History of the Jews (Vol. 1-6). Graetz Heinrich

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СКАЧАТЬ Judæan envoys were hardly permitted to speak when they were admitted to the imperial presence, and Caligula's first word was one of jarring reproof: "So you are the despisers of God, who will not recognize me as the deity, but who prefer worshiping a nameless one, whilst all my other subjects have accepted me as their god." The Judæan envoys declared that they had offered up three successive offerings in honor of Caligula: the first upon his accession to the throne; the second upon his recovery from a severe illness; and the third after his so-called victory over the Teutons. "That may be," answered Caligula, "but the offerings were made for me and not to me; for such I do not care. And how is it," he continued, awakening the ribald merriment of his pagan audience, "how is it that you do not eat pig's flesh, and upon what grounds do you hold your right of equality with the Alexandrians?" Without waiting for a reply, he turned his attention to something else. Later on when he dismissed the Judæan envoys, he remarked that they seemed less wicked than stupid in not being willing to acknowledge his divinity.

      Whilst the unfortunate ambassadors were vainly seeking to gain ground with the emperor, they were suddenly overwhelmed with tidings that struck terror into their hearts. One of their own race burst into their presence, exclaiming, amidst uncontrollable sobs, that the Temple in the holy city had been profaned by Caligula. For not only were the imperial statues to be erected in the synagogues, but also in the Temple of Jerusalem. The governor of Syria, Petronius, had received orders to enter Judæa with his legions and to turn the Sanctuary into a pagan temple. It is easy to conceive the mortal anguish of the Judæan nation when these orders became known to them. On the eve of the Feast of Tabernacles a messenger appeared in Jerusalem, who converted this feast of rejoicing into mourning. Petronius and his legions were at Accho, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but, as the rainy season was at hand, and as obstinate resistance was expected, the Roman commander resolved to await the spring before commencing active operations. Thousands of Judæans hastened to appear before Petronius, declaring that they would rather suffer the penalty of death than allow their Temple to be desecrated. Petronius, perplexed as to how he should carry out this mad scheme of Caligula's, consulted the members of the Royal Council, entreating of them to influence the people in his favor. But the Judæan aristocracy, and even Agrippa's own brother Aristobulus, held with the people. Petronius then sent a true statement of the case to the emperor, hoping that he might be induced to abandon his scheme. Meanwhile he pacified the people by telling them that nothing could be effected until fresh edicts arrived from Rome, and begged of them to return to their agricultural duties, and thus to avert the possibility of a year of famine.

      But before Petronius' letter was in the hands of the emperor, Caligula's intentions had been frustrated by Agrippa. The Judæan king had acquired so extraordinary an influence over Caligula that the Romans called him and Antiochus of Commagene, his teachers in tyranny. Agrippa, who was living at that time near the person of the emperor, could not have been indifferent to the desecration of the Temple, but he was too accomplished a courtier openly to oppose this imperial caprice. On the contrary, he seemed dead to the cry of anguish that arose from his people, and only occupied in preparing, with the most lavish expenditure, a magnificent feast for the emperor and his favorites. But under this garb of indifference he was really working for his people's cause. Caligula, flattered by the attentions that were lavished upon him, bade Agrippa demand a boon, which should be instantly granted. His astonishment was indeed boundless when the Judæan monarch begged for the repeal of the imperial edict concerning images. He had little thought that his refined courtier would prove so unselfish a man, so pious, and so thoroughly independent of the will of the emperor. Cunning as he was, Caligula was helplessly entrapped, for he could not retract his pledged word. Thus he was forced to write to Petronius annulling his former decree. Meanwhile he received Petronius' letter, in which the governor detailed what difficulties he would encounter, were he to attempt to execute the orders of his master. More than this was not required to lash Caligula's passionate and excitable nature into a fury. A new and stringent order was given to proceed with the introduction of the statues into the Temple of Jerusalem. But before this order, terrible to the Judæans and full of danger to Petronius himself, had arrived in Jerusalem, it was announced that the insane Caligula had met with his death at the hands of the Prætorian Tribune Chereas (24 Jan., 41). These tidings came to Jerusalem on the 22d of Shebat (March, 41), and the day was afterwards celebrated as one of great rejoicing.

