Philo's Flaccus: The First Pogrom. Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, Vol. 2)

290 Pages·2003·1.2 MB·English

by  Pieter Willem van der Horst

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