This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[487]
But for Alexandria, the sedition of the people of the place against
the Jews was perpetual, and this from that very time when Alexander [the
Great], upon finding the readiness of the Jews in assisting him against
the Egyptians, and as a reward for such their assistance, gave them equal
privileges in this city with the Grecians themselves; which honorary reward
Continued among them under his successors, who also set apart for them
a particular place, that they might live without being polluted [by the
Gentiles], and were thereby not so much intermixed with foreigners as before;
they also gave them this further privilege, that they should be called
Macedonians. Nay, when the Romans got possession of Egypt, neither the
first Caesar, nor any one that came after him, thought of diminishing the
honors which Alexander had bestowed on the Jews. But still conflicts perpetually
arose with the Grecians; and although the governors did every day punish
many of them, yet did the sedition grow worse; but at this time especially,
when there were tumults in other places also, the disorders among them
were put into a greater flame; for when the Alexandrians had once a public
assembly, to deliberate about an embassage they were sending to Nero, a
great number of Jews came flocking to the theater; but when their adversaries
saw them, they immediately cried out, and called them their enemies, and
said they came as spies upon them; upon which they rushed out, and laid
violent hands upon them; and as for the rest, they were slain as they ran
away; but there were three men whom they caught, and hauled them along,
in order to have them burnt alive; but all the Jews came in a body to defend
them, who at first threw stones at the Grecians, but after that they took
lamps, and rushed with violence into the theater, and threatened that they
would burn the people to a man; and this they had soon done, unless Tiberius
Alexander, the governor of the city, had restrained their passions. However,
this man did not begin to teach them wisdom by arms, but sent among them
privately some of the principal men, and thereby entreated them to be quiet,
and not provoke the Roman army against them; but the seditious made a jest
of the entreaties of Tiberius, and reproached him for so doing.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.