of bodies of Jews, who had died either of starvation through lack of necessities of life, since they had had no forewarning of this sudden calamity to enable them to make suitable provision against it, or of overcrowding and suffocation. 125 Their quarters were extremely cramped, and moreover the sur rounding air became foul and surrendered its life-giving qualities to the respirations or, to be quite- exact, the gasps, of the dying. Inflamed by these, and in a sense suffering from an attack of fever itself, it sent a hot, noxious breath into people's nostrils and mouths, 126 adding fire to fire, as the proverb has it. For the natural property of the internal organs is great heat, and when reasonably cool ex ternal breezes blow upon them, the respiratory organs are kept healthy by the mild temperature. But when the breezes become hotter, they are bound to become unhealthy, because fire is heaped on fire. 127 1 9 So, no longer able to stand the lack of space, the Jews over flowed on to the desert, the shores, and the cemeteries, longing to breathe pure, healthy air. Any who had already been caught in other parts of the city, or who visited it from the country in igno rance of thjs calamities which had descended on us, experienced sufferings of every kind. They were stoned, or wounded with tiles, or battered to death with branches of ilex or oak on the most vul128 nerable parts of their bodies, especially their heads. Some of Alexandria's habitual idlers and loafers lay in a circle round the Jews who had been driven out and huddled together, as I have said, into a confined space on the edge of the city, and watched them as though they were under siege, to prevent any of them from slipping
OIAQNOS A P E T Q N IlPflTON
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34
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
away unobserved. In fact, because of the scarcity of necessities quite a number were sure to slip out regardless of their own safety, in fear lest they and their whole families should die of starvation. It was for these people's excursions that the loafers waited and watched, and any whom they caught they immediately killed, submitting them to every kind of indignity in the process. An other group was blockading the harbours of the river, in order to seize the Jews who put in there and the goods which they were conveying for trading purposes. They boarded their ships and carried off the cargo under the eyes of its owners, and then tied their arms behind their backs and burnt them alive, using the rudders, helms, punt-poles, and the planks of the decks as fuel. But the Jews burnt in the middle of the city suffered the most pitiful deaths. Sometimes for lack of timber the Greeks collected brushwood, set it on fire, and threw it on top of the unfortunate Jews, who for the most part were killed by the smoke rather than b y the fire while still only half burnt, since brushwood produces a weak and smoky fire and goes out very quickly, while it is too light to be burnt to cinders. They bound many Jews, still alive, with straps and ropes, tied their ankles together, and dragged them through the middle of the market-place, jumping on them and not sparing even their dead bodies. More cruel and savage than wild animals, they tore them limb from limb, trampled on them, and destroyed their every form, so that nothing was left which could be given burial. 20 The prefect of the country, who could have put an end to this mob-rule single-handed in an hour had he chosen to, pretended not to see and hear what he did see and hear, but allowed the Greeks to make war without restraint and so shattered the peace of the city. They consequently became still more excited and rushed headlong into outrageous plots of even greater audacity. Assembling enormous hordes together, they attacked the synagogues, of which there are many in each section of the city. Some they smashed, some they rased to the ground, and others they set on fire and burned, giving no thought even to the adjacent houses in their madness and frenzied insanity. For nothing is swifter than fire when it gets plenty of fuel. I say nothing about the simultaneous destruction and burning of the objects set up in honour of the Emperors—gilded shields and crowns, monuments, and inscriptions —which should have made the Greeks keep their hands off every thing else also. But they derived confidence from the fact that they had no punishment to fear from Gaius, who, as they well knew, felt an indescribable hatred for the Jews; they therefore supposed that no-one could give him greater pleasure than b y inflicting every t y P of suffering on their race. Then they decided to subject us to insults for which there was absolutely no risk of being brought to book, because they were at the same time currying favour with him by novel flattery. So what did they d o ? The synagogues which they could not destroy either b y fire or b y demolition, because large e
GIAONOS A P E T O N
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142
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
numbers of Jews lived crowded together close by, they outraged in a different way, which involved the overthrow of our Laws and customs. They placed portraits of Gaius in all of them, and in the largest and most famous they also placed a bronze statue riding in a four-horse chariot. So great was their haste and the intensity of their enthusiasm that, since they had no new four-horse chariot available, they took a very old one out of the gymnasium. It was very rusty, and the ears, tails, hooves, and a good many other parts were broken off. According to some people, it had been dedicated in honour of a woman, the earlier Cleopatra, great-grandmother of the last one. It is clear to everyone what a serious charge this action in itself brought against the dedicators. What if it had been a recent dedication in honour of a woman ? What if it had been an old one in honour of a man ? What if it had been absolutely any thing which had been dedicated to someone else ? Surely the people who made a dedication of this kind in the Emperor's honour should have been on their guard lest information about it reached the ears of one who took everything concerning himself very seriously? But these people entertained extravagant hopes of being praised and of enjoying even greater and more conspicuous rewards for having dedicated the synagogues to Gaius as new precincts, although they had done this not for his honour but in order to take their fill in every way of the sufferings of the Jewish race. There are clear proofs of this. The first is taken from the kings. There were about ten, or even more, kings in succession in three hundred years, and yet the Alexandrians did not dedicate a single portrait or statue of them in the synagogues, although the kings whom they regarded, described, and spoke of as gods were of the same race and species as themselves. When they deify dogs, wolves, lions, crocodiles, and many other animals of the land, the sea, and the air, and establish altars, temples, shrines, and sacred precincts to them throughout the whole of Egypt, what reason was there against so treating those who were at least human beings ? 2 1 Perhaps people will say now, although they would not have said it at the time—for it is their habit to flatter the rulers' suc cesses rather than the rulers themselves—that the Emperors f stand higher in prestige and rank f than the Ptolemies and so deserve to receive greater honours too. In that case, you simple-minded fools (to avoid calling you by any really rude name!), why did you not consider Gaius' predecessor, Tiberius, who was responsible for his accession, worthy of a similar honour? He held sway over land and sea for twenty-three years without allowing any spark of war to smoulder in Greek or barbarian lands, and he gave peace and the blessings of peace to the end of his life with ungrudging bounty of hand and heart. Was he inferior in birth? No, he was of the noblest ancestry on both sides. Was he inferior in education ? Who among those who reached the height of their powers in his time surpassed him in wisdom or f learning f ? Was he inferior in age ?
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
What other king or emperor enjoyed a happier old age ? Why, even when f still young, he was called ''the elder" because of his diffidence about quick-wittedness. f Such was the fine character of the man whom you overlooked and brushed aside. Then again: What about the Emperor whose every virtue outshone human nature, who through the greatness of his imperial rule and of his valour alike became the first to bear the name "Augustus", who did not receive the title by inheritance from his family as part of a legacy, but was himself the source of the reverence paid to his successors also? What about the man who pitted himself against the general confusion and chaos as soon as he took charge of public affairs? For islands were struggling for supremacy against continents and con tinents against islands, with the Romans of the greatest distinction in public life as their generals and leaders. Again, large parts of the world were battling for the mastery of the empire, Asia against Europe and Europe against Asia; European and Asian nations from the ends of the earth had risen up and were engaged in grim warfare, fighting with armies and fleets on every land and sea, so that almost the whole human race would have been destroyed in internecine conflicts and disappeared completely, had it not been for one man, one princeps, Augustus, who deserves the title of "Averter of evil". This is the Caesar who lulled the storms which were crashing everywhere, who healed the sicknesses common to Greeks and barbarians alike, which descended from the South and East and swept across to the West and North, sowing misery in the lands and seas in between. This is he who not merely loosened but broke the fetters which had confined and oppressed the world. This is he who ended both the wars which were before everyone's eyes and those which were going on out of sight as a result of the attacks of pirates. This is he who cleared the sea of pirate-ships and filled it with merchant-ships. This is he who set every city again at liberty, who reduced disorder to order, who civilized all the un friendly, savage tribes and brought them into harmony with each other, who enlarged Greece with many other Greek lands, and who Hellenized the most important parts of the barbarian world. This is he who safeguarded peace, gave each man his due, distributed his favours widely without stint, and never in his whole life kept any blessing or advantage back. 22 During the forty-three years of this wonderful benefactor's rule over Egypt, the Alexandrians neglected him and did not make a single dedication on his behalf in the synagogues—-neither a statue nor a wooden image nor a painting. Yet if new and exceptional honours should have been voted to anyone, it was appropriate in his case. This was not merely because he founded and originated the Augustan dynasty, nor because he was the first and greatest universal benefactor, who ended the rule of many by handing the ship of state over to a single helmsman, namely himself with his remarkable grasp of the science of government, to steer. (The saying
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Lepatio ad Gaium
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2
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
"the rule of many is not g o o d " is very true, since a multitude of votes causes manifold evils.) It was because the whole world voted him honours equal to those of the Olympians. Temples, gateways, vesti bules, and colonnades bear witness to this, so that the imposing buildings erected in any city, new or old, are surpassed by the beauty and size of the temples of Caesar, especially in our own Alexandria. There is no other precinct like our so-called " A u gusteum", the temple of Caesar, the protector of sailors. It is situated high up, opposite the sheltered harbours, and is very large and conspicuous; it is filled with dedications on a unique scale, and is surrounded on all sides by paintings, statues, and objects of gold and silver. The extensive precinct is furnished with colonnades, libraries, banqueting-halls, groves, gateways, open spaces, un roofed enclosures, and everything that makes for lavish decoration. It gives hope of safety to sailors when they set out to sea and when they return. 23 So although the Greeks had these powerful incentives, and knew that all the nations of the world felt as they did, they never theless made no changes in regard to the synagogues, but maintained our Law in every particular. Does this mean that they were omit ting any mark of reverence due to Caesar ? Who in his senses would say that? Why, then, did they deprive him of this honour? I will explain fully. They knew that he was very careful and cared as much for the preservation of the customs of the various nations as for the preservation of Roman ones, and that he received honours not for doing away with the practices of a particular people as an act of self-deception, but in accordance with the dignity of his great empire, which was bound to win respect for itself by these means. The clearest proof that he was never elated or made vain by extra vagant honours lies in his refusal ever to be addressed as a god, in his annoyance if anyone so addressed him, and in his approval of the Jews, who, as he knew very well, eschewed all such language on religious grounds. How then did he show his approval? He knew that the large district of Rome beyond the river Tiber was owned and inhabited by Jews. The majority of them were Roman freedmen. They had been brought to Italy as prisoners of war and manu mitted by their owners, and had not been made to alter any of their national customs. Augustus therefore knew that they had syna gogues and met in them, especially on the Sabbath, when they re ceive public instruction in their national philosophy. He also knew that they collected sacred money from their "first-fruits" and sent it up to Jerusalem by the hand of envoys who would offer the sacrifices. But despite this he did not expel them from Rome or deprive them of their Roman citizenship because they remembered their Jewish nationality also. He introduced no changes into their synagogues, he did not prevent them from meeting for the ex position of the Law, and he raised no objection to their offering of the "first-fruits". On the contrary, he showed such reverence for
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
our traditions that he and almost all his family enriched our Temple with expensive dedications. He gave orders for regular sacrifices of holocausts to be made daily in perpetuity at his own expense, as an offering to the Most High God. These sacrifices continue to this day, and will continue always, as a proof of his truly imperial character. Moreover, at the monthly distributions in Rome, when all the people in turn receive money or food, he never deprived the Jews of this bounty, but if the distribution happened to be made on the Sab bath, when it is forbidden to receive or give anything or to do any of the ordinary things of life in general, especially commercial life, he instructed the distributors to reserve the Jews' share of the uni versal largesse until the next day. 24 Consequently the whole population of the empire, even if not instinctively well-disposed towards the Jews, was afraid to tamper with any Jewish practice in the hope of destroying it. It was the same under Tiberius, although there was an upheaval in Italy when Sejanus was contriving his attack. For Tiberius realized immediately after his death that the charges brought against the Jews living in Rome were unfounded slanders, fab ricated by Sejanus, who wanted to destroy that race completely, because he knew that, should the Emperor be in danger of being betrayed, it would offer in his defence the only, or the keenest, resistence to treacherous schemes and actions. He issued instruc tions to the governors in office throughout the empire to reassure the members of the Jewish race resident in their cities with the in formation that punishment was not falling on all but only on the guilty—and they were few in number—and to change nothing al ready sanctioned b y custom, but to regard as a sacred trust both the Jews themselves, since they were of a peaceful disposition, and their Laws, since they were conducive to public order. 25 But Gaius swelled with pride, not merely saying but actually thinking that he was a god. Then he found no-one, either Greek or non-Greek, better suited than the Alexandrians to confirm his in ordinate ambition, which went beyond the limits of human nature. For they are good at flattery, deceit, and hypocrisy, and they are well equipped with fawning speeches, although they throw every thing into confusion with their careless and unrestrained chatter. The name of " g o d " is so sacred among them that they let the ibises and poisonous asps of their country and many other wild animals share it. So naturally, when they make indiscriminate use of the forms of address applicable to god, they deceive unintelligent people who know, nothing of Egyptian godlessness, although they are found out b y those who are acquainted with their crass stupidity, or rather with their impiety. Gaius knew nothing of this, and so supposed that he was really regarded as a god among the Alexan drians, because they quite openly, and not just b y implication, made extravagant use of all the names by which other people normally call the gods. Then he thought that the innovation in connection
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172
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
with the synagogues had sprung from a clear conscience and gen uine respect for him. This was partly because he paid attention to the daily reports which some people were sending to him from Alexandria—for he found these very pleasant reading, so that he regarded the compositions of other writers and poets as thoroughly unpleasant in comparison with the charm of these reports—and partly through the influence of some of his household who were continually laughing and joking with him. 2 6 Most of these were Egyptians, a worthless breed, whose souls were infected with the poison and bad temper alike of the crocodiles and asps of their country. The leader of this whole Egyptian danceband was one Helicon, a damnable and abominable slave who had wormed his way into the imperial household. He had been given a smattering of general education because of the ambition of his former master, who had presented him to Tiberius Caesar. Now at that time he did not enjoy any privileged position, since Tiberius detested childish jokes; he had been inclined to seriousness and austerity almost from boyhood. But when he died and Gaius in herited the empire, Helicon attended his new master, who was re laxing into loose living and sensual luxury of every kind, and said to himself, " N o w is your chance, Helicon. Rouse yourself. You have the best possible audience and spectator for showing off. You are naturally intelligent. You can joke and jest better than other people. You know frivolous and amusing games and pastimes. Your educa tion in non-academic subjects has been just as good as your regular schooling. You can also make pleasant conversation. If you put some slightly malicious sting into your mockery, so as to arouse bitterness based on suspicion as well as laughter, then you have your master completely in your power and favourably disposed to hearing accusations combined with joking. For, as you know, his ears are open and pricked up to listen to people who have made it their business to weave slander and denunciation together. Don't look for unnecessary material. You have the false charges made against the Jews and Jewish customs, charges among which you grew up; you learnt them right from your cradle, not from a single individual but from the most garrulous section of the Alexandrian population. Show off your learning." 2 7 After exciting and egging himself on by these illogical and damnable arguments, he got a hold over Gaius and courted him, never leaving his side by night or day, but staying with him every where, in order to use his times of solitude and leisure to bring charges against our race. The rascal aroused in him the pleasure which spiteful jokes produce, in order that his slanders might strike home. For he did not admit who our real accuser was—nor indeed could he have done so—but his tortuous methods and his cunning made him a more dangerous and troublesome enemy than those who had declared their hostility to us openly. It is said that the Alexandrian envoys knew this and had therefore bribed him heavily
nPOTON
97
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26
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27
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
in secret, not merely with money but also with the prospect of honours which they hinted that they would bestow on him quite soon, when Gaius visited Alexandria. So Helicon dreamt of the time when he would be honoured by the greatest and most famous city of all in the presence of his master and of practically the whole world with him, and promised the Greeks everything. (It was quite obvious that the most distinguished people, the cream of other cities, would come from the ends of the earth and flock to pay homage to Gaius.) For a time, then, we did not know about the enemy lurking in our midst, and so were on our guard against outside enemies only. But when we became aware of him, we looked around and explored every possible avenue, to see if we could in any way soothe and mollify the man who was using every means and opportunity of shooting arrows and other weapons at us with accurate aim. For he played ball with Gaius, exercised with him, bathed with him, had meals with him, and was with him when he was going to bed, as he had been appointed to the position of cham berlain and captain of the body-guard in the palace (a higher p o sition than anyone else held), with the result that he alone had the Emperor's ear when he was at leisure or resting, released from ex ternal distractions and so able to listen to what he most wanted to hear. He mixed ridicule with his accusations, in order to amuse him with the former while doing us the greatest possible harm. For the ridicule, which appeared to be the principal matter, was subsidiary in his eyes, whereas the apparently subsidiary matter, the accusations, was the only matter of primary importance. So, like sailors with a favourable wind astern, he slackened every rope and was carried along with billowing sails -and a following breeze, devising and stringing together one charge after another. Gaius' mind was moulded more firmly, so that the accusations were indelibly fixed in his memory. 28 So we were in despair and at our wits' ends when, after leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to appease Helicon, we found no way of achieving our purpose. No-one dared to address or ap proach him, because of his arrogant and overbearing behaviour to everyone, and at the same time because we did not know whether it was b y reason of some personal antipathy for the Jewish people that he was continually inciting and egging his master on against our nation. So we gave up our efforts on these lines and concentrated on the more essential task, our decision to present Gaius with a me morandum containing a summary of our sufferings and of our claims. This was more or less an epitome of the longer petition which we had sent shortly before via king Agrippa, who had hap pened to be staying in Alexandria before sailing to Syria to take up the kingdom which had been granted to him. But we had, quite unconsciously, again been deceiving ourselves; indeed, we had done so before also, when we first set off on our voyage on the as sumption that we were going to appear before a judge in the hope
OIAQNOL A P E T O N
nPOTON
99
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100
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
of obtaining our rights. But Gaius was an irreconcilable enemy, who ensnared us, as far as appearances went, by his beaming glances and gracious words. For he greeted us first in the plain beside the Tiber—he happened to be coming out of his mother's gardens. He returned our salutation, waved his right hand as an indication of his favour, and then sent the official in charge of em bassies, one Homilus, to us with the remark, "I will listen to your case in person when I am free." At this the bystanders all congra tulated us as if we had already won our case, and so did those of our own number who were taken in by superficial appearances. I, how ever, was, it seems, more experienced by reason of my age and prev ious training, and so took up a more cautious attitude towards what had pleased the rest. Arousing my reasoning faculties I said, " N o w why, when there are so many embassies here from almost the whole world, did Gaius say just now that he would listen to us only? What was his idea ? He knew perfectly well that we were Jews, who would be content to be treated no worse than anyone else. Perhaps it would almost be madness to expect to receive preferential treat ment at the hands of a ruler who is at once a gentile, a young man, and the possessor of supreme power? No, he seems to be inclining to the party of the other Alexandrians, to whom he was granting preferential treatment when he promised a quick decision, unless indeed he is going to cease listening fairly and impartially and trans form himself from a judge into their advocate and our antagonist." 29 Reasoning thus with myself I was in an agony of mind and could not rest by day or night. While I was in despair and was hiding my anxiety—for it was not safe to mention it—another shattering and unexpected blow suddenly fell upon us, involving danger for the whole Jewish nation collectively and not just for one section of it. We had travelled from Rome to Dicaearchia in attendance on Gaius; he had gone down to the sea and was staying by the bay, going from one to another of his numerous luxuriously appointed country-houses. While we were considering our case, expecting at any moment to be summoned into his presence, a man came up to us completely out of breath, his eyes bloodshot and troubled. He drew us aside a little way from the others—there were a few people standing near—and said, "Have you heard the news?" Then before he could tell us he broke off in floods of tears. He began again, but broke off a second and a third time. When we saw this, we were alarmed and begged him to tell us the business on which he said he had come. "For", we said, " y o u surely have not come just to let us witness your weeping. If your news is worthy of tears, do nof indulge in grief on your own. We are used to disasters b y this time." With difficulty and still sobbing he managed to say in a choked voice, "Our Temple is gone! Gaius has given orders for a colossal statue to be set up right inside the shrine, named after Zeus himself." We were amazed at what he said and remained rooted to the ground in horror, unable to move. We stood dumb
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
and helpless and on the point of collapse, our whole bodies unnerved. 190 Meanwhile other people arrived with the same painful story. Then we all shut ourselves up together, bewailed both our individual and our communal misfortunes, and discussed the other thoughts which came into our minds—for people chatter most in adversity. "Let us struggle", we said, "to avoid being utterly abandoned to incorrigible licence. We sailed in the middle of the winter storms, without know ing what a storm awaited us on land, far worse than a storm at sea. For Nature, which regulates the seasons, is responsible for the latter, and Nature is a saviour. For the former, however, a human being devoid of human feeling is responsible, a young man with new-fangled ideas and possessed of universal power for which noone can call him to account. Youth invested with absolute power and a prey to ungovernable impulses is an evil hard to combat. 191 Shall we be allowed to approach the desecrator of the holiest place or to open our mouths on the subject of the synagogues to him? It is obvious that a man who insults the famous and glorious Temple, which shines everywhere like the sun and receives the admiration of East and West, will pay no attention to less conspicuous and less 192 deeply revered places. Even if we were free to approach him, what have we to expect but death against which there can be no appeal? Well, let that be; we shall die anyhow. A glorious death met in the defence of the Law is a kind of life. But if no advantage will be derived from our death, will it not be madness to perish, particu larly when we are supposed to be ambassadors, and so to bring cala mity on those who sent us rather than on us who undergo it? 193 What is more, the natural enemies of wickedness among our fellowcountrymen will accuse us of impiety in that we selfishly thought about a matter of our own concern when the interests of the nation were in the utmost peril. It is essential that we subordinate minor matters to important ones, and the interests of a few to those of the whole nation, since the loss of the latter means the overthrow of 194 our civic position. How can it be right and proper to struggle vainly to prove that we are Alexandrians, when over our heads hangs the danger threatening the whole civic position of the Jews at large ? For besides the destruction of the Temple, there is a fear that this megalomaniac with his new-fangled ideas will order the 195 abolition of the name common to the whole nation as well. If, therefore, both the causes which we were sent to defend are lost, someone may say, 'Why, did they not know how to negotiate their safe return?' I should answer him, 'Either you lack the proper feelings of a well-born man, or you were not brought up and trained in the Scriptures. Truly well-born people are optimists, and the Laws create sound hopes in those who bestow more than a merely super196 ficial study on them.' Perhaps these troubles are sent to test the present generation and see how brave it is and whether it has been trained to bear misfortune reasonably and without faltering, and not to succumb at the first moment. AH human aid vanishes; let it
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
vanish. But let our hope in God our Saviour, W h o has many times saved His people from hopeless and impossible situations, remain indestructible in our souls." 30 These were our arguments as we mourned over our unex pected calamities and at the same time encouraged each other with the hope of the return of calmer conditions. After a short pause we said to the messengers, " W h y are you sitting in silence after merely planting in our ears sparks which have kindled us and set us on fire ? You ought to go on and tell us what prompted Gaius to this action." They replied, " Y o u know his first and most important motive; the whole world knows it. He wants to be regarded as a god, and he has assumed that the Jews alone will refuse to acquiesce and that he could not inflict any greater wrong on them than the desecration of their holy Temple. He has been informed that it is the most beautiful temple in the world, and that it has been adorned from time immemorial by a constant stream of generous gifts. His quarrelsome and spiteful nature is set on appropriating it. He is more excited now than before by a letter sent b y Capito. Capito is the collector of the revenues of Judaea, and he has a grudge against its inhabitants. He arrived a poor man, but b y robbery and em bezzlement he amassed a large and varied fortune. Then he be came afraid of being impeached, and so worked out a scheme for evading accusations by slandering those whom he had wronged. The following incident gave him a starting-point for achieving his purpose. Jamnia, one of the largest cities in Judaea, has a mixed population, the majority being Jews and the rest gentiles who have wormed their way in from neighbouring countries. These settlers cause trouble and annoyance to those who may be described as the natives of the place b y continually violating some one or other of the Jews' traditions. These gentiles learnt from travellers how enthusiastic Gaius was about his own deification and how hostile he was towards the whole Jewish race. So, assuming that a suitable opportunity for an attack had come their way, they built a rough and ready altar of the most shoddy material, namely clay bricks, for the sole purpose of plotting against their fellow-townsmen. For they knew that they would refuse to tolerate the violation of their customs, which was precisely what happened. For when the Jews saw the altar and were greatly incensed at the effectual des truction of the sanctity of the Holy Land, they gathered together and pulled it down. The Greeks promptly went to Capito, who had engineered the whole performance. He thought that he had now got the god-sent opportunity which he had long been seeking, and sent a grossjy exaggerated account of the affair to Gaius. On reading it Gaius gave orders that in place of the brick altar erected in Jamnia as an insult, something richer and more pretentious, namely a gilded statue of superhuman size, should be set up in the Temple in the capital. The counsellors whose advice he followed were the best and wisest possible—Helicon, the slave aristocrat, an
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
old hand at gossip, and a certain Apelles, a tragic actor, who is re puted to have traded with his youth during his adolescence and to have gone on to the stage when he became too old for that. Those who go on to the stage and do business with audiences and theatres are surely devotees of decency and modesty, and not of extreme forms of shamelessness and licence? For this reason Apelles was promoted to the rank of counsellor, in order that Gaius might take counsel from the one adviser about how to joke and from the other about how to sing, while he gave up all thought for the affairs of state and for the preservation of peace and order throughout the empire. So the scorpion-like slave Helicon injected his Egyp tian poison into the Jews, and Apelles his poison from Ascalon. He came from Ascalon, and its inhabitants cherish an implacable and irreconcilable hatred for the Jews who live in the Holy Land and with whom they have a common frontier." As we listened to this story our souls were wounded by every verb and every noun. (Actually those fine advocates of fine deeds received the wages of their sacrilege shortly afterwards. Apelles was thrown into chains b y Gaius on other charges, and was tortured and put on the wheel alternately—rather like the attacks of a recurrent fever—while Helicon was executed by Claudius Germanicus Caesar for the other crimes which the lunatic had perpetrated. But this happened later on.) 31 The letter about the dedication of the statue was written, and did not just give a simple command but laid down all the pre cautions which were to be taken for safety's sake. For Gaius told Petronius, the legate of all Syria, to whom he had addressed the letter, to take half of the Euphrates army, which was on guard against any possible crossing b y kings or tribes from the East, into Judaea to accompany the statue, not in order to lend dignity to the dedication, but in order to put to death at once anyone who o p posed it. What do you say, master? Is it because you are sure that the Jews will not tolerate this but will take up arms in defence of the Law and die for the sake of their traditions that you declare war? It looks as if it was not in ignorance of the probable results of your attempted innovation in connection with the Temple, but because you could foresee the future as accurately as if it were al ready present and coming events as accurately as if they were al ready at hand, that you instructed Petronius to bring his army. You intended that the first offerings with which the statue was consecrated should be unholy ones, the blood of innocent men and women alike. Now Petronius was gravely perplexed when he read his orders. He could not oppose Gaius because he was afraid—for he knew that he was ruthless not only to people who did not carry out his commands but even to those who failed to do so instantly; yet he could not set to work with an easy mind either, knowing as he did that the Jews would be prepared to undergo countless deaths, if it were possible, instead of a single death, rather than allow any
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Legatio ad Gaium
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
210 forbidden action to be performed. All peoples are tenacious of their own customs, but the Jewish nation is particularly so. For as they maintain that their Laws are God-given oracles and have been educated in this doctrine from their childhood, they bear im211 ages of the Commandments imprinted on their souls. Accordingly, as they contemplate the clear shapes and forms of the Command ments, they meditate on them with constant admiration. Gentiles who hold them in honour they welcome on a level with their own citizens; but gentiles who either violate or jeer at them they detest as their bitterest enemies. They stand in such awe of each of the Commandments that they would never accept all the prosperity or happiness (call it what you will) of this life in exchange for an 212 infringement of even the least of them. But more outstanding and noteworthy is the respect which they all show for the Temple. The strongest proof of this is the fact that death against which there can be no appeal is decreed for any gentiles who go into the inner courts. (They admit everyone from all over the world to the 213 outer courts.) Bearing all this in mind, Petronius was dilatory in setting to work, while he considered the magnitude and the au dacity of the undertaking. He summoned a sort of council of all the reasoning faculties of his mind and asked each its opinion. He found that they all agreed, from considerations first of natural justice and piety and secondly of the danger threatening not only from God but from the affronted Jews as well, that he should not disturb any of the traditions which had been held sacred from of old. 214 He also had in mind the vast numerical size of the Jewish nation, which is not confined, as every other nation is, within the borders of the one country assigned for its sole occupation, but occupies almost the whole world. For it has overflowed across every continent and island, so that it scarcely seems to be outnumbered by the 215 native inhabitants. Would it not be highly dangerous to turn these vast hordes of enemies against himself? Heaven forbid that the Jews everywhere should unanimously come to the defence! That would produce an impossible military situation—quite apart from the fact that the Jews living in Judaea are infinitely numerous, physically strong, and mentally courageous, and prefer to die for their traditions in a spirit which some of their traducers would call 216 barbaric but which is in actual fact free and noble. The forces beyond the Euphrates were also causing Petronius alarm. He knew, from experience and not merely from hearsay, that Babylon and many other satrapies contained Jewish settlements; for every year sacred envoys are sent to take to the Temple the large quantity of gold and silver collected from the "first-fruits", and these men traverse diffi cult, unfrequented, interminable roads, regarding them asfinehigh217 ways because they believe that they lead to the service of God. So he was naturally very much afraid that, when these Jews heard of the proposed new dedication, they would suddenly invade and encircle him, some from one side and some from the other, and then join
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110
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
forces and maltreat those whom they had surrounded. These were 218 the arguments on which he based his delay. Then he was drawn in the other direction by the opposite arguments. He said, "This is the order of a ruler who is still young and who holds that whatever he wants is good and that what he has once decided upon is already virtually done, even though it may be completely useless and full of contentiousness and ostentation. He has overstepped human limits and is already enrolling himself among the gods. My life is in danger whether I oppose Gaius or give way to him; but if I give way, the danger is one of war and is perhaps an uncertain danger which will not necessarily materialize, whereas if I oppose, the danger comes from Gaius and is unavoidable and can be taken for 219 granted." Many of the Romans on Petronius' administrative staff in Syria were of this opinion also, knowing that they too would be immediate victims of Gaius' wrath and vengeance for their joint responsibility in preventing his orders from being carried out. 220 The construction of the statue provided a breathing-space for more detailed consideration. Gaius did not have one sent out from Rome —in my opinion through the providence of God, W h o was invisibly protecting His wronged people—nor did he tell Petronius to transfer whichever statue was reputed to be the most beautiful in Syria; for in that case the very speed with which the Law was trans221 gressed would speedily have kindled a war. Petronius thus had an opportunity to consider what would be his best course of action. (Sudden simultaneous crises cripple the reason.) He gave orders for the work to be carried out in one of the neighbouring countries. 222 He sent for the most intelligent craftsmen in Phoenicia, and gave them the materials. They set to work in Sidon. He then sent for the Jewish religious and civil authorities also, intending to tell them about Gaius' letter and at the same time to advise them to submit to the orders of their master and to keep before their eyes the dangers facing them. For the pick of the military forces in Syria was 223 ready and would deal death throughout the whole country. He thought that if he calmed them first, he would be able through them to induce the rest of the population also not to resist. But, as one might expect, he was mistaken. It is said that the Jewish leaders were aghast at his very first words and stood rooted to the ground at this story of unprecedented evil. Dumb with horror, they let the fountains of their tears flow without restraint. Then they 224 tore their beards and hair and commented thus:—"In the time of our great prosperity we have made many contributions towards a happy old age, only to behold now what none of our forefathers ever saw. But with what eyes shall we behold it ? Our eyes shall be torn out together with our unhappy souls and our pain-filled lives, before they see such an evil, a sight not fit to be seen, which it would be wrong even to hear or think about." 225 32 Such were their lamentations. But when the people in the Holy City and the rest of the country discovered what was afoot,
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
they gathered as if at a single signal, the signal given by their common calamity, and came out in a body, abandoning their cities, villages and homes, and at a single impulse hurried to Phoenicia, where Petronius happened to be. When some of Petronius' staff saw a vast crowd sweeping towards them, they ran and warned him, so that he might take precautions, as they expected war. While they were still describing the scene, and Petronius was without a guard, the multitude of Jews suddenly descended like a cloud and covered the whole of Phoenicia, to the consternation of those who did not realize how numerous the nation was. At first there arose such a tremendous shout and such weeping and beating of breasts, that the ears of the bystanders could not take in its magnitude. For it did not cease when the Jews ceased, but echoed back even after they were silent. Then the Jews approached and made appeals such as the occasions suggested. For calamities are themselves the teachers of the moment. They were divided into six groups—old men, young men, and boys, and then again elderly women, women in their prime, and girls. When Petronius appeared from a distance, all the groups fell to the ground as though at a command and uttered a funereal wail and cries of supplication. When he urged them to stand up and come nearer, they stood up reluctantly, pouring quantities of dust on their heads, and weeping copiously, and ap proached him holding their hands behind their backs as if they were tied. Then the group of elderly men stood up and spoke as follows: " W e are unarmed, as you see, and yet some people accuse us of coming as enemies. The limbs with which nature has endowed each of us for our defence, our hands, we have put behind us, where they can do nothing, and thus we offer our own bodies as targets for the unerring missiles of those who want to kill us. We have brought our wives and children and families to you, and in kneeling to you we have knelt to Gaius. W e have left no-one at home, in order that you Romans may either deliver us all or kill us all without exception. Petronius, we are peace-loving people by nature and b y choice, and the industry instilled in us b y our upbringing has taught us this way of life from the beginning. When Gaius succeeded to the principate, we Jews were the first of all the people in Syria to join in the rejoicings. Vitellius, your predecessor in office, was in Je rusalem at the time, and received a dispatch about it, and it was from our city that the good news spread to the others. Was our Temple the first to accept sacrifices on behalf of Gaius' rule in order that it might be the first, or even the only one, to be deprived of its traditional ways of worship? W e are leaving our cities and aban doning our homes and estates, and we will willingly hand over our furniture, our money, our treasures, and all our flocks and herds as well; we shall feel that we are receiving them and not giving them away. We ask one thing in return for all this, that no change shall be made in the Temple but that it shall be preserved just as we inherited it from our grandfathers and ancestors. If we fail
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
to persuade you, we hand ourselves over to be killed, in order that we may not live to see an evil worse than death. We know that cavalry and infantry forces have been prepared against us in case we should oppose the dedication. No-one is so senseless as to oppose his master when he is himself only a slave. We readily and gladly offer our throats. Let them kill us, let them sacrifice us, let them divide our flesh without our fighting or causing bloodshed; let them do all the deeds of victors. What need is there of an army? W e ourselves shall do very well as priests to begin the sacrifices. W e will bring our wives to the Temple to slay them with our own hands; as fratricides we will bring our brothers and sisters, as infanticides our sons and daughters—innocent children! (Those who endure the calamities of tragedy need the language of tragedy.) Then as we stand in the midst bathed in the blood of our kinsfolk— for such are the ablutions of those who purify themselves for Hades—we will mingle our blood with theirs b y killing ourselves upon their bodies. When we are dead let this be our epitaph: * Even God would not reproach us for having striven to attain two ends—respect for the Emperor and obedience to our hallowed Laws; and this will come to pass if we give up in contempt a life which is not worth living. W e have heard an old legend, handed down without variation by | the learned men of Greece f» to the effect that the Gorgon's head had the power of immediately turning those who looked at it into stones and rocks. This seems to be a mythical invention, but great, unwelcome, and irremediable events give it some truth. The anger of a tyrant causes death, or something very like death. D o you think that if—which may Heaven forfend!—any of our people were to see the statue* being ceremoniously carried into the Temple, they would not be turned to stone, with their joints and eyes rigid and unable to move, and the natural movements of their whole bodies changed in each of their component parts? Our final plea, Petronius, will be an entirely reasonable one. We are not saying that you should not carry out your orders, but we are adding to our prayers a plea for a postponement, in order that we may choose and dispatch an embassy to our master. Perhaps if * we send an embassy we shall persuade him b y arguing at length either about the honour of God, or about the preservation of our inviolable Laws, or about our not receiving worse treatment than all .other nations, even those at the ends of the earth, whose tra ditions have been safeguarded, or about the enactments of his grandfather and great-grandfather, in which they very carefully confirmed our customs. Perhaps when he hears this his heart will soften. The resolutions of the great are unstable, and resolutions made in anger, weaken most quickly. We have been accused falsely. Allow us to refute those accusations. It is hard to be condemned without a trial. If, however, we fail to persuade Gaius, what will there be to prevent you from carrying out your present plan? Until we have sent our embassy, do not cut short the highest hopes
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250
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
of this countless throng, whose concern is not for personal gain but for religion. No, we were wrong to say that; for what gain could profit mankind more than holiness?" 33 They made this appeal panting under the stress of intense and agonized emotion; their voices were choked, sweat poured over all their limbs, and their tears fell unceasingly. As a result their hearers began to sympathize, and Petronius, who was naturally kind and gentle, was carried away b y the arguments and by the sight confronting him. For he considered that the arguments were entirely reasonable, and the intense emotion of those confronting him filled him with pity. He withdrew with his advisers and de liberated on the best course of action. He saw that those who had recently been entirely opposed to the Jews were wavering, while those who had previously hesitated were now for the most part inclining to mercy. He was pleased at this, although he knew the disposition of his superior and the implacability of his wrath. He had himself, apparently, some glimmerings of Jewish philosophy and religion. He may have studied it in the past because of his in terest in culture, or after his appointment as governor of those countries which have large numbers of Jews in all their cities, namely Asia and Syria; or his mind may have been so disposed through some voluntary, instinctive, and spontaneous inclination of its own towards things worthy of serious attention. It seems that God puts into good men's hearts good resolutions, through which they will benefit themselves while conferring benefits on others— which is what happened to Petronius. What, then, were his reso lutions? Not to hurry the workmen but to tell them to bring the statue to a high state of artistic perfection b y aiming, as far as possible, at reaching the standard of the famous sculptures which were their models, however long it took, since rough and ready things can be finished quickly, whereas things involving labour and skill need a long time. He also resolved not to authorize the embassy for which the Jews asked, as that would not be safe; not to oppose the party anxious to refer the matter to the princeps and master of the world; not to give a definite answer, Yes or No, to the multitude, as either answer would be dangerous; but to send Gaius a letter in which he would neither accuse the Jews of anything nor give an accurate description of their appeals and prayers, but would lay the blame for the delay over the dedication partly on the fact that the work required a considerable time and partly on the season of the year, which was providing serious and reasonable grounds for delay, which even Gaius himself could of necessity not fail to appreciate. For the harvest of wheat and other cereals was ripe, and he was afraid thajt the Jews, despairing of their traditions and despising life, would either ravage their fields or set fire to their corn-lands in the hills and on the plains; he needed a garrison to secure the safe gathering in of the harvests—the harvest from the fruit-trees as well as that from the fields. For, according to rumour, Gaius had
OIAONOS APETON
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
decided to make a voyage to Alexandria in Egypt. But such a great princeps would not think it advisable to sail over the open sea, because of the dangers involved and the magnitude of the escorting fleet and also out of regard for his physical comfort. All these diffi culties would easily be met by making the round journey via Asia and Syria. He would then be able both to sail and to go ashore every day, especially if most of his fleet consisted of warships in stead of merchantmen, since a coasting voyage is more convenient for warships, just as a voyage over the open sea is for cargo ships. In that case it would be necessary to provide fodder for the animals and generous supplies of food in all the Syrian cities, particularly those on the coast. For a vast crowd would arrive by land and sea, not only people who had travelled from Rome itself and Italy, but also people from the line of provinces right round to Syria who had joined Gaius' train; there would be a crowd of officials, another of soldiers—infantry, cavalry, and marines—and another of household retainers, who would be quite as numerous as the soldiers. Supplies would be needed, calculated to provide not only essentials but also the extravagant abundance which Gaius demanded. If Gaius re ceives this letter, Petronius thought, he will perhaps not only feel no anger but will approve of my foresight in having caused this delay not to please the Jews but in order to safeguard the gathering of the harvest. 34 As Petronius' advisers approved of his plan, he had the letter written and chose some energetic men who were used to cutting down the time they spent on journeys to take it to Gaius. When they arrived they delivered the letter. Gaius got red in the face before he had finished reading, and was filled with anger as he noted each point. When he reached the end he clapped his hands and said, "Excellent, Petronius; you have not learnt to obey the Emperor. Your successive magistracies have gone to your head. Up to now, apparently, you have not discovered even b y hearsay what Gaius is like; before long you shall find out b y experience. Y o u are concerned about the laws of the Jews, a race which I de test, and yet you disregard the sovereign commands of your ruler. You were afraid of the Jewish m o b ; had you then not got your military forces, which have inspired terror in the peoples of the East and in their Parthian rulers? But you pitied the Jews; so you paid more heed to feelings of pity than you did to Gaius? You are making an excuse now of the harvest; before long you will receive on your own head a harvest for which no excuses can be offered. Y o u blame the gathering of the crops and the preparations for my visit; well, even if Judaea became completely barren, could not the great and prosperous countries on her borders manage to supply what was needed and make up the deficiency of that one country? But why am I talking instead of acting? Why do people know my decisions in advance? The man who is going to enjoy his wages, let him be the first to learn of it from his own experience.
O I A Q N O L A P E T f t N nPOTON
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120
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
I will say no more, but I shall continue to think about the matter." 259 After a short pause he dictated his reply to Petronius to one of his secretaries. On the surface he complimented him for his forethought and detailed consideration for the future. For he was very much afraid of the provincial governors, since he saw that they held in their hands the means to rebel, especially the governors of large districts who commanded large armies, such as the Euphrates army 260 in Syria. So he was polite to Petronius in the phrasing of his letter, and despite his anger he concealed his wrath until a suitable time. Then at the end of his letter he told him to put the speedy dedica tion of the statue before everything else, since the harvest, which had served as a pretext, whether true or merely plausible, could by that time have been gathered. 261 35 Now not long afterwards king Agrippa arrived to pay his respects to Gaius in the usual way. He knew absolutely nothing about Petronius' letter or about Gaius' first and second letters to him. Nevertheless he deduced from Gaius' irregular movements and the excitement in his eyes that there was anger smouldering there; so he puzzled and racked his brains, pondering over every incident, great or small, that had occurred, in case he had said or done any262 thing wrong. On finding nothing whatsoever, he then made the o b vious guess that Gaius was annoyed with some other people. But when he noticed that he was looking askance at him and keeping his eyes fixed on him alone and on no-one else in the room, he began to be afraid. He often intended to ask Gaius but he refrained, ar guing on these lines: "Perhaps I shall bring upon myself the threat which is hanging over other people, if I give the impression 263 of being officious, rash, and presumptuous." So when Gaius noticed that he was worried and perplexed—he was clever at divining a man's hidden wishes and feelings from his visible expression—he said, "Are you perplexed, Agrippa ? I will put an end to your perplexity. 264 When you have spent such a long time with me, do you not know that I speak not only with my voice but also with my eyes, making 265 my meaning clear as much, if not more, with them ? Your fine, noble countrymen, the only people in the whole world who do not acknow ledge Gaius as a god, are now apparently actually courting death by disobedience. When I gave orders for a statue of Zeus to be set up in the Temple, they all collected in a body and trooped out of Je rusalem and the whole country, allegedly in order to make a pet266 ition, but in actual fact in order to oppose my commands." Before Gaius had time to add more, Agrippa's anguish of mind made him change colour in every possible way; in one moment he became 267 flushed, pale, and livid. He was already shivering from head to foot. Trembling and shuddering convulsed every limb and part of his body. His^ sinews became limp and slack, and he staggered and finally collapsed and would have fallen, had not some of the by standers caught him. They carried him home as they were instructed. He was in a coma and conscious of none of the mass of troubles
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122
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
268 which had descended upon him. As a result Gaius was even more exasperated, and intensified his hatred for the Jews. He said, "If my closest and dearest friend, Agrippa, who is under great obliga tions to me, is such a slave of his national customs that he cannot bear to hear a word spoken against them but faints and even almost dies, what must one expect of the other Jews, who have no powerful 269 incentive for acting otherwise?" Agrippa lay sunk in a deep coma for the first day and most of the second, conscious of nothing around him. But late in the afternoon he raised his head a little and just managed to open his heavy eyes slightly. He looked at the people round his bed with blurred and misty vision, not yet able to dis270 tinguish their individual forms clearly. Then he went to sleep again and remained quite still. His general condition was now better than before, to judge from his breathing and the state of his body. 271 Later on he awoke and asked, "Where am I now? Surely not with 272 Gaius? Surely my lord is not here t o o ? " They replied, "It is all right. You are in your own house. Gaius is not here. You had a good rest when you went to sleep. Now turn round and raise yourself and lean on your elbow. Look at the people here. They are all your own people, the most respected of your friends, freedmen, and servants, 273 and those who most respect you." By now Agrippa was beginning to recover his senses, and he recognized the sympathy in every face. The doctors then told most of them to go away, in order to restore 274 the sick man's body with ointments and suitable food. But Agrippa said, "Must you really bother about a special diet for me? Will it not do for me in my miserable state to satisfy my hunger by simply using the bare necessities of life, which will be very cheap? Indeed, I should refuse even those, were it not for the final service which I 275 am dreaming of rendering to my ill-fated people." Then, in tears, he ate some food under protest without any seasoning and refused even diluted wine when it was offered to him, saying after taking a sip of water, " M y poor stomach has now received the loan it asked for. What have I to do but to appeal to Gaius about the present situation?" 276 36 He took a tablet and wrote the following letter: " M y lord, fear and modesty prevent me from pleading with you face to face. Fear seeks to avoid your threats, while modesty makes me alarmed at the magnitude of the dignity surrounding you. This letter will bring you my request, which I am presenting instead of the sup277 pliant's olive branch. Emperor, everyone naturally loves his home land and accepts the laws of his own country. There is no need to instruct you on this point, as you yourself are passionately patriotic and passionately admire your native traditions. All people regard the customs of their own country as excellent, even if in reality they are not, because they judge them with feelings of affection 278 rather than with their reason. I was born, as you know, a Jew. Jerusalem is my home, where stands the holy Temple of the Most High God. My grandfathers and ancestors were kings. Most of them
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EMBASSY TO GAIUS
were appointed High Priests and let their position as king take second place behind their priesthood, on the grounds that, just as God is greater than man, so the High Priesthood is greater than the position of king; for the one is concerned with the service of God, the other with the care of human beings. Since my heritage is such a nation and city and Temple, I appeal to you on behalf of them all —on behalf of my nation, that it may not have a reputation which is the reverse of what it should have, seeing that its attitude to all your family has been one of reverence and piety from the beginning. For it has not lagged behind any Asian or European nation in ex pressions of reverence commanded or permitted in accordance with the Law, that is, in prayers, the dedication of offerings, and numer ous sacrifices—not only the sacrifices offered at public festivals but the regular daily sacrifices as well. By these means the Jews proclaim their reverence in the resolutions of their inmost souls rather than b y word of mouth; they are people who do not merely say that they are Caesar's friends, but really are his friends. I must now make some important points about the Holy City. As I have said, it is my home, and it is the capital not of the single country of Judaea but of most other countries also, because of the colonies which it has sent out from time to time to the neighbouring lands of Egypt, Phoenicia, and Syria (the so-called Coele Syria as well as Syria proper), to the distant countries of Pamphylia, Cilicia, most of Asia as far as Bithynia and the remote corners of Pontus, and in the same way to Europe, to Thessaly, Boeotia, Macedonia, Aetolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth, and most of the best parts of the Peloponnese. It is not only the continents that are full of Jewish colonies. So are the best known of the islands", Euboea, Cyprus, and Crete. I say nothing about the regions beyond the Euphrates. With the excep tion of a small district, all of them, Babylon and those of the other satrapies which have fertile land around them, have Jewish settlers. So if my native city has a share in your kindness, it will not be a single city but countless others set in every region of the world as well—in Europe, Asia, and Libya, in continents and islands, in coastal and inland regions—which will enjoy the benefits. It suits the magnitude of your high position to benefit countless cities by the benefits which you confer on one, so that your glory may resound throughout every part of the world and your praises may re-echo mingled with thanks. You have seen fit to bestow Roman citizen ship on the cities of some of your friends en bloc, and erstwhile slaves have become the masters of others. Those on whose account this has been done feel more pleasure, or at any rate no less, than do the recipients of the favour. I myself am one of the people who recognize that they have a lord and master but who are counted among his friends. In rank few are above me. In loyalty I am second to none—I will not go so far as to say that I stand first. Therefore on the strength of my birth and the multitude of the kindnesses with which you have enriched me, I too might have made bold to
(DIAONOL A P E T Q N
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
ask for my native city, if not Roman citizenship, at least freedom or exemption from taxation. But I have not dared to make any such request. Instead I make a very trifling request, a favour which it will cost you nothing to give, but which will be of the greatest value for my city to receive. For what greater blessing could your subjects receive than the goodwill of their princeps? It was in Jerusalem, Emperor, that your longed-for accession was first pro claimed, and from the Holy City the report spread to the adjacent countries. For this reason also Jerusalem deserves preferential treatment at your hands. For just as in families the eldest sons receive special prerogatives because they were the first to call their parents "father" and "mother", so in the same way, since this city was the first in the Orient to call you "Emperor", it deserves to re ceive extra blessings, or, if not that, at least equal ones with other cities. Having thus pleaded the cause of my city and made my re quests for it, I will turn at last to my request about the Temple. My lord Gaius, this Temple has never from the beginning admitted any man-made image, because it is the dwelling-place of the true God. The works of painters and sculptors are copies of gods per ceived by the senses. But the making of any picture or sculpture of the invisible God was considered by our forefathers to be blasphemous. Agrippa, your grandfather, respected the Temple, and so * did Augustus, by giving written instructions for the "first-fruits" from all over the empire to be sent thither, and b y his provision for regular sacrifices. And so did your great-grandmother As a result no-one, either Greek, barbarian, satrap, king, or bitter enemy, and no revolution, war, capture, sack, or anything else at all ever caused such a violation of the Temple as the introduction of a statue, an image, or any man-made work of art into it. For even if they were our enemies and hated the inhabitants of our country, yet shame or fear prevented them from putting an end to any of our immemorial practices in honour of the Creator and Father of the universe. For they knew that from these and similar actions sprang the irreparable disasters of divine punishment. For this reason they were chary of sowing seeds of impiety, lest they should be compelled to reap a harvest of utter destruction. 37 But why should I call foreign witnesses when I can present you with many from your own family? When Marcus Agrippa, your maternal grandfather, was in Judaea during the reign of my grandfather Herod, he immediately decided to travel up from the coast to the capital, which lies inland. When he had gazed on the Temple and the dignity of the priests and the piety of the native population, he was filled with admiration and considered that he had seen something very solemn and quite indescribable. His only topic of conversation with the friends who were with him at the time was praise for the Temple and everything connected with it. At any rate, every day during the stay which he made in Jerusalem to please Herod, he visited the Temple court, enjoying the spectacle
OIAQNOL A P E T O N
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
of the building, the sacrifices, the ritual and order connected with the sacred services, and the solemnity surrounding the High Priest when he was arrayed in his sacred robes and officiated at the sacred rites. He adorned the Temple with all such dedications as were permissible, and conferred all such benefits as he could grant * without doing harm. He and Herod then exchanged innumerable compliments, and finally he was escorted as far as the harbour, not just by a single city but by the whole country, while branches were strewn on his path and his piety was a subject for admiration. Then what about your other grandfather, Tiberius Caesar? Was his policy not clearly the same? At any rate, during the twentythree years of his principate he safeguarded the Temple ritual which had been handed down from the distant past, and did not abolish or disturb a single item of it. 38 I can also tell you of something on which he prided himself, although I experienced countless sufferings during his lifetime. But you love and respect the truth. Pilate was an official who had been appointed procurator of Judaea. With the intention of an noying the Jews rather than of honouring Tiberius, he set up gilded shields in Herod's palace in the Holy City. They bore no figure and nothing else that was forbidden, but only the briefest possible inscription, which stated two things—the name of the dedicator and that of the person in whose honour the dedication was made. But when the Jews at large learnt of his action, which was indeed already widely known, they chose as their spokesmen the king's four sons, who enjoyed prestige and rank equal to that of kings, his other descendants, and their own officials, and besought Pilate to undo his innovation in the shape of the shields, and not to violate their native customs, which had hitherto been invariably preserved inviolate by kings and emperors alike. When Pilate, who was a man of inflexible, stubborn, and cruel disposition, o b stinately refused, they shouted, ' D o not cause a revolt! Do not cause a war! Do not break the peace! Disrespect done to our ancient Laws brings no honour to the Emperor. Do not make Tiberius an excuse for insulting our nation. He does not want any of our traditions done away with. If you say that he does, show us some decree or letter or something of the sort, so that we may cease troubling you and appeal to our master by means of an embassy.' This last remark exasperated Pilate most of all, for he was afraid that if they really sent an embassy, they would bring accusations against the rest of his administration as well, specifying in detail his venality, his violence, his thefts, his assaults, his abusive behaviour, his frequent executions of untried prisoners, and his endless savage ferocity. So, as he was a spiteful and angry person, he was in a serious dilemma; for he had neither the courage to remove what he had once set up, nor the desire to do anything which would please his subjects, but at the same time he was well aware of Tiberius' firmness on these matters. When the Jewish
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130
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
officials saw this, and realized that Pilate was regretting what he had done, although he did not wish to show it, they wrote a letter to Tiberius, pleading their case as forcibly as they could. What words, what threats Tiberius uttered against Pilate when he read it! It would be superfluous to describe his anger, although he was not easily moved to anger, since his reaction speaks for itself. For immediately, without even waiting until the next day, he wrote to Pilate, reproaching and rebuking him a thousand times for his new-fangled audacity and telling him to remove the shields at once and have them taken from the capital to the coastal city of Caesarea (the city named Sebaste after your great-grandfather), to be dedi cated in the temple of Augustus. This was duly done. In this way both the honour of the Emperor and the traditional policy regarding Jerusalem were alike preserved. 3 9 Now on that occasion it was a question of shields bearing no representation of any living creature; this time it is a colossal statue. On that occasion the dedication was made in the residence of the procurators; this time the proposed dedication is to be made, we are told, right inside the Temple, in the actual shrine, which the High Priest enters only once a year, on the so-called Fast Day, to burn incense and to offer the traditional prayers for blessings in abundance and plenty and peace for all men. If anyone else—I do not mean any Jewish layman, but even any one of the priests, and not merely one of the junior priests but one of those next in rank to the High Priest—enters it alone, or even with the High Priest, or indeed if the High Priest himself goes into it on two days of the year, or even three or four times on the same Fast Day, he faces a death against which there can be no appeal. This is the elaborate protection for the shrine laid down by our lawgiver, who wanted this one part of the Temple alone to be kept untrodden and un touched. How many deaths, then, do you think people who have respected the sanctity of the shrine would gladly undergo, if they saw the statue being taken into it ? I believe that they would kill their whole families, wives and children and all, and finally sacrifice themselves on top of the bodies of their kinsfolk. Tiberius knew this. Now what about your great-grandfather, the best of all the Emperors who have ever lived, who was the first to be called Au gustus because of his goodness and position, and who spread peace everywhere by land and sea to the ends of the earth ? When he was told about our Temple and heard that no man-made image, no visible representation of the invisible Being, was to be found in it, did he not marvel and worship? He had had more than a merely superficial taste of philosophy but had feasted on it deeply and continued to do so almost daily, partly by recalling things which his mind had stored up as a result of its former philosophical studies, and partly b y conversing with the literary men who were constantly with him. For at dinner-parties most of the time was devoted to listening to cultured men, in
OIAONOL APETQN
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132
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
order that the mind as well as the body might be fed on appropriate food. 311 4 0 I could demonstrate the intentions of Augustus, your great grandfather, by countless proofs, but I will content myself with two. First, when he discovered that the sacred ''first-fruits" were being neglected, he instructed the governors of the provinces in 312 Asia to grant to the Jews alone the right of t assembly. He said that their associations were not clubs f which had their origin in drunkenness and disorderliness likely to disturb the peace, but were schools of sobriety and justice for people who practised virtue and contributed their annual "first-fruits", which they used to pay for sacrifices, sending sacred envoys to take the money to the 313 Temple in Jerusalem. Secondly, he gave orders that no-one should hinder the Jews from meeting, making their contributions, and communicating with Jerusalem as their custom was. This was the gist of his instructions, at any rate, even if they were not expressed 314 in these words. I append one letter in order to convince you, my lord—a letter from Gaius Norbanus Flaccus in which he made public what Caesar had written to him. Here is a transcript of the letter: 315 'Gaius Norbanus Flaccus the proconsul greets the magistrates of Ephesus. Caesar has written to me saying that it is a native tradition al custom of the Jews, wherever they live, to meet regularly and contribute money, which they send to Jerusalem. He does not wish them to be prevented from doing this. I am therefore writing to you 316 so that you may know that these are his instructions.' Surely this is a clear proof, Emperor, of the policy which Caesar followed with regard to the respect due to our Temple ? He did not want the Jews' assemblies, which are held for* the collection of the "first-fruits" and for other religious purposes, to be swept away in the same 317 way as the clubs were. We have another equally conclusive proof of Augustus' intentions. He gave orders for regular sacrifices of holocausts to be offered every day at his expense to the Most High God. These sacrifices continue to this day. Two lambs and a bull form the offerings with which Caesar glorified the altar, because he knew quite well that there was no image, visible or concealed, there. 318 The argument in the mind of this great princeps, who was second to none as a philosopher, was, indeed, that it was essential for a special place consecrated to the invisible God to be set apart in the earthly regions, and for it to contain no visible representation to help 319 people to share in fair hopes and enjoy perfect blessings. Again, your great-grandmother, Julia Augusta, who had in Augustus a fine instructor in piety, enriched the Temple with gold bowls and cups and a number of other costly offerings. What made her do this, when there was no image there? For women's intellects are somewhat weak and cannot grasp any mental concept but only 320 objects of sense. But she surpassed all her sex in this as in other matters. She excelled in natural ability and in practice as a result of the purity of her education, and she resembled a man in her
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329
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
intellect, which had become so keen that she grasped mental con cepts better than objects of sense, and regarded the latter as shadows of the former. 4 1 Therefore, my lord, since you have these striking precedents for a gentler policy than your own, all closely connected with the family from which you were descended and born and in which you have taken such pride, preserve what each of them has preserved. As Emperors they plead the Cause of the laws to you as Emperor, as Augusti to you as Augustus, as your grandfathers and ancestors to you as their descendant, as many people to you who are but one, and they say in effect, ' D o not abolish customs which have been maintained at our express wish up to the present day. For even if nothing sinister were to befall you as a result of their abolition, yet the uncertainty of the future is not entirely without terror even for the boldest, unless they despise the'things of God.' If I give you a list of your favours to me, it will take me more than the whole day; and besides that, it is inappropriate for the principal matter to be subordinated to another story. Yet if I pass them over in silence, the facts themselves shout and cry aloud. You set me free when I was fettered with iron chains; everyone knows that. Do not fetter me now with more painful chains, Emperor. For the chains which you loosed encircled a part of my body, whereas those which I now foresee are chains for the soul, which will crush my whole soul utterly. You took away the dread of death which was per petually hanging over me; you quickened me when I was dead with fear and raised me again as if to a second life. Continue with this favour, Emperor, lest your Agrippa give up life completely. For it will look as if I was released, not in order to live, but rather in order to suffer heavier calamities and die more conspicuously. You bestowed on me the most lofty and glorious lot that can fall to men— a kingdom. It consisted at first of a single country but later of another larger one as well, when you f united Galilee to the district known as Trachonitis. f When you have granted me favours beyond my needs, my lord, do not take from me the necessities of life; and when you have brought me into the most brilliant light, do not cast me back afresh into the deepest darkness. But I relin quish those splendours; I do not object to returning to my former condition; I give up everything in exchange for one thing, the pre servation of our native traditions unchanged. Otherwise what would be my reputation among my fellow Jews or among all the gentiles? Of necessity I should be regarded as one of two things—either as a traitor to m y people or as one who had forfeited your friendship. What greater evil could there be than these? For if I continue to be numbered among your friends, I shall have a reputation for treachery, unless my homeland is kept safe from all evil and the Temple is kept inviolate, since you great men protect the interests of your friends and of people who have taken refuge in the manifestations of your imperial power. If, however, any hostility lurks
I1POTON
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
in your heart, do not imprison me, as Tiberius did, but destroy my anticipation of a second imprisonment by ordering me to be got rid of at once. For what good would it be to me to live, when my only hope of deliverance lay in your goodwill?" 4 2 Agrippa wrote this letter, sealed it, and sent it to Gaius. Then he shut himself up in his house and waited in an agony of con fused feelings, wondering greatly how it would strike Gaius. For it was no trifling danger but a danger of expulsion, enslavement, and complete destruction which had been brought not only upon the inhabitants of the Holy Land but upon the Jews everywhere else in the world as well. When Gaius received the letter and read it, he was angered at each of the points, since his purpose was not pros pering; but at the same time he was moved by the mixture of ar guments and pleas. He partly approved of what Agrippa said, and partly disapproved. He objected to his excessive obsequiousness towards his compatriots, who were the only people to disobey him and to repudiate his deification, but he approved of the way in which he did not disguise or conceal any of his feelings, and said that this gave proof of a very independent and noble spirit. So he pretended to be appeased and decided to write Agrippa a fairly pleasant reply, granting him his first and most important request, that the dedication should not take place. He gave orders for a letter to be written to Publius Petronius, the legate of Syria, to the effect that he was to attempt no further innovations with regard to the Jewish Temple. But although he granted this favour, he did not grant it outright, but tempered it with a very cruel fear. For he added in his letter, "If, however, any people in the sur rounding districts, outside the capital itself, wish to establish altars or sacrifices or images or statues on behalf of me or my family and are prevented from doing so, you are either to punish those responsible for the hindrance on the spot or to send them to me." This was nothing but a source for risings and civil wars, and a sort of indirect cancellation of the gift which he appeared to be granting outright. For it meant that some people, out of hostility towards the Jews rather than loyalty to Gaius, would fill the whole country with dedications, while the Jews, seeing their traditions over thrown before their very eyes, would not be able to endure it, even though they were the most even-tempered of men, and Gaius would visit the heaviest possible punishment on the victims of the provo cation and then renew his order for the erection of the statue in the Temple. But by the providence and care of God, Who oversees and controls all things righteously, not a single one of the neighbouring peoples gave any provocation, so that no occasion arose for the Jews to meet a disaster from which there was no escape instead of a comparatively mild rebuke. "But what was the good of this?" someone may ask. Even though other people kept quiet, Gaius did not. He was already regretting his generosity and was fanning his former passion into flame. He gave orders for the construction of a
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THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
second colossal statue of gilded bronze in Rome. He left the one in Sidon where it was, in order not to cause a popular rising by having it moved, but proposed to bring the second statue secretly by sea, while the Jews were peaceful and unsuspecting after a long respite, and to have it erected suddenly without the knowledge of the multitude. 4 3 He planned to do this when he sailed past in the course of his visit to Egypt. He had an indescribable passion for Alexandria, and was extremely anxious to visit it and to stay for a very long time when he got there. He believed that this city alone had originated the deification of which he dreamed and would foster it, and that b y reason of its great size and commanding position in the world it had provided other cities with an example of how he should be worshipped, since inferior men and cities try to emulate the actions °f great ones. Gaius was, however, naturally unreliable in every other respect as well, so that if he ever happened to do anything good, he immediately regretted it and looked for a way of undoing it which would cause greater distress and harm. This is the sort of thing I mean: he freed some prisoners for no reason at all and then imprisoned them again, thus inflicting on them heavier suffering than before, the suffering born of despair. Another time he imposed a sentence of banishment on some people who expected to be put to death, not because they were aware of having committed any offence deserving death or indeed any milder punishment, but because the judge's excessive ferocity robbed them of any hope of being let off. To them exile was a boon, and as good as a return from exile, when they considered that they had escaped from the supreme danger which was threatening their lives. But only a short time afterwards, although nothing new had happened, he sent some of his troops and put to death in a body those fine, noble exiles who were already making homes of the islands in which they were living, and were bearing their misfortunes most cheerfully. Thus he brought poignant and unexpected grief to the families of Rome's leading citizens. If he gave people a gift of money,-he would demand it back, not as if it were a loan on which he required simple or com pound interest, but as if it were a theft for which the recipients had to pay the heaviest penalty. For it was not enough for the poor wretches to return what had been given to them; they would hand over as well the whole of the fortunes which they had either in herited from parents, relations, or friends, or amassed by themselves by commercial undertakings. The laticlavi, who thought themselves highly distinguished, were injured in another way, which amused him and involved a pretence at friendliness. They would spend vast sums on his ill-advised, disorderly, and unexpected visits, and vast sums on entertaining him. They would spend their whole fortunes on providing a single banquet, so that they actually had to borrow, so great were their expenses. Consequently people tried to avoid receiving favours at his hands, on the grounds that, far
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Legatio ad Gaium
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140
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
from being an advantage, they were a snare and a delusion, en346 tailing heavier loss than they could bear. Such was the inconsistency of his behaviour towards everyone. But it was particularly marked towards the Jewish race. Because of his bitter hatred for it he appropriated the synagogues in every city, starting with those in Alexandria, and filled them with images and statues of himself. (For in allowing others to make dedications, he was virtually setting up the statues himself.) Then he proceeded to adapt and alter the Temple in the Holy City, which still remained unmolested and was regarded as completely inviolable, into a shrine of his own, to be 347 called that of "Gaius, the New Zeus made Manifest". What do you say ? Do you, a mere human being, seek to annex sky and heaven as well, because you are not satisfied with the multitude of great continents, islands, peoples, and regions over which you hold sway ? Do you consider God unworthy to possess a single land or city in this world of ours? Are you determined to rob Him even of this area, tiny as it is, which had been dedicated and consecrated to Him by oracles and divine prophecies, in order that within the whole circuit of this great world no trace and no reminder may be left of 348 the honour and reverence due to the true and living God? Fine hopes you sketch out for mankind! Do you not know that you are opening up copious fountains of evil by these new-fangled acts of megalomania which it is a sin to commit or even to think about ? 349
4 4 I must now report what we both saw and heard when we were sent to conduct our campaign about our civic position. As soon as we came into Gaius' presence, we realized from his appearance and gestures that we were standing not before a judge but before an ac350 cuser more hostile to us than our actual opponents. For the duties of a judge were as follows: to sit with assessors chosen on their merits during the investigation of a vital question affecting many thousands of Alexandrian Jews, which had not been raised for four hundred years and was now being brought up in court for the first time; to let the opposing parties stand on either side of him; * to listen first to the accusation and then to the defence for the al lotted time; and finally to retire and discuss with his assessors what would be the fairest judgement to pronounce. His actual conduct, however, was that of an implacable tyrant with a scowl on his des351 potic brow. For apart from doing none of the things which I have just mentioned, he sent for the procurators of the two gardens of Maecenas and Lamia. (These gardens are near to each other and to Rome, and he had been spending the previous three or four days there; it was there that the drama concerning all our people was to be staged, with us as the principal actors.) He told them to have the mansions all opened up for him, as he wanted to inspect each of 352 them in detail. W e were brought into Gaius* presence, and as soon as we saw him we bowed low to the ground with the greatest reverence and punctiliousness, and greeted him with the title "Augustus
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142
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Imperator". His reply was so polite and kind that we despaired not 353 only for our case but also for our lives. For with a sneering grin he said, "So you are the god-haters, the people who do not believe that I am a god— f Why, the rest of the world now acknowledges me as a god, yet you refuse to pronounce the title!"f And raising his hands to heaven he uttered a Name which it is a sin even to 354 hear, let alone to pronounce. How overjoyed the envoys from the other party were at this, imagining that Gaius* first remark meant that their mission had already succeeded! They waved their arms about, danced up and down, and called him by the titles of all the gods. 355 45 The spiteful sycophant Isidorus observed that Gaius enjoyed being given superhuman titles and said, "My lord, you will hate these Jews here, and the rest of their compatriots too, even more when you learn of their ill-will and disloyalty towards you. When everyone else was offering sacrifices of thanksgiving for your re covery, these people alone could not bring themselves to sacrifice. 356 When I say 'these', I include the other Jews as well." At that we cried out unanimously, "Lord Gaius, we are being maligned. We did sacrifice, and hecatombs at that. And we did not just sprinkle the blood on the altar and take the meat home to use for feasting and merry-making, as some people normally do, but we allowed the whole offering to be consumed in the sacred flame. And it is not only once but three times already that we have done this: the first time was at youF accession, the second was on your recovery from that serious illness from which the whole world suffered at the same time, and the third was in anticipation of your victory in 357 Germany." "Granted", said Gaius, "that this is true and that you have offered sacrifices. But it was to another God, even if it was on my behalf. What is the good of that ? You have not sacrificed to me." Violent trembling seized us immediately we heard this remark following on his earlier one, and it affected us all over so 358 that there was no concealing it. While saying this he was going over the mansions, inspecting the men's quarters, the women's quarters, the ground floor, the upper storeys, and everything, criti cizing some of the fittings as inadequate, and suggesting and ordering 359 other more expensive ones himself. Then we were driven along and followed him upstairs and downstairs, while our opponents mocked and railed at us just as in farces on the stage. Indeed, the whole affair was a farce. The judge had taken upon himself the role of accuser, and our accusers that of a corrupt judge who has an eye 360 to hostility and not to the facts of the case. When it is the judge himself, and a judge possessed of such great power too, who accuses the person on trial, the only thing to do is to say nothing. Silence is a kind of defence, particularly in the case of people who could not answer any of the questions or demands, because their customs and Laws bridled their tongues and closed and sewed up their mouths. 361 After giving some of his instructions about the buildings, he asked
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A P E T Q N
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363
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365
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367
368
369
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
us an important and solemn question: " W h y do you not eat pork?" At this inquiry our opponents again burst into such violent peals of laughter, partly because they were really amused and partly be cause they made it their business as flatterers to let his remark seem witty and entertaining, that one of the servants attending Gaius was annoyed at the scant respect being shown to the Emperor, in whose presence it was not safe for people who were not his intimate friends even to smile quietly. We replied by saying, "Different people have different customs, and we are forbidden to use some things, just as our adversaries are forbidden to use others." Someone then said, "For instance, many people do not eat lamb, which is a very ordinary kind of food." At that Gaius laughed and said, "Quite right too. It is not nice." While they fooled and joked at our expense in this way, we were at our wits' end. Then after some time Gaius said mockingly, " W e should like to know what political rights you enjoy." We began to give an explanation, but as soon as Gaius had had a taste of our pleading and realized that it was cogent, even before we had produced our strongest arguments, he cut us short, rushed on ahead into the large room, went round it, and gave orders for its windows all round to be filled again with transparent stones rather like colourless glass, which let the light through but keep out the wind and the heat of the sun. Then he walked on slowly ana asked us more calmly, " W h a t are you saying?" But when we began to marshal our next arguments, he ran back into another room and gave orders for some old paintings to be hung there. In this way our rights were rent asunder, dismembered, and almost completely broken up and shattered. As a result we were in despair and quite exhausted, and all the time expected nothing but death. Our souls were no longer within our bodies, but in our anguish they had left us to pray to the true God to restrain the fury of the man who falsely called himself god. God took pity on us and turned Gaius' heart to mercy. He became gentler and merely said, "I think that these men are not so much criminals as lunatics in not believing that I have been given a divine nature." With that he left us and told us to go away too. 46 So we escaped from a place more like a cross between a theatre and a prison than a lawcourt. For as in a theatre we had been hooted at, hissed, mocked, and jeered at outrageously, while as in a jail our feelings had been wounded, we had been tortured, and our whole souls had been racked both b y the blasphemies against the Deity and b y the threats uttered b y an Emperor pos sessed of great power and bearing malice not on someone else's account, which he could easily have given up, but on account of himself and his passion for deification, which he assumed that the Jews alone did not assent to and could not subscribe to. W e then gradually recovered our breath. It was not that our love of life made us cower at the thought of death, which we would gladly have chosen as if it were immortality, if that would have restored a single one of
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373
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
our Laws, but that we knew that we should throw our lives away with great ignominy and achieve nothing by it. For the sufferings of envoys recoil on those who have sent them. With all this in mind we were able to raise our heads for a little while. But other circum stances terrified us, and we were in a great state of agitation and anxiety, wondering what decision Gaius would reach and give, and what sentence he would pronounce. For had he really heard our case, when he had taken no notice of some of the facts? Was it not hard that the future of all the Jews everywhere should be at stake in the persons of us five envoys? If Gaius were to give in to our enemies, what other city would remain quiet? What city would refrain from attacking the Jews living in it ? What synagogue would be left unmolested? What political right belonging to those who order their lives according to Jewish traditions would not be over thrown ? Both the specifically Jewish Laws and their general rights vis-a-vis each individual city would be overthrown, shipwrecked, and sent to the bottom of the sea. Arguments of this kind over whelmed us and dragged us down into the depths. People who had hitherto apparently been supporting us failed us. At any rate, when we summoned them they did not stand their ground, although they were at home, but slunk away fearfully, knowing full well Gaius' desire to be regarded as a god. Thus I have set forth quite briefly the reason for Gaius' hatred for the whole Jewish nation. I must now proceed to the palinode.
