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Claudius and the Jewish Question at Alexandria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

Until the discoveries of papyri in Egypt began we were practically dependent for our knowledge of Claudius' dealings with the Jews on the notice of their expulsion from Rome in A.D. 49 contained in the Acts of the Apostles, coupled with the mysterious allusion in Suetonius—Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit—which is generally interpreted as containing the earliest reference to the relations of Christianity with the Imperial government, and on certain passages in Josephus, which shew the influence wielded by the two Agrippas, father and son, and Herod, the elder brother of Agrippa I, at the court of Claudius and exerted by them on behalf of their co-religionists.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © H. Stuart Jones 1926. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

page 18 note 1 Lesquier, L'armée romaine d'Egypte, p. 511.

page 18 note 2 O.G.I. 666.

page 18 note 3 The inscription names divus Claudius, but was set up before Balbillus became praefectus Aegypti. It is therefore to be dated A.D. 54–5.

page 19 note 1 Quaest. Nat. 4, 2, 13.

page 19 note 2 Pap. Rainer, 24922; cf. Wiener Denkschriften, xlvii (1902), 66, etcGoogle Scholar.

page 20 note 1 Hist. Nat. xix. Praef. § 3.

page 20 note 2 Suct. Ner. 36.

page 20 note 3 Ixv. 9.

page 20 note 4 This was part of Vespasian's campaign on behalf of economy.

page 20 note 5 Forschungen in Ephesos ii, no. 73, l. 3.

page 21 note 1 It would be tempting to identify Theon, the father of Dionysius, with the famous grammarian, pupil of Didymus, and predecessor of Apion; cf. Suid. s.v. Ἀπίων and the letter to Eulogius prefixed by Hesychius to his Lexicon.

page 21 note 2 On these words see below, p. 26.

page 22 note 1 Claudius here refers especially to the relations of Germanicus with the Alexandrians, illustrated by the two edicts published in Berliner Sitzungsberichte, 1911, 794 f., on which see Cichorius, Römische Studien, p. 376 ff.

page 22 note 2 Strabo is quoted by Josephus, (Ant. Jud. xiv. 7, 2)Google Scholar as saying: τόπον οὐκ ἐστὶ ῥᾳδίως εὑρεῖν τῆς οἰκουμένης ὂς οὐ παραδέδεκται τοῦτο τὸ φῦλον μηδ᾿ ἐπικρατεῖται ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ.

page 22 note 3 Antonia employed Ti. Julius Alexander as her principal ‘man of business.’

page 22 note 4 It may be suggested that Claudius was helped to overcome any scruples which he may have felt about marrying his niece by a consideration of the frequency of such marriages in the house of Herod!

page 24 note 1 Ant. Jud. xviii, 8, 1.

page 24 note 2 Ant. Jud. xix, 5, 2 and 3.

page 25 note 1 Hermes, lx, pp. 482 ff.

page 25 note 2 Phil. Wochenschr: xlvi, 12 f.

page 28 note 1 O.G.I. 592.

page 28 note 2 O.G.I. 192.

page 28 note 3 C.I.G. 5362.

page 28 note 4 O.G.I. 658 (found at Pompeii, but certainly referring to Alexandria).

page 28 note 5 Joseph, Strab. ap., Ant. Jud. xiv, 7, 2Google Scholar, Phil. in Flacc. 10, 74Google Scholar.

page 28 note 6 Plin. Ep. ad Traj. 6, 7Google Scholar.

page 28 note 7 P. Oxy. 706, 9.

page 29 note 1 B.G.U. 1134, 1151.

page 29 note 2 ἀρχειον (B.G.U. 1131, 1151).

page 30 note 1 Cf. I Macc. 1, 14Google Scholar.

page 30 note 2 Classical Philology, 1925, p. 371.

page 31 note 1 Hermes, lx, p. 486.

page 31 note 2 §§ 26, 141 (ii, pp. 449, 467M, = vi, pp. 5, 27 Cohn-Wendland).

page 31 note 3 lx, 6.

page 31 note 4 The date given by Orosius (vii. 6, 15) is confirmed by the evidence of Acts xviii., 2, where S. Luke speaks of Aquila and Priscilla as having recently arrived in Corinth about a year before Gallio's proconsulship, now fixed to A.D. 51–2 by an inscription from Delphi (S.I.G. 801 D).

page 32 note 1 Philologus, Supplementband, xvi, Heft ii, 4–14.

page 33 note 1 Ann. xii, 59.

page 33 note 2 Tac. Ann. xii, 64Google Scholar.

page 33 note 3 Various restorations of the name are possible. Horti [Lol]liani, [Lucul]iiani, [Servi]liani, or [Stati]liani afford a wide choice.

page 34 note 1 Ant. Jud. xx, 6, 3.

page 34 note 2 The narrative of Josephus, which is here followed, differs widely from the account given by Tacitus in the twelfth book of the Annals. Josephus would naturally be better informed than Tacitus with regard to events in Judaea; and the Roman historian destroys our confidence in his accuracy by his strange blunder in making Drusilla, the wife of Felix, a grand-daughter of Antony and Cleopatra.

page 34 note 3 Ann. xii, 3.

page 34 note 4 Klio, xx, p. 176.