Philo of Alexandria. Jean Danielou
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was ready to betake himself to make his defense against the accusations; but Gaius prohibited him and bid him begone; he was also in such a rage, that it openly appeared he was about to do them some very great mischief. So Philo, being thus affronted, went out, and said to those Jews who were about him, that they should be of good courage, since Gaius’s words indeed showed anger at them in words, but in reality had already set God against himself (Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII, 8, 1).27
The fact remained that the mission was headed toward failure. Philo was overwhelmed, so much that, as one can detect in his narrative, he wondered whether he had been clumsy. In any case, he risked having the burden of the failure fall upon him (Legum Allegoriae, 46, 369). Their last friends abandoned the Jews, seeing their disgrace. The plight was going to get still worse. Indeed, Caligula ordered the arrest of Philo’s brother, Alexander the Alabarch, who was part of the delegation. Alexander was a close friend of Agrippa. The latter had everything to fear.
Then things took a dramatic turn. On January 24, 41, the tribune Chaereas assassinated Caligula. It was a moment of danger. Convoked by the Consuls, the Senate proclaimed the reestablishment of the Republic. The army hailed Caligula’s uncle Claudius as emperor. In these circumstances, Agrippa would play a decisive role. It is he who discovered the Emperor’s body. To win time he placed it on a bed and declared that the Emperor was still breathing. Then he sought out Claudius and offered his services. He went to the Senate and declared his republican sympathies but asked that Claudius be given their adherence. Sensing that the Senate hesitated, he returned to Claudius and convinced him to proclaim himself Emperor.
At this instant, Agrippa is the leading personality of the Empire. His prestige was at its height. A decree was proposed to the senate to restore the kingdom of his grandfather Herod the Great to him, that is to say, to add Samaria and Judea to what he already possessed. Soon he entered his new capital Jerusalem in triumph. There he met a new problem, Christianity. His grandfather had the Holy Innocents massacred. His uncle had John the Baptist beheaded and sent Jesus back to Pilate with mockery. In 44 Agrippa would have Peter arrested and James beheaded. The Acts of the Apostles describes Agrippa’s death, which took place at Caesarea shortly afterwards.
But in January 41 he was at the peak of his glory. His prestige reflected back upon his friends. Alexander was liberated. Was Alexander, furthermore, not the steward of the possessions of Antonia, mother of the new Emperor? Alexander shared Agrippa’s triumph. The connections between the two families became closer through a marriage that constitutes a singular historical nexus. Agrippa gave his daughter Berenice to Mark, the son of Alexander (Antiquities of the Jews, XIX 5). Berenice was then thirteen. She enters history with this marriage. It must not have lasted long. Mark having died, she would marry her uncle, Herod of Chalcis. This marriage also must have been brief. At twenty, Berenice was a widow, and would share her kingdom with her brother Herod Agrippa II. The Acts of the Apostles will show her presiding with him over a tribunal that judges St. Paul (Acts 25–26). Then she was to meet Titus.28
So Berenice inhabits worlds that we are unaccustomed to combine, Paul’s mission, the Empire of the Caesars, Alexandrian Judaism. It is odd for us to think that during that early part of 41, Philo frequently saw the young Jewish princess who was going to become his niece. His situation was now completely reversed. Yesterday the butt of sarcasm at Gaius’s court, he became an important figure on the morrow. He must have frequented the highest Roman society. He was part of the Emperor’s inner circle. We know well enough that the pious rabbi was a humanist and man of the world to perceive that he found himself perfectly at ease in the new situation.
We have a possible testimony proceeding from the pagan world of Philo’s presence in Rome at this date. The treatise On the Sublime, so praised by seventeenth century French writers, is well known. This treatise is attributed to the third century rhetorician Longinus. But it has been demonstrated that it was written earlier. Careful studies, in particular those of the great philologist Eduard Norden, have made it possible to demonstrate that it was written in the first century. Certain indicators, among others, praise for the republican regime, even let it be precisely dated in the year A.D. 41.29
Now, this treatise contains the first allusion by a pagan author to the Bible. Indeed, a quote from Genesis 9:9 is found in it. The task is to find out through whom the author knew the Book of the Hebrews. At the end of the work, Pseudo-Longinus reports that a philosopher recently questioned him, asking how it happens that in a period so rich in talent, there were so few “natural geniuses.” Does not that genius need a climate of freedom and does not tyranny hinder the blooming of genius? Norden has shown that these ideas literally reproduce those of Philo (De Ebrietate, 198).
The Treatise on the Sublime seems to be very much in the context of the situation of spring 41: it is the period of discussion about the return of the Republic after the excesses of Gaius’s tyranny. These questions were discussed in intellectual circles at Rome. Philo was a visible presence in these circles. It is possible that the author of the Treatise discussed this with him and that he reports Philo’s teaching to us. So, at the time, Philo was in relations with the highest spheres of political and intellectual life. Perhaps in the midst of this worldly life, he felt nostalgia for the desert of Lake Mareotis and for its monks. At any rate, here, we mark the zenith of Philo’s career.
It is clear that in these conditions the diplomatic mission must have been completely successful. Moreover, at Alexandria itself the situation had turned around. When they learned of Gaius’s death, the Jews had hastened to take up arms—which certainly proves that they possessed some, despite Philo’s protestations—and, in their turn, they set about massacring Egyptians and Greeks. Claudius intervened with a series of decrees in which he guaranteed the Jews their rights while inviting both sides to live in peace henceforth. It is certain that Agrippa and Philo inspired these texts. Indeed, they represent the very object of their mission.
The first is an edict that Josephus has preserved, which may date from mid-41 (Antiquities of the Jews, XIX, 52). The Emperor recalls that the coexistence of Jews and Alexandrians is of long standing, that the Emperors have recognized the civic rights of both, and that they have acknowledged the right of the Jews to observe their customs. He alludes to the uprising of the Alexandrians against the Jews under Caligula and condemns the latter’s attempts to have himself worshipped as a god. He demands that the traditional rights of the Jews be restored and that both sides remain in peace.
Subsequently to that first text, Claudius received delegations of both Jews and pagans coming from Alexandria. He had to listen to complaints from both sides. A second text from 42 is the Letter to the Alexandrians, discovered in 1921 and published by Harold Idris Bell.30 It refers to the Egyptian delegation whose eleven members are named. The first part authorizes the erection of statues and chariot scenes at Alexandria in honor of the Emperor. But the Emperor asks that no temple be built to him and that there be no high priests devoted to his cult. That is a reaction against Caligula.
The second part alludes to the pogrom of A.D. 38 the Emperor has heard the explanation of the delegation and of the opposing side. This shows that the Jews had also sent a delegation. Claudius exhorts the Alexandrians to live in peace with the Jews and threatens punishments if they begin to persecute them again. He particularly affirms their right to practice their religion. Furthermore, explicitly referring to the counter-attack of A.D. 41, he demands that the Jews be content with the rights that have been acknowledged as theirs, to send no more delegations beside the official delegation, and to live in peace with others.
Thereafter, Claudius showed he had decided to pass from words to deeds. Some years later the Alexandrians made new attempts against the Jews. Again the leaders were Lampo and Isidore. They were summoned to Rome and judged in the presence of Claudius. They tried to place the blame on Agrippa II, son of Herod Agrippa and brother of Berenice. We have rediscovered the papyrus that contains the Acts of this proceeding. Herbert Musurillo has edited them.31 The