IIPQTON
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COMMENTARY i
1 In the opening paragraph of the treatise (1-7) Philo begins to discuss politics from the point of view of general philosophical principles. The argument in 1-2 runs: men are unable to get a true picture of the world and of events, because they depend on their senses and give all their attention to Chance, which is utterly un reliable, instead of using their intellects in an attempt to grasp the reliable facts of Nature; because of ignorance or preoccupation with sensual pleasures, their view of the world is empirical rather than teleological. dtxpi TIVO;. A. G. ROOS suggests (in Mnemosyne, 3rd series ii (1935), 242) reading &xpi TIVO; (for which fiexP in 174 and Fl. 10 is parallel) and thus making the opening sentence of the treatise a statement instead of a rhetorical question—"Up to a certain point we old men are still children"; the next sentence, introduced b y yip, then gives grounds for this assertion. * rjfxeu; ot ylpovre;. Philo implies here that he was elderly at the time of writing, and in 182 (St' rjXixtocv) that he was the oldest member of the Jewish delegation sent to Gaius. Little informa tion can be gleaned from his writings about his life (but see the note on 174). His two historical treatises, however, appear to be his last extant works, as they contain the latest indications of date. The terminus post quern for the composition, or at least for the comple tion, of both is 4 1 : in Fl. 180 Gaius is referred to in the past tense; in Leg. 107 his death is mentioned; and in 206 there is a reference to an execution by Claudius. The general attack on Gaius in the Legatio could, moreover, hardly have been published in his lifetime. TYJV TUX*)V. The definition of TUX?) ourta SSYJXO; AvOpcomvY) Stavota goes back further than Aristotle (see Physics ii, 4, 196b). In the deterministic system of the Stoics, to which Philo owed much, there was, strictly speaking, no place for T U X * ) . But the conception of T U X * ) , defined in this way (Aetius Plac. i, 29, 7; J. von (ab) Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta II (1903), p. 281, no. 966), was for them a convenient explanation of incomprehensible phenomena and unexpected happenings. Philo is perhaps here criticizing the Epi curean doctrine that the existence of the universe is due to blind 1
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152
THE
EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Chance, which has the effect of denying the stability of Nature. Or he may have in mind the worship of Tux?) as a goddess. 2 (3pa(3eueiv. An extension of the familiar use of this verb in the sense of "umpire". Mangey, whom Dahl characterized as "praeceps coniecturarum venator" (note, p. 255), suggested altering to 0spa7reuetv. 9
axpaTco. Used with olvo; understood in 14 and 83 also. L. and S. give similar examples from Aristophanes and Menander. 3 6 j:apcov xatpo; . . . . vnoQlaeu;. In view of the apparent date of the composition of the Legatio, this is presumably a reference to Claudius' attempt to settle the Jewish problem in Alexandria during the first year of his principate; see Introduction, pp. 27-31. The present participle 7capcov and the phrase XOCT' OCUT6V suggest that Philo was writing while tension was still high, perhaps before Claudius' final decision was made known by his Letter in No vember, 41. TOU 7rpovoetv TO 0etov dv0pa>7ccov. The transition of thought is abrupt between 2 and 3, but Philo seems to mean here that the first great fact of Nature, to be apprehended by the intellect, is God's providential care for mankind and especially for the Jews. If the interpretation of 6 7raptov xatpo; . . . . U7ro06aei<; above is correct, his point presumably is that Claudius' vindication of the Jews' religious liberty provides an example of the working of divine Providence in their favour. Cf. the note on 220. On Philo's belief in Providence, which is fundamental to his theology, see A. Meyer, Vorsehungsglaube und Schicksalsidee in ihrem Verhdltnis bei Philo von Alexandria (1939). TOU IxeTixou yhovc,. Cf. Praem. 44, where Jacob is referred to as a suppliant in connection with God's self-revelation to him. Delaunay's translation "le peuple qui prie" or "le peuple devot" (272, n. 2) does not seem adequate. Goodenough suggests that, in Philo's view, the second great fact of Nature was that, since the Jews were God's chosen people and enjoyed a special relationship with Him through their mystic powers of vision (4 ff.), they could act as a link between God and man, and so were the "race of suppliants" who mediated God's favour to men. God's care for all men was in a sense the outcome of His care for the Jews (Politics, 13). 4 XoXSaftrrl. Philo quite frequently uses "Chaldaean" in the sense of "Hebrew", especially with reference to language: e.g., Abr. 8, 12, 99, 201; Mos. i, 5, andii, 224; and Praem. 14,31,44. In many al-
COMMENTARY ON §§ I-4
153
lusions, however, to Chaldaean astrology and to Abraham's migra tion from Chaldaea to Canaan a clear distinction is preserved between that race and the Hebrews: e.g., Mig. 177-87; Heres 96-9; an&Abr. 67-77. F ° other examples see Earp, Index of Names s.v. Chaldaea. opcov 0e6v. Philo believes that names have symbolic meanings, and accordingly gives etymologies, some fairly correct but others (like that of Israel) incorrect, for many Hebrew ones. See, e.g., Mut. passim) other references are given by Leisegang and by Earp, op. cit., s.vv. the individual names. Cf. the derivations of Hermes and Ares from epjxyjveu; and ap^yetv (99, 113). His use of allegorical etymologies is one of the Stoic elements in his work. Although the Stoics did not originate the practice of attributing to words, and especially to proper nouns, derivations from assonant words fre quently connected with their functions—the earliest example is in Odyssey xix, 562-7, on which see W . B. Stanford's note in his edition (1948)—they developed it extensively, rationalizing the myths by means of it, explaining away the objectionable features in them and interpreting them as allegories of the principles of their own philosophical system. See further P. B. R. Forbes in The Oxford Classical Dictionary s.v. Etymology] cf. P. Barth, Die Stoa*, ed. A. Godeckemeyer (1946), index s.v. Etymologic, M. Pohlenz, DieStoa (1948) I, 41-3. r
Philo uses the false etymology Israel= "seeing G o d " , "the one who sees", or "the race which sees", frequently to support his theological doctrine of the place of Israel in the world, and applies it both to the individual Jacob/Israel and to the Hebrew race: e.g., LA ii, 34; Immut. 144; Conf. 146; Cong. 5 1 ; Fug. 208; Mut. 81; Som. i, 1 2 9 , 1 7 1 , and ii,44,173,279; 4 6 7 . 5 7 ; and Praem. 44. For many other references see Earp, op. cit. s.v. Israel. In Philo's mystical interpretation of Jewish history, Jacob became "the man who sees G o d " through his wrestling with the angel. Philo allegorizes this contest as the last stage of his struggle to attain virtue by the sub jection of his lower human nature; the reward of his success was the vision of reality or of the existence of God, Whom hitherto he had contemplated only through His works. See further Goodenough, Light, 177-9. This etymology was well-known, occurring also in a lost Jewish apocryphon (Origen In Joh. ii, 2$=PG X I V , 168-9; cf. E. Stein in Monatsschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums lxxxi (1937), 280-6), in Syriac (see Thesaurus Syriacus ed. R. Payne
154
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Smith (1879) I, 163), and in the Church Fathers—e.g., Hippolytus (Contra Haer. Noeti 5 = P G X , 809-12; In Genes, fr. 16•= Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller Hipp. II, 58), Origen (In Num. xvi, 7 = P G X I I , 699; In Rom. vii, 14 and viii, 7 = P G X I V , 1141 and 1 1 7 7 ; cf. In Joh. fr. 2 7 = G C S Origen IV, 505), Eusebius (Praep. Ev. vii, 8, 28; xi, 6, 31), and Jerome (Lib. de Nomin. Hebr., Exodus=PL X X I I I , 832, with the comment in Lib. Hebr.Quaest. inGen. x x x i i = PL X X I I I , 1039). Cf. F. Wutz, Onomastica Sacra in Texte und Untersuchungen ed. A. von Harnack and C. Schmidt X L I , 1 (1914), 88-90, 526-7. It was probably part of the stock-in-trade of the Church Fathers rather than a borrowing from Philo, although his works were known to some of them: see the references to him in Eusebius, especially in Praep. Ev. (cf. Introduction, pp. 37-8), Jerome (Lib. de Nomin. Hebr., praef.), and Origen (ContraCels. iv, 5 1 ; vi, 2 1 ; In Matt, xv, 3 = P G X I I I , 1260; the footnotes inGCS Origen VI and VII point out many unacknowledged borrowings from Philo). This etymology for Israel presumably arose from a supposition that the letters 'wife* (Israel) either were a contraction of n*n "a man saw God", or were the equivalent of *?H
(from the rare
verb nitf, to "see"), "he will see God", which would involve differ ent pointing but no elimination of letters. The last syllable of ^infjr is certainly VK, " G o d " , and the first two seem to be the imperfect of a verb. But according to the laws of the formation of Hebrew and Semitic names, the noun is the subject and not the object of the verb; see M. Noth, Die Israelitischen Personennamen im Rahmen der Gemeinsemitischen Namengebung (1928), 207-8. The verb is now generally supposed to be rnfe, to "persevere" or "fight"; see Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1907) s.v. rnfe; Kohler and Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros (1953) s.v. V*nfp\ The name would then mean "May God fight" or " G o d will fight". For detailed discussion of the possible derivations of the name see G. A. Danell, Studies in the Name Israel in the Old Testament (1946), 15-28, who, however, favours the derivation from the verbs itfj or the basic meaning of which is "to be consistent, reliable, successful, happy". (The writer's thanks are due to Professor D. Winton Thomas and Dr. J. Teicher of Cambridge University and to Professor R. J. Wilson of Assembly's College, Belfast, for help on this point.)
COMMENTARY ON §§ 4-6
155
Whether Philo knew Hebrew or not is disputed. His use of Hebrew etymologies and some other features of his works suggest a familiar ity with the language but do not prove it, since he may be indebted to the works of Hebrew-speaking Jews. For discussion see I. Heinemann, Pinions griechische und jiidische Bildung (1932), 524-7; Wolfson, I, 88-90; S. Sandmel in Hebrew Union College Annual x x v (1954), 219-21. Cf. S. Belkin, Philo and the Oral Law (1940), 29-48. 5 TO ay£vYjTov xal 0eiov. For discussions of Philo's conception of God see J. Drummond, Philo Judaeus or the Jewish Alexandrian Philosophy (1888) II, 1-64; Goodenough, Light, n ff.; Introduction, 127 ff.; E. Brehier, Les Idees Philosophiques et Religieuses de Pinion d'Alexandrie (1950), 69-82. TO 7rpG>Tov <xya0ov . . . . Philo attempts to define God in Platonic terms; cf. the similar phraseology in, e.g., Gig. 45, Decal. 81, Spec, i, 277, and ii, 53. TO xpeiTTov aya0oi>, . . . . Cf., e.g., Praem. 40 and Cont. 2. God, although the prime Good, is better than the Good in the sense that He transcends any good which the human mind can conceive. He is beyond all qualities and the only thing which can really be predicated of Him is His existence (Immut. 62). b TOV a^auenrov xal iva99jreavr?)6sov. Although Philo's philosophical system owed much to the Stoics, their conception of God as ma terial and immanent in the world was entirely unacceptable to Philo, to whom, as a Jew, God was a wholly transcendent and immaterial Being. e7ripa0pa. The reading of the Sacra Parallela is e7ri(3a8pau;, which has in its favour the fact that the word is used as the predicate of the plural ovofiaatv (Reiter, appar. crit. and Prolegomena, xliv). The use of this word suggests an oblique reference to Philo's belief in a kind of ladder of mystical experience; as a man progresses up its rungs, he penetrates deeper into the mystery of reality, and his vision and conception of God and His activity change. See further Goodenough, Light, 63-4, 95-6, 173-4, 235 ff. The argument in 4-7 is that what the unaided human intellect (X6yo$) fails to attain, the Jew with his special insight (4) can attain through a mystical experience. euo~x67rcov. Here clearly "of sure aim". When applied to Artemis in Odyssey xi, 198 and to Apollo in Herodotus v, 61 it could equally well mean "keen-sighted". T96pa>v auTou Suvajxecov. To Philo God is pure Being, 3
Legatio ad Gaium
11
156
THE
EMBASSY TO GAIUS
distinct from the universe and yet at the same time responsible for its creation. This belief raises the philosophical problem of bringing Him into relation with His material world—a problem foreign to native Judaism with its belief that God has direct contact with His creation. Philo's answer is an elaborate theory of intermediaries bridging the gap between God and the world, namely the Logos of God and His Powers. Just as raj's flow from the sun, so the Logos emanates from God. The Logos is God's thought, a projection of and radiation from Him, at work in the material universe (a dif ferent conception from that of the Stoics, by whom the Logos was identified with God, immanent in the world). It is differentiated into the various Powers of God, occasionally identified with the Platonic Ideas. The Powers distinguish the various aspects of the Logos, and so of God Himself, and the Logos is in itself the sum total of the Powers. Just as an oriental king lives in remote isolation unseen by his subjects and rules through representatives whom he sends out, so the remote and inaccessible God has contact with the universe through the Powers which emanate from Him to control His creation. Although God Himself is not within the grasp of the human intellect, the Powers through which He manifests Himself are, according to some other passages in Philo, comprehensible by man. But on thi§ point Philo does not seem to have finally made up his mind. For here his argument seems to be that, although the Powers are beyond the grasp of the ordinary human intellect, they are the object of the vision of Israel, the race which "sees G o d " (4). In describing the Powers as God's bodyguard Philo has in mind the comparison of God to an oriental king. The same metaphor is found in Immat. 109, Sac. 59, Abr. 122, Spec, i, 45, and 02: ii, 67. In the fourth of these passages the Powers forming the bodyguard are identified with the "glory" of God referred to in the Old Testament. For fuller discussion of Philo's theory of the Powers and for documentation see J. Drummond, op. cit. II, 65-155; Goodenough, Light, 22-47; Introduction, 130-46; A. Meyer, op. cit., 28; Wolfson, I, 217-94, 325 ff.; II, 138-49; Brehier, op. cit., 136-51. Cf. E. Bevan's essay on Hellenistic Judaism in The Legacy of Israel (1928), 57-60. xo(J(jlo7toiy;tix9;<; t c xai PaatXix9)<;. Chief among the Powers are the Creative Power (usually called 7toiy)tixyj) and the Ruling Power, the two most frequently mentioned b y Philo. These are the primary manifestations of God's activity into which the Logos is
COMMENTARY ON §§ 6-8
157
differentiated,
and represent his aspects as Creator and Ruler. Here and in Immut. 77-8 and Plant. 50 Philo speaks of the Powers as numerous. More commonly he visualizes them as only four—the Creative, the Ruling, the Merciful, and the Legislative Powers. euepy^TiS^ Te xal xoXaaTYjptot. Subsidiary to the Creative Power and issuing from it is the Power of Mercy, often called the Bene factor, while the Legislative Power, often called the Punisher, stands in exactly the same relationship to the Ruling Power. But besides references to these specific Powers, a general division of all the Powers into two groups, beneficent and punitive, recurs elsewhere in Philo's writings, although, as is made clear in 7, there is no fun damental difference between the two groups. 7rpovo7)Tix9]<; xat TCOV iXXtov.
7
et xal Ta$ xoXacmrjptous. Mangey follows A in reading et xal.... But this would be appropriate only if the previous words had con trasted the beneficent and the punitive Powers. The two types of Power have, in fact, been identified, and Philo is now proceeding to justify the identification. Colson comparesConf. 171 (note ad loc). TOU; 7rXr,ata£ovTa<;. Or perhaps "those who are near to sinning", as H. Leisegang translates it in JBL lvii (1938), 383. 8 2 yip. With the exception of Colson, scholars generally con sider that a passage, possibly of some length, has been lost between 7 and 8; the philosophical discussion breaks off abruptly, and the yap which introduces 8 appears to have no logical connection with what precedes. Goodenough thinks that in the lost passage Philo elaborated on the position of the Jews as a "suppliant race" me diating God's providential care to the rest of mankind (3 and note), thus approaching from a more philosophical angle the thesis of the In Flaccum that those who molested the race which stood in this peculiarly intimate relationship with God came to a bad end (Politics, 12-3). Massebieau and Cohn suggest that the dispatch of the two embassies to Gaius was recounted here. Leisegang's theory is that the lost passage applied the principle enunciated in 7—that punishments inflicted by God are to be regarded as blessings and as manifestations of His providence—to the case of the Jews under Gaius: their sufferings, which appeared to be divine punishments, were, if regarded as the workings of cpiiats, the law of Nature, and not as the caprices of TUVYJ, blessings sent by God which their virtues merited (op. cit., 383-4; see Introduction, p. 40, n. 1 for his interpretation of the title Ilepl 'ApeT&v). Colson,
158
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
on the other hand, who denies that there is a lacuna, argues (in his Introduction, xxi) that, after a rambling digression in 4-7, Philo here picks up from his main point, God's care for Israel, and that it is quite in his manner to do so with a logical connection which ignores the parenthetic digression. * aaT<xata<7Tov. Either "free from faction within itself" or "which had passed to Gaius without civil war" (cf. Colson's "gained not by faction"). Leisegang (op. cit., 391) says of 8-13 "die Ausdriicke, die (Philo) braucht, sind die des 'hellenistischen religios gefarbten Hofstils' wie W. Bousset (Die Religion des Judentums im spdthellenistischen Zeitalter* (1926), 226) die Ausdrucksformen dieser Eschatologie treffend genannt hat". With the general tenor of 8-10 cf. the in scription of 2 B.C. or later from Halicarnassus which says that as a result of Augustus' rule etpYjveuouat fiev yap yyj xal OaXarra, 7i6Xet; Se avOouatv eovofita ofiovota xe xal euenqpta, axfiyj xe xal <pop<x 7ravTo; eemv ayaOou, eX7tt8
7tap6v TCOV av0pa>7r
atat; Te xal Ofivot; . . . . (AncientGreek Inscriptions in the B.M., 894). Philo is not hostile to Roman rule as such but is ready to recognize its good points and to acknowledge the blessings brought by the pax Romana. (Cf. the rabbinical attitude, illustrated by H. Loewe, Render unto Caesar (1940), 28-9.) • 7raat TOI; fiipeatv Yjpfxoo-fxevyjv . . . . The empire had in general been well governed under Tiberius, and during his later years had been internally at peace. But Willrich's comment (297) on Leg. 141 applies also to 8-10: Philo paints the brightest possible picture of the happiness of the empire at the end of Tiberius' life, in order to accentuate the misery which Gaius brought on the world. Philo ignores here the trouble which arose on the eastern frontiers during Tiberius' last years: the Parthian-Armenian problem had reared its ugly head again in 35, and our authorities disagree as to whether the settlement was reached shortly before Tiberius' death (A J xviii, 96-103) or after Gaius' accession (Dio lix, 27, 3; S. G. 14, 3; and by implication Tacitus also, who does not mention it under Tiberius' principate); and after a minor war had broken out late in 36 between the client king Herod Antipas of Galilee and Aretas of Nabataea, Vitellius, the legate of Syria, was on his way to chastise Aretas on Tiberius' orders when the news of the Emperor's death made him call the campaign off (AJ xviii, 109-15, 120-4).
COMMENTARY ON §§ 8-9
159
TOU \ihf aTpotTiamxou . . . . Philo may here be contrasting the peaceful transfer of power to Gaius with the mutinies of the Rhine and Danube armies which had greeted the news of Augustus* death (T. A. i, 16-52). e6au(jLaae xal xaTe7rXay>) t t j ; . . . . eu7cpayta;. 0aufxa£
2 2
9
i6o
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
economy that a surplus could be accumulated. The reference here may cover not only the revenues which fed the state treasuriesprovincial tributum, the vectigalia, and the death duties and taxes on sales which supplied the aerarium militate—-but also the Empe ror's patrimonium, the huge income which he drew personally from Egypt and from the many properties which had come into his hands by bequest or confiscation. (On Augustus' private wealth see Frank, op. cit. 12 ff.). 10 TCOV 7rXet
l6l
COMMENTARY ON §§ g - I I
Eu9pdtT7) Te xal Pyjvco. How Philo visualized the Euphrates as forming the frontier between the Sarmatians and Scythians in southern Russia and the Roman empire is obscure. At the time in question the Euphrates in fact formed the limit of the empire only in its upper reaches, where it bounded Armenia Minor, Cappadocia, Commagene, and northern Syria. The Roman frontier ran far to the west of the lower reaches of the river. The campaigns of Drusus and Germanicus east of the Rhine, which Julius Caesar had established as the frontier, had resulted in no permanent annexation of terri tory beyond the river except in the extreme north; the Rhine re mained the effective frontier for most of its length until the Flavian period. cb; el7rov $)8T). Presumably a reference to 8 TYJV yjYefxovtav 7ra
n
TCOV 7rcoitoTe yevoyihioiv auToxpaTopcov. Philo forgets that the dy nasty of the Caesars was only recently established. arcavTe; YJyaa0Y)(jav. Cf. T. A. vi, 50, 7 et mitlto gratantum concursu ad capienda imperii primordia Gaius Caesar egrediebatur; S. G. 13-14, 1. Inscriptions testify to the reception accorded to the news of Gaius' accession in the East. The xotv6v of central Greece voted him statues so numerous that even Gaius thought them excessive (ILS 8792). A decree of Assos states that the news caused * unbounded j o y and that every city and nation hastened to see the new " g o d " ( S / G 797). Cyzicus hailed him as 6 v£o; "HX10; Fato; Kataap ( S / G 798=IGRR IV, 145) and f the xotv6v f in central Greece as a "new god" (IGr. V I I , 2711, 60-1); for this use of veo; see the note on 89 6 vlo; AI6VI>
3
II
l62
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
personally. Indeed, the enthusiasm which greeted his accession seems to have been based on little more than the fact that he was the son of Germanicus (AJ xviii, 206; T. A. vi, 46, 1; S. G. 1 3 ; Dio lviii, 8, 2; Aurelius Victor, Lib. de Caes. 3, 3-5), whose post humous popularity stood very high (AJ xix, 223; T. A. xi, 12, 1; xii, 2, 3; xiv, 7, 5), coupled with a natural reaction against the severity and austerity of Tiberius and perhaps with a hope of favours to come from a new Emperor. It cannot have been based on any knowledge of Gaius' capabilities as a leader or adminis trator, since, apart from his quaestorship in 33 (Dio lviii, 23, 1), he had been given no experience of public affairs. e9E8peuoiS(n)<;. The sense apparently required for IcpeSpluto here, "attend", "associate with", is recognized by L. and S. only when the verb is used as a medical term for the association of one disease with another. The cognate adjective &pe8po<; is used in 14 in the similar sense of "connected with", a sense not recognized b y L. and S. . In 29 and 129 the words have their usual meanings. 9
9
12
8uata<;. The Jews offered a hecatomb in the Temple (356). Suetonius says, apparently with reference to Rome, that during the first three months of Gaius' principate 160,000 victims were sacrificed (G. 14, 1). 13 <*>s -toare. "Particulam . . . . consecutivam tb<; Philo, nisi fallor, semper cum infinitivo, COSTS modo cum infinitivo modo cum indi cative coniungit" (Reiter, Prolegomena, lxiii). Kpovtxiv ptov. Cf. the decree of Assos ( S / G 797) referring to Gaius' accession co^ av T O U YjStaTou av0pto7roi? atcovo^ vuv eveaxcoTO^. In Greek mythology the era in which primeval man was believed to have lived in bliss and innocence (cf. the Hebrew myth of the Garden of Eden) was placed before the dethronement of Cronos b y Zeus. Hesiod identifies the reign of Cronos with the Golden Age, the first of a series of ages named after metals which marked the progressive degeneration of the world and of man down to his own d a y - { 0 ^ . et Dies 109-201). Later descriptions of this age and the following degenerative series are given b y Aratus (Phaen. 100-36), Ovid (Metam. i, 89-150), Seneca (Octavia 391-435), and Dicaearchus (C. Miiller, Fragm. Hist. Graec. II (1878), 233-5, fr. 1 ; cf. frs. 2-5). A Sibylline oracle no longer extant also saecula per metalla divisit (Servius on Verg. Eel. iv, 5; ed. G. Thilo, III (1927), 44). The majority of post-Hesiodic writers, however, visualize merely two world-epochs, contrasting a Golden Age under Cronos with the 3
COMMENTARY ON §§ I I - I 3
163
present unhappier and more toilsome life sub love: e.g., Plato (Polit. 2JIC-272&), Vergil (Georg. i, 121-59; ii, 536-40; Aen. viii, 319-27), Tibullus (i, 3, 35-50), and Ovid (Metam. xv, 96-110, a passage with an unusual twist; Amores iii, 8, 35-56). Many of the numerous briefer allusions in Greek and Latin writers to the Golden Age or Age of Cronos are conveniently assembled by A. O. Lovejay and G. Boas, A Documentary History of Primitivism and Related Ideas (1935), 23-102, 155-68. (For the contradictory though simul taneously current idea that man had risen from primitive barbarity, see the note on 20 ex vojxaSo; (itoo . . . .) The age of bliss was not visualized as only a thing of the past. The astronomical idea of a "great year", at the end of which all the heavenly bodies would have returned to their original positions in relation to each other (see, e.g., Plato Tim. 39d; Cicero De Rep. vi, 22 (24); De Nat. Deorum ii, 20, 51-3; cf. J. B. Mayor's edition (1883), note ad loc), together with the Stoic theory of periodic conflagrations of the universe, developed into the belief that time (historical events) as well as celestial phenomena, would repeat itself exactly (Servius on Verg. Eel. iv, 4). Hence the belief in a future repetition of the Golden Age. The idea was current in the late first century B.C. that one world-cycle was approaching completion and that the Golden Age was due to return soon (Verg. Eel. iv; Aen. vi, 792-5; Oracula Sibyllina iii, 367-80). For fuller studies of the Golden Age and the "great year" see K. F. Smith, Ages of the World (Greek and Roman) in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics I, 192-200; T. A. Sinclair's edition of Hesiod Op. et Dies (1932), note on 109 ff.; Lovejay and Boas, op. cit.; H. J. Rose, The Eclogues of Virgil (1942), 171-87; B. L. van der Waerden, "Das grosse Jahr und die ewige Wiederkehr" in Hermes lxxx (1952), 129-55; W . K. C. Guthrie, In the Beginning (1957), 63-79. F ° the vast bibliography on the late republican expectation of the imminent return of the Golden Age, with special reference to Eclogue iv, see W . W . Tarn, "'Alexander Helios and the Golden A g e " in JRS xxii (1932), 135-60; Rose, I.e.; J. Carcopino, Virgile et le Mysttre de la IVe £glogue (1943). r
2
Philo's stress on the disappearance of poverty, on social justice, and on equality and freedom from fear as characterizing the epoch ushered in by Gaius' accession recalls two accounts of the Golden Age in particular—Aratus' ethical conception of that era as one in which justice ruled, rather than as one in which, according to
164
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
poetic commonplace, the necessities of life were obtained abundantly and without effort, and the prophecy in Oracula Sibyllina iii that the coming era would see not only material prosperity but also the replacement of poverty, anger, strife, and other moral ills by the reign of love, justice, and concord on earth. There is a hint also of the concord and plenty of Iambulus' Utopia on the "Sun Islands" (Diodorus Siculus ii, 55-60). 14 TCO 8k 6yS6co. Mid-October to mid-November, 37. Suetonius gives no exact date for Gaius' illness (G. 14, 2). Dio places it after his first consulship, which he held from 1st July, 37, for two months and a half (lix, 7, 9-8, 1 ; S. G. 17, 1.). xaTaaxY)7TTei. A verb used by others (e.g., Thucydides ii, 49, 8) for the onset of a disease, although not common in medical writers (D. L. Page in Classical Quarterly new series iii (1953), 104). Pocpeta v6ao;. The nature of Gaius' illness is not made clear by any of our authorities, but it was probably some kind of severe nervous breakdown. TYJV 7cpo (xixpou StaiTotv, 8TC k%ri Tipe'pto;. This implication that Gaius' life with Tiberius on Capri from 31 (S. G. 10, 1) until his accession was austere helps to discredit the pictures drawn by Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio of the old Emperor wallowing in de bauchery and sensuality during his retirement. (Cf. G. Marafion, Tiberius, a Study in Resentment (1956), 54-7; M. P. Charlesworth in CAH X , 638-9.) It also casts considerable doubt on Suetonius' account of Gaius' escapades there (G. n ) , where his style of life was surely conditioned by that of Tiberius. If Philo had been able to represent his enemy Gaius as leading a thoroughly disreputable life before as well as after his accession, he would hardly have failed to do so. Cf. the notes on 25 and 92. (SxpaTo;. Balsdons statement that "there is no suggestion in our authorities that Gaius was an habitual drunkard" (212) seems to ignore this passage. T. S. Jerome finds the explanation of Gaius' irresponsible behaviour as Emperor in "alcoholic intoxication" (Aspects of the Study of Roman History (1923), 419-21), but this seems hardly adequate. IfxeTot. For some discussion of this pleasant Roman custom see J. E. B. Mayor's edition of Juvenal (1889), note on i, 143. otvc^Xoyloct. For occurrences of this noun (not listed by L. and S. , although the adjective 01V69XUS is given) in classical and Hellenistic 9
COMMENTARY ON § § 13-18
165
Greek see W . Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament translated b y W . F. Arndt and F. W . Gingrich (1957). yaaTpofiapytat. Cf. Suetonius' allegation that on Capri Gaius ganeas et adulteria . . . obiret (G. 1 1 ) . Xayvetat Sta 7ratStov xal ywaixtov.
Cf. S. G. 24, 36, 4 1 ; Dio
lix,
28, 9. Gaius apparently had a reputation for immorality as early as 32, since in that year a senator, Sextus Vistilius, was driven to suicide sett composuerat quaedam in Gaium Caesarem ut impudicum, sen ficto habita fides (T. A. vi, 9). It is unlikely that Gaius was entire ly free from the prevalent sins of his day before his accession, even if they did not reach scandalous proportions until later. 15 3 SiayYeXeioyj;. In Hellenistic Greek the aorist passive of i y y£XXco is normally YJYY&YJV.
2TI 7rXot(xcov SVTCOV. The sailing season lasted from 10th March to n t h November (Vegetius iv, 39). (xeOlfievoi T6V a(3po8taiTov (Jtov. It is said that social intercourse and even bathing were prohibited in Italy during this period of anxiety, as they were again in the summer of 38 during the time of mourning for Gaius' sister Drusilla, and that a man who vowed to fight as a gladiator and another who vowed to kill himself if Gaius recovered were later compelled to fulfil their vows (S. G. 14, 2; 24, 2; 27, 2; Dio lix, 8, 3; 10, 8; n , 6). 16 auTo (i6vov. "Pronomen auro a Philone saepe cum vocabulo [xovov ita coniungitur, ut eius vim tantummodo augeat nec per se quicquam significet" (L. Cohn, edition of De Opificio Mundi (1889), liii). Other instances occur in the Legatio. 17 7r6Xefxov. The reference here may be more than a general one. The bellum Alexandrinum of 48 B.C. and the less serious fighting which had occurred in Alexandria in 30 when Octavian annexed Egypt (Dio li, 10) were almost within living memory, and the Alexandrians might reasonably fear that if Gaius died and the power was not transferred peacefully to his adopted successor, Gemellus (23 ff. and notes), the empire might again be plunged into a civil war which would reach their shores. <jTepr)trei<; XPW*™* . . . . Possibly a reference to condemnations for maiestas under Tiberius. Gaius' professed abolition of the charge of maiestas early in his principate is said to have been of little effect, and indeed the charge was restored in 39 (Dio lix, 4, 3; 6, 2-3; 16, 8; cf. S. G. 15, 4). 18 X
i66
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Quarterly new series iii (1935), 105), is used by Thucydides in his description of the plague of Athens (ii, 49, 4). Our authorities give no definite indication of the length of Gaius' illness, but the order of Dio's narrative implies that he recovered before the end of 37. The deaths of Gemellus, Silanus, and Macro occurred after his recovery, and they are probably to be dated to the first half of 38; see the notes on 31 and 32 Seirrepov. 39)- The news may have been considered important enough to warrant the risk of sending it b y sea; or it may have reached the East by the slower, but in the winter more reliable, land-route. The normal land-route from Rome at this time was via Brundisium, the short sea-passage across the Adriatic, the Via Egnatia, and Asia Minor. (The longer, entirely overland, route via Aquileia, Sirmium, and Byzantium apparently did not come into regular official use until about a century later.) A courier travelling over land by the cursus pitblicus is likely to have taken about two months to get from Rome to Alexandria. Private individuals ( T & V s7ri<poiT
19
a
v
x P* - The Jews showed their pleasure by the sacrifice of a hecatomb in the Temple (356). Cf. the sacrifices offered in the East at Germanicus' recovery from illness (T. A. ii, 69). irapoXa(36vri. The reading of A only. The other MSS have the meaningless xabrep aXuovro^. 20 Ix vofiaSos pfou . . . . Philo here takes as his metaphor the idea (less common in Greco-Roman thought than the belief in the pro gressive degeneration of man since the Golden Age) that human pre-history had consisted of a gradual advance from savagery to civilization. He visualizes three parallel (and simultaneous?) developments: from a nomadic to a settled life; from cave-dwellings
COMMENTARY ON §§ l8-22
167
to cities; and from a haphazard existence to an ordered one under a monarchy. Earlier attempts to reconstruct the development of human society on evolutionary lines are found in Aeschylus (PV 455-522), Plato (Protag. 320c-323a; Laws iii, 676 ft.), Diodorus Siculus i, 8 (a passage probably based on Epicurus), Lucretius (v, 925-end), and Horace (Sat. i, 3, 99-106). Cf. Vergil Aen. viii, 314 ff. and Ovid Fasti ii, 289-300. (Dicaearchus visualized man as proceeding from vojiaSixo; to yecopyixo; pio;, but, unlike Philo, he regarded this as a retrograde step, the nomadic life itself being a degeneration from the Golden A g e ; reference in the note on 13 Kpovixov piov.) For other passages and for discussion of the Greek and Roman conception of primitive man's progress see Lovejay and Boas, op. cit. 192-259, 368-88; G. Thomson's edition of Ae schylus' PV (1932), note on lines 452-87; Guthrie, op. cit. 80-94. t
t
Philo may have in mind here, not only this quasi-anthropological Greek theory, but also the account in the Pentateuch of the settle ment of the Israelites in Canaan after their period of nomadic life in the wilderness under Moses. vojxet Ttvt xal ayeXapxf). The comparison of a ruler to a herdsman or shepherd, used also in 44 and 76, goes back as far as Homer, whose phrase 7rot[iive<; Xacov Philo quotes (Agr. 4 1 ; Prob. 3 1 ; Jos. 2; Mos. i, 60-2). But he regards it as more than a mere metaphor; in the last two passages he argues that a king would benefit from ex perience as an actual shepherd of sheep. TYJ; YjjxepcoTlpa; aylX/);. A. G. Roos suggests that aylXyj; is a mistake (due to the proximity of ayeXapx?)) for aycoyvj; (genitive of quality)—"a leader of more gentle disposition"; he cites parallels for aycoyy) in this sense from inscriptions and papyri (in Mnemosyne 3rd series ii (1935), 242-3). 22 4 6 (7(OTY)P xal euepylryj;. Titles frequently applied to the Ptole mies and Seleucids. £9' lepa;. Editors before Reiter emended to £9' ecma; "to begin at the beginning"—a proverb from the libation to Hestia with which a Greek banquet began (Aristophanes Vesp. 846; Plato Eitth. 3a). The logic of Mangey's reason for making the change is obscure: "istud £ 9 ' lepa; Philoni frequentius usurpatum (108; Som. ii, 119)". Reiter reinstates the reading of all the MSS. In full this proverb ran xiveiv (or xivYJaco) TOV £ 9 ' lepa; (sc. ypajxjxr,;). It is found in Alcaeus (fr. 82=fr. 33 in E. Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca I (1936), 4, 99), Epicharmus (apud Suidas Lexicon
i68
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
s.v. i
a
s
fieTa(3aXa>v npbc, TO dcTiOaaov. Cf. 67 and 73, where, in connection with the executions carried out a few months after Gaius' recovery, Philo speaks of his having undergone a complete change of charac ter. His theory that Gaius' illness caused him to change suddenly for the worse, although a convenient explanation of his later be haviour, is suspect because it is unsupported by any other autho rity; and indeed, Philo himself contradicts it b y saying in 34 that Gaius' mental instability was noticeable before his accession, and in 59 that his worst traits had, after all, not yet appeared at the time of Macro's death. Josephus implies that there was a gradual deterioration of Gaius* character, but allows him two years of good government first (AJ xviii, 256). He and Suetonius believe that
COMMENTARY ON §§ 22-23
169
Gaius went mad, and attribute this to a love-philtre administered by his wife Caesonia (.4/ xix, 193; G. 50, 2); cf. Juvenal vi, 615-7. This would date the beginning of his degeneration to 39, Dio's date for the marriage (lix, 23, 7). The distinction which Suetonius draws between Gaius' actions as princeps and as monstrum (G. 22, 1) is not a chronological distinction; he is following his usual practice of listing first the good points of a reign and then its bad, and does not necessarily mean that Gaius' good acts all preceded the dose of love-philtre. {JLOCXXOV 8e . . . . avacpyjva;. This is almost certainly nearer to the truth. Gaius' general mental instability, which Suetonius attri butes to epilepsy (G. 50, 2), may well have been aggravated b y his illness, but the bad traits in his character, which gradually came into greater prominence in the course of his principate, fostered by the intoxication of power, were of no sudden growth. Cf. Tacitus' description of him as immanent animum subdola modestia tegens as early as 33 ( A vi, 20, 1). His popularity at the beginning of his principate, however, tells against the idea that he was then al ready seriously unbalanced, although Balsdon takes an overcharitable view in describing him at his accession as "a perfectly normal and attractive young man" (213). For a fuller discussion of Gaius' character see Balsdon, 205-19. * 23 riv avc^iiv. Tiberius Julius Caesar, nicknamed Gemellus (AJ xviii, 206), whom Philo never refers to by name, was one of the twin sons of Tiberius' son Drusus and his wife Livilla, the sister of Gaius' father Germanicus. Tacitus records their birth under the year A . D . 19 (A. ii, 84; but see the note below, ex 7rat8wv zlq {zeipaxtov). The other twin, Germanicus (his name is known from CIG 2630 and is restored in CIL V, 4311), died in 23 (T. A. iv, 15, 1), shortly after his father's death. See further P.-W. s.v. Iulius no. 139, col. 464, and no. 156, coll. 536-7. xotvcoviv a7coXei90£vTa T T ^ apx?)S- Cf. Fl. 10 xotvcovfcv T9J<; ap/9;;, and ouyxXYjpovofxo; in Leg. 28, 29, 67, 75, 87. For full discussions of the problem of the succession during Tiberius' principate and for possible interpretations of the intrigues on that subject, see F. B. Marsh, The Reign of Tiber his (1931), 160-99; M. P. Charlesworth in CAH X , 623-6, 635-6, 642; Balsdon, 1-12. Briefly the situation was as follows: In making Tiberius adopt his nephew Germanicus as his heir in A . D . 4, even though Tiberius had a son of his own, Augustus clearly
170
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
intended that the succession should ultimately pass, through Ger manicus, to his own direct descendants, the sons of his grand-daugh ter Agrippina by Germanicus. The death of Germanicus in 19, however, meant that the succession was likely to revert to Tiberius' son, Drusus, since Germanicus' three sons were still young. Drusus was accordingly marked out as heir by the grant of tribunicia potestas in 22 (T. A. iii, 56, 1), renewed in 23 (see coins dated by his second trib. pot.) BMCCRE I, 133-4, nos. 95-101). Meanwhile, the birth of his twin sons had made the succession possible in the direct line. The baby princes were honoured in the provinces (SEG IV, 5 1 5 ; IGRR III, 997), and in 23 their heads appeared on the Roman coinage (BMCCRE, I.e.). But there was still a strong party in the state which looked for the succession of a son of Germanicus and Agrippina (T. A. ii, 84, 3), and it was perhaps in deference to this party as well as to Augustus' wishes that Tiberius allowed Ger manicus' eldest son, Nero, to be marked out for the succession in 20 by being granted permission to enter public life below the legal age (T. A. iii, 29). March (op. cit. 161) interprets Drusus' kindness to Germanicus' sons (T. A. iv, 4, 2-3; cf. 8, 6) as meaning that he accepted the idea that he should succeed as a mere "locum tenens" and should make them his heirs. The death of Drusus in 23 (T. A. iv, 8 - n ; Dio lvii, 22) meant that Tiberius now had to look for an immediate successor among the sons of Germanicus, since his sur viving grandson Gemellus was little more than a baby, and this suited the party of Agrippina well (T. A. iv, 12, 1-3; cf. 17). During the next few years, however, Sejanus intrigued to remove the sons of Germanicus, in the hope that he would then be nominated as Tiberius' heir, either as Emperor-regent for Gemellus (the view of Marsh, op. cit. 168 ff., 304 ff., and of Charlesworth inCAH X , 636), or as Emperor in his own right (the view of Balsdon, 9). He disposed of Agrippina herself and her two elder sons, while Gaius is said to have survived only because Sejanus fell before putting his scheme against him into operation (T. A. vi, 3, 4; cf. S. Tib. 61, 1). Six years later, therefore, at the end of his life, Tiberius had two possible successors—Gaius, who was twenty-four, and Gemellus, who was by then an adolescent. His nephew Claudius was barely considered as a candidate for the throne (T. A. vi, 46, 2). t
t
In using the term a7roXei90evTa, Philo accepts the view that Ti berius had the right to "bequeath" the empire in the sense of de finitely appointing his successor. Similarly, Tacitus mentions Ti-
COMMENTARY ON § 23
171
berius' uncertainty de tradenda republica (A. vi, 46, 1 ) ; Josephus describes his deliberations about the "bequest" of the empire (AJ xviii, 211-24); and Dio says that he "bequeathed" the empire to Gaius and Gemellus (lix, i, i ) . Suetonius merely says that Tiberius made the two princes heirs in equal parts, i.e., to his personal estate (Tib. 76 eo testamento heredes aequis partibus reliquit Gaium exGermanico et Tiberium exDruso nepotes\ cf. G. 14, 1). But the prin ciple was already established "that, when an Emperor named his heir, he was considered at the same time to name his successor. It might therefore be thought from the terms of the will that Tiberius wished his grandsons to govern jointly after his death. This view was held by the partisans of Gemellus . . . . " (Balsdon, 16-7). Of Gemellus* partisans, whose point of view Philo reflects, the only one known to us is the then prefect of Egypt, A. Avillius Flaccus (Fl. 9-11). otxei6Tepov SiaSoxov. In describing Gemellus as a closer heir to Tiberius than Gaius, Philo is looking at the matter in an over simplified way, from the viewpoint of Gemellus* partisans, and ignoring the fact that Gaius' direct descent from Augustus gave him a considerable claim to the throne. Quite apart from any question of Gemellus' youth, his chances of succeeding were, in fact, poor. Gaius had the support of the party in the state which had through out Tiberius' principate looked for a son of Germanicus as the next Emperor, and it was generally taken for granted that he would succeed (T. A. vi, 48, 3-4; AJ xviii, 168 and 187). Some minor honours had been bestowed on him during Tiberius' later years (ILS 6396-7), though none such is recorded for Gemellus. If Tiberius really suspected, as is alleged, that Gemellus was not Drusus' son but a bastard of Sejanus (S. Tib. 62, 3; Dio lvii, 22, 4b; lviii, 23, 2), his chances of succeeding were presumably much less than his partisans believed. Tiberius "must have known that (Gaius) was almost certain to mount the throne if no steps were taken to prevent it, and he took none" (Marsh, op. cit., 217). 0£aei olwvo;. By Tiberius' adoption of Gaius' father. Gaius and Gemellus are referred to together as nepotes in T. A. vi, 46, 1 and 8; S. Tib. 54, 1, and 76; and S. G. 14, 1. 7ipo<pa(naafxevo<; emPouXyjv. Philo implies b y his use of this verb that Gemellus was innocent of any designs against Gaius. Suetonius' account of his murder also makes him an innocent victim of Gaius' cruelty: Gemellus was taking a drug (merely cough mixture), which Legatio ad Gaium
12
172
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Gaius suspected of being an antidote taken as a precaution against being poisoned by himself (G. 23, 3; 29, 1). Suetonius does not make it clear why this was considered to be an adequate reason for the execution of Gemellus, but presumably Gaius' argument was that Gemellus' fear of being poisoned betrayed similar intentions of his own against Gaius. Dio has a much more credible story: Gemellus was executed on the accusation of having prayed and expected that Gaius would die during his illness (lix, 8, 1-3). Such a prayer could be regarded as an act of maiestas, as had been the Jewish prince Agrippa's expression of the hope that Tiberius would die, for which he had been punished by imprisonment (note on 179). For maiestas under Gaius see the note on 17 errepYJcret; xp^arcov . . . . It is possible that Gemellus was not as innocent as Philo and Sue tonius make out, but that he was involved in, or was the focus of, some incipient conspiracy which our sources have suppressed in order to blacken Gaius. Cf. the note on 27, fin. ex 7ratScov et; (jtetpaxtov. Tacitus' date for the birth of the twins, A . D . 19, would make Gemellus seventeen or eighteen when Tiberius died. The words, however, which Philo applies to him here and in 26 (vY)7rtov . . . . TratSaywytov) and his remark in 30 that Gemellus had not yet begun his military training, imply that he was younger than that, while Tacitus' description of him as nondum pubertatem ingressus in the last months of Tiberius' life (A. vi, 46, 1) points in the same direction. Furthermore, Gemellus was not granted the toga virilis, which a boy normally assumed between his fourteenth and sixteenth birthdays, until after Gaius' accession (S. G. 15, 2). Apart from the inherent improbability that Tiberius would have delayed his grandson's coming-of-age, which would have given him entry into the senate (S. Aug. 38, 2; cf. Dio lix, 1, 2), beyond the normal upper limit, there is no indication in our sources that it was in fact delayed, as the event was in Gaius' case (S. G. 10). This evidence strongly suggests that Tacitus' date for the birth of the twins is too early by at least a year, and probably by rather more. This point is more fully discussed by O. Hirschfeld, "Zur annalistischen Anlage des Taciteischen Geschichtswerkes" in Hermes xxv (1890), 363-73. 24 ex7coS<5>v kyeyhrpo. For this rumour, unique to Philo and proved false by the terms of Tiberius' will, cf. 41 and 58, where it is implied that Tiberius actually attempted to kill Gaius several times but was prevented by Macro, and Fl. 12, where the reason alleged is
COMMENTARY ON §§ 23-25
173
fear lest Gaius would harm Gemellus after Tiberius' death (a fear mentioned also in Leg. 33, 35; T. A. vi, 46, 8;AJ xviii, 215-23; Dio lviii, 23, 3). The fear may be historical (pace M. P. Charlesworth in CAH X , 642); for whichever of the two grandsons succeeded would be likely to see in the other a dangerous rival whose removal would be desirable. yvYjato;. Here and in 62 and 71 YVYJCXIO; is used, not in the normal sense of "legitimate" (38) as opposed to v68o;, but in the sense of "actual". Cf. Colson's note on Prob. 87 (Loeb Philo I X ) . |x6vo; Y)Yefi.<5>v. See A] xviii, 211-9 and S. G. 19, 3 for other statements that Tiberius would have preferred Gemellus to succeed him; cf. Leg. 29 T6V iXmoGeVra 7rore xal (JL6VOV a o T o x p a r o p a . This belief, which its appearance in three writers suggests was fairly widespread, may have emanated from the circle of Gemellus' sup porters, who exaggerated his chances of nomination. But the fact that Gemellus was kept in the background tells against it. For if Tiberius had seriously intended him to be sole (or even joint) Emperor, he would surely have granted him the toga virilis, for which he must have reached at least the minimum age by 37. Ct. Willrich, 108-9. 25 U7c6 TYJ; slfiapfiivY);. Cf. 107 7rpoavaipe8el; u7to TYJ; SIXY);, also meaning "died". Philo rejects the Greek conception of a Fate superior to the gods as incompatible with his belief in divine Providence. (See further A. Meyer, Vorsehungsglaube und Schicksalsidee in ihrem Verhdltnis bei Philo von Alexandria (1939).) "Still, following his general method of making use of popular terms and expressions in some changed meaning, he does not hesitate to use the word 'fate' in the sense of the unalterable laws of nature, provided it is under stood that these laws depend upon God as their ultimate cause" (Wolfson, I, 329; he cites other comparable expressions). There is no implication here or in Josephus' reference to Tiberius' death (AJ xviii, 224) that it was hastened b y Gaius or that he died otherwise than naturally. Seneca's account of his death, as reported by Suetonius (Tib. 73, 2), need not be taken to imply foul play. Later writers, however, allege that Tiberius, already on his death bed, was murdered by Macro in league with Gaius, or by Gaius himself, by either suffocation (the commonest version of the story), or starvation, or poison, or strangulation (T. A. vi, 50, 9; S. Tib. 73, 2; G. 12, 2; Dio lviii, 28, 3). Apart from the improbability that Gaius would have troubled to hasten the death of a man whose
174
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
doctors gave him only a few more days to live, Philo's silence is strong evidence for Gaius* innocence. He is writing to blacken Gaius, and had he known any rumour that he murdered Tiberius, he would hardly have failed to repeat it. (Cf. the notes on 14 TYJV 7ip6 fiixpou S t a t x a v , ore £ £ Y ) Ti(3epio; and 92.) The stories of murder are almost certainly of later growth, slanders invented by "those who wished to contemplate the 'madman' Gaius beginning badly" (M. P. Charlesworth in CAH X , 642); cf. Balsdon, 22. 26 T O U ; ev T I X C I . This phrase, normally meaning "the magistrates" in Greek contexts, is used in 108, n o , and 144 of the Roman ma gistrates, in Fl. 4 of those of Alexandria, and in 222 and 300 prob ably of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Here, however, it probably means Gaius* consilium; cf. J. A. Crook, Consilium Principis (1955), 39. The legal process by which Gemellus was adopted (27) was that of adoptatio (adoptio), not that of adrogatio. (On the two processes see Aulus Gellius v, 19 and Gaius, Instit. i, 97-107.) The latter process, involving a form of legislation by the Comitia Curiata, which, represented by thirty lictors, apparently functioned even under the empire for this purpose (T. H. 1, 15, 1; cf. A. xii, 26, 1), could be used only in the case of a person sui iuris, a paterfamilias. Gemellus, still a minor, was a person alieni iuris. The adoptatio of a minor was normally carried out apud praetorem. But the analogy of Augustus' adoption of Gaius and Lucius Caesar domi (S. Aug. 64, 1) suggests that Gaius' adoption of Gemellus was also carried out privately and that 01 ev -r£Xei who witnessed it were his amici, i.e., his consilium. The phrase seems to have a similar meaning in 252. On the formalities and legal aspects of adoption see further W. W . Buckland,i4 Text-book of Roman Law (1932), 121-8; H. F. Jolowicz, Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law (1952), 119-20; E. Poste and E. A. Whittuck's edition of Gaius' Institutiones (1904), note on i, 97-107. * xotvoTcpayetv TYJS a&ToxpocTou*; e^ouaia^. Philo makes Gaius pretend that his adoption of Gemellus implemented the wish implicit in the terms of Tiberius' will, by associating his cousin with himself in the government (cf. 27 e7reXa9pl£eiv x a t
2
2
r& etyev ^STJ.
COMMENTARY ON §§
25-27
175
e7rtTp67co>v. 'E7riTpo7ro; ("guardian" in, e.g., Thucydides ii, 80, 6 and Galatians iv, 2) translates the Latin tutor, the legal guardian required for a boy under the age of puberty (generally reckoned as fourteen). See further Buckland, op. cit., 142-73. Gaius' argument here is sophistical, since he proceeds forthwith to declare Gemellus to be above the age for needing tutores b y granting him the toga virilis on the same day (S. G. 15, 2). The use of l7riTpo7ro; in the sense of "governor", etc. is discussed in the note on 132 TOU 8k 0
lmTp67TOU TYJ; x^P ^-
27
ulov 8k exeivov. For the adoption see also Dio lix, 1, 3; 8, 1; S. G. 15, 2. Philo dates it to after Gaius' illness and immediately be fore the murder of Gemellus (30-1). Dio, however, implies that it preceded, whereas the murder followed, Gaius' illness. He links the adoption with the senate's declaration, immediately after Tiberius' death, that his will was null and void, since he must have been of unsound mind to leave his estate (and b y implication the empire also) to two heirs, one of whom was a minor (cf. S. G. 14, 1). Sueto nius gives a similar date by including the adoption among the hon ours conferred on members of Gaius' family soon after his accession. Further, he puts the adoption among Gaius' actions as princeps and the murder among his actions as monstrum (G. 23, 3; 29, 1), and al though this is not necessarily a chronological distinction, his separ ation of Gemellus' downfall into two phases is significant. Probably Philo has placed the adoption too late, and it was closely connected with the senate's decision that Gemellus should have no share in the government.
Adoptions were made frequently in the late republic and the em pire for political reasons, and the "father" was not necessarily much older than his "son". Gaius' action in adopting a youth only about ten years his junior was not remarkable or abnormal in the period. Despite the adoption, it was not Gemellus whom Gaius named as his heir and successor when he fell ill in the autumn of 37, but his favourite sister, Drusilla (S. G. 24, 1)—perhaps, as Willrich plausibly suggests (290-1), with the intention that the throne should actually pass to her husband, Aemilius Lepidus, on whom see the note on 87 T a ; 8' a8sX<pa; uo~Tepov ecpuya&euaa;. (The question of succession to a throne after marriage to a princess in the East is discussed by K. M. T. Atkinson in Journ. Amer. Oriental Soc. lxxvi (1956), 171-7.) Gaius' choice of Drusilla may be a sign that he was already suspecting Gemellus of disloyalty (cf. the note on 23
176
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
7rpocpa
SpeuouoTj;. o u v r p c ^ l a ; . On Capri during the last years of Tiberius' life. Gaius was summoned thither from Rome in 31 (S. G. 10). It is clear from all the accounts of Tiberius' last months that Gemellus was there also at that time, but it is not known how early he began his residence on the island; it may have been soon after the execution of his mother Livilla in 31 (Dio lviii, n , 7). Iv utcov Ta^ct. In AJ xviii, 213 Tiberius is called Gaius' 7tary]p. 30 auToxeipfca. Philo alone makes clear the manner of Gemellus' death—enforced suicide. Suetonius' repenteimmisso tribuno militum (G. 23, 2) could be interpreted as execution. v6fi T a t ; oTcXojxaxtat;. Military training was under taken at the age of seventeen b y young men destined for an eques trian or senatorial career. It was preceded by some three years of preparatory training, tirocinium, upon which some entered even
COMMENTARY ON §§ 27-32
177
before receiving the toga virilis. Gemellus is unlikely to have reached the age of seventeen at his death (note on 23 exTOXISOVet; (xeipaxtov).
The bestowal of the title Princeps luventutis on him is not incon sistent with Philo's statement here, since it was conferred on three other Julio-Claudian princes before they were of the age for military service—on C. and L. Caesar both at the age of fifteen, in 5 and 2 B.C. respectively (Res Gestae ch. 14), and on Nero in 51 at the age of thirteen (T. A. xii, 41, 1). at [ x e X f r a i . . . .
Cf. the note on 28 navreX*;; e^ouata.
