ON THE INCORRUPTIBILITY OF THE WORLD. 57 relaxation, though ever so slight, it draws up with it a large portion of the earthy substance, as much as it can; and when it has emerged from the earth it proceeds more slowly; hut the earthy substance being compelled to follow it for a long time, being at last raised to an immense height, is contracted at the top, and at last comes to end on a sharp point imitating the general appearance of the flame of fire; for there arises then a most violent contention between two things which are natural adversaries, the lightest and the heaviest of things, each of them pressing onwards to reach its own place, and each striving against the violent efforts of the other; accord- ingly the fire, wThich is drawing up the earth with it, is com- pelled to sink down by its descending power; and the earth naturally inclining to the lowest point is nevertheless to a certain degree made light, and lifted up by the upward ten- dencies of fire, and so is raised on high, and being at last overpowered by the more influential power which lightens it is thrust upwards towards the natural seat of fire, and established on high.
Why then need we wonder if the mountains are not entirely washed away by the impetuosity of the rains, when so great a power, which keeps them together, and by which they are raised up, is very firmly and steadfastly connected with them? For if they were released from the bond which holds them together, it would be natural for them to be entirely dissolved and to be dispersed by the water; but since they are bound together by this power of fire, they resist the impetuosity of the rains more surely.
XXVI. These things, then, may be said by us with respect to the argument that the inequalities of the surface of the earth are no proof of the world having been created and being liable to destruction; but with respect to that argument which was endeavoured to be established by the diminution of the sea, we may reasonably adduce this statement in opposition to it: " Do not look only at the islands which have risen up out of the sea, nor at any portions of land which, having been for- merly buried by the waters, have in subsequent times become dry land; for obstinate contention is very unfavourable to the consideration of natural philosophy, which considers the search after truth to be the chief object of rational desire; but look lather at the contrary effects: consider how many districts on 58 PHILO JUDiEUS.
58 PHILO JUDiEUS.
the main-land, not only such as were near the coast, but even such as were completely in-land, have been swallowed up by the waters; and consider how great a portion of land has become sea and is now sailed over by innumerable ships." Are you ignorant of the celebrated account which is given of that most sacred Sicilian strait, which in old times joined Sicily to the continent of Italy?* and where vast seas on each side being excited by violent storms met together, coming from opposite directions, the land between them was over- whelmed and broken away; from which circumstance the city built in the neighbourhood was called Rhegiuimf and the result was quite different from what any one would have expected; for the seas which had formerly been separated now flowed together and were united in one expanse; and the land which had previously united was now separated into two portions by the strait which intersected it, in consequence of which Sicily, which had previously formed a part of the main- land, was now compelled to be an island.
And it is said that many other cities also have disappeared, having been swallowed up by the sea which overwhelmed them; since they speak of three in Peloponnesus— u ^Egira and fair Bura's walls, And Helica's lofty halls, And many a once renowned town, With wreck and seaweed overgrown," * This is alluded to by Virgil — Hgcc loca vi quondam, et vasta convulsa ruina Tantum sevi longinqua valet mutare vetustas, Dissiluisse feruut, quum protenuB utraque tellus Una foret: venit medio vi pontus, et uudis Hesperium Siculo latus abscidit, arvaque et urbes Litore diductas angusto interluit aestu. — Mn. iii. 419. Or, as it is translated by Dryden, " The Italian shore And fair Sicilia's coast were one before An earthquake caused the flaw; the roaring tides The passage broke that laud from land divides, And where the lands retired the rushing ocean rides Distinguished by the straits on either hand Now rising cities in long order stand, And fruitful fields; so much can time invade The mouldering work that beauteous nature made." + 'Frjyiov, from pr/yvvfit, "to break."
ON THE INCORRUPTIBILITY OF THE WORLD. 59 as having been formerly prosperous, but now overwhelmed by the violent influx of the sea. And the island of Atalantes which was greater than Africa and Asia, as Plato says in the Timseus, in one day and night was overwhelmed beneath the sea in consequence of an extraordinary earthquake and inun- dation and suddenly disappeared, becoming sea, not indeed navigable, but full of gulfs and eddies. Therefore that imagi- nary and fictitious diminution of the sea has no connection with the destruction or durability of the world; for in fact it ap- pears to recede indeed from some parts, but to rise higher in others; and it would have been proper rather not to look at only one of these results but at both together, and so to form one's opinion, since in all the disputed questions which arise in human life, a wise and honest judge will not deliver his opinion before he has heard the arguments of the advocates on both sides.