      Caligula's successor upon the throne of the Cæsars was Claudius, a learned pedant and a fool. He owed his crown to chance, and to the diplomacy of King Agrippa, who had induced the reluctant Senate to accept the choice of the Prætorians. Rome must indeed have fallen low when a somewhat insignificant Judæan prince was allowed to speak in the Senate House, and, in some measure, to have influence in the choice of her ruler. Claudius was not ungrateful to his ally; he lauded him before the assembled Senate, raised him to the dignity of consul, and made him king of all Palestine, for Judæa and Samaria were incorporated with the monarchy.

      As a remembrance of these events, the emperor ordered an inscription to be engraved on tablets of bronze, in pedantic imitation of the classical age, and coins to be struck, bearing on one side two clasped hands, with these words, "Friendship and comradeship of King Agrippa with the Senate and the Roman people." On the other side was the emperor between two figures, and the inscription: "King Agrippa, friend of the emperor." The kingdom of Judæa had thus recovered its full extent; indeed, it had acquired even a greater area than it possessed formerly under the Hasmonæans and Herod I.

      Herod II., brother and son-in-law of King Agrippa, received from Claudius the rank of Prætor, and was made prince of Chalcis, in Lebanon. The Alexandrian Judæans greatly benefited by the new order of things which was brought about in the vast Roman Empire by the death of Caligula. The emperor Claudius freed the Alabarch Alexander, with whom he was on friendly terms, from the imprisonment into which his predecessor had thrown him, and settled the disputes of the Alexandrians in favor of the Judæans. Caligula's prejudice against that unfortunate community had developed their independence, and their strength was far from being broken. Their rights and privileges were fully re-established by an edict of the new emperor, and they were placed on an equal footing with the Greek inhabitants of Egypt. The dignity of the Alabarch was restored by the emperor, and this was most important to the Judæans, for it assured them of the leadership of one of their own race, and made them independent of the Roman officials. It was during this reign that Philo gave the wealth of his learning to a wide circle of readers, and was instrumental in bringing Judæan-Greek culture to its zenith. Claudius extended his goodwill to the Judæans of the entire Roman Empire, granting them complete religious freedom, and protecting them from the interference of the pagans.

      When Agrippa, laden with honors, left Rome for Judæa to take possession of his kingdom, his subjects remarked that some great change was manifest in him, and that the stirring revolution in Rome, by which a headstrong emperor had been dethroned in favor of a weak one, had deeply impressed their own monarch. The frivolous Agrippa returned an earnest-minded man; the courtier had given place to the patriot; the pleasure-loving prince to the conscientious monarch, who was fully aware of what he owed his nation. The Herodian nature had, in fact, been entirely subdued by the Hasmonæan. For the last time, Judæa enjoyed under his reign a short span of undisturbed happiness; and his subjects, won by his generous affection, which even risked forfeiting the good will of Rome in their cause, repaid him with untiring devotion, the bitterest enemies of his scepter becoming his ardent supporters. Historians do not weary of praising Agrippa's loving adherence to Judaism; it seemed as if he were endeavoring to rebuild what had been cast down by Herod. He mixed freely with the people when they carried the first fruits into the Temple, and bore his own offering of fruit or grain to the Sanctuary. He re-established the old law that obliged the king to read the book of Deuteronomy in the Court of the Temple at the close of each year of release. Facing the congregation, Agrippa performed this act for the first time in the autumn of the year 42, and when he came to the verse, "From amongst your brethren shall you choose a king," he burst into a passion of tears, for he was painfully aware of his Idumæan descent, and knew that he was unworthy of being a king of Judæa. But the assembled multitude, and even the Pharisees, exclaimed with enthusiasm: "Thou art our brother; thou art our brother!"

      Agrippa's СКАЧАТЬ