i6 PHILO'S POLITICS
sisting their proposals. His downfall, as Philo himself makes clear, was
inevitable as soon as Gaius murdered the young co-emperor and took
complete rulership. Philo in In Flaccum has connected Flaccus' hu
miliation with the persecution of the Jews only as a threat for his suc
cessor. Further, it would appear that the fall of Flaccus did not help the
Jews particularly, so that Philo had to lead his embassy to Gaius, with
its great danger and little hope.
As Legatio now stands, then, it suddenly presents Philo beside the
Tiber at the head of his legation. At his first meeting with Gaius the
emperor showed himself surprisingly friendly, and thereby, Philo mod
estly says, deceived everyone but Philo himself, who suspected a sinister
duplicity.^51 While, in anticipation of their next summons to Gaius, the
others were congratulating themselves and Philo was worrying, they
were suddenly told that Gaius had gone to the worst possible extreme
by ordering that his statue as Zeus be set up in the holy of holies of the
temple at Jerusalem. The trouble was instigated by Capito, revenue col
lector in Judaea, a native of Ascalon (Philo points out that Capito was
later repeatedly tortured on the rack), who stirred up some foreigners
in Jamnia to erect an altar to Gaius. This the Jews at once tore down,
and when news of their disrespect came to Gaius, the emperor was in
spired by Helicon (who later was killed by Claudius) to order the great
gilded statue of himself for the temple.^52 Petronius, governor of Syria,
was instructed to provide a powerful military escort for the statue to
guarantee its protection. But he understood how lightly Jews would
throw away their lives in an attempt to stop such an outrage, and so
called a council meeting to consider. What Petronius really dreaded,
says Philo, was a great war in Judaea, with the probability that Jews in
Palestine would be helped by Jews from all over the world. (I cannot
help thinking that Philo's putting this into Petronius' motivation was
again a covert way of introducing the notion that an attack upon Jews
in Palestine would mean a simultaneous rising of Jews everywhere in
the Empire.) The council sympathized with Petronius, and decided to
delay the event by taking as much time as possible for making the
statue. Meanwhile Petronius tried to frighten the Jews into giving him
permission to erect the statue. In this he completely failed.^53 For a great
army of the Jews, men, women, and children, came unarmed to beg
Petronius to kill them or let them kill each other as willing sacrifices in
- Legat., 178-183. 52. Ibid., 184-206. 53. Ibid., 206-224.