31
The exact date of Gemellus' death is unknown. Dio places it among the last events of 37 (lix, 8, 1), but the fact that successors were not chosen to fill his place and that of Silanus, whose death Philo relates in 62-5, in the college of the Arval Brethren until 24th May, 38 (AFA p. 112), points rather to a date in the early months of 38 for both their deaths. With Gemellus died his relationship of son to Gaius. In the minutes of the Arvals and on his tombstone (CIL VI, 892) he is simply Drusi Caesaris filius. ' T h e public peace was consulted when a possible rival of the Emperor was removed; but that does not excuse the act or its author" (Balsdon, 37); cf. the removal of Agrippa Postumus by Tiberius and that of Britannicus by Nero. If the case of Flaccus, prefect of Egypt, is typical (Fl. 1 0 - n , 22), it seems that the death of Gemellus engendered despair in his sup porters. This suggests that as long as Gemellus had lived, it had mattered little to have supported him, but that once he was thought dangerous enough to be removed, his adherents could be deemed to have supported a traitor; Gaius would then have no compunction about taking reprisals on them for any wrongs (real or fancied) which they had done to him in the past. 32 6 [XTjSevi; STI Xet7rofzewj. Although Philo is writing under Clau dius, who, as the events of January, 41, showed, could be a rallyingpoint if necessary, he completely overlooks him here. <XOIVG)VOU>. Supplied by Cohn. Mangey suggested altering yjyet
jxovta; to auyyeveta;
o
r
^ye^ovtSo; otxou.
eOeXoxaxoovTtov. Here connoting deliberate malice, as in Fl. 40; cf. Box's note. SeuTepov. Actually the third? Dio and Suetonius link the death of Gemellus with that of Silanus (lix, 8; G. 23, 3), and this is corro borated by the AFA (above). Dio places Macro's death later (lix, 10, 6). Suetonius mentions it separately from the others (G. 26, 1),
178
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
but as his material is not arranged chronologically, this means little. The three executions will probably all have occurred within a fairly short period. Cf. the note on 59 ou 7roXXoct; Oarepov Y)[x£pat;. exovteTo. Philo continues the metaphor from wrestling introduced in 29. Maxptovo;. Q. Naevius Cordus Sutorius Macro was sole praetorian prefect from October, 31, until his death. A recently discovered inscription from the amphitheatre which he donated by will to Alba Fucens (presumably his home town) reveals for the first time his full name (correcting the "Sertorius" of Dio lviii, 9, 2) and the in formation that he held the prefecture of the vigiles before that of the praetorians (L'Annee Epigraphique 1957, no. 250). ou fi6vov dbroSeixOevTi rtfepfai. Philo's account of Macro's relations with Gaius after his accession is given in 41 ff. et; TO -ruxetv TYJ; Y)YefJ.ovta;. During the last few years of Tiberius' life Macro realized that Gaius and not Gemellus was the "rising sun" to be cultivated (T. A. vi, 45, 5; Dio lviii, 28, 4). Some of his alleged services to Gaius at that time are given by Philo in 35-9; for others see the note on 24 ex7ro8tov eyeylvYjTo. Although the rumour that he served Gaius by hastening Tiberius' death is probably a slander (note on 25 6716 TYJ; etfxapfxevYj;), he ensured the loyalty of the military forces in Italy to Gaius without delay once Tiberius was dead (58), and, after conveying Tiberius' will to the senate (Dio lix, 1, 2), he was apparently instrumental in getting that body to declare it null and void, so that Gaius became sole Emperor (60, fin.; Dio lix, 10, 6; S. G. 26, 1). 33
t
COMMENTARY ON §§ 32-37
179
months in the Egyptian calendar after members of his family (evi dence collected by K. Scott in Yale Class. Stud, ii (1931), 245-257). (For his later relations with his sisters, however, see the note on 87 Ta; 8' a8eX9<x; Gcrrepov ^uyaSsucia;.) Outside his immediate family he honoured his despised uncle Claudius with a joint consulship (S. G. 15, 2). Gaius* animosity was directed against individuals rather than against a family—against Livia, whom he openly scorned (S. G. 23, 2) and, until the middle of his principate, Tiberius himself (Dio lix, 16). On his attitude to his family cf. Balsdon, 28-33, 48-9, 207-8, and Willrich, 288-97. 34
TYJV TCOV YJOCOV avco(xaX(av. Dio (lix, 3-4), Suetonius (G. 51), and Philo again in 339 ff. all speak of inconsistency and self-contra diction as Gaius* outstanding characteristics, and Suetonius' divi sion of his actions into those of an Emperor and those of a "monster" (G. 22, 1) points in the same direction. E.g., in contrast to the numerous stories of his cruelty stands his pardon of a freedwoman for her loyalty under torture (AJ xix, 32-6; S. G. 1 6 , 4 ; Dio lix, 26,4).
35
With 35-8 cf. Fl. 12. No writer but Philo mentions Macro's efforts to allay Tiberius' fears. T<X; fxev u7rovo(a;. There is no 86 to balance this [iiv. 36 TYJ; apx>); U7rexcrr9jvai. It is assumed by Philo or his source that Macro knew the contents of Tiberius' will, and its implications, before his death. 37 <7r£cmv>. Supplied by Mangey. The word perhaps fell out by haplography. d£i6xpeto; etfxt 7rp6; 7rt<mv. Tiberius' complete confidence in Macro is shown by the fact that, even after his bitter experience of Sejanus' misuse of the sole prefecture of the praetorians, he never theless let Macro hold the same position from October, 31, until his death. And Macro did not betray his trust. TYJV e7u0eacv.
'E7u0£cnv is Mangey's correction of the MSS 6*6-
0ecHv, which other editors before Reiter accepted. Macro was Tiber ius' agent in the plot which overthrew Sejanus. After being appoint ed praetorian prefect secretly, he was sent to Rome with Tiberius' verbosa et grandis epistula for the senate, and was responsible for throwing Sejanus off his guard by confirming to him the rumour that Tiberius proposed to grant him the tribunicia potestas. He then assumed command of the praetorians while the letter was read in the senate and Sejanus denounced (Dio lviii, 9-12; cf. A J xviii, 181-2; T. A. vi, 48, 4; Juvenal x, 56 ff.; S. Tib. 65). For a recent
i8o
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
study of the fall of Sejanus see E. Kostermann, "Der Sturz Sejans" in Hermes lxxxiii (1955), 350-73, especially 364, n. 1 on Macro. 38 a£tto; e7ratvou;. The MSS give a£ta; ercatvou, which editors before Mangey accepted. 'E7ratvou; is Mangey's emendation and aglcoc Reiter's. iaaifpzlq. Turnebus* correction of the MSS aaiyzic, is accepted by all editors. 39 avrt0epa7i:euea0at. It is quite credible that Gaius realized that the support of Macro, who enjoyed Tiberius' confidence and a position of unrivalled power in the state, would be very valuable to him, and that their attraction to each other during the latter part of Tiberius' life was mutual and equally self-interested. yj Maxpcovo; yuvY). Ennia Thrasylla (T. A. vi, 45, 5; Dio lviii, 28, 4), never named by Philo. C. Cichorius suggests that she was a daughter of the eques L. Ennius (T. A. iii, 70, 2) and a grand-daughter of Tiberius' astrologer Thrasyllus (Romische Stadien (1922), 390-3; summarized by Box, note on Fl. 14). In Philo's shorter account of Macro's relations with Gaius in FL 12-6 no reference is made to any part played by Ennia. Sta at(07rtofiivY)v atrtav. The reason is given in 40 and 61. ^Xet^e xat auvexp6Tet T6V &vSpa. In S. G. 26, 1 Macro and Ennia together are called adiutores imperii. 8etv6v . . . . 7rapaXuaat. A quotation from some lost poem ? These words form almost a complete hexameter. TOU o~uvet86To<;.' Box discusses the Hellenistic use of TO auvetSo; (conscience) in a note on FL 7. See also W. Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, translated by W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich (1957), s.v. o~uvot8a. 40
TYJV 8ta90opav [xev TOU yi[Lo\>.
Philo here and in 61 alludes to the
scandalous gossip (vofxtaGetaa in 61 suggests that he does not vouch for its truth) about an intrigue between Gaius and Ennia. Other accounts explicitly, and Philo by implication, place the liaison before Gaius' accession, soon after the death of his first wife Junia Claudilia in 36 (62-3 and notes). In later writers the tale is elaborated. Suetonius makes Gaius give Ennia a written and sworn promise to marry her if he became Emperor (G. 12, 2). Tacitus makes the even less probable assertion (accepted, however, by Willrich (105) and by Stein in P.-W. s.v. Naevius, col. 1566) that Ennia inveigled Gaius into his promise at Macro's own suggestion (A. vi, 45, 5). Dio's version is similar to this, except that he makes Macro take the
COMMENTARY ON §§ 37-43
l8l
initiative with Gaius rather than with Ennia (lviii, 28,4; cf. lix, 10,6). iyvowv. Philo makes Macro "a Claudius before his time, in ignorance of the whole affair" (Balsdon, 21). 41
7
[xuptaxt;. Tp[; in 58, rcoXXaxt; in Fl. 12. Cf. the note on 24
ex7roSa>v lyeyevYjTO.
avu7rouXot;. Used by Philo also in Praem. 163. The only other writer whom L. and S. mention as using the word is the sixth century rhetorician Choricius. eXP*) x a t ; vouOeatat;. Philo turns now to Macro's relations with Gaius after his accession. 41-56 expand FL 14-5. Macro assumed that his services to Gaius in helping to secure his accession had laid the new Emperor under a permanent obligation to him, and in mis guided zeal he presumed on them to try to act as his mentor. \in auTou. Macro did not want Gaius to throw his own life away by carelessness. 42 xaTaSap06vTa. Restored by Cohn for the xaTa8ap0evTa of the MSS, which Turnebus and subsequent editors had accepted. Cf. Reiter, Prolegomena, lxxiii. Ttva; exptavco; . . . . For Gaius' passion for dancing, music, the theatre, and the more exciting entertainments of the circus and amphitheatre, see also 45; S. G. 18; 54-5; Dio lix, 2 , 5 ; 5,2-5; 7, 2-9. Cf. the note on 203 'A7reXXyj Ttvt TpaycoScp. Suetonius and Dio go further than Philo and make Gaius even perform as an actor, a singer, a dancer, a gladiator, and a charioteer. He seems to have resembled Nero in having a fairly highly developed artistic side to his nature (365 suggests an interest in painting also), which dis played itself in the same undignified ways. It is quite credible that Macro tried, as did Burrus and Seneca later with Nero, to restrain the young Emperor's theatrical propensities. [JLYJ u7ro[xetSt(5vTa. M Y ) is frequently used in Hellenistic Greek where classical writers use ou. Many other examples occur in the Legatio. [xetpaxtcoSlaTepov. Gaius was not yet twenty-five when he acceded, but there were times when he resented any emphasis on his youth and apparently wished to be thought older than he was (Dio lix, 13. 6; 19, 2-3). 43 emxXlva; 7tpo; o5;. In accordance with the convention of ancient historiography, Philo uses direct speech for Macro's private and sometimes whispered admonitions to Gaius. But even though the details of these conversations must be imaginary, the general picture drawn of Macro as an "edifying bore" (Balsdon, 38), whose 9
T0
182
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
advice, although good, was tactlessly given and served merely to irritate Gaius, may well be largely correct. Goodenough maintains that the Legatio is addressed to the new Emperor Claudius, under whom it was written (note on I rjfiet; ot y l p o v r e ; ) , and consists of a treatise, in veiled form, on the proper functions of a ruler, with special reference to his treatment of the Jews (Politics, 19-20; Introduction, 75-6). He suggests that in 43-51 Philo is expounding his own philosophy of kingship and using Macro as the mouthpiece for his thoughts, which it would have been impertinent for him to voice in his own person (Politics, 103-5). Philo's political ideal seems to have been the Roman government as he himself had experienced it during the earlier part of his life— the carefully disguised and benevolent rule of a monarch over a so-called "democracy" (ibid., 86 ff.). In making Macro into the * philosophical adviser whom philosophers recommended kings to follow, Philo gives an idealized portrait of him, utterly different from that of Tacitus, to whom he is a villain (4. vi, 48, 4). 44
&TO7COV. Originally "strange"; in Hellenistic Greek "wicked". 7coi[iiva Ttva xal e7rtaTaT7)v aylX**);. Cf.
20 vo(iet Ttvt xal ayeXapXT)
and 76. 45
TYJV ev TO£; emnq&eufi.aat xaT6p8coatv. Colson takes this "in the Stoic sense of the moral state which produces xaTop8o>[iaTa, i.e., TOC x a T ' a p e T f y evepyYjfzaTa" and suggests that the virtue achieved which made these performances worth looking at was AvSpela (note ad loc). 47 In 47-9 Philo is probably thinking in particular of the govern ments of Augustus and Tiberius and of their restoration and main tenance of the pax Romana, which had allowed the resumption of agriculture and commerce after the chaos of the civil wars. On the safety of the seas see the note on 146. x a T a T a ; <xvTt86aet;. For a study of commerce within the empire see Charlesworth, Trade-routes. avrexTtvouatv. L. and S. and A. Bailly, Dictionnaire GrecFrangais, cite Philo only as using this verb. The meaning given, "repay", is appropriate in Heres 104, Jos. 267, Mos. ii, 7, and Decal. 117, but not here. 48 ^caXeuet. This verb is used also in LA i, 7 1 , and iii, 6 and 114, Spec, i, 215, and Aet. 86. 49 e ^ T a ^ e T o . Although this verb sometimes occurs in Philo in its usual classical sense of "scrutinize", in the passive it far more fre9
COMMENTARY ON §§ 43*55
quently bears comparatively colourless meanings such as "prove to b e " , "take one's place among" (cf. the similar meaning "to be counted among" occasionally found in classical Greek: e.g., Andocides iv, 2; Demosthenes xviii, 217, and xix, 291; and Dionysius of Halicarnassus vi, 59, 3), and "be found in": e.g., LA iii, 246; Heres 114; Mut. 65 and 267; Spec, iii, 172; Praem. 56 and 9 1 ; and other references in Leisegang s.v. e£eTa£eo8at. 50
51
52
53
55
T6 xotvov av8pa>7C(ov axa<po;.
Cf. 149 TO XOIVOV o-xacpo;. The earliest
extant use of the very common metaphor of the ship of state occurs in Alcaeus fr. 18 ( = 46A in E. Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca I (1936), 4, 108). H. W . Smyth cites many later passages, mostly from the Greek poets, in which the metaphor is also found (Greek Melic Poets (1900), 215). (3ouXeu8evT<x. One codex, L, gives PouX7]86vTa, read by Turnebus. With this reading, which Goodenough adopts in his translation of the passage (Politics, 104), it is presumably the wishes of the subjects rather than those of the ruler that are in question. 8 em TavavTtoc. I.e., he was anti-suggestible. a7ce8appei 8uaa>7retv. If the account which Philo has given ot Macro's behaviour is at all correct, one cannot help feeling some sympathy for the resentment which Gaius showed against him. Philo, however, idealizing Macro and intent on blackening Gaius, can see no justification for his attitude. With 53-6 cf. T. A. xiv, 52, 6 exueret magistrum, satis amplis doctoribus instructus maioribus sais (of Nero). 7rocpa TIVI [xa8
184
' THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
responsible for preserving the identity and perpetuity of the species by transmitting its permanent characteristics to one generation after another. This was the Stoic explanation of the observed fact of the hereditary transmission of mental and physical characteristics. See the passage from Origen, In Joh. xx, 5 (PL X I V , 584) quoted by J. von (ab) Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta II (1903), p. 212, no. 747. The ancient world had some conception of the laws of heredity. Rudimentary genetic theories were developed by the Pythagoreans (whose theory was tied up with number mysticism), by Empedocles, and b y Plato, whose regulations for eugenic breed ing in the ideal state imply a genetic theory as their basis (Rep. v, 457b-46ie). See further R. S. Brumbaugh in Journ. of Heredity xlii (1951), 301-3; xliii (1952), 86-8; xiv (1954). i 9 - 5 . Cf. Aristotle DeGener. Anim. iv, 3, 7 6 7 ^ 7 6 9 ^ Hist. Anim. vii, 6, 58sb-586a; Lucretius iv, 1209-32, with the notes in C. Bailey's edition (1947) III. x
For fuller discussion of the seminal Logos see H. Meyer, Geschichte der Lehre von den Keimkrdften (1914), 7-75, especially 26-46 on Philo; M. Heinze, Die Lehre vom Logos (1872), 107-25; M. Pohlenz, Die Stoa (1948) I, 78-9; J. Drummond, Philo Judaeus or the Jewish Alexandrian Philosophy (1888) I, 102-7; Wolfson, I, 342-3. * 56 h TO) TYJ; 9Ude(o; epyaemqpUp. Aet. 66 shows that this metaphor, used also in Mos. ii, 84 and Spec, iii, 33 and 109, is a quotation, although its source is not known. 8ia7rXa
COMMENTARY ON §§ 55-59
185
sacred dramas enacted), T£ Setxvufjteva (the sacred objects, emblems, etc. shown to the initiates), and T& Xeyojzeva (the formulae used in the ceremonies). For fuller discussion see M. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion I (1955), 653-63; P. Foucart, Les Mysteres d'Eleusis (1914), 168-91, 267 ii.) P.-W. s.vv. 'Iepo^vr?];, and Mysterien, especially coll. 1231-46. 58 TotauTat Se f^aav al 7rpo9aaet;. Dahl suggested that a phrase such as G>; Maxpcova XeXYjxevat had fallen out here. Gelenius' translation runs ' T u n c autem ex huiusmodi Macronis vocibus arrepta fuit occasio", and that of Mangey "Tales autem erant praetextus, ex Macronis sermonibus". Tpl;. See the note on 41 fiuptaxt;. el [JLY] St' efie xal x a ; efia; TrapYjyopla;. Sc. "he had been saved", "it had been prevented", or the like. This common ellipse, discussed by Reiter, Prolegomena, lxx, occurs again in 144. Examples from classical Greek are Thucydides ii, 18, 4, Aristophanes Vesp. 558, Plato Gorg. 5i6e, and Demosthenes xix, 74, and xxiii, 180. 2
TeXeuTYjoavTo;.
Sc. TOU TtPeptou.
The praetorians, whose allegiance was of primary importance. Balsdon suggests (25) that Macro secured the loyalty of the naval garrison at Misenum, where Tiberius died, also. ev6;. Cf. the note on 32 el; TO Tuxetv TYJ; Yjyenovta;, fin. i p T t o ; xal 7rXYJpYj;. I.e., by the rejection of the idea of the joint sovereignty of Gaius and Gemellus. 59 9evaxa. Oeva£, here an adjective, is used as a noun in all the examples cited by L. and S. . oS7rco y<*P • • • • £fA9*ve;. The reference is presumably to Gaius. Philo here contradicts his statements in 22 (cf. the notes), 67, and 73 that Gaius' character underwent a sudden change for the worse immediately after his illness, from which he had recovered some months before Macro's death. ou 7roXXat; uaTepov Yjfiipat;. A few days after what? Dio places Macro's death in 38 (lix, 10, 6) and it probably occurred in the first half of that year, soon after the deaths of Gemellus and Silanus; see the notes on 31 and 32 SeuTepov. Box's argument, however (note on Fl. 16), that a terminus post quern is supplied by the Arvals' sacrifice on Antonia's birthday, 31st January, 38 (AFA p. i n ) , since Gaius is alleged to have refused her an audience unless Macro was present (S. G. 23, 2), cannot stand. The Fasti Ostienses record her death on 1st May, 37 (A. Degrassi, Inscr. Italiae X I I I i, 190-1). aTpaTtcoTtxa; Suvafiet;.
9
t
l86
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
The sacrifice was a sign of respect, such as marked the birthdays of Augustus, Germanicus, Livia, Agrippina, and Tiberius also posthumously (AFA, pp. 13-4, 111-3), and does not mean that she was living at that date. It was repeated in 39 (AFA p. 13). Before his death Macro had been appointed prefect of Egypt (Dio, I.e.) in succession to Avillius Flaccus, although he never took up the post. Balsdon suggests (39) that the appointment was made in order to put him off his guard before the blow fell, just as Se janus had been deceived b y hints that the tribunician power was to be given to him. Another instance of a transfer from the pre fecture of the praetorians to that of Egypt is that of Seius Strabo, Sejanus' father, in 16 or 17 (Dio lvii, 19, 6; cf. PIR III, 192, no. 246), and this was clearly a promotion in his case (cf. P.-W. s.v. Seius no. 15). Willrich, on the other hand, regards Macro's new appointment as a degradation, the first step in his downfall (288), and it is possible that since the prefecture of the praetorians had been given to one man instead of to two, it now ranked above instead of below the prefecture of Egypt. It certainly formed the pinnacle of the equestrian career at the end of the first century and during the second, when several men are known to have proceeded from the prefecture of Egypt to that of the praetorians. But probably the equestrian cursus honorum was not rigidly fixed as early as the first half of the first century. H. I.. Bell's convincing supplement to P. Lond. 2785, I, 14—Najtoiov eTCapxov Atyi7CTou—gives the Alexan drian nationalist leader, Isidorus (for whom see Introduction, pp. I2ff., and the note on 355 6 TatScopo;), a hand in Macro's overthrow (Archiv fur Papyrusforschung x (1932), 5-16; cf. Musurillo, AA, 136); but no other evidence supports this. Macro was probably replaced by two praetorian prefects; see Balsdon, 39-40. t
1
TYJ; 7cepiTTYJ<; eivoia;. In 59-60 Philo makes Macro's actions entire ly disinterested. But they could be interpreted as an attempt to wield the effective sovereignty himself, using Gaius merely as a pawn. Balsdon suggests that there may have been "some suspicion of concrete disloyalty on Macro's part", which provided the imme diate cause for his execution (38). But if so, our sources have effec tively suppressed it in order to blacken Gaius. Willrich, who accepts the non-Philonian tradition of Ennia's intrigue with Gaius (note on 40 TY> Sioc^Oopav filv TOO yafiou), suggests that Gaius' second marriage (with Cornelia Orestilla; dated by Dio lix, 8, 7 to late in 37) annoyed Macro and his wife and led to a conflict (293-4).
COMMENTARY ON §§ 59-65
60 61
187
acoo~at Tatov. See the note on 24 ex7co8cov eyeyevyjTo. Dio says that the enforced suicide of Macro and Ennia was followed by the execution of many other people—Gelzer describes them as "eine ganze Hofpartei" (394)—on various pre texts (lix, 10, 6-8). But this may well be an exaggeration from one or two genuine cases; cf. M. P. Charlesworth in Cambridge Hist. Journ, iv (1932), 109-11. OCOTCO. Reiter suggests adding
aoToxetpta.
1
Legatio ad Gaium
13
i88
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
0eol Soctfioves, and ayaGol Satfxovec; are frequently used in this sense: e.g., Lucian Luct. 24 and De Morte Per. 36-7; CIG 4232; and S / G 1246. Cf. P.-W. s.v. Daimon, coll. 2011-2. SoXocpovei. Gaius* first move against Silanus was to dishonour him by depriving him of the right to vote first in the senate (Dio lix, 8, 6; cf. the note on 75 ou&ev6<; T & V ev ouyxXyjTco Seorepo^). Sueto nius (G. 23, 3) and Dio (lix, 8, 4) say that Silanus, like Gemellus and Macro, was driven to suicide. For the immediate occasion of his death the former has a story to balance that of Gemellus and the cough mixture: Silanus had declined to accompany Gaius on a stormy voyage on the grounds that he was a bad sailor, and Gaius had interpreted this as betraying an intention of usurping power while his back was turned. The voyage in question was almost certainly that which Gaius made, in stormy weather, to Pontia and Pandateria soon after his accession to bring home his mother's and brother's ashes (S. G. 15, 1 ; Dio lix, 3, 5). But, apart from the apocryphal ring of this tale, it is very unlikely that Silanus' death occurred as early as the summer of 37. Dio and Philo both put it after Gaius' illness, the former relating it, with Gemellus' death, among the last events of 37, while the more reliable evidence of the AFA indicates a date in the early months of 38 for both the execu tions (note on 3 1 ) . Tacitus says that Agricola's father, Julius Graecinus, lost his life for having displeased Gaius by a refusal to prosecute "M. Silanus" (Agric. 4 , 1 ; Seneca, however, gives a dif ferent reason for his death in De Bene/, ii, 21, 5). One M. Silanus was proconsul of Africa, probably from 33 to 38 (P.-W. s.v. Ittnius no. 175, coll. 1098-9), and somehow aroused Gaius' suspicions (T. H. iv, 48), but he is not known to have been prosecuted. If, then, Gaius' father-in-law was the man whom Graecinus refused to prosecute, and he was guilty, or believed guilty, of some offence (of which Suetonius' tale is a highly distorted version), there may have been some justification for his execution. See also Willrich, 436, on the execution of Graecinus.
3
10 9<xvepco<; jxev ou S i a 8io<;. I.e., they feared being accused of maiestas—2Xi indication of the ineffectiveness of Gaius' professed abolition of the charge (note on 17 aTepyjaeu; xPW* >v ....). 67 6x^°SPhilo's poor opinion of "the m o b " and his contempt for ochlocracy or popular sovereignty as the lowest form of government are discussed by Goodenough, Politics, 86-90. Cf. Plato's account of the "democratic state" in Rep. viii, 557-8. 66
T0
189
COMMENTARY ON §§ 65-69
A0p6<xv ev8£8exT<xi Tpo7r))v.
See the notes on 22.
68
*
8ea(x6<; 9uaeco;. Philo identifies Nature with God and the Law * of Nature (for which his usual phrase is v6jxo<; TTJ; (puaeto;) with the Logos emanating from God (discussed in the note on 6 TCOV 8opu96pcov auTou Suvajxecov). His phrase "Law of Nature" denotes one of the aspects of the Logos and expresses the rule of God over the material creation. For fuller discussion of the meaning and place of the Law of Nature in Philo's philosophy and the difference between the expression as used by him and as used by Stoic writers, see Gooden ough, Light, 48-71. The argument here attributed to Gaius' sup porters seems to be that, because the divine Ruler of the universe is one, monarchy is therefore a fundamental principle of the cosmos. U7t' ASuvaTcoT^pou. The sophistic argument that might is right. The reading UTCO SuvaTtoT^pou is found in M A H and was read by Mangey with the comment "omnino ad sensum melius". It would give the sense " . . . what Gaius would have suffered at Gemellus' hands, had the latter been the more powerful". i f i u v a TOUT' IO~TIV, OUX av8po9ovla. The principle that killing in self-defence is permissible was recognized in Roman law, in the Twelve Tables and later: Digest I, i, 3; I X , ii, 4 and 5; ii, 45, 4 (Lex Aquilia); X L I I I , xvi, 1, 27; X L V I I I , viii, 9 (Lex Cornelia de Sicariis). 7rpocrxXTjpou{xevcov. IIpocTxXY]p6o[xai occurs in the same sense as here ini4c/s xvii, 4. Mangey proposed emending in both passages to 7rpocrxoXXao[jLat, a verb used metaphorically in the Septuagint (Genes, i, 24; Levit. xix, 31) and the New Testament (St. Matt, xix, 5; St. Mark x, 7; Eph. v. 31). Dahl rejected this, expressing surprise that Mangey did not suggest the same alteration in 279. e ^ u X i o i Te x a l £evtxol 7r6Xe[xot. A remark perhaps inspired by the memory of the civil wars, the last of which Cleopatra's participation had made technically a foreign war as well. There was a real danger that divided sovereignty would have led eventually to a recurrence of civil war. 69 This popular criticism of Macro, that he did not recognize that Gaius was the master and he the servant, may have contained some truth. Stav^yvco. Here and in 209 the MSS are divided between the verbs 8iaYty (normally="decide") and 8tavaYiYvcoaxco="read through". Mangey read the former here, the latter in 209. In 203 1
vco(TXCO
THE
EMBASSY TO GAIUS
and 304 the MSS all give Stayvou;, but Reiter follows Mangey in emending to Stavayvou;. Other examples of StaytYvtoffxto in the sense of 8iavaYtY occur in Polybius iii, 32, 2, andxxi, n , 3, and Aelian Varia Hist, xiv, 43 (although emendation to StavaYtyvcoaxco has been proposed in these cases). Colson (note on Leg. 203) compares Stayvtoat; in Fl. 100, for which, however, Mangey conjectured and Box accepts Stavayvcoat;, a word unknown to lexica; cf. Colson's note ad loc. in Loeb Philo I X , and Box's note. 71 yvyjatov. See the note on this word in 24. Seirrepeta. A famous example is given in Livy xxiv, 44, 9-10, and Aulus Gellius ii, 2, 13. 72 TYJ; et; aXX6Tptov olxov 8e8o[ievY);. If a marriage was accompanied by conventio in manum, the woman passed from the potestas of her father to the manus of her husband, leaving her own family and entering her husband's filiae loco. The power of manus was included in a marriage made by confarreatio or by coemptio, whereas in a marriage of the informal type known as usus—a marriage brought into being by a year's cohabitation—the acquisition of manus was avoided if the wife absented herself from her husband's home for three nights in each year (Gaius Instit. i, 108-115). The tendency even under the republic was for marriages without manus, i.e., marriages by which the woman remained a member of her own family, to displace marriages with manus, and under the empire marriages without manus were almost universal. Technically, there fore, Junia had probably not passed into Gaius' family. See further W. W . Buckland, A Text-book of Roman Law (1932), 118-21; E. Poste and E. A. Whittuck's edition of Gaius' Institutions* (1904), note ad loc. f Cf. J. A. Crook, Law and Life of Rome (1967), 103.t VC0(TXC0
2
73
fi£po;. Mangey conjectured (3apo;, which Dahl treated with ridi cule. Bapo;isused in the sense of "importance" in Diodorus Siculus xix, 70, 8 7rpotr£vefxov Tot; X6yot; OCUTOG 7rtcmv TS [AeyaXYjv xat (iapo;, and Colson translates here "and what principally weighed with them was their wish i0poav cvSISexrat (xeTa(3oXyjv. See the notes on 22. 74 1 1 <S0Xou;. The same metaphor as in 32. TOU croyyevtxou. Here clearly in the common sense of "kindred" (see 75 Tot; £9' atfxaTo;); there is no suggestion of the Hellenistic use of truyyevyj;="member of the court". 75 Tot; PouXeuTat;. Yet the serious hostility between Gaius and the senate did not begin until 39, when he discovered its responsibility
COMMENTARY ON §§ 69-75
I I 9
for many of the maiestas-trials under Tiberius (Dio lix, 16). On his relations with the senate see further Balsdon, 48-50, 63, 96-7, 156, 214. ou8evo<; TCOV ev CTUYKXYJTCO SeoTepo;. Dio says that the consuls all accorded Silanus the right to vote first in the senate Sta TYJV YjXtxtav xat Sta TO a£tcofxa (lix, 8, 6). After Sulla's reforms, the honorary posi tion of princeps senatus (described in a fragment of Dio vi, preserved in Zonaras vii, 19; Loeb Dio I, p. 182), apparently lapsed until it was held by Augustus; from Sulla's time "a body of consulares holds the first place, and from these the presiding magistrate—at least the consul who opens the business of the house—chooses his first adviser, according to no settled rules, but with due regard to seniority or personal distinction" (A. H. J. Greenidge, Roman Public Life (1901), 269, citing Aulus Gellius xiv, 7, 9, and Cicero Att. i, 13, 2; cf. 375). See also P.-W. Suppl. VI, coll. 699 f., 766; T. Mommsen, Romisches Staatsrecht I I I , 9 6 9 - 7 1 ; cf. II , 894-6. Nothing is known of Silanus' career before his suffect consulship in A . D . 15. But if he was one of the most senior senators in 37-8, he presumably held that office at well above the minimum age (thirty-two in the early empire; see R. Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939), 369). Mommsen's suggestion (cited in P.-W. s.v. Iunius no. 174, col. 1097) that Silanus was a contemporary of Germanicus (born 15 B.C.), because the imposter who impersonated the latter's son in 31 gave out after his exposure that he was a son of M. Silanus (T. A. v, 10), would make Silanus only about fifty-five at the time of his death, which seems much too young to harmonize with Dio lix, 8, 6. T o deduce a father's age from his son's is precarious in any case. T o t ; wrrnxot;. In fact, relations between Gaius and the equites as a body seem to have been fairly amicable throughout his principate. He attended to the recruitment of the order, which Tiberius had neglected (S. Tib. 41), and his revision of the list included the re moval of unworthy members (Dio lix, 9, 5 ; S. G. 16, 2). In 40, when he and the senate were at daggers drawn, he regarded the equites as his friends (S. G. 49, 2). Cf. Balsdon, 156-7. 8e6; vofitSeoOat. With Leg. 75-114 cf. the accounts of Gaius' selfdeification in S. G. 22 and Dio lix, 26, 5-28, 8; also references in S. G. 33 and 52; Sen. Dial, iii, 20,8-9; A J xviii, 256, and xix, 4 and n ; and Aurelius Victor Lib. de Caes. 3, 10. Philo b y implication dates the beginning of Gaius' claim to divinity to the first half of 38, by narrating it before the Alexandrian riots, which are securely dated to August 2
3
192
THE EMBASSY TQ GAIUS
of that year (note on 120 iniQero Yjfiiv); but this is probably too early. Josephus makes Gaius first claim divinity after two years of good government, i.e., in 39. Dio, who says that at first Gaius forbade the worship of himself (lix, 4,4), refers to his impersonations of the gods under the year 40, although he remarks that he had claimed divinity xal 7rp6Tepov (lix, 26, 5). The introduction oiproskynesis, which was closely connected with Gaius' assumption of divinity, apparently occurred in 39 (note on 116 TYJV 7rpooxuvY)cuv). In the eastern Mediterranean, especially in Egypt, the deification of the living ruler had been an accepted convention since the time of Alexander the Great, and the idea of the divinity of the Roman Emperor was as long established there as the empire itself. But in the West the idea of the divinity of the living ruler had not previous ly assumed so blatant a form as it did under Gaius. His own equation of himself with specific members of the pantheon was a far more drastic step than the establishment of the cult of Roma et Augustus, which was by this time a regular feature of the religion even of the western provinces, and his demand for divine honours in Italy was a different matter from the spontaneous ascription of divinity to him at his accession by the eastern provinces (note on n a7tavTe<; YJyacTYjcTav). For discussions of Gaius' deification see Balsdon, 157-73. and Willrich, 439-48. 76 W . L. Knox describes 76-113, in which Gaius' character and actions are contrasted with those of the deities with whom he equated himself, as "a satire, modelled on such passages as Isocrates xi (Rusiris), 7-8".'But he does not think that the satire comes from Philo's pen. "I find it quite unthinkable that a pious Jew should have written in the style of this passage instead of denouncing the blasphemy involved in a man's representing himself as God, as in Post. 115. Naturally Jews had to be careful about denouncing the imperial cult, but elsewhere in this tract (118 and 138 ff.) the Jewish view is clearly expressed. It would seem that Philo has once again incorporated a pagan source without troubling to correct it; the document would seem to be an Alexandrine lampoon in the Stoic vein, ridiculing Caligula's attempt to represent himself as a God; whether it was compiled after his assassination or circulated secretly before it does not a p p e a r . . . . It may be noticed that a further section, 141-51, comes from the same or a similar source, with 148 inserted to adapt it to the peculiar case of the Jewish synag ogues. T o suppose that a devout Jew could sit down to write a
COMMENTARY ON §§
75-78
193
panegyric on the splendour of the Temple of Augustus and its images is entirely ludicrous*' (Some HellenisticElements inPrimitive Christian ity ( 944). 48-9). This is an interesting theory, but the use of aGeoxaTYiv to describe Gaius' self-deification (77) goes far to invali date it. Gaius' demands were blasphemous from the Jewish point of view, but they would hardly have been so described by a gentile. Seneca goes further than any other extant gentile writer in denoun cing Gaius' self-deification, but he only calls it dementia (Dial, iii, 20, 9). It seems rather that Philo is himself quoting what others said—9aalv <XUT&V . . . . , the subject of 9<X<JIV being presumably people to whom he talked on his visit to Rome—and that he brings in the criticism aOewTcrajv to demonstrate his own very different attitude to the matter. Goodenough assumes that the passage is original to Philo, and says of 98 ff. that he understands the symbol ism of pagan iconography and its meaning so thoroughly that he feels Gaius' appropriation of the symbols of the gods to be a real desecration (Light, 257). I
TotouTO) Xoytafxco. With the philosophical rationalization of his behaviour attributed to Gaius in this section cf. Plato Laws iv, 713d and Polit. 2jie, and the note on 20 vojxet TIVI x a l ayeXapxT). 77 aOecaTainQv exOltoaiv. A play on words, impossible to reproduce in English. 78 T& 7rpa>Tov. Philo is unique among our authorities in (quite cre dibly) making Gaius start with the demi-gods and work up from them to the great gods. Other writers do not differentiate between the periods at which he equated himself with the various grades of divine beings. Y)fii06ot<;. The terms "hero** and "demi-god" (identified b y Hesiod Op. etDies 159-60; cf. other references in L. and S. s.v. ^{x(0eo^) were used to denote superhuman beings, ranking below the great gods but receiving worship, and regarded b y the Greeks as men and women deified after their death. Some of them, however, appear to be "faded" gods. For discussion of the different types of heroes and their cult, and the various individuals mentioned in 78 ff., see L. R. Farnell, Greek Hero-cults and Ideas of Immortality (1921), especially 19-94; M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion I (1955), 184-91; P.-W., and Roscher, Lexikon, s.vv. the various names. Dionysus, here listed among the demi-gods, was usually regarded as a fully-fledged god, and he sometimes took the place of Hestia in the canonical list of the twelve great gods, from which 9
a
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
194
he was normally excluded. His mother, most probably originally an earth-goddess, was only in later Theban legend transformed into a mortal (see E. R. Dodds' edition of Euripides' Bacchae (1944), note on lines 6-12). Aio(ncoupoi<;. Gaius treated the Dioscuri with even scantier respect later in his life: in 40 he had an approach made to his palace on the Palatine through their temple, so that their statues might act as his doorkeepers (Dio lix, 28, 5; S. G. 22, 2). On the commemorative coins struck by Gaius in 37 and again in 40 for his dead brothers Drusus and Nero (BMCCRE I, 154, no. 44; 157-8, nos. 70-1) the princes are represented, according to C. Seltman, as the Dioscuri (CAH Plates IV, 200-1, q; inCAH X , 624, n. 1, where the reference to the volume of plates is given incorrectly, the coins are erroneously referred to Tiberius' son Drusus and his cousin Germanicus). Mattingly, however, thinks that the youths are represented as Principes Iuventutis (BMCCRE I, cxlvi; but cf. P.-W. s.v. Princeps Iuventutis, col. 2302), and this is more likely, as the figures are not wearing the characteristic head-dress of the Dioscuri (see below). 79
Gaius was fond of dressing up, quite apart from his impersonations of deities. For his procession across the bay of Baiae on the bridge of boats he wore, ye gXeye, the breastplate of Alexander the Great (Dio lix, 17, 3), and he is said to have dressed as a woman to celebrate the Mysteries (Suidas Lexicon s.v. Tiioq; AJ xix, 30). Suetonius makes him wear the breastplate more than once and dress as a triumphator, and he gives details of some of the other exotic clothing which he affected oxeuTjv
&XXOT£
aXXoiocv aveXafijiave.
(G.52).
8iaxo<jfAOU|xevos zlq 'HpaxXe'a.
Cf. Fl. 38 SiexexoqrrjTO et$ (3aatX£a.
The sense of 8iaxoa(iico required in both places is not recognized by L. and S. . 7rtXou<;. A. G. Roos suggests emending to the singular (in Mnemosyne 3rd series ii (1935), 243); but the plural can stand, meaning that Gaius wore different nikoi at different times. The mXo;, a pointed, egg-shaped hat, was one of the most noticeable features of the Dioscuri when portrayed in art. It is to be distin guished from the Phrygian cap in which they were also sometimes portrayed after their identification with the Cabiri of probably Phrygian origin; see F. Chapouthier, Les Dioscures an Service d'une Deesse (1935), 114, 280, 290, 295, and Farnell, op. cit. 188 ff. 80 This "sentence" contains no main verb. 9
t
COMMENTARY ON §§ 78-84
195
ryjpuovyjv. The defeat of this monster and his attendants on the far western island of Erytheia and the removal of his cattle consti tuted Heracles' tenth labour. IlptoTlco;. Philo, like Vergil (G. iv, 387 ff.), follows Homer who made Proteus a minor sea-god with miraculous powers (Od. iv, 385 ft.), and not the less common tradition found in Herodotus (ii, 112 ff.) and Euripides (Helen 4), which made him a king of Egypt. "0(XY)po;. Other references to episodes in the Homeric poems are to be found in Philo, e.g., in Sow. ii, 50, and Cont. 9 and 40. An enigmatic word which occurs in rabbinic writings has been under stood b y some scholars to be a transliteration of "Homer". S. Lieberman, who discusses the passages, says that "the only Greek author whom the Rabbis mention by his name is Homer", but he points out that familiarity with Homer does not necessarily pre suppose direct study of his works, since many of his myths and phrases were common-places in the Greek-speaking world (Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (1950), 105-14). Cf. S. Krauss, Griechische und Lateinische Lehnwdrter im Talmud, Midrasch und Targums II (1899), 230, s.v. o*r»n; L. Ginzberg in JBL xli (1922), 126 ff.; R. Gordis in JQR xxxviii (1947-8), 359-68. Contrast A. M. Honeyman in JQR xxxviii, 151-5. 81 aoxetoOat. Reiter adopts Mangey's emendation (approved by Dahl) for the MSS apxeioGai, which previous editors had accepted. OaXocTTav. In his reference to the twelve labours of Heracles Philo here lets his rhetoric run away with him. None of them involved the destruction of sea-beasts. The nearest approach to such was the Lernaean hydra, which lived in a swamp. The Cretan bull, father of the Minotaur, had originated in the sea, sent by Poseidon at Minos' request, but it was on dry land when it received attention from Heracles. 82 YjfAepcotra; aV^eXov. For the development of Dionysus from a general vegetation god into a god specifically associated with the vine see M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion I (1955), 582-90.
2
83
av8pto7rtov (JeXxiova.
MSS OCUTCOV (SeXTiova. Mangey considered the
emendation of OCUTCOV to av0pco7rcov preferable to the retention of OCUTCOV with the emendation to (^XTIOV (scil. acofxa, from 82). 84 Atoaxoopou;. In Odyssey xi, 298 ff. the twins Castor and Polydeuces are both the sons of Tyndareus; in Iliad iii, 237 ff. and Hesiod fragment 94 (ed. A. Rzach (1913)) also it is implied that
196
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
they are mortal. In two Homeric Hymns (xvii and xxxiii) they are called both sons o f Tyndareus and sons of Zeus. The scholiast on Pindar Nem. x, 150 says that Hesiod (fr. 91) made Zeus their father, and the same is implied by the name Dioscuri. Philo adopts the popular compromise, found, e.g., in Pindar Nem. x, 80 ff., which made Castor the son of Tyndareus and therefore mortal, and Polydeuces the son of Zeus and therefore immortal. For a full study see Farnell, op. cit., 175 ff. 85 l|xeYaXoupY7](jev <XVTI8OGIV. Philo alludes to this legend in Decal. 56 and perhaps also in Som. i, 150. On the death of Castor and the question, not considered b y Philo, whether the Dioscuri were continually together, both in heaven one day and in Hades the next, or perpetually separated, see H. J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology (1928), 231 and 248-9, n. 4. <XVI<J6T7)TOC Cf. Spec, ii, 204 Y) [lev yap (ICT6TYJ;) SixaioauvYj; EORTV, YJ 8e (aviaiTY);) aStxia; OCPXY) TE xal TCYJVT). *ICT6TY); not only denoted absolute arithmetical equality (its primitive meaning) but came to mean also the principle of proportion by which each man received according to his worth—JCT6TY); ye^e-cpiyai (Plato Gorg. 508a). Cf. Aristotle Eth. Nic. v, 3 , 1 1 3 1 b , and viii, 7 , 1 1 5 8 b . For its develop- * ment into a cosmic principle see R. Hirzel, Themis, Dike, und Verwandtes (1907), 228-320, especially 277 ft., 297 ff., 308 ft.; cf. E. Barker, Greek Political Theory. (1918), index s.vv. Equality and Proportional. Philo was aware of this double meaning (Heres 144-5), and to him ICT6TY); in the proportional sense was a cosmic law and so formed the basis of the Mosaic law. See further Goodenough, Light, 64-7, and Wolfson, II, 386-93. EVY)9avi<JEV. Cohn's emendation of the various MSS readings evexalviaev, avexatviaev, and avexotvcoaev. Mangey suggested exevoxrev and Dahl Iveaxeuaaev. 86 1 2 aePacTfxoo re xai . . . . TIJXCOV. See the bibliography given in the note on 78 Y)[ii0eoi;. 87 TOV d8eX9ov. Gemellus, for whom and his murder by Gaius see 23-31 and notes. The alteration to ave<|/i6v suggested by Mangey is unnecessary. 'A8eX96; was frequently used in Hellenistic Greek as a general term for "kinsman", and may here mean "cousin", a meaning found commonly for frater and less commonly for soror. But it is equally likely that 482X96; here and frater in S. G. 15,2, and 23,3, and 29,1 mean adoptive brother—the meaning clearly required in 92, where 48eX9tov covers Gemellus and Gaius* true sisters.
COMMENTARY ON §§ 84-87
197
T<X; 8'
198
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
M. P. Charlesworth in Cambridge Hist. Journ. iv (1932), 113-4. Dio insinuates that Gaius exaggerated his danger in the report which he sent to the senate, and that the donative given to the troops was undeserved. But the Arval Brethren sacrificed on 27th October, 39 ob detecta nefaria con[silia in C. Caes. Aug. Germani]cum Cn. Lentuli Gaet[ulici (AFA, p. 13)—although "this proves no more than that Gaius reported that he had escaped from conspiracy. That it was in fact a serious conspiracy is suggested by the language of S. Claudius 9, 1, and Vespasianus 2, 3" (Balsdon, 83, n. 1). Suetonius and Dio record the dedication of three swords destined for Gaius' assassination in the temple of Mars Ultor. After Gaius' death his sisters were recalled from exile and, rather surprisingly, paid the last honours to his body (S. G. 59, 1 ; Dio lx, 4 , 1 ) . Julia fell a victim to Messalina (Dio lx, 8, 5). Agrippina survived to be murdered b y her son Nero (T. A. xiv, 1-13). 89 Xu(xecov. On this word see the note on 92. 6 v£o<; At6vuao;. Similarly, when Gaius decided to set up his statue in the Temple in Jerusalem, the dedication of the Temple was to be to "Gaius, the New Zeus Epiphanes" (346). Presumably when impersonating each of the various deities Gaius took the title "the New So-and-So". In the East it had for many years been a common practice for deified rulers and members of their families to be given the name of a god, sometimes alone and sometimes qualified by v£o<;, and the same convention was followed in desig nating some members of the Roman imperial family. E.g., at Ephesus Tiberius' -twin grandsons were called the "New Dioscuri" (SEG IV, 515), and Gaius was hailed as the "New Sun" at Cyzicus after his accession ( S / G 7 9 8 = I G R R IV, 145). A. D. Nock argues that, although the idea that the monarch is the incarnation of the god whose name he bears may be present, it is more probable that the word v£o;, "conjoined with the name of a god, describes a man as reproducing his qualities or achievements, just as Julius Caesar or Augustus might be called a second Romulus"; v£o<; also connotes youth and freshness ("Notes on ruler-cult, I I " in Journ. Hellenic Stud, xlviii (1928), 30-8). 3
90
'HpaxXloc. In Prob. 98-104 Philo uses Heracles as an illustration of the principle that virtue confers freedom on its possessor. eu8y;v[a^ re xai eueTYjpta^. Synonymous. ixeaxas ava
COMMENTARY ON §§ 87-93
199
during Gaius* principate in Alexandria and in Palestine. Yet for the Alexandrian riots Philo is probably wrong in attributing to Gaius even indirect responsibility (note on 115 (xovou; yap TouSatou; u7re(3Xe7reTo). The sufferings of the Jews are naturally in the forefront of his thoughts, but he magnifies them into a picture of civic commotion throughout the empire, for which he holds Gaius per sonally responsible. Elsewhere the empire was in fact largely at peace under Gaius, save for the rising of Aedemon in Mauretania. The Emperor could perhaps be held responsible for this, since it re sulted from his deposition of the client king and his annexation of the country (Pliny NH v, n ; cf. Dio lx, 9, 1). But did Philo know of it? 91
a8avaTi£ouatv apeTai. The deification of mortals probably origi nated in gratitude for outstanding services which they had rendered to mankind. Cf. M. P. Charlesworth in HThR xxviii (1935), 8 ff. 92 6 a9ayeu; xal Xufxecov TCOV a8eX9cov. Gemellus had been murdered (23-31) and Agrippina and Julia banished (87). Aufxecov can bear the sense of sexual violation (Euripides Hipp. 1068), but there is no need to suppose that it does so here. In 89 and 191 it is used to mean simply "destroyer". Neither in 87 nor in his reference to Drusilla's death in Fl. 56 does Philo so much as hint at the in cestuous relations which the later writers Josephus (A J xix, 204), Suetonius (G. 24, 1), Dio (lix, n , 1; 22, 6; 26, 5), Suidas (Lexicon s.v. Tato;), and Aurelius Victor (Lib. deCaes. 3, 10) allege existed between Gaius and either Drusilla alone or all his sisters. Yet, writing as he is to blacken Gaius, he would surely have reproduced this discreditable tale, had he known it. (Cf. the notes on 14 TYJV 7ip6 [xixpoo SiaiTav, 6TE ££Y) Ti(3£pto<; and 25.) Seneca is similarly silent in his reference to Gaius* grief at Drusilla's death (Dial, xi, 17, 4-5). This strongly suggests that the incest-story was no more than a malicious slander which grew up in the course of time. (Cf. Cicero Pro Cael. 3, 6 on the prevalent custom of bringing groundless charges of sexual licence against handsome young men.)Balsdon thinks that the story arose from a misunderstanding of genuine family affection "as exceptional in early imperial Rome as was the desire for seclusion which took Tiberius to Capreae" (41-2). Another possibility is that it was connected with Gaius' identification of himself with Jupiter (note on 346 Ai6<; 'E7ri9avou<; N6ou Tatou). 93
1 3 7rapa9opos x a l 7rapaxo7co^. Synonymous. e7ra7ie8ueTo. Literally "strip for combat against". This verb is
200
THE
EMBASSY TO GAIUS
used metaphorically by Philo in Ebr. 22 and b y Plutarch in Mor. 788d and Marc. 3, 2. The derivative meaning "set to work on'/ or "get down t o " is found in Aristophanes Lys. 615. a^tOotXcov. This adjective is commonly used to denote a child "with both parents living". Philo uses it twice elsewhere, apparently in the sense of "highly connected on both sides" (Cong. 132; Prob. 10). Here the word presumably means "of divine descent on both sides", and distinguishes the great gods of the pantheon from the demi-gods of partly human parentage. Cf. Colson's note in Loeb Philo I X , 510. TOIS Ge$aLO[LoZq. Although Gaius aspired to receive worship, in scriptions and coins provide no evidence that his wish was officially gratified in Italy. Even the latest coins of his principate contain no trace of deification, just as Domitian's coins do not recognize his claim to the title dominus et detts. 'Epfiou xal 'A7r6XXtovo; xal "Apeto*;. Dio does not restrict Gaius to a few gods but makes him impersonate them all, and some goddesses as well (lix, 26, 6; cf. S. G. 52); on the goddesses see Balsdon, 168. It is remarkable that Philo is silent in 93-113 about the matter most stressed by other authorities, namely Gaius' equa tion of himself with Jupiter. To this he merely refers without com ment, when he talks later of Gaius' decision to turn the Temple in Jerusalem into a temple dedicated to "Gaius, the New Zeus Epiphanes" (346). 94 xY)puxetoi$ xal 7reStXot^ xal x^«M-oatv. "Where art made (Hermes) into a fully anthropomorphic figure, it is most commonly as the divine wayfarer that he appears, with wings, generally but not always on his sandals, staff (caduceus) in hand and broad-brimmed traveller's hat" (W. K. C. Guthrie, The Greeks and their Gods (1950), 90). The herald's staff was one of his attributes because, as a some what subordinate god, he played the part of messenger for Zeus. Hence his patronage of human heralds, which gave them inviola bility. See further P.-W. s.vv. Hermes, coll. 781-3; Kerykeion; and Keryx; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States V (1909), 20-2. TaSiv TE Iv ara^Ca Philo presumably means that Gaius adopted the dress and insignia of one god at a time in its entirety. 95
COMMENTARY ON §§ 93-97
201
Gaius bearing on the obverse a bust of the Emperor with a radiate crown (note on n rpz<me<; rfficQr^oLyf). A radiate head of Gaius also appears on undated coins of Magnesia (BMCGC, Lydia, 145). T O £ O V Se TCpoTeivov. Gaius dressed up to represent the ar chaic statue of Apollo at Delos described b y Plutarch (Mot. 1136a) and Pausanias (ix, 35, 3). Plutarch says that the three figures of the Graces carried by Apollo held respectively a lyre, a flute, and a pipe. He places them in Apollo's left hand and the bow in his right. But Philo is supported by Athenian coins which show the Graces in the god's right hand and the bow in his left and which probably represent a copy of the Delian statue at Athens, by Macrobius who speaks of Apollinis simulacra having the Graces in the right hand and a bow in the left (Saturn, i, 17, 13), and by a scholiast on Pindar 01. xiv, 16 who mentions a statue at Delphi, perhaps a copy of the Delian one, with the Graces in the right hand. See further J. G. Frazer's edition of Pausanias (1898), note on I.e. 96
The term paean, an epithet of Apollo as physician (cf. n o ) , is very frequent also in the sense of song or hymn. Although associated primarily with Apollo and perhaps consisting originally of songs of healing, paeans were from very early times sung in honour of other gods also and used on many occasions, military, convivial, etc. For fuller discussion see Eisele in Roscher, Lexikon 7raiava<;.
s.v. Paian;
P.-W.
schen Religion
I
2
s.v. Paian; (1955), 159,
M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte
der
griechi-
543.
Eurjtov xal Auaiov. The former of these cult-titles of Dionysus was derived from the cry eoot used in the revels. The latter, like the similar epithet Xiiato;;, was derived from Xueiv, and was variously interpreted as meaning "freeing from care" and as a reference to the effect of wine in relaxing the limbs and producing greater freedom of speech. See further J. G. Frazer's edition of Ovid's Fasti
(1929), note on iii, 7 7 7 ; P.-W. s.v. Lyaeus.
an epithet
von Wilamowitz, Der Timotheos-Papyrus
97
Kax&v Xvata was
of the Magna Mater (Timotheus Persae
132; ed. U.
(1903)).
T O O xaivou [xal v£ou]. Apparently tautological; hence Mangey's conjecture xaivoi and Reiter's bracketing of xal v£oo (following Dahl). A. G. Roos argues that xaivoG and v£oo can both be retained, on the grounds that xatvo? denoted the fact that such an Ares had never existed before, while v£o$ was the epithet commonly applied to men who were accepted as the manifestation of a deity (in Mnemosyne 3rd series ii (1935), 243-4). If, however, only one adjective is to be
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
202
retained, should it not be veou, the one more likely to be associated with the name of a god in such a context (cf. the note on 89 6 v£o<; Atovuao<;) ?
0epa7:euTal. In Hesiod Ares' attendants are Aetjxoj; and
xal 7rpo
epfAY)veu<;
2
COMMENTARY ON §§ 9 7 - I O 8
203
name of civil war. Cf. the note on 90 jieaTa<; . . . . ava. The addition of xal <JX6TO<; was suggested by C. F. Matthaei in his collation of a codex of Philo (1808; an unpublished MS, on which see C.-W.-R. I, Prolegomena xvii, n. and III, Prolegomena, xxi). The pair of words occurs in 122. With this Mangey's suggested alteration of OX6TOU; to VUXTO<; is unnec essary. Although Philo is clearly speaking metaphorically, there may be an oblique reference to Gaius' alleged nocturnal pranks (S. G. 54, 2). Tapxapoo. Cf. the note on 235 el; 4Soi>. 105 rats [xeyaXats ouatau;. Dio states categorically what Philo hints at here—that some of Gaius' victims were executed because they were, or were believed to be, wealthy (lix, 18, 5; 21, 4-6). Cf. S. G. 38-39 for his alleged methods of making money. 106 TYJV larptxYjv 'A7r6XXa>vo<;. Apollo's connection with medicine is treated by L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States IV (1907), 103
234-41. T&S 69' erepcov cYytvo[xevas v6o~ou;. In 106-7 Philo ignores the fact that Apollo could send plagues as well as stop them: e.g., Iliad i, 43-53. For Apollo as the stayer of pestilence see, e.g., Sophocles OT 149-50; cf. 160-6. Among the Jews the common belief that disease was sent by God as a punishment for sin was strongly held; it was questioned by the book of Job and denied by Christ (St. John ix, 2-3), but it is found in Talmudic and similar writings. For dis cussion see Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics s.v. Disease and Medicine (Jewish); A. Biichler, Studies in Sin and Atonement in the Rabbinic Literature of the First Century (1928). 107 voaoix; jxev -rot; uytatvoucrt. Presumably another reference to the Alexandrian riots, during which illness broke out among the Jews (125-6); cf. the note on 90 (xecrrac; ava9Yjva<;. 7a)ptoaet<; Se xot? 6XoxXyjpot<;. The deaths inflicted on the Jews during the riots often involved mutilation as well (127-31). Dio (lix, 10, 3) and Suetonius (G. 27, 3-4; 32, 2) allege that mutilations were perpetrated at Gaius' direct command in Rome. U7r6 TYJS 8tx>)<;. Cf. similar personifications of Justice in Fl. 104 and 107, and the phrase "carried off b y Fate" in Leg. 25. On Philo's predilection for personification see J. Drummond, Philo Judaeus or the Jewish Alexandrian Philosophy (1888) II, 123-6. 108 TOU; IV xlXet. Named examples of men in official positions exe cuted by Gaius are Macro, the two Betilieni (quaestor and procurat
f
L e g a t i o ad Gaium
y
14
204
THE
EMBASSY TO GAIUS
tor; Dio lix, 25, 6; Sen. Dial, v, 18, 3), Calvisius Sabinus (ex-legate of Pannonia; Dio lix, 18, 4; cf. PIR I I , 85, no. 354), and Junius Priscus (praetor; Dio lix, 18, 5). But cf. the note on 97 9OVCOVTI xal SI^COVTI av0pco7teiou atjxaTo;. £9' lepac;. This proverb is discussed in the note on 22. A different translation, however, seems appropriate here. * aorcov. Reiter's emendation of the MSS TCOV. Colson is inclined to expunge the word, as did Mangey and other editors. TA 7raXt[X9Y]fxa X6yia. Such remarks as the celebrated "Would that the Roman people had a single neck!" (Sen. Dial, v, 19, 2; Dio lix, 30, i c ; S. G. 30, 2), and others recorded by Suetonius (G. 29-33). 7ravraxou. Cohn suggested inserting SoxtfxcoTaTot? after 7cavraxoo, on the analogy of 144 TOU<; h rlXei SoxtfxcoTaTou;. Ilaiav. Besides being an epithet of Apollo in his aspect of physician-god, Paean was also a separate but somewhat shadowy deity of healing. For works dealing with the relationship between the two see the bibliography given in the note on 7raiav=hymn in 96; also Farnell, op. cit. I V , 234-5. 7rapaxo{i{xa. I.e., it is more difficult for a man to attain divinity, a status which does not belong to him, than tor him to strike counterfeit money. 15 <|AOXXOV>. Supplied by Turnebus and accepted b y all sub sequent editors. TOIOUTOV acojxa xal <J>ux*)v- Gaius* physical appearance and bodily weakness are described in S. G. 50. On his character see the notes on 22 and 34. e£ofi.oico09jvai. Or perhaps "be compared", the sense in which the verb is used in 114. 9avraa[ai<;. Philo's use of this word in the sense of an "impression made on the senses", occurring again in 181, is discussed by Box, note on Fl. 124. TOU Se Iv Tfj 9uaei X6you. Philo here attempts, apparently, to ex plain a figure of mythology in terms of the Stoic system, treating Ares as a personification of a cosmic principle of courage. apYJyeiv. Another erroneous derivation, like that of Hermes (99). There may be a hint of the same derivation in the. in vocation of Ares as ouvapcoye ©IfxtaTo; in the Homeric Hymn to Ares (viii, 4). For other ancient guesses at the etymology of the name, still uncertain, see P.-W. s.v. Ares, col. 660. Cf. M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion I (1955), 518. 2
109 no
in
112
113
2
COMMENTARY ON §§ I O 8 - I I 4
205
erepoc;. As Colson points out (note ad loc), the imperfect tense indicates that "the other" is Gaius, and not the "Ares of mytho-
logy". elq T a p a v j x ; xal
114
Cf. the note on 90 ( l e a r a ; avacpVjva;. Mangey's emendation e u x o x e t s for the a T u x e t ; of the MSS has been accepted by subsequent editors. During the last century B.C., when many of the Jews of the Diaspora had come under Roman rule, they had been protected in the exercise of their faith by grants of religious liberty, which had been maintained when necessary in the face of gentile opposition. By the 60s B.C. an exception to the general prohibition of the export of gold out of the empire had been made in their favour, in order to enable them to send their annual Temple-tax to Jerusalem (Cicero Pro FL 28, 66-7; for the tax see the notes on 156). In 49 the consul L. Lentulus Cms, recruiting for the senate in Asia, exempted the Jews there who had Roman citizenship from legionary service, and the same concession was made by Dolabella in 44-3; for the Jewish dietary laws and the prohibition of marching or bearing arms on the Sabbath made service in a gentile unit impossible for a practising Jew (AJ xiv, 223-40). The general recognition of Ju daism as a religio licita, however—for such it amounted to—was the work of Julius Caesar and Augustus. The synagogues counted as collegia in the eyes of Roman law, although they differed in some respects from collegia (see G. la Piana in HThR xx (1927), 348-51; J.-B. Frey, CI J I, lxx; cf. lxxxii ff.). There is no evidence to show whether, when all collegia except a few workmen's clubs of long standing were banned in 64 B.C., any exception was made in favour of the Jewish community in Rome, which was probably still quite small at that time. But when, some twenty years later, Julius Caesar disbanded all collegia praeter antiquitus constituta (S. Julius 42, 3), he exempted the synagogues from his edict and thus allowed the Jewish community, by then greatly enlarged by war-captives (note on 155 a l x ^ a X c o T o t ) , to retain the rights of assembly and of having a common fund, the latter of which enabled them to collect their Temple-tax. A decree is preserved enforcing Caesar's ruling in Parium (or Paros ? AJ xiv, 213-6). Several other decrees of local authorities or Roman officials in other cities of Asia Minor con firming the Jews' right to observe various practices of their religion were most probably issued at about the same time to implement Caesar's edict, although they do not mention it and are not pre-
16
(JTaaet;.
ot 7rp6Tepov e u r o / e t c ; .
