XVI. And yet even this in my opinion was a lighter evil when compared with another which was greater still; for it was not people who were merely in the simple rank of subjects who now, discarding that position and conspiring together, on a sudden attacked him with their accusations; but those who did so were men who during the chief part of the time that he had had the government of the courtry had been in a position of the greatest enmity and hatred to him, Lampo having been under a prosecution for impiety against Tiberius Caesar, and having been almost worn out by the matter which had been thus impending over his head for two years; for the judge who had a grudge against him caused all sorts of delays and every possible protraction of the cause on various pretexts, wishing even if he escaped from the accusation, at all events to keep the terror of the future as uncertain hanging over his head for the longest possible period, so as to make his life more 88 PHILO JUD.EOS.
88 PHILO JUD.EOS.
miserable even than death. And then again when he seemed to have come off victorious, saying that he was insulted and injured in his property (for he was compelled to become a gymnasiarch), either by being economical and illiberal in his expenses, pretending that he had not sufficient wealth for such unlimited expenditure, or perhaps really not having enough; but before he came to the trial, making a parade of being very rich, but when he did come to the proof then appearing not to be a man of exceeding wealth, having acquired nearly all the riches which he had by unjust actions.
For standing by the rulers when they gave judgment, he took notes of all that took place on the trial as if he were a clerk; and then he designedly passed over or omitted such and such points, and interpolated other things which were not said. And at times, too, he made alterations, changing and altering, and perverting matters, and turning things up-side down, aim- ing to get money by every syllable, or, I might rather say, by every letter, like a hunter after musty records, whom the whole people with one accord did often with great felicity and pro- priety of expression call a pen-murderer, as slaying numbers of persons by the things which he wrote, and rendering the living more miserable than even the dead, as, though they might have got the victory and been in comfort, they were subjected to miserable defeat and poverty, their enemies having bought victory, and triumph, and wealth, of a man who sold and made his market of the properties of others.
For it was impossible for rulers who had the charge of so vast a country entrusted to them, when affairs of every sort, both private and public, were coming in upon them fresh every day, to remember everything which they had heard, especially as they had not only to fill the part of judges, but also to take accounts of all the revenues and taxes, the investigation into which occupied the greater portion of the year. And the man to whom it was entrusted to take charge of that most im- portant of all deposits, namely, justice, and of those most holy sentiments which had been delivered and urged before them, caused forgetfulness to the judges, registering those who ought to have had sentence in their favour as defeated, and those who ought to have been defeated as victorious, after the receipt of his accursed pay, or, to speak more properly, wages of iuiquity.
AGAINST FLACCUS. 89 XVII. Such, then, was the character of Lampo, who was now one of the accusers of Flaccus.
And Isidorus was in no respect inferior to him in wicked- ness, being a man of the populace, a low demagogue, one who had continually studied to throw everything into disorder and confusion, an enemy to all peace and stability, very clever at exciting seditions and tumults which had no existence before, and at inflaming and exaggerating such as were already ex- cited, taking care always to keep about him a disorderly and promiscuous mob of all the refuse of the people, ready for every kind of atrocity, which he had divided into regular sections as so many companies of soldiers.
There are a vast number of parties in the city whose associ- ation is founded in no one good principle, but who are united by wine, and drunkenness, and revelry, and the offspring of those indulgencies, insolence; and their meetings are called synods and couches by the natives. In all these parties or the greater number of them Isidorus is said to have borne the bell, the leader of the feast, the chief of the supper, the dis- turber of the city. Then, whenever it was. determined to do some mischief, at one signal they all went forth in a body, and did and said whatever they were told. And on one occasion, being indignant with Flaccus because, after he had appeared originally to be a person of some weight with him, he after- wards was no longer courted in an equlll degree, having hired a gang of fellows from the training schools and men accustomed to vociferate loudly, who sell their outcries as if in regular market to those who are inclined to buy them, he ordered them all to assemble at the gymnasium; and they, having filled it, began to heap accusations on Flaccus without any particular grounds, inventing all kinds of monstrous accu- sations and all sorts of falsehoods in ridiculous language, stringing long sentences together, so that not only was Flaccus himself alarmed but all the others who were there at this un- expected attack, and especially, as it may be conjectured, from the idea that there must certainly have been some one behind the scenes whom they were studying to gratify, since they themselves had suffered no evil, and since they were well aware that the rest of the city had not been ill-treated by him.
Then, after they had deliberated awhile, they determined to 90 PHILO JUD^JUS.
apprehend certain persons of them and to inquire into the cause of this indiscriminate and sudden rage and madness. And the men who were arrested, without being put to the tor- ture, confessed the truth and added proofs to their words by what had been done, detailing the pay which had been agreed to be given to them, both that which had been already given and that which, in accordance with his promises, was subse- quently to be paid, and the men who were appointed to distribute it as the leaders of the sedition, and the place where it was to break out, and the time when the giving of the bribes was to take place.
