Legatio Ad Gaium

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." )

This is Caesar, who calmed the storms which were raging in every direction, who healed the common diseases which were afflicting both Greeks and barbarians, who descended from the south and from the east, and ran on and penetrated as far as the north and the west, in such a way as to fill all the neighbouring districts and waters with unexpected miseries.

This is he who did not only loosen but utterly abolish the bonds in which the whole of the habitable world was previously bound and weighed down. This is he who destroyed both the evident and the unseen wars which arose from the attacks of robbers. This is he who rendered the sea free from the vessels of pirates, and filled it with merchantmen. [*](He is attributing an honour to Augustus which does not belong to him. It was Pompey who cleared the sea of pirates. )

This is he who gave freedom to every city, who brought disorder into order, who civilized and made obedient and harmonious, nations which before his time were unsociable, hostile, and brutal. This is he who increased Greece by many Greeces, and who Greecised the regions of the barbarians in their most important divisions: the guardian of peace, the distributor to every man of what was suited to him, the man who proffered to all the citizens favours with the most ungrudging liberality, who never once in his whole life concealed or reserved for himself any thing that was good or excellent.

Now this man who was so great a benefactor to them for the space of three and forty years, during which he reigned over Egypt, they passed over in silence and neglect, never erecting any thing in their synagogues to do him honour; no image, no statue, no inscription.

And yet if ever there was a man to whom it was proper that new and unprecedented honours should be voted, it was certainly fitting that such should be decreed to him, not only because he was as it were the origin and fountain of the family of Augustus, not because he was the first, and greatest, and universal benefactor, having, instead of the multitude of governors who existed before, entrusted the common vessel of the state to himself as one pilot of [*](He is attributing an honour to Augustus which does not belong to him. It was Pompey who cleared the sea of pirates. )

And we have evidence of this in the temples, and porticoes, and sacred precincts, and groves, and colonnades which have been erected, so that all the cities put together, ancient and modern, which exhibit magnificent works, are surpassed, by the beauty and magnitude of the buildings erected in honour of Caesar, and especially by those raised in our city of Alexandria.

For there is no sacred precinct of such magnitude as that which is called the Grove of Augustus, and the temple erected in honour of the disembarkation of Caesar, which is raised to a great height, of great size, and of the most conspicuous beauty, opposite the best harbour; being such an one as is not to be seen in any other city, and full of offerings, in pictures, and statues; and decorated all around with silver and gold; being a very extensive space, ornamented in the most magnificent and sumptuous manner with porticoes, and libraries, and men’s chambers, and groves, and propylaea, and wide, open terraces, and court-yards in the open air, and with everything that could contribute to use or beauty; being a hope and beacon of safety to all who set sail, or who came into harbour.

Therefore, though they had such admirable pretexts for such conduct, and all the nations in every part of the world inclined to agree with them, they nevertheless neither made any innovations in their synagogues, but kept the law in every particular; and refused any marks of respect and veneration which might have been looked upon as due to Caesar. Perhaps some cautious and sensible person may ask: "Why were all these honours denied to him?" I will tell the reason, without suppressing any thing.