Les œuvres de Philon d'Alexandrie, vol. I (Yonge)

The author of the following Treatises was, as the title by which he is generally known imports, of Jewish extraction, and a descendant of the sacerdotal tribe of Levi. He is spoken of *by Josephus as one of the most eminent of his contemporary countrymen, and as the principal of the embassy which was sent to Caligula to solicit him to recall the command which he had issued for the erection of his statue in the temple at Jerusalem. The embassy was unsuccessful, though the death of the emperor saved the sacred edifice from the meditated profanation; but we see that Philo suffered no diminution of his credit from its unsuccessful result, since, at a subsequent period, his son, Tiberius Alexander, married Berenice, the daughter of King Agrippa. The date of his birth and that of his death are alike uncertain; he speaks of himself as an old man when the embassy to Rome took place ; and the treatise in which he gives an account of it was apparently written in the reign of Claudius, who succeeded Caligula a.d. 41, and reigned nearly fourteen years. His chief residence was at Alexandria, which at that period was, next to Athens, the most celebrated seat of philosophy in the world, and which had long been a favourite abode of the learned Jews. On one occasion he mentions having visited Jerusalem ; and this is all we know of his personal history.…