And when every one, as was very natural, was indignant at this, and when the city was mightily offended, that the folly of some individuals should attach to it so as to dim its reputa- tion, Flaccus determined to send for some of the most honour- able men of the people, and, on the next day to bring forward before them those who had distributed the bribes, that he might investigate the truth about Isidorus, and also that he might make a defence of his own system of government, and prove that he had been unjustly calumniated; and when they heard the proclamation there came not only the magistrates but also the whole city, except that portion which was about to be convicted of having been the agents of corruption or the corrupted.
And they who had been employed in this honourable service, being raised up on the platform, that they might be elevated and conspicuous and be recognised by all men, accused Isidorus as having been the cause of all the tumults and of the accusations which had been brought against Flaccus, and as having given money and bribes to no small number of them by himself. " Since else," said they, " where could we have got such great abundance? We are poor men, and are scarcely able to provide our daily expenses for absolute necessaries; and what evil did we ever suffer from the governor, so as to be forced to bear him ill will? Nay, but it is he who was the cause of all these things, the author of them all, he who is always envious of those who are in prosperity, and an adver- sary of all stability and wholesome law."
And when those who were present came to the knowledge of these things, for what was thus said was a very evident proof and evidence of the intentions of the person accused, AGAINST FLACCUS. 01 they all raised an outcry, some calling out that he should be degraded, others that he should be banished, others that he should be put to death, and these last were the most nu- merous; and the others changed their tone and joined them, so that at last they all cried out, with one accord and with one voice, to slay the common pest of the land, the man to whom it was owing that, ever since he had arrived in the country and taken any part in public affairs, no part of the city or of the common interests had ever been left in a sound or healthy condition; and he, indeed, being convicted by his conscience, fled away in-doors, fearing lest he should be seized; but Flaccus did nothing against him, thinking that now that he had voluntarily removed himself, everything in the city would soon be free from sedition and contention.
XVIII. I have related these events at some length, not for the sake of keeping old injuries in remembrance, but because I admire that, power who presides over all freemen's affairs, namely, justice, seeing that those men who were so generally hostile to Flaccus, those by whom of all men he was most hated, were the men who now^ brought their accusations against him, to fill up the measure of his grief, for it is not so bitter merely to be accused as to be accused by one's confessed enemies; but this man was not merely accused, though a go- vernor, by his subjects, and that by men who had always been his enemies, when he had only a short time before been the lord of the life of every individual among them, but he was also apprehended by force, being thus subjected to a twofold evil, namely, to be defeated and ridiculed by exulting enemies, which is worse than death to all right-minded and sensible people.
And then see what an abundance of disasters came upon him, for he was immediately stripped of all his possessions, both of those which he inherited from his parents and of all that he had acquired himself, having been a man who took especial delight in luxury and ornament; for he was not like some rich men, to whom wealth is an inactive material, but he was continually acquiring things of every useful kind in all imaginable abundance; cups, garments, couches, minia- tures, and everything else which was any ornament to a house; and besides that, he collected a vast number of servants, care- fully selected for their excellencies and accomplishments, and 92 PHILO JUD^JUS.
with reference to their beauty, and health, and vigour of body, and to their unerring skill in all kinds of necessary and use- ful service*; for every one of them was excellent in that employ- ment to which he was appointed, so that he was looked upon as either the most excellent of all servants in that place, or, at all events, as inferior to no one.
And there is a very clear proof of this in the fact that, though there were a vast number of properties confiscated and sold for the public benefit, which belonged to persons who had been condemned, that of Flaccus alone was assigned to the emperor, with perhaps one or two more, in order that the law which had been established with respect to persons convicted of such crimes as his might not be violated.
And after he had been deprived of all his property, he was condemned to banishment, and was exiled from the whole continent, and that is the greatest and most excellent portion of the inhabited world, and from every island that has any character for fertility or richness; for he was commanded to be sent into that most miserable of all the islands in the jEgaean Sea,* called Gyara, and he would have been left there if he had not availed himself of the intercession of Lepidus, by whose means he obtained leave to exchange Gyara for Andros, which was very near it. Then he was sent back again on the road from Rome to Brundusium, a journey which he had taken a few years before, at the time when he was appointed governor of Egypt and the adjacent country of Lybia, in order that the cities which had then seen him exulting and behaving with great insolence in the hour of his prosperity, might now again behold him full of dishonour. And thus he being now become a conspicuous mark by reason of this total change of fortune, was overwhelmed with more bitter grief, his calamities being constantly re-kindled and inflamed by the addition of fresh miseries, which, like relapses in sickness, compel the recollection of all former disasters to return, which up to that time appeared to be buried in obscurity.1 XIX. And after he had crossed the Ionian Gulf he sailed up the sea which leads to Corinth, being a spectacle to all the * This was a common place of banishment for criminals. Juvenal gays- v Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris, et carcere dignum, Si vis ease aliquis.— i. 72.