206
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
cisely dated (AJ xiv, 241-6, 256-64; cf. R. Marcus's notes ad locc., Loeb edition). Although Philo does not mention Julius Caesar, he implies in 156 that the Jews' rights of assembly and of sending money to Jerusalem were pre-Augustan. In AJ xvi, 162-5 the rights enjoyed by the Jews under Hyrcanus (i.e., between his re instatement in 47 B.C. and his capture by the Parthians in 40) and confirmed by Augustus include also the sacrosanctity of their sacred books and exemption from being called to law on the Sabbath. Probably contemporary was the Roman continuation of the privilege granted to the Jews by the Seleucids of receiving money in lieu of the oil distributed by the gymnasiarchs, since the use of gentile oil was prohibited for them (AJ xii, 120; cf. Vita 74; BJ ii, 591; Mishnah Abodah Zarah ii, 6; B. T. Abodah Zarah 35b-36b). Augustus' continuation of Caesar's Jewish policy is seen in his attitude towards the Jews in Rome (155-8 and notes), in the sympathetic treatment which M. Vipsanius Agrippa gave in 14 B.C. (note on 240 6 7ta7r7ro<;) and which Augustus himself gave a few years later to complaints made by the Jews of Asia Minor and N. Africa about gentile infringements of their religious liberty (AJ xvi, 160-1; cf. Leg. 311-6), and in the enactments made in defence of that liberty at various dates by Augustus and his subordinates (AJ xvi, 162-73; Leg. 314-5). Over the question of the imperial cult Augustus showed a sensible respect for Jewish religious scruples (note on Leg. 157 Quainc,). For discussion of the problems raised by the official documents quoted by Josephus see B. Niese, "Bemerkungen liber die Urkunden bei Josephus Archaeologie, B. X I I I , X I V , X V I " in Hermes xi (1876), 466-88; H. Willrich, Judaica (1900), 40-51; Juster I, 13258; R. Laqueur, Der jiidische Historiker Flavins Josephus (1920), 221-30; A. Momigliano, "Ricerche sull' organizzazione della Giudea sotto il dominio Romano, 63-70" in Annali della Scuola Normale di Pisa, 2nd series iii (1934), 193-4. 115 (x6vou<; yap Tou8atou<; vnepXlneTo. In 115-20 Philo insinuates that Gaius' self-deification was responsible for the sufferings of the Jews in Alexandria which he is about to describe, in the sense that the Jews incurred his hostility by alone refusing to acknowledge his godhead, and that the Alexandrian Greeks used that hostility as a pretext (119 o&v) for attacking the Jews in their city, whom they already hated on their own account. Cf. 133, where the Greeks are said to have expected impunity in their desecration of the syna-
COMMENTARY ON §§ I I 4 - I I 5
207
gogues because of Gaius' hatred for the Jews. In the In Flaccum, where Flaccus is the object of Philo's attack, there is no suggestion that any blame for the riots attached to the Emperor. As far as possible the blame is there laid on the prefect (Fl. 41, 44, 53; cf. the note on 134 eixovocs yap ev a7raorai<; (xev t&puovxo Tatou). Even in the Legatio, where Gaius is the main object of attack, Philo dares not go so far as to suggest that the riots resulted from any direct order of his. The most he says is that by allowing others to make dedications in the synagogues, Gaius was virtually making them himself (346). He creates the misleading impression that Gaius was indirectly responsible for the Alexandrian riots b y what seems to be a manipulation of the chronology. By describing Gaius' assumption of divinity before recounting the riots, which are securely dated to August, 38 (note on 120 ITZ£QZTO r;|xtv), he implies that it preceded the riots—which it probably did not (note on 75 0eo<; vofii£ea6ai). Gaius' anti-Semitism is then ante-dated to the summer of 38, which is barely compatible with his open friendliness at that time tor the Jewish prince Agrippa I (note on 179). The Greek attack on the Jews was in fact due, not to a belief that it would please an anti-Semitic Emperor, but to local conditions and events described or hinted at in the In Flaccum only (see Introduction, pp. 3-19); and the desecration of the synagogues was carried out, not for the purpose of gratifying a self-deified Emperor, but in the knowledge that it was the most effective way of insulting the Jews. As Mommsen said, the hatred of Gaius for the Jews was the result, not the cause, of the Alexandrian riots (The Roman Provinces, translated b y W. P. Dickson, II, 192, n. 1). The news of the Jews' opposition to the desecration of the synagogues opened his eyes to their attitude towards the deification of a human being, and when this was followed some eighteen months later (by which time he was assuming divinity) by the report that some Jews in Palestine had destroyed an altar erected in his honour (199 ff.), the two events together suggested organized disloyalty on the part of the Jews. Philo's later descriptions of Gaius as a bitter enemy of the Jews (180 and 201), and of the Jews as ex0i
208
THE
EMBASSY TO GAIUS
TCOV teptov v6{xtov. In the Septuagint vojxo; is used to translate the Hebrew term Torah ("doctrine"). The choice of this word was un fortunate and misleading, since the Torah (the Pentateuch), although containing a code of law, includes also God's revelation of Himself to Israel and much early history and quasi-history. Philo generally uses vofi.0? (or vofxoOeota) in the Jewish sense of the Torah, and, unlike some other Hellenistic Jews, he applies the term exclusively to the Pentateuch and not to the historical, prophetic, and other books of the Old Testament also. See further JE s.v. Torah] cf. s.vv. Law, civil] and Law, codification of] Goodenough, Light, 72-8; cf. S. Belkin, Philo and the Oral Law (1940), 36-7. TCOV aypa9cov eOcov. In the course of centuries a body of Jewish law grew up by the side of the Torah, consisting in part of elabora tion and elucidation of the Torah and in part of additional regula tions supplementing it. It was sometimes known as halakah, "custom", which £8o<; translates. In Philo's day this law was still unwritten and was transmitted orally. It was later committed to writing in the Mishnah (codified by Rabbi Judah I c. A . D . 200), the Tosefta, and the halakic Midrashim. A familiar example of oral law occurs in St. Mark vii, 1-13. See further JE s.vv. Oral Law] Mishnah] and Tosefta] G. F. Moore, Judaism I (1927), 251-62. The unwritten oral law of the Jews was fundamentally different from the unwritten law of nature underlying man-made codes, which was a subject of Greek philosophical discussion and is perhaps best known from Antigone's speech about aypa7rTa xao^aXyj Gecov v6{xi[xa (Sophocles Ant. 450 ft.). Scholars disagree as to whether Philo's many references to the "unwritten law" (<£YP«?O<; v6[xo<;) concern the Jewish oral law or the law of nature in the Greek sense. B. Ritter (Philo und die Halacha (1879), 14-5) assumes without argument that they concern the oral law; cf. H. L. Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrash (1921), 9. Goodenough, on the other hand, accepts the conclusions of I. Heinemann ("Die Lehre vom ungeschriebenen Gesetz im jtidischen Schrifttum" (in Hebrew Union College Annual iv (1927), 149-71), 152-9; cf. Philons griechische und jiidische Bildung (1932), 10, 528-9) that Philo does not recognize any development in Judaism between Moses and his own day, and that his references to the unwritten law are not references to the oral law of Pharisaic Judaism. He holds that for Philo the unwritten law is the divine law behind the Torah (Light, 78 ff.). Cf. S. Belkin, op. cit., 29. R. Hirzel holds a similar view (in Abhandlungen der
COMMENTARY ON §§ I I 5 - I 1 6
209
konigl. sdchsischen Gesellschaft der Wissensch., phil.-hist. Kl. xx, i (1903), 16-8). Wolfson, however, follows others who maintain that, although Philo often uses "unwritten law" in the Greek sense to denote the fundamental law underlying the Mosaic code, in some places in his works there are references to the oral law (I, 188-94; cf. II, 180-1); e.g., inSpec. iv, 149-50 S6T) in which children have been reared and with which they have lived from the cradle (similar phraseology to Leg. 115) are described as unwritten laws. (His arguments are criticized by S. Sandmel in Hebrew Union College Annual x x v (1954), 225-8.) Leg. 115, although not cited by Wolfson, seems to contain a reference to the oral law. eva vofxt^etv T6V 7raT6pa xal 7roty)T7jv TOO X6CT(JLOU 8e6v. Based on the Shema, the confession of Jewish faith. This consisted of the passages Deut. vi, 4-9, xi, 13-21, and Numbers xv, 37-41. The title, meaning "Hear", is the initial word of Deut. vi, 4, which epitomizes Jewish monotheism. The Shema was repeated morning and evening b y all Jews, and was included in the liturgy. For discussion see J. H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs V, Deuteronomy (1936), 100I I I ; cf. JE s.v. Shema. Trouble was caused for the Jews not so much by the fact that they were monotheists as by the nature of their monotheism; for whereas pagan monotheism often took the form of syncretism, which regarded all gods as manifestations of a single god, Jewish monotheism consisted of flatly denying that any gods but their own existed at all—a claim both arrogant and discourteous in gentile eyes. 116 TOV Tucpov. This could mean his "delusion", i.e., that he was divine, as well as his "vanity". TYJV 7tpoax6v7)aiv. An act of obeisance, consisting basically of prostrating oneself on the ground. (The action of kissing the hand towards an object of worship (Apuleius Met. iv, 28; Pliny NH xxviii, 25) may have been a later form of proskynesis.) Proskynesis was performed before the Assyrian kings, in whose documents there are references to vassals prostrating themselves and kissing the king's feet (for examples see J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament (1955), 275 ff.). The practice was followed in the court of the Achaemenids also. The action was merely a piece of court ceremonial, a sign of respect offered b y an inferior to a superior (cf. Herodotus i, 134, 1), and did not imply worship. It is now generally accepted that the Persian kings were not regarded as divine. T o the Greeks, however, prostration was 2
210
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
primarily an act of worship offered to a god, although it could also occasionally be an act of supplication addressed to a man (Sophocles OT 327). When Alexander the Great attempted to introduce proskynesis at Bactra in 327, he was apparently thereby asking the Greeks and Macedonians for recognition as a god. Their opposition caused him to drop the project. For fuller discussion see W. W . Tarn, Alexander the Great (1948) 1,77-80, and II, 359-69, where references to earlier works are given; J. P. V. D. Balsdon, "The 'Divinity' of Alexander" (in Historia i (1950), 363-88), 371-82. The introduction of proskynesis into Rome is attributed to L. Vitellius on his return from his province of Syria (S. Vitellius 2, 5). The fact that it was an established feature of court ceremonial by January, 40, when during Gaius' absence in the Nortii it was per formed by the senators before his empty throne (Dio lix, 24, 4) would seem to date Vitellius' recall to 39. In that case Dio misplaces his introduction of the practice in narrating it under the year 40 (lix, 27, 5). (Willrich is misled by the order of Philo's narrative in the Legatio into arguing (467-8) that Vitellius had returned to Rome by the middle of 38.) The ceremony of proskynesis was frequently observed during 39 and 40: see, e.g., Dio lix, 19, 5; 25, 8 (Patricius' version); 27, 1; Sen. De Bene/, ii, 12, 1. (The actual term proskynesis is not used in all these passages, but the act of prostra tion is clearly indicated.) Leg. 352 apparently shows even the Jews complying. Proskynesis was forbidden by Claudius soon after his accession, in the course of his reversal of Gaius' acts (Dio lx, 5. 4). M. P. Charlesworth argues that for a Roman proskynesis "would be not an act of worship but a piece of servile flattery", and that this was its primary character in the first two centuries of the prin cipate, even though under an Emperor claiming divinity "abase ment and worship tend to be mingled"; Philo's phrases TO p<xp(lapixov iQoq and TO eoyeve; (Mangey's emendation of the o-uyyevl; of the MSS) TYJS '-Pcofxa'txyjc; eXeuOepia^ 7rapaxapaTTovTe^ and Seneca's homo natus in hoc, ut mores liberae civitatis Persica servitute mutaret.... (De Bene/, ii, 12, 2) reveal the contemporary view of the practice—"that kneeling to a mortal is not an act worthy of a free man, though it is characteristic of Persia where men are as slaves to their ruler" ("Some observations on ruler-cult especially in Rome, I I " in HThR xxviii (1935), 16-20). But this does not preclude the possi bility that Gaius himself in admitting proskynesis intended that it
COMMENTARY ON §§ I I 6 - I I 7
211
should connote worship; for its introduction was clearly connected with his assumption of divinity. 117 exouatou; 0avaTou;. Cf. 215. Jews had undergone death rather than break their Law during Antiochus Epiphanes' attempt to stamp Judaism out: see A J xii, 253-6, 270-5; I Mace, i, 60-3; ii, 29-38; II Mace, vi-vii. The story told in this last passage of the martyrdom of nine Jews who refused to break the Law is elaborated in IV Maccabees. M. Hadas argues that the latter work was com posed during Gams' principate, when his attack on the Temple made the question of the Jews' attitude to religious persecution again a live issue (The Third and Fourth Books of Maccabees (1953), 95-9); and S. Zeitlin assigns II Maccabees to the same period (The Second Book of Maccabees (1954), 27-30). The same story is told in B. T. Gittin 57b and in the Midrash Rabbah on Lament, i, 16, § 50, but with a Roman Emperor as the oppressor. The Jewish youths who were instigated to remove the golden eagle set up by Herod over the Temple-gate in detiance of the law against graven images had been executed (AJ xvii, 149-67; BJ i, 648-55). Only a few years before the Alexandrian riots, many of the Jews who protested against Pilate's use of money from the Temple treasury to pay for an aqueduct had been massacred (AJ xviii, 60-2; BJ ii, 175-7). Pilate's importation of iconic military standards into Jerusalem had been met by the cry that the Jews would rather die than see the Law transgressed (AJ xviii, 55-9; BJ ii, 169-74), and the same thing was to occur later when Gaius proposed to set up his statue in the Temple (Leg. 192, 208-9, 4 » 9"38, 308, 369; AJ xviii, 264, 271), although in neither of these cases was any actual blood shed. 22
22
A century later, when serious risings had depleted Jewish num bers, the attitude was different. In the latter part of Hadrian's reign a universal prohibition of circumcision was issued, from which the Jews were not exempted until some time in Pius' reign; the penalty was the same as that prescribed for castration, namely exe cution as a murderer (Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Vita Hadr. 1 4 , 2 ; Digest X L V I I I , viii, n , 1; viii, 4, 2). Jewish tradition knows of a further prohibition of the ordination of rabbis on pain of death and of the observance of the Torah as a whole (B.T. Sanhedrin 14a; Baba Bathra 60b). This tradition is taken as historical and inter preted as a punishment for the revolt of 132-5 by, e.g., H. H. Gratz, Geschichte der Juden I V (1886), 169 ff., 463-5. Some more 2
212
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
recent scholars, however, regard the tradition as merely an ex aggeration of the prohibition of circumcision; e.g., M. Simon, Verus Israel (1948), 127; cf. Schurer I, 702. Whichever interpreta tion is right, it is significant that a group of rabbis of the time decided that, if martyrdom were the only alternative, all the Jewish laws might be broken except those against idolatry, incest, and murder (B.T. Sank. 74a; J.T. Shebiith 4, 2, Schwab II, 356). There are, however, records of martyrdoms suffered by some rabbis for the continued practice of their religious customs (B.T. Abodah Zarah I7b-i8a; Berakoth 61b; Sanh. 14a). * iOavaatav. A belief in survival after death was a part of Hebrew religion from the earliest times, although ideas about the precise nature of the afterlife were vague and indefinite. From this pri mitive doctrine there had grown up among the Jews by the imme diately pre-Christian period, mainly as a development within Judaism but partly through external influences such as Greek philosophy, a definite concept of a personal afterlife and of reward and punishment after death. Among Palestinian Jews this generally took the form of belief in some sort of resurrection rather than belief in the immortality of the soul. The latter belief, deriving largely from Greek thought, found more favour among Hellenistic Jews such as Philo. Scriptural and other passages on the afterlife are collected and discussed by J. Ross, The Jewish Conception of Immortality and the Life Hereafter (1948). For further discussion see E. F. Sutcliffe, The Old Testament and the Future Life (1946); also, e.g., R. H. Charles, Religious Development between the Old and the New Testaments' (1914), 96-133; A. Lods, Israel, translated b y S. H. Hooke (1932), 218-30; T. Walker, Hebrew Religion between the Testaments (1937), 127-44; JE s.vv. Immortality, and Resurrection. For Philo's philosophical approach to the question of immortality see Wolfson, I, 395-413PpaxiiTocTov. According to Jewish belief, the Torah as an entity was older than the world and was eternal. Not merely its contents but its very letters were believed to have come directly from God. A special class of scholars devoted their lives to the preservation of the text. Its letters were counted, and it was believed that no single one would perish. Cf. St. Matt, v, 18; St. Luke xvi, 17. See further JE s.v. Torah. 118 dv8pto7cou . . . . 8eo7rXaaTYJcTai. The distinction drawn in Jewish thought between created man and the utterly transcendent Creator
COMMENTARY ON §§ I I 7 - I 2 O
213
God was an incomparably greater one than that between man and the gods in Greek and Roman thought. Among the Greeks, who saw the gods as more powerful but sometimes morally inferior copies of man, the line of demarcation was frequently blurred, and their idea that a man's virtues or his services to his fellows might carry him over the border and make him a god spread to the Roman world. exptvev. I.e., the Jewish nation. Mangey suggested altering to xptvto.
zlq (Sv8pto7rov 0eov [xeTajJaXXetv. In Greek legends gods never became men; they merely masqueraded on the earth as men, taking the appearance of men but foregoing none of their powers in the process. TOU; (ilpecu 7racu. While the Jews believed that they had a special claim on the mercy and providence of God, they also conceived of Him, from very early times, as the Lord of the whole world. 119 1 7 7r6Xe[xo;. Even if Philo somewhat exaggerates the Jews' sufferings at the Greeks' hands, the situation in Alexandria in 38 was certainly serious. In his Letter Claudius speaks of TYJ; npbt; 'IouSatouc; TapaxYJS xal aTaaecoc;, [xaXXov 8', et xp*) *6 aXyj0e^ ebretv, TOO
7coXe[xou . . . . (73-4), probably with reference to the events of 38 as well as to the more recent outbreak of violence which occurred at the time of his accession (AJ xix, 278-9); cf. Bell, / . and C , 18. v6(xov y a p yjyotifievoc; eauTov. Cf. Louis X I V , "L'etat, c'est moi". TpercovTo*;. The sense is here clearly intransitive; hence Wendland's conjecture Tpa7revTo<;. etc; &ea7r6T7jv. Augustus and Tiberius would not allow the terms dominus and 8e
214
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
of races within the Greek citizen-body. The Alexandrian mob was notorious for its versatility in insulting the Roman prefects (Sen. Dial, xii, 19, 6 loquax et in contnmelias praefectornm ingeniosa provincia)\ an example is given in Fl. 136-9 (cf. Introduction, p. 14). C. Petronius, one of the earliest prefects, was even subjected to physical violence (Strabo xvii, 1, 53, 819 fin.). Emperors also were occasionally abused, e.g., Vespasian in 70 (Dio lxv (lxvi), 8, 2-7) and Caracalla after his murder of Geta (Dio lxxviii (lxxvii), 22, 1 ; Herodian iv, 9, 2-3). According to the "Letter of Hadrian to Servianus", which stigmatizes the Alexandrians as genus hominum seditiosissimum, vanissimum, iniuriosissimum, rude remarks were made about Hadrian's "son, Verus", and his favourite Antinous (Scriptores Historiae Augustae, VitaeFirmi, etc. 8). B. W. Henderson argues (The Life and Principate of the Emperor Hadrian (1923), 228-31) that the letter is certainly a forgery; but its subjectmatter may contain some truth. On the general frivolity and disorderliness of the Alexandrians see Dio Chrysostom xxxii, passim. With the description of the Greek attack on the Jews in 120-37 °f- the longer account in Fl. 41-96. Philo here plunges in medias res, omitting all the local events which were the prelude to the attack (see Introduction, pp. 14-19), in order to link it as closely as he dares with Gaius' claim to divinity. The date of the attack, not indicated in this treatise, is fixed as August, 38 by the following three statements elsewhere: Agrippa I stayed in Rome until the second year of Gaius' principate (AJ xviii, 238); he sailed for Alexandria, where his arrival precipitated the outbreak of violence, at the tiirte of the etesian winds (Fl. 26; cf. Box's note ad loc. and the note on Leg. 250 7reXayet); and the riots were in progress on Gaius' birthday, 31st August (Fl. 83). £7re8eTo yjfilv.
TO TU96{xevov ex (xaxpcov /povtov (uaoc;. The hatred of the Greeks was actually directed against Rome as much as against the Jews; see Introduction, p. n . 121 yuvat^l x a t Texvotc;. Women precede children also in 124, 230, 308, Spec, iii, 159, and Fl. 62, where see Box's note. xevac;. The eviction of the Jews from their homes is picked up in 124. The successive stages of this part of the attack are given more clearly in Fl. 55-7 than in Leg. 121-7: a ghetto was instituted in one section of Alexandria and Jews living in other parts of the city were evicted from their homes and driven into it; then, since the ghetto was too small to house the whole Jewish community,
COMMENTARY ON §§ 120-124
215
some took refuge outside the city; meanwhile the empty premises of evicted Jews were looted. In Fl. 94 the number of houses from which the Jews were evicted is given as "over four hundred". 122 <JX6TOC;. Reiter accepts the reading of A against the CTXOTOV of the other MSS, since the word is a third declension neuter elsewhere in Philo, e.g., in Fl. 167 and Leg. 326 (Prolegomena, lxvii). exXeTCTov. Not only Jewish houses but also Jewish shops, which were closed for the period of mourning for Gaius* sister Drusilla, who had died in June, were broken into and plundered (Fl. 56). 123 7revT)Ta<; ex 7rXouatcov. Cf. Fl. 57, where Philo explains that the poverty of the Jews was due not only to the losses which they sustained as a result of the looting, but also to their inability to carry on their normal means of livelihood. See, however, the note on 128 Sta cnravtv TCOV avayxatcov.
urcatOpot. Evicted Jews for whom there was no accommodation in the ghetto. Cf. 127. nepityv&oi. Literally "shivering". 124 ouveXaaavrec;. "The sense 'joined in driving' is not recognized * in lexica for classical Greek" (Box, note on Fl. 37). Toowrac; (xuptaSac;. An exaggeration, if the houses from which Jews were evicted numbered only "over four hundred" (Fl. 94)? For some discussion of the size of the Jewish community in Alexan dria see Box, note on Fl. 43 jxuptaScov exaT6v. The proportion of Jews to Greeks there in Philo's day can be deduced more easily than their actual numbers. The city was divided into five districts, known by the first five letters of the Greek alphabet (Ps.-Callisthenes 1, 32; ed. C. Miiller (1846), p . 34). One of these, apparently "Delta" (BJ ii, 495), was assigned to the early Jewish settlers either by Alexander (In Ap. ii, 35) or by the f Ptolemies f (BJ ii, 488). By Philo's time the Jewish community had increased so considerably that a second district also was largely populated by Jews and known as "Jewish", while other Jews were scattered throughout the re maining three districts (Fl. 5 5 ; cf. ei; attache; TTJC; 7r6Xeto<;, below, and the reference in 132 to synagogues in every section of the city). The Jews probably comprised between thirty and forty per cent of the city's total population. [xotpav eXaxtciTYjv. This is explained in Fl. 55. The Jews were evicted from four of the five districts of the city and hounded into "a tiny part of one", most probably the original Jewish district. The district which had been assigned to them as a privilege but to
2l6
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
which they had not hitherto been confined, thus became a compul sory ghetto, the first known to us in the Roman world, and the Jews were restricted to it as a disability. In the Legatio mob violence alone is made responsible for this. But according to FL 53-4, the institution of the ghetto was preceded by a proclamation in which Flaccus, with intent to injure the Jews, "called them b y the un pleasant name of aliens and foreigners" (£evou<; xal e7njXu8a<; yjfxa^ a7T£xdXei). In other words, he said in effect that the Jews had no right of domicile in Alexandria save in the district originally allotted to them. This gave a semblance of legality to its conversion into a ghetto and to the insistence that the Jews must reside nowhere else. Cf. Introduction, pp. 20-21. The locations of the five districts of Alexandria are not all known, but the original Jewish one was near the palace, on a harbourless coastline (In Ap. ii, 33-6), i.e., east of the promontory of Lochias, which formed the eastern boundary of the Great Harbour and on which stood the palace (Strabo xvii, 1, 9, 794); see further the bibliography given by Box, note on FL 55. toYJOrjcrav. This insinuation is not found in the In Flaccum, which contains no reference to the epidemic described in Leg. 125-6. 125 aipoc;. In this and the following section Philo adopts the view commonly held in the ancient world that some natural phenomena, notably the stars and the winds, were responsible for diseases. £toTixov. Sc. 7cveSfjLa. Philo here seems to be using a physiological term of Erasistratus, a physician who worked in Alexandria during the first half of the third century B.C., and who founded a school which flourished until the second century A . D . Developing the idea of Empedocles that the 7rveu(xa (a word used for both "air" and "breath") was distributed through the body by the blood-vessels, Erasistratus supposed that "blood and two kinds of pneuma are the sources of nourishment and movement. Blood is carried by the veins, which take it to the heart. Air is taken in by the lungs and passing thence to the heart becomes changed into the first pneuma, the vital spirit (nveZ[LOL £omx6v), which is sent to the parts of the body by the arteries. Carried by these to the brain, it is there changed to the second pneuma, the animal spirit (7rveG{xa <J>i>xtx6v), and distributed to the parts through the nerves, which are hollow" (A. J. D. Porteous in The Oxford Classical Dictionary s.v. Anatomy and Physiology 8). For fuller study of Erasistratus see J. F. Dobson, "Erasistratus" in Proc. Royal Soc. Medicine xx, 2 (1927), 825-32;
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 2 4 - I 2 7
217
for the similar Galenic physiological scheme see C. Singer and C. Rabin, A Prelude to Modern Science (1946), xxxvii-xl; for the general concept of 7tve0[xa in physiology see M. Wellman, "Die pneumatische Schule" in Philologische Untersuchungen xiv (1895), 131 ff. a7ro(3aX6vToc;. Colson reverts to this, the reading of Mangey and other editors, although it lacks MS authority. Reiter gives the reading of the majority of the MSS, O7CO(3OX6VTOC;, which seems to have little meaning here. 7tup l7ri(p£pcov 7rupL The proverb 7rup 7rupl (or em T^pt)
v
218
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
canal flowed through the eastern part of the city, and the neigh bouring country was divided b y a network of smaller canals (Alexandrea ad Aegyptum, 78-80). Was the epidemic perhaps caused by a contaminated water-supply? 7rpoxaTeXY)
xaipicoTocTa.
Reiter emends the xupitoxara of the MSS (A xuptco-
Tepa) to xatpttoTaxa on the analogy of the parallel passage in Fl. 66 and TOV xatpuoTaTov TOTCOV in Leg. 31. In FL 66 Philo drags out
the Jews' agonies with the phrase oux e06i><;. 128
TCOV dtpyetv x a l o~xoXa£eiv elco06Tcov. These people were very prob
ably the same as the "touts and bawlers" who had created distur bances in the city some years previously (FL 136-9). e a x a T i a s p p a x u TI fx6pc;.
The ghetto probably lay in the eastern
coastal part of the city (note on 124 jioipav e X a x t a f q v ) . 81a a7taviv TCOV avayxatcov. The privations of the Jews and the expeditions of some of them to beg or buy provisions are recounted more fully in FL 62-4. But, as Box points out (note ad loc.), the fact that some Jews were still in a position to buy shows that Philo exaggerates in trying to give the impression (123) that they were all reduced to destitution. T£<; SiaSiiffeic;. Mangey's emendation of the SiaXuo-eu; of most MSS (A SteXeuaeic;) is accepted b y Colson, as it was also by editors before Reiter. Reiter accepts SiaXuaeic;, but this word seems to make little sense in the context. 129
TCOV xaTayofxevcov 'IouSatcov.
These attacks on Jews using
the
harbours of Alexandria are not mentioned in the In Flaccum (although B o x apparently sees an allusion to them in FL 69). The justification was presumably that the harbours lay outside the ghetto. It is not made clear whether the victims were Alexan drian Jewish merchants returning home or Jewish merchants from elsewhere calling at Alexandria. Caesar speaks of the Alexandrians
219
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 2 7 - I 3 2
habitually plundering ships which because of errors of navigation or bad weather were forced to put in at Alexandria (BC iii, 112). On the trade which passed through that port see Dio Chrysostom xxxii, 36; Charlesworth, Trade-routes, 27-34; E. H.Warmington, TheCommerce between the Roman Empire and India (1928), references passim. 130 TOI<; Se ev (ii<jY) Tfj 7r6Xet xaTaxato[xevot<;. From their position in the narrative sections 130-1 seem to refer to the massacring of Jews who returned to Alexandria from the ghetto or from outside the city in search of food (128). But the parallel account of the lynching of Jews in Fl. 65-71, although also placed after the reference to the Jews' expeditions in search of food, mentions the burning alive of whole families, including small children (68). As the people who ventured back will hardly have included children, it looks as if the victims of the massacres described in the parallel passages of the two treatises included Jews who failed to take refuge in the ghetto in time (Leg.127), as well as those who later ventured out of it. 132
20
Se e7riTp67rou TYJ; X ^ P ^ - The terms emTpo7tos, emTpo7te\ico, and emTpo7ri) are used by Philo as Roman constitutional terms in several senses: in a general sense to denote governor, without reference to any specific office (245, 3 1 1 ; cf. Som. ii, 43 for a similar use in a non-Roman context); and in special senses to denote legate (231, 333), procurator (299, 306, 351; the commonest meaning of the word outside Philo), and the prefect of Egypt (here and in Fl. 2, 43, 74, 163). (A totally different usage occurs in Leg. 26.) The commonest Greek term for prefect is ercapxos. See further Magie, De Vocabulis, 25-8, 80, 99-113, 122-8. The official title of the gover nor of Egypt was praefectus Alexandreae et Aegypti (r\ x ^ P i techni cally used to distinguish the rest of Egypt from TO &TTU, Alexandria). Cf. Box, note on Fl. 2 TYJ? 'AXe£avSpeia$ xal TYJ? x<*>P ^ bnfopoTzoc,. The prefect at the time of the riots was A. Avillius Flaccus (Fl. passim; Box cites the evidence for his full name in a note on Fl. 1), never mentioned by name in the Legatio, who had been appointed late in 32 or early in 33 (A. Stein, Die Prafekten von Aegypten in der rdmischen Kaiserzeit (1950), 26-7; Box, note on Fl. 8). He was arrested in October, 38, taken to Rome for trial, and exiled (Fl. 107 ff.). Macro had been nominated as his successor early in that year (note on 59 00rcoXXaic;CaTepov Yjfxipau;), but had been executed before taking up office. [x6vo; eSuvaTo (3ouXY)0els &P« |xia. Philo here minimizes the serTOU
0
a
A
Legatio ad Gaium
15
220
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
iousness of the riots in order to emphasize Flaccus' culpability in not attempting to put them down. But the Greek mob was clearly out of control at this stage, and the restoration of order would have required the intervention of the Roman troops stationed in Egypt, at that time two legions and a number of auxiliaries. Legio X X I I Deiotariana had been stationed at Nicopolis since early in the Roman occupation; legio III Cyrenaica was moved from some where in Y] x*>pa to join it early in the principate, but it is not certain whether before or after 38. (Nicopolis, two or three miles east of Alexandria (BJ iv, 659; Strabo xvii, 1, 10, 795), counted as little more than a suburb of the city, and the army is sometimes said to be quartered in the city itself: e.g., Strabo xvii, 1, 12, 797; BJ ii, 387,494.) See further Kubitschek in P.-W. s.v. Legio, coll. 1506-7, 1791-3; H. M. D. Parker, The Roman Legions (1928), 194-6; Lesquier, L'Armee Romaine d'Egypte (1918), 58-60, 127-8; Box, notes on Fl. 5 TOCI^ • • • • Suvajxeatv and i n crrpaTapxou. 7rpo(ntotou{iivou. In the In Flaccum Philo goes further than this: instead of making the prefect merely turn a blind eye to the Greeks' attacks on the Jews, he tries to make him directly responsible for the desecration of the synagogues (note on 134 elx6va<; yip Iv a7caaat^ jiiv tSpuovTO Tatou). avaiaxuvTous x a l GpaauTepa^ e7ti(3ouXas. Here Philo makes the Greek attack on the synagogue which he is about to describe follow that on the Jews' persons, property, and civic rights, whereas in the In Flaccum the order is reversed. Here he implies that the attack on the Jews' religion was a more serious matter than the attack on their civic rights (which it may well have been in Jewish eyes, if not in Greek), whereas there is no such suggestion in the other treatise. For discussion of these differences between the two ac counts see Additional Note II, pp. 45-7. xa8' exacrrov Tfx9j(xa. I.e., there were synagogues in all the five sections of Alexandria, and not only in the two Jewish ones, as Jews had previously lived in all parts of the city (Fl. 55). eSev8poT6(XY]aav, x a x l a x a ^ a v , IvercpYjaav. In the In Flaccum the demolition and burning of some of the synagogues are not des cribed, although there may be a reference to those actions in the phrase TYJV xaraXuatv TCOV 7rpoaeuxcov (45); in that treatise Philo mentions only the placing of statues in the synagogues (41), the matter which is dealt with more fully in Leg. 134. 133 Tt|xa<;. In Fl. 48-9 Philo explains that, as the Jews had no
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 3 2 - I 3 3
221
temple-precincts in which they could express gratitude to bene factors, they showed their loyalty to the house of Augustus in the synagogues. Expressions of gratitude to benefactors could take two forms, ( i ) A synagogue or part of one could be dedicated to a benefactor. Several examples of such dedications on behalf of (vnlp) members of the Ptolemaic dynasty are known, although none is known for the Julio-Claudians: at Athribis a synagogue and later an exedra (possibly a hall, but more probably a bench, perhaps that of the leader of the community, in the opinion of E. R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period II (1953), 85) added to it (CIJ 1443-4); at Xenephyris the gateway or vestibule of a syna gogue (CIJ 1441); and synagogues at Nitriae (CIJ 1442), Shedia (CIJ 1440), and Alexandria (CIJ 1432). Cf. the observations of A. N. Modona in Aegyptus ii (1921), 264-70. Much later a synagogue was dedicated in Palestine for the safety of Septimius Severus and his family (CIJ 972). The bibliographies of these inscriptions are given in CI J, ad locc. (2) Inscriptions or other objects in honour of benefactors could be placed in synagogues. In the second century B.C. a golden crown was set up in honour of a Jewish official at Leontopolis (although in this case the dedication was perhaps made in the temple of Onias and not in a synagogue; see T. Reinach in REJ xl (1900), 50-4). The Jews of Berenice in Cyrenaica honoured a Roman commander, M. Titius Sextus, with crowns (CIG 5361; cf. Juster I, 437, n. 2). A fragmentary inscription of A . D . 3/4 from Alexandria may record some Jewish dedication connected with a synagogue (IGRR I, 1077). Cf. BJ vii, 44 (Antioch) and the general reference to dedications b y the Diaspora in Leg. 280. When the Jews of Alexandria voted to Gaius at his accession all the Tijiat allowed b y their Law (Fl. 97), dedications in some synagogues were probably included. In admitting honorific inscriptions and emblems into the syna gogues the Jews of the Diaspora showed an understandably more liberal attitude than did those of Jerusalem, where Pilate's intro duction even of aniconic votive shields aroused strong protest (299-305). TCOV &XXcov co9siXov iv^xew. 'AvI/co is used with the genitive in the sense of "cease from" also in Sophocles OT 173, Appian Pun. 75, and Plutarch Alex. 33, 7. yXaoq &XexTov. See the note on 115 jx6vou? y*P 'IouSoctous o r a PX£7C£TO.
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
222
134
On this section see Additional Note II, pp. 45-7. I.e., flattery not offered to previous rulers
xaivo-cipotK; xoXaxeiai<;. (I38ff.)
;
7rX7)aiov otxetv 'IouSatou^. In areas thickly populated with Jews, the two "Jewish" sections of the city, any attempt at the burning or demolition of the synagogues would have been resisted. Attacks of this kind must therefore have occurred in the other parts of Alexandria. eix6va^ y*P ^ iwaaat^ (xev ISpuovTo Tatou. I.e., the Greeks turned the synagogues into shrines of the imperial cult. Colson queries Box's translation of Fl. 41, which implies that the Greeks asked Flaccus' permission to place portraits of Gaius in them (Loeb Philo I X , note ad loc.). But in Fl. 44 and 53 some direct responsibility for the sacrilege is laid on Flaccus, when he is accused of having been hand-in-glove with the Greeks and of having "seized the synagogues" himself. These statements could, however, be merely exaggerations from his failure to stop the Greek attack. In Leg. 346 the blame is laid on Gaius, although in a different way. rf) (xeyidTT) xal 7cepi<jr](xoTaTYj. This synagogue is likely to have stood in one of the Jewish districts of Alexandria. It is described in the Babylonian Talmud: "He who has not seen the double colonnade of Alexandria in Egypt has never seen the glory of Israel. It was said that it was like a huge basilica, one colonnade within the other, and it sometimes held twice the number of people that went forth from Egypt" (i.e., in the Exodus; they are said to have num bered sixty thousand). "There were in it seventy-one chairs of gold, corresponding to the seventy-one members of the Great Sanhedrin, not one of them containing less than twenty-one talents of gold, and a wooden platform in the middle upon which the attendant of the synagogue stood with a scarf in his hand. When the time came to answer "Amen", he waved his scarf and all the congregation duly responded" (Sukkah 51b). There is a similar account in the Jerusa lem Talmud (Sukk. v, 1, Schwab V I , 42). Both accounts say that the worshippers sat in groups according to their trades. Goodenough, in his discussion of the synagogue (op. cit. II, 85-6), cites S. Krauss (Synagogale Altertiimer (1922), 261-3) f ° the suggestion that it was therefore not primarily a synagogue, but rather "a great merchants' hall which the Jews used also as a courthouse and for worship". He goes on to suggest tentatively that this building may have been the prototype of the basilical synagogues found 7roXXou? xal a0p6oo;
v
r
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 3 4 - I 3 6
223
elsewhere. Transliterations of Greek architectural terms—PaaiXtxYj, a r o a , prjjxa, and xa8£8pa—are used in the Talmudic descriptions. The Jerusalem Talmud adds (I.e.) that the synagogue was destroyed b y "Trajan"—*'.*., during the suppression of the Jewish revolt in N. Africa and elsewhere in the last years of that Emperor's principate. Since Trajan, however, did not take part personally in the campaigns in N. Africa, it is probable that his name has been substituted for that of Marcius Turbo, whom the Emperor sent to Egypt to suppress the rebellion (Eus. HE iv, 2). The Jewish legend which immediately follows and which is found also in the Midrash Rabbah
(on Lament,
i, 16, § 45; iv, 19, § 22; Esther
r.,
proem 3) sounds like a garbled version of Turbo's campaigns there. It is discussed b y the present writer in an article "Palestine c. A. D . 1 1 5 - 1 1 8 " f in Historia xi (1962), 500-io.t 135
T O O Yupvacioo. Strabo describes the gymnasium as the most beautiful of the many beautiful buildings in Alexandria; it was of considerable size, having porticoes over a stade long, and the main street which ran straight through the city from east to west passed it (xvii, 1, 10, 795). H. S. Jones assigns to it a position fairly near to the Jewish district (plan of Alexandria in Loeb Strabo V I I I ) . It was the centre for the l9Y)peia, and the phrase ot inb TOO yujivaatou denoted the select class of Alexandrian citizens who had undergone ephebic training (Introduction, p. 8, n. 6). As one of the social centres of Alexandria, the gymnasium had been the scene of Isido res' demonstration against Flaccus (Fl. 136-9) and of the Greek mob's insults to Agrippa I (Fl. 34-9). T9J<; apxalac; KXeo7rdtTpa<;. Cleopatra III, who was regent of Egypt from the death of her husband and uncle, Ptolemy V I I Euergetes II (Physcon), in 116 until her own death c. 101; for her rule seeE. R. Bevan, A
History
of Egypt
under
the Ptolemaic
Dynasty
(1927)
326-31. Among her children b y Physcon was Ptolemy VIII Soter II (Lathyrus), whose offspring (by a concubine) included Ptolemy X I (Auletes) and Cleopatra VI (Tryphaena). These two were the parents of Cleopatra V I I , the famous last queen of Egypt. A gen ealogical table is given in CAH I X . 136 xaTYjyoptav. We have no information beyond the indication given here that the Greeks brought trouble upon themselves b y their misguided zeal in re-dedicating an old offering in Gaius' honour instead of having a new one made. The point of this section seems to be that the use of a second-hand statue was in itself regarded as
224
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
an insult, and the fact that it had originally been set up in honour of a woman made matters worse. 137 lx 7roXXou TOU rapiovTos. Colson says that this is a favourite ex pression of Philo's for "equalling with plenty to spare", and that he often uses it to "intensify an action or create a superlative" (notes on CorU. 63 and Fl. 126, Loeb Philo I X ) . Te|A£v>). Goodenough infers from the use here of TIJXCVOS, a word describing an enclosed grove or open court, as a synonym for 7rpocrei>x*) that the majority of the synagogues of Alexandria were courtlike structures rather than basilicas (op. cit. II, 87). oux Svexa TIJJLYJS TYJC eU Ixetvov.
Cf. Fl. 42, where the Greeks are
said to have used the Emperor's name "as a screen" for the dese cration of the synagogues. Philo is probably right in thinking that the Greeks, who resented Roman rule (see Introduction, pp. n - 1 2 ) , felt no genuine desire to honour Gaius, but were offering him specious flattery merely as a means of insulting the Jews. Cf. Additional Note II, pp. 45-7. At the end of this section Philo drifts away from the subject of the Alexandrian riots and does not return to it. In this treatise he relates only those sufferings of the Jews for which the Greek mob was responsible. He makes no mention at all of the other sufferings which in the In Flaccum he attributes to the initiative of the prefect whom that work is designed to attack—the arrest and torturing of members of the Jewish yepoualoc, the spectacle of the torturing and execution of other Jews provided for the entertainment of the Greeks on Gaius' birthday, and the unsuccessful search for weapons in Jewish homes (Fl. 73-96). See further Introduction, pp. 21-2. 138
8£xot TCOU . . . . yevo|i£vtov. The Lagid dynasty (the Ptolemies) ruled Egypt from 304, when the Macedonian satrap of Egypt de clared himself king as Ptolemy I Soter, until the fall of the country to Rome in 30 B.C. Eleven Ptolemies reigned in their own right from 304 until the death of Auletes in 51 (or twelve, if the rule of Ptolemy Neds Philopator for a few months in 144 is counted). The last three Ptolemies, two of them brothers of Cleopatra V I I , the last queen, and the third her son Caesarion, were all children who died at the ages of fifteen to seventeen, and were at various times joint-rulers with Cleopatra, generally under orders from Rome. For a con venient account of the dynasty see Bevan, op. cit. Jewish religious liberty was apparently protected by the Ptolemies: the dedication of synagogues to them implies that they were regarded as bene-
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 3 6 - I 3 9
225
factors (note on 133 Ttjxac;), and a Ptolemy Euergetes granted the right of asylum to a synagogue (CIJ 1449). avaOeatv e7rotYjcravro. Philo's argument in 138-52 is that if the Greeks had sincerely believed that respect for their rulers, whether Ptolemies or Emperors, required them to dedicate statues in their honour in the synagogues, they would have made such dedications before A . D . 38, even in the face of Jewish opposition. The postponement of this demonstration of loyalty until A . D . 38 suggested that its occurrence then was due to ulterior motives. The forcing of distasteful dedications to rulers on the synagogues by the gentiles would have been a totally different matter from the voluntary dedication there b y Jews of honorific emblems compatible with their Law (133). 8eou<;. Ruler-cult in the form of the worship of the living king and queen was established in Egypt by Ptolemy II, who associated it with the worship of Alexander and of his predecessor, Ptolemy I (see Theocritus xvii). For discussion see W. S. Ferguson in CAH VII, 13 ff., especially 17, and Bevan, op. cit. 127-31. 139 In this section and in 163, inaccurately and no doubt with intent to insult and not out of ignorance, Philo attributes Egyptian animal-worship to the Alexandrians, who were Greeks, not Egyp tians, and who moreover despised the depressed Egyptian peasantry. Cf. his reference in Fl. 29 to the "malicious Egyptian character" in connection with the Alexandrians; also Fl. 17 and Box's note; H. Willrich, Judaica (1900), 128-30. H. I. Bell summarizes Egyptian religion thus: "Many gods, probably because they developed out of fetish worship, were represented in the form of animals or other o b j e c t s . . . . But it was not the animals that were gods; rather the gods manifested themselves, or were embodied, in animal form, and from an early period it became usual to represent such deities as human beings with animal h e a d s . . . . Contrasted with these deities are such animals as the Apis, Mnevis, or Buchis bulls which seem to have been worshipped individually as the manifestation of a particular g o d " (Cults and Creeds in Graeco-Roman Egypt (1953), 10). He quotes S. A. B. Mercer, The Religion of Ancient Egypt (1949), 229: "It was possible in ancient Egypt to interpret or understand any animal or thing, religiously, in three different ways, first, as the symbol of a deity, secondly, as the abode of a deity, and thirdly, as the actual and objective manifestation of a deity. All three, or t
226
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
any two, of these interpretations could be, and probably were, held often in a confused way b y the same person, and one inter pretation could easily pass or shade into another." The best known cult in which a dog (or jackal) figured was that of Anubis. Another deity, Upuaut (Wepwawet), worshipped in the same district as Anubis, had a jackal or wolf as his cult-animal, a fact reflected in the Greek name for the town where the cults were centred, Lycopolis. The lion, or rather lioness, appeared as various goddesses at different times and places. The crocodile-god was Sebek (Greek Suchos). The cults of the ibis and the asp are mentioned in Leg. 163. Many other animal-, fish-, and bird-gods are mentioned in Decal. 76-9 and Herodotus ii, 65-76. For modern studies of Egyptian animal-cults see J. Cernf, Ancient Egyptian Religion (1952), 19-25; Mercer, op. cit.
t
A
Handbook
of Egyptian
Religion
1907), 17 ff., 176 ff.; Die Religion
227-47 and passim;
A. Erman,
(translated b y A. S. der Aegypter
322 ff., 333 ff., 396 f.; F. Petrie, Religions
Life
Griffith,
(1934), 8 f., 152 f., in Ancient
Egypt
(1924), 9-16, 78-86. For representations of animal-gods on coins see J. Vogt, Die alexandrinischen
141
Miinzen
(1924) II, Index, 185).
21 Goodenough argues that in 141-7, under the guise of des cribing Augustus and Tiberius, Philo is giving his conception of the ideal king (Politics, 90 ff., especially 101-3). On his treatment of Tiberius as a paragon despite the expulsion of the Jews from Rome in A . D . 19 see the note on 159 EYjiavo;, fin. Augustus had presum ably merited idealization b y his protection of Jewish religious liberty (155-9. 3 H - 8 ) . atTios. On Tiberius' plans for the succession and the events which led to Gaius' accession see the notes on 23. T p t a 7rp6<; T
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 3 9 - I 4 3
227
of the Exodus, with which the numbering of the months began. The New Year, however, began with the seventh month, Tishri (October), and the regnal years of foreign kings were reckoned from that date. See Mishnah, Rosh Ha-Shanah i, i and the notes ad loc. in H. Danby's translation (1933). [Lrfik 7cupov or efjL7uupeu[ia as an emendation for onlpiHx. With this section cf. the rosy picture drawn in 8-10 of the state of the empire at Tiberius' death. In fact, in addition to the troubles in the East (note on 8), Tiberius' principate saw Germani cus' campaigns in Germany, the risings of Tacfarinas in Africa and of Julius Florus and Julius Sacrovir in Gaul, the reassertion of the independence of the Frisii, and trouble in the client kingdom of Thrace—-incidents which all involved military operations. 142
TO ybioc;. On Tiberius' ancestry see S. Tib. 1-3. rJ)v 7wci8eiav. For Tiberius' learning and powers of oratory see S. Tib. jo. He is said to have delivered a funeral oration at the age of nine (S. Tib. 6, 4), and he spent his retirement on Rhodes, 6 B.C.A . D . 2, in study (S. Tib. n , 3; 32, 2). His choice of friends revealed an interest in scholarship and science. Thrasyllus, the highly educated and serious student of astrology, was his constant com panion from their acquaintance on Rhodes until his death in 36; and the friends who accompanied him on his permanent retirement from Rome in 26 also included a celebrated jurist and other men of liberal education (T. A. iv, 58, 1). Plutarch mentions the numerous scholars whom he kept at his court (Mor. 4i9d). The philosophers' ideal king was a sage. euy>jpG><;. Tiberius lived to be seventy-eight. Philo apparently knows nothing of the alleged orgies on Capri (note on 14 r?)v 7rpo 9povt{xcoTepo<;.
{juxpoG Siatxav, fixe 2£Y) Ti(i£pto;).
Also used in 168 and 363. The translation given in L. and S. for the verb here, "ridiculed", seems inappropriate; the Alexandrian Greeks, although apt at insulting authority (note on 120 [xiyas xai myopri\ikvo$ 6^X0?), are not recorded as having ridi culed Tiberius. A meaning such as that given for the verb in other contexts, "sweep away", seems more suitable. By "overlooked and brushed aside" Philo presumably means, not that the Greeks showed active disrespect for Tiberius, but that they refrained from any attempt to force dedications in his honour on the synagogues. 143 6 Side [x£ye8o<; Ze(3a
*
228
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
on Octavian in 27 as "signifying that he was more than human" (Dio liii, 16, 8). It was his xoXoxaya9ta rather than his fjyefiovfoc auToxpotTYJc; which was responsible for this, since his powers were carefully disguised and the permanence and completeness of his control over the Roman world were at that stage not fully establish ed. But Philo, writing nearly seventy years later, is able to recognize the true nature of Augustus' constitutional settlement. 144 v9jaoi yap . . . . SoxtfxcoTarou?. A somewhat overdrawn picture of the last phase of the civil war. inb eoxarcov yrj<;. The battle of Actium was a struggle between East and West, between Romanism and Orientalism, although the focus of the latter was Egypt rather than Asia. Antony's troops included a considerable number of orientals, apart from Cleopatra's Egyptian fleet; but when Philo speaks with exaggeration of forces "from the ends of the earth", he is perhaps, like Vergil in Aen. viii, 687-8 and 705-6, reflecting the fear felt by some Romans that Cleopatra might try to raise the East and lead what W . W . Tarn (CAH X , 76) calls a "semi-religious Graeco-Asiatic crusade" against Rome. d [x-J; 81' Svoc 4v8pa. Sc. "this had been prevented" or the like. See the note on this ellipse in 58. * T6V ZePa
Cf. Cicero's use of pestis Har.
Resp.
2, 4; Phil,
in, e.g., Catil. i, 12, 30; Pro Mur.
ii, 22, 55; iii, 2, 5; x, 5, 1 1 ; and
39, 85;
xiv,
2,4.
Also the metaphorical use of Xoiji6s in Acts xxiv, 5 (discussed b y Foakes Jackson and Kirsopp Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity IV
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 4 3 - I 4 9
229
x
( 933). 298). For a discussion of Claudius* use of v6ao<; in his Letter (100) see W. Seston in Rev. d'Hist. et de Philos. Religieuses xi (1931) 284 ff. * inb
TCOV (xecnjfiPptvcov xal icocov.
Presumably a reference to
the
war with Cleopatra. 146
7reipaTixtov axa
147
elq £Xeo8spf.av !£eX6|xevo<;. .'E£atpsca6ai or d^aipeioOat zlq iXeuOeptav was a technical term in Athenian law, denoting the process of es tablishing the free status of a person claimed as a slave. See Daremberg-Saglio s.v. Aphairesis eis Eleutherian; cf. P.-W. s.v. 'E£aip6aecos A 1x7].
f)(X€pcoaa^ xal ap|xoaa(xevo<;. Presumably a reference to Augustus* annexation of new provinces and their consequent Romanization. 'EXXacn 7roXXat<; 7capau£YJ<xa<;. Not literally; Augustus added no Greek-speaking lands to the empire. The reference is presumably, as it is in the next clause, to the general diffusion of Greek culture under the pax Romana. 148 22 T p i o l xal T e a a a p a x o v r a SviaoTot^. In Egypt Augustus' first regnal year was counted from the New Year's Day (29th August) which fell a few days after Cleopatra's death. (For a discussion of the exact chronology of that period see T. C. Skeat, "The last days of Cleopatra" in JRS xliii (1953), 98-100). His death on 19th August occurred just before the end of his forty-third year by this reckoning. Cf. the note on 141 Tpta npb$ TOIS etxocuv 6nq. 149 TOO ZePaarou . . . . TDQY*). Philo can hardly have regarded Au gustus* foundation of a dynasty as a blessing during Gaius' tyranny.
230
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
This remark may reflect the relief felt at Claudius* accession. TO xotvov oxacpo^. Cf. 50 TO xotvov av0pco7rcov crxa<pos and note. 0au{xaatcp TJJV Yjye[iovixY)v l7rtaT7)fXTQv. No other example of the use of an accusative of respect with 0aufxaaio<; or OaojxaaTOi; b y Philo is cited by Leisegang s.vv. His list, however, is not exhaustive, this passage not being included. oux £ya06v 7roXuxotpavf,Y), zlq xotpavos eVrco, els PaatXeus (Iliad ii, 204-5, quoted in full in Conf. 170). ' T o o many cooks This aphorism is used twice b y Aristotle (Metaph. xii, 10, 14, 1076a; Polit. iv, 4, 4, 1292a). Gaius applied the second half of it to himself (S. G. 22, 1). Philo's works contain a number of other quotations from Homer (e.g., Conf. 4; Cont. 1 7 ; Aet. 37, 132), and many echoes of and references to Homeric expressions; for references see Leisegang, Index Nominum and Earp, Index of Names and Index to Translators' Notes, s.v. Homer. Other Greek writers mentioned or quoted by him are Euripides (most frequently), Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Menander, and Xenophon; reminiscences of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Demosthenes have also been noted; for references see Leisegang and Earp, opp. cit. izciaoL Y) olxoufxeVy) This implies that the imperial cult was of spontaneous growth throughout the empire. Only in the East, where ruler-worship was of long standing, was this in fact the case. But it is not surprising that Philo seems unaware that in some west ern provinces the cult had been deliberately^created and instituted as an official act of policy. For discussion see A. D . Nock in CAH X , 481-9, and L. R. Taylor, The Divinity of the Roman Emperor (1931), 205-23. 150 YJ via YJ 7raXata. With 7r6Xis understood from the preceding words. Mangey accepted the reading of A YJ vlai Y) 7caXata(. TCO xaXXet xal yueyltiei TCOV KaiaapeUov. Cf. Josephus' references to Herod's temples of the imperial cult at Caesarea (AJ xv, 339; BJ i, 414), Sebaste (BJ i, 403), and Panias (AJ x v , 363; BJ i, 404). The large and impressive temple of Claudius at Colchester was built in the early years of the Roman occupation of Britain, but is unlikely to have been known to Philo. On its surviving substructures see JRS ix (1919), 146-7, and x (1920), 87-9. The immense temple of Hadrian later built at Cyzicus counted as an eighth Wonder of the World. For a brief description see F. W . Hasluck, Cyzicus (1910),
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 4 9 - I 5 I
231
10-14; and for a more detailed treatment, using the description and drawings in a recently discovered MS of the fifteenth century Cyriac of Ancona, see B. Ashmole, "Cyriac of Ancona and the temple of Hadrian at Cyzicus" in Journ. Warburg and Courtauld Instit. xix (1956), 179-91. In 150-1 Philo accepts the existence of temples of Augustus with out voicing any protest against the worship of a human being, al though logically he should condemn him as strongly as he condemns Gaius for accepting divine honours. But Augustus, as a champion of Jewish religious liberty, can do no wrong in Philo's eyes. Cf. Willrich, 439-40. W . L. Knox's interpretation of this passage is discussed in the note on 76. 151 SsPaciTetov. Augusteum. Suidas says that the temple begun by Cleopatra in honour of Antony (cf. the reference in Dio li, 15, 5 to Antyllus, Antony's son, fleeing to his father's shrine) was com pleted in honour of Augustus (Lexicon s.v. yjfzkpyov). The inscrip tion on the bronze base of one of the two fifteenth century B.C. obelisks ("Cleopatra's Needles"), which were brought from the temple at Heliopolis and set up in the enclosure of the Augusteum (Pliny NH xxxvi, 69), gives the date 13/12 B.C. (CIL III, 6588). Pliny (I.e.) and Strabo (xvii, 1, 9, 794) call the building a "temple of Caesar". It is clear from Leg. 150-1 that in Alexandria the terms Kataapetov and SePoccrreiov were synonymous, while Claudius' Letter (60-1) supports Suidas and shows that the dedication was to Au gustus and not to Julius. Cf. Bell, / . andC, 35. e7riP<xT7)ptou Kabapoc;. C. D. Yonge in his translation of Philo (1854-5), vol. IV, renders this phrase as "the temple erected in honour of the disembarcation of Caesar" (i.e., in Alexandria). Colson gives "a temple of Caesar on shipboard", with the comment "i.e., commemorating the voyage of Augustus which led to the surrender of Alexandria on 1st August, 30 B.C.". Pfister interprets the word £7ripaTY]ptou similarly in P.-W. Supp. IV, col. 303. Mommsen renders Philo's phrase as "Caesar Appulsor", using it as evidence that the temple was dedicated to Julius (notes on CIL, I.e., and Ephemeris Epigraphica iv (1881), 34). Gelenius, however, translates the phrase as "Caesaris navigantium praesidis" (Philonis Iudaei . . . . Lucubrationes Omnes . . . . Latinae exGraecis Factae (1555), 846; also printed in Philonis Iudaei Omnia Quae Extant Opera, ed. A. Turnebus et D . Hoeschelius (1613), 784). Delaunay similarly gives "protecteur de la navigation" (321), and H. I. Bell "patron of mariners" (in Journ.
232
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Egypt.
Archaeol.
xiii (1927), 175). A. C. Merriam points out that
lm(3aTY)pios and the cognate adjectives SiaPaTiqpios, IfAPaTYjptos,
and
l x - or a7roPaTrjpio<;, which are all connected with travelling, especially b y water, are used in the neuter plural to denote the sacrifices offered on embarking or disembarking, and are applied also to the gods to whom these sacrifices are offered, the gods who protect sailors and travellers. Therefore in this context "Caesar l7riPaT>)pio<; means the deity to whom the emp<xTYJpia, the sacrifices at embarking and dis embarking, were offered, who rules the sea, and protects all sailors, exactly as the old Latin translator viewed it." He compares Vergil's reference to Augustus as a god of the sea in Georg. i, 29-31 Caesareum at
Alexandria" in
Trans.
Amer.
Philol.
Assoc.
("The xiv
(1883), 5-35, especially 20-6). avrixpu TCOV eiopfzoTOTcov Xifxevcov.
The temple of Augustus was
near the shore of the Great Harbour, between the temple of Po seidon and the Emporium (Strabo, I.e.; cf. H. S. Jones's map, Loeb Strabo V I I I ) . It is the only Alexandrian temple of which the exact location is known, its two obelisks having been in situ until the nineteenth century, when one was removed to London and the other to New York. Cf. E. Breccia, Alexandrea
ad Aegyptum
(1922), 92-3.
[Iv] Ypa9<xt<;. Reiter brackets Iv. Mangey's suggestion d t v a y p a ? ^ , "registers", and Dahl's lyYpo^aic; seem inappropriate. 'EmypoKpyiq, "inscriptions", is a possibility. 152 23 IvecoTlptaav. NecoTcp^co is used euphemistically of attacks on the Jews' religion in 157, 292, 300, and Fl. 47 also. Cf. 165 vecoTepo7rottav, 208 vecoTeptajjioij, and 333 vec&Tepov xiveTv.
Icrrlpyjaav. This has been suspected of being corrupt. Mangey conjectured ucrrlpyjaav, "lagged behind". Wendland proposed the insertion of TI{AYJ<; before Icrrlprjcrav, on which Colson comments "something is perhaps needed, but why not ?" (note ad 153
loc.). TCOV 7rap' exaorou; 7raTp(cov.
Augustus continued the
republican
policy of not interfering with the religious practices of subject peoples, provided that they were not believed to be either morally undesirable or politically dangerous (as were the Bacchic cult in 186 B.C. and Druidism in the first century A . D . ) . No attempt was made to impose religious uniformity on the empire. Josephus pays tribute to this feature of Roman rule—magnanimitatemmediocritatemque Romanorum, (In Ap. ii, 73).
quoniam subiectos non cogunt patria iura
transcendere
COMMENTARY ON §§ 1*51-155
233
TCOV Ttofiafcctov. A reference to Augustus' attempted religious restoration in Italy. TCO [uyiQzi TTJ*; T o o w n q s yjyefxovta^ e7r6(xevo^. Augustus' aim in officially instituting the worship of Roma et Augustus was to increase the prestige of Rome and to foster the loyalty of her subjects by providing them with a common worship transcending the boundaries of local native cults. The fundamental character of ruler-cult was political rather than religious. As A. D. Nock puts it, "in general, the ruler had no interest in the cult of himself except as a factor in the cohesion and organization of the State . . . . Between him and his subjects the issue was one of loyalty: he desired to be assured of it, to receive what soon became the standard form of homage, and they to express it" (CAH X , 482). 154 ercapOrjvai. Wendland's conjecture for the clearly corrupt SSOYJVOCI of the MSS. Similar suggestions are 8iap89jvat (Cohn) and the simple apOrjvai (Colson). Mangey suggested ot8T)89jvat. TO [XY]8I7COTC 8eov IOCUTOV lOeXYJaat 7rpo<xei7rctv. Cf. Claudius' de precation of divine honours in his Letter (47-51). Augustus allowed temples to be erected to himself in the provinces only if they were dedicated to Roma also, and refused to have any temple in Rome itself (S. Aug. 52). For to his fellow-countrymen he was, officially, not a god during his lifetime. Only his genius received worship. But the line between the worship of Augustus' genius and the wor ship of the man himself was a very fine one, and in practice the Emperor himself was virtually the object of worship. Occasional references, e.g., in Horace (Carm. i, 2, 4 1 - 5 ; iii, 3, n - 1 2 (if bibit is correct); iii, 5, 2-3; iv, 5, 31-5; Epist. ii, 1 , 1 5 - 7 ) and in Propertius (iii, 4, 1), show that he was popularly regarded as divine before his death even in Italy. In the East he was worshipped as a god as the Hellenistic kings had been, and, whatever his views were on being addressed as a god, official documents sometimes so designated him (e.g., V. Ehrenberg and A. H. M. Jones, Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius (1949), nos. 106-9, 5 - 6 ) . I3:
155
In 155-61 Philo appeals in detail to the protection which Augustus and Tiberius had given to the Jews' religious liberty as a precedent justifying the continued exemption of their synagogues from molestation. 7rcos o5v a7re86x °i Reiter punctuates 7rco^ ouv imSix^o TYJV 7t£pav a7toTO(jLYjv, YJV oux Yjyv6et The punctuation here adopted, with the removal of the Y}V of the MSS, is that of Mangey, eT
234
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
which is followed by Colson. The latter comments on Reiter's punctuation that "there is little or no point in the question 'How did he approve of the section beyond the Tiber?' By the very small change involved in expelling YJV after (X7COTO(XYJV, the course of the ar gument is clearly shown" (note ad loc). 7i£pav TOU Ttpipeox; 7coTa{xou. Apparently the only Jewish settle ment in Rome known to Philo was that on the right bank of the Tiber, in the district now called Trastevere. The deduction which may be drawn from this—that the Trastevere settlement was the original one—is confirmed by the fact that the Jewish catacomb of Monteverde on the Via Portuensis in that area appears from its brickstamps, the earliest of which belong to the first century B.C., to be the oldest of the six Jewish catacombs so far discovered in Rome, as well as being the largest. The Jewish colony in Rome dates back to the second century B.C. at least, if there is any truth in the tradition recorded in the epitomes of Valerius Maximus (i, 3, 3) that the Jews were expelled from Rome in 139 B.C. for practices which sound like proselytism. For discussions of this tradition see, e.g., F. Cumont in Compter Rendues de I'Acad. des Inscr. (1906), 66-7, and " A propos de Sabazius et du Judaisme" in Le Musee Beige xiv (1910), 55-60; H. Vogelstein, A History of the Jews in Rome (1940), 10-15. The large size of the Jewish colony in Rome at the time of Augustus is indicated b y the tradition that over eight thousand Jews supported a Palestinian deputation which appealed to him in A . D . 4 (AJ xvii, 300; BJ ii, 80). The Jewish communities on the left bank of the Tiber known to us from inscriptions and from the discovery of Jewish catacombs on the Via Appia, Via Nomentana, and Via Labicana, probably developed from the first century A . D . , the period to which the brick-stamps of those catacombs belong. For fuller treatment of the Jewish settlements in Rome see CI J I, lxviii-lxxxi, and, for the brick-stamps, 1 0 - n , 51, 55, 211-27; S. Collon, "Remarques sur les quartiers juifs de la Rome antique" in Melanges d'Archeol. et d'Hist. (ficole Fran?aise de Rome) lvii (1940), 72-94. 'Pcofiatoi 8k Y^aav ol 7tXetou^ a7ceXeu0spto0eVres. There is epigraphic evidence for a "synagogue of the Vernacidi" in Rome (CIJ I, 318, 383, 398, 494), although J.-B. Frey thinks that the term Vernaculi may have been used in this connection to mean Jews born in Rome rather than Jewish slaves born in their masters' homes (CIJ I, lxxvii). Philo's reference to freedmen may cover the sons of freed-
COMMENTARY ON § 155
235
men as well as actual ex-slaves, as E. T. Merrill thinks that Tacitus' libertini
generis
(A. ii, 85, 5) does (Classical
Philology
xiv
(1919),
366-8). Formal manumission conferred Roman citizenship on its recipient. So-called 'informal ' manumission conferred no political rights until the Lex Junia f (of 25 or 17 B.C.; see M. de Domenicis in 1
Milanges
d'Archiol.
1
et d'Hist.
offerts a A.Piganiol
(1966),5 ff.) f gave
to slaves freed in this way rights similar to those formerly enjoyed by the Latin colonies. The Lex Aelia Sentia of A . D . 4 gave the same status to slaves f formally f manumitted under the age of thirty. To these freedmen various avenues to the attainment of full Roman citizenship were open. See further A. M. Duff, Freedmen in the Early
Roman
Empire
(1928), 50-2; 75-85; H. Last in CAH
X,
429-34. Philo may well be using the terms " R o m a n " here and " R o m a n citizenship" in 157 loosely to cover Jewish freedmen with Latinitas Juniana as well as those with full Roman rights. The proportion of the two types of Jewish freedmen is impossible to estimate, but the reference in 158 to Jews receiving free corn sug gests that by Augustus' time many of them had acquired the full franchise. (The Jews whom Cicero mentions in a speech of 59 B.C. as attending contiones (Pro FL 28, 66-7) did not necessarily possess full citizenship, since non-citizens were admitted to these gatherings.) atxM-aXcoToi. The origin of the Jewish colony in Rome is not known, but traders probably formed its nucleus. It is unlikely that Jewish prisoners-of-war reached Italy betore the first Roman cam paigns on Jewish soil, those which culminated in Pompey's capture of Jerusalem in 63 B.C. The many thousands of prisoners captured during Pompey's eastern campaigns included Jews (AJ xiv, 7 1 ; BJ i, 154), who presumably accompanied their king Aristobulus to Rome for Pompey's triumph in September, 61 (Plutarch Pomp. 45, 4; Appian Mith. 116-7); for other references and for the epigraphic record see E. Pais, Fasti Triumphales
Popnli
Romani
(1920), 252-66,
and A. Degrassi, Inscr. Italiae X I I I , i, 566. The so-called "syna gogue of the Libertini" in Jerusalem (Acts vi, 9) is believed to be connected with Pompey's captives, later manumitted, or their descendants; see L.-H. Vincent, "Decouverte de la 'Synagogue des Affranchis' k Jerusalem" in RB x x x (1921), 247-77, especially 258 ff. Jewish captives may have found their way to Rome in 53 B.C., when large numbers were enslaved as a reprisal for a rebellion (AJ xiv, 120; BJ i, 180; the figure thirty thousand is, however, probably an exaggeration). After the capture of Jerusalem in 37 LEGATIO AD GAIUM
16
236
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
B.C., C. Sosius struck coins in Zacynthus portraying on the reverse a captive Jew and Jewess mourning at the foot of a trophy (H. A . Grueber, Coins
of the Roman
Republic
in the B. M. (1910) II, 508,
no. 1 4 6 = E . A. Sydenham, The Coinage
of the Roman
2
Republic
(revised b y Haines, Farrer, and Hersch, 1952), 199, no. 1272); and his triumph in 35 (Pais, op. cit., 302) presupposes the display of Jewish prisoners. On the numismatic evidence of this period see further H. St. J. Hart in JThS new series iii (1952), 176-80. 156 Y)7CI(TTOCTO. T o say that Augustus " k n e w . . . . " implies that Jewish religious liberty had been protected b y Rome before his time. The formulation of Rome's policy towards the Jews had been largely the work of Julius Caesar, whose lead Augustus followed. Philo, however, idealizes Augustus throughout this treatise, and here he goes as far as he dares in representing him as the author of the Jews' security by making no direct mention of Caesar or his work. r
7rpoaeuxa<; S x SF ° Caesar's authorization of the synagogues see the note on 114. During the chaos of the civil wars the collegia once more became troublesome, and the problem had to be tackled O V T A
again b y Augustus: collegia
praeter
antiqua
(S. Aug. 32, 1). Whether the Lex Julia
et legitima
de Collegiis
dissolvit
mentioned in
ILS 4966 was that of Caesar or that of Augustus is uncertain; Mommsen thinks the latter (Romisches Strafrecht (1899), 876). The situation may well have demanded fresh legislation rather than the mere re-enforcement of a law which had fallen into abeyance. C. Hiilsen inferred from CIL V I , 10299 together with VI, 148 that the
era of the collegium
fabrorum
tignariorum
began in 7 B.C.