XVII. And as for the third argument, it is convicted by itself, as being derived only from an unsound system of ques- tioning proceeding from the assertions originally made; for in truth it does not necessarily follow that a thing, all the parts of which are liable to corruption, is likewise perishable itself; but this is only inevitably true of that thing of which all the parts are perishable when taken collectively and together in the same place and at the same time, since in the case of a person who has the tip of his finger cut off, he is not disabled from living, but if he had the whole collection of all his parts and limbs cut off at once, he would die immediately. There- fore in the same manner, if all the elements of the world together were all to disappear at one and the same moment, then it would be necessary to admit that the world was liable to corruption and destruction; but if each of these elements separately only changes its nature so as to assimilate to that of its nature, it is then rendered immortal rather than destroyed, according to the philosophical statement of the tragic poet — " Nought that has once existed dies, Though often what has been combined Before, we separated find, Invested with another form."
For it is the greatest folly imaginable to estimate the antiquity of the human race from the state of art; for if any one were to follow the absurdity of such a system of reasoning as this, he GO PHILO JUDjEUS.
will prove the world to be very young indeed, and to have been made scarcely a thousand years, since all those men whom we have heard of traditionally as the discoverers in different branches of science do not go back to a greater number of years than that which I have mentioned.
But if we must speak of the arts as co-eval with the race of mankind, then we must speak, drawing our arguments from natural history, and not inconsiderately or carelessly. And what is this history? The destruction of the things on the earth, not all together, but of the greatest number of them, is attributed to two principal causes, the indescribable violence and power of fire and water. And they say that each of these elements attacks them in its turn, after very long periods of revolving years. When, therefore, a conflagration seizes upon things, a stream of ethereal fire being poured down from above is frequently diffused over them, overrunning many districts of the habitable world; and when a deluge draws down the whole of the rainy nature of water, the regular rivers and torrents overflowing, and not only that, but even far exceeding the ordinary measure of a common flood, and breaking down their banks with their violence, or else overleaping them, and rising to an enormous height, from which they swell and are diffused over all the adjacent champaign country, and the land is in the first instance divided into huge lakes, as the water is con- tinually settling down into the more hollow parts, and afterwards flows still higher, and inundates the isthmuses which separate the lakes, till at last everything presents the appear- ance of one vast sea from the union of so many waters.
And then it happens that, through the violence of these powers contending against one another in turn, the inhabitants of the places exposed to it are destroyed; those who dwell on the mountains and higher ground, and in ill-watered districts, being destroyed by fire, as not having a sufficiency of water, which is the natural weapon with which to repel fire, and those, on the other hand, being destroyed by water who live on the banks of rivers or lakes, or on the shores of the sea, for evils like to attack those who are nearest first, or indeed solely.
Accordingly, when the greater part of mankind is destroyed in the manners above mentioned, besides an infinity of other ways of less power and importance, it follows of necessity that AGAINST FLACCUS. 61 the arts also must fail, for it cannot be possible to discuss science by itself without some one to reduce it to method and practice. But when those common pestilences relax their fury, and when the human race begins again to recover vigour and to flourish, descending from those who have not been previously destroyed by the evils which pressed upon them, then the arts also begin again to exist, not indeed as they were at first, but in thinner numbers from the diminution of the numbers of those who practise them.
I have now then set forth to the best of my ability what I have been able to learn or to understand concerning the indestructibility of the world, and in the subsequent treatises I shall proceed to show what may be said against each of the arguments here stated.
A TEEATISE AGAINST FLACCUS.
I. Flaccus Avillius succeeded Sejanus in his hatred of and hostile designs against the Jewish nation. He was not, indeed, able to injure the whole people by open and direct means as he had been, inasmuch as he had less power for such a purpose, but he inflicted the most intolerable evils on all who came within his reach.
Moreover, though in appearance he only attacked a portion of the nation, in point of fact he directed his aims against all whom he could find anywhere, proceeding more by art than by force; for those men who, though of tyrannical natures and dispositions, have not strength enough to accomplish their designs openly, seek to compass them by manoeuvres.
This Flaccus being chosen by Tiberius Csesar as one of his intimate companions, after the death of Severus, who had been lieutenant-governor in Egypt, was appointed viceroy of Alex- andria and the country round about, being a man who at the beginning, as far as appearance went, had given innumerable instances of his excellence, for he was a man of prudence and diligence, and great acuteness of perception, very energetic in executing what he had determined on, very eloquent as a speaker, and skilful too at discerning what was suppressed as 62 PHILO JUD^US.
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well as at understanding what was said. Accordingly in a short time he became perfectly acquainted with the affairs of Egypt, and they are of a very various and diversified character, so that they are not easily comprehended even by those who from their earliest infancy have made them their study.
