25. Jos. Ant. xiv. 13. 5; War. i. 13, 5
26. Ant. xix 5. 1
27. Ant. xviii. 6.3
28. Ant. xix. 5. 1; xx. 5. 3
The possession of such wealth, coupled no doubt with pride and self-assertion, and openly
spoken contempt of the superstitions around,29 would naturally excite the hatred of the
Alexandria populace against the Jews. The greater number of those silly stories about the origin,
early history, and religion of the Jews, which even the philosophers and historians of Rome
record as genuine, originated in Egypt. A whole series of writers, beginning with Manetho,30
made it their business to give a kind of historical travesty of the events recorded in the books of
Moses. The boldest of these scribblers was Apion, to whom Josephus replied - a world-famed
charlatan and liar, who wrote or lectured, with equal presumption and falseness, on every
conceivable object. He was just the man to suit the Alexandrians, on whom his unblushing
assurance imposed. In Rome he soon found his level, and the Emperor Tiberius well
characterised the irrepressible boastful talker as the `tinkling cymbal of the world.' He had
studied, seen, and heard everything - even, on three occasions, the mysterious sound on the
Colossus of Memnon, as the sun rose upon it! At least, so he graved upon the Colossus itself,
for the information of all generations.31 Such was the man on whom the Alexandrians conferred
the freedom of their city, to whom they entrusted their most important affairs, and whom they
extolled as the victorious, the laborious, the new Homer.32 There can be little doubt, that the
popular favour was partly due to Apion's virulent attacks upon the Jews. His grotesque
accounts of their history and religion held them up to contempt. But his real object was to rouse
the fanaticism of the populace against the Jews. Every year, so he told them, it was the practice
of the Jews to get hold of some unfortunate Hellene, whom ill-chance might bring into their
hands, to fatten him for the year, and then to sacrifice him, partaking of his entrials, and burying
the body, while during these horrible rites they took a fearful oath of perpetual enmity to the
Greeks. These were the people who battened on the wealth of Alexandria, who had usurped
quarters of the city to which they had no right, and claimed exceptional privileges; a people who
had proved traitors to, and the ruin of every one who had trusted them. `If the Jews,' he
exclaimed, `are citizens of Alexandria, why do they not worship the same gods as the
Alexandrians?' And, if they wished to enjoy the protection of the Cæsars, why did they not erect
statues, and pay Divine honor to them?33 There is nothing strange in these appeals to the
fanaticism of mankind. In one form or another, they have only too often been repeated in all
lands and ages, and, alas! by the representatives of all creeds. Well might the Jews, as Philo
mourns,34 wish no better for themselves than to be treated like other men!
29. Comp., for example, such a trenchant chapter as Baruch vi., or the 2nd Fragm. of the Erythr. Sibyl, vv.
21-33.
30. Probably about 200 b.c.
31. Comp. Friedländer, u. s. ii. p. 155.