This has been accepted as the probable date of Augustus' measure by, e.g., Kornemann in P.-W. s.v. collegium, col. 408. It would fit in with Augustus' censorial activity in 8-7 B.C. (Res Gestae ch. 8). C. Pietrangeli, however, argues for a later date for the era of the collegium fabrorum
tignariorum
("Frammento dei fasti del collegio
Romano dei fabri tignarii" in Bull,
della Commissione
Archeol.
del
Govern, di Roma lxvii (1939), 101-7), and Hiilsen himself later abandoned the date 7 B.C. (CIL VI, 30703). A. Momigliano, taking 7 B.C. as the year of Augustus' measure, suggests that the oldest synagogues in Rome took their names at this time, when their continued existence was again officially sanctioned ("I nomi delle prime 'sinagoghe' Romane" in La Rassegna Mensile
di Israel
vi, no. 7 (1931), 3-12). He argues that the
only Volumnius who is known to have been involved in Jewish
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 5 5 - I 5 6
237
affairs and after whom the synagogue of the Volumnesii can there fore have been named, was the man who, as procurator (not legate, as Momigliano says) of Syria during the governorship of Sentius Saturninus (c. 9-6 B.C.), had considerable dealings with Herod the Great c. 7 B.C. (AJ xvi, 277-369; BJ i, 538-42), and that the synagogue must have been named at about that time, since V o lumnius had no importance for the Jews later. The coincidence of date would be very close. His thesis is less convincing in the case of the synagogue of the Agrippesii, whose patron he identifies with M. Vipsanius Agrippa, since it involves supposing that the com munity took his name some five years after his death. But it is conceivable that this was done in memory of his kindness towards the Jews (Leg. 291 ff.). TYJV
7rarptov rcatSeuovTat 9tXoao9tav. Cf. Mos.
ii, 216 91X0CT090UCH
rats £p86{xai£ 'IouSatot r?)v 7cdtTptov cpiXoo^lav T O V X P ava86vres iTrtaTYjfiYj xat 0ecopta is applied to the
TCOV
0 V 0 V
£*etvov
7repl 9uatv. The term "philosophy"
Jewish scriptures also in Opif.
128, Spec,
ii, 61,
and Cont. 28 (concerning the Therapeutae). Philo is speaking of the exposition of the Torah by the rabbis and elders at the syna gogue services (157 TOC<; TCOV v6ficov u^YjyYjcieu;). Cf. numerous re ferences in the Gospels to Christ "teaching in the synagogues". For specimens of the type of exposition given see His sermon at Nazareth (St. Luke iv, 16-28) and the Midrash passim, which em bodies homilies of the kind delivered in the synagogues. Philo describes the synagogue service in a lost work quoted by Eusebius (Praep.
Ev. viii, 7 , 1 2 - 3 ) and the service of the Essenes in Prob.
For a fuller study see Hastings, A Dictionary
of the Bible s.v.
gogue, 640-2; I. Elbogen, Der judische
Gottesdienst
lichen
especially 194-8.
Entwicklung
(1931),
107 ft.,
in seiner
81-2. Syna
geschicht-
The word a7rapx*j was used not only in the sense of literal "first-fruits", payable only by an agricultural and pastoral people and confined to the land of XpYJfJtaTa a o v a y o v T a s dbro
Israel (Exod.
TCOV
dbrapxcov tepa.
xxiii, 19; xxxiv, 26; Deut.
xxvi, 2 - 1 1 ; Spec,
i, 152-3),
but also to denote other offerings to a deity (Juster I, 378, n. 4; see,
e.g., Romans
xi, 16, and
Philo's use towards the
end
of
157).
On the various dues payable by the Jews to the Temple and its officials see Schurer II, 297-317. Of these the most important payable by the Diaspora, who were subject to fewer than were the Jews of Palestine, was the annual money-tax of a half (at one time, apparently, a third) of a shekel, or its equivalent, two Attic drach-
238
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
mae (hence the term StSpax(xov) or two Roman denarii, levied on all Jewish men f aged twenty to fifty, f and also on freed slaves and proselytes, for the upkeep of the Temple and its services (Exod. x x x , 1 1 - 5 ; xxxviii, 25-6; Nehem.
x, 32-3; MishnahShekalim
passim;
Mekilta, tractate Bakodesh 1 (J. Z . Lauterbach's translation (1933) II, p. 194); St. Matt, xvii, 24; A J xviii, 312; BJ vii, 218; Philo * Heres 186; Dio lxv (lxvi), 7, 2). The term arcapx*) * * for this tax by Philo in Spec, i, 77, and there is little doubt that it is mainly to it that Leg. 156-7 and other passages in Philo and Josephus dealing with the dbrapxai and "sacred money" of the Diaspora refer (Leg. 216, 291, 3 1 1 - 6 ; A J xvi, 160-73). Josephus refers to other dues paid by the Babylonian Diaspora in AJ xviii, 312. It was the duty of collecting taxes for Jerusalem which made it essential for the Diaspora communities to have the right of keeping a common fund. s u s e c
7r£|Z7w>vTas 'Iepoa6Xu(xa. The proceeds of the SlSpaxfiov tax were sent up to Jerusalem b y the local communities by the hand of specially selected envoys (216, 312; Spec, i, 78; AJ xviii, 310-3). Juster interprets Philo's reference in Provid. ii, 64 to visiting the Temple to mean that he "fit peut-Stre- lui-m£me partie d'une pareille deputation" (I, 381, n. 2). But Colson points out (Loeb Philo I X , note ad loc.) that the Greek need not be translated so as to imply that this was a solitary visit (as Juster apparently assumes). Moreover, Philo's purpose—"to offer prayer and sacrifice"—points to private devotion rather than to an official mission. During the republican period Jewish communities under Roman rule had been allowed to send their taxes up to Jerusalem, even though gold might not normally be exported from the empire, and the refusal of the propraetor of Asia, L. Valerius Flaccus, in 62 B.C. to allow the Jews in his province to exercise that right had been a serious offence (Cicero Pro Fl. 28, 66-7, discussed by Juster I, 378-80; cf. A J xiv, 110-3). No decree of Julius Caesar confirming * the right survives, but it is mentioned in a decree of Augustus ( 4 / xvi, 162-5) which lists the privileges of the Diaspora at the time of Hyrcanus, i.e., between his reinstatement in 47 and his capture b y the Parthians in 40. The transmission of the tax, which Rome was determined to safeguard, was apparently the chief bone of conten tion between the Jews and their gentile neighbours in the East during Augustus' principate, and the frequent trouble over it called for a number of decrees reaffirming the Jewish right (AJ xvi, 27-61, 160-73; notes on Leg. 240, 3 1 1 , and 315). In two of them
COMMENTARY ON §§ 156-157
239
theft of the sacred money is declared to be an act of sacrilege. 157
o5re e^toxiae
TTJS
'PCOJXYJ?
exeivou<;
OUTC
extoXucre cruvayeciOai.
Dio says that in 41 Claudius removed the Jews' right of assembly, and that this course was taken because the Jews were too numerous to expel, presumably from Rome; he does not state the Jews' offence (lx, 6, 6). St. Luke (Acts xviii, 2) and Suetonius (Claudius 25, 4), however, both refer to an actual expulsion of the Jews from Rome by Claudius; and Orosius, who quotes and discusses the sentence of Suetonius, also alleges that Josephus mentions an ex pulsion and dates it to 49 (vii, 6, 15). There is no such reference in Josephus' works as extant, but if this date is accepted on Orosius' authority, there were presumably two occasions on which Claudius took measures against the Jews in Rome, the second occurring almost certainly after Philo's death. In that case, the wording of Dio's notice of the measure passed in 41 may mean that at that time Claudius at first proposed to expel the Jews and then changed his mind and took a less drastic action against them. Many scholars, however, consider that only one measure of Claudius is in question; see H. Janne, "Impulsore Chresto" in Annuaire de VInstitut de Philol. ii (1934), 531-53 and works cited in 533, n. 7 (where the reference to Juster should read " I , 4 1 1 , and II, 171"). The problem is then its date. Orosius' chronology and statements are unreliable, and Janne argues in favour of accepting Dio's date, 41, in prefer ence to that of Orosius. He maintains that the Jews were expelled, as the other authorities say. He cites T. Zielinski's suggestion that Dio's notice is an interpretation of his sources and means in effect, "I find in m y sources that Claudius expelled the riotous Jews from Rome. But this seems to me unlikely in view of their numbers. I think rather that he merely removed their right of assembly" (in Rev.
de VUniversite
de Bruxelles
xxxii (1926-7),
143, n.
2).
Whether Claudius had to take action against the Jews in 41 only or some years later also, it is very probable that Philo's remark about Augustus here, in a work written in or soon after 41 (note on 1 Y){jLetc; ol Y^povTes), is connected with Claudius' action in that year. Without saying anything to give offence to Claudius, he voices an implicit protest by recalling the more lenient attitude of his pre decessor and model towards the Jews. W. Seston's objection (in Rev.
d'Hist.
et de Philos.
Religieuses
xi (1931), 300-1) that Philo
could not have written this passage if Claudius had just removed the Jews' right of assembly, and that Dio's date for his measure
240 against valid.
THE
EMBASSY TO
GAIUS
the Jews therefore cannot be correct, does not seem
ofire T?)V 'PcofxabcJjv aixcov dhpetXeTo 7roXiTelav.
If the
suggestion
made in the preceding note is correct, it is quite possible that Augustus* attitude to the possession of Roman citizenship by Jews is similarly cited here as a precedent for Claudius to follow in settling the question of the civic status of the Jews in Alexandria: they should be allowed to regain their rights as a TOXtxeofxa, of which they had been deprived by Flaccus' edict and the ensuing riots. ji6vov oi 7wtvolxios. Augustus and Livia gave golden wine-vessels to the Temple at an unknown date (319; BJ v, 562), and M. Vipsanius Agrippa made dedications there on his visit to Jerusalem in 15 B.C. (294-7). Gifts from Tiberius and other members of Augustus' immediate family are not specifically recorded, but Josephus speaks of Augustus' successors adding to the decoration of the Temple as a mark of respect (BJ v, 563). Pagan gifts to the Temple were in fact common (BJ ii, 412-3; Tertullian Apol. 26, 3). There are references to gifts from the Ptolemies and Seleucids (e.g., Ps.-Aristeas Ep. 40-2; AJ xiii, 78; In Ap. ii, 48; II Mace,
iii,
2; v, 16), and C. Sosius dedicated a golden crown in the Temple after helping Herod the Great to capture Jerusalem in 37 B.C. (AJ xiv, 488; BJ i, 357). The comprehensive piety of paganism allowed its adherents to make such gifts and to offer sacrifices in the Temple (note on 297) as a mere act of courtesy, without there being any implication that they subscribed to Judaism, and the Jews not only permitted but welcomed the practice. Ouatou;. Augustus, aware that no practising Jew would ever agree to sacrifice to the Emperor himself or his genius, made no attempt to force the imperial cult in its usual form on them. The most that a practising Jew could do was to sacrifice to God as a prayer for the Emperor's well-being. This was in accordance with Jewish law, which countenanced prayer and sacrifice on behalf of their tem poral overlords (Ezra vi, 10; Jerem.
xxix, 7; Baruch i, 10-12, a pas
sage discussed b y H. St. J. Thackeray, The Septuagint
and
Worship
vii, 33; cf.
(1923), 89-90; Mishnah Aboth
iii, 2; I Mace,
Jewish
Schurer II, 360-1), and Augustus accepted this as a substitute for the worship of Roma
et Augustus
carried out
in
other provinces.
Philo's use of 7tpocrra5a<; here and SteTaSotTo in 317 implies that the initiative in instituting the sacrifices lay with Augustus and
COMMENTARY ON § 157
24I
not with the Jews. He also says in both places that the sacrifices were offered at Augustus' own expense. A. Momigliano finds these statements incompatible: "Had Augustus ordered it, obviously he would not have felt bound to pay for it." He thinks that Herod the Great instituted the sacrifices and that Philo's assertion that they were ordered b y Augustus is due to "his interest in proving that Augustus recognized the Jewish worship" (CAH X , 329). Josephus, however, says that the sacrifices were offered at the expense of the whole Jewish community (In Ap. ii, 77). Can this perhaps be reconciled with Philo b y supposing that the institution of the sacrifices (for the precise date of which there is no evidence) o c curred when the country became a province in A . D . 6, the natural time for the introduction of the imperial cult, and that the expense was met out of the taxes then paid b y the province into the Empe ror's treasury? The daily sacrifice consisted of two lambs and a bull (317). From a statement of Josephus that the Jews sacrificed twice daily for the Emperor (BJ ii, 197) "we may infer that the . . . sacrifice . . . was offered partly at the morning, partly at the evening service" (H. St. J. Thackeray, note ad loc, Loeb). ei0L
a n c
w
e
r
e
r e c
u e n
IvreXexets. The nouns hnzktx * £v&eX6xeia f l tly confused in antiquity; see Lucian Judic. Voc. 10 and J. E. King's note on Cicero Tusc. i, 22 (Loeb). 'EvSeXex^?, "in perpetuity", is frequently written evreXexifc, an adjective apparently non-existent, as it is here in all MSS except A ; cf. 280, 291, 317. TCO u+tarco 8etp. Cf. 278, 317; Fl. 46; A J xvi, 163; III Mace, vii, 9. The titles 6eos vtyioros and ZeCx; U ^ I G T O ; occur frequently, especially during the Hellenistic period, in non-Jewish contexts, where they reflect a tendency towards monotheism in Greek thought. In the Septuagint, the New Testament, and other Hellenistic Jewish writ ings 8e6; C+toro? is commonly used to denote Jahweh, and there is epigraphic evidence for the usage in CIJ 690 (Cimmerian Bosphorus), 725, 727-9 (Delos), 769 (Phrygia), 1433 and 1443 (Egypt). For discussion of the titles see M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion II (1950), 636-40, and the bibliographies given there and
in W . Bauer, A Greek-English
Lexicon
of the New
Testament,
translated b y W . F. Arndt and F. W . Gingrich (1957) s.v. U ^ I O T C N ; . Add E. R. Goodenough, "The Bosporus inscriptions to the Most High G o d " in JQR xlvii (1957), 221-44. et<; arcav. Cf. Spec, i, 76. Philo cannot conceive that the Temple and its services will ever come to an end—as they did in A . D . 70.
242
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
The refusal of the Jews to continue the sacrifices for the Emperor in A . D . 66 is regarded by Josephus as one of the causes of the war (BJ ii, 409). 158 TTJS 7wtTpl8o<;. This has been suspected and an emendation to
de Ble
f
et d Argent
a la PUbe
Romaine
sous
VEmpire
(1939), especially 15-31. Philo implies that Roman citizens received regular money-doles also. He may have derived this mistaken notion from the occasional gifts of money made to citizens—the congiaria of Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, and Gaius, and the legacies of the first three: see, e.g., S. Julius 3 8 , 1 , and 83, 2; Aug. 1 0 1 , 2 ; Tib.
20 and 76; G. 1 7 , 2 ; Appian BC ii, 102 and 143; Res Gestae ch. 1 5 ;
T. A. ii, 42,1, and iii, 2 9 , 3 ; Velleius Paterculus ii, 1 2 9 , 3 ; and many references in Dio. Cf. van Berchem, op. cit. especially 141 ff., and Balsdon, 183. t
oospore TOUS 'IouSocfou^ YJAaTToae TTJ$ x*P °S- The Jews receiving free corn must have been in possession of full Roman citizenship. Any who had merely Latinitas Juniana (note on 155 Tcojxatot Sk ^06vTe<;) were ineligible (van Berchem, op. cit. 48). The Jewish community in Rome seems to have been mainly poor; many of the epitaphs from the Jewish catacombs are of such poor material, crude workmanship, and bad spelling as to suggest that those who set them up had little money or education. el$ TJJV uerrepalav. It sounds as if this concession to Sabbathobservance was made by Augustus, possibly at the time of his regulation of the corn-doles, and had no precedent in Caesar's legislation. TT
t
COMMENTARY ON §§ 157-159
159
243
2 4 ot 7ravT<xxou 7wcvre;. The Jews' privileges were empire-wide (note on 114). ETQIOCVO;. In 159-61 Philo attributes to Sejanus a plan for a severe attack on the Jewish race throughout the empire—a plan which caused widespread alarm and unrest but was brought to an abrupt end b y his death in October, 31. At the opening of the In Flaccum Philo says that Flaccus, who became prefect of Egypt in 32 or 33, "inherited" Sejanus' anti-Jewish policy, thus implying again that Sejanus' hostility immediately preceded his death. No other writer on the period mentions hostility on the part of Sejanus to wards the Jews except Eusebius, who merely summarizes Leg. 160
in HE ii, 5, 7 and alludes to it in the Chronicle
(Tib. X X I ) , but
provides no independent evidence. In the former work he implies the same date as Philo does, by interpreting the Jews' danger as a punishment for the Crucifixion. The uniqueness of Philo's testimony to Sejanus' anti-Jewish policy at the end of his career is not in itself a reason for challenging it. If Tacitus' account of the years 30-1 survived and contained nothing about it, we might suspect Philo's veracity; but that ac count is lost. Josephus (AJ xviii, 81-5), Tacitus (A. ii, 85, 5), Suetonius (Tib. 36, 1), and Dio (lvii, 18, 5a), however, all record an actual expulsion of the Jews from Rome b y Tiberius, which the first three associate with measures to suppress the Isis-cult. The accounts contain sufficient common material for there to be no doubt that they concern the same event. Tacitus dates it to A . D . 19, and Dio apparently to c. 19 (see the note ad loc. in the edition of U. P. Boissevain II (1898), 577). Josephus, who is not always reliable chronologically, relates the incident in the middle of his account of Pilate's procuratorship of Judaea, and b y introducing the story with the words urco T O U ; aurou; X P ^ V O U ; (xviii, 65) implies that it took place c. 30, the date which Philo assigns to Sejanus' attempted attack on the Jews. Tacitus' firm date for the expulsion is accepted b y all scholars whose discussions of the event are known to the writer, in preference to that implied by Josephus. Some scholars refer Philo's remarks here to the expulsion, while others suppose from them that Sejanus was the author both of that measure and of a later anti-Jewish policy. But it seems more prob able that Philo is referring here only to events much later than the expulsion. The details in Leg. 159-61 do not correspond in the least with the accounts of the expulsion; there is no suggestion in any
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
244
of those accounts that Sejanus had any hand in the expulsion; and the f implication f that his proposed attack was frustrated by his death makes no sense if the reference is to an expulsion actually carried out twelve years earlier. If the designs against the Jews which Philo attributes to Sejanus were distinct from Tiberius' expulsion of the Roman Jewish com munity in 19, it appears that Philo ignores that expulsion complete ly in this treatise, mentioning it neither in 159-61 nor in his eulogy of Tiberius in 141-2, nor again in 291-322, where he deals further with Augustus' and Tiberius' treatment of the Jews. He implies here that in the years of Tiberius' principate before Sejanus' attack the Jews had enjoyed the same religious liberty and protection as they had done under Augustus. E. T. Merrill suggests a convincing reason for Philo's doing this: he is concerned in this section to show Claudius that, except for Gaius, his predecessors had always treated the Jews with favour, and therefore he does not want to record a repressive action for which Tiberius would have to be held responsible ("The expulsion of the Jews from Rome under Tiberius" in Classical
Philology
xiv (1919), 365-72).
For a fuller study of the expulsion and of Leg. 159-61 see the present writer, "Some notes on the Jews under Tiberius" in Latomus xv (1956), 314-29. On Philo's supposed writings on Sejanus' antiJewish activity cf. Introduction, pp. 38 ff. 160 TYJV Ttofrqv. There is no indication of how long the expulsion order of 19 remained in force. The Jews may have been able to return to their homes quite soon. ^euSct; 9j(J StaPoXat. The trumping up of false and malicious charges against the Jews in Rome was presumably to be the prelude to some physical attack, which Sejanus' death forestalled. avri(S7)a6(jLevov auToxparopo;. A puzzling remark. Would the Jews have been eager in 30-1 to protect the Emperor who had expelled the members of the Roman community from their homes some twelve years previously? And would they have had any opportunity of doing so, when he was in closely-guarded isolation on Capri? Or if their alleged readiness to defend Tiberius is attribut ed to the period before the expulsion, the remark is equally obscure, since Sejanus showed no signs of treachery at that early date. But Philo is writing as a propagandist, and he is probably here concerned to make a point even at the expense of historical credibility. 161 uTcopxoi;. Used here and in 299 as a general term to cover av
COMMENTARY ON §§ 159-163
245
provincial governors of all ranks. In 207 it is used for legate. 7capr)Yop7Jaai. It is not clear whether any actual attack was made on the Jews in the provinces in accordance with Sejanus' policy. This section could be taken to mean that this was the case and that Sejanus' death ended the trouble. Or it could be interpreted, as by Box, to mean that "decrees of a drastic nature were about to be promulgated in all the provinces when Sejanus fell" (note on Fl. 1). Tiberius' reaffirmation of the Jews' religious liberty (xiv9jo~ai 8k pjSev . . . . , below) suggests that it had been infringed in some places in the light of Sejanus' known attitude. The only extant evidence for maltreatment of the Jews in the years immediately before 31 is provided b y Josephus' accounts of two actions b y which Pilate roused his subjects to fury (A J xviii, 55-62; BJ ii, 169-77; discussed in the note on 299 Svexa T O U Xu7njaai T O TCX9J6O;). His actions may have been inspired b y Sejanus' policy; Eusebius certainly implies a connection between Pilate's procuratorship and Sejanus' anti-Semitism (HE ii, 5, 7). The episode related of Pilate in Leg. 299-305, details of which suggest that it is to be dated to the latter part of his procuratorship, seems to reflect the change which followed Sejanus' death. 162
163
25
ouSeva;
emTYjSeioTe'pou; 'AXe£av8p£tov.
Cf. 338.
tpeai xalfop6Xot<;ianiai. T o allow k(36Xoi<; to qualify both nouns, Mangey suggested the transposition top6Xoi<; icnrtai xal tpeat. On Egyptian animal-worship, here again attributed to the Greeks of Alexandria, see the note on 139. The ibis (described b y Aelian, De Anim. ii, 38) was worshipped from early times and, with the ape, was associated with the god Thoth (S. A. B. Mercer, The Religion of Ancient Egypt (1949), 143) and represented on coins (J. Vogt, Die alexandrinischen
Miinzen
(1924); see numerous references in II,
Index, 185). The asp was the divine minister of R e ' , the sun-god, and was believed to deify those whom it bit (In Ap. ii, 86). Cf. W . Spiegelberg, "Aegyptologische Mitteilungen" in Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen
Akad.
der Wissensch.
zu Miinchen
(1925), 3-6; W .
W.
Tarn in CAH X , 110-1. auTYJ;. I.e., 8eou xXyjat;. The MSS give aur%(bjplcov, which Reiter prints. But Mangey's transposition of the two words gives a more natural order. TTJ; AtYwmooojs aOeorrjTo;. Philo alludes to the "atheism" of the Egyptians on several other occasions: L.4 iii, 2 1 2 ; Post. 2; Heres
203; and Mos. ii, 193 and 196. In Fug. 180 he defines it b y
246
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
saying that Moses described "the Egyptian character as atheistical in its preference for earth above heaven, for the things which live on the ground above those that dwell on high, and the body above the soul" (Whitaker's translation, Loeb Philo V ) . The second item in this indictment clearly refers to animal worship. Philo's use of "atheism" to denote Egyptian polytheism is discussed b y Wolfson, I, 32. T)Xi0t6T7)Ta. The same word is used of Egyptian animal worship in Spec, i, 79.
164
TCO 6VTI. The use of this phrase suggests that Philo did not believe that the Alexandrians took their own deifications entirely seriously. 165 T O U ouvet86To;. See the note on this word in 39. 8te7c£|A7rovT6 Ttve;. W h o sent the reports to Gaius? The obvious person to keep in close touch with the Emperor was the prefect. But his reports would surely have minimized the disturbances which he was patently failing in his duty to put down. otx^Ta;. This word, though frequently synonymous with SouXo;, can be used also for the free-born members of a household. Presum ably Gaius' courtiers are meant here, but this word is chosen deliber ately with its connotation of "slaves" in mind, since the courtiers included such creatures as Helicon (166). Tco0a£ovra; ael xal y^zMOL^oyncuq. Sc. "about the Alexandrian situation"? 166 26 A t y j 7 m o i . Strictly speaking this should mean the depressed native classes of Egypt, and not include the Alexandrian Greeks, although possibly Philo uses the term here contemptuously to denote people who were in fact Greeks; cf. the note on 139, init. Goodenough (Politics, 15) and Box (note on Fl. 23) suppose that Helicon was an Alexandrian. 7rovY)pa 07r£p(zaTa. Cohn conjectured 7coviqpou a7clp(xaTa, a phrase which occurs in Demosthenes xxv, 48. ava[xeixaYfxevot. Compounds of (xarrco in the middle usually bear the sense of "receiving an impression", although occasionally, as aTO(iaTreo0ai in 103, they have the active sense of "giving an impression". Cf. Colson's note on 7cpoaavajxaTrea0at in Fl. 141 (Loeb Philo I X , 538). 'EXtxcov. Unknown save from this treatise. Cf. 203-6. avSpobroSov. Applied to Helicon in 205 also; cf. SouXcp (203) and the reference to "his former master" (below). His intimacy with Gaius, however (168-71, 174-7) suggests that he was by this time a
247
COMMENTARY ON §§ 1 6 3 - I 7 O
freedman and that Philo calls him a slave out of contempt. TCOV iyxuKklw. Sc. 7taiSsu(xaTcov. General, all-round education: see Plutarch Mor. yc, H 3 5 d ; Alex.
7, 1 ; Athenaeus Deipnos.
iv,
184b; Strabo i, 1, 22; Vitruvius vi, praef. 4; and L u c i a n o mores 45. This comprised grammar, mathematics, music, and rhetoric * (Philo Cher. 105). H. I. Marrou defines the term as covering both "the general culture of the educated gentleman" (the sense in which it is used here and in 168), and "the basic learning, the 'propaedeu tic', the 7rpo7raiSsu[xaTa, that prepared the mind for the more ad vanced stages of education and culture" (A History of Education in Antiquity, translated b y G. Lamb (1956), 177). Cf. Quintilian i, 10, 1. Philo held that the study of the encyclicals should precede * the study of philosophy (Ebr. 49). In his view, as the encyclicals were the handmaid of philosophy, so philosophy was the handmaid of true wisdom, a propaedeutic for the study of the Law (Cong. 71-80). For discussion see Wolfson, I, 145-6, 149-51; Goodenough, Light,
239-41, 247-9; Introduction,
179-80.
167
Our authorities all portray Tiberius as morose, gloomy, and capable of sardonic humour and cutting remarks. 168 v£co 8e<j7r6T7). Helicon presumably passed into Gaius' possession under Tiberius' will. If Philo is dealing throughout 168-71 with the period immediately after Gaius' accession, he is most probably ante dating Helicon's anti-Semitic propaganda, in the same way as he ante-dates Gaius' hostility towards the Jews in 115-20,133, and 346. But since b y 172 he has slipped almost imperceptibly into a dis cussion of the events of the last year of Gaius' life, he may be talking in 168-71 as well as in 176-7 about attempts made by Helicon at that time to prejudice Gaius against the Jews. 7capaaeoup(xcva;. Cf. the note on 142 7wcpeaupy). L. and S. translate the participle as "mocking" here—a meaning suitable for the verb as used in 363. But "amusing" surely given more appropriate sense here. TO7cat8eudat Ta Ax6peuTa. Colson suggests (note ad loc.) that this may be a reminiscence of Plato Laws 654a, where 6 arcatSeuTo; is described as a x o p e u T o ; . In that case Philo's phrase is an oxymoron, and perhaps has as strong a meaning as "education in vice". 170 T a ; x a T a 'IooSatcov xal TCOV 'IouSaixcov IGcov 8ta(3oXa;. The absurd, slanderous, and utterly inaccurate accounts of the Jews' early history and of their religious practices which were produced from the third century B.C. until the first century A . D . in Alexandria by 9
248
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
such writers as Manetho, Chaeremon, Lysimachus, and Apion (In Ap. i, 227 ff., 288 ff., 304 ff.; ii, 1 ff.), and in Asia Minor b y Mnaseas, Posidonius of Apamea, and Apollonius Molon, whom Josephus names as Apion's sources (In Ap. ii, 16, 79, 1 1 2 , 145). The wide spread credence which this malicious nonsense enjoyed is shown by the fact that Josephus felt the need to devote a treatise to its refutation, while some of it was set down even in the pages of the sober Tacitus (H. v, 3-5). 171
TOV yap hz euOeta; xangyopov. Presumably the real accuser of the Jews was the Greek population of Alexandria, and Helicon was merely acting as its mouth-piece. ImyeYpafJiiJLevtov. Editors before Reiter accepted the MSS arcoyeypoLynuhtov.
'EmyeYpaizfiivcDv is a conjecture of Matthaei (on whose
work see the note on 103). Colson queries the need for emending, despite the frequency of iniyp in Philo (note ad loc.)
t
and
the
difference in meaning between the two verbs is not great. 172 TCOV 'AXe^avSplcov ot itpla$ei<;. The casual introduction of the Greek embassy into the narrative here and of the Jewish one in 174 is one of the features of the Legatio which suggested to Massebieau and Cohn that the treatise as we have it is incomplete. Cf. Introduction, pp. 41-2. Josephus says that three envoys were sent b y each side (AJ xviii, 257). But in the case of the Jews the testimony of Philo is to be preferred when he gives the number as five (370). It is quite likely that Josephus is wrong about the number of the Greeks also; they would hardly have sent a weaker delegation than their o p ponents did. The Greek delegation included Isidorus, one of the three leaders of the nationalist anti-Semitic party (Fl. 20), who acts as the spokesman in 355 and is the only member named by Philo, and the anti-Semitic writer Apion (AJ, I.e.). For Isidorus' relations with Flaccus, the prefect of Egypt, and the nationalist intrigues which preceded the disturbances of 38 see Introduction, pp. 14 ff. Towards the end of 38 Isidorus appeared among Flaccus' accusers at his trial in Rome (Fl. 125-7). If therefore the voyages of the two delegations from Alexandria took place in the winter of 38-9, Isidorus must be presumed to have received orders while in Rome to join the Greeks there; he can hardly have returned to Alexandria to be chosen as a delegate and thus have done the journey between Alexandria and Rome three times in one winter. If, however, as is argued in Additional Note III, pp. 47-50, the
249
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 7 O - I 7 2
delegations sailed in the winter of 39-40, there was time for Isidorus to return home after the trial of Flaccus and to sail again to Rome with the other envoys. It is quite possible, although definite evi dence is lacking, that another of the nationalist leaders, Lampo, was also among the Greek envoys. He was in Rome with Isidorus for Flaccus' trial, and his name, like those of Isidorus and Apion, is absent from the list of the members of the Greek delegation sent to congratulate Claudius on his accession, which it is inferred left Alexandria before the delegations sent to Gaius had returned (cf. In troduction, pp. 29-30). On the other hand, if the C. Julius Dionysius of the congratulatory delegation, or its spokesman, Dion3'sius the son of Theon, with whom he is probably to be identified, was the third nationalist leader of Fl. 20, as Bell ( / . andC., notes on Letter, 17 and 76) thinks (cf. Musurillo, AA, 104), then the last-named Dionysius was not a member of the embassy to Gaius, but remained in Alexandria and so was available to be chosen as a member of the later delegation. Stoc xp^fAartov. How did Philo know that the Greeks administered bribes to Helicon? The statement may be merely malicious, al though it is quite credible. TCOV em Ttjxat; IXTCISCOV. A construction analogous with the Hel lenistic use of !X7u£eiv Inl, found, e.g., in Romans
xv, 12.
o u x el$ ( x a x p a v . Gaius' intention seems to have been to visit Alexandria in the latter part of the summer of 40. For here, when the envoys discuss the proposed tour with Helicon in the spring of that year, it is expected to take place " s o o n " ; and in May or June the legate of Syria is said to have expressed fear lest the disturb ances then going on in Palestine should cause a food-shortage, which would be embarrassing when the Emperor touched at the Syrian and Palestinian coasts en route for Egypt (249-53 and notes). It seems, however, that during the summer of 40 Gaius changed his plans. He held an ovation in Rome on 31st August (S. G. 49, 2), and as it was then too late in the season to set out on a long tour, the visit was postponed. B y the autumn of 40 Gaius was proposing to travel to the East in the following spring or summer (337-8; AJ xix, 81). Suetonius' use of commigrare in connection with Gaius' proposed journey (I.e.) suggests that the Emperor was believed to be con templating a permanent removal to Alexandria. Balsdon (97) regards this as a malicious interpretation put on Gaius' plan by his
250
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
enemies, comparable with the declaration of Julius Caesar's enemies that he hoped to transfer the capital to Troy or Alexandria (S. Julius
79,
3).
173
tyiq. Colson explains that "the 'eye of the city* is those through whom it sees what it needs . . . . Or perhaps simply 'the choicest part* . . . . " (note ad loc). A different English metaphor conveys the latter idea. 174 The use of the first person plural is the only introduction which the Jewish delegation receives. Philo was its leader (AJ xviii, 159) and apparently its oldest member (Leg. 182). Goodenough argues convincingly that the mere fact that he was chosen to go on a delicate and important mission proves that he was not the philo sophical recluse which he is usually supposed to have been, but a man experienced in administration, diplomacy, and public affairs generally. Josephus* description of him as T<X rravxa SvSo^o; (I.e.) also suggests that his fame did not rest on his philosophical works alone. Furthermore, in Spec, iii, 1-6 Philo himself says that his mysti cal meditations had been interrupted by an unwelcome and com pulsory entry into politics, which robbed him of his powers of philosophic detachment, and he then mentions briefly the general character of the works which he had composed since that time. These few words accurately describe most of his extant writings. As these cannot all belong to the few years of life which remained for him after 40, it would appear that the interruption was not his membership of the embassy to Gaius at the end of his life (his only known incursion into politics), but some much earlier, unrecorded event, and that, as a member of a prominent Jewish family, he was called upon in his early manhood to hold some office in the noklxeufia ("Philo and public life" in Journ.
Egypt.
Archaeol.
xii (1926),
77-9; cf. Introduction, 4-8). The passage in Fug. 36 in which Philo argues that practical participation in politics should precede the adoption of a contemplative life points in the same direction. Neither Philo nor Josephus gives any indication of the identity of the other four Jewish delegates. E. G. Turner suggests (in JRS xliv (1954), 58) that one may have been Philo's brother, Alexander the alabarch (on whom cf. Introduction, p. 4); he was imprisoned by Gaius, apparently in Rome, and released by Claudius soon after his accession (AJ xix, 276). Goodenough argues that he was younger than Philo (Introduction, 9-10). Cf. J. Schwarz in Annuaire de VInst.
de Philol.
et d'Hist.
Orientates
et Slaves xiii (1953), 598-9.
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 7 2 - I 7 9
176 177 178
x
79
251
T6V e^toXcuovTa evSov 7toXi{xiov. Although the anti-Semitic Apel les of Ascalon (203-6) is not mentioned here, his presence with Helicon at Gaius' court is not likely to have improved the Jews' chances of succeeding in their appeal. fxocX0a^ai x a t TiOaaeuaat. If here and in 178 Philo is delicately hinting that the Jews also stooped to bribery, their money was less well spent than was that of the Greeks. £pyov, rcapepyov. The same play on words occurs in 323. TOU 81. Gaius. Reiter thinks that the name Tatou may have dropped out here. 28 T O U T O T O fiipo;. In Hellenistic Greek (iipo; often loses its sense of "part" and becomes a weak work like XPW** meaning merely "matter". ypajifxaTetov. Philo does not make it clear whether the Jews sent their memorandum to Gaius before the interview described in 181 or whether they presented it to him on that occasion. &v TE e7ra6o(xev. Primarily the sufferings of the Jews during the riots of August, 38. x a i &v Tuxetv yj^ioufxev. On the claims which at least some of the Alexandrian Jews were apparently making for an improvement in their civic position, a claim which Philo never explicitly mentions and only hints at here, see Introduction, pp. 12-4. Claims for redress for the losses incurred in the course of the riots are likely to have figured also in the envoys' memorandum. Julius Agrippa, a grandson of Herod the Great and popularly known as "Herod" (Acts xii, 1 and 21), was born c. 10 B.C. He owed the name Julius (IGr. 111,556) to his great-grandfather Antipater, who was given Roman citizenship b y Julius Caesar (AJ xiv, 137; BJ i, 194), and Agrippa presumably to his grandfather's friend ship with M. Vipsanius Agrippa (AJ xvi, 12-62). He spent his childhood and early manhood in Rome, until in A . D . 23 he went back to Judaea, where he led a varied, impecunious, and somewhat disreputable life for about twelve years. When he returned to the imperial court, probably early in 36, he was bidden b y Tiberius to attend on Gemellus but thought it more to his advantage to cultivate Gaius, and despite a difference of over twenty years in age the two rapidly became friends. In the f summer f of 36 an imprudent re mark made by Agrippa to Gaius to the effect that he wished that Ti berius might die so that his friend would succeed to the throne was overheard, and this mischance landed him in prison for six months LEGATIO AD G A I U M
17
252
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
(AJ xviii, 143-236). Gaius released him soon after his accession and gave him a small kingdom consisting of the former tetrarchy of Philip in northern Transjordan (Auranitis, Trachonitis, Batanaea, Gaulonitis, and Paneas), which after Philip's death in 34 had been temporarily attached to Syria, together with Abilene, a part of the dismembered Ituraean principality (AJ xviii, 106-8, 237; cf. Fl. 25; Dio lix, 8, 2). The date of the death of Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene, who was ruling c. 28 (St. Luke iii, 1), is not known. In f 4of (after the events alluded to in this section) Agrippa's kingdom was enlarged by the addition of Galilee and Peraea, the tetrarchy of Antipas, for whose dethronement and exile Agrippa was himself partly respon sible (AJ xviii, 240-55; BJ ii, 181-3; Leg. 326 and note), and in 41 it was further extended by the addition of Judaea and Samaria, * the procuratorial province (AJ xix, 274). For modern biographies of Agrippa see H. Willrich, Das Hans des Herodes
zwischen
Jerusalem
und Rom (1929), 147-56; M. P. Charlesworth, Five Men (1936), 5-30; Jones, Herods,
184-216; S. Perowne, The Later Herods
(1958), 58-83.
Agrippa did not leave Rome to take possession of his kingdom immediately, but remained in Rome until the middle of 38 (AJ xviii, 238), and then, at Gaius' suggestion, he travelled via Alexan dria (FL 26). For his reception there in August and the demonstra tions which his brief visit provoked see Introduction, pp. 17-19. From Alexandria he sent to Gaius a copy of the congratulatory resolution passed by the Jews there at the Emperor's accession and suppressed by Flaccus, together with a covering letter ex plaining its belatedness (FL 97-103). The memorandum dealing with the Jews' position in Alexandria mentioned by Philo in Leg. 179 presumably accompanied those other two documents to Rome. The absence of any reference in either the In Flaccum or the Legatio to the presence of Agrippa in Alexandria during the riots suggests that he had left the city before they began. In that case the "sufferings" of the Alexandrian Jews which Philo implies were mentioned in the petition sent by Agrippa to Gaius from Alexandria cannot have been those inflicted during the riots, which no doubt were the main subject of the memorandum submitted to Gaius by the envoys. The earlier petition presumably dealt with the discrim ination shown against the Jews in lawsuits by Flaccus before the riots (FL 24; cf. Introduction, p. 17). The envoys' memorandum must have included complaints about this discrimination also, if it embodied a summary of the earlier one; but it cannot, as Philo
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 7 9 - 1 8 1
253
suggests, have consisted solely of that summary. Similarly, the "claims" made in the petition sent by Agrippa cannot have in cluded a plea for redress for the losses incurred by the Jews during the riots, although such a plea is likely to have been included in the envoys' memorandum. Both documents may have mentioned the protection granted to the Jews by Rome before the time of Gaius, which figured prominently in Agrippa's later appeal to the Emperor; cf. the note on 276. The significance of 7rpo 6Xtyou here is discussed in Additional Note I I I , p. 49. Reiter, following Cohn, marks a lacuna between 179 and 180. The first person plural in 179 denotes the Alexandrian Jews as a whole, while in the second sentence of 180, and probably in the first also, it denotes Philo's embassy. This change suggests that some thing has been lost. 180 exOpo; &nrov8o<;. By the time with which Philo is now concerned, the last year of Gaius' life, this description of the Emperor was probably correct. See the note on 115 (xovou; y*P 'IouSatou? i>7re181
T O 7tpcoTov. The embassies' second, and much longer, interview with Gaius is recounted in 349-67. The purpose of the first meeting seems to have been merely to introduce the envoys formally and acquaint the Emperor briefly with their requests.
£xuxe 8k ex TCOV [xyjTpcocov e£icov xy]7rcov. The gardens laid out by Gaius' mother Agrippina, or perhaps by Germanicus (CIL V I , 4346), were situated on the right bank of the Tiber, with a terrace and portico at the waterside (Sen. Dial, v, 18, 4), and contained the circus of Gaius and Nero, also known as the circus Vaticanus (Pliny NH xvi, 201; xxxvi, 74; cf. T. A. xiv, 14, 4; xv, 44, 7). Balsdon suggests (96) that the purpose of Gaius' visit to the gardens was to inspect the work done in his absence on this new building. The long accepted belief, expressed, e.g., by S. B. Platner and T. Ashby (A Topographical
Dictionary
of Ancient
Rome
(1929),
113), that the south side of Constantine's basilica of St. Peter was built on top of the demolished north walls of the (presumably eastwest orientated) circus has been disproved b y the recent excavations under the cathedral, which have revealed no trace of the circus but have shown that the south wall of old St. Peter's rested on bedrock. The southward orientation of the pagan necropolis under the south aisle of the cathedral indicates the existence of a road running east-
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
254
west along the southern foot of the Vatican hill. This road quite possibly formed the northern boundary of the gardens of Agrippina, which therefore will not have extended up the Vatican hill over the site of the cathedral (as held by Platner and Ashby, op. cit., 264), but have been confined to the flatter ground to the south of it. Summaries and discussions of the relevant portion of the Vatican report on the excavations are given b y J. M. C. Toynbee, ' T h e shrine of St. Peter and its setting" in JRS xliii (1953), 8-12, and Toynbee and J. B. Ward Perkins, The Shrine of St. Peter (1956), 5-12. If the envoys travelled to Italy in the winter of 39-40, the preli minary hearing probably occurred towards the end of May, 40, when Gaius is known to have been in the neighbourhood of Rome. A fragment of the AFA (p. 14) shows that he was present on 1st June at a sacrifice at the shrine of the Dea Dia, and provides a terminus ante quern for his return from his German expedition; but he may have been back in Italy some weeks earlier. Suetonius' statement that he "entered the city" at his ovation on 31st August (G. 49, 2) is interpreted as meaning that he remained outside the pomoerium between his return from the North and that date, and this is borne out by the AFA for 24th May and a day early in June (I.e.), which show that he was not present at sacrifices on the Capitol on those dates. The shrine of the Dea Dia (at the fifth milestone along the Via Campana) and the gardens of Agrippina both lay well outside the pomoerium (for the line of which at this time see M. Labrousse, "Le
pomoerium
de
la
Rome imp6riale" in Melanges
d'Archeol.
et
d'Hist. (Iicole Fran?aise de Rome) liv (1937), 165-99). Balsdon (I.e. and JRS, 21) makes the acceptable suggestion that Gaius passed the months June-August in Campania (Leg. 185, Puteoli). T O V em TCOV 7rpea(3eicov. The Latin title was presumably a legationibus. That precise title is not listed by Magie, De Vocabulis, but similar ones are found (71). "0(xtXov. Otherwise unknown. "OCOT6<;" 6 p r ) . . . . Hardly the remark of an implacable enemy of the Jews. It is clear even from Philo's prejudiced account that Gaius did not reject the Jews' suit out of hand. auvY)8ea6ai. Here "congratulate". Cf. R. C. Jebb's note on the verb in his edition of Sophocles' OC (1889), line 1398. 9<xvTaa£ai<;. See the note on this word in i n . 182 TYJV SXXTQV 7rai8eiav. Does Philo mean here the practical training
COMMENTARY ON §§ 181-184
255
given him b y his previous political career (note on 174) rather than his philosophical training? Toaouxcov dcpiyyivtov. During Gaius' absence on his expe dition to the North, embassies had accumulated in Italy. (3ouX6fi.evo<;; Philo's prejudice makes him distrust and mis interpret what was probably a perfectly reasonable attitude on Gaius' part. A cursory glance at the Jews' case had shown him that it was worthy ot longer and closer consideration. But Philo can only suppose that some ulterior and sinister motive lies behind his ap parent reasonableness. 183
veo>. Gaius was nearly twenty-eight. TCOV iXXcov 'AXe£av8p6cov. Technically the term "Alexandrian" meant a Greek citizen of Alexandria, and therefore, strictly speaking, Philo's reference to the Greeks as "the other Alexandrians" carries the implication that the Jews also were "Alexandrians" in this sense. In the controversy as to whether the Jews in Alexandria as a community did or did not possess Greek citizenship the phrase has accordingly been used as evidence that the Jews did. Since, how ever, the weight of other evidence is against the belief that the Jews possessed Greek citizenship (see Introduction, pp. 6-11), it seems more probable that the term "Alexandrian" as used here, and in 194, 350, and Fl. 80, is to be interpreted in a non-technical sense as meaning merely "dweller in Alexandria". In this sense, which Philo could easily use in a literary work, the Jews clearly were Alexandrians no less that the Greeks were. In other words, although Philo's phrase is compatible with the theory that the Jews had Greek citizenship, it does not compel us to accept it, since it allows of an alternative explanation. In the edict which Claudius sent to Alexandria early in 41 he refers to T O U ^ I V 'AXe£av8pe[<x 'Ioi>8afou<;, 'AXe£av8pei<; Xeyojievou; (AJ xix, 281), which implies that although the Jews were popularly known as "Alexandrians", they had no legal right to that title.
T6V taov xai xotvov axpoarJjv ^reppi^. An extension of the familiar use of uTcepPaCvco with an object such as TOU; axemen; (204) to mean "omit", "pass over". 184 2 9 ivtav. Mangey's conjecture for the oyvotav of A, read by previous editors, and the fivotav of the other MSS. Reiter suggests dbcopCav as an alternative. areyovros. Mangey's correction of the a T e v o v r o ^ of the MSS, read by previous editors.
256
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
ouSe yip aveveyxeiv ao^pocXes TJV. Philo does not explain why it was unsafe to share his anxiety with his fellow envoys. erepov . . . . xaxov. Gaius* proposal to desecrate the Temple, narrated in 188 ff. oux l^P • • • • The Jews of the Diaspora would be as deeply affected by the desecration as the Jews of Palestine, since, as Philo explains in 281, Jerusalem and the Temple formed the focus of the religion of all Jews throughout the world. 185 Aixatapxetav. Puteoli. 21
!7ra\iXei<;.
Used of Roman villae
Plutarch (Pomp.
186
again in 351 and 358, and b y
24, 6).
Philo does not say where this messenger and his fellows (189) came from or how they had got their information. Presumably the news of Gaius' order had leaked out from his en tourage and was taken to the envoys b y Italian Jews. It is con ceivable, although less probable, that it was brought to Italy b y traders from Palestine. 188 otxerai Vcov T O lep6v. The proposed desecration would render the Temple unfit for Jewish use and therefore as good as destroyed in their eyes. Josephus' accounts of Gaius' attack on the Temple (AJ xviii, 261-310; BJ ii, 184-203) differ considerably from that in Leg. 188-348. The year of the Temple episode as a whole is fixed as 40 by the conclusion of both of Josephus' narratives and by the single sentence which Tacitus devotes to it in his sketch of the history of 7rpoaepxeTat TI<;.
Palestine under the Romans—//, v, 9 dein iussi a C. Caesare eius
in tempio
locate
atma
potius
sumpsete,
quern
effigiem
motumCaesatis
mors ditemit. Both writers refer to the death of Gaius as ending it. The fact that the news of Gaius' order for the desecration reached the Jewish envoys in Campania confirms the dating of the stay which they and Gaius made there to 40, and rules out the possibility that the envoys were there with him on his visit during the summer of 39, the date given b y Dio (lix, 17) for the building of the bridge of boats across the Bay of Baiae. It then follows that the second hearing of the envoys (349-67), which was subsequent to their stay in Campania, also belongs to 40. eacoTarco TCOV £8UTCOV. In the Holy of Holies. Ai&s ercbcXrjaiv auToG.
The statue was presumably to be one of
Gaius himself in the guise of Zeus, if Philo's later statement that the Temple was to be re-dedicated to "Gaius, the New Zeus Epi-
COMMENTARY ON §§ 1 8 4 - I 9 3
257
phanes" (346) refers to the whole of Gaius* project, and not merely to the re-issue of his order shortly before his death (337-8 and notes). 190
aytovtaato[iev
atpsOrjvai.
Reiter reinstates aytovtdo~to|j.ev, the
reading of five of the MSS, in place of aytovta£6fxevot, the emendation of Turnebus which editors before him had accepted. The MSS vary between el$ &KOLV xa$, eUforavxa*;,and et? 6c7cav rat?. Most editors give zlq arcavras xat?, which seems untranslatable. Dahl gave et? orcavxa xat?, but suggested in a footnote ^[JLOC? arcavxa*; xat<;. For the MSS ev auxois, which was accepted by most earlier editors, Dahl conjectured <xvtaxot<; (adopted by Reiter) or <xv7]xlaxot$ (cf. Mangey's ziq irrav xa^ avyjxlejxous), or axoXaaxot^.
Colson suggests punctuating with a stop after iycovtaatofxev (cf. Mangey's stop after aycovta^fxevot, accepted by Dahl) instead of after d^eOrjvat, and translating "Let us face the crisis. It was to save ourselves from being the victims of outrages" (i.e., further outrages in Alexandria; cf. Mangey's other conjecture Iv aaxot? for Iv auxots) "that we sailed . . . . " He offers Ivtauatou; as another possible emendation for Iv auxot<;, "outrages which have now lasted for a year" (notes ad
loc.).
Xetficovo; (xlaou. The problem of the year of the embassies' winter voyage to Italy is treated in Additional Note III, pp. 47-50. Colson assumes a play on xeipckv i this section, the word being used first in the sense of "winter" and then in the sense of "storm". e^eSpcx;. See the note on this word in 29. 191 7rept 7cpooreuxtov. The first matter to be laid before Gaius was not merely a protest against the desecration and destruction of the synagogues; there was also the question whether the Jews were to retain in the future the free use of the synagogues which they had enjoyed until recently, and this involved the wider issue of their religious liberty in general and their exemption from participation in the imperial cult. xco Xujiecovt. On this word see the note on 92. The Jews are regarding the proposed desecration as already virtually a fait n
accompli.
192 193
avaxoXoct xai 8uaei<;. I.e., the communities of the Diaspora. Cf. 1 1 7 and notes. Iv loxaxco JStou xtv6$; The threat to the Temple was of concern to all the Jews throughout the world, and took precedence over the purely local question of the Jews' rights in Alexandria.
258
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Colson points out (note ad loc.) that ISlou refers to the interests of the Alexandrian Jewish community, and not merely to the safety of the envoys. •J) 7coXiTeta. I.e. the rights of the Jewish 7roX£Teu[xa in Alexandria, the sense in which the word is used in 349, 363, and Fl. 53 also. See Introduction, 4 ff., especially 8-9. The second matter to be referred to Gaius was the question whether the Jews were to be restored to the privileged position which they had enjoyed before the summer of 38 as members of a 7roX[Teu|i.a with the right of resid ence in Alexandria, or were to remain in the inferior position to which they had been degraded and to continue to be confined to the ghetto. 194
&<; layht 'AXe£av8pei<;. I.e., that we possess, and have for centuries possessed, the right of domicile in Alexandria, which had been challenged b y the institution of the ghetto. The meaning of "Alexan drian" here is discussed in the note on 183. A puzzling phrase, since there was no single and universal 7coXiTet<x embracing all the Jews in the empire. It may be a compressed expression used to denote the various dif ferent political rights enjoyed b y the many communities of the Diaspora. Philo's argument is that, if the religious freedom of all the Jews is violated b y the desecration of the Temple, the civic rights of individual communities in places other than Alexandria, and possibly the very existence of thejewish nation, will be in jeopardy. T?js xa8oXixG>T6poc<; 7roXiTeta<;.
195
ajicpoTlpcov T & V U7ro06aea>v. The questions of the Jews' civic rights in Alexandria (193) and their religious liberty (191). npb$ 6v et7tot[xi &v.
It is not clear how much of what follows is the
reply. Colson gives only the one sentence YJ OUX ypdjifxaaiv. But the next sentence follows on so closely that it seems also to be part of the reply. 196 T & V acoTTJpoc Ge&v This Jewish doctrine of history runs through the Old Testament and later writings. The Exodus from Egypt was regarded as one of God's supreme acts of deliverance of His people (Exod. xiv-xv). Expressions of the belief that God was responsible for victories or deliverances are found frequently elsewhere, especially in the earlier narrative books of the Bible: Judges
vii, 1 4 - 5 ; I Samuel
xvii, 45-7; II Kings
xix, especially
32-6; I Mace, iv, 30 (concerning David and the Philistines). The deliverances wrought b y the Maccabees and b y Esther are still commemorated in prayers of thanksgiving offered at Hanukkah
COMMENTARY ON §§ and
Purim (The Authorized
Congregations
198
Daily
Prayer
of the British Empire,
I 9 3 - I 9 8
Book
259
of the United
Hebrew
translated by S. Singer).
30 7ravTcov lepcov TCOV 7ravTaxou X O X X K J T O V . Cf. Spec, i, 72, "The Temple in the very centre" (i.e. of the whole complex of buildings of the Temple hill) "baffles all description", and B. T. Baba Bathra 4a, "It used to be said: He who has not seen the Temple of Herod has never seen a beautiful building. Ot what did he build it ? Rabbah said: Of yellow and white marble. Some say, of blue, yellow and white marble. Alternate rows of the stones projected, so as to leave a place for cement. He originally intended to cover it with gold, but the Rabbis advised him not to, since it was more beautiful as it was, looking like the waves of the sea" (repeated almost exactly in B.T. Sukkah 51b). But the Jews' patriotism seems to have pre judiced them in the favour of a building which must have been, structurally at least, distinctly odd. Herod the Great, determined to replace the rather poor post-exilic Temple by a much grander building, insisted on following, as far as was practicable, the tradi tional dimensions of Solomon's Temple (AJ xv, 382-7; II Chron. iii-iv; cf. different figures in I Kings vi, 2-3), and produced, if Josephus' figures are reliable (BJ v, 207-24), a very tall, badlyproportioned, T-shaped edifice with a huge, flat, square facade rising sheer from the ground. Cf. Philo's reference to the height of the Temple in Spec, i, 73. The measurements given in the Mishnah (Middoth i v ) , which was codified over a century after the destruc tion of the Temple, do not all tally with those given b y Josephus, but the general picture of the building is the same. Herod was hampered less b y Jewish tradition and the example of Solomon in designing the less sacred complex of building surrounding the Temple proper—the Court of the Israelites, the Court of the Women, and the vast outer enclosure known as the Court of the Gentiles, which he greatly enlarged. These buildings, which were on a monu mental scale, seem to have followed more or less orthodox Greek architectural lines, with pillared porticoes and gates on the scale of propylaea, and, as in the Temple itself, much marble and precious metal was used (AJ xv, 396-420; BJ v, 190-206; Spec, i, 73). For more detailed descriptions of the Temple and its surrounding buildings, and plans, see Hastings, A Dictionary of the Bible s.v. Temple,
7 1 1 ff.; JE s.v. Temple)
Jones, Herods,
106-10 (where the
"120 cubits" given for the height of the Temple should be altered to "100" in the light of BJ v, 207 and 221, and Mishnah Middoth iv,
260
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
6 ) ; S. Perowne, The Life and Times of Herod theGreat
(1956), 129-40;
at p. 177 he reproduces C. J. M. de Vogue's reconstruction of the Temple in Le Temple
de Jerusalem
(1864), PI. X V I . The Mishnaic * lt
account is studied by L.-H. Vincent, Le la Mishnah"
Temple
Herodien
d'apres
in RB lxi (1954), 5-35, 398-418.
Ii; a7tetpcov xpovcov. In about 30 A . D . it was remarked that the Temple had taken f forty six f years to build (St. John ii, 20). Jose phus, however, says that it was not completed until A.D.64 ( 4 / xx, 219). Presumably therefore it was only its main structure which was finished in eighteen months during Herod's lifetime (AJ xv, 421), while work on the ornamentation continued, if only spasmodically, long after that.
199 TOxpaTlOyjxTai 8e vuv. The details of the chronology of Gaius' attack on the Temple have been discussed by a number of scholars. For the bibliography and for arguments in favour of the chronological scheme adopted in this edition see the present writer, ' T h e chro nology of Gaius' attempt to desecrate the Temple" in Latomus xvi (1957), 3-17, where the evidence in reconsidered. Arguments from that article are incorporated in sections of this commentary. The news of Gaius' plan for the desecration of the Temple reached the Jewish envoys while they were in Campania, i.e., probably during the months June-August, 40. If the protests of the Pales tinian Jews against it occurred in May-June, 40 (note on 249 ev AXJJLT) 8
of the Bible
V, 378-83; Charlesworth,
Trade-routes,
23, 44, and notes. Gaius may have received the report when he returned to Italy from his German expedition in the spring of 40 (note on 181 eruxe 8e l x TCOV frqTpcocov IStcov xifj7rcov, fin.). But it is equally possible that it was sent to him while he was still in the North and that his order to Petronius was issued from there (earlier, of course, than if issued from Italy). I.e., according to this chronology, Gaius had been "excited" by Capito's report some three months, and perhaps longer, before the information about his
COMMENTARY ON §§ I 9 8 - I 9 9
26l
resultant order came to the Jewish envoys. This remark of the mes sengers with its definite vuv would have been made more appropriately immediately after the arrival of Capito's report and the dispatch of Gaius' order to Petronius than some months later, and it provides one of the strongest points in support of Balsdon's suggestion that the report arrived and the order was issued in June from Campania (JRS, 20). But it does not rule out the chronology adopted in this edition. For rumour is notoriously inaccurate, and it is possible that when the news leaked out some time during the summer and was passed from person to person, people eager to be thought the bearers of " h o t " news represented the arrival of Capito's report and the issue of Gaius' order as more recent than they really were. An estate con sisting of Jamnia (200) together with Azotus, Phasaelis, Archelais and its palm-groves, and a palace at Ascalon, had belonged to Salome, sister of Herod the Great (AJ xvii, 189, 321; BJ ii, 98), who had bequeathed it to Livia on her death c. A . D . 10 (AJ xviii, 3 1 ; BJ ii, 167). It had subsequently passed to Tiberius and then to Gaius. As the personal property of members of the imperial family, it was managed by an imperial procurator, with its revenues kept separate from those of the province in which it lay. C. Herennius Capito held this appointment under all three imperial owners (L Annie £pigraphiqne 1941, no. 105, with 1947, no. 39). (The procurator Tiberius Julius Mellon, a freedman of Augustus, mentioned on a fragment of a sarcophagus found near Jamnia (L Annie £pig. 1948, no. 141), was perhaps an earlier procurator appointed b y Livia.) t Philo's description of Capito as "collector of the revenues of Ju daea" is puzzling. When in 35 or 36 Capito tried to recover a large sum owed b y Agrippa I to the fiscus in Rome, he had troops at his disposal and his jurisdiction extended to Anthedon (AJ xviii, 15863). He may therefore b y then have had financial responsibility for the province as well as for the imperial estate; cf. H . G. Pflaum, 9opc>v ixkoye\)$ 6
Les
carriires
KOCTTITCOV
procuratoriennes
eari
TCOV TTJS
iquestres
TouSata^.
(i960), I, 25. Alternatively
Philo's *Iou8ocla<;, found in all the MSS, may be a longstanding textual error for 'Iajxveta^. There is no evidence that Capito was ever procurator of Judaea in the sense of governor; cf. the note on 207xeXe6ci yap IleTpcovtco TCO TYJ? Zup(a$ &n
262
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
debt, may have been construed into a belief that he was hostile to the Jews in general. 200 4<popfXY>. The episode which, according to Philo, provoked the issue of Gaius' order, is not recorded b y Josephus. The disturbances at Jamnia probably occurred in the winter of 39-40 (cf. Balsdon in JRS, 19), if Capito's letter about them reached Gaius b y March or earlier. rf)v 'Ia[xveiotv. In Hebrew Jabneh (II Chron. xxvi, 6 and rabbinic writings), a town near the coast, between Joppa and Ascalon. For its history see Schurer II, 126-8; JE s.v. Jabneh; P.-W. s.v. Jamnia;
Provinces
cf. references in A. H. M. Jones, Cities of the Eastern
Roman
(i937)» 254, 259, 271-5, 281.
Iv T O T S [laXtara. Reiter reinstates the TOIC; of the MSS in place of the emendation TOCIS of previous editors, arguing (Prolegomena, lxxiii) that the phrase Iv TOI<; (neuter) intensifies the superlative and is used adverbially elsewhere linked to a feminine (Spec, i, 1 5 1 ; Thucydides iii, 17, 1 ; 82, 1) or to a masculine (Fl. 148; Abr. 69; Spec,
i, 173,
324).
7roXuav8pco7ros. Strabo, although describing Jamnia as a xtofxyj, says that together with its surrounding district it could produce forty thousand soldiers (xvi, 2, 28, 759). (xtyaSe^. It was trouble in another Palestinian city with a mixed population, Caesarea, in 64-6 which was the immediate cause of the outbreak of the great Jewish revolt (AJ xx, 173-84; BJ ii, 266-70, 284 ff.). ot 7rXetou?. Jamnia was not an old Jewish town but was one of those of Philistine origin on the Phoenician coastal strip conquered b y the Hasmonaeans in the second century B.C. and thoroughly Judaized. It must indeed have been a predominantly Jewish town b y the first century A . D . , since it was thither that the centre of rabbinic Judaism was moved after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70. On this event see, e.g., G. F. Moore, Judaism I (1927), 83-92. auOiYcvlatv. The Jews were b y this time so firmly established in Jamnia and in such numbers that the historical situation was reversed: the Jews counted as the natives and the gentiles as the infiltrators. ixerotxot. Philo here borrows an Athenian constitutional term to describe the gentiles resident in what he regards as a Jewish town. In the Septuagint the synonym rcapoixos translates the Hebrew term for "resident alien", b y which in Tannaitic law was meant an
COMMENTARY ON §§ 199-202
263
uncircumcised gentile who had given up idolatry. But it is clear from the last six words of this section that the jxeroixot in Jamnia were heathen. See further Wolfson, II, 365-9, who, however, dis places Tp67cov Ttva when he translates ot xot? . . . . {iirotxot as "who are in a manner residents among the original native inhabitants". For the use of rcapotxos to designate Jews resident in gentile cities see Juster, II, 1, n. 4. The similar word xarotxos is applied to the Alexandrian Jews in Fl. 172. 201 ex0£toatv. As in the case of the Alexandrian riots, Philo makes Gaius' self-deification the cause of the outbreak of trouble in Palestine, and so holds him indirectly responsible for it. But with more justification. Gaius' claim to divinity certainly ante-dated the Jamnia episode, although it did not ante-date the riots in Alexandria. oXXoTptcoTaTa yh>o$. This was probably true b y the winter of 39-40. See the note on 115 jx6vou^ yip 'IouSalou^ i>7re(JX£7reTO. Pcofiov. If the disturbances in Jamnia occurred in the winter of 39-40, it is possible, although no definite evidence is available, that the altar was built in connection with Gaius' expedition to Gaul and Germany—as a votive offering for his success rather than a thankoffering for his "victory", since the latter is not likely to have been known in Palestine so early. Cf. the hecatomb offered by the Jews in anticipation of a "German victory" (356). auvotxouatv. Not o-u[X7roXtTat. Herod the Great had evidently re duced Jamnia from the status of a city (attested by A J xiii, 395) to that of the head of a toparchy, an administrative district subdivided into villages, since it is described as a toparchy in connection with Salome's bequest of her estate to Livia (AJ xviii, 3 1 ; j B / ii, 167). This change of status meant that it ceased to be autonomous and to have jurisdiction over its surrounding territory, and that, strictly speaking, it had no 7uoXvrat. It retained its non-city status when it passed into imperial hands, and did not become a city again until much later, perhaps in the course of the third century programme of urbanization (A. H. M. Jones, op. cit. 281). 202 xaOatpouat. Philo makes the messenger express no horror or even concern at this action of the Jews. In Deut. vii, 5 and xii, 2-3 the Jews are instructed to break down pagan altars. On the other hand, the Septuagint version of Exod. xxii, 28, "Thou shalt not revile God", has 6eo\i;, and this version, quoted in AJ iv, 207, is inter preted by Philo and Josephus as forbidding them to show disrespect for pagan gods and temples (In Ap. ii, 237; Mos. ii, 205; Spec, i, 53; t
264
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
QE ii, 5). And indeed, it was essential for the safety of the Diaspora communities that they should be restrained from expressing their scorn for paganism b y attacks on the cults of the gentiles among whom they lived. Cf. E. R. Goodenough, The Jurisprudence of the Jewish
Courts
in Egypt
(1929), 47-8, 245; S. Belkin, Philo
and the
Oral Law (1940), 24; and the note on "Religious Tolerance" in J. H. Hertz, The Pentateuch
and Haftorahs
V, Deuteronomy
(1936),
54-5. The Jews' destruction of the Jamnian altar was an act of provocation and intolerance deserving punishment. It was presum ably this sort of thing which Claudius had in mind when, in his edict addressed to the Jews of Alexandria, he forbade them xa<; TGJV &XXCOV Setat&atfxovta*; e£ou0evt£etv (AJ xix, 290).
