On the Embassy to Gaius

Five envoys plead for Alexandria's Jews before an emperor who believes he is a god and has ordered his statue into the Temple.

by Philo of Alexandria132 passages held

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Original title: Legatio ad Gaium
Original language: Ancient Greek

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Overview

Josephus, the Jewish historian writing half a century later, records that the Jews of Alexandria sent Philo at the head of their embassy to the emperor Gaius, better known as Caligula, and this book is Philo's own account of it. The embassy of 39–40 CE went to Rome after the riots of 38 CE to defend the rights of Alexandria's Jews. Philo, who says his age made him warier than his colleagues, describes how the five envoys got their hearing at last in a pair of gardens outside the city, where the emperor was inspecting his villas. Gaius walked from room to room giving orders about windows and paintings while they hurried after him trying to plead, and the rival Greek delegation laughed. At one point he turned and asked why they did not eat pork; when they answered that different peoples have different laws, and someone added that many people will not eat lamb, he agreed that lamb was not nice. He dismissed them with the remark that they seemed less wicked than unfortunate and foolish, since they did not believe he was a god. Meanwhile a worse crisis had overtaken the mission: word reached the envoys in Italy that Gaius had ordered a colossal statue of himself set up in the Temple at Jerusalem. The book follows the order to Petronius, governor of Syria, who stalled while Jewish crowds begged him to kill them first, and the long letter by which King Agrippa persuaded Gaius to hold back, and it frames everything as a lesson about providence and about a ruler who dressed as Hercules and Apollo. Gaius was murdered in January 41 CE, and it was Claudius who settled the Alexandrian dispute. The text ends with Philo promising a palinode, an account of how Gaius's fortunes turned, which is lost; Eusebius, who knew the work in the fourth century, says Philo gave the work the ironic title On the Virtues.

Key concepts

What does self-deification mean in On the Embassy to Gaius?

A ruler claiming divine honours for himself. Gaius began by likening himself to demigods such as Hercules and the Dioscuri, then to the great gods, Mercury, Apollo and Mars, dressing in their attributes, and finally ordered his statue set up in the Temple at Jerusalem. For Philo this is the tyrant's last step: a man who no longer accepts any limit above himself.

How does Philo judge Gaius against the gods he imitated?

By their works. Hercules cleared land and sea of what harmed mankind; Apollo healed and gave oracles that helped people avoid disaster. Gaius, dressed in their costumes, emptied cities, brought disease and death, and gave warnings only of ruin and exile. If he wanted their honours, Philo says, he should have imitated their virtues. The argument turns the emperor's own claim into the measure of his failure.

Why does the book open with fortune and nature?

Because it is meant as a lesson about providence. Philo begins by complaining that even old men judge like children, trusting fortune, the most unstable thing there is, over nature, the most steadfast, because they follow their eyes instead of their reason. The story of Gaius, who seemed invincible and was murdered, is offered as proof that the visible run of events is not the last word.

What was at stake in the statue in the Temple?

The holiness of the Temple, which for its defenders no statue of a man could enter without desecration. Gaius ordered a colossal statue of himself erected in the Temple at Jerusalem, and its defenders counted that worse than death: Jewish crowds begged Petronius, governor of Syria, to kill them first. The crisis turned the embassy from a dispute about Alexandria into a question of whether Jewish worship could survive the emperor's claim.

Themes of the book

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

An Emperor Who Dressed as the Gods

What happens when the most powerful man in the world decides he is divine? Philo answers from close range, and measures Gaius against the gods he impersonated.

Gaius put on the lion's skin and club of Hercules, then the rays and bow of Apollo, like an actor changing costume. Philo's reply is to hold him to the parts he played: Hercules cleared land and sea of what harmed mankind, and Gaius emptied cities; Apollo healed and foretold what would help people, and Gaius sent disease and death and warned only of ruin. The claim reached its worst point when Gaius ordered a colossal statue of himself set up in the Temple at Jerusalem. The book frames all of it as a lesson about providence, opening with a complaint that even old men trust fortune over nature.

self-deification
tyranny
flattery
divine symbolism
religious images
sacred space
political tyranny
divine providence

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Pleading for a People's Law Before a Mocking Emperor

How does a minority argue for its way of life before a ruler who finds it absurd? The envoys of 39–40 CE were given a hearing in a garden and a question about pork.

The five envoys, Philo among them and warier than his colleagues, he says, because of his age, got their hearing at last in a pair of gardens outside Rome, where Gaius walked from room to room giving orders about windows and paintings while they hurried after him and the rival Greek delegation laughed. He asked why they did not eat pork, agreed that lamb was not nice, and dismissed them as less wicked than foolish for not believing he was a god. Meanwhile Petronius, governor of Syria, stalled on the statue while Jewish crowds begged him to kill them first, and King Agrippa's long letter persuaded Gaius to hold back.

religious freedom
religious law
religious custom
political counsel
political loyalty
peace
fear
custom

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Within this work

passages held: 132
distinct concepts: 318
by passages held, corpus-wide: #449

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 “tyranny”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 16 pairings. 56 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
justice	tyranny	4
political authority	religious freedom	4
political power	religious persecution	3
political power	tyranny	3
political authority	virtue	2
religious freedom	religious persecution	2
religious persecution	tyranny	2
flattery	religious persecution	1
flattery	tyranny	1
justice	political power	1
justice	religious persecution	1
justice	virtue	1
political power	religious freedom	1
religious freedom	tyranny	1
religious freedom	virtue	1
tyranny	virtue	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)
Written as a demonstration of divine justice, this account of the Alexandrian riots of 38 CE and of the prefect Philo blamed for them stands with his historical and apologetic works.
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) you are here 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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