Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series Volume 2 Philo’s Flaccus The First Pogrom Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series General Editor Gregory E. Sterling Associate Editor David T. Runia Editorial Board Harold W. Attridge Ellen Birnbaum John Dillon David Hay Annewies van den Hoek Alan Mendelson Thomas Tobin, S.J. David Winston Volume 2 Philo’s Flaccus The First Pogrom Philo of Alexandria Philo’s Flaccus The First Pogrom Introduction, Translation and Commentary by Pieter W. van der Horst BRILL LEIDEN •BOSTON 2003 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Cover design by TopicA (Antoinette Hanekuyk), Leiden. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Horst, Pieter Willem van der. Philo’s Flaccus: the first pogrom: introduction, translation, and commentary / by Pieter W. van der Horst. p. cm. — (Philo of Alexandria commentary series, ISSN 1570-095X ; v. 2) Includes bibliographical references (p.) and indexes. ISBN 90-04-13118-3 (alk. paper) 1. Avillius Flaccus, Governor of Egypt, d. 38 or 39. 2. Jews—Persecutions—Egypt—Alexandria. 3. Alexandria—Egypt—History. 4. Philo, of Alexandria. In Flaccum. I. Philo, of Alexandria. In Flaccum. English. II. Title. III.Series. DS135.E42A4337 2003 932’.022’092—dc21 [B] 2003049592 ISBN 90 04 13118 3 © Copyright 2003 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nvprovided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers, MA 01923 USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherland For those I love This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Preface ............................................................................................... ix Abbreviations ..................................................................................... xi Introduction ...................................................................................... 1 1. The place of the treatise in the Philonic corpus .................. 1 2. The contents and structure of the treatise (with an excursus on the sequel) ......................................................... 6 3. The genre of the treatise ........................................................ 11 4. Main themes of the treatise ................................................... 16 5. The historical background (with an excursus on Flaccus) .. 18 6. Previous scholarship ............................................................... 38 7. The text of the treatise ........................................................... 49 8. The present commentary (with a note on Nachleben) .......... 51 Translation ......................................................................................... 54 Commentary ...................................................................................... 88 I. Flaccus’ persecution of the Jews (§§1-96) ............................. 89 §§ 1-7: Flaccus’ promising start .............................................. 89 §§ 8-20: Flaccus’ degeneration .............................................. 99 §§ 21-24: Flaccus begins to injure the Jews ........................... 112 §§ 25-35: King Agrippa ........................................................... 114 §§ 36-40: Karabas .................................................................... 128 §§ 41-44: The overtures to the pogrom ................................. 132 §§ 45-52: The Jewish point of view ......................................... 138 §§ 53-96: The pogrom at its height ........................................ 152 II. Punishment and death of Flaccus (§§97-191) ...................... 187 §§ 97-103: The declaration of loyalty .................................... 187 §§ 104-118: Flaccus’ arrest ..................................................... 191 §§ 119-124: Gratitude for Flaccus’ arrest .............................. 199 §§ 125-145: Lampo and Isidorus ........................................... 207 §§ 146-161: Flaccus on trial .................................................... 219 §§ 162-180a: Flaccus at Andros .............................................. 230 §§ 180b-190: Caligula has Flaccus killed ............................... 240 § 191: Epilogue ....................................................................... 244 viii contents Bibliography ...................................................................................... 246 Indices ................................................................................................ 262 1. Index of passages from ancient authors ............................... 262 Philonic texts ..................................................................... 262 Biblical passages ................................................................ 266 Jewish documents ............................................................. 268 Christian documents ......................................................... 269 Pagan documents .............................................................. 270 2. Index of subjects and names (including Greek terms) ........ 274 PREFACE Writing a commentary to Philo’s In Flaccum is a daunting task that I could not have brought to completion without the help of many others. In a more or less random order I would like to mention the people who, one way or another, have helped me over the past two years. Firstly, I want to thank the editors of the series Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, Gregory Sterling and David Runia, for inviting me to write the present volume. In particular, my friend David Runia has always freely placed at my disposal his vast erudition in matters Philonic. I owe him and Greg Sterling many thanks for the numerous useful suggestions they gave me, saving me from making many an error. I am also grateful to Gé de Vries, the author of the most recent Dutch translation of In Flaccum, for reading the whole manuscript and sharing his valuable insights with me. The same applies to Jan Bremmer, always a rich source of bibliographical and other know- ledge. As usual, Klaas Worp was of great assistance in papyrological matters as was Johan Strubbe in solving epigraphical problems. Fik Meijer advised me on nautical issues, as did J.E. Spruit in matters of Roman law. I am also very grateful to Erich Gruen, Walter Ameling, Anders Runesson, and Gideon Bohak for sending me copies of their books or articles, both published and not yet published, from which I profited greatly. Allen Kerkeslager did me the great service of read- ing the entire manuscript and pointing out several mistakes. I owe thanks to Mark Geller for inviting me to give a lecture on the topic of this book at University College in London and to Tom Tobin for inviting me to present some of my findings at a meeting of the SBL Philo Seminar in Toronto (2002). The critical comments offered at that meeting by John Barclay, Ellen Birnbaum, and Sarah Pearce were most helpful. Thanks are also due to the Faculty of Theology at Utrecht University for allowing me to spend a sabbatical year at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in the year 2001-2002, and to the Netherlands Organization for Research (NWO) for the grant which made the stay at NIAS possible. I owe many thanks to the superb staff at NIAS, of