SyjfxtoupYo;. This tallies with the remark in 199 that Capito was hostile towards the Jews, but it is not necessarily any more true. 203 Stavayvou;. See the note on 69 Slaveys. The news from Jamnia reached Gaius when he had already long been aware of the opposition of the Alexandrian Jews to the placing of his portraits in the syna gogues. Either episode alone might have been regarded as merely a disturbance of the peace. But the two occurring within perhaps eighteen months of each other looked like organized disloyalty, and this probably accounted for the severity of the punishment which Gaius decided to impose on Palestine. avSptavra.
See the note on 188 At6; e7rtxXY)atv auTou.
au(i(3ouXois rot; aplarou; xal aocpcoTaTOt?.
Cf. 206 xaX&v 7tpa£ea>v
xaXot dufxPouXoi. For other occurrences of (JU[A(3OI>XO;—"member of the imperial consilium*
see Magie, De Vocabulis,
70. The "curious
rubbing in by Philo of the word au[z(3ot>Xos, especially the aufxPouXou Ta^tv (204), which suggests ironically some kind of formal status, is his way of driving home the point that Gaius took no notice of any but court favourites and sycophants, instead of sober statesmen" (J. A. Crook, Consilium
Principis
(1955), 40).
'EXtxcovt.
See the note on him in 166. 7repiTpi(XfA<xTi. Literally a "thing worn smooth b y rubbing". In Demosthenes xviii, 127 it means "hack". In Aristophanes Nub. 447 the idea of cunning is perhaps included; cf. xptfifxa in Nub. 260 and Aves
431 in the sense of "an old hand at".
A native of Ascalon (205) and a wellknown actor despite Philo's scornful T I V I . Cf. S. Vespasianus 19, 1. Gaius took a keen interest in the theatre (cf. the note on 42 YJ Ttva? exfjtav&s . . . . ) , but he shocked public opinion b y associating with 'ATteXXyj xtvt TpaycpSw.
COMMENTARY ON §§ 202-205
265
the generally despised class of actors, and by even numbering Apelles and Mnester among his close friends (Dio lix, 5, 2; S. G. 55, 1). The part played by Apelles and Helicon in getting Gaius* order for the desecration of the Temple issued does not rule out the pos sibility that it was issued from Gaul (as is suggested in the note on 199 7rap!XTe8YjXTai vuv). It is quite conceivable, although there is no supporting evidence, that they accompanied Gaius on his expedition. sxa7TY]Xsu(je TYJV topav. Gaius is reputed to have had unnatural relations with Mnester (S. G. 36, 1), and Philo here insinuates that the same was the case with Apelles. 204 8aot 8k . . . . dcvcoTaTco; Ironical, whether read as a question (C.-W.-R.) or as a statement (Colson). (xc0' 00 (xev. Helicon. Cf. 168-71. aarlov. Like Nero, Gaius is said to have performed as a singer, etc. (Dio lix, 5, 4-5; S. G. 54). 205 'AoxaXcovo?. Ascalon, which made itself independent of the Seleucids in 104 B.C. and began its own era (BMCGC, Palestine, xlviii, 106 ff.), was the only city on the Phoenician coast from Dora to the Egyptian border to escape annexation by Alexander Jannaeus in the first century B.C. (It is not included in the list of Hasmonaean conquests in A J xiii, 395). It apparently retained its independence in Pompey's settlement of the East in 63, for it is not listed among the Phoenician cities removed from Jewish control then and added to the province of Syria (AJ xiv, 76; BJ i, 156-7). In 36 B.C., when most of the Phoenician coastal strip from the river Eleutherus (north of Area) to the Egyptian border was given b y Antony to Cleopatra, Ascalon was apparently included; the only exceptions specified are Tyre and Sidon (AJ xv, 92-5; BJ i, 361), and Cleop atra's head was shown on one coin of Ascalon (BMCGC, Palestine, 108, no. 20). It regained its free status in 30; when Octavian re stored to Herod the Great the parts of his kingdom annexed by Cleopatra and enlarged it by the addition of several Phoenician cities which had been lost to the Jews since 63, Ascalon was not included (^4/ xv, 217; BJ i, 396). Although the city thus lay outside Herod's kingdom, he had a palace there (later part of his sister Salome's estate; A J xvii, 321), and made many gifts to it (BJ i, 422). S. Perowne accepts, with slight modification, the statements of Julius Africanus (apud Eus. HE i, 6, 2-3, and 7, n ) and Justin Martyr (Dial. c. Tryph. 52) that Herod was of Ascalonite ancestry, and regards this as the explanation of his attitude towards the city
266 (The
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS Life
and
Times
of Herod
the Great
(1956), 21-2).
Ascalon
remained independent at least until the end of the first century A . D . , when Pliny calls it liber um oppidum (NH v, 68). At an unknown date but before 359 it became a colony, which involved its incorpor ation in the province of Palestine; it still retained the title "free", although it was then meaningless (U. Wilcken und L. Mitteis, Grundziige
und
Chrestomathie
der
Papyruskunde
(1912)
II,
ii,
no. 271). aao|i.(3aT6<; TI<; xai axaxaXXaxToc; Suafieveta.
Early in the war of
66-70 the Jews attacked and burnt the villages round Ascalon (BJ ii, 460), which retaliated b y a massacre of two thousand, five hundred Jews living in its territory (BJ ii, 477). Shortly after that the Jews made an unsuccessful attack on the city itself (BJ iii, 9-28). On the attitude of rabbis of the second and third centuries A . D . to Ascalon and other cities which from the Jewish point of view (although not necessarily from that of the Roman administration) lay outside the frontiers of Jewish territory, see A. Biichler, "Der Patriarch R. Jehuda I und die griechisch-romischen Stadte Palastinas" in JQR xiii (1901), 683-740, an article of which an English translation is printed in Biichler's Studies in Jewish
History
(1956),
179-244. 206
aXX' ol (iiv . . . . The rest of this section, bracketed in this edition, breaks the thread of the argument, and would have formed a footnote, had footnotes been invented by Philo's time. 6 [iiv. Apelles. Suetonius records that Gaius once had Apelles whipped for a failure to be quick enough in his flattery (G. 33), but he mentions no permanent fall from favour such as Philo seems to be alluding to. aTpEJiXoufievos xai Tpoxi£6(xevo<;. Vivid accounts of the rack, the wheel, and other devices of torture in the ancient world are given in A. R. Allinson, Tortures
and
Torments
of the Christian
(1903), a translation of A. Gallonio, De SS. Martyrum
Martyrs
Cruciatibus
(published in Italian in 1591 and subsequently in Latin). ex 7teptTpo7rij<;.. Colson suggests that "periodically" (rack and wheel being taken together) would suit the simile of recurrent fever better than "in turns" (note ad loc.). 6 Se 'EXixwv. The exact date of the execution of Helicon is not given, but as it was clearly part of Claudius' reaction against Gaius' policy and his attempt to efface the memory of his principate, it can be assumed that it occurred soon after his accession. This
COMMENTARY ON §§ 205-207
267
reference therefore gives a terminus post quern for the composition, or at least the completion, of the Legatio. 6
According to Josephus, Petronius wrote to Gaius acknowledging his receipt of the order and notifying him of his plans for carrying it out (AJ xviii, 262). On the reply which Josephus makes Gaius send to this dispatch see the note on 259 e7wcivcov OCUTOV. It is noteworthy that Gaius sent his order, not to the procurator of Judaea, but to the legate of Syria, who exercised a general oversight over Judaea and its procurator but who intervened in affairs there only at times of crisis—e.g., in A . D . 6 (AJ xviii, 1-2, 26), 36-7 (AJ xviii, 88-95, 120-4), (BJ ii> 280-1, 333-5)Indeed, the then procurator of Judaea is not mentioned at all by Philo or b y Josephus in connection with the Temple episode. He was presumably the Marullus, f otherwise unknown, whom Gaius had appointed soon after his accession (AJ xviii, 237). S. J. de Laet suggests that he is to be identified with the Marcellus whom Vitellius had put in charge of the province temporarily shortly before Tiberius' death (AJ xviii, 89), that Gaius had officially confirmed his appointment, and that one of the names is an error for the a
Legatio ad Gaium
n
d
6
6
18
268
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
other (in UAntiquite
Classique
viii (1939), 413-9). But, as L. H.
Feldman comments (note on AJ xviii, 237, Loeb edition), this disregards both the unanimous authority of the MSS and the verb ex7re{i7rei, which implies that Gaius sent Marullus from Rome, f TYJS rax?' Eu9paTf) AXPATTA^. The garrison of three legions in Syria, presumably stationed there b y Augustus during his re organization of frontier defence but not attested until 6-4 B.C. (AJ xvii, 286; BJ ii, 40), had been increased to four by A . D . 23 (T. A. iv, 5, 4) b y the transfer of X I I Fulminata from Egypt (see P.-W. s.v. Legio, col. 1706). As far as is known, no legion was stationed actually on the Euphrates in the first half of the first century A . D . Under Tiberius VI Ferrata was stationed at or near Laodicea ( A . D . 19: T. A. ii, 79,3), and X Fretensis at Cyrrhus (A.D. 18: T. A. ii, 57, 2). The camps of the other two legions, III Gallica and X I I Fulminata, under the early Emperors are not known, but X I I may have been stationed from the time of Augustus at Raphaneae, where it was in 66 (BJ vii, 18), and it is probable that Antioch, the capital, was also garrisoned. Cf. J. G. C. Anderson in CAH X , 282-3. The garrison of Syria remained unchanged until the time of Corbulo's Armenian campaigns, which may have been followed b y some alterations in the dispositions of the legions. "Two legions" (AJ xviii, 261-2). The "three legions" of BJ ii, 186 must be a slip. There is no evidence to show which legions were chosen. The order to take troops to Judaea shows that Gaius anticipated stiff opposition, and that he was aware that the small auxiliary garrison under the command of the procurator there was likely to prove inadequate for dealing with it. On the garrison of Judaea, probably one ala and five cohorts, see C. H. Kraeling in HThR xxxv (1942), 266-9. 208
Y)[xtaetav.
COMMENTARY ON §§ 207*211
269
recorded b y both Philo and Josephus, reveals him as a humane and sensitive person, with considerable sympathy for Jewish feelings. Philo, who clearly admired him, credits him with having acquainted himself with Jewish thought before taking up his post in the East (245). a96p7)Tov. Reiter thinks that Tatov may have fallen out after this. fj&ei y<*P OotvdcTou Petronius may have heard of Pilate's massacre, perhaps ten years earlier, of the many Jews who had opposed his use of money from the Temple treasury to finance the building of an aqueduct (AJ xviii, 60-2; BJ ii, 175-7). 210 T O U S v6|xou<;. For the Hellenistic use of V6[JLO; as the equivalent of the Hebrew "Torah" see the note on 115 Ttov lepcov v6[xcov. Al though Philo generally uses v6jio<; in this Jewish sense, he sometimes appears to be more conscious of the Greek meaning of the word, as he is here, where he is speaking, not of the Pentateuch as a whole, but of the laws by which the Jews were required to live (T£ StareTayyiva)—the basic Ten Commandments (Exod. xix-xx) and the mass of lesser commands and prohibitions laid down in the Penta teuch. With 6e6xp>jaTa X6yta cf. Decal. 15, where Philo describes the Ten Commandments as 8eou xp^^l^ou^. ayaXfzaToipopouai Toiyapouv dbco
TYJS 0
TOC^ TCOV
7cpd>TY)^ v T
SiaTerayfiivtov e£x6va^. eoOii? ata0Y)crlcos
a
a
Cf. In Ap. ii, 178
auTou^
the laws)
(i.e., 01
lx[xav8avovT£^ S x ^ ^ ^ <Wx*S coenrep SyxexapftYH-^ ^211 evapyet^ TU7TOU^ xal (xopcpa^ aurcov xaOopcovre^. Reminiscent of Plato's doctrine of the glimpses which the eyes of the soul can catch of the Ideas. TOV>£ (/iv Tt(XY]Ttxco? £ x S £XXo9uXous aurcov. Philo may be referring here not only to proselytes (gentiles who had accepted Judaism in full, including submission to circumcision), but also to those gentiles on the fringe of Judaism who went so far as to accept its monotheism and moral code and to conform to the major re quirements of the Law, but who did not mark themselves out defin itely as proselytes by circumcision. In the light of the observations of Kirsopp Lake (Foakes Jackson and Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity V (1933), 74-96) and of L. H. Feldman ("Jewish 'Sympathizers' in classical literature and inscriptions" in Trans, and Proc. Amer. Philol. Assoc. lxxxi (1950), 200-8), it seems advisable to use the term "Judaizer" or "Jewish sympathizer" to denote this class of persons, quite numerous in the early empire, in pre ference to such terms as aep6[xevo<; (TOV 0S6V), <po(3ou[ievos T O V 6S6V, o v T a
270
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
6eoae(ly)<;, and metuens (which occur in the literature of the early Christian period), or the modern terms "God-fearer" and "semi-" or "half-proselyte", used by many scholars in this sense. For refer ences to proselytes and Judaizers and for discussion of their position vis-a-vis the Jews see, e.g., H. H. Gratz, Die jiidischen Proselyten im
Romerreiche
unter
den
Kaisern
Domitian,
Nerva,
Trajan
und
Hadrian (1884); Juster, I, 253-90; G. F. Moore, Judaism I (1927), 323-53; W. G. Braude, Jewish Proselytizing (1940); Wolfson, II, 355-74; G. Ricciotti, Histoire d'Israel II (translated by P. Auvray, 1948), 250-69; S. W . Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews (1952) I, 171-83; JE s.v. Proselyte. 7re9ptxa9axToo x a l 7teptPoXou.
65 8'av XY)90YJ eauTco ai/rio; eaTat Sta T O e£axoXoo0£tv OavaTov.
For a full discussion of the inscription, of its possible position on the balustrade, and of the death penalty prescribed for offenders, see C. Clermont-Ganneau, "Une stele du Temple de Jerusalem" in Rev. Archeol. 2nd series xxiii (1872), 214-34, 290-6. A fragment of a second Greek inscription, found in 1936, is in the museum in Jerusa lem. See J. H. Iliffe, "The OavaTo*; inscription from Herod's Temple" in Quarterly
of the Dept.
of Antiquities
in Palestine
vi (1938), 1-3;
PI. I and II show the two inscriptions. Photographs of the complete one are also given by Jones, Herods, PI. 4, and in RB x x x (1921), PI. IV. 214
With this section cf. 281-2 with the note
T<X<;
<x7roixia<;, and Fl.
COMMENTARY ON §§ 2 I I - 2 l 6 45-6
'IouSatou^ y i p X
evexa xa^ 7rXst
2 7 I
VY)<JOU<;
TCOV
atTta^
ev Eupco7n) x a t ' A a t a x a r a
Also references to the settlement otxoufxev>) in Leg. 330, Strabo apud A J xiv,
xat >)7cetpou<; exvlpiovTat.
of Jews in all parts of
Y]
114-8, BJ ii, 398, and vii, 43, and Oracula
Sibyllina
iii, 271. On
the
number of Jews in the empire and the proportion which they formed of its total population see Baron, op. cit. I , 370-2, where estimates made b y other scholars are examined. 215
<J9aXepcoTaTov; Goodenough suggests that references to the Jews' numerical strength and the dangers of arousing their hostility are worked into this treatise as quotations from Petronius here and Agrippa I (in 281-2), in order to give to Claudius indirectly a warning which Philo could not give directly, namely that the Jews would be a considerable danger to the empire if they were provoked to rebel as a body (Politics, 20). See the note on 43 for Goodenough's view of the purpose of the treatise in general.
Dio says that the Jews of the Diaspora gave help to those of Judaea in the revolts of 66-70 (lxv (lxvi), 4, 3) and 132-5 (lxix, 13, 1). But the second of these statements is un corroborated by other evidence, while the fact that the contempo rary Josephus merely says that Judaea hoped for help in 66 (BJ i, 5), without giving any indication in his narrative that the hope was fulfilled, suggests that any assistance which the Diaspora did render was so slight as to be negligible. The various Jewish risings in N. Africa, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, and Palestine in 115-8 were certainly inter-connected. TOIK;
216
exacrraxou.
at 7r£pav E u 9 p a r o o Suvajxetc;. The Jewish Diaspora in the Parthian empire, the nucleus of which had been formed by Jews who did not return home after the Exile. For the location of the various settle ments see Juster, 1,199-203. Josephus claims that by his own day the Jews in Parthia were "innumerable" (AJ xi, 133). AJ xviii, 310-79, describing episodes under Tiberius and Gaius, indicates their strength. TCOV aaTpa7uetcov. The division of the Persian empire into satrapies for administrative purposes, retained by Alexander the Great and the Seleucid kings, was taken over by the Parthians, who, however, subdivided the large Seleucid satrapies into smaller units. iepo7ro(i7rol a7rapxcov. See the notes on the Temple-tax in 156. SuaParous x a t aTpt(3et<; x a t (XVYJVUTOU? 6Sou;. The envoys conveying the money from the Babylonian communities are likely to have
272
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
used the overland trade-routes between India and China and the West, which ran through Parthia and on which see M. I. Rostovtzeff in CAH X I , 120-4; Charlesworth, Trade-routes, 98 ft.; E. H . Warmington, Commerce
between the Roman Empire
and India
(1928),
18-31. They would have crossed Petronius' province of Syria (cf. 7retpa above) via Palmyra and Damascus, and then gone through Trachonitis (AJ xvii, 26). Little is known of the state of the actual roads, but the richly laden envoys had to face the danger of attacks b y Parthian brigands (AJ xviii, 313). 218 v l o u . See the note on 183 v£cp. afi)a6[Aevo<;. Reiter gives no variants in the MSS here. Colson (note ad loc.) suggests that alteration to the genitives a|x
6eou 7rpovola. Here and in 336 Philo puts into words the thesis underlying this treatise—that God manifests His apsTyj or saving power (see Introduction, p. 40) in the defence of His chosen people at critical moments. The same idea is implied in 367, and probably also in 3. Cf. FL 102, and 125 with Box's note. 221 oxcov. MSS O~X6VTOS. Turnebus' emendation to the nominative has been accepted b y all editors down to Reiter. Colson, however, queries the correction on the grounds that the occurrence of Pe tronius' name as the subject of the next sentence suggests that Gaius and not he is the subject of 7rpoaTaTTei in this one. " I n this case the proper correction would be O X 6 V T I , but even this is not absolutely necessary. Examples of the genitive absolute where strict grammar demands another case are not unknown. See Good win's Moods
and Tenses,
§ 850" (note ad loc).
Sv Ttvt TCOV 6jx6pcov. Because the mere construction of a pagan statue in the Holy Land would be likely to cause an uprising. 222 h Ootvbcfl. A geographical rather than a political term, covering the long coastal strip, of which part belonged to the province of Syria and part to that of Judaea, while some of its cities were independent. h ZiScovt. Tyre and Sidon (like Ascalon; 205 and note) had been
*
COMMENTARY ON §§ 217*222
273
independent cities since late Hellenistic times. Rome respected their autonomy, except in 20 B.C., when Augustus temporarily de prived them of their independence as a punishment (Dio hv, 7, 6; cf. S. Aug. 47), presumably placing them under the control of the legate of Syria. Tyre was independent again when Strabo was writing (xvi, 2, 23, 757). St. Matt, xv, 21 and St. Mark vii, 31 imply that c. A . D . 30 both cities were administering territories, and their sending of embassies to Agrippa I in 44 (Acts xii, 20), if historical, presupposes an independent status. See further P.-W. s.vv. Sidon, coll. 2225-6, and Tyros, coll. 1895-9; cf. A. H. M. Jones, Cities of the Eastern
Roman
Provinces
2
2
(1937), 254-5, 57» ^ o , 272.
(xeTa7rl(X7reTat. This conference to which Petronius called the Jewish officials in an attempt to forestall opposition is not recorded by Josephus. Philo does not say where it was held. It may have been held in Antioch, the headquarters whence Petronius set out on his march to Ptolemais (BJ ii, 186; cf. the note on 225). Gelzer takes this for granted (399), and C. H. Kraeling goes further by making the interesting suggestion that the account given by Malalas (Chron. x, 244«5=PG X C V I I , 373 ft.) of an outbreak of hostilities between the Jews and the Greeks in Antioch in the third year of Gaius' principate (by which he means 40; he places Gaius' death in the same year) represents, in a badly distorted form, protests made by the Jews there, who were the first community to hear of the proposed desecration ("The Jewish community at Antioch" (in JBL li (1932), 130-60), 148-9). On the other hand, there is nothing in Philo's or Josephus' narrative against the sup position that the Jews were summoned to meet Petronius after his arrival at Ptolemais.
If the Jewish demonstrations of protest (225 ff.), which Philo's wording suggests followed closely after the conference, took place in May-June (note on 249 ev ax[xfj 8aa c n r a p T a ) , we must suppose that Petronius received his orders from Gaius not later than April. For if the conference was held in Antioch, the journey of his courier to summon the Jewish leaders—from Jerusalem(?), some four hundred miles away—is likely to have taken about a week, if he had the use of the facilities of the cursus publicus;
and probably
three or four weeks must be allowed after that for the Jews' journey to Antioch and back. If it was held at Ptolemais, their journeys and that of the courier were shorter, but perhaps three weeks must be allowed beforehand for Petronius' march southwards. For the speed
274
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
of land-travel see the bibliography given in the note on 18
9T)IAY)<;
yap ouSev coxuTepov. T O U ; ev Te*Xet TCOV 'IouSaicov. Presumably the members of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. The whole question of the Sanhedrin, its composition, its leaders, its meeting-place, and its duties is ex ceedingly complicated and controversial, and cannot be discussed even in outline here. It can merely be noted that some scholais,
notably A. Biichler (Das Synhedrium
in Jerusalem
und das
grosse
Beth-din (1902), of which the article Sanhedrin in JE is largely a summary), have sought to solve the many problems involved by postulating the existence of two Sanhedrins up to A . D . 70—one a political and executive body, which is mentioned by Josephus and in the Gospels, and the other the supreme authority in religious matters, with which the Mishnah and Talmud are concerned; only the latter, they suppose, survived after 70- and was transferred to Jamnia. If this view is accepted, it was presumably the members of the political Sanhedrin, or some of them, whom Petronius sum moned to meet him. Other scholars, however, have maintained that there was only one Sanhedrin. A convenient summary of the con clusions of many scholars who have dealt with the question is given b y S. P. Hoenig, The Great Sanhedrin
223
(1953), 121-32.
The reaction of Philo and the other envoys in Italy to the news is described in somewhat similar terms (189). xaTaKay^vai. Cohn's emendation for the MSS xaTaTrXayyjvai, which Mangey realized was awkward coming so soon after 7TXY)XGeVra;. He suggested xaTa7re7nr)Y^at.
Mangey's emendation for the O X Y J G O U ; of the MSS. OeaacofxeGa. Colson translates this sentence as a question. He regards its phrasing as " o d d " (note ad loc.). The Jews' argument seems to be that they have led decent lives, and therefore do not deserve the misery of witnessing the desecration of the Temple. Behind it lies the prevalent idea of suffering as a punish ment for sin. Cf. the note on 106 TOC; 1*9' eTepcov eyytvofieva; v6aou;. £xxo7n]aovTai On the Jews' protestations here and in 22938 see the note on 117 exouaiou; OOCVOCTOU;. 225 3 2 et; OoivtxYjv. The demonstrations which Philo places vaguely in Phoenicia are undoubtedly to be identified with those to which Josephus gives an exact location at Ptolemais (AJ xviii, 263; BJ ii, 192). Willrich alone, to the writer's knowledge, denies the iden tification and postulates separate demonstrations, first in northern aTjOou;.
224
7roXXa
COMMENTARY ON §§ 222-230
275
Phoenicia and then at Ptolemais (415-7; 468-9). Josephus describes Ptolemais as "a city of Galilee" (BJ ii, 188), but f this is a purely geographical description, as the city had never been under Jewish rule. For its escape from annexation by the Hasmonaeans see A J xiii, 324 ff., 395. Since 63 B.C. it had been included in the province of Syria; cf. BJ i, 422, where it is "outside" Herod the Great's king dom. At Ptolemais Petronius was within striking distance of the northern frontier of the province of Judaea, and he presumably planned to march down eventually through the plain of Esdraelon. f 226
7r6Xe(xov TCpoaSoxYJcjavTe;. Philo and Josephus do not say that any armed opposition was actually offered by the Jews (cf. A J xviii, 271, 274), although Petronius and his staff were no doubt right in their conviction that the Jews would rebel, if any attempt were made to put Gaius' order into effect (cf. A J xviii, 269, 287; BJ ii, 196, 202). Tacitus, however, states that the Jews did take up arms (H. v, 9; quoted in the note on 188 i i / e r a i y)(xtov T O Up6v). Willrich accepts this, and supposes (416, 468) that the Jews were armed during the demonstrations, and that a clash may have occurred between them and Petronius' troops, a point which the Jewish writers pass over in their efforts to stress the peaceful dis position of their nation. It is, however,"more probable that Tacitus, writing after the great revolt of 66-70, is recording a distorted trad ition about the demonstrations which had grown up as a result of Rome's experience of Jewish pugnacity during those later years.
227
SiSacrxaXoi . . . .
I Samuel Ta'anith
229 230
iv, 1 2 ; Esther
iv, 1 ; Job ii, 1 2 ; Lament,
ii, 1 ; and B. T. Ta'anith
ii, 10; Mishnah
16a.
With 229-42 cf. A J xviii, 264-8, and BJ ii, 195-7. yuvaixa; xal rexva. See the note on this phrase in 121. yevea;. "Families" comes oddly after the mention of wives and children, and yevea in the sense of "the rest of the family" would be unusual. Colson suggests altering to yov£a;, "parents", comparing Spec, iii, 159; there and elsewhere Philo admittedly uses yovet; as the accusative plural, but "yov£a; is a known Attic form and he may
276
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
have thought it appropriate for a highly rhetorical speech put into the mouth of another" (note ad loc). 7rpoae7r£ao[xev.
Cohn's emendation of the MSS 7rpoo7reaou[xe6a,
which was accepted b y previous editors. Colson queries the need for any change, on the grounds that prostration before Petronius could count as prostration before Gaius when it was reported to him in the future (note ad loc). * 231 OutTeXXiou. L. Vitellius was legate of Syria from 35 until (prob ably) 39 (note on 116 TYJV 7rpooxuvY)aiv). TYJV e7tiTpo7n)v. See the note on 132 T O U 8k emTpoTOu T Y J ; X ^ P ^ ev TTJ 7r6Xet. Cf. 228. T o a Jew "the city" meant Jerusalem, just as to a Roman urbs meant Rome. TOC 7repl TOUTCOV exofxtaOY] ypafijiaTa. Josephus makes Vitellius' visit to Jerusalem, where he received the news of Tiberius' death (16th March, 37), coincide with a Jewish festival which he does not name (AJ xviii, 122-4). Assuming that the dispatch from Rome took four to five weeks to travel, it is most probable that the festival was the Passover, which in 37 occurred on 20th April. A few months previously Vitellius, exercising the right of supervision over Judaea enjoyed b y the legates of Syria, had answered a Jewish appeal for redress against Pilate's oppressive administration b y sending him to Rome to report to Tiberius and installing a temporary acting governor, and had then visited Jerusalem himself (A7xviii, 88-90). By the Passover of 37 there cannot yet have been an officially appointed procurator in residence; for Pilate did not reach Rome until after Tiberius' death (ibid.), and Gaius' appointment of his successor (AJ xviii, 237) cannot have been known in Judaea until well after the Passover. This gives a reason for Vitellius' visiting Jerusalem for a second time within a few months. He went to support the acting governor, who lacked the full procuratorial authority, during the festival, a time when, as a precaution against disturbances, the procurator normally took a military force up to the capital. 0
Vitellius' two visits to Jerusalem and his removal of Pilate are discussed in more detail b y the present writer in "The date of the dismissal of Pontius Pilate from Judaea" in Journ. (1954),
232
Jewish
Stud,
v
12-21.
T < X ; urcep T Y J ; apxYj; Tatou Ouata;. A reference either to the regular daily sacrifices offered in the Temple for the well-being of the Emperor (157), or to the special hecatomb offered immediately after Gaius' accession (356); or perhaps to both. Josephus makes the
277
COMMENTARY ON §§ 23O-235
Jews allude to their daily sacrifices in their plea to (BJ
Petronius
ii, 197).
Mangey's emendation for the MSS xTvjuaxa, read by previous editors, which is unlikely so close to the preceding xnqixaTCOV. Dahl would expunge xal xTYjfiaTa. TYJV <5CXXY)V arcaaav Xelav. "AXXo; can be used to mean "in addition" with a noun which does not cover the items already mentioned. Other examples are Xenophon Anab. i, 5, 5, Plato Gorg. 473c, and Aeschines i, 163. Cf. the use of alius in Vergil Aen. vi, 411. 233 7ce£a; xal l7T7ctxa; Suvajzei;. The two legions which Petronius had brought with him (207). xTeiv^Ttoaav, lepeue^rtoaav, xpeavofiiixcoaav. Third person impera tives in -Tcoaav, -aGtoaav, and -vTtoaav are normal forms in Helle nistic Greek, and are found occasionally in classical Greek also. XPWOLTOL.
See E. Schwyzer, Griechische
235
Grammatik
I (1939), 802.
el; <J8ou. In the Septuagint and the Old Testament Apocrypha, Hades frequently stands for the Hebrew term Sheol, which denotes the world beyond the grave. It occasionally occurs in the same sense in the New Testament (e.g., St. Matt, xi, 23; xvi, 18; St. Luke x, 1 5 ; xvi 23; Acts ii, 3 1 ; Revel, i, 18; xx, 13-4; cf. vi, 8, where Hades = d e a t h ) . Hades in the New Testament is distinguished from Gehenna, hell, the place where the wicked are punished in ever lasting fire. The Aramaic word Gehenna is derived from the Hebrew expression meaning the "valley of Hinnom"—a gorge near Jerusalem where the fire-worship of Moloch had been celebrated before the #
Exile. See further Hastings, A Dictionary
of the Bible s.vv.
Hades;
Hell; and Gehenna. Here and in Mos. ii, 281 Philo uses Hades in the general sense of the place of the dead; cf. Heres 45 and 78. In Som. i, 151, however, Hades is the abode only of the wicked, while in Cong. 57 this conception of Hades is dismissed as "mythical"; "for the true Hades is the life of the wicked". Cf. Philo's use of Tartarus in 103 and Praem. 152. (In 49 the reference to Tartarus is in the mouth of the gentile Macro.) emxaTao^a^avre; aurou;. Cases of suicide are rare in the Bible and Old Testament Apocrypha, and such as occur are not con demned: Judges I Kings
xvi, 30; I Samuel
xvi, 18; II Mace,
xxxi, 4-5; II Samuel
xvii, 23;
xiv, 37-46; and St. Matt. xxvii,5. B y A . D .
67, however, Josephus could argue that suicide was a sin, although his arguments failed to deter his companions, cornered by the Romans, from eluding capture by suicide (BJ iii, 362-90). Nearly
278
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
a thousand Jews besieged in Masada c. 73 similarly killed themselves to escape falling into Roman hands (BJ vii, 320-401). 236 ouSe 6e6;. Mangey's suggestion that this might be altered to ouSel; has found no favour with editors. a7ro8oxr,<;. Literally "acceptance", in the sense of "willing sub mission to"—unless perhaps Philo is referring to the Jews' struggles to get the gentiles to recognize their right to live in accordance with their Law. 237 axorjv e8e^a(xe0a The earliest extant account of the Gorgon's * head is in Hesiod Shield 216 ff. "On reconnait k cette allusion que Philon se substitue aux personnages qu'il fait parler. Cette connaissance de la mythologie grecque n'est pas vraisemblable chez les Juifs de la Terre Sainte" (Delaunay, 349, n. 1). avYjxecrroi. Mangey's suggestion for the MSS (iiyiaTot/at, which is impossible so soon after (leyaXai. Dahl would expunge xal [liyio'Tat. 8ECT7C6TOU. See the note on this word in 119. 239 7cpea(3etav eX6[xevot. The body normally responsible for sending embassies to Rome on behalf of a province was the concilium or xoiv6v (P.-W. s.v. Concilium,
History
I
2
coll. 815 f.; E. G. Hardy, Studies
(1910), 270 ft.). No Palestinian concilium
in
Roman
is recorded
(see the list of concilia known in the East in P.-W. Suppl. IV s.v. xotv6v, coll. 930 ff.), and since the functions of xoiva or concilia were largely connected with the organization of the imperial cult, it is inherently improbable that such a body was established in Pales tine. There the responsibility probably lay with the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, on which see the note on 222 T O U ; h T^Xet TCOV TouSatcov. Cf. A J xx, 191-4, where TCOV 'IepoaoXufiiTcov olTCpouxovre;choose ten from among themselves to go on an embassy to Nero. 240
6 Tca7nro;. M. Vipsanius Agrippa, Gaius' maternal grandfather. Josephus quotes two decrees issued b y Agrippa on the subject of Jewish religious liberty, addressed to Ephesus and Cyrene res pectively. Both reaffirm the inviolability of the Jews' sacred money (discussed in the notes on 156), and the former also prohibits the calling of Jews to law on the Sabbath (AJ xvi, 167-70). They are quoted, with four other decrees, in such a way as to suggest that they were connected with Augustus' settlement of complaints made to him by the Jews of Asia and N. Africa, probably after Agrippa's death in 12 B.C. (note on 315). A few years earlier, however, when Agrippa, during his second eastern command, was travelling through Ionia with Herod the Great after his Bosporan
COMMENTARY ON §§ 235-245
279
campaign of 14 B.C. (Dio liv, 24, 4-7; cf. J. G. C. Anderson in CAH X , 268, n. 1), a deputation of Jews from the neighbourhood came to him with complaints about various gentile infringements of their religious liberty, including the theft of their sacred money and summonses to law on the Sabbath (AJ xvi, 27-61; a substantial ly different account of the embassy is given in xii, 125-6). It was very probably in the hope that the advocacy of the Jewish king, who f was a friend of Agrippa (note on 294) and had given him naval f help in the campaign (AJ xvi, 16-26), would stand them in good stead, that the Jews chose that moment to make their appeal. The decree sent by Agrippa to Ephesus is very likely to have been issued on this occasion. (Juster's objection that the decree cannot have been the answer to this embassy because Agrippa "n'aurait surement pas traite de voleurs les magistrats d'£phese" (1,150, n. 2) does not seem particularly cogent.) The decree addressed to Cyrene suggests that during one of Agrippa's eastern commands the Jews there made a similar appeal, which Josephus has not recorded. It contains no identifiable date, as the praetor of Libya mentioned therein, Flavius or Fabius (PIR III, 95, no. n ) , is otherwise un known. 2
7cp67ra7r?ro;. Augustus, father of Gaius' maternal grandmother, Julia. For his protection of Jewish religious liberty see 155-8, 30918, and notes. 243 33 According to A J xviii, 269-72, and BJ ii, 192-201, Petronius was sufficiently impressed, or alarmed, by the attitude and earnest ness of the Jewish demonstrators at Ptolemais that he f left his troops there and went with his personal staff to Tiberias, the capital of Galilee which had recently come under the rule of Agrippa I, to investigate the reaction of Jews living at a distance from Jerusalem to the proposed sacrilege, t At Tiberias there o c curred further mass demonstrations, which lasted for a consider able time—although of the figures given, forty days (AJ) and fifty days (BJ), even the lower may well be exaggerated. This second set of demonstrations finds no place in Philo's narrative. ?jv yap. All MSS except C give gem instead of 9jv. Dahl, reading 6(m with other editors, points out that Petronius was still alive when Philo was writing, as witness his defence of Jewish religious liberty in Syria soon after Claudius' accession (AJ xix, 300-12). 244 TCOV ouve&pcov. The members of Petronius' consilium. 245
Ivaiiafxara TTJ; TOUOVIXYJ;
The famous
280
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
reference to Genesis
i in De Sublimitate
ix, 9, despite the problems
which it raises, indicates some familiarity with Hebrew literature among educated Greeks and Romans at the time of the composition of the treatise, probably in the mid-first century A . D . (For the date see M. J. B o y d in Classical
Quarterly
new series vii (1957), 42 and
the bibliography given there.) Even if the reference was derived by the author from the Caecilius of the Augustan period, reputed to have been "a Jew b y faith", whose work apparently provided his starting-point, it would have been pointless for him to make it unless it was likely to be appreciated by at least some of his readers. a
r
See the note on 132 T O U 8e £TCITP67COO T Y J ; x^P ^ f ° this verb, here used in the general sense of "to govern" and covering the different posts of proconsul of Asia (cf. the note on Petronius' l7reTp67reuaev.
cursus
in 255) and legate of Syria.
'IouSaioi xa0' exaaTYjv 7i6Xiv etVi 7ca(X7rXY)6ei;. Cf. 281 and the note TOC; a7roix[a;. U7n)xetv. On this verb, frequent in Philo and often connoting a voice heard b y the heart rather than b y the ear, see Colson's notes on Leg. 245 and Som. i, 164 (Loeb Philo V, 601). T o the occurrences which he cites may be added Abr. 73 and 102, Jos. n o , Mos. i, 281, Spec,
246
ii, 80, Praem.
50 and 55, and Prob. 123.
(jly) xaTETcetyeiv T O U ; SY](jLtoupyou;. BJ ii, 192 implies that the statue was finished and taken b y Petronius to Ptolemais. (But why the plural avSpiavTa;?) The accounts in the A J and the Legatio contain no hint of this, and it can probably be disregarded as merely a slip. Leg. 337 suggests that the statue was finished but was still in Sidon when Gaius reissued his order for the desecration of the Temple late in the autumn of 40; but it may mean no more than that Gaius presumed that it must have been finished b y then. 247 l7ciTp£TC£iv. This sentence implies that the Jews needed Petronius' permission to send an embassy to Rome. In 4 B.C., when Palestine was still a client kingdom, permission had been obtained from the legate of Syria then operating in the country for the dispatch of an embassy (AJ xvii, 300; BJ ii, 80). On the other hand, Leg. 301-3 shows that the Jews on occasion sent embassies or letters without reference to the procurator, and there is no suggestion that they were acting ultra vires in so doing. Indeed, the power of the provinc ials in general to initiate prosecutions for maladministration pre supposes that they had the right to communicate with the senate or the Emperor without reference to their governors. The evidence
COMMENTARY ON §§ 245-249
28l
suggests that in Palestine procedure varied according to circum stances, and that questions of tact as well as of legality may have come in. Petronius was a senior official, who might be expected to treat the Jews more favourably if they politely asked his permisssion to appeal to the Emperor, and whose authorization might be hoped to add weight to their pleas. A mere procurator, however, could perhaps be treated with less deference b y the Sanhedrin. And in the episode related in Leg. 299-305 it was obvious that Pilate, if asked, would have refused the Jews permission to complain to Tiberius about his conduct. When trouble arose between the Jews and the procurator Festus in 62, they obtained his permission to send an embassy to lay the matter before Nero (AJ x x , 191-4); but this may have been done solely because they thereby effectively postponed the execution of the order of Festus to which they objected. * 248
e7tt
{x>) SyjXoovTa. It appears from 265, however, that Petronius did tell Gaius something about the Jews' demonstrations and appeals. Josephus represents him as warning Gaius that the situation in Palestine was so serious that a revolt seemed imminent and openly advising him to drop the whole project (A/xviii, 287,302; B / i i , 202). 249 ev axfxfj oaa
282
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
274; BJ ii, 200). In Palestine the main cereal crop was sown in the autumn and harvested between April and June. The Passover marked the beginning of the harvest and Pentecost its conclusion (JE s.v. Pentecost, 592; cf. Philo Spec, ii, 158-87). Thus two widely * separated seasons are apparently indicated for the demonstrations, and therefore for the subsequent correspondence between Petronius and Gaius also. Schurer (I, 504) and Jones (Herods, 198-9) suppose that the demonstrations at Ptolemais took place at harvest-time and those at Tiberias at seed-time, and that Petronius wrote to Gaius on each occasion. Willrich (415-8) has a somewhat similar theory. But this close duplication of episode is unconvincing, and moreover Josephus* statement that after the demonstrations at Ptolemais Petronius "hurried" to Tiberias (AJ xviii, 269), which was only about thirty miles away, suggests that the interval be tween the demonstrations at the two places was one of a few days rather than of a few months. Chronologically the two sets of de monstrations formed a single incident, occurring at a single season of the year and giving rise to a single letter from Petronius to Gaius. Balsdon seeks to reconcile Philo and Josephus b y dating the demonstrations to the autumn of 40 and supposing that Philo is speaking here of spring-sown cereals harvested in the autumn (JRS, 23). But although it seems certain that then, as now, two crops were obtained in Mediterranean lands in a year (see M. I. Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic
History
of the Hellenistic
World
(1941), 365 and n. 160), the spring-sown cereals are likely to have been harvested before August, while the autumn sowing for the early summer harvest could not take place until the rains had begun in October. There was therefore no coincidence between harvest and sowing in the autumn. Such coincidence was, however, possible in the early summer, since the late summer crops, although prob ably normally sown in March or earlier, could be sown at any time up to the cessation of the rains in May. (Information on this point has been kindly supplied to the writer b y Mr. Sh. Applebaum of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.) It appears, moreover, from the sharp distinction which Philo draws in Spec, iv, 208-18 between the grain-harvest in the early summer and the fruit-harvest in the autumn (cf. the note below) that the main grain-harvest in the Palestine of his day was that of the early summer. It is therefore most probably to this first harvest that Philo is here referring, rather than to any subsidiary grain-harvest obtained later in the
COMMENTARY ON §§ 249-250
283
year. If the demonstrations are dated to the early summer and placed late within the limits of the harvest-season, in May-June (for a reason given in the note on 261 YJ 7rp6Tepov YJ ocrrepov), the chronological scheme which emerges from calculations made back wards and forwards from that date harmonizes with most of the other details in the narratives. Josephus' date for the correspondence between Petronius and Gaius is discussed in the note on 259 eirocivtov OCUTOV. T O O £9)v xaTa9povouvTe<;. Petronius was afraid that the Jews might deliberately destroy their crops as a step towards the mass-suicide which they had threatened (234-5). Even if they did not take such a drastic step as arson, the neglect of the seasonal agricultural operations during the demonstrations was likely to have serious consequences. &v Y) 8ev8po
Feast of, 657; Philo Spec, ii, 204-5). Balsdon takes
Philo's reference to Petronius' anxiety for the fruit-crop as sup porting his contention that the demonstrations took place in the autumn (JRS, 23). If the demonstrations occurred in the early summer, the fruit-crop, it is true, would not have been ripe until some four months later. But this provides no conclusive argument against postulating an early date for the demonstrations. For al though Philo's words here could be taken to mean that the fruitcrop was ready for gathering at the time of the demonstrations, they need not be so interpreted. All that he actually says is that Petronius felt that he needed a garrison to safeguard the fruit as well as the other crops. Such was the frenzy of the Jews at the time that he was justified in fearing for the future as well as for the present: if the Jews did actually set fire to their fields, the fruit-trees might be in jeopardy; or if Gaius refused to give up his plan for the Temple, a recurrence of demonstrations in the autumn might prevent the harvesting of the fruit. Alternatively, Petronius may simply have been exaggerating the gravity of the situation in order to alarm Gaius. 250
'AXe^avSpetav TYJV 7rpo; AtyuTTTco. Alexandria ad Aegyptum. On Gaius' proposal to visit Egypt see the note on 172 oux elq jxaxpav. nek&yei. The quickest route from Italy to Alexandria was the direct one across the open sea, especially during the season of the north-west etesian winds, which according to ancient writers blew LEGATIO AD GAIUM
19
284
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
from mid-July for a month or six weeks; various estimates are given in C. Wachsmuth's edition of Lydus' Liber de Ostentis (1897), Index, p. 363. See also P.-W. s.v. Etesiai, coll. 714-5, and other references given b y Box, note on Fl. 26 Ir/jaia;. TOO 7rapa7r6[X7rovTo; aroXou. Ships normally sailed in convoys rather than singly. T6V 81 'Aaia; xal Zupia; xiixXov. This route would probably have taken Gaius across the Adriatic, round the Peloponnese, across the Aegean via the islands to western Asia Minor or Rhodes, and then along the coasts of southern Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine to Egypt. A leisurely journey b y this route seems to have been pre ferred to the direct route b y "those who had no pressing calls of business, for it afforded an opportunity of seeing some of the spots most famous in history and legend" (Charlesworth, Trade-routes, 43). For further discussion of the routes between Rome and the East see W . M. Ramsay in Hastings, A Dictionary of the Bible V, 375 ff.; Charlesworth, op. cit., 23-4, 42-4, 84-6, 247 ff.; E. H. Warmington, The Commerce
between
(1928), 5, 330; Box, note on Fl. 26
the Roman TOV . . . .
Empire
and
India
7rXouv.
251
al;. From the sense the antecendent is clearly vau; (xaxpa; and not 6Xxa8a;. The warships of the ancient world were slimmer and lighter, and therefore swifter, than merchantmen. They were propelled mainly by rowing, although sails were also used when the ships were not engaged in battle. The larger and slower merchant men (6Xxa; and <popTi; seem to be synonymous) relied mainly on sails. Their greater storage space and their method of propulsion meant that they could undertake long voyages across the open sea, while warships found anything but coasting voyages difficult.
252
Tpocpa; d^Oovou;. Balsdon uses Petronius' anxiety at the prospect of a food-shortage in Palestine at a time when extra supplies would be needed to support his date for the demonstrations at Ptolemais and Tiberias, arguing that it "can have concerned only the autumn of A . D 40", since "neither in autumn A . D . 39 nor at any time in A . D . 40 could Gaius be expected to arrive in the East earlier than the spring of A . D . 41" (JRS, 24). But Petronius did not necessarily know as early as June, 40, that Gaius was planning an ovation for the end of August, which would involve the postponement of his eastern tour. At that time he was probably still expecting him to come to the East later that summer, as had apparently originally been intended. His anxiety is therefore understandable, and there
COMMENTARY ON §§ 25O-255
285
is no conclusive argument here against postulating a date in the early summer for the demonstrations and Petronius' letter to Gaius. TCOV ev T I X C I . This phrase probably covers Gaius' coxites, those members of his official class of amici who were chosen as travelling companions. On amici and comites see J. A. Crook, Consilium Principis (1955), 21-30; P.-W. s.vv.; Box, note on Fl. 2 ev T O I ; e T a t p o i ; xpiOel; 7rapa. For other uses of ol ev T^Xei see the note on the phrase in 26. 6 8e aTpaTtcoTix6;. Presumably Gaius was to be escorted on this journey by a detachment of the praetorian guard, such as accom panied him on his northern campaigns (S. G. 43; 4 5 , 1 ) , although the purpose of this journey was not military. 6 Se olxeTixo;. Cf. Dio lix, 21, 2 for the non-military attendants accompanying Gaius on his northern campaign. 2
53
7uepiTTT)v Sa^lXetav.
Cf. S. G. 37.
This sudden and awkward change to the first person to denote Petronius seems to be a slip. There is no attempt to quote directly from his letter. 254 34 T O O ; SiaxojjLiouvTa; e7tiTO(i.cov. Presumably the couriers of the cursus publicus. A. M. Ramsay calculates that they travelled at an average rate of fifty miles per day ( ' T h e speed of the Roman imperial post" in JRS xv (1925), 60-74). Petronius' letter will, however, have travelled by land only the short distance to a port, perhaps Caesarea. Thence it travelled to Italy by sea, the normal summer route. >5xovTe;. At least a month must be allowed for voyages from Syria to Rome during the summer: see W. M. Ramsay, I.e.; Charles worth, Trade-routes, 23, 44, and notes. The letter therefore probably reached Gaius and his reply (259-60) was dispatched in July or early August, while he was in Campania. 255 at e7raXX7)Xoi ap/al. Petronius was augur cooptatus in A . D . 7 (CIL V I , 1976). The preconsular steps of his cursus honorum are not known. He was suffect consul in 19 (A. Degrassi, / Fasti Consolari deirimpero Romano (1952), 8). Coins of Smyrna and Pergamum show that he was proconsul of Asia (cf. Leg. 245) for six years, probably c. 29-35. In 36 he was in Rome serving on a commission appointed to assess the damage caused by a fire (T. A. vi, 45). He was legate of Syria from 39 to 41/2. For fuller treatment see P.-W. s.v. Petronius, coll. 1199-1201; PIR III, 26, no. 198. Y](xa;.
1
286
256
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
exBtaTou t
101
£6vou?-
See the note on 115 (xovou; y*P IouSalou;
U7Te(JXe7T£TO.
IlapOuatot. In 20 B.C. the threat of a Roman attack had sufficed to make Phraates restore the standards captured from Crassus (Res Gestae ch. 29; Dio liv, 8, 1-3; S. Tib. 9, 1). In A . D . 35 or 36
Artabanus had called off his proposed Armenian campaign in the face of a similar threat (T. A. vi, 36), and after the subsequent expulsion of Artabanus, Vitellius, the legate of Syria, and his legions peacefully escorted the Roman nominee for the Parthian throne, Tiridates, into Mesopotamia (T. A. vi, 37). When Tiridates had in his turn been ejected, Vitellius with his legions held a ceremony by the Euphrates at which he bestowed on Artabanus Rome's official recognition as the reinstated king—whether before or after Ti berius' death is uncertain (note on 8 7raat Tot; fiipeatv Y)p[ioa(iivY)v ). During Gaius' principate, however, far from being kept in check by their awe of Roman arms, the Parthians apparently reoccupied Armenia, whose king Gaius had for some unknown reason deposed and imprisoned (T. A. xi, 8 , 1 ; Dio lx, 8 , 1 ; Sen. Dial, ix, n , 12). Roman fear of Parthia at the time is shown by the fact that in t 4 o f the mere allegation that Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, was in league with Artabanus was considered an adequate reason for de posing him and banishing him to Gaul (AJ xviii, 250-5). 258
aXXa Tt 7tpoavlaTa{xat TCOV xetpcov; An obscure and difficult sen tence. Literally it seems to mean "But why do I arise before my actions?" For xelp="action" see L. and S. s.v., IV. Colson inter prets this as "But why should I not sit still till my hands get to w o r k ? " But the translation here suggested, " W h y am I talking in stead of acting?", seems to accord better with what follows. 9
259
TCOV
7tpo; T a t ; e7tiaToXat;.
Liberti
ab
epistulis.
Ircatvcov auTov. Philo's account of Gaius' reply to Petronius (25960) is totally different from that of Josephus, according to whom Gaius did not conceal his anger at his legate's presumption in offering him advice, but wrote commanding him to commit suicide as a punishment for his failure to execute his orders promptly; this letter, however, was delayed in transit and reached Petronius a month after the news of Gaius' death (AJ xviii, 302-10; BJ ii, 203). Josephus thus dates the correspondence to the last two or three months of Gaius' life, which is consistent with his apparent dating of the demonstrations to the autumn. But if this date for the demon strations is rejected in favour of the early summer (notes on 249),
COMMENTARY ON §§ 256-261
287
Josephus' version of the contents of Gaius' reply to Petronius must be rejected also. For the picturesque story of the suicide-order with its fortunate delay makes no sense except in conjunction with an autumn date for the correspondence. It is suspect in any case, since, as Balsdon remarks (140), "history . . . . is full of similar stories of lucky escapes from tyrants, and the normal punishment of a dis obedient subordinate was to be recalled for trial to Rome". Willrich points out (469) the similarity between Gaius' reply to Petronius as recorded in Leg. 259-60 and the reply which Josephus makes him send to Petronius' acknowledgement of the receipt of his orders (A J xviii, 262). It is possible that the contents of Gaius* reply to the letter written after the demonstrations (given by Philo) have some how been transferred by Josephus (or his source) to the beginning of the episode, and turned into a reply to Petronius' earlier letter, which barely needed one. Philo does not say what action Petronius took on receiving Gaius' reply, but he apparently found some unrecorded pretext for continu ing to postpone the execution of Gaius' order during the weeks which elapsed before the unexpected arrival of the letter announcing its cancellation (333). He probably felt that it would be wise to keep his troops at Ptolemais still (note on 248 e7u . . . . Tatov. If Gaius' reply to Petronius was dispatched in July or early August (note on 254 ypcovTe;), Agrippa I presumably arrived in Italy some time in August, perhaps for the purpose of being present at Gaius' ovation on the 31st (S. G. 49, 2). Dio mentions Agrippa and Antiochus IV of Commagene being with Gaius in a passage which, from its position immediately before a reference to January, 40, seems to concern the winter which the
288
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
Emperor spent in Gaul (lix, 24, 1). But there is no other evidence that the kings accompanied him there, and, since the chronology of Dio's account of Gaius' principate is somewhat confused, it is prob able that the sentence is a misplaced allusion to the last few months of Gaius' life. Agrippa remained in Italy throughout the winter of 40-1 (AJ xix, 236 ff.; BJ ii, 206 ff.), and returned to Palestine the following spring or summer (AJ xix, 286). ?j 7cpoTepov yj ticrrepov. I.e., Agrippa had not heard either of Gaius' original order (7tp6Tepov) or of his reply to Petronius' letter (ucrrepov). It would appear from this and from the fact that he is not named as one of the spokesmen who appealed to Petronius at Tiberias (AJ xviii, 273-6) that he left his kingdom before the order was made known to the Jewish leaders by Petronius (Leg. 222-4), i.e., before about mid-May. If he did not reach Italy until August, he spent over two months travelling—the whole of the time of the conference, the demonstrations, and the journey of Petronius' letter to Gaius. (It is in order to shorten his journey as much as possible that the demonstrations are dated to the latter part of the harvest-season in the chronological scheme adopted in this edition; see the note on 249 ev axfAyj . . . . 6
COMMENTARY ON §§ 261-266
289
release soon after Gaius' accession and his return to Palestine in the summer of 38 (note on 179); perhaps also for some time in 39, if * Josephus is right in saying in BJ ii, 181-3, that Agrippa himself went to Rome then to accuse Antipas. (The longer account of Antipas' fall in AJ xviii, 240-55, however, mentions only a letter from Agrippa to Gaius.) During his earlier long residence in Rome which ended in 23, Agrippa had been on friendly terms with Gaius' grandmother, the younger Antonia, a friend of his mother (AJ xviii, 143-4; cf. 164-5), and therefore must have known Gaius' family when it returned to Rome after Germanicus' death in 19; but Gaius was then only seven. 265 266
A16; avSpiavxa. Cf. the note on 188 A16; £7TI>CXY)(JIV auTou. Philo's description of the attack which Agrippa suffered as a result of the severe shock which Gaius' words gave him (266-73) is not sufficiently detailed to permit of a certain diagnosis, but it seems most probable that he had a stroke caused by a cerebral haemor rhage. He was unconscious for more than twenty-four hours (269); it can be inferred from 270 that his breathing was laboured during that period; his vision was temporarily impaired (269); and if the ointments mentioned in 273 were to be used for massage, it looks as if the stroke resulted in some degree of paralysis. Agrippa was forty-nine at the time, and in a man of his age the attack may have been based on high blood pressure. He apparently recovered quite quickly, since he was able to play an active part in getting Claudius recognized as Emperor only a few months later (AJ xix, 236 ff.; BJ ii, 206 ff.; Dio lx, 8, 2), and the scanty evidence for the rest of his reign does not suggest that he suffered from any permanent disability. His final illness ( 4 / xix, 346-50; Acts xii, 23) was clearly not a repetition of his earlier attack but a totally different complaint —possibly "intestinal obstruction from round worms, or alterna tively, appendicitis following worm infestation of the appendix" (from a letter from Professor G. M. Bull of the Queen's University of Belfast to the writer, who is indebted to him and to Dr. J. Bowden, formerly of the same University, for help with these medical details), f Cf. L. H. Feldman's note on AJ xix, 346 (Loeb edition), f s
ai[xco7r6;, tbxpo;, 7reXt8v6;. '£2xp6; * similar in meaning to /Xcopo; = "sallow" or "pale". IleXt8v6<; or 7reXi6;="livid", "black and blue" or "bloodshot", is a very common colour term in the Greek medical vocabulary. Thucydides describes the body of a victim of the plague as . . . ouxe xta'pov* aXX' u7r£po6pov, 7ceXiSv6v (ii, 49, 4).
290
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
267
T6VCOV. Probably sinews or tendons here, as in IV Mace, vii, 13. rather than "nerves" (as Colson), the sense in which Galen uses the word. otxaSe. Cf. 272rcapaaauxco. Agrippa probably had a more or less permanent establishment of his own in Rome, as he had spent several considerable periods there in the past and remained through the winter of 40-1; and Josephus' story of how he feasted Gaius presupposes this (A J xviii, 289-301). His son, however, seems to have lived in Claudius' palace later (AJ xix, 360; xx, 9). 268 euepyeaiai<;. His release from prison and appointment as king (note on 179). yjTTTjToci Ttov eOcov. Although Agrippa followed the outward forms and observances of Judaism punctiliously (AJ xix, 293-4, 331), he was probably largely a pagan at heart, as were his Idumaean pre decessors on the throne. He had been brought up in Rome and lived as an associate of gentile princes until he was thirty-two, and his return to the court about twelve years later to stay for over two years suggests that he found the atmosphere congenial. Although as king he was less blatantly generous to pagan cities than his grand father, who had earned unpopularity by his actions, he showered gifts on Berytus (AJ xix, 335-7; cf. 329), and in the predominantly Greek city of Caesarea he held games on the pagan model and did not deprecate the title of god (AJ xix, 343-6\ Acts xii, 21-3).
dfiaupat; xal axXucoSeat tcfiq 8^eai. A stroke in a particular part of the brain may impair the sight. 270 TTJ; avaTcvoyjc;. Colson translates this as "revival". But the more technical medical use of dva7cvoY)="respiration" (see Aristotle's treatise Ilepl 'Ava7cvoYJ<;) seems more appropriate here. TYJ;rceplT O aco(xa ax^aeco;. The temporary, alterable condition of the body, as opposed to its permanent e£t; or constitution. 272 . Supplied by Mangey from the same phrase in 270. (xcTecoplaa; aauTov. The meaning apparently needed here is not recognized by L. and S. In Xenophon Ilepl 'Iiznixrfi xi, 7 [xeTeopl^Y] eauT6v seems to mean "prance". tStot. Presumably members of Agrippa's Jewish suite. 273 T O acojjLaTtov. Used of a sick body also in P. Zenon 59254 (third century B.C.) and b y Galen (C. G. Kuhn, Medicorum Graecorum Opera quae Extant (1821-33), X I I I , 1025), and of a martyr's tortured body in Eus. HE iv, 15, 40. aXei{i(xaT(ov. In all probability these were to be used for mas269
9
COMMENTARY ON §§ 267-276
29I
sage, which was a common medical treatment in antiquity. There are numerous references in Galen to the use of oil for this purpose (e.g., Kiihn VI, 122, 196, 200; VII, 124-5; X I , 471, 507), and pos sibly one in Pliny (NH xxviii, 137). Galen mentions massage as a treatment for atrophied limbs (Kiihn X V I I I , ii, 891 if.)—i.e., for the effects of paralysis—and for epilepsy (Kiihn X I , 364-5). 274 TeXeurata; (3oY]0eia<;. The written appeal to Gaius (276-329), the word "last" revealing a fear that it might offend Gaius and mean the end of Agrippa's career, if not of his life; cf. 330 aycovicov xal auYxex^fA^vo; xal
275
7TCJ;
evruxot (xaXtara 9povTi£cov.
This section may cover a few weeks of convalescence. There is no need to assume, with Willrich (417, n. 1), that Agrippa made his appeal to Gaius immediately after recovering consciousness. a7c£xei. Reiter accepts inix^i, the reading of A. Colson prefers inlyei, the reading of the other MSS, which previous editors had accepted, since &n£x<* in the sense of 'receive in full" is well-known, e.g. St. Matt, vi, 2. No such sense is cited for inix**" (note ad loc.). 276 36 8£XTOV Xapwv Taura imariXkei. 276-333 contain Philo's ac count of how Agrippa saved the Temple from desecration—by a written appeal to imperial precedent. Josephus gives a totally dif ferent account of how Agrippa achieved his end: he entertained Gaius to a banquet of unprecedented splendour (presumably in tending to make his request after thus putting the Emperor into a good humour); Gaius, impressed by his generous hospitality, offered to grant him any boon he liked; and when, to his surprise, Agrippa merely asked him to abandon his plan of erecting a statue in the Temple, he could not but comply ( 4 / xviii, 289-301). It is difficult to reconcile these two stories, although S. Perowne retains both by suggesting that Agrippa first sent Gaius his memorandum and then reinforced his appeal by the banquet, which was the kind of com pliment likely to win Gaius over (The Later Herods (1958), 72). If a choice is to be made between Philo and Josephus, the former's prosaic version seems preferable to Josephus' story with its fairy tale ring (cf. Introduction, p. 32). Agrippa's appeal is fairly clearly dated by both our authorities to the autumn of 40. On Philo's chronology he apparently arrived in Italy in August (note on 261 (xer' ou rcoXu . . . . Tatov), while Josephus, who dates the correspondence between Petronius and Gaius to the last few months of the Emperor's life, explicitly places Agrippa's appeal before the arrival of Petronius' letter (AJ xviii, t4
292
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
302). Philo gives no definite indication of where the appeal was made, but if Josephus is right in locating it in Rome (AJ xviii, 289), the date was September or later, after Gaius' re-entry into the city at his ovation. The letter given by Philo is probably not a verbatim copy of that actually written by Agrippa, but, in accordance with the con ventions of ancient historiography, merely reproduces its general contents. There can be little doubt that Philo and his companions were in touch with Agrippa in Italy. Apart from their common distress, Philo had close family connections with him: his brother Alexander had lent money to the king a few years previously (^4J xviii, 159-60), and in 41 Alexander's son Marcus was to marry his daughter Berenice (AJ xix, 276). Possibly Philo himself helped to draft the king's letter to Gaius. Much of the evidence adduced in it (291-320) is the sort of thing which the Alexandrian Jews would have collected for their own appeal to Gaius and embodied in the two memoranda submitted to him earlier (178-9), and it may have been supplied by Philo for Agrippa's use. For if Agrippa left Pa lestine in ignorance of Gaius' plan for the Temple (261), he did not bring with him detailed evidence about the toleration or favour shown towards Judaism by other Emperors and their protection of the Jews' religious liberty ready for presentation to Gaius, but had to collect it after his arrival. Cf. Balsdon,'139, n. 1; H. Lewy, Pkilon
von Alexandrien
"Von
der Machterweisen
Gottes"
(1935), 9;
H. Leisegang in JBL lvii (1938), 399. The parts of the letter dealing with Agrippa's relations with Gaius and with the fate of the Temple (278-90, 323-9) will, of course, have been unique to that document. 277
This form of address, used several times in Agrippa's letter, and the Augustas Imperator with which the Jewish envoys addressed Gaius (352) were irregular. "Like Tiberius before him and Claudius afterwards, (Gaius) refused to accept the praenomen imperatoris. Nor is there evidence epigraphic or numis matic that he recorded after his name the seven imperial salutations which, according to Cassius Dio (lix, 22, 2), he received during the 'German expedition'. Cf. BMCCRE I, 156-8 (coins of A . D . 40-1)" (Balsdon, 146). 278 'IouSato;. Agrippa was in fact three quarters Idumaean and only one quarter Jewish by descent. On the side of his mother Berenice he was wholly Idumaean, her parents having been Salome, the sister of Herod the Great, and Costobarus, a member of the Idumaean auToxpaxop.
