BY INNUENDO 55light." The image of the ideal ruler as a light of knowledge is not by
any means a chance one here, but is an integral part of the conception.
The culmination of Joseph's appearing before Pharaoh was his ap
pointment to be ruler of all Egypt under the king. This incident was
what Philo had in mind throughout in representing Joseph as the ideal
politicus. Now we see that he is more than that, he is really the ideal
prefect of Egypt, who, like Joseph, was the supreme ruler of Egypt sub
ject only to the emperor, for the emperor was usually called by Eastern
Greek speaking peoples the (3aoiAeuc, the king. No intelligent person
in Alexandria could have mistaken Philo's analogy. The Septuagint
says of the appointment only "Lo I establish thee this day over all the
land of Egypt."^43 Philo represents Pharaoh as saying:
"Come, then, and receive the supervision (im[iiXz\a) of my household and
the superintendence (kmrponv)) of all Egypt"... Then Pharaoh installed
him as viceroy of the kingdom (T/JC PaoiAdac SidSoxoc), or rather, to tell
the truth, as king: for while he reserved the nominal sovereignty (ovojja TV)C
dpx/jc) for himself, he dedicated to Joseph the actual rulership (y)ycnov(a).^44
It is difficult to see how Philo could have made it more clear that in
Joseph he saw the type of the Roman prefect. As has already been indi
cated,^45 in his day the prefect was called kmTponoc. Philo has also in
cluded the fact that the appointment of a prefect implied the reserva
tion of sovereignty, though the incumbent is practically the king since
he has been assigned the use of the imperium (ev TOIC epyoic y)yeMov(a).
A more accurate definition of the office of the praefectus Aegypti could
not be drawn up. For the emTponoc in Egypt was distinguished from
the other enixporroi by the fact that he had been given by Augustus im
perium on a par with the proconsul.** So he came to be known as the
governor with the imperium, the w^v, very possibly an abbreviation
of tnhponoQ ouv yjycuovia, 0 r some such title. When Philo adds the de
tail that Joseph's commission included also the supervision of the house
hold of Pharaoh he has completed the essential characterization of the
prefect. For that officer functioned not only as the procurator with im
perium, but he was also the steward of Egypt, since Egypt was a part of
the personal estate of the emperor.^47
- Gen. xli, 41. 44. Jos., 117 ff. 45. See above, p. 23.
- Ulpian, ap. Justinian, Digest., I, xvii, 1.
- On the £jti|i£A.T)TYJcj as a steward appointed by the emperor to look after his special in
terests see Dittenberger, Syl. Insc. Graec., 872.