The scribes were a superfluous body when he had made such advances towards the knowledge of all things, whether important or trivial, by his extended experience, that he not only surpassed them, but from his great accuracy was qualified instead of a pupil to become the instructor of those who had hitherto been the teachers of all other persons. However, all those things in which he displayed an admirable system and great wisdom concerning the accounts and the general arrange- ment of the revenues of the land, though they were serious matters and of the last importance, were nevertheless not such as gave any proofs of a soul fit for the task of governiug; but those things which exhibited a more brilliant and royal disposition he also displayed with great freedom. For instance, he bore himself with considerable dignity, and pride and pomp are advantageous things for a ruler; and he decided all suits of importance in conjunction with the magistrates, he pulled down the overproud, he forbade promiscuous mobs of men from all quarters to assemble together, and prohibited all associa- tions and meetings which were continually feasting together under pretence of sacrifices, making a drunken mockery of public business, treating with great vigour and severity all who resisted his commands.
Then when he had filled the whole city and country with his wise legislation, he proceeded in turn to regulate the military affairs of the land, issuing commands, arranging matters, training the troops of every kind, infantry, cavalry, and light- armed, teaching the commanders not to deprive the soldiers of their pay, and so drive them to acts of piracy and rapine, and teaching eacli individual soldier not to proceed to any actions unauthorised by his military service, remembering that he was appointed with the especial object of preserving peace.
II. Perhaps some one may say here: " Do you then, my good man, you who have determined to accuse this man, bring no accusation whatever against him, but on the contrary, weave long panegyrics in his honour? Arc you not doting and mad?"
" I am not mad, my friend, nor am I a downright fool, so as AGAINST FLA CCUS. 63 to be unable to see the consequences or connexion of things. I praise Flaccus, not because it is right to praise an enemy, but in order to make his wickedness more conspicuous; for pardon is given to a man who does wrong from ignorance of what is right; but he who does wrong knowingly has no excuse, being already condemned by the tribunal of his own conscience."
III. For having received a government which was intended to last six years, for the first five years, while Tiberius Caesar was alive, he both preserved peace and also governed the country generally with such vigour and energy that he was superior to all the governors who had gone before him. But in the last year, after Tiberius was dead, and when Caius had succeeded him as emperor, he began to relax in and to be indifferent about everything, whether it was that he was over- whelmed with most heavy grief because of Tiberius (for it was evident to everyone that he grieved exceedingly as if for a near relation, both by his continued depression of spirits and his incessant weeping, pouring forth tears without end as if from an inexhaustible fountain), or whether it was because he was disaffected to his successor, because he preferred devoting him- self to the party of the real rather than to that of the adopted children, or whether it was because he had been one of those who had joined in the conspiracy against the mother of Caius, having joined against her at the time when the accusations were brought against her, on account of which she was put to death, and having escaped through fear of the consequence of proceeding against him.
However, for a time he still paid some attention to the affairs of the state, not wholly abandoning the administration of his government; but when he heard that the grandson of Tiberius and his partner in the government had been put to death at the command of Caius, he was smitten with intolerable anguish, and threw himself on the ground, and lay there speechless, being utterly deprived of his senses, for indeed his mind had long since been enervated by grief.
For as long as that child lived he did not despair of some sparks still remaining of his own safety, but now that he was dead, he considered that all his own hopes had likewise died with him, even if a slight breeze of assistance might still be left, such as his friendship with Macro, who had unbounded 64 PHILO JUD^US.
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influence with Caius in his authority; and who, as it is said, had very greatly contributed to his obtaining the supreme power, and in a still higher degree to his personal safety, siuce Tiberius had frequently thought of putting Caius out of the way, as a wicked man and one who was in no respects calcu- lated by nature for the exercise of authority, being influenced also partly by his apprehensions for his grandson; for he feared lest, when he himself was dead, his death too would be added to the funerals of his family.
But Macro had constantly bade him discard these apprehen- sions from his mind, and had praised Caius, as a man of a simple, and honest, and sociable character; and as one who was very much attached to his cousin, so that he would willingly yield the supreme authority to him alone, and the first rank in everything. And Tiberius, being deceived by all these repre- sentations, without being aware of what he was doing, left behind him a most irreconcileable enemy, to himself, and his grandson, and his whole family, and to Macro, who was his chief adviser and comforter, and to all mankind; for when Macro saw that Caius was forsaking the way of virtue and yielding to his unbridled passions, following them wherever they led him and against whatever objects they led him, he admonished and reproved him, looking upon him as the same Caius who, while Tiberius was alive, was mild-tempered and docile; but to his misery he suffered most terrible punishment for his exceeding good-will, being put to death with his wife, and children, and all his family, as a grievous and troublesome object to his new sovereign. For whenever he saw him at a distance coming towards him, he used to speak in this manner to those who were with him: " Let us not smile; let us look sad: here comes the censor and monitor; the all-wise man, he who is beginning now to be the schoolmaster of a full-grown man, and of an emperor, after time itself has sepa- rated him from and discarded the tutors of his earliest infancy."
