Against Flaccus

An eyewitness account of the violence against Alexandria's Jews in 38 CE, and of the downfall of the Roman governor Philo held responsible.

by Philo of Alexandria63 passages held

English, a translation held here, and your language

Original title: In Flaccum
Original language: Ancient Greek

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Overview

One evening in the autumn of 38 CE a fast ship from Italy waited off the island of Pharos until dark, then put a centurion named Bassus ashore at Alexandria with a company of soldiers. They found the prefect of Egypt, Aulus Avilius Flaccus, at dinner in a friend's house, arrested him on the emperor's orders, and shipped him to Rome. Philo, who lived through what Flaccus had allowed in the preceding months, tells the story of his fall with open satisfaction. Flaccus had governed Egypt well for five years under Tiberius. When Gaius, the emperor better known as Caligula, came to power, Flaccus lost his protectors at court and, in Philo's telling, bought the favour of Alexandria's anti-Jewish faction by handing the city's Jews over to it. When the Jewish king Agrippa passed through the city, the crowd mocked him by dressing a harmless madman named Carabbas as a king; then came statues of the emperor set up in the synagogues, a decree declaring the Jews foreigners and aliens in their own city, a mob driving them into one quarter and looting their homes, and the public flogging of thirty-eight members of the Jewish council of elders in the theatre during a festival. The second half follows Flaccus into exile on the island of Andros, lamenting his ruin, until executioners sent by the emperor cut him down, and Philo counts his wounds as matching the Jews he had killed. The work is the chief source for the riots of 38 CE, often called the first pogrom, and in 2003 Pieter van der Horst's commentary appeared under that title.

Key concepts

What does Against Flaccus mean by divine justice?

Justice that overtakes a wrongdoer in this life, measured to his crimes. Philo tells the prefect's fall as its demonstration: Flaccus is arrested, accused by the men he courted, exiled and killed, and each stage answers something he did to the Jews of Alexandria. Philo presents justice almost as a presence, a power that presides over the affairs of free people and does not leave cruelty unanswered.

What is retribution in kind, as Philo tells it?

Punishment whose form mirrors the offence. Flaccus had Jews insulted in the theatre, and is himself paraded as a prisoner through Italy and Greece; he killed Jews, and Philo counts his wounds as matching them. The correspondence is the argument. A fall that repeats the shape of the crime reads, for Philo, as a sentence, not an accident of politics.

Why did the decree make Alexandria's Jews foreigners in their own city?

Because stripping them of standing was what made the violence possible. By declaring the Jews foreigners and aliens, Flaccus removed the protection their place in the city gave them, and the mob then drove them into one quarter and looted their homes. Philo sets the decree among the steps by which a governor turned a community into prey, legal status first and violence after.

Why does Flaccus's own lament matter to Philo's argument?

Because the persecutor himself becomes the witness. On Andros, Flaccus cries out that the King of gods and men is not indifferent to the Jewish nation and that those who deny God is their defender are wrong. Putting that admission in his mouth lets Philo close the case: providence is confirmed not only by what happened to Flaccus but by what Flaccus came to see.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

A Governor Who Bought Favour with a Minority's Safety

What happens to a people when the official meant to protect them decides they are useful to sacrifice? Philo's eyewitness account of 38 CE traces the steps.

Flaccus had governed Egypt well for five years under Tiberius. When Gaius came to power he lost his protectors at court and, in Philo's telling, bought the favour of Alexandria's anti-Jewish faction by handing the city's Jews over to it. The steps are set down one by one: a harmless madman named Carabbas dressed as a king to mock the Jewish king Agrippa, statues of the emperor forced into the synagogues, a decree declaring the Jews foreigners and aliens in their own city, a mob driving them into one quarter and looting their homes, and thirty-eight elders of their council flogged in the theatre during a festival.

abuse of power
political manipulation
persecution
religious persecution
humiliation
due process
political power
governance
fear

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The Prefect's Fall, Told as Justice

Does a persecutor's ruin prove that anyone is watching? Philo tells Flaccus's fall as a demonstration, and puts the confession in Flaccus's own mouth.

Arrested at a friend's dinner table in the autumn of 38 CE, Flaccus is accused in Rome by the very men he had courted and exiled to Andros. There Flaccus laments that he has been paraded through many cities as he once had Jews paraded in the theatre, and cries out that the King of gods and men is not indifferent to the Jewish nation after all. Executioners sent by the emperor cut him down, and Philo counts his wounds as matching the Jews he killed. The record is kept, he says, not to nurse old injuries but to admire justice.

justice
retribution
punishment
divine providence
fortune
exile
grief
memory

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Within this work

passages held: 63
distinct concepts: 140
by passages held, corpus-wide: #614

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “justice” and “political power”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 19 pairings. 37 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
justice	political power	3
abuse of power	cruelty	2
abuse of power	justice	2
cruelty	persecution	2
cruelty	punishment	2
fear	persecution	2
fear	political power	2
political power	punishment	2
abuse of power	fear	1
abuse of power	punishment	1
cruelty	justice	1
cruelty	political power	1
fear	grief	1
fear	justice	1
fear	punishment	1
grief	justice	1
grief	political power	1
justice	persecution	1
justice	punishment	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

