Philo of Alexandria. Jean Danielou
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to go out were massacred, burned alive, dragged through the streets, or crucified. Women were dragged to the theatre were they were forced to eat pork. Those who refused were put to death.
Far from preventing these abuses, Flaccus encouraged them. He ordered searches to be carried out in Jewish homes to find out whether they had arms. Philo observes that similar searches had been made earlier in Egyptian homes and had turned up results. But nothing was found in Jewish homes. Moreover, the Jews had sent Flaccus a message of congratulation for Caligula, to be transmitted to Rome. That certainly was in 37. But Flaccus, who, at this point, must have been wondering what policy to follow, procrastinated in sending the message forward. When Agrippa came to Alexandria in June 38, Philo complained to him about that and asked him to take charge of making the address reach Rome, explaining the reasons for the delay.
By these maneuvers, Flaccus intended to discredit the Jews along with Agrippa in the Emperor’s mind. But he failed to take the latter’s standing into account or the Emperor’s tenacious grudges. Caligula did not forget that Flaccus belonged to a political clan opposed to him. The maneuvers accomplished nothing. His condemnation was to come. His mandate finished in September 38. Before he set off to give an accounting of his mandate at Rome, Caligula had him arrested at Alexandria during a banquet, by a centurion expressly dispatched from Rome for the purpose. Philo notes that it was the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. That year the Jews were not celebrating because of the persecution against them. But they spent the night in prayer and in the morning, since they no longer had synagogues, they went to the sea shore to glorify God.
Thus ended the dramatic weeks of August–September 38, the most tragic period of Philo’s life. They constitute the subject of In Flaccum. But in spring 39 another episode in his life will start that is the subject of the Embassy to Gaius. The situation of the Jews continued to be precarious. Two major problems concerned them. The first was the presence of the Emperor’s statues in their spaces of prayer. The Jews wanted to make it understood that this was incompatible with their faith. The second was their political status. Perhaps they ought to take advantage of the occasion to get themselves granted the rights of citizenship that might have sheltered them from events like those that had just occurred. Lastly, they wanted to give Gaius testimony of their civic loyalty.
So, a delegation was chosen, and Philo was put at its head. This is the clearest evidence of the authority he enjoyed in the Alexandrian Jewish community and allows us to conjecture that his conduct during the pogrom had reinforced his authority even more. Moreover, his family ties to Agrippa and his great culture marked him as the person to establish contact with the court at Rome. The delegation embarked for Italy at the beginning of 40. It must have stayed there until mid 41. So Philo had a long sojourn in Rome at this time. This sojourn was primarily devoted to the mission he had to carry out. But it was also the occasion for contact with intellectual circles in Rome, as we will see.
The mission was particularly difficult. Indeed, Caligula’s attitude toward the Jews was in the process of being reversed. He was more and more possessed by megalomania. He demanded divine honors. Philo describes the bizarre manifestations of this state of mind at length. Consequently, Caligula was becoming increasingly hostile toward the Jews, who constituted the chief opposition to his pretensions.
The pagans of Alexandria skillfully took advantage of the Emperor’s proclivities. They sent a delegation to Rome at the same time in order to present their point of view. In particular, among its members were two fanatical enemies of the Jews: Isidore, the spokesman of the secret societies, the thiases, and Apion, who had published a screed against the Jews to which Flavius Josephus, Agrippa II’s friend and historian, would respond. The pagan delegation managed to establish contacts with Caligula’s entourage, in particular the Egyptian Helico, who was the Emperor’s chamberlain and accompanied him “at hand, to the palestra, to the bath, to the table.” He entertained the Emperor with his banter, whose usual butt was the Jews.
So the Jewish ambassadors found the Emperor ill-disposed toward them. After arriving in the spring of 40, they first had to await the return of Caligula, who was in Gaul. The delegates were presented to him at the Campus Martius. He greeted them favorably and had them told that he would receive them. But the audience was put off. Philo, as a person of experience, seeing one after another of the other delegations received, felt that it was a bad sign. The Jews soon understood the reason. One day, when they were at Pozzuoli, accompanying the Emperor’s court, always waiting for the audience, the news broke of Caligula’s decision to have a statue of himself erected in the Temple at Jerusalem. From that point, everything seemed lost. Was not one of the essential points of their petition the right not to have statues set up in their place of prayer?
Only one possibility was left to the Jewish ambassadors: the influence of Agrippa. This influence had only increased in previous years. His appointment as king of Abilene had irritated his uncle Herod Antipas, who was only tetrarch of Galilee and especially the latter’s wife Herodias. They embarked for Rome in August 39. But Agrippa got wind of the matter. He dispatched one of his freedmen, who carried a letter to Caligula in which Agrippa recalled that in 31 Herod Antipas had conspired with Sejanus, who was preparing an uprising against the Emperor. When Antipas appeared, Caligula interrupted him and condemned him for treason. He dethroned Antipas and sent him with Herodias into exile at Lugdunum Convenarum,26 far from his palace in Tiberiades. Antipas’s tetrarchy and fortune were transferred to Agrippa.
Agrippa received the welcome news at Abilene. In 40 he came to see his benefactor. He was at Rome at the same time as the ambassadors from Alexandria. Philo and he met. It is certain that they reflected together on the approach to take. Unhappily, at this moment Agrippa’s standing weakened. At the time of the affair of the Jerusalem statue, Caligula sought his advice. This put Agrippa in a tragic dilemma. But Agrippa was a believing Jew. He had the courage to offer the Emperor a defense of the Jewish point of view. Philo has transmitted the long letter Agrippa wrote—in which Philo no doubt collaborated. Caligula was impressed by this frankness. He ordered the statue’s installation to be provisionally deferred. But Agrippa’s position remained delicate. His dispositions had not changed for all that. He could only give weak support.
The audience finally took place. Philo described it with all the bitterness that it must have caused his wounded dignity. The backdrop was the garden of Maecenas in the proximity of Rome. The ambassadors prostrated themselves before the Emperor. Gnashing his teeth, the Emperor responded: “Are not you those people, enemies of the gods who scorn me and prefer the cult of your nameless God to my cult?” At this he directed a blasphemy at them. Isidore, who headed the Egyptian delegation, lavishing divine titles upon the Emperor, embarked upon fanatical accusations. The Jews exclaimed that they offered sacrifices for the Emperor upon his accession. “You have offered sacrifices for me, but to another. What do your sacrifices matter to me, if they are not directed to me?” answered Caligula.
At the same time, the Emperor continued to visit the villa followed by the unfortunate Jews amid the jokes of the courtiers. After having given orders to the architects, the Emperor turned abruptly to Philo and his companions and asked, “Why do you not eat pork?” This joke provoked general mirth. At the end he asked them to explain their political organization. The Jews began their explanation. But the emperor did not listen and discussed the slabs of rock salt to be placed in the windows. He ended with a less harsh comment: “These imbeciles are more to be pitied than to be blamed.”
Philo does not mention his personal role in this audience. But Josephus, who gave us another version, emphasizes it. The text is important, because it is contemporary testimony about Philo. Josephus first emphasizes the accusations made by Apion, who was part of the pagan delegation. Philo assigns the chief role to Isidore. But this does not seem to indicate that there were two audiences. Joseph was especially interested in Apion, against whom he wrote. It was normal for him to underline Apion’s role. Philo, by contrast, seems to be more hostile to Isidore.
Accordingly, Josephus writes:
Many of these severe things were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Gaius to anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be. Philo, the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the Alabarch,