Imperator.
COMMENTARY ON §§ 276-281
293
nobility and a pagan at heart (AJ xv, 253-8; xvi, n ; xviii, 133; BJ i, 552). His father Aristobulus was the son of the Idumaean Herod the Great and Mariamme, grand-daughter of Hyrcanus, the last Hasmonaean ruler of the country (BJ i, 241; A J xiv, 300; in xviii, 130 she is wrongly called his daughter). The Idumaeans, con quered and annexed late in the second century B.C. b y John Hyr canus (AJ xiii, 257-8), were never regarded as Jews, despite their enforced adoption of the Jewish religion, b y the Jews of the old stock. Herod the Great was called -JjfAttou&ato; (A/ xiv, 403), and was sufficiently conscious that his subjects looked upon him as halfforeign to cause his court-chronicler to spread the tale that his family was a Jewish one from Babylon (AJ xiv, 9). T O U u^bxou Geou. See the note on this title in 157. Tcd7nrcov. Only Herod the Great. Tcpoyovcov. Mariamme's Hasmonaean ancestors. &v ol 7rXetoi>; eXe*yovTo apxtepet;. The historical development was in fact the reverse of that indicated here. After the return from the Exile, the rulers of the Jews were for centuries the High Priests. The early Hasmonaeans held this position after re-establishing the independence of Judaea. Later members of the dynasty bore the title "king" in addition to that of High Priest. 280 On the forms which Jewish expressions of loyalty to foreign overlords and benefactors could take, and on the daily sacrifices in the Temple for the well-being of the Emperor, see the notes on 133 Ttfxa; and on 157 Guata;. ev r a t ; xaTa T a ; SrjfiOTeXet; eopTa; avayo(x£vat;. E.g., the three
special hecatombs offered during Gaius' principate (356). evreX^xeatv. See the note on this adjective in 157. Here the MSS are fairly evenly divided between evTeXe'xeo'tv and evSeXe'xeatv. cptXoxataape;. Cf. the coin struck b y Agrippa in 43/4 with the legend 'Ayptanwc;
Palestine, 238,
no. 23). The title socii et amici had been granted between 47 and
44 B.C. to Hyrcanus and his sons personally (AJ xiv, 194) and to the Jewish people as a whole (AJ xiv, 185, 197, 217), including the Diaspora, as can be inferred from AJ xiv, 213-6 (Delos), 241-3 (Laodicea), and 256-8 (Halicarnassus). As Judaea had b y then virtually lost her independence and come under Roman control, the title had little practical meaning, but it was valued for the prestige which it conferred on its possessor. 281
(XY)Tp67toXi;.
Cf. Fl. 46 fXY]Tp67roXtv fiev
TYJV
lepo7roXtv yjyoujxevot. The
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
294
Jews of the Diaspora looked to Jerusalem as their capital, not only because it contained the Temple which was the focus of their religion, but also because they hoped to return to it when the Messianic age dawned and Israel was freed from subjection to foreign domination. T a ; dbcoixia;. With Philo's list of centres of the Diaspora in 281-2 cf. St. Luke's catalogue in Acts ii, 9 - 1 1 . Other literary evidence, documentary evidence, or both confirm the presence of Jews in most of the places mentioned by the two writers and in many others also. The most complete list of the individual towns where Jews are known to have lived is that of Juster (I, 180-209). The epigraphic evidence for the Diaspora, collected in CI J, testifies to the presence of Jews in some places not listed by Juster: see, e.g., I, nos. 554, 632-7. 655, 671, 681, 694-6, and II, nos. 754, 759-61, 852-65, 1441-2, 1533. The known Jewish settlements certainly do not all date back to Philo's time; the earliest evidence for many of them is of late imperial date, and the nucleus of some is likely to have been Jews captured and enslaved in the suppression of the revolts of 66-70, 115-8, and 132-5. Italy is conspicuously absent from Philo's list, but Gaius needed no reminding of the Jewish settlements there. S. W . Baron suggests (A Social
and Religious
History
of the
Jews
(1952) 1,170) that St. Paul's intention of visiting Spain presupposes the existence of Jews there as early as c. A . D . 50. The literary and epigraphic evidence for Spain cited by Juster is all of much later date. The origin of the term "Coele Syria" and the area which it denoted in late classical Greek are discussed by A. Shalit, " K O I X Y J Zupia from the mid-fourth century to the beginning of the third century B . C . " in Scripta Hierosolymitana i (1954), 64-77. " 'Code Syria' included three different geo graphical concepts in Hellenistic Greek: (1) the valley between Mt. Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, (2) the region south of Damascus and east of the Jordan, i.e., roughly corresponding to modern Transjordania, (3) Palestine and Transjordania together" ( R . Marcus, note on A J xi, 25, Loeb). It is difficult to be certain which of the first two of these areas Philo means here; probably the second, i.e., the Decapolis. Of other first century writers, Pliny distinguishes between the Decapolis and Coele Syria (by which he means the valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon; NH v, 74, 77), as Strabo does also (xvi, 2, 16, 754). But Josephus uses Coele Syria to * T?)V
KOIXTQV
^poaayopeuoiiivTQv.
COMMENTARY ON §§ 281-283
295
denote the Decapolis in A J xiii, 355-6 and BJ i, 103-4, although he uses it in other senses elsewhere. Ptolemy includes the cities which Pliny lists as comprising the Decapolis, together with some others, under the heading of Coele Syria (Geogr. v, 15, 2 2 - 3 = v , 14, 18 in C. Muller's edition I, ii (1901); the additional words xal Aexa7r6Xeoj; in the heading in most MSS seem to be a gloss). Coins of two cities in Pliny's list of the Decapolis, Gadara and Philadelphia, and coins of Abila, a city absent from Pliny's list but known from CIG 4501 to have belonged to the Decapolis b y Hadrian's day, show that that district was called Coele Syria in imperial times; see BMCGC, Galatia,
etc., 305-6; F. de Saulcy, Numismatique
de la Terre
Saint:
(1874), 298-303, 310-2, 388-92. For fuller treatment see Schurer, II, 148-93; P.-W. The
Cities
s.vv.
Dekapolis',
of the Eastern
Roman
ample evidence for Jewish Decapolis. 282
and
Koile
Provinces
settlements
Syria;
A. H. M. Jones,
(1937), 260-1. There is
in the
cities of the
Cf. 216 and notes. apeTwaav y?jv. The verb apsTaca occurs twice in Homer (Odys. viii, 329; xix, 114) and is generally rendered as "to prosper". The lexica cite no author as having used it between Homer and Philo, with whom it is a favourite word. It occurs with X^P** d g&atpo; in the sense of "to be fertile" in Spec, ii, 88, iii, 59, and iv, 212, 217, 226. It is used metaphorically in the same sense with tyuxh * rrjv 7rlpav EucppaTou.
a n
n
Mig.
140, Mut.
265, and Praem.
10, with Stavoia in Heres
204
and
Spec, ii, 54, and with 7rai8ela in Som. ii, 139. It is found in P. Giessen 67, line 15 (early second century A . D . ) , where the context suggests that is it used in the Homeric sense. 283
T O Aipux6v. Among the Romans Libya, the Greek name for Africa, was used as a geographical rather than a political term, but to denote only the eastern part of the north African coast; e.g., "Libya" figures in Hadrian's Restitutor coin-series in this sense (BMCCRE III, clxxiii f. and 524, if the coin is genuine), although there was no Roman province named Libya. Cyrenaica, which Philo does not mention by name, may be included here under this general term. Cf. St. Luke's phrase "the parts of Libya around Cyrene". Seventy years later it was one of the major centres of the Diaspora, as witness the magnitude of the Jewish revolt there towards the end of Trajan's reign (Dio lxviii, 32, 1-2; Eus. HE iv, 2, 1-4; Chron. Trajan X V I I ) . The evidence for Jewish settlements in the western part of north Africa, much of it later than our period,
*
296
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
is discussed by P. Monceaux, "Les colonies juives dans l'Afrique romaine" in REJ xliv (1902), 1-28. 285 cptXcav evitov . . . . 7roXtT£ia;. This statement is uncorroborated by other evidence. The large-scale extension of the franchise to the provincials, initiated by Julius Caesar, which had come to an almost complete standstill under Tiberius, was apparently not resumed until the principate of Claudius; see A. N. Sherwin-White, The Roman Citizenship (1939), 170-93. 286 a£id>(iaTo; fiev evexa ouTCOXXCOVOorepo;. I.e., in kingly rank. Five client princes besides Agrippa were established by Gaius—Rhoemetalces III of Thrace, Polemon of Pontus and Bosporus, Cotys of Armenia Minor, Sohaemus of Ituraea, and Antiochus IV of Commagene (Dio lix, 12, 2; lx, 8, 1). Three, however, lost their thrones, and one his head as well, at Gaius' hands—Mithridates of Greater Armenia, Ptolemy of Mauretania, and the recently established Antiochus IV, whose summons to Rome towards the end of Gaius' life (note on 261 [ A C T ' ou TCOXU . . . . Tatov) was probably connected with his fall (T. A. xi, 8, 1; Dio lix, 25, 1; lx, 8, 1; S. G. 35, 1). 287
TO 7rev a\peaiv. Libertas and immunitas (for which another Greek term was are'Xeia). Under the principate the two privileges were separate and the honour of a grant of libertas to a provincial town did not always carry with it the financial advantage of exemption from direct taxation. Immunitas was, however, a part of the ius Italicum (first mentioned in Pliny NH iii, 25), the highest privilege then available to provincial communities. For fuller dis cussion see H. Last in CAH X I , 451 and 455; A. H. J. Greenidge, Roman Public Life (1901), 428-9; F. F. Abbott and A. C. Johnson, Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire (1926), 39-40; P.-W. s.v. ius Italicum. Jerusalem (Tfj 7raTpi8i; cf. 278 ft.) enjoyed no position of privilege in the empire until its re-foundation by Hadrian as the pagan colony of Aelia Capitolina after the Jewish revolt of 132-5. 288 See 231 and notes. 289 ol 7cpeaPuTaTot 7tat8e; TVY/OLVOVGI. 7rpeaPei
#
COMMENTARY ON §§ 283-29I
family on the father's death, and had the right to a special blessing from his father just before the latter's death. These privileges, known as the "birthright", could be surrendered by the son or transferred by the father to a younger son: see Deut. xxi, 1 7 ; Mishnah Baba Bathra viii, 4-5, and Bekoroth viii, 9; and examples in Genes, xxv, 32 ff., xxvii, and xlviii. For fuller discussion see JE s.vv.
Birthright]
Family;
and
Primogeniture.
TCOV a v a T o X t x t o v . . . . auToxpaxopa. Probably a reference to the oath of loyalty to the new Emperor which Vitellius administered to the people of Jerusalem (A J xviii, 124). 290 xsip6x(jLrjTov o u 8 e [ x ( a v e £ apx*)S fi.op
monumental Jewish
Symbols
in
the Greco-Roman
Ct. C. R. Kraeling, The Excavations at Dura-Europos, VIII, i, The Synagogue (1956), 340-6. 7rXa<jTcov. 169 ypxyitov
Mangey's emendation of the MSS
Period
(1953-
).
Final Report
7rXa<j[zaTcov.
Cf.
Heres
xal 7rXa<XTcov.
TCOV ataOrjTtov 0 e c o v . In view of Agrippa's apparently loose ad herence to Judaism (note on 268), Philo can reasonably represent him here as expressing no definite disbelief in the gods of the heathen —which was indeed a politic attitude to adopt, when seeking a con cession from a self-deified Emperor. * a6paTov. The same epithet is used of God in 310 and 318, Sac. 133, Spec, i, 20, and Det. 86 (where a e i o N ] ; is apparently also used in the sense of "invisible"); cf. Mut. 139. To Philo God was by nature invisible, and this idea, found in the New Testament also (Coloss. i, 15; I Tim. i, 17; Hebr. xi, 27) was an advance on the Old Testament idea that God was visible, although no man could look on Him and live (Genes, xxxii, 30; Exod. xxxiii, 20; Judges xiii, 22). Cf. Gooden
ough, Light,
291
339.
'AYpi7T7ra<;. M. Vipsanius Agrippa, Gaius' maternal grandfather. On his visit to Jerusalem see 294-7 and notes. The fact that the Jewish king cites him as an example whom Gaius might
298
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
be proud to follow goes far to discredit Suetonius' allegation that he was ashamed of his descent from a commoner (G. 23, 1). It may also be noted that in the inscription on his mother's funerary urn Gaius described her as Agrippa's daughter (ILS 180), and that an undated as showing Agrippa's head may have been struck under Gaius (BMCCRE I, cxxxiii, and 142, no. 1 6 1 ; L. Lanffranchi in Riv. Hal. de Nutnis. xxiii (1910), 26-31). Sta T O U xeXsuaat e7ttaToXat; T a ; 7iavTax60£v dbrapxa;.
The
MSS
read Sta T O U xeXeuaat T a ; 7ravTax60£v arcapxa; e7rtaToXat;, which is retained by all editors despite the clearly illogical position of cmo-ToXat;. Mangey suggested the transposition here adopted, or, alter natively, alteration to a7roaToXat;, " b y missions" (i.e., by envoys selected for the purpose). On the latter Colson comments that the evidence cited by Mangey for this use "does not seem to do away with its superfluity after nipnzw" (note ad loc.). On the dbcapXat see 156 and notes. evTeXexou;. The reading of CGMH, while OA give evSeXexou;. See the note on the adjective in 157. T) 7rpo{xa{X{XT) aou. Livia, the mother of Gaius' paternal grand father. A lacuna, possibly only short, certainly occurs at this point in the text. Cf. Introduction, p. 41. The missing passage pre sumably mentioned Livia's benefactions to the Temple, which are referred to again in 319, and perhaps those pf other members of the family also. 292 88ev. The preceding lacuna makes the meaning of 60ev uncertain. The general tenor of 291 suggests that it means "as a result of the attitude of Augustus and his family". But 292 is clearly concerned mainly with the period before Palestine became a Roman province. Colson thinks that 291 might be regarded as a parenthesis, with 60ev referring back to 290; "it is quite in Philo's manner to have causal clauses which connect with something which has not imme diately preceded" (note ad loc). Pompey had certainly refrained * from any attempt to convert the Temple to pagan uses when he captured Jerusalem in 63 B.C., but he had entered the sanctuary, to which only the priests were admitted (AJ xiv, 7 1 - 2 ; BJ i, 152), and in 167 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes had actually robbed the Temple and devoted it to the cult of Olympian Zeus, setting up a statue in it
(AJ
xii, 248-53; I Mace
i, 54-9;
II
Mace.
vi, 2). But in his eagerness to provide uniformly favourable precedents for the treatment of the Jews, Philo deliberately
COMMENTARY ON §§ 291-297
299
avoids all mention of the action of either, both here and in 300. evecoT^ptae. See the note on this verb in 152. 293 TCOV OeYjXaTcov xaxtov. Jewish history contains many stories of disasters which overtook those who maltreated the Jews: e.g., the plagues of Egypt (Exod. vii-xii), the destruction of Sennacherib's host (II Kings xix), the execution of Haman (Esther vii), the mad ness of Nebuchadnezzar and the death of Belshazzar (Daniel iv-v), the supernatural prevention of Heliodorus' attempt to rob the Temple treasury (II Mace, iii), and the fatal illness of Antiochus (II Mace,
ix, 4 ff.).
294
37 ev 'IouSata yev6fxevo;. With 294-7 cf. AJ xvi, 12-5, 55-6. In the autumn of 15 B.C., during his second eastern command, Agrippa visited Judaea at the invitation of Herod the Great, who had been his friend for some years (cf. their meeting on Mitylene during Agrippa's earlier eastern command \AJxv 350), and saw a number of the king's newly-built cities and fortresses as well as Jerusalem itself. The date is given by Josephus' references immediately after wards to "the winter" and then to Agrippa's Bosporan campaign (AJ xvi, 16-26). 296 et; T O T^fxevo;. The Court of the Gentiles. Cf. the note on 212 t
GavaTo; a7rapatTY)To;. Tyj tepa CTTOXJJ. If Agrippa's visit to Herod's kingdom took place in the autumn, he may have been in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement. The ceremonial vestments, the "golden robes" described in Exodus xxviii and xxxix, were worn by the High Priest on the three great festivals of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, and on the Day of Atonement except when he entered the Holy of Holies (307 and notes); for those parts of the ritual he wore special white linen garments (Levit. xvi, 4, 23; . Mishnah Yoma iii, 6-7; vii, 4). During the rest of the year the ceremonial vestments were kept in Herod's fortress, the Antonia, where they remained under the Roman occupation until handed back to Jewish custody by Vitellius, legate of Syria, when he visited Jerusalem in A . D . 36/7 (AJ xv, 403-9; xviii, 90-5). 297 avaGYJfxaai. Cf. the note on 157 [JL6VOV O U 7ravotxto;. Josephus does not mention Agrippa's gifts to the Temple, but says that he sacri ficed a hecatomb (AJ xvi, 14; cf. 55). The offering of sacrifices in the Temple by gentiles was accepted and regulated from early times (Levit. xxii, 25, which presupposes that gentiles might present sacrifices; I Kings viii, 41-3; Mishnah Shekalim vii, 6), and became Legatio ad Gaium
20
300
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
common (BJ ii, 409, 413-5; v, 15-7; cf. iv, 262). Other examples are Ptolemy III Euergetes (In Ap. ii, 48), Antiochus Sidetes (AJ xiii, 241-4), and Vitellius, whose ostensible purpose on his second visit to Jerusalem, at the Passover of 37 (231 and notes), was to sacrifice (AJ xviii, 122). Alexander the Great's sacrifice at Jerusalem (AJ xi, 336) is legendary, as he did not visit the city; but its inclusion in the tradition shows that such an action would have been quite natural. Augustus* commendation of his grandson Gaius for re fraining from worshipping in the Temple on his way through Judaea in A . D . 1 (S. Aug. 93) implies that he might have been expected to do so. (There is no serious inconsistency between this and Augustus' protection of the Jews' religious liberty. His attitude was that Judaism was all right for the Jews, but that an heir to the throne should not dabble, however superficially, in foreign cults.) For fuller discussion of heathen participation in the Temple worship see Schiirer, II, 357-60. euepyeTYJaa*;. Josephus says that Agrippa gave an elaborate public banquet (AJ xvi, 14). 298 xpial xal etxoaiv Ixeatv. See the note on 141 rpla npbq T O I $ etxoatv
299
STYJ. 9
38 9tXoTi(XY)(xa. L. and S. cite this reference for the meaning "act of ambition or ostentation", which makes little sense here. The other meaning given, "thing on which .one prides oneself", is better. Colson translates "act showing a fine spirit", and suggests as an alternative "showing his public spirit", since
of 36-7; see the present writer in Journ.
Jewish Stud, v (1954), 12-21.
If the episode related in 299-305 occurred fairly late in Pilate's procuratorship, as details in 301-4 indicate, there was some justification for assuming that the motives behind his action were sinister. For it had been preceded by his introduction of iconic Roman military standards into Jerusalem (discussed below, and more fully by C. H. Kraeling, "The episode evexa
TOU
Xu7njaai
T&
TCXYJOOS.
301
COMMENTARY ON §§ 297-299
of the Roman standards at Jerusalem" in HThR xxxv (1942), 263-89)—an action which it is hard to interpret otherwise than as deliberate provocation—and by his use of money from the Temple treasury to finance the building of an aqueduct to Jerusalem (AJ xviii, 55-62; BJ ii, 169-77). The second action had apparently also been regarded as sacrilegious, since it aroused violent protests. The Mishnah sanctions the use of any surplus from the shekel-dues for "the city wall and the towers thereof and all the city's needs" (Shekalim iv, 2), and this could presumably be interpreted as covering the water-supply for Jerusalem. But in Tosaphot Yomtov (by Yomtov Lipman Heller; died 1654) Mishnah Nedarim v, 5 it is said, referring to B. T. Nedarim n a and Asheri ad loe., that there was a difference of opinion as to whether the money might in fact be used for these purposes. o
n
ev T C H ; 'HptoSou (3aaiXetoi;. The palace built b y Herod the Great near the north-west corner of the city c. 24 B.C. It was a fortress as well as a luxurious palace, and was defended on the north by three towers built into the city-wall and named after his brother Phasael, his wife Mariamme t (most probably the first wife of that name)f, and his friend Hippicus (BJ v, 161-81; AJ xv, 318-9). It was used as the procurator's administrative headquarters when he went to Jerusalem (306 ev otxta TCOV erciTpdrccov; BJ ii, 301), and soldiers were sometimes quartered there (BJ ii, 328). The Roman military headquarters in Jerusalem, however, apparently lay in the fortress called Antonia adjoining the Temple (discussed by L . - H . Vincent, "L'Antonia, palais primitif d'Herode" in RB lxi (1954), 87-107). A cohort was permanently stationed there b y 66 at any rate (BJ v, 244-5) and probably earlier also (Acts xxi, 27-40). Whether the praetor iun mentioned in the accounts of the trial of Christ was Herod's palace or the Antonia is disputed; for the literature
see
W.
Bauer,
A Greek-English
Lexicon
of Vie New
Testament, translated by W . F. Arndt and F. W . Gingrich (1957) s.v. 7rpaiTcoptov; and Soeur Marie-Aline de Sion, La Forteresse Antonia
& Jerusalem
et la Question
du
Pretoire
(1955),
193-271;
cf. Kraeling, op. cit., 278-80. The old Hasmonaean palace, nearer to the Temple than Herod's palace, was the residence of the Herodian princes on their visits to the capital; e.g., Agrippa II stayed there c. 60 (AJ xx, 189-90). Plans of Jerusalem are given by, e.g., Soeur Marie-Aline, op. cit.; H. St. J. Thackeray, Loeb edition of BJ iv-vii; F.-M. Abel, Histoire de la Palestine
302
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
(1951) I; S. Perowne, The Life and Times
of Herod the Great
(1956).
eTCtxpuo-ou; AcnrtSa; . . . . TCOV aTnjyopeufiivcov. Josephus begins his account of Pilate's procuratorship by describing how he took up to Jerusalem a detachment of troops whose standards bore portrait busts of Tiberius, and how this show of disrespect for the Jews' objection to "graven images" (of which he can hardly have been ignorant, since he took care to have the standards carried in at night, discreetly covered) met with such vigorous demonstrations of protest that he had the offending objects returned to Caesarea. In view both of Philo's categorical statement here that the votive shields in the episode which he records were aniconic and therefore did not infringe the Jewish Law, and of other considerable dif ferences between his and Josephus' narratives, it can hardly be maintained, as it has been by, e.g., Dahl (Excursus I I ) , H. H. Gratz (Geschichte der Juden I I I (1878), 285-6), and more recently Colson (in his Introduction, xix-xx), that the two authors are merely recording variant traditions of a single episode. Two distinct epi sodes are surely in question. Eusebius quotes fi/ii, 169-70 in HE ii, 6, 4, and refers twice to the incident narrated by Josephus, men tioning him as his authority but exaggerating the gravity of Pilate's action by making him take portraits of the Emperor (i.e., the stan dards) into the Temple (Chron. Tib. X I X ; Dem. Ev. viii, 2, 122); cf. the similar exaggeration in Jerome (In Matt, xxiv, 15=PL X X V I , 184) and in Origen (In Matt, xvii, 2 5 - P G X I I I , 1549). But he also twice cites Philo as an authority for an attack by Pilate on the Temple (Dem. Ev. viii, 2, 123; HE ii, 5, 7), in the former passage repeating his statement that Pilate took the standards into the Temple. These are clearly references to the incident related by Josephus, not to that related in the Legatio as we have it. This may mean that the episode of the standards was narrated by Philo in a part of his historical writings which is no longer extant, as Schurer thinks (III, 679-80). But it is equally possible that Eusebius, reading Philo and Josephus hastily, has overlooked the vital dif ferences between their narratives, has supposed them to be variants of a single episode, and has then given an inaccurate version of Josephus' story under Philo's name. 3
T O V T C ava0evT<x x a t i>7r£p o5 Y) <xva0eat;. The shields will presumably have been dedicated by Pilate himself in Tiberius' honour. 300 T O U ; T C PaatX£to; ulet; T ^ T T a p a ; . In A J xvii, 19-22, and BJ i, 562-3 the wives and children of Herod the Great are listed (but with the
COMMENTARY ON §§ 2 9 9 - 3 O O
303
exclusion of Mariamme I, who was dead by the period under dis cussion, and her five children). Of his ten sons, Antipater, Alexan der, and Aristobulus had been put to death during his lifetime; Mariamme I's third son had died young (BJ i, 435); and Archelaus, the former ethnarch of Judaea, had been banished to Gaul in A . D . 6 (AJ xvii, 344). Of the other five, Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee until t 40,f ana Philip tetrarch of northern Transjordan until 34, and they were both presumably among the princes in question. Another of the four may have been Herod, son of Mariamme II, the first husband of Herodias. There is no evidence to show how long he lived after Herodias had divorced him in order to marry Antipas (AJ xviii, 109-10, 136); the accounts of the death of John the Baptist c. 28 in the Synoptic Gospels (which all err in making Herodias' first husband Philip the tetrarch; see Schurer, I, 435, n. 19) perhaps suggest that at that time the divorce was recent (St. Matt, xiv, 3-12; St. Mark vi, 17-29; St. Luke iii, 19-20). Nothing is known about the other Herod, son of Cleopatra, or about Phasael, son of Pallas. A. D. Doyle makes the point that the episode of the shields probably occurred at the time of a Passover, "when the princes would be in Jerusalem with the other pilgrims; all four sons would scarcely be available at ordinary times" ("Pilate's career and the date of the Crucifixion" in JThS xlii (1941), 190-3). The presence of Pilate in Jerusalem also suggests a festival-time; but Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles are other possibilities. T O U ^ &XXou<; a7roY6vou<;. For Herod's grandchildren and great grandchildren see AJ xviii, 130-40. Of the three sons of his son Aristobulus, Agrippa I was living in Palestine in the early 30s A . D . (note on 179). The whereabouts of the other two, Herod (king of Chalcis from 4 1 ; AJ xix, 277) and Aristobulus, of the three sons of Herod's daughter Salampsio, and of Alexander, one of the two sons of Herod's son Alexander, at this time are unknown; but they may have resided in Palestine, or may have been visiting it for a festival. Alexander's other son, Tigranes, apparently lived in Rome after his brief and ill-fated reign over Armenia c. A . D . 6 until his execution in 36 (AJ xviii, 139; T. A. vi, 40, 2; cf. J. G. C. Anderson in CAH X , 277). Little is known about Antipater's son (AJ xvii, 14, 18). Philip is stated to have died childless, and there is no reference to children of Antipas or Archelaus. The only child of Herod, son of Mariamme II, by Herodias was a daughter, Salome.
304
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
It is possible that Aristobulus, son of the Herod who was later king of Chalcis, and great-grandson of Herod the Great, was of an age to be chosen as one of the delegates; he was of marriageable age soon (apparently) after the death of Philip the tetrarch in 34 (AJ xviii, 137). TOU<; ev T£XEI. Members of the Sanhedrin, on which see the note on 222 Toos ev T^Xei TCOV TouSatcov. |JLY) xtvelv £67) TraTpta . . . . axivrjTa. The phrase xiveiv T& axivrjTa is used to denote sacrilege in Herodotus vi, 134. Cf. Philo's use of xtvelv in 118, 161, and 327. On his statement that Jewish customs had never before been violated see the note 292 50ev.
Philo does not make clear how the presence of the shields in Jerusalem violated, or was likely to violate, Jewish traditions. As far as appearances went, they were innocuous; they were aniconic, and, seeing that dedications by Jews in honour of bene factors were admitted into the synagogues (note on 133 Tifias), the inscriptions which they bore could have been expected to give no offence. But the violence of the Jews' reaction against them reveals a fear that some deeper (presumably religious) significance than met the eye lay in the objects themselves or in the inscriptions. The shields were probably connected, in some way which managed to keep the letter but not the spirit of the Jewish Law, with the imperial cult. The episode of the iconic military standards may have awakened the Jews to the fact that aniconic objects also could have religious significance for the Romans, and made them anxious to keep even those out of Jerusalem, and they may have feared that the introduction of the aniconic shields was the thin end of the wedge: as Pilate had met stiff opposition when he had openly flouted Jewish religious feeling, he might now be initiating another attack by a seemingly innocent action which was to be the fore runner of some definite contravention of the Law; and acceptance of shields which kept the letter of the Law might create a precedent which would make the rejection of Pilate's next innovation difficult. 301 axa(Z7n]£ x a l [XCTA T O U au0a8oi>s apLeiXixTo^. In the episode of the standards Pilate had ultimately given way in the face of Jewish protests and had them removed; but by the time of the incident of the aqueduct his attitude had hardened, and he had many Jews massacred for their opposition. [XT] crracnaSe . . . . The Jews' threat that Pilate's action would drive them to rebellion against Rome reveals a state of high nervous
COMMENTARY ON §§ 3 O O - 3 0 3
305
tension and excitement, and indicates that this incident occurred when they had already had long experience of his unsympathetic rule. ouSev eGfXei TCOV rjfxeT^pcov xaToXueoGat. The Jews' confidence that Tiberius was the champion of their religious liberty—a confidence justified b y his response to their appeal (304-5)—would seem to place the incident of the shields after Sejanus' death, when the pre fect's designs against the Jews were brought to an abrupt close and Tiberius made it known that he was reverting to the traditional imperial policy of protecting Judaism (159-61). (The indications that the incident occurred fairly late in Pilate's procuratorship preclude dating it to before Sejanus' attack on the Jews.) Whereas previously Pilate had been able to ride roughshod over his subjects' religious prejudices in the light of Sejanus' known attitude, the Jews could now appeal to the Emperor in the knowledge that the improvement in their position consequent on Sejanus' fall gave them a reasonable chance of redress. npiafiziq eXofxevot. On the references in 301-3 to the sending of an embassy or a letter see the note on 247 hm-cpi-new. 302 T Y J ; AXXYJ; OC&TOV e7riTpo7u9j<; e^eX^y^cn. These words give the clearest indication of the date of this episode: Pilate's fear of impeachment for earlier acts of misgovernment definitely places it in the latter part of his procuratorship. T A ; ScopoSoxia;. Neither Josephus nor the Gospels charge Pilate with venality. T A ; Ap7cayA;. Perhaps a reference to the aqueduct episode. T O U ; AxpiTou; x a l e7raXXYJXou$ ;. This may cover such exe cutions as those of the brigands crucified with Christ (St. Matt, xxvii, 38; St. Mark xv, 27; St. Luke xxiii, 32-43). TYJV AVYJVOTOV x a l ApYaXecoTaTYjv cb{x6TY)Ta. In this general phrase Philo may be alluding to the massacre which terminated the aqueduct episode, and to the massacre of Galilaeans mentioned by St. Luke (xiii, 1). T. Corbishley puts forward the attractive theory that the Galilaeans were some of the victims of the former massacre, and that the crraai; in Jerusalem which resulted in the imprison ment of the well-known brigand Barabbas and his gang (St. Matt, xxvii, 16; St. Mark xv, 7; St. Luke xxiii, 18-9; St. John xviii, 40) was part of the same disturbance ("Pontius Pilate" (in Clergy Rev. xii (1936), 368-81), 375-6). 303 fiYjTs xaOeXetv TA Arca!; AvaTe66vTa Oappcov. Possibly Pilate tried to
306
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
argue, as he had done when the Jews asked him to remove the military standards from Jerusalem, that to undo something which had been done in the Emperor's honour would be an act of CPpt; (maiestas'}) towards him (AJ xviii, 57). Se^TixcoTaTa; e7ricrroXa;. Doyle suggests that this letter was the cause of the enmity which existed between Antipas and Pilate at the time of the Crucifixion (St. Luke xxiii, 12), and argues that, if the episode of the shields occurred after Sejanus' death, this supports the dating of the Crucifixion to 33, as against 30 (op. cit.). (For discussion of the year of the Crucifixion see J. K. Fotheringham, "Astronomical evidence for the date of the Crucifixion" in JThS xii (1910-1), 120-7; "The evidence of astronomy and technical chron ology for the date of the Crucifixion" in JThS xxxv (1934), 146-62; articles cited by J. Jeremias in JThS 1 (1949), 2, n. 1 ; T. Corbishley in A Catholic Commentary
on Holy
Scripture,
ed. B. Orchard
and
others (1953), 849.) Corbishley, however, thinks (in Clergy Rev. xii, 379) that the hostility had arisen from Pilate's execution of some of Antipas' Galilaean subjects. 304 Stavayvou;. See the note on 69 o\av£yvto. cbpyiaGyj. Tiberius was angry with Pilate for having disregarded the instructions which he had issued after Sejanus' death to pro vincial governors to protect the Jews under their rule. 305 TYJV ini GaXaTTT) Kataapetav. The city originally called Strato's Tower, which Herod the Great had rebuilt with the intention that it should be a Greek rather than a Jewish city, and had renamed Caesarea in honour of Augustus (AJ xv, 331-41; xvi, 136-41; xx, 173-4; BJ i, 408-15; ii, 266). The completion of the rebuilding is usually dated to 10 B.C., but T. Corbishley has argued convincing ly in favour of dating it to 12 B.C. ("The chronology of the reign of Herod the Great" in JThS xxxvi (1935), 22-32, especially 29-30). It is clear from references in Josephus and elsewhere that Caesarea was the Roman administrative capital and the headquarters of the garrison of the province during the procuratorial period (e.g., A J xviii, 55-9; xix, 365; BJ ii, 236, 268, 288, 332 ;Actsx,i; xxiii, 23-33; xxv, 1-13). It held the same position after the reorganization of the province after the Jewish war (T. H. ii, 78; the present tense is used), and up to the third and fourth centuries A . D . (e.g., Eus. HE vi, 39, 2; De Mart.
239). SepaaTYjv.
Pal.,
passim;
J. T. Megillah
iii, 2, Schwab VI,
Augusta; cf. Kociaapeia 2ep<x
COMMENTARY ON §§ 303-307
307
harbour of Caesarea was called 6 Ze(3aaT6<; AifiYjv (AJ xvii, 87; BJ i, 613), and the city's official name was K a i c a p s i a YJ 7cp6; ZeP<X<JTCO Atjievi (BMCGC, Palestine, 13-5). Later, when Vespasian raised Caesarea to colonial status, its official name was Colonia Prima Flavia Augusta Caesarensis (BMCGC,
Palestine,
16-42; cf.
Pliny NH v, 69). The name Sebaste alone normally denoted the city of Samaria as rebuilt by Herod the Great (AJ xv, 292-8; BJ i, 64, 403; cf. 118). T O ) ZeP<x
306
39 vfi
T i &8UT<X.
xv, 339, and
BJ
i, 414.
The Holy of Holies.
V7)
On
the
Day
of Atonement
in
October.
Josephus apparently uses YJ vTjdTeta in the same sense in AJ xiv, 66, 487; cf. H. St. J. Thackeray's notes ad locc., Loeb. With 306-7 cf. the summary of the ritual of the Day of Atonement in Hebrews ix, 7 e l ; 8e TYJV SeuT^pav (sc. O~XY)VYJV) area?; T O U evtauTou (JL6VO; 6 Apxiepeu; (sc. e t a e i a i v ) , ou x^P^ atfxaTo;, 6 7rpoo~9£pei urcep eauTou x a l TCOV T O U Xaou ayvoTjixaTcov. Fuller accounts are given in Levit. xvi (for the Tabernacle) and in the tractate Yoma in the Mishnah (for the Tem ple). eu£6(ievo;. After taking incense into the Holy of Holies the High Priest "came out by the way he went in, and in the outer space" (i.e., the Sanctuary, the part of the Temple leading to the Holy of Holies, from which it was divided b y a double curtain) "he prayed a short prayer. But he did not prolong the prayer lest he put Israel in terror" (Yoma v, 1 ) . (So great was the Jewish fear that some mishap might befall the High Priest while officiating in the Holy of Holies, that at the end of the day's ritual "he made a feast for his friends for that he was come forth safely from the Sanctuary"— Yoma vii, 4.) The prayer is given in the Babylonian Talmud: "May it be Thy will, O Lord our God, that this year be full of heavy rains and hot. May there not depart a ruler from the house of Judah, and may the house of Israel not require that they sustain one another, and permit not the prayer of travellers" (i.e., for dry weather, which would give them less uncomfortable journeys) "to find entrance before Thee" (Yoma 53b). 307
xav 4pa Tt; itou . . . . Not only did no other priest accompany the High Priest into the Holy of Holies, but no-one was allowed to remain even within the Sanctuary while he was within the Holy of Holies (Levit.
xvi, 7).
rfi auTyj Tpl; Y; x a l TeTpaxi;.
An error is implicit in this remark.
308
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
According to Levit.
xvi, 12-5, and Mishnah Yoma
v, 1-4, and vii, 4,
the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies four times in the course of the ritual of the Day of Atonement—first to place a censer of incense on the Ark (or, after the loss of the Ark, on a stone marking its site); then to sprinkle the blood of a sacrificed bullock round the chamber; then to repeat the action with the blood of a he-goat; and finally to remove the censer. For fuller accounts and discus sion see JE
s.v. Atonement,
Day
of; The New
Bible
Commentary,
ed. F. Davidson, A. M. Stibbs, and E. F. Kevan (1953), notes on Levit. xvi; J. H. Hertz, The Pentateuch
and the Haftorahs
notes on Levit. xvi. Cf. C. Spicq, L'Epitreaux Hebreux 308
OavaTou; exoualco;.
III
(1932),
(1953) II, 253.
See the note on 1 1 7 exoualou; OavaTou;.
T O U ; 7cept TaoTa coaicofievou;. "Those who have kept themselves holy in relation to the shrine", i.e., have taken care not to desecrate it. yuvat^l xal T ^ X V O I ; . See the note on this phrase in 121. 310 aopaTou. See the note on this epithet in 290.
e a t
0
COMMENTARY ON §§ 307-315
309
form collegia
312
carried with it the right to have a common fund. Cohn's emendation for the various readings of the MSS, e m (rudxaaet (MAH; accepted by editors before Reiter), inl ouaTaaeox; (GO), and eTCKruaTavTa (C). Colson reverts to ini auaTaaei and translates "These gatherings . . . . to promote conspiracy" (the sense of OVGTOLOK; in Praem. 75), with the comment, "I do not see much reason for em
StSaoxoXeia acocppoauvyj*; xal StxatoauvY]^. Cf. Mos. ii, 216 StSaa. xaXeia 9povYjaea>^ xal avSpeta^ xal aaxppoauvyjs xal 8ixaiocjuvY)<; euaePeta^ xe xal 6<JI6TY)TO£ xal <jufi7ra<jY)s ApeTYJs, and almost identical words in Spec, ii, 62.
See the note on 156 7re(xixovTa^ et$ 'Iepo(76Xi>fia. 313 elxa. This second enactment is the corollary of the first. The tension between the Jews and the Greeks in the East was such that the grant of religious liberty to the former had to be safeguarded by explicitly prohibiting the gentiles from molesting them in the exercise of their privileges. lepo7co{i7uou^.
314
rJ)v
B.C. (Rowan
Rule
in Asia
Minor
(1950) II, 1580). Both cite the
letters in Philo and Josephus (where Augustus is called simply "Caesar") as their authorities. Such early dates for these documents, however, seem unlikely. It is not clear whether Philo is referring
3IO
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
in 311 and 316 to Augustus' reimposition of Caesar's ban on all collegia except those, like the synagogues, which were specifically exempted, or to an earlier time in his principate, when Caesar's ruling was presumably still theoretically in force. But Josephus implies that the documents formed part of Augustus' response to the appeal of the Jewish deputations from Asia and north Africa, and he places that appeal after the completion of the rebuilding of Caesarea in 12 or 10 B.C. (note on 305). It therefore seems more plausible to identify the proconsul with the consul of 24, as do Dahl (note ad loc.) and Juster (I, 149-50). This Norbanus could be fitted into the proconsular fasti of Asia during the years soon after 12 B.C. No securely dated proconsul is known for that province for many years before Asinius Gallus in 6-5 B.C. (CIL III, 7118; IGRRIV, 1031b), the date 9 B.C. usually assigned to Paullus Fabius Maximus being no more than probable (OGIS 458; cf. Magie, I.e.). The use of "Caesar" alone to designate Augustus in the documents quoted by Philo and Josephus is no proof that they were drawn up before 27 B.C. Augustus is called merely "Caesar" in the inscription of Paullus Fabius Maximus in Asia (above) and in one from Spain (CIL II, 2581), and the Nazareth rescript of an unnamed Emperor f against tomb-violation is headed Ata7ay[i.a Kaiaapo; (S. Riccobono, Fontes
Iuris
Romani
Anteiustiniani
I, no. 69, pp. 414-6; later
bibliography in SEG X X , 452).t The four other documents quoted in AJ xvi, 162-73 along with those bearing Norbanus' name seem, on chronological grounds, to have no connection with the Jewish appeal to Augustus, although Josephus implies that they also were elicited by it. The decree of Julius (in MSS incorrectly Julius) Antonius, proconsul of Asia some time between 9 and 2 B.C. (PIR I, 153, no. 800), reaffirming, at the Jews' request, the rights of religious liberty already granted to them by Augustus and M. Vipsanius Agrippa (172-3), presup poses an earlier pronouncement which had been disregarded, and this suggests that Julius held office later than Norbanus, while the document in 162-5 is dated to c. A . D . 2 by the reference to C. Marcius Censorinus' proconsulship of Asia (PIR II, 336, no. 163; Magie, I.e.). On the other hand, the two decrees of Agrippa, who died in 12 B.C. (discussed in the note on 240 6 7ra7nco;), will have been issued before the appeal to Augustus. 316 ouv6Sc.)v. Presumably the collegia, t Cf. the use of the word in 3i2.f 2
1
COMMENTARY ON §§ 315-326
317
311
• • • emreXouvTai. Repeated almost exactly from 157. Reiter emends the evTeXeti; of the MSS to evreXexet;, the reading of most MSS in 157, in preference to Mangey's IvSeXexei;. e m a T a j i e v o ; aa
D. McFayden in Amer. xaTex6a(XYjae T6V
Journ.
vetov.
Theol.
xxiv (1920), 53, n. 3.
Cf. 291 and the note on 157 [i6vov ou
7wtvobcto;. !£<*> TCOV atoOyjTtov (JLYJSEV VOYJTOV. Strictly speaking illogical—"no mental concept apart from objects of sense". 320 TzepiyeyzvriiLhri. The reading of most MSS, accepted by Turnebus and Reiter. Colson prints rap^eY^*)^ )? ^ AH, read by Mangey, but suggests emending to 7rapaYeYev7)(X€VY); and translating "sup porting" or "supplementing". For the allusion is certainly to the educational triad of Nature, Instruction, and Practice, which figures in educational theory from Plato onwards (for fuller dis cussion see H. Caplan, note on Ad Herennium i, 2, 3 (Loeb); cf. Colson in Loeb Philo V I , x-xi and VIII, 453), and the statement produced by the reading 7zepiyeyz\rfi[ihri—"through instruction" (i.e., by Augustus, her U9Y)Y*)TY);, 319) "she surpassed (her sex) in nature and practice"—is, strictly speaking, illogical. 7
321
r
o
m
41 Yjixeptoxlpac;. The conjecture of Matthaei (on whose work see the note on 103) for the MSS Y)|ieT£pa;. Mangey suggested T Y J ; 7repl TOC */)[xlT£pa 7rpoatpeaeco;.
322 324
325 326
ToaouTov Y)U£Y)6Y)<;. For Gaius' attitude towards his family see the note on 33. 7rapaxXYjTeuouat. This rare verb is used in Fl. 23 also. atSYJpcp. On releasing Agrippa from prison Gaius had given him a gold chain equal in weight to the iron one by which he had been fettered (AJ xviii, 237). T O U OOCVOCTOU 96P0V. The remark for which Tiberius had imprisoned Agrippa (A/ xviii, 168, 187) could be construed as treasonable. TYJV TpaxtovtTiv. Trachonitis was part of Agrippa's kingdom from
312
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
37, and was not added to it with Galilee in 39 (note on 179). Such * an error as this, which the king could not have made, reveals that Leg. 276-329 comes from Philo's pen and is not a verbatim copy of Agrippa's memorandum. Xaptaifxevo;. The additional honour of praetorian rank had been conferred on Agrippa, although b y the senate and not by Gaius personally, when or soon after his kingdom was granted to him (Fl.
327
330
40; cf. Box' note ad
loc.).
Colson translates "I do not beg to keep my short-lived good fortune". He comments that to translate (with Mangey) "I do not deprecate my recent ill fortune" would accord better with the common uses of 7wcpaiToufjLai and 7rp6 (xtxpou, but would contradict what Agrippa has said in 323 (sic; but he surely means 324). But is this objection valid? It is meta phorical imprisonment against which Agrippa has just pleaded, and it would not be incompatible with that for him to offer now to resume his former condition—not merely private status but literal imprisonment (329)—in return for the immunity of the Temple. TYJV
7rp6 (xixpou
TUX*)V
ou 7rapaiToufiai.
T £ ; yap av . . . . av6pco7cot;; Sc. "if you do not grant my request". 4 2 IvTuxot. An unusual use of eyruyxavco, as Colson comments. He favours Mangey's suggestion av T U X O I (note ad loc:), and trans lates "the turn events might take". But assuming r a u r a (the letter) as the subject, eVruxoi can stand.. avaaTaaeco; x a l avSpa7roSta{xou x a l rcavTeXou; 7rop0Y)a£co;.
I.e., if
Gaius persisted with his plan, the Jews would revolt, and enslave ment and devastation would follow the inevitable Roman victory. 7ravxaxou TYJ; olxoujiivYj;. See 281-2 and notes. 331 Gaius is represented in 331-2 as being not entirely impervious to reason—a striking testimony coming from his enemy. Agrippa's appeal to imperial precedents is made to carry more weight with him than Petronius' argument about the harvest, which he realized was of only temporary validity (260). 333
t*p T * ) ? Zupia; e7riTp67ccp.
See the note on 132 TOU 8k £7ciTpo7rou TYJ;
X
COMMENTARY ON §§ 326-338
313
But this would have been to grant only half of the favour requested, and would not have obviated the danger of a Jewish revolt. As Philo's attitude to Gaius was such that he would not have represent ed his concession to the Jews as more generous than it really was, his version of the countermand is preferable to that of Josephus. On receiving Gaius' countermand during the autumn of 40, Petronius took his army back from Ptolemais to Antioch (mis placed in BJ ii, 201; see the note on 248 emax^XXeiv). 334 This "rider" which Gaius appended to the countermand seems entirely reasonable, despite Philo's description of it as o l o ; apyaXetoTocTov and his protest in 335. The Jews were to repay toleration by toleration. Gaius agreed to respect their feelings and spare not only the Temple from desecration but also the whole of Jerusalem from the pollution of pagan altars (see !£to [xta; TYJ<; [ZYjTpomSXeGN;); and in return the Jews were to respect any spontaneous attempts by the many gentiles resident in other parts of their country to honour Gaius in the normal pagan way by the establishment of centres of the imperial cult. There is no threat of the official imposition of the cult on parts of Palestine outside Jerusalem. 335
It is presumably from this section that Goodenough deduces (Politics, 18) that "fresh riots" occurred in Palestine, and were the reason for Gaius' renewal of his decision to place his statue in the Temple (337). But this is surely untenable in view of the categorical statement in 336 that none of the gentiles took advantage of Gaius' ruling to start a disturbance.
rcpovola 8i T i v i xal emfjisXela. See the note on 220. erepov avSptavra. Philo gives no reason for Gaius' return to his original plan—a decision made despite the presence of Agrippa in Rome. Josephus knows nothing of any re-issue of the order once it had been cancelled, and Balsdon is inclined to reject Philo here"Gaius was not allowed the credit of admitting that he had made a mistake" (139). ev TwpLY). T o make sure that this time his orders were carried out expeditiously. There is no need to suppose that any dispatch was sent at this stage to Petronius about Gaius' change of mind. 338 4 3 xaxa TYJV el; AlyuTCTov a7roS7j{xlav. Gaius' proposed visit to Alexandria had by this time (the autumn of 40) been postponed until the following year; cf. the note on 172 oux el; jxaxpav. TYJV ex0e*
336 337
314
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
auvau£eiv . . . . ae(3ao~{ioS. ev xaXto (sc. TO7T(O). Thesm.
Cf. 162.
A phrase found also, e.g., in Aristophanes
292, Lucian Navig.
15, and
Xenophon Hell,
ii, 1, 25, and
vi, 2, 9; in the last passage, as here, the phrase is followed by a genitive defining the area in relation to which the city was in a convenient position. 339-42 Cf. the notes on 34 and 97 cpov&vTi xal 8I<J>7retou aij x a T o ; . Suetonius and Dio delight in tales of the capricious cruelty and injustice of the "tyrant". The execution of exiles is mentioned in S. G. 28, Dio lix, 18, 3, and Fl. 183-5, where Flaccus forms a case in point. The tradition, however much distorted, must embody a basis of fact. 343 On Gaius' lust for money and the ingenious ways which he is said to have devised for amassing it, see S. G. 38-42; Dio lix, 14-5; 21; 22, 3-4; 28, 8-11. 344 eu7rapiKpoL. Literally "with fine purple borders". In Plutarch Mor. 57a, and Lucian Demonax 15 and Vita Luc. 16 the word means "smart". The meaning here may be the technical one of laticlavi, although this is not recognized by L. and S. The words eunapucpot xal (MAH) are missing from CGO, but Reiter considers them to be certainly genuine (Prolegomena, lxv). 345 The word (xovov added in H after o>
4
i>7re(3Xe7reTO.
Ta; fxev ev Tat; &XXai; 7t6Xeat 7tpoo~euxa;. Nowhere else is there any indication that the example of the Alexandrian desecration of the synagogues was followed in other cities during Gaius' prin cipate. In Fl. 44-7 Philo merely says that there was a serious danger that when the gentiles elsewhere heard what had happened in Alexandria, they also would attack the synagogues. The only recorded occasion when the danger became a reality was after Gaius' death, when the gentiles of the Phoenician city of Dora in Syria put a statue of Claudius in a synagogue. Agrippa I, who was back in Palestine by then, reported the matter to Petronius (an interesting detail, since Dora lay outside his kingdom), and Pe tronius wrote to the magistrates of Dora, reprimanding them for their breach of the decree issued by Claudius soon after his accession
COMMENTARY ON §§ 338-346
315
confirming Jewish religious liberty throughout the empire (AJ xix, 286-91, 300-12; cf. Introduction, p. 28). The incident must have occurred in the first year or so of Claudius* principate, since Pe tronius' governorship of Syria terminated in 41/2 (AJ xix, 317 and coins of Antioch). Philo therefore may have known of it and have antedated it. 6 y«P eT^pcov ivocTiOevTcov £ 9 2 1 ; OCUTO; ISpusTo Suvocfxet. Philo here goes further than he has done earlier in this treatise in making Gaius personally responsible for the Alexandrian riots. But b y "allowing" he must mean merely "not preventing", rather than actively "giving permission".
ocauXta;. It is unlikely that the technical meaning of iauXta, a grant of inviolability which temples, cities, and individuals acquired fairly commonly in the Hellenistic age (see W . W . Tarn and G. T. Griffith, Hellenistic Civilization? (1952), 82-4), is intended here. The word is used in a quite general sense to denote the respect with which the Temple had been treated. The arrest of St. Paul by Roman troops in the Temple precincts (Acts xxi, 30 ff.) implies that there was no right of sanctuary there. otxeiov lep6v.
I.e., a temple of the imperial cult. Ato; 'E7U9avou<; Ne*ou xPW^^fl Tatou. This was presumably to be the dedication of the Temple when Gaius first ordered the erec tion of his statue there (188 ff.), as well as when he reissued that order (337-8). Philo here makes his only reference to Gaius* alleged equation of himself with Jupiter, on which see S. G. 22 and 33; Dio lix, 26, 5 and 8; 28, 5-8; 30, ia. In AJ xix, 4 Josephus merely says that Gaius called himself the god's brother, and M. P. Charles worth considers this less extreme version preferable to those of Suetonius and Dio (in HThR xxviii (1935), 15-6), but AJ xix, n can be taken to imply identification. Dio makes Gaius* identifica tion of himself with Jupiter the pretext for his adulteries and for incest with his sisters (lix, 26, 5). Aurelius Victor puts it the other way round—Iovem se ob incestum
. . . . asseteret
(Lib. deCaes.
3, 10).
Even if the incest-story is dismissed as fictitious (note on 92), its growth may nevertheless be connected with the identification with Jupiter. The adjective em9<xvYJ<; as a divine epithet connoted primarily the making of e7ri9<xvstai—manifestations of power and appearances in person. (Cf. the use in 328.) Celebrations in honour of visits b y earthly potentates paved the way for the use of e m f o c v i f c as a Legatio ad Gaium
21
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
3i6
constant epithet of kings who manifested the superhuman powers with which they were credited. The adjective could also bear the purely human sense of "distinguished". The title Epiphanes was apparently used first by Ptolemy V. From the mid-second century it was popular with the Seleucids, who sometimes added the name of an individual god. The cities of Asia honoured Julius Caesar Z
as 0so<; l7ri9avYJ; (SIG ,
760), and later the title was conferred
on emperors and members of their families. See further Pfister in P.-W. Suppl. IV s.v. Epiphanie, especially coll. 306 ff.; M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte
der griechischen
Religion
II (1950), 173-4, 214-6; A. D .
Nock, "Notes on ruler-cult, I I I " in Journ.
Hellenic
Stud,
xlviii
(1928), 38-41. On ve6; see the note on 89 6 veo; Ai6vuao;. 348
7DQYa? avotT^iiveu; a0p6a>v xax&v.
I.e., maltreatment of the Jews
will bring divine retribution in its train. Reiter marks a lacuna between 348 and 349, before the sudden and casual return to the story of the delegations to Gaius, which faded into the background in 198-206. Cf. Introduction, p. 41. 349 4 4 TOV 7repl TTJ; 7coXtTeta; ay&va. On the meaning of 7roXiTeta see the note on 193. ebeX06vTe;. In 349-67 Philo describes the envoys' second hearing before Gaius, held in Rome in the autumn of 40. His attitude to the Jews was distinctly more hostile on this occasion than at their preliminary interview some months earlier (181). The reason for the change in his attitude is probably to be found in his receipt of Petronius' letter reporting the Jewish opposition to the proposed desecration of the Temple, which had arrived during the summer and greatly annoyed him (254 ff.). 350
(xeTa duv£8pcov. On the explanation which Philo gives here of a Roman custom see the note on 28 7ravreX-J)<; S£ouata. In a Roman civil lawsuit the praetor and the index were at liberty to invite men with legal experience to assist them on the bench as their consilium
or assessores
(Cicero Pro Rose. Com. 4 , 1 2 ; Pro Quinct. 2 , 5 ;
10, 36; 30, 91). The imperial consilium later performed similar judicial functions (e.g., Dio liii, 21, 5); see further J. A . Crook, Consilium
Principis
(1955), 31 ff., 42 ff. Magie (De Vocabulis,
70)
gives other examples of auveSpo;=a member of the imperial consilium. Crook thinks that in this passage Philo is expressing "his disgust, when he led the Jewish embassy from Alexandria, at finding that they were received not b y a properly constituted judicial council but b y the emperor alone . . . . In fact, Philo is so sure how these
COMMENTARY ON §§ 346-351
317
things should be done that it may perhaps be concluded that he had seen before his death . . . . the regular procedure of Claudius in such matters" (op. cit., 40). T£Tp<xxocrtoi<; Ixeatv. A round figure to cover the period from the foundation of Alexandria in 331 B.C. Jewish settlers had had a share in the original foundation, and their political rights in the city had either been granted by Alexander and confirmed b y the f Ptol emies f {BJ ii, 487-8; In Ap. ii, 35), or, according to A J xii, 8, granted by Ptolemy I. [xuptaai 7toXXaI^. Cf. the note on 124 ToaauTa^ fiupiaSa^. 'AXeSavSp^cov 'IouSaUov. See the note on 183 TG>V fiXXov 'AXe£av8p£cov. 7rp6; ne(jLCTpY)(/ivov uSa>p. Water-clocks (clepsydrae) were used in the Athenian lawcourts to measure the time allotted to each speaker. The introduction of the same device into the Roman courts may have been the work of Pompey. See Cicero De Oral, iii, 34, 138, with the note in the edition of A. S. Wilkins (1892); Tusc. Disp. ii, 27, 67; Pliny Ep. i, 23, 2; ii, 1 1 , 14; vi, 2, 5. 351 T O U S Suetv xY)7Kov £mTp67cou<; T O O T E Mauajvot xal Aafxta. The horti Maecenatis were "gardens which Maecenas laid out on the Esquiline, on the Servian agger and the adjacent necropolis (Horace 5a/. i, 8, 14 ff.) . . . . They became imperial property after the death of Maecenas, and Tiberius lived here after his return to Rome in 2 A . D . (S. Tib. 15, 1) . . . . These gardens were near those of Lamia, but it is not easy to reconcile the indications of the ancient literature or to determine their exact location . . . . Probably the gardens extended north from (the Esquiline) gate and road on both sides of T&V
the agger" (S. B. Platner and T. Ashby, A Topographical of Ancient
Rome
(1929) s.v. Horti
Maecenatis).
Dictionary
According to Sue
tonius, Nero watched Rome burn from the "tower of Maecenas" in these gardens (Nero 38, 2). The horti Lamiae were quite probably laid out by L. Aelius Lamia, consul in A . D . 3, and left by him to Tiberius. There is epigraphic evidence for a procurator of these gardens (CIL VI, 8668). Gaius' body was cremated and buried there (S. G. 59) before being transferred to the mausoleum of Au gustus. "There are no further indications of the exact site of these gardens, but they are usually located just south east of the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, principally because of the discovery here of numerous works of art and a few structural remains" (op. cit. s.v. Horti Lamiani). M. Labrousse places the gardens of Maecenas within
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
3i8 the pomoerium
(in Melanges
d'Archeol.
et d'Hist.
(ficole Fran?aise
a n (
de Rome) liv (1937), 182-3), i there can be little doubt that this second interview took place after Gaius' ovation on 31st August, when he had resumed residence in Rome. Cf. the notes on 181 exu^e 8e ex TCOV (x^Tpcocov e£itov xr)7rtov, fin., and 188 oixzraa Yjfxcov T O lep6v.
e7ra\iXei<;.
See the note on this word in 185.
Spa(xaT07roiia.
352
Cf. 359 and
368.
veuovre; et; Tou8oc<po;. Le., the Jews (presumably) made an act of proskynesis (note on 116), although Philo does not use that actual term. He does not mention any similar obeisance at the opening of their first hearing (181), but his remark there "Gaius returned our salutation" does not entirely exclude the possibility that it was made. If the Jews went through this ceremony on either or both occasions, it will have been as a mere formality, undergone for the sake of getting a hearing but with the mental reservation that they did not thereby acknowledge Gaius' divinity. Cf. Naaman the Syrian, who was converted to Judaism but said that, as an officer closely associated with the Syrian king, he would have to continue to pay hp-service to the Syrian god, Rimmon (II Kings v, 1-19, especially 18). Ze(3aaTov AuToxparopa.
353
See the note on 277. I.e. Gaius uttered the sacred name for the Jewish God, Jahweh (the tetragrammaton), as an intentional act of blasphemy. In saying that the name might not be heard or uttered, Philo seems to contradict his statement in Mos. ii, 114 that it was heard and uttered only by the priests ("those whose ear and tongue are purified in wisdom") in the Temple. According to the Mishnah, the name was uttered in the Temple but not elsewhere (Sotah vii, 6). In the ritual of the Day of Atonement it was at first uttered audibly b y the High Priest, but by the time of R. Tarphon (shortly before A . D . 70) it was spoken in a very low voice, lest it should be heard b y disrespectful ears (J. T. Yoma iii, 6, Schwab V, !7re
196); this is discussed by A. Biichler in Studies
in Jewish
History
(1956), 41-4 (in a translation of an article contributed to the D. Chwolson Festschrift
in 1899). Cf. G. F. Moore, Judaism
424-5. W . L. Knox suggests (Some Hellenistic
Elements
in
(1927) I, Primitive
Christianity (1944), 49-50) that Philo's allusion to the use of the name in oaths (Decal. 93) represents a much older practice, and that Gaius' awareness of the current prohibition of the use of
COMMENTARY ON §§ 351-355
319
the name implies that it had been in force for a long time. Leisegang, Indices, lists over forty occurrences of the word 7rp6crpY)ai<; in Philo (including Leg. 180 and 355). The meaning is "name" or "title" in all except two—Heres 261, where the sense is clearly "speech", and Leg. 180, where it is " w o r d " or perhaps "greeting" (a meaning found elsewhere; see L. and S. ). Philo sometimes uses StepfXTjveuco in its common meanings of "expound", "interpret" (cf. epinqvcus in Leg. 99), or "translate", but he also quite frequently uses it, as here, to mean merely "express in words", 9
" s a y " : see, e.g., Conf.
53; Mig.
12 and
81; Mos.
i, 286; and
Spec.
ii, 256. 355
45 6 'IatStopo;. Cf. the note on 172 TCOV 'AXe5av8p£cov l npiaPeic;. Josephus makes another of the Greek envoys, the writer Apion, who was to him the typical anti-Semite, the spokesman (AJ xviii, 257); but on this detail the testimony of the eye-witness Philo is stronger. Isidorus figures in two incidents in the semi-historical Acts of the Heathen Martyrs. In P. Oxy. 1089 he and a Dionysius (very probably the nationalist leader of Fl. 20) are involved in some apparently shady transactions with Flaccus, the exact nature and the date of which the fragmentary state of the papyrus leaves obscure. It seems impossible to fit them with any certainty into the framework of the events of Flaccus' prefecture as recorded by Philo. See further 0
Additional Cairo
Note I, pp. 44-5.
10448; P. Lond.
In
the
2785; P. Berlin
Acta
Isidori
8877) he and
(BGU
5 1 1 ; P.