AGAINST FLACCUS. 93 cities in Peloponnesus which lie on the coast, when they heard of his sudden reverse of fortune; for when he disembarked from the vessel all the evil disposed men who bore him ill will ran up to see him, and others also came to sympathize with him — men who are accustomed to learn moderation from the misfortunes of others. And at Lechaeum, crossing over the isthmus into the opposite gulf, and having arrived at Cenchres, the dockyard of the Corinthians, he was compelled by the guards, who would not permit him the slightest respite, to embark immediately on board a small transport and to set sail, and as a foul wind was blowing with great violence, after great sufferings he with difficulty arrived safe at the Piraeus.
And when the storm had ceased, having coasted along Attica as far as the promontory of Sunium,* he passed by all the islands in order, namely, Helena, and Ceanus, and Cythnos, and all the rest which lie in a regular row one after another, until at last he came to the point of his ultimate destination, the island of Andros, which the miserable man beholding afar off poured forth abundance of tears down his cheeks, as if from a regular fountain, and beating his breast, and lamenting most bitterly, he said, " Men, ye who are my guards and attendants in this my journey, I now ~eceive in exchange for the glorious Italy this beautiful country of Andros, which is an unfortunate island for me. I, Flaccus, who was born, and brought up, and educated in Rome, the heaven of the world, and who have been the schoolfellow and companion of the granddaughters of Augustus, and who was afterwards selected by Tiberius Caesar as one of his most intimate friends, and who have had entrusted to me for six years the greatest of all his possessions, namely, Egypt. What a change is this! In the middle of the day, as if an eclipse had come upon me, night has overshadowed my life. What shall I say of this little islet? Shall I call it my place of banishment, or my new country, or harbour and refuge of misery? A tomb would be the most proper name for it; for I, miserable that I am, am now in a manner conducted to my grave, attending my own funeral, for either I shall destroy my miserable life through my sorrow, or if I am able to cling to life among my miseries, I shall in that case find a distant death, which will be felt all the time of my life."
These, then, were the lamentations which he poured forth, * Now Cape Colonna.
94 PHILO JUDiEUS.
and when the vessel came near the harbour he landed, stoop- ing down to the very ground like men heavily oppressed, being weighed down by his calamities as if the heaviest of burdens was placed upon his neck, without being able to look up, or else not daring to do so because of the people whom he mi<mt meet, and of those who came out to see him and who 6tood on each side of the road. And those men who had conducted him hither, bringing the populace of the Andrians, exhibited him to them all, making them all witnesses of the arrival of the exile in their island.
And they, when they had discharged their office, departed; and then the misery of Flaccus was renewed, as he no longer beheld any sight to which he was accustomed, but only saw sad misery presented to him by the most conspicuous evidence, while he looked around upon what to him was perfect desola- tion, in the middle of which he was placed; so that it seemed to him that a violent execution in his native land would have been a lighter evil, or rather, by comparison with his present circumstances, a most desirable good; and he gave himself up to such violence of grief, that he was in no respect different from a maniac, and leaped about, and ran to and fro, and clapped his hands, and smote his thighs, and threw him- self upon the ground, and kept continually crying out, " I am Flaccus! who but a little while ago was the governor of the mighty city, of the populous city of Alexandria! the governor of 'that most fertile of all countries, Egypt! I am he on whom all those myriads of inhabitants turned their eyes! who had countless forces of infantry, and cavalry, and ships, for- midable, not merely by their number, but consisting of all the most eminent and illustrious of all my subjects! I am he who was every day accompanied when I went out by countless com- panies of clients! But now, was not all this a vision rather than reality? and was I asleep, and was this prosperity which I then beheld a dream— phantoms marching through empty space, fictions of the soul, which perhaps registered non- existent things as though they had a being? Doubtless, I have been deceived. These things were but a shadow and no real things, imitations of reality and not a real truth, which makes falsehood evident; for as after we have awakened we find none of those things which appeared to us in our dreams, but all such things have fled in a body and disappeared, so too, AGAINST FLACCUS. 95 all that brilliant prosperity which I formerly enjoyed has now been extinguished in the briefest moment of time."