Against Flaccus (In Flaccum) you are here EN
Allegorical Interpretation (Legum allegoriae I–III)
The first surviving treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, Philo's long verse-by-verse reading of Genesis, covering its second and third chapters in three books.
EN
Every Good Man Is Free (Quod omnis probus liber sit)
Written in the manner of the Greek schools rather than as commentary on Moses, it is, with On the Eternity of the World, one of Philo's philosophical treatises.
EN
On Abraham (De Abrahamo)
The first of Philo's lives of the patriarchs in the Exposition of the Law, following On the Creation of the World; its companions on Isaac and Jacob are lost, and On Joseph continues the set.
EN
On Cultivation (De agricultura)
Noah the farmer is a subject Philo splits across two treatises; this first one is built on the difference between near-synonyms, and On Planting continues it.
EN
On Dreams (De somniis I–II)
A treatise of the Allegorical Commentary, in two surviving books on the dreams of Jacob, Joseph and Pharaoh's court.
EN
On Drunkenness (De ebrietate)
Of the two books on drunkenness known in antiquity, this is the one that survives; it sits between On Planting and On Sobriety in the Allegorical Commentary's run on Noah and the vine.
EN
On Flight and Finding (De fuga et inventione)
Hagar's flight and the angel who finds her, Genesis 16:6–14, read within the Allegorical Commentary.
EN
On Joseph (De Josepho)
The life of the statesman in Philo's series of patriarch lives within the Exposition of the Law. It follows On Abraham; lives of Isaac and Jacob, now lost, once stood between them.
EN
On Mating with the Preliminary Studies (De congressu eruditionis gratia)
Philo's reading of Genesis 16 as a theory of education, set within the Allegorical Commentary; On Flight and Finding continues Hagar's story.
EN
On Planting (De plantatione)
The second of Philo's two treatises on Noah as farmer, turning from farming in general to the planting of the vineyard.
EN
On Rewards and Punishments (De praemiis et poenis et de exsecrationibus)
The closing treatise of the Exposition of the Law, on the rewards, punishments, blessings and curses the Law sets before its hearers.
EN
On Sobriety (De sobrietate)
A short sequel to On Drunkenness in the Allegorical Commentary, on Noah waking and pronouncing his blessings and curse. Its Greek title names exactly that: what Noah prayed for and cursed once sober.
EN
On the Change of Names (De mutatione nominum)
Genesis 17 and its renamings, from Abram and Sarai to Jacob and Joshua, read in the Allegorical Commentary; it also carries Philo's clearest statement that God has no proper name.
EN
On the Cherubim (De Cherubim)
Two short commentaries joined under one title: the cherubim at Eden's gate, then the birth of Cain. Within the Allegorical Commentary it picks up where the three books of Allegorical Interpretation stop.
EN
On the Confusion of Tongues (De confusione linguarum)
The Tower of Babel in the Allegorical Commentary, opening with a defence of Genesis against critics who likened it to Greek myth.
EN
On the Contemplative Life (De vita contemplativa)
A portrait of the Therapeutae, classed with Philo's historical and apologetic writings; it opens by referring back to his account of the Essenes, the active life to this contemplative one.
EN
On the Creation of the World (De opificio mundi)
The overture to Philo's Exposition of the Law, the series that goes on to lives of the patriarchs and a code of laws. It stands apart as his reading of the creation story in its literal order.
EN
On the Decalogue (De decalogo)
The hinge of the Exposition of the Law, turning from the lives of the patriarchs to the written law.
EN
On the Embassy to Gaius (Legatio ad Gaium)
The companion of Against Flaccus: an eyewitness history of the embassy Philo led to Gaius, and the fullest account he left of his own public life.
EN
On the Eternity of the World (De aeternitate mundi)
Among Philo's philosophical treatises, the one that names the Greek schools and their arguments most openly.
EN
On the Giants and On the Unchangeableness of God (De gigantibus; Quod Deus sit immutabilis)
Two treatises that editions usually separate but that read as one commentary, in the Allegorical Commentary, on the verses of Genesis leading up to the flood.
EN
On the Life of Moses (De vita Mosis I–II)
Philo's biography of Moses in two books, usually counted with the Exposition of the Law though it stands on its own.
EN
On the Migration of Abraham (De migratione Abrahami)
Abraham's call in Genesis 12, read as the soul's migration toward God; in the Allegorical Commentary it follows On the Confusion of Tongues in the order of Genesis.
EN
On the Posterity of Cain (De posteritate Caini)
The last of the Cain treatises in the Allegorical Commentary, following Cain from his exile through his descendants.
EN
On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain (De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini)
One of the run of treatises on Cain and Abel in the Allegorical Commentary, taking up the brothers' offerings in Genesis 4.
EN
On the Special Laws (De specialibus legibus I–IV)
The largest work in the Exposition of the Law, in four books; it follows On the Decalogue and is followed by On the Virtues.
EN
On the Virtues (De virtutibus)
A pendant to On the Special Laws in the Exposition of the Law, gathering laws under the virtues they train rather than under the Ten Commandments.
EN
The Worse Attacks the Better (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat)
It follows On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain in the Allegorical Commentary and carries the brothers' story on to the murder itself.
EN
Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit)
Best known for its long passage on the Logos dividing the world into opposites, this reading of God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 belongs to the Allegorical Commentary.
EN

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