Lampo are
on
trial before Claudius, probably in 53, and are condemned for some sort of anti-Jewish activity affecting Agrippa II. He is also men tioned in two other papyri of the same group. His name appears in the "yepoucrta-papyrus" (P. Giessen 46, iii, 33-4), but in what connection it is impossible to say. In the Acta Appiani of the time of Commodus he is named, with Lampo and a certain Theon, as a martyr of the Greek nationalist cause (P. Oxy. 33, iv, 6-7). For the texts of the
Acts
of the Heathen
Martyrs
and
for studies of their
content and significance together with discussion of earlier scholars' theories, see Musurillo, AA. aaipeiav. Maiestas. Although the first of the two questions refer red to Gaius, that of the desecration of the Alexandrian synagogues (191), was apparently not explicitly raised at this hearing, there was some indecisive discussion (355-60) of the more fundamental issue of the Jews' privilege of religious liberty, which involved
320
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
their exemption from participation in the imperial cult; Isidorus twists this exemption into an accusation of disloyalty. In Josephus brief account of the embassies (A J xviii, 257-60), in which he describes only one hearing (presumably this second one), the only topic of discussion explicitly mentioned is the Jews' repudiation of the imperial cult, which the Greeks there also insinuate is tanta mount to disloyalty. a7ravTcov yap av8pco7icov . . . . See 18-20. Isidorus makes this al legation, both false, as the Jews are quick to point out (356), and irrelevant to the issues under discussion, in order to prejudice Gaius against the Jews. 356 Y)|xcov. Josephus (very credibly) makes Philo himself the spokes man who attempts to answer the Greek charges against his race. But in his account Philo is the only member of the Jewish delegation to enter Gaius' presence: at the end of the interview Gaius ejects <XUT6V, not auTous, and Philo "goes out" and reports to the other Jews. 1
exaT6[zp<xs I0uaa{i£v. The subject is presumably the Alexandrian Jewish community, not the Jewish race as a whole. Philo does not say where these hecatombs were offered. Apart from the Temple in Jerusalem, the only Jewish sanctuary where sacrificial worship is known to have been permitted at this time was the temple of Onias at Leontopolis, at the southern tip of the Nile delta, which was apparently founded in the second or third century B.C. (For discussion of the temple and the problems connected with it see, e.g., S. A. Hirsch, "The temple of Onias" in Jews* College Volume
(1906), 39-80; G. Ricciotti, Histoire
d'Israel
Jubilee
II (translated
b y P. Auvray, 1948), 303-8; V. Tcherikover, Hellenistic
Civilization
and the Jews, translated by Sh. Applebaum (1959), 276-81; cf. JE s.v. Leontopolis.) But although the temple of Onias probably served as a centre for some Jews in the vicinity, the majority of the Egyp tian Jews no doubt still looked, as Philo did, on the Temple in Jerusalem as their religious centre (cf. 184, 191, 281), and on o c casion went there to worship; Spec, i, 68-70, written for Egyptian Jews, must surely include them in the picture. Philo never mentions the temple of Onias explicitly (and indeed no Hellenistic writer but Josephus does—an indication of its unimportance), and b y implica tion he denies its validity when he argues that the one God should have one Temple only (Spec, i, 67; cf. Josephus in AJiv, 200-1, and In Ap. ii, 193). In all probability, therefore, the reference here is to
321
COMMENTARY ON §§ 355*359
sacrifices in Jerusalem, paid for b y the Alexandrian community. ou T O [iiv alfxa . . . . TY) lepa ykoyL Not all Jewish animal sacrifices were burnt in their entirety on the altar; of some only parts were burnt, while the rest of the flesh was eaten by the priests or b y the Jew offering the sacrifice, although the envoys here deny this b y implication (a>$ S6o? cvfou; 7roieiv). See further JE s.v. Sacrifice, especially 616-8. 5TE SieSe^to TYJV Yjyefioviav. See 1 1 - 3 for the universal rejoicings at Gaius* accession. 7taaa Y) otxoufiivY) cruvevoaYjaev. Cf. 16 Ta yap (xlpyj 7cavTa TYJ? o l x o u [XCVYJ^
auTco cTuvev6aYja£.
x a T a rJ)v iXniBx TYJS Tepfxavix^ V I X Y J ^ . It is clear from the use of eknlq that the hecatomb was offered before, or soon after, the be ginning of Gaius' northern campaign, and not after its allegedly successful conclusion. The campaign was apparently mooted in the summer of 39, since one of the reasons given for the building of the bridge of boats across the bay of Baiae, which Dio dates to that
year (lix, 1 7 ) , was ut Germaniam alicuius
immensi
operis
fama
et Britanniam,
territaret
quibus
imminebat,
(S. G. 19, 3). The Jewish
sacrifice may therefore have been offered at any time during the summer or autumn of that year—which incidentally indicates that the Alexandrian Jews had been able to return to normal life and recover from the losses suffered during the previous year very quickly. Since there is nothing to show whether the Jewish envoys heard of it before leaving Alexandria for Italy or after their arrival there (via traders coming from Palestine or Egypt?), their knowl edge of it does not help to determine the year of their voyage. 359 {lifzoic. For the mime in the ancient world and its popularity in Alexandria see P.-W. s.v. Mimos; J. R. Allardyce Nicoll, Masks, 2
W . Beare, The Roman Stage
Mimes,
H. Reich, Der Mimus and Miracles
(1903);
(1931), 17-134;
(1955), 139-48; Box, notes on Fl. 34;
cf. Musurillo, AA, 247-8. Philo uses the mime as a comparison in describing two episodes in the anti-Jewish disturbances in Alexan dria in 38 also—the Carabas-procession (Fl. 38; cf. Box's note) and the lynching of the Jews (Fl. 72, with Colson's note, Loeb Philo I X ) . Even if performances of mimes were not patronized by strict Jews, the literary form must have been familiar to them. Box cites a Midrash which mentions the mocking of Jews in the theatre and circus and jokes against them in the mimes. Some of the grotesque bronze and terracotta statuettes which G. M. A. Richter argues
322
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
represent mimic actors (in Amer. Journ. Archaeol. 2nd series xvii (1913), 149-56) have exaggeratedly large hooked noses. See, e.g., Nicoll, op. cit., 48, fig. 32, and 7 1 , figg. 68 and 69; less striking examples are 47, fig. 31 (probably from Egypt), 48, figg. 33 and 34, and 49, fig. 37. Is it possible that these statuettes represent Jewish characters which appeared in mimic farces? The style of the faces recalls the Pompeian fresco of "The Judgement of Solomon" (in the Naples Museum), in which the figures are pigmies with unnaturally large heads and hooked noses; for discussion and a reproduction see J.-B. Frey, "Les Juifs a Pomp&" (in RB xlii (1933), 365-83), 375-81 and PI. X X I I . Possibly that fresco, which, like so many others at Pompeii, is Alexandrian in style, represents a scene from a mime. 361
8ti Tt xotpetav xpe&v dbrexeoOe; Box regards this question as mimic (note on Fl. 38). "Clean" animals, which the Jews were al lowed to eat, were cloven-hoofed animals which chewed the cud, notably the ox, sheep, and goat. Animals not fulfilling both these conditions were "unclean" and were forbidden as food. In the food laws of the Pentateuch the pig is one of the animals excluded b y name because, although cloven-hoofed, it does not chew the cud (Levit. xi, 2-8; Deut. xiv, 3-8). Cf. Philo in Spec, iv, 100-9, where he gives an allegorical explanation of the regulation. See further JE
s.vv.
Dietary
Laws;
and
Clean and unclean
animals.
The Jews'
abstention from pork amused and puzzled the gentiles, who specu lated about the reason for it (In Ap. ii, 137; Plutarch Mor. 669c671c; T. H. v, 4; Juvenal xiv, 98-9; Sextus Empiricus Pyrrh. Hypot. iii, 223). The Egyptians also abstained from pork (Herodotus ii, 47; In Ap. ii, 1 4 1 ; Plutarch Mor. 353 f; Aelian Nat. Anim. x, 1 6 ; Anaxandrides apud Athenaeus Deipnos. vii, 300a; Sextus Empiricus I.e.; Origen Contra Cels. v, 34 and 41). At the time of Tiberius' measures against the Jews and the Isis-cult in Rome in A . D . 19 (note on 159 ZYJIOCVO*;), quorundem animalium abstinentia was re garded as evidence of adherence to one of the proscribed sects (Sen. Ep. cviii, 22); for discussion see the present writer in Latomus xv (1956), 320. TO (xeTplox; [xeiStaaat . . . . &a
COMMENTARY ON §§ 359-37O
323
the second of the two questions referred to him for settlement— that of the Jews' civic position in Alexandria (193; see the note there on the meaning of 7roAiTeia). 364 a7TOYeucxafievos -rife SixaioXoyias. This admission that Gaius did listen to some of the Jews' arguments indicates that the inter view as a whole was not quite such a farce as Philo would have us believe. uaAcp Aeuxfj. For glass in the ancient world see A. Kisa, Das Glas im
Altertume
(1908) and F. Neuburg, Glass in Antiquity
(translated
by R. J. Charleston, 1949). Other works are cited in The Classical
Dictionary
s.v.
Oxford
Glass.
8ia9av6cn XlOot;. The reference here is probably to selenite (crys tallized gypsum), a colourless transparent mineral, which splits readily into thin flakes up to four or five inches in length and is known to have been used in antiquity for glazing windows (Ency clopedia Britannica s.v. Gypsum). It is found, among other places, at Agrigentum. (This identification was suggested to the writer by Mr. R. E. H. Reid of the Queen's University of Belfast.) The phrase AtGos Sia^avir^ is used to denote the non-crystalline form of gypsum b y Lucian (Alex. 21, where the reference is to pulverized gypsum forming a component of plaster), and to denote a burningglass made of rock crystal (quartz) b y Aristophanes (Nub. 767-9). 367 368
6 8e Aapcov
46 e.g.,
TCOV
Immut.
OZXTOV.
See the note on 220. This noun is fairly common in Philo:
foravotTaaecov.
167, Som. ii, 7, and Praem.
with its synonym inzikii in Immut.
and Prob.
4. It is used in conjunction
64, Som. ii, 96, Spec, ii, 83, Virt. 5,
144. 'E7cavaTefoo{iai (below)="brandish threateningly"
occurs also in Fl. 89 and Prob. 144. 369 OavotTov. See the note on 1 1 7 Sxouatou; OavaTou;. 7rapavaXco(xa yevrj^fievot. The idea of "waste" predominates here. But when the same phrase is used in Fl. 12, it is in the sense of "being got rid of in addition"; cf. Colson's note ad loc. Loeb Philo I X . 370 £8OV7)6Y][JL£V avaxu<J/ai. Sc. avexityafiev. 7roTa7ri) yhoir av v\ xptcn;. Neither Philo nor Josephus indicates what decision Gaius reached on the disputes laid before him, and from their silence it can most credibly be inferred that none was given. The two embassies apparently continued to wait in Rome through the autumn of 40 hoping for an answer, and were still there when Gaius was killed. In that case, any resumption of the t
324
THE EMBASSY TO GAIUS
use of the synagogues which had proved possible after the end of the riots, and any relaxation of the regulation confining the Jews to the ghetto, lacked official sanction until Claudius reaffirmed their rights soon after his accession. Cf. Introduction, pp. 23 and 27-30. fjxouae . . . . 7rapr)xou
COMMENTARY ON §§ 37O-373
325
view contradicting that previously held. In Patristic Greek the meanings of repentance and of a change of policy or opinion per sist. (References from the forthcoming Lexicon of Patristic Greek * were kindly supplied to the writer by the editor, the Reverend Professor G. W . H. Lampe.) It is hard, however, to see how Philo could have ended his treatise with a recantation of his attack on Gaius. H. Leisegang's theory is that in the palinode Gaius, the object of attack in the extant treatise, was glorified as "ein Werkzeug Gottes", and God was praised "der in diesem Kaiser wohlweislich den Judenhass erregte, ihn zu den Verfolgungen der Juden und zum Frevel an ihrem Heiligtum trieb, um dadurch das ganze Volk zum Zeugnis fur seinem Gott aufzurufen, zur Bewahrung seiner alten Tugenden und zu einem Beispiel der ganzen Welt" (JBL lvii (1938), 404; see Introduction, p . 40, n. 1 for his view of the meaning of the title Ilepl 'Apexcov). But this is perhaps overingenious, and it is more probable that the subject of the palinode was the fall of Gaius, represented as divine retribution for his attack on the Jews, and the change for the better which Jewish fortunes underwent after Claudius' accession. (Cf. Goodenough, Politics, 19, and Colson, note ad loc). Such an account would correspond to that of Flaccus' punishment which concludes the other treatise. Schurer suggests (I, 501, n. 174; I I I , 679) that Philo's general theme in both treatises is the same as that of Lactantius' De Mortibus Persecutorum, namely that the persecutors of the pious meet unpleasant ends, and there are hints of this in Leg. 348 and in the references to the fall of Helicon and the execution of Apelles in 206. But if Gaius' death was the subject of the palinode, the word can bear its normal meaning of "recantation" here only in some strained and unnatural sense—cf. Colson's remark that the story of Gaius' death would be a recantation only in the sense of forcing the doubters of providence to recant—and it therefore seems better to suppose that Philo is using the word in the unparalleled(P) sense of "an account of a reversal of fortune".
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA indicated
by * in the text
Introduction
P. 5, note i . Add In the BouAiq-papyrus (Musurillo, AA i ) , col. ii, 5 the word denotes the Greek citizen-body of Alexandria. Translation
P. 114, § 236. For let this be our epitaph: read let the Emperor's command be carried out. P. 114, § 239. For an embassy to our master, read an embassy to seek an interview with our master. P. 126, § 291. After respected the Temple add when he visited it, P. 128, § 297. After conferred add on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. P. 140, § 350. After on either side of him add with their advocates; Commentary
P. 151, note on 1 &xpt ' ° S - Add With Philo's first sentence cf. Plato Tim. 22b. P. 158, note on 8 yap. Add Cf. V. Nikiprowetzki's review of the present work in Rev. dePhilol. de LitUr. et d'Hist. Anc. xxxvii (1963), 311-2. P. 159, note on 9 7 c e ^ , bnctxAc, vauTixd$. Add G. Webster, The T
Roman
Imperial
Army
P. 161, note on n
V
(1969).
inayne^
^ydtoOyjaav. For
(ILS 8792 = IGr V I I , 2711, 21-43). P. 169, note on 22 (i&XXov Se Cdsar
und
die
julisch-claudischen
(ILS
8792)
read
4va
Kaiser
im
biologisch-artzlichen
w
Blickfeld (1958), 133-9, h ° subjects Gaius to psychological ana lysis and concludes that his mental illness was probably of a schizoid or even schizophrenic type, though our evidence is not full enough for certainty. P. 174, note on 26 TO0<; b> r&ei. Add Cf. J. A. Crook, Law and Life of Rome (1967), 111-2. P. 176, note on 29 e\pe&pov. After L. and S .
9
add (add AJ xvi, 80).
P. 182, note on 43 tmxklvoi$ npb<; oZq. Add Cf. J. Dani&ou, Philon d'Alexandrie (1958), 76-7 on the Neopythagorean ideal of kingship here put into Macro's mouth.
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA
op.
327
P. 184, note on 55 ev rot; enrcpfiaTtxoT; X6yot$. Add Cf. Dani61ou, cit., 77-8. P. 187. Add
the following
note:
64 q>povi[XG>TaTo; StxatixaTo;. As monarch Gaius claimed the four Aristotelian virtues. Cf. the brief discussion b y Dani&ou, op. cit., 79. P. 189. Add
the following
note:
68 axoivcovYjTov apx*). Cf. Livy i, 14, 3 ob infidam Lucan i 92 nulla fides regni soeiis; num\
Statius Theb.
i, 130 sociisque
societatem
T. A. xiii, 17, 2 insociabile comes discordia
regni;
reg-
regnis.
P. 189, note on 68 Oeajios
the following
note to section
142:
81' atSto T?)V rapl d)v ayxlvotav. This difficult phrase seems to mean that as a young man Tiberius was reluctant to show or act on his natural shrewdness and quick-wittedness, but behaved with the caution characteristic of the elderly. Cf. J. H. ThiePs review of the present work in Mnemosyne 4th series xvi (1963), 76. P. 228, note on 144 el ptf) St' Sva SvSpa. Add On Philo's view of monarchy see Goodenough, Politics, 86-120; I. Heinemann, Philons griechische Der
und jiidische
Monotheismus
Bildung
als politisches
(1932), 182-202; cf. E. Petersen, Problem
(1935), 21-33.
P. 228, note on 144 T6V 2epaorr6v [olxov]. Add Kohnke suggests emending to TOV ZePaarov olxoufxeVqs i^tov xaXetv aXe£lxaxov (op. cit., 354). P. 229, note on 145 v6aou?. Add M. Simon in Bull, de la Fac. des Lettres
de Strasburg
1943, 175-83.
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA
328
P. 238, note on 156 XP*)^*™ auvayovra? dbro Add A J iii, 194-6; Philo Spec, i, 77-8. P. 238, note on 156
TZ£\LTZOYZOL<;
TCOV
arrapxcov tepa.
<
et<; Iepoa6Xu[xa. Add BJ vi, 335;
P. 247, note on 166 TCOV eyxuxXtcov. For and rhetoric (Philo Cher. 105). read rhetoric and astronomy (Philo Cher. 105; Cong. 1 0 - n , 15-9; Som. i, 205; Ebr. 49). After Cf. Quintilian i, 10, 1. add For a general discussion of lyxuxXto? 7ratSe(a see H. Roller in Glotta xxxiv (1955), 174-89. P. 252, note on 179. For Judaea and Samaria, read Idumaea and Samaria,
Judaea,
P. 260, note on 198rcavTCovtepcov TCOV 7ravTaxou xaXXtcrrov. After PI. X V I add F. J. Hollis, The Archaeology of Herod's Temple (1934), 103-231; L.-H. Vincent and M. A. Steve, Jerusalem de VAncien Testament (1956), 496-525. Continue The Mishnaic account is studied by Hollis, op. cit. 235-348, and L.-H. Vincent, " L e Temple H6rodien d'apres la Mishnah" t
P. 272, note on 221 aykv. Add Kohnke suggests emending to oxcbv TOV et? (op. cit. 354). t
P. 276, note on 230 7rpoae7cl(TO(xev. Add Kohnke would retain the future tense of the MSS and refer it to the Jews' request for leave to send a delegation in 239-42 (op. cit. 354). t
P. 278, note on 237 axo-J)v £8e5a(jte0a For The earliest e x t a n t . . . Shield 216 ff. read The earliest extant references to the Gorgon's head (Iliad v, 741-2; xi, 36; Odys. xi, 634-5; HesiodSAwW 216-37) do not explicitly mention its power to turn to stone. P. 281, note on 247 emTpe^retv. Kohnke suggests removing the fullstop after ao^aXe? yap oux elvat. This would give the meaning " H e also resolved not to authorize..., as it would be dangerous not to oppose " P. 282, note on 249 ev axfxyj 8aa cnrapTa. Add BJ iv, 402-4; P. 289, note on 264 em TOCTOUT6V [xot xp^vov cruvStaTpt^a?. Delete the 4 lines perhaps also for some time Agrippa to Gaius.) Pp. 294-5, note on rJjv xotXT)V7rpocyayopeuo(xeViQv. For (xvi, 2,16,754). BJi, 103-4,
xv
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA
329
P. 297, note on 290 TCOV ataOYjTcov Oecov. Add Cf. Plato's 0eol ipocTot, the heavenly bodies (Tim. 4oa-d; Epin. 984 d ) . P. 298, note on 292 60ev. Kohnke suggests emending to <£XXo0ev (op. cit.
t
354).
P. 309, note on 312 emoucTTacTa?. Kohnke suggests emending to emauaTaaei? and taking ouv68ou? as a gloss (op. cit., 354). P. 312, note on 326 TJJV TpaxcoviTiv. For 37, and was not Agrippa's memorandum, read 37. Galilee and Peraea had been added shortly before this memorandum was written (note on 179). P. 312, note on 333 (XYjSev iizi TCO t e p c o TCOV 'IouSalcov eri v e c o T e p o v xiveiv. For his letter of read the letter which according to Philo, 259-60, he had written P. 317, note on 351 T O U ? Suetv XT)7TCOV SmTp67rou? T O U Te Maixrjva xal Aajxta. Add Cf. P. Grimal, Les jardins
P. 325, note on 373
TJJV
G. W . H. Lampe.) read Cf. A Patristic
Lampe (1961-8), s.v.
romains
7roXivcp8tav. For Greek
(1943), 152-7.
(References from Lexicon
ed. G. W .
H.
INDEX Numbers
in italic type
type
are numbers
of the sections
are pages of the introduction
Casual A c t i u m , b a t t l e of, 144
references
or
are omitted from
of the text;
those in
toman
commentary. this
index.
(not n a m e d ) ; 228, 309.
A c t s of t h e H e a t h e n M a r t y r s , 4 4 - 5 , 3 1 9 . A d o p t i o n , 23-8', 1 6 9 - 7 1 , 1 7 4 - 6 . A f r i c a , n o r t h , J e w s in, 283;
206, 2 7 8 - 9 , 2 9 5 , 308, 3 1 0 .
A g r i p p a I , J e w i s h k i n g , 28 n. 2 a n d 3, 3 2 , 4 5 - 6 , 4 9 , 1 7 2 , 207, 2 6 1 , 2 7 3 , 2 9 3 , 9 7 . 303, 3 1 1 , 3 1 4 , 3 2 4 ; c a r e e r of, 3 2 4 - 5 ; 2 5 1 - 2 , 2 8 8 - 9 ; k i n g d o m of, 326; 2
3 4 , 2 5 2 , 2 7 9 , 3 1 1 - 2 ; v i s i t of, t o A l e x a n d r i a , J 7 9 ; 1 6 - 1 9 , 2 3 , 49, 2 1 4 , 2 2 3 , 2 5 2 ; v i s i t of, t o G a i u s , 261-8; 3 2 , 3 5 , 2 8 7 - 8 , 3 1 3 ; illness of, 266-75; 3 5 . 2 8 9 - 9 1 ; m e m o r a n d u m of, t o G a i u s , 276-330;
3 5 , 288, 2 9 1 - 2 ; a t t i t u d e of,
t o w a r d s J u d a i s m , 290, 2 9 7 . A g r i p p a I I , s o n of A g r i p p a I , 290, 3 0 1 , 3 1 9 . A g r i p p a , M . V i p s a n i u s , 2 5 1 , 2 9 7 - 8 ; a t t i t u d e of, t o w a r d s J e w s , 291, 2 9 4 - 7 ; 206, 2 3 7 , 240, 2 7 8 - 9 , 300, 3 1 0 ; v i s i t of, t o J e r u s a l e m , 2 9 4 - 7 ; 240, 2 9 9 . A g r i p p i n a I , m o t h e r of G a i u s , 33, 181 ( n o t n a m e d ) ; 1 5 , 1 7 0 , 1 7 8 , 1 8 6 , 1 8 8 , 2 5 3 - 4 . 298. A g r i p p i n a I I , s i s t e r of G a i u s , 87, 9 2 ( n o t n a m e d ) ; 1 9 6 - 8 , 1 9 9 . A l e x a n d e r t h e a l a b a r c h , b r o t h e r of P h i l o , 4, 1 3 , 1 7 , 250, 2 9 2 . A l e x a n d r i a , G r e e k c i t i z e n s h i p in, 4 - 1 4 , 1 7 , 2 5 , 3 1 , 2 2 3 , 2 5 5 ; J e w i s h d i s t r i c t s i n , 2 0 - 1 , 4 6 - 7 , 2 1 5 - 6 , 220, 2 2 2 ; t o p o g r a p h y of, 2 1 6 , 2 1 7 - 8 , 2 2 3 , 2 3 2 ; g y m n a s i u m in, 135; 8 n. 6, 1 4 , 1 8 , 20, 2 2 3 ; G a i u s * p r o p o s e d v i s i t t o , see under G a i u s . A l e x a n d r i a n G r e e k s , h o s t i l i t y of, t o w a r d s R o m a n a u t h o r i t y , 1 1 - 1 2 , 2 1 4 , 2 2 4 ; n a t i o n a l i s t p a r t y a m o n g , 1 2 , 1 4 - 1 9 , 4 4 - 5 , 248-9, 3 1 9 ; h o s t i l i t y of, t o w a r d s J e w s , J 2 0 , J 7 0 , 183; 3, 1 1 - 1 2 , 2 0 6 - 7 , 2 1 4 ; p a r o d y of J e w i s h p r o c e s s i o n , 1 8 - 1 9 ; a t t a c k of, o n J e w s ' p e r s o n s a n d p r o p e r t y , 120-31; 21-2, 2 0 6 - 7 , 2 1 4 - 2 0 ; a t t a c k of, o n J e w s ' c i v i c s t a t u s , 1 6 - 1 7 , 2 0 - 1 , 24, 2 5 , 4 5 , 4 7 ; a t t a c k of, o n s y n a g o g u e s , 132-7,165, 191, 346; 1 9 - 2 0 , 2 3 , 2 5 , 26, 4 5 - 7 , 206-7, 220-4, 2 5 7 , 264, 3 1 4 , 3 1 9 ; a t t i t u d e of, t o w a r d s G a i u s , 162-4. A n i m a l - w o r s h i p , E g y p t i a n , 139, 163; 2 2 5 - 6 , 2 4 5 - 6 . A n t i o c h , 3 3 , 3 5 , 268, 2 7 3 , 2 8 1 , 3 1 3 . A n t i o c h u s E p i p h a n e s , 1 3 n. 5, 2 1 1 , 298. A n t i p a s , H e r o d , t e t r a r c h of G a l i l e e , 1 5 8 , 2 5 2 , 286, 303, 306. A n t i - S e m i t i s m , see under A l e x a n d r i a n G r e e k s , G a i u s , H e l i c o n , and a n t i - S e m i t i c l i t e r a t u r e , 170; 2 4 7 - 8 . A n t o n i a , fortress in J e r u s a l e m , 299, 3 0 1 . A n t o n y , M . , 1 1 , 228, 2 3 1 , 2 6 5 . A p e l l e s , a c t o r , 203-6; 3 2 , 2 5 1 , 264-6, 3 2 5 . A p i o n , a n t i - S e m i t i c w r i t e r , 2 4 , 30, 248-9, 3 1 9 . A p o l l o , 93, 95-6, 103-6, 109-10; 200-1, 203, 204. Aramaic, 19, 277. A r e s , 93, 97, 111-3; 2 0 1 - 2 , 204, 228. A r e t a s , k i n g of N a b a t a e a , 1 5 8 . Aristotle, 1 5 1 , 160, 187.
Sejanus;
INDEX
332
A r m y , R o m a n , 9, 58; 1 5 9 , 1 7 8 , 1 8 5 , 2 8 5 ; g a r r i s o n of E g y p t , 1 1 , 2 2 0 ; of J u d a e a , 268, 2 7 6 , 3 0 1 - 2 ; of S y r i a , 207-8, 222, 233, 256, 2 5 9 ; 3 3 , 268, 2 7 7 . A r t , J e w i s h a t t i t u d e t o w a r d s , 2 9 0 ; 2 9 7 , 304, 3 1 1 . A r v a l Brethren, 1 7 7 , 185, 198. A s c a l o n , 2 0 5 ; 2 6 1 , 264-6. A s i a , io, 22, 48, 89, 245, 250, 280-1, 283, 311; 205-6, 2 7 8 , 284, 285, 3 0 8 - 1 0 , 3 1 6 . A s s e m b l y , J e w s ' r i g h t of, 1 5 6 - 7 , 311-2; 205-6, 2 3 9 . ' A a x o i , dt<mi, 8-9, 2 1 9 . A t o n e m e n t ; D a y of ( " F a s t D a y " ) , 306-7; 299, 307-8, 3 1 8 . A u g u s t a n d y n a s t y , 48-9,149, 321-2; 1 6 1 , 2 2 1 , 229, 240. A u g u s t e u m , 151; 2 3 1 - 2 . A u g u s t u s , 143-53, 309-10, 319; 6, 1 5 8 , 1 5 9 , 1 6 1 , 1 6 9 - 7 1 , 1 7 4 , 1 8 2 , 186, 2 1 3 , 226, 2 2 7 - 4 2 passim, 268, 2 7 3 , 300, 306, 308, 3 1 0 ; t r e a t m e n t of J e w s , 154-8, 291,310-8; 206, 226, 2 3 1 , 236, 238, 240-2, 2 7 8 , 298, 300, 3 0 8 - 1 1 ; t e m p l e of, in A l e x a n d r i a , 151; 1 9 3 , 2 3 1 - 2 ; t e m p l e of, in C a e s a r e a , 3 0 5 ; 230. B a b y l o n , 216, 282; 2 7 1 , 293. B a i a e , G a i u s ' b r i d g e of b o a t s a t , 1 9 4 , 2 5 6 , 3 2 1 . B i r t h r i g h t , 289; 296-7. BouXt), G r e e k , in A l e x a n d r i a , 1 1 n. 4; pouXyj-papyrus, 5 n. 1. B r i g a n d s , 305. C a e s a r e a , 305; 230, 2 6 2 , 290, 302, 306-7, 3 1 0 . C a e s o n i a , w i f e of G a i u s , 1 6 9 . C a m p a n i a , 26, 254, 2 5 6 , 2 6 0 - 1 , 2 8 5 . C a p i t o , C . H e r e n n i u s , 199-202; 3 2 , 260-2. C a r a b a s , 18-20, 45, 46, 3 2 1 , C a t a c o m b s , J e w i s h , in R o m e , 2 3 4 , 242. C h a l d a e a n , 4; 1 5 2 - 3 . C h r i s t , 38, 203, 2 3 7 , 3 0 1 , 3 0 5 ; C r u c i f i x i o n of, 42, 243, 306. C h r o n o l o g y , s y s t e m s of, 1 6 1 , 2 2 6 - 7 , 9Circumcision, 2 1 1 - 2 . C i t i z e n s h i p , G r e e k , in A l e x a n d r i a , see under A l e x a n d r i a ; R o m a n , 157, 285, 287; 1 3 , 205, 2 3 5 , 240, 242, 2 5 1 , 296. C l a u d i u s , E m p e r o r , 206; 4, 6, 2 7 , 1 5 1 , 1 7 0 , 1 7 7 , 1 8 2 , 2 1 0 , 230, 250, 266, 2 7 1 , 2 7 9 , 289, 292, 296, 3 1 6 ; t r e a t m e n t of J e w s , 23, 2 7 - 3 1 , 1 5 2 , 239, 244, 3 1 4 - 5 , 3 1 9 , 3 2 4 - 5 ; Letter to Alexandria, 6-7, 1 2 , 25 n. 3, 2 7 - 3 1 , 1 5 2 , 2 1 3 , 229, 2 3 1 , 2 3 3 ; e d i c t s of, 6, 1 0 , 2 7 - 9 , 3 1 , 2 5 5 , 264, 3 1 4 - 5 ; d a t e of e d i c t s of, 28 n. 2. C l e o p a t r a I I I , 135; 2 2 3 ; C l e o p a t r a , V I I , 135 ( n o t n a m e d ) ; 1 1 , 1 8 9 , 2 2 3 , 2 2 4 , 228, 2 2 9 , 2 3 1 , 2 6 5 . C o e l e S y r i a , 281; 2 9 4 - 5 . Collegia, 15; e x e m p t i o n of s y n a g o g u e s f r o m b a n o n , 311-6; 2 0 5 , 2 3 6 , 3 0 8 - 9 , 3 1 0 . Concilium, provincial, 278. Consilium, 2 7 9 ; of e m p e r o r , 1 7 4 , 3 1 6 . C o r n - d o l e s , 158; 2 3 5 , 242. C r o n o s , A g e of ( G o l d e n A g e ) , 13; 1 6 2 - 4 , 1 6 6 - 7 . 2 2
Cursus publicus,
1 6 6 , 2 7 3 , 285.
D e c a p o l i s , 294-5. D e i f i c a t i o n , A u g u s t u s ' a t t i t u d e t o w a r d s , 154; see under G a i u s , s e l f - d e i f i c a t i o n of. Delos, 201. D e l p h i , 69; 2 0 1 .
233; G a i u s ' a t t i t u d e towards,
INDEX
333
D e m i - g o d s , G a i u s ' e q u a t i o n of h i m s e l f w i t h , 78-92, 114; 1 9 3 - 4 . D e m o n s t r a t i o n s , J e w i s h , a t P t o l e m a i s , 225-42; 3 3 , 2 7 3 - 5 , 2 7 9 ; a t T i b e r i a s , 34, 2 7 9 , 2 8 8 ; d a t e of, 260, 2 7 3 , 2 8 1 - 7 . D i a s p o r a ( i n c l u d i n g references t o specific c o m m u n i t i e s o t h e r t h a n t h o s e in 2
R o m e a n d A l e x a n d r i a ) , 214-7, 45> 281-3, 33<>, 34&> 371', 5, 8, 3 3 , 205, 2 2 1 , 2 3 7 - 8 , 2 5 6 , 2 5 7 , 2 6 4 , 2 7 1 - 2 , 293-6, 308, 3 2 4 . D i c a e a r c h i a , 185. Di manes, 65; 1 8 7 - 8 . D i o n y s i u s , A l e x a n d r i a n n a t i o n a l i s t l e a d e r , 1 2 , 1 6 , 44, 2 4 9 , 3 1 9 . l
2
0
1
D i o n y s u s , 78-9, 82-3, 88-9, 92, 96; 1 9 3 - 5 , 9&, • D i o s c u r i , 78-9, 84-5, 87, 92; 1 9 4 - 6 . D i s e a s e , t h e o r y of, 125-6; 2 1 6 - 7 . D o r a (city in Phoenicia), 3 1 4 - 5 . D r u s i l l a , sister of G a i u s , 2 1 , 1 6 5 , 1 7 5 , 1 9 7 , 1 9 9 , 2 1 5 . D r u s u s , s o n of T i b e r i u s , 1 6 9 - 7 1 , 1 7 7 . D r u s u s , b r o t h e r of G a i u s , 1 7 0 , 1 9 4 .
'EyxuxXia, 166; 2 4 7 . E g y p t , E g y p t i a n , 80, 139, 148, 163, 166, 205, 250, 338; 9, 1 1 , 1 3 , 1 5 n. 5, 24, 2 7 , 30, 1 6 0 , 1 6 1 , 1 6 5 , 1 7 9 , 1 8 6 , 1 9 2 , 2 1 8 , 2 1 9 - 2 0 , 2 2 3 - 6 , 228, 2 2 9 , 2 4 5 - 6 , 249, 2 5 8 , 2 6 8 , 2 8 3 , 2 9 9 , 3 2 0 . 2
2
E m b a s s y , G r e e k , f r o m A l e x a n d r i a t o G a i u s , 172, 183, 354-5', 4 * 7 . 30. 4 1 - . 48, 1 5 7 , 248-9, 3 1 9 ; t o C l a u d i u s , 29-30, 2 4 9 . E m b a s s y , J e w i s h , f r o m A l e x a n d r i a t o G a i u s , 174, 178-80, 370; 2 4 - 7 , 30, 3 2 , 3 7 , 4 1 - 3 , 1 5 7 , 248, 2 5 0 - 1 ; v o y a g e of, 180,190; 24, 4 7 - 5 0 , 248-9, 2 5 4 , 2 5 7 ; m e m o r a n d u m of, 178-9; 2 4 - 5 , 4 9 , 2 5 1 , 2 5 2 - 3 , 2 9 2 ; first h e a r i n g of, 181-3; 2 5 - 6 , 48-9, 253-5» h e a r s n e w s of G a i u s ' a t t a c k o n T e m p l e , 184-206; 26, 2 5 6 ; s e c o n d h e a r i n g of, 349-72', 2 6 - 7 , 4 1 , 4 3 , 48-9, 2 6 7 , 3 1 6 - 2 4 ; J e w i s h r e q u e s t t o P e t r o n i u s for p e r m i s s i o n t o s e n d , 2 3 9 - 4 2 , 247; 3 3 - 4 , 2 7 8 , 2 8 0 - 1 ; t o C l a u d i u s , 29-30. E n n i a T h r a s y l l a , w i f e of M a c r o , 39-40, 59, 61 ( n o t n a m e d ) ; 1 8 0 , 1 8 6 - 7 . 'E7riPaTyjptoc, 151; 2 3 1 - 2 . Epicureanism, 151-2. 'E7ti9avr)<;, 346; 3 1 5 - 6 .
'E^Peta, 8 n. 6, 13, 29 n. 2, 223. Equites, e q u e s t r i a n , 7 5 ; 1 7 6 , 1 8 6 , 1 9 1 , 2 4 2 . E t e s i a n w i n d s , 1 7 , 2 1 4 , 2 8 3 , 288. E t h n a r c h , J e w i s h , in A l e x a n d r i a , 5. 2
2
2
E t y m o l o g i e s , 4, 99, 1 1 3 ; i53"4. ° » ° 4 E u p h r a t e s , J O , 2 0 7 , 216, 259, 282; 1 6 1 , 2 6 8 . E u r o p e , 10, 22, 48, 89, 280, 283. E u s e b i u s , o n P h i l o ' s w o r k s , 3 7 - 4 3 , 2 4 3 ; o n P o n t i u s P i l a t e , 2 4 5 , 302. E v o l u t i o n a r y v i e w of h u m a n d e v e l o p m e n t , 20; 1 6 6 - 7 . E x i t - p e r m i t f r o m E g y p t , 1 5 , 2 4 , 49. E x p u l s i o n of J e w s f r o m R o m e , 157; 2 3 9 , 243-4, 3 2 2
Fate, 25; 173. F i r s t - f r u i t s (sacred m o n e y ; T e m p l e t a x ) , 156-7, 216, 291, 311-6', <>5» 3 7 * 9 , 2 7 1 - 2 , 2 7 8 - 9 , 3 0 1 , 308. F l a c c u s , A . A v i l l i u s , p r e f e c t of E g y p t , 132 ( n o t n a m e d ) ; 4, 9 - 1 0 . i 4 " 3 . 5 . - , 47.9, I I i 1 8 6 , 207, 2 1 6 , 2 1 9 - 2 2 0 , 2 2 2 , 240, 2 4 3 , 2 4 6 , 248, 2
2
2
4
4
5
7
#
7 7 >
252, 3 1 4 , 3 1 9 ; Philo's w o r k on, 38-41. F r e e d m e n , J e w i s h , i n R o m e , 155; 2 3 4 - 5 .
2
INDEX
334
G a e t u l i c u s , C n . C o r n e l i u s L e n t u l u s , c o n s p i r a c y of, 1 9 7 - 8 . 1
6
n
l
1
1
G a i u s , E m p e r o r , a c c e s s i o n of, 8-13, 231, 288-9, 35&', *5» - > 4 . 5^, 1 6 1 - 2 , 1 8 1 , 2 5 2 , 2 7 6 , 2 9 7 ; illness of, 14-21, 355; 1 6 n. 1, 26, 1 6 4 - 6 , 168-9, 1 7 5 , 1 7 6 , 1 8 5 , 1 8 8 ; i n t e r e s t of, in t h e a t r e , e t c . , 42, 45; 1 8 1 , 2 6 4 - 5 ; a t t i t u d e of, t o w a r d s f a m i l y , 33, 321; 1 7 8 - 9 , 1 9 4 ; r e l a t i o n s of, w i t h sisters, 87, 92; 1 7 5 , 1 9 7 - 8 , 1 9 9 ; c h a r a c t e r a n d m e n t a l d e r a n g e m e n t of, 22, 34, 52, 5 9 , 67, 73, 339-46; 1 6 8 - 9 , 1 7 9 , 1 8 5 ; s e l f - d e i f i c a t i o n of, 75-114, 118, 162-5,198, 20i, 218, 265, 332, 338, 346, 353, 366, 368; 3, 26-7, 3 7 , 1 9 1 - 3 . 1 9 9 , 200, 206-7, 2 1 0 , 2 1 3 , 2 1 4 , 2 6 3 , 7 . 9 7 » 3 1 3 . 3 1 5 . 3 » 3 4 * seMd e i f i c a t i o n of, a n t e - d a t e d b y P h i l o , 3, 1 9 1 - 2 , 2 0 7 ; a t t i t u d e of, t o w a r d s J e w s , 115,119,133,180, 201, 256, 268, 346, 312; 3, 2 6 , 206-7, 3 . 54"5» 3 1 6 ; p o r t r a i t s of, p l a c e d in A l e x a n d r i a n s y n a g o g u e s , 134; 4 5 - 7 , 2 2 2 , 2 6 4 ; a t t a c k of, o n T e m p l e , 188-337, 34$', &, 3 » 4 ° - » 4 "3» ° ° » 2 5 6 - 3 1 3 passim, 3 1 5 ; c a n c e l l a t i o n of o r d e r for a t t a c k o n T e m p l e , 333; 3 1 2 - 3 ; reissue of o r d e r , 337, 346; 3 1 3 ; c h r o n o l o g y of a t t a c k o n T e m p l e , 3 1 n. 5, 2 5 6 , 2 6 0 - 1 , 2 6 7 , 2 7 3 , 2 8 1 - 8 , 2 9 1 - 2 ; c a m p a i g n of, in G a u l a n d G e r m a n y , 356; 24, 26, 48-50, 1 9 7 , 2 1 0 , 2 5 4 , 2 5 5 , 260, 2 6 3 , 2 6 5 , 2 8 5 , 2 8 7 - 8 , 3 2 1 ; p r o p o s e d v i s i t of, t o A l e x a n d r i a , 172-3, 250-3, 257, 338; 34, 36, 48-9, 2 4 9 - 5 0 , 2 8 3 - 4 , 3 1 3 ; o v a t i o n , 2 5 - 6 , 3 5 , 49, 2 4 9 , 2 5 4 , 284, 2 8 7 , 2 9 2 , 3 1 8 ; e x e c u t i o n s b y , 98, 104-10, 341-2; 202-4, 3 1 4 (see also under G e m e l l u s , M a c r o , and S i l a n u s ) ; v i s i t of A g r i p p a t o , see under A g r i p p a I ; d e a t h of, 2 7 , 28 n. 2, 36, 1 5 1 , 2 5 6 , 266, 286, 3 1 7 , 3 2 3 . 2 6
2
l 8
2
2 1
2
I _ 6
n
x
X
2
2
2
1
G a l i l e e , G a l i l a e a n , 326; 33-4, 2 5 2 , 2 7 5 , 2 7 9 , 286, 303, 305-6, 3 1 2 . G a m e s , 45; 1 8 1 . G a r d e n s i n R o m e , 181, 351; 26, 2 5 3 - 4 , 3 * 7 - 8 . G e m e l l u s , c o u s i n of G a i u s , 23-36, 67-8, 75, 87, 92 (not n a m e d ) ; 1 5 , 1 6 , 23 n. 3, 1 6 5 - 6 , 1 6 9 - 7 8 , 1 8 5 , 188, 1 8 9 , 1 9 6 , 1 9 9 , 2 5 1 . G e n i u s , w o r s h i p of E m p e r o r ' s , 2 3 3 , 240.
Gens Claudia,
33; 1 7 8 ; Julia,
178, 311.
G e n t i l e a d h e r e n t s of J u d a i s m , 211;
262-3,
2
69-70.
G e r m a n i c u s , f a t h e r of G a i u s , 1 6 2 , 1 6 6 , 1 6 9 - 7 * 1 , 1 7 8 , 1 8 4 , 1 8 6 , 1 9 1 , 2 2 7 , 2 5 3 , 2 8 9 . G e r m a n y , 10; G a i u s ' c a m p a i g n a g a i n s t , see under G a i u s , c a m p a i g n of, in Gaul and Germany, repouala, 5-6, 1 1 n. 4, 22, 44, 2 2 4 ; y e p o u o l a - p a p y r u s , 3 1 9 . G e r y o n , 80; 1 9 5 . G h e t t o in A l e x a n d r i a , 124-8; 9, 1 9 , 2 1 - 3 , 2 5 , 4 7 , 2 1 4 - 1 9 , 2 5 8 , 324.
G o d , J e w i s h , 3-6,115,118,
157, 213, 220, 236, 240, 245, 278, 290, 3*7-8, 336, 2
347, 357, 366, 368; 40, 1 5 2 - 7 , 1 7 3 , 1 8 9 , 203, 2 1 2 - 3 , 5 & , 2 7 2 , 2 9 7 , 3 1 8 , 3 2 5 . G o d s , G a i u s ' e q u a t i o n of h i m s e l f w i t h , 93-114; 200. G o l d e n A g e , see under C r o n o s , A g e of. G o r g o n , 237; 2 7 8 . G r a c e s , 9 5 , 105; 2 0 1 . G r e e c e , G r e e k s , 8, 83, 102, 141, 145, 147, 162, 237; 3 0 9 ; in A l e x a n d r i a , see under A l e x a n d r i a n G r e e k s . G y m n a s i u m , see under A l e x a n d r i a .
H a d e s , 235; 2 7 7 . H a d r i a n , E m p e r o r , 2 1 1 - 2 , 2 1 4 , 230, 2 9 5 , 296. H a r v e s t , 249, 253, 257, 260; 33-4, 48-9, 2 8 1 - 3 , 288, 3 1 2 . H e b r e w , 1 5 2 - 5 , 208, 262, 2 7 7 ; l i t e r a t u r e , 280. H e c a t o m b s , 356; 2 3 , 26, 50, 1 6 2 , 1 6 6 , 263, 2 7 6 , 2 9 3 , 299, 3 2 0 - 1 . H e l i c o n , s l a v e of G a i u s , 166-78, 203-6; 24, 3 2 , 48, 246-9, 2 6 5 , 266, 3 2 5 . H e l l e n i z a t i o n , 147.
INDEX H e r a c l e s , 78-9,
81, 90, 92;
335
1 9 5 , 1 9 8 , 228.
H e r e d i t y , 5 5 ; 183-4. H e r m e s , 93-4,
99-102; 200, 202,
228.
H e r o d t h e G r e a t , J e w i s h k i n g , 294-7; 1 3 n. 5, 2 1 1 , 230, 2 3 7 , 2 4 0 - 1 , 2 5 9 - 6 1 , 2 6 3 , 2 6 5 , 2 7 0 , 2 7 5 , 2 7 8 - 9 , 2 9 2 - 3 , 2 9 9 , 3 0 6 - 7 ; p a l a c e of, in J e r u s a l e m , 2 9 9 ; 3 0 1 ; s o n s a n d d e s c e n d a n t s of, j o o ; 2 5 1 , 302-4. H e r o d , k i n g of C h a l c i s , b r o t h e r of A g r i p p a I , 28 n. 2, 303-4. H i g h P r i e s t , 278,
296,
H o l y C i t y , see under
306-7; 2 9 3 , 3 0 7 - 8 . Jerusalem.
H o l y L a n d , 202, 205,
330.
H o l y of H o l i e s ("the shrine") 188, H o m e r , 80; Homilus,
306-8; 299,
181.
I d u m a e a , I d u m a e a n , 2 5 2 , 290,
292-3.
I m m o r t a l i t y , J e w i s h belief i n , 117;
Imperator,
307-8.
1 6 7 , 1 9 5 , 230.
212.
277; 2 9 2 . J
I m p e r i a l c u l t , 149-51,
201, 334S', 3 5 . 9 2 . 1 9 8 , 2 2 2 , 2 3 0 - 1 , 2 3 3 , 2 7 8 , 304, 3 1 3 ,
3 1 5 ; J e w s ' e x e m p t i o n f r o m p a r t i c i p a t i o n in, 2 5 - 7 , 206, 2 4 0 - 1 , 2 5 7 , 3 1 9 - 2 0 . "IOTQ 7TOXlTeiOC, I O . ' I O 6 T T J ? , 85;
196.
I s i d o r u s , A l e x a n d r i a n n a t i o n a l i s t l e a d e r , 355;
1 2 , 1 4 - 1 6 , 2 3 - 4 , 26, 30, 44, 49,
1 8 6 , 2 2 3 , 248-9, 3 1 9 - 2 0 . J
6
I s r a e l , e t y m o l o g y of, 4; 1 5 3 - 4 , 5 » I t a l y , J O , J J 6 , J 5 5 , 159,
252;
l
5&-
24, 2 5 , 3 2 , 48, 200, 283, 294.
J a hw e n , 3 1 8 . J a m n i a , 200-3; 3 2 , 207, 2 6 1 - 4 . J e r u s a l e m ("the H o l y C i t y " ) , 156,
225,
231,
265,
278-315 passim,
334;
205,
2 1 1 , 2 2 1 , 2 3 5 , 2 3 8 , 2 4 0 , 2 4 2 , 2 5 6 , 2 7 3 , 2 7 6 , 2 7 7 , 294, 296, 2 9 7 , 299-306, 3 1 3 . J e w s in A l e x a n d r i a , r e l a t i o n s of, w i t h R o m e , 1 1 ; n u m b e r s of, 2 1 5 ; c i v i c s t a t u s of, 3 - 1 4 , 22 n. 2, 2 5 5 , 3 1 7 ; a s p i r a t i o n s t o G r e e k c i t i z e n s h i p , 1 2 - 1 4 ,
l 6
2 5 , 28, 2 9 n. 2, 3 1 , 2 5 1 ; c i v i c s t a t u s of, a t t a c k e d b y G r e e k s , 1 6 - 1 7 ,
I
46-7,
2 1 6 , 220;
349SO,
3&3,
question
366',
24-7,
of c i v i c s t a t u s of, 252, 257-8; 323;
referred
to Gaius,
c i v i c s t a t u s of,
-i7,
9"
2 I
»
193-4,
restored
by
C l a u d i u s , 2 3 , 2 8 - 3 1 , 240. See also under A l e x a n d r i a n G r e e k s , G a i u s ,
and
Riots. J e w s in R o m e , 155-8, 160;
205-6, 2 3 3 - 4 0 , 243-4,
324.
J e w s , r e l i g i o u s l i b e r t y of, g u a r a n t e e d b y R o m e , 155-61,
291-322;
1 1 , 25-8,
30. 3 5 . 2 0 5 - 6 , 233-44, 2 5 3 . 2 5 7 . 2 5 8 , 2 7 8 - 9 , 2 9 2 , 300, 3 0 8 - 1 0 , 3 M - 5 . 3 i 9 . J e w s , s a c r e d m o n e y of, see under J u d a e a , 199-200, 215,
257,
281,
First-fruits. 294;
252,
293,
298;
a t t a c k of, o n T e m p l e ; p r o c u r a t o r of, 2 9 9 ; 6 ; see also under
Pilate,
J u l i a A u g u s t a , see under
see
also
under
Gaius,
261, 267-9, 276, 280-1,
300-
Pontius.
Livia.
J u l i a , s i s t e r of G a i u s , 87, 92 ( n o t n a m e d ) ; 1 9 6 - 9 . J u l i u s C a e s a r , 1 1 , 242, 250, 2 5 1 , 296, 2 3 6 , 238,
3 1 6 ; l e g i s l a t i o n of,
for J e w s ,
205-6,
308.
J u n i a C l a u d i a o r C l a u d i l l a , w i f e of G a i u s , 62-5, 190. J u p i t e r , see under
Zeus.
KdtToixoi, 10, 20, 2 5 ;
see also under
M£TOIXOI.
71-2
(not n a m e d ) ; 180, 187,
INDEX
336
L a m i a , L . A e l i u s , g a r d e n of, 351; 26, 3 1 7 . L a m p o , A l e x a n d r i a n n a t i o n a l i s t l e a d e r , 1 2 , 1 6 , 2 3 - 4 , 4 9 , 249, 3 1 9 . Laticlavi, 343; 3 1 4 . L a w , J e w i s h ( T o r a h ) , 115, 152, 161, 195, 210-1, 220, 236, 240, 256,
280,
299-301, 360, 371; 208, 2 1 1 - 2 , 2 3 7 , 240, 269, 2 7 0 , 2 7 8 , 296-7, 3 0 4 ; J e w s ' 21
r e a d i n e s s t o d i e for, 117, 192, 208-9, 5> 2 8 3 ; J e w i s h u n w r i t t e n , 115; 208-9.
2
33-6,
3<>8, 369;
33-4, 2 1 1 - 2 ,
L e g a l procedure, R o m a n , 350; 316-7. Legatio ad Gaium, M S S of, 3 6 - 7 ; l a c u n a e in, 4 1 - 2 , 1 5 7 , 248, 2 5 3 , 298, 3 1 6 ; d a t e of c o m p o s i t i o n of, 1 5 1 - 2 , 2 6 6 ; c h a r a c t e r a n d p u r p o s e of, 3, 1 8 2 . Lepidus, M . Aemilius, 1 7 5 , 197-8. L e t t e r s b e t w e e n G a i u s a n d P e t r o n i u s , 207, 248, 254, 259-61;
34-5, 267, 2 8 1 ,
285-8, 2 9 1 , 3 1 6 . Libertas et immunitas, 287; 296. L i b y a , 283; 2 9 5 - 6 ; see also under
Africa.
" M a c e d o n i a n s " in A l e x a n d r i a , 9. M a c r o , Q . N a e v i u s C o r d u s Sutorius, praetorian prefect, 32-62, 69, 7 5 ; 1 5 - 1 6 , 23 n. 3, 1 6 6 , 1 6 8 , 1 7 2 - 3 , 1 7 7 - 8 9 , 2 1 9 . M a e c e n a s , g a r d e n of, 351; 26, 3 1 7 - 8 . Maiestas, 1 2 , 1 6 5 , 1 7 2 , 1 8 8 , 1 9 1 , 306, 3 1 9 . M a n u m i s s i o n , 155; 2 3 5 . Marriage, R o m a n , 190. M e s s i a n i c a g e , 294. Meroixot, 200; 9 - 1 0 , 20, 2 5 , 2 6 2 - 3 ; see also under M i l i t a r y service, Jewish e x e m p t i o n from, 205. Mimes, 359; 321-2. M o n o t h e i s m , 115; 209, 2 4 1 .
Kdtrotxot.
M o s t H i g h G o d (title of J e w i s h G o d ) , 157, 278, 3*7 \ 2 4 1 . M u r d e r s b y G a i u s , see under G a i u s , e x e c u t i o n s b y . Mysteries, 184-5, 194. N a t i o n a l i s t s , G r e e k , in A l e x a n d r i a , see under A l e x a n d r i a . N a t u r e , 1 - 2 , 5 0 , 5 6 , 112, 190; 1 5 1 - 2 , 1 5 7 , 3 1 1 ; l a w of, 68; 1 7 3 , 1 8 9 , 208. N E O ; , 89, 97, 346; 1 6 1 , 1 9 8 , 2 0 1 - 2 . N e r o , b r o t h e r of G a i u s , 1 7 0 , 1 8 8 , 1 9 4 . N o r t h e r n e x p e d i t i o n of G a i u s , see under Germany. N 6 0 0 ; ( m e t a p h o r i c a l ) , 145;
G a i u s , c a m p a i g n of, in G a u l a n d
228-9.
Eevoi, 9 - 1 0 , 20, 2 1 6 . O c t a v i a n , 1 1 , 165, 229, 265. O l y m p i a n g o d s , 149. O n i a s , t e m p l e of, 2 2 1 , 320. P a e a n , 96, no; 2 0 1 , 204. P a l i n o d e , 3 7 3 ; 40-3, 3 2 4 - 5 . P a r t h i a , P a r t h i a n , 10, 256; 1 5 8 , 206, 238, 2 7 1 - 2 , 286. P a s s o v e r , 2 7 6 , 28 2 , 299-300, 303. Patria potestas, 28; 1 7 6 . Pax Romana, 158, 182, 229. P e n t e c o s t , 282, 299, 303. I l e p l 'Aperwv ( a l t e r n a t i v e t i t l e of Legatio
ad Gaium),
37-41, 157-
INDEX
337
P e t r o n i u s , P . , l e g a t e of S y r i a , 207-61 passim, 2 7 1 - 8 8 , 2 9 1 , 3 1 3 - 5 ; c a r e e r of, 2 8 5 . Philo, career
333;
33-5, 249, 260-1,
267-9,
of, 250, 2 5 4 - 5 ; m e m b e r s h i p of e m b a s s y t o G a i u s , 182-4; 2 4 - 5 ,
30. 3 2 , 3 7 , 1 5 1 , 1 9 3 , 250, 292, 3 1 9 - 2 0 ; v i s i t of, t o J e r u s a l e m , 2 3 8 ; his t o r i c a l w o r k s of, 3, 1 9 , 3 1 - 2 , 3 7 - 4 3 , 1 5 7 - 8 , 1 8 2 , 2 6 6 - 7 . P h o e n i c i a , 222, 225-6, 281; 3 3 , 2 6 5 , 2 7 2 , 2 7 4 - 5 . P i l a t e , P o n t i u s , 299-305; 38, 40, 4 2 , 2 1 1 , 2 2 1 , 2 4 3 , 2 4 5 , 2 6 9 , 2 7 6 , 2 8 1 , 300-6. P i r a c y , 146; 2 2 9 . P l a t o , 155-6, 184, 188, 1 9 3 , 247, 269, 3 1 1 . IIoXtTeD{xa, Jewish, in A l e x a n d r i a , see under
Jews
in A l e x a n d r i a ,
civic
s t a t u s of. Pomoerium, 2 5 , 49, 254, 3 1 7 - 8 . P o m p e y , 229, 235, 265, 298. P o r k , J e w s ' a b s t e n t i o n f r o m , 361-2; 2 2 , 2 7 , 3 2 2 . P o w e r s (in P h i l o ' s p h i l o s o p h i c a l s y s t e m ) , 6 - 7 ; 1 5 6 - 7 . P r e f e c t of E g y p t , 1 1 , 23 n . i , 2 5 n. 3, 4 9 , 1 8 6 , 2 1 4 , 2 1 9 ; see also under F l a c c u s and V i t r a s i u s P o l l i o ; of p r a e t o r i a n s , 1 7 8 - 9 , 1 8 3 , 1 8 6 ; see also under M a c r o and
Sejanus.
Princeps Iuventutis, 174, 1 7 7 . P r i s o n e r s - o f - w a r , J e w i s h , in R o m e , 155; 2 0 5 , 2 3 5 - 6 . P r o c u r a t o r , 2 1 9 , 2 3 7 , 2 6 1 , 3 00; of J u d a e a , see under P r o s e l y t e s , see under npooxuvrjats, 116;
Judaea.
G e n t i l e a d h e r e n t s of J u d a i s m .
192, 209-11, 318.
P r o t e u s , 80; 1 9 5 . P r o v e r b s u s e d b y P h i l o , 22, 108, 125; 1 6 7 - 8 , 2 1 7 . P r o v i d e n c e , d i v i n e , 3, 220, 336, 367; 1 5 2 , 1 5 7 , 1 7 3 , 2 1 3 , 2 7 2 , 3 2 5 . P t o l e m a i s , 3 3 - 5 , 2 7 3 - 5 , 2 7 9 - 8 2 , 284, 2 8 7 , 3 1 3 . P t o l e m i e s , P t o l e m a i c p e r i o d , 138 ( n o t n a m e d ) , 140;
1 1 , 1 7 , 2 1 n. 1, 1 6 7 , 2 1 5 ,
2 2 1 , 2 2 3 - 5 , 240, 3 1 6 - 7 .
R e l i g i o u s l i b e r t y , R o m e ' s p o l i c y of, 153;
2 3 2 ; of J e w s , see under
J e w s , reli
g i o u s l i b e r t y of. R h i n e , 10; 1 5 9 , 1 6 1 . l
R i o t s , a n t i - J e w i s h , in A l e x a n d r i a , 120-37; 3. 9-*4, 3$, 4 2 - 3 , 4 5 - 7 , 4 9 , 1 9 1 . 1 9 9 . 203, 206-7, 2 1 3 - 2 4 , 2 5 1 - 3 , 2 6 3 , 3 1 5 . R o m e , R o m a n s , 10, 116, 144, 153, 155, 157, 160, 185, 219, 252; e l s e w h e r e passim; c i t y of, 2 5 , 3 5 - 6 , 48-9, 1 6 2 , 1 7 6 , 1 7 9 , 1 9 7 , 2 5 2 , 2 5 4 , 290, 2 9 2 - 3 , 3 1 3 , 3 1 6 - 8 ; c i t i z e n s h i p , see under C i t i z e n s h i p ; J e w s in, see under J e w s in Rome. S a b b a t h , 156, 158; 23 n. 1 , 205-6, 2 4 2 , 2 7 8 - 9 . S a c r i f i c e s , see under T e m p l e . S a n h e d r i n , 1 7 4 , 2 7 4 , 2 7 8 , 2 8 1 , 304. Sejanus,
L . Aelius,
praetorian
prefect,
37;
170-1,
179, 186;
anti-Jewish
p o l i c y of, 160; 38, 40-43, 2 4 3 - 5 , 3 ° 5 - 6 . S e n a t e , s e n a t o r s , s e n a t o r i a l , 7 5 ; 1 7 5 , 1 7 6 , 1 7 8 - 9 , 1 8 8 , 1 9 0 - 1 , 205, 2 4 2 , 3 1 2 . S e p t u a g i n t , 5 n. 4. S h e m a , 209. S h i e l d s , v o t i v e , s e t u p b y P i l a t e , 299-305; 3 0 2 - 6 . S i d o n , 222, 337; 3 3 , 2 7 2 - 3 , 280. S i l a n u s , M . J u n i u s , f a t h e r - i n - l a w of G a i u s , 62-5, 71-2, 75; 1 6 6 , 1 7 7 , 1 8 5 , 187-8, 1 9 1 . S t a t u e s of G a i u s p l a c e d i n s y n a g o g u e s , 134, 346; 20, 4 5 - 7 , 2 2 2 ; t o b e p l a c e d
338
INDEX in T e m p l e , 188, 203, 207, 220-2, 238, 246, 260, 265, 306, 308, 335, 337; 32-6, 1 9 8 , 2 5 6 - 7 , 2 7 2 , 280; of C l a u d i u s in s y n a g o g u e a t D o r a , 3 1 4 - 5 .
S t o i c i s m , 1 5 1 , 1 5 3 , 1 5 5 - 6 , 1 6 3 , 1 8 2 , 1 8 3 - 4 , *&9> 1 9 2 , 204. S t r a t a ' s T o w e r ( C a e s a r e a ) , 306. Suicide, Jewish a t t i t u d e towards, 2 7 7 . S y n a g o g u e s , 346, 371; 2 0 5 , 2 2 1 , 2 3 3 , 2 3 6 , 3 1 0 , 3 1 4 ; in A l e x a n d r i a , 132-8, 148, 152, 165, 191, 346; 1 9 - 2 0 , 2 3 , 25-6, 28, 4 5 - 7 , 1 9 2 , 206-7,
2 I
5»
220-5,
2 5 7 , 2 6 4 , 3 1 4 , 3 1 9 ; in A s i a , 311-2; 3 0 8 ; in D o r a , 3 1 4 - 5 ; in R o m e , 156-7; 234, 2 3 6 - 7 ; in J e r u s a l e m , 2 3 5 ; d e d i c a t i o n s i n h o n o u r of b e n e f a c t o r s i n , *33\
1 9 . 4 6 , 2 2 0 - 1 , 2 2 5 , 2 2 7 , 3 0 4 ; s e r v i c e s i n , 156; 2 3 7 .
S y r i a , 1 7 9 , 219-20, 222, 231, 245, 250-1, 259, 281; 2 7 , 28 n. 2, 33-4, 249, 2 5 2 , 260, 2 6 5 , 268, 2 7 2 , 2 7 9 , 284, 3 1 4 - 5 ; l e g a t e of, 2 8 0 ; see also under n i u s and V i t e l l i u s ; a r m y in, see under A r m y .
Petro
T a b e r n a c l e s , F e a s t of, 2 3 , 2 8 3 , 2 9 9 , 3 0 3 . T a r t a r u s , 49, 103; 2 7 7 . T a x a t i o n , 287; 1 5 9 - 6 0 , 2 9 6 . T e m p l e in Jerusalem,
157, 188-335 passim,
346;
198, 2 1 1 , 237-8,
240-1,
2 5 6 - 7 , 2 6 9 , 2 7 4 , 2 9 4 , 298-9, 3 0 1 - 2 , 3 1 2 - 3 , 3 1 5 , 3 1 6 , 3 1 8 , 3 2 0 ; d e s c r i p t i o n of, 2 5 9 - 6 0 ; d e a t h p e n a l t y for g e n t i l e s w h o e n t e r e d i n n e r c o u r t s of, 212; 2 7 0 ; J e w s ' refusal t o a d m i t s t a t u e s t o , 290-2, 310; 3 1 1 ; sacrifices for E m p e r o r s i n , 157, 232, 280, 317, 355-7; 2 4 0 - 2 ; 2 7 6 - 7 , 2 9 3 , 3 1 1 ; g i f t s of E m p e r o r s a n d o t h e r s t o , 157, 297, 319; 240, 2 9 9 - 3 0 0 ; sacrifices b y g e n t i l e s i n , 299-300. See also under G a i u s , a t t a c k of, o n T e m p l e . T e m p l e t a x , see under
First-fruits.
T e m p l e s of A u g u s t u s , see under A u g u s t u s . T h e a t r e , 42, 45, 203-4, 3^8; 2 2 , 1 8 1 , 3 2 1 . T i b e r , 155, 181; 2 5 , 2 3 4 , 2 5 3 . T i b e r i a s , 3 4 , 2 7 9 , 2 8 1 - 2 , 288. 2
2
T i b e r i u s , E m p e r o r , 8. 14, 141-2, .166-7, 3 9'* 4. * 5 . 4 , 1 5 8 - 9 , 1 6 2 , 1 6 4 - 5 , 178-9, 182, 184, 186, 1 9 1 , 2 1 3 , 226-7, 240, 242, 2 4 7 , 2 5 1 , 2 6 1 , 267, 2 7 6 , 2 8 1 , 2 9 2 , 302, 3 1 1 , 3 1 7 ; p l a n s of, for s u c c e s s i o n , a n d r e l a t i o n s of, w i t h G a i u s , 23-9, 33-8, 58; 1 6 9 - 7 6 ; t r e a t m e n t of J e w s , 159-61, 298-305, 308; 226, 2 4 3 - 5 , 3 0 5 - 6 ; d e a t h of, 1 7 3 - 4 Tiberius Julius Alexander, 1 3 . Toga virilis, 1 7 2 - 3 , 1 7 5 , 1 7 7 . T o r a h , see under L a w , J e w i s h . T r a c h o n i t i s , 326; 2 5 2 , 3 1 1 . T r a d e r s , J e w i s h , 129; 2 1 , 2 1 8 , 2 3 5 , 2 5 6 , 3 2 1 . T r a j a n , E m p e r o r , Jewish revolt under, 223, 2 7 1 , 295. T r a v e l , b y l a n d , 254; 1 6 6 , 2 7 2 , 2 7 3 , 2 8 5 ; b y sea, 15, 250; 1 7 , 28 n. 2, 29-30, 3 4 , 4 7 - 5 0 , 1 6 5 - 6 , 2 4 9 , 260, 283-4, 2 8 5 , 288. T y r a n t , 119, 237; 2 1 3 , 2 6 8 , 3 1 4 . Tu V), i\ X
151-2. 157-
V i t e l l i u s , L . , l e g a t e of S y r i a , 231; 1 5 8 , 2 1 0 , 2 6 7 , 2 7 6 , 2 8 6 , 2 9 7 , 2 9 9 , 300. V i t r a s i u s P o l l i o , C , p r e f e c t of E g y p t , 2 4 , 2 7 , 49-50. W a r of J e w s a g a i n s t R o m e , A . D . 6 6 - 7 0 , 2 4 1 - 2 , 2 6 2 , 2 6 6 , 2 7 1 , 2 7 7 - 8 , 306. W o r l d , h a b i t a b l e , 10; 1 6 0 . Z e u s ( J u p i t e r ) , 2 9 8 ; G a i u s ' i d e n t i f i c a t i o n w i t h , 198-200, 3 1 5 ; s t a t u e of G a i u s in t h e g u i s e of, t o b e p l a c e d i n T e m p l e , 188, 207, 220-2, 260, 265, 335, 346; 3 2 - 4 , 1 9 8 , 200, 2 5 6 - 7 , 3 1 5 .