IV. When, therefore, Flaccus learnt that he too was put to death, he utterly abandoned all other hope for the future, and was no longer able to apply himself to public affairs as he had done before, being enervated and wholly broken down in spirit. But when a magistrate begins to despair of his power of exerting authority, it follows inevitably, that his subjects AGAINST FLACCUS. 65 must quickly become disobedient, especially those who are naturally, at every trivial or common occurrence, inclined to show insubordination, and, among people of such a disposition, the Egyptian nation is pre-eminent, being constantly in the habit of exciting great seditions from very small sparks.
And being placed in a situation of great and perplexing dif- ficulty he began to rage, and simultaneously, with the change of his disposition for the worse, he also altered everything which had existed before, beginning with his nearest friends and his most habitual customs; for he began to suspect and to drive from him those who were well affected to him, and who were most sincerely his friends, and he reconciled himself to those who were originally his declared enemies, and he used them as advisers under all circumstances; but they, for they persisted in their ill-will, being reconciled with him only in words and in appearance, but in their actions and in their hearts they bore him incurable enmity, and though only pre- tending a genuine friendship towards him, like actors in a theatre, they drew him over wholly to their side; and so the governor became a subject, and the subjects became the governor, advancing the most unprofitable opinions, and im- mediately confirming and insisting upon them; for they be- came executors of all the plans which they had devised, treating him like a mute person on the stage, as one who was only, by way of making up the show, inscribed with the title of authority, being themselves a lot of Dionysiuses, demagogues, and of Lampos, a pack of cavillers and word-splitters; and of Isidoruses, sowers of sedition, busy-bodies, devisers of evil, troublers of the state; for this is the name which has, at last, been given to them.
All these men, having devised a most grievous design against the Jews, proceeded to put it in execution, and coming privately to Flaccus said to him, " All your hope from the child of Tiberius Nero has now perished, and that which was your second best prospect, your companion Macro, is gone too, and you have no chance of favour with the emperor, therefore we must find another advocate, by whom Caius may be made propitious to us, and that advocate is the city of Alexandria, which all the family of Augustus has honoured from the very beginning, and our present master above all the rest; and it will be a sufficient mediator in our behalf, if it can obtain one VOL. IV F 66 PHILO JUDiEUS.
boon from you, and you cannot confer a greater benefit upon it than by abandoning and denouncing all the Jews."
Now though upon this he ought to have rejected and driven away the speakers as workers of revolution and common ene- mies, he agrees on the contrary to what they say, and at first lie made his designs against the Jews less evident, only abstaining from listening to causes brought before his tribunal with impartiality and equity, and inclining more to one side than to the other, and not allowing to both sides an equal freedom of speech; but whenever any Jew came before him he showed his aversion to him, and departed from his habitual affability in their case; but afterwards he exhibited his hos- tility to them in a more conspicuous manner.
V. Moreover, some occurrences of the following description increased that folly and insolence of his which was derived from instruction rather than from nature. Caius Caesar gave Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the king, the third part of his paternal inheritance as a sovereignty, which Philip the tetrarch, •who was his uncle on his father's side, had previously enjoyed. And when he was about to set out to take possession of his kingdom, Caius advised him to avoid the voyage from Brun- dusium to Syria, which was a long and troublesome one, and rather to take the shorter one by Alexandria, and to wait for the periodical winds; for he said that the merchant vessels which set forth from that harbour were fast sailers, and that the pilots were most experienced men, who guided their ships like skilful coachmen guide their horses, keeping them straight in the proper course. And he took his advice, looking upon him both as his master and also as a giver of good counsel.
Accordingly, going down to Dicrcarchia, and seeing some Alexandrian vessels in the harbour, looking all ready and fit to put to sea, he embarked with his followers, and had a fair voyage, and so a few days afterwards he arrived at his journey's end, unforeseen and unexpected, having commanded the cap- tains of his vessels (for he came in sight of Pharo3 about twilight in the evening) to furl their sails, and to keep a short distance out of sight in the open sea, until it became late in the evening and dark, and then at night he entered the port, that, when he disembarked he might find all the citizens buried in sleep, and so, without any one seeing him, he might arrive at the house of the man who was to be his entertainer. With AGAINST FLACCUS. 67 so much modesty then did this man arrive, wishing if it were possible to enter without being perceived by any one in the city.
For he had not come to see Alexandria, since he had so- journed in it before, when he was preparing to take his voyage to Rome to see Tiberius, but he desired at this time to take the quickest road, so as to arrive at his destination with the smallest possible delay. But the men of Alexandria -being ready to burst with envy and ill-will (for the Egyptian dispo- sition is by nature a most jealous and envious one and inclined to look on the good fortune of others as adversity to itself), and being at the same time filled with an ancient and what I may in a manner call an innate enmity towards the Jews, were in- dignant at any one's becoming a king of the Jews, no less than if each individual among them had been deprived of an ancestral kingdom of his own inheritance.