i8 PHILO'S POLITICS
during the extended account of the difficulties in Palestine. A long time
must have elapsed for all these events and the tedious correspondence to
have been carried through. Philo had crossed to Rome in the winter,
but it was well past the harvest time when Gaius wrote his second order
to Petronius, and still later, apparently, when he countermanded it at
Agrippa's request, and then renewed it because of fresh riots in Pales
tine. If Philo's order of events is correct, the first order was issued after
their arrival at Rome, following the first royal audience, and the second
audience came subsequent to the last order. This would mean that the
group must have waited nearly a year for the second interview, with the
implication that the Jews of Alexandria were helpless derelicts on the
coast and in the cemeteries all that time.
Whenever it took place, the second hearing before Gaius as describedat the end of Legatio, is quite the most amazing part of the work. The
legation of Jews was finally called before Gaius along with the legation
of Greeks from Alexandria. The Jews were again greeted with a fair
kindliness from the emperor which this time made them all despair of
their lives as well as their cause. While the crowd cheered, Gaius re
buked them for not recognizing his divine nature; he said that in sacri
ficing for him they had still not sacrificed to him. Then, while they
followed as best they could, he walked rapidly through gardens and
buildings, giving instructions to the builders for alterations. Suddenly
he stopped and asked them why they did not eat pork, and again
walked rapidly away. As he walked he told them, apparently over his
shoulder, to speak on the Jewish ideas of justice. It is conceivable that
Philo rather spread himself at such an opportunity, but his oration had
to be delivered on the run to the constantly retreating back of the em
peror, who talked most of the time to the builders. Meanwhile the
crowd were having great sport with the Jews, even striking them
openly, so that they did not know when they should be murdered.
Suddenly Gaius stopped and gave his famous judgment: "These men
appear not so much wicked as unfortunates and fools for not believing
that I have been endowed with the nature of deity."^59 With that he dis
missed the gathering.
Philo closes the treatise by saying that the terror of the legates had
been not for themselves but because they knew that if they failed in
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