XX. With such discourses as these, he was continually being cast down, and in a manner, as I may say, prostrated; and avoiding all places where he might be likely to meet with many persons on account of the shame which clung to him, he never went down to the harbour, nor could he endure to visit the market-place, but shut himself up in his house, where he kept himself close, never venturing to go beyond the outer court. But sometimes indeed, in the deepest twilight of the dawn, when every one else was still in bed, so that he could be seen by no one whatever, he would go forth out of the city and spend the entire day in the desolate part of the island, turning away if any one seemed likely to meet him; and being torn as to his soul with the memorials of his misfortunes which he saw about him in his house, and being devoured with anguish, he went back home in the darkness of the night, praying, by reason of his immoderate and never-ending misery, that the evening would become morning, dreading the darkness and the strange appearances which represented themselves to him when he went to sleep, and again in the morning he prayed that it might be evening;* for the darkness which surrounded him was opposed to everything light or cheerful.
And a few months afterwards, having purchased a small piece of land, he spent a great deal of his time there living by himself, and bewailing and weeping over his fate. It is said too, that often at midnight he became possessed like those who celebrate the rites of the Corybantes, and at such times he would go forth out of his farm-house and raise his eyes to heaven and to the stars, and beholding all the beauty really existing in the world, he would cry out, *' 0 King of gods and men! you are not, then, indifferent to the Jewish nation, nor are the assertions which they relate with respect to your provi- dence false; but those men who say that that people has not you for their champion and defender, are far from a correct * This is evidently taken from Deuteronomy xxviii. 66, "And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: in the morning thou shalt say. Would God it were even! and at e-» en thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see."
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opinion. And I am an evident proof of this; for all the frantic designs which I conceived against the Jews, I now suffer myself. I consented when they were stripped of their possessions, giving immunity to those who were plundering them; and on this account I have myself been deprived of all my paternal and maternal inheritance, and of all that I have ever acquired by gift or favour, and of everything else that ever became mine in any other manner. In times past I reproached them with ignominy as being foreigners, though they were in truth sojourners in the land entitled to full privi- leges, in order to give pleasure to their enemies who were a promiscuous and disorderly multitude, by whom I, miserable man that I was, was flattered and deceived; and for this I have been myself branded with infamy, and have been driven as an exile from the whole of the habitable world, and am shut up in this place. Again, I led some of them into the theatre, and commanded them to be shamelessly and unjustly insulted in the sight of their greatest enemies; and therefore I justly have been myself led not into a theatre or into one city, but into many cities, to endure the utmost extremity of insult, being ill-treated in my miserable soul instead of my body; for I was led in procession through the whole of Italy as far as Brundusium, and through all Peloponnesus as far as Corinth, and through Attica, and all the islands as far as Andros, which is this prison of mine; and I am thoroughly as- sured that even this is not the limit of my misfortunes, but that others are still in store for me, to fill up the measure as a requital for all the evils which I have done. I put many persons to death, and when some of them were put to death by others, I did not chastise their murderers. Some were stoned; some were burnt alive; others were dragged through the middle of the market-place till the whole of their bodies were torn to pieces. And for all this I know now that retribution awaits me, and that the avengers are already standing as it were at the goal, and are pressing close to me, eager to slay me, and every day, or I may rather say, every hour, I die before my time, enduring many deaths instead of one, the last of air'* * This is like the passage in Shakespeare — Cowards die many times before their deaths; The brave men only taste of death but once."
AGAINST FLACCUS.. 97 And he 'was continually giving way to dread and to appre- hension, and shaking with fear in every limb and every portion of his body, and his whole soul was trembling with terror and quivering with palpitation and agitation, as if nothing in the world could possibly be a comfort to the man now that he was deprived of all favourable hopes; no good omen ever appeared to him, everything bore a hostile appear- ance, every report was ill-omened, his waking was paiulul, his sleep fearful, his solitude resembling that of wild beasts, nevertheless the solitude of his herds was what was most pleasant to him, any dwelling in the city was his greatest affliction; his safe reproach was a solitary abiding in the fields, a dangerous, and painful, and unseemly way of life; every one who approached him, however justly, was an object of suspicion to him. " This man," he would say, " who is coming quickly hither, is planning something against me, he does not look as if he were hastening for any other object, but he is pursuing me; this pleasant looking man is laying a snare for me; this free-spoken man is despising me; this man is giving me meat and drink as they feed cattle before killing them. How long shall I, hard-hearted that I am, bear up against such terrible calamities? I well know that I am afraid of death, since out of cruelty the Deity will not punish me violently, to cut short my miserable life, in order to load me to excess with irremediable miseries, which he treasures up against me, to do a pleasure to those whom I treacherously put to death."