The Politics of Philo Judaeus: Practice and Theory, with a General Bibliography of Philo

BY INNUENDO 57

to make himself known to all the people of the country. He visited the dis­

tricts, the so-called nomes, city by city, and implanted a great love for himself

in those who saw him, not only because of the benefits which he conferred

upon everyone, but because of the remarkable and exceptional graces which

were connected with his appearance and general relations with others.^52

Here is practical advice indeed. The prefect will be the reforming in­

fluence idealized by current political theory if he will bestir himself to

get out and acquaint himself with his various types of subjects (includ­

ing, of course, the Jews). We are strikingly reminded of Philo's descrip­

tion of the first years of Flaccus' rule, when that prefect was entirely

exemplary. Flaccus began, Philo tells us, by becoming in a short time

master of all the involutions of custom in Egypt, which are so compli­

cated and diverse as to be difficult fully to understand even after a life­

long study.^53 Incidentally, that Philo expected the prefect to live up to

the standards of the hellenistic royal nature is made very clear in this

passage of In Flaccum. For Flaccus did not stop with demonstrating

this power of mastering the details of his country: such power in itself,
important as it is, is not proof of a "soul made for ruling" (tyvxh IQY^MO-
VIK/J) ; instead Flaccus went on to show with abundant clarity the tokens
of the more brilliant, the royal, nature (kaynporipav Kal $ao\X\Kv\v
4>uoiv).^54 He showed majesty (OCMVOTIQC)^55 (with which Philo couples

"arrogance," used for once in a good sense); he consulted those in office
about important decisions (which probably means that he followed lo­
cal customs and laws, including the Jewish, whenever possible); he
pulled down the haughty, and checked suspicious assemblies. Thus he
filled the state with good laws. He also organized the army so as to keep

the soldiers from disturbing the public peace. Philo's notion of what
constituted a good prefect did not change between the two documents.^56
Another royal trait, that of a more general self-restraint than the sex­
ual control already indicated, appears as Philo goes on to describe Jo­
seph's meeting his brothers when they came up to buy grain.^57 With

52. Jos., 157. I have followed Colson in a conservative translation here. The Greek of the last
    phrase is aXka xal xaic; Jteoi xf|v fripiv xe xal x^v &Xkr\v o^diav dTixxoic; xal £|aQexoic;
    XaQiouv. In this there may be another reference to the catharsis worked upon his subjects by the
    very looking at a proper ruler.


53. Flac, 3. 54. Ibid., 4 f.


54. On this attribute of kingship see Diotogenes as quoted in my "Hellenistic Kingship," 72.
    In Jos., 165 Philo speaks of God as altering the face of Joseph etc; GB\I\6XZQOV elboq so that his
    brothers would not recognize him. See above, p. 33.


55. Flaccus is further discussed from this point of view below, p. 101.


56. Jos., 166 ff.