Legatio Ad Gaium

Now what amount of accusation he brought against those who had dedicated this chariot on this very account is notorious to every one; for what did it signify if it was a new one and belonging to a woman? Or what if it was an old one and belonging to a man? And what, in short, if it was wholly dedicated to the name of some one else? Was it not natural that those who were offering up a chariot of this sort on behalf of the emperor should be full of cautious fear, lest some one might lay an information against them before our emperor, who took such especial care that every thing which at all affected or related to himself should be done in the most dignified manner possible?

But these men expected to be most extravagantly praised, and to receive greater and more conspicuous advantages as rewards for their conduct, in thus dedicating the synagogues to Caius as new pieces of consecrated ground, not because of the honour which was done to him by this proceeding, but because in this way they exhausted every possible means

And one may find undeniable and notorious proofs of this having been the case. For, in the first place, one may derive them from about ten kings or more who reigned in order, one after another, for three hundred years, and who never once had any images or statues of themselves erected in our synagogues, though there were many of their relations and kinsmen whom they considered, and registered as, and spoke of as gods.

And what would they not have done in the case of those whom they looked upon as men? a people who look upon dogs, and wolves, and lions, and crocodiles, and numerous other beasts, both terrestrial and aquatic, and numerous birds, as gods, and erect in their honour altars, and temples, and shrines, and consecrated precincts, throughout the whole of Egypt?

Perhaps some people who would not have opened their mouths then will say now: "They were accustomed to pay respect to the good deeds done by their governors rather than to their governors themselves, because the emperors are greater than the Ptolemies, both in their dignities and in their fortunes, and are justly entitled to receive higher honours."

Then, O ye most foolish of all mankind! that I may not be compelled to utter any thing disrespectful or blasphemous, why did you never think Tiberius, who was emperor before Caius, who indeed was the cause that Caius ever became emperor, who himself enjoyed the supreme power by land and sea for three and twenty years, and who never allowed any seed of war to smoulder or to raise its head, either in Greece or in the territory of the barbarians, and who bestowed peace and the blessings of peace up to the end of his life with a rich and most bounteous hand and mind upon the whole empire and the whole world; why, I say, did you not consider him worthy of similar honour?

Was he inferior in birth? No; he was of the most noble blood by both parents. Was he inferior in his education? Who, of all the men who flourished in his time, was either more prudent or more eloquent? Or in his age? What king or emperor ever lived to more prosperous old age than he? Moreover, he, even while he was still a young man, was called the old man as a mark of

Again, why did you not pay similar honour to him who exceeded the common race of human nature in every virtue, who, by reason of the greatness of his absolute power and his own excellence, was the first man to be called Augustus, not receiving the title after another by a succession of blood as a part of his inheritance, but who was himself the origin of his successors, having that title and honour? He who first became emperor, when all the affairs of the state were in disorder and confusion;

for the islands were in a state of war against the continents, and the continents were contending with the islands for the pre-eminence in honour, each having for their leaders and champions the most powerful and eminent of the Romans who were in office. And then again, great sections of Asia were contending against Europe, and Europe against Asia, for the chief power and dominion; [*](He alludes here to the war between Cresar and Pompey. Pompey had been governor of Syria, and Virgil speaks of him as relying on his eastern forces. Illae autem, paribus quas fulgere cernis in armis, Concordes animae nunc, et dum nocte premuntur Heu! quantum inter se bellum, si lumina vitae Attigerint, quantas acies stragemque ciebunt! Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monaeci Descendens; gener adversis instructus Eoïs.—Æn. vi. 832. Or as it is translated by Dryden— "The pair you see in equal armour shine, Now, friends below, in close embraces join; But when they leave the shady realms of night, And clothed in bodies breathe your upper light, With mortal hate each other shall pursue, What wars, what wounds, what slaughter shall ensue. From Alpine heights the father first descends, His daughter’s husband in the plain attends. His daughter’s husband arms his eastern friends." ) the European and Asiatic nations rising up from the extremities of the earth, and waging terrible wars against one another over all the earth, and over every sea, with enormous armaments, so that very nearly the whole race of mankind would have been destroyed by mutual slaughter and made utterly to disappear, if it had not been [*](He alludes here to the war between Cresar and Pompey. Pompey had been governor of Syria, and Virgil speaks of him as relying on his eastern forces. Illae autem, paribus quas fulgere cernis in armis, Concordes animae nunc, et dum nocte premuntur Heu! quantum inter se bellum, si lumina vitae Attigerint, quantas acies stragemque ciebunt! Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monaeci Descendens; gener adversis instructus Eoïs.—Æn. vi. 832. Or as it is translated by Dryden— "The pair you see in equal armour shine, Now, friends below, in close embraces join; But when they leave the shady realms of night, And clothed in bodies breathe your upper light, With mortal hate each other shall pursue, What wars, what wounds, what slaughter shall ensue. From Alpine heights the father first descends, His daughter’s husband in the plain attends. His daughter’s husband arms his eastern friends." )