Now this Apion was unacquainted with almost all the kings of those
Macedonians whom he pretends to have been his progenitors, who were yet
very well affected towards us; for the third of those Ptolemies, who was
called Euergetes, when he had gotten possession of all Syria by force,
did not offer his thank-offerings to the Egyptian gods for his victory,
but came to Jerusalem, and according to our own laws offered many sacrifices
to God, and dedicated to him such gifts as were suitable to such a victory:
and as for Ptolemy Philometer and his wife Cleopatra, they committed their
whole kingdom to the Jews, when Onias and Dositheus, both Jews, whose names
are laughed at by Apion, were the generals of their whole army. But certainly,
instead of reproaching them, he ought to admire their actions, and return
them thanks for saving Alexandria, whose citizen he pretends to be; for
when these Alexandrians were making war with Cleopatra the queen, and were
in danger of being utterly ruined, these Jews brought them to terms of
agreement, and freed them from the miseries of a civil war. "But then
(says Apion) Onias brought a small army afterward upon the city at the
time when Thorruns the Roman ambassador was there present." Yes, do
I venture to say, and that he did rightly and very justly in so doing;
for that Ptolemy who was called Physco, upon the death of his brother Philometer,
came from Cyrene, and would have ejected Cleopatra as well as her sons
out of their kingdom, that he might obtain it for himself unjustly. note
For this cause then it was that Onias undertook a war against him on Cleopatra's
account; nor would he desert that trust the royal family had reposed in
him in their distress. Accordingly, God gave a remarkable attestation to
his righteous procedure; for when Ptolemy Physco note
had the presumption to fight against Onias's army, and had caught all the
Jews that were in the city [Alexandria], with their children and wives,
and exposed them naked and in bonds to his elephants, that they might be
trodden upon and destroyed, and when he had made those elephants drunk
for that purpose, the event proved contrary to his preparations; for these
elephants left the Jews who were exposed to them, and fell violently upon
Physco's friends, and slew a great number of them; nay, after this Ptolemy
saw a terrible ghost, which prohibited his hurting those men; his very
concubine, whom he loved so well, (some call her Ithaca, and others Irene,)
making supplication to him, that he would not perpetrate so great a wickedness.
So he complied with her request, and repented of what he either had already
done, or was about to do; whence it is well known that the Alexandrian
Jews do with good reason celebrate this day, on the account that they had
thereon been vouchsafed such an evident deliverance from God. However,
Apion, the common calumniator of men, hath the presumption to accuse the
Jews for making this war against Physco, when he ought to have commended
them for the same. This man also makes mention of Cleopatra, the last queen
of Alexandria, and abuses us, because she was ungrateful to us; whereas
he ought to have reproved her, who indulged herself in all kinds of injustice
and wicked practices, both with regard to her nearest relations and husbands
who had loved her, and, indeed, in general with regard to all the Romans,
and those emperors that were her benefactors; who also had her sister Arsinoe
slain in a temple, when she had done her no harm: moreover, she had her
brother slain by private treachery, and she destroyed the gods of her country
and the sepulchers of her progenitors; and while she had received her kingdom
from the first Caesar, she had the impudence to rebel against his son:
note
and successor; nay, she corrupted Antony with her love-tricks, and rendered
him an enemy to his country, and made him treacherous to his friends, and
[by his means] despoiled some of their royal authority, and forced others
in her madness to act wickedly. But what need I enlarge upon this head
any further, when she left Antony in his fight at sea, though he were her
husband, and the father of their common children, and compelled him to
resign up his government, with the army, and to follow her [into Egypt]?
nay, when last of all Caesar had taken Alexandria, she came to that pitch
of cruelty, that she declared she had some hope of preserving her affairs
still, in case she could kill the Jews, though it were with her own hand;
to such a degree of barbarity and perfidiousness had she arrived. And doth
any one think that we cannot boast ourselves of any thing, if, as Apion
says, this queen did not at a time of famine distribute wheat among us?
However, she at length met with the punishment she deserved. As for us
Jews, we appeal to the great Caesar what assistance we brought him, and
what fidelity we showed to him against the Egyptians; as also to the senate
and its decrees, and the epistles of Augustus Caesar, whereby our merits
[to the Romans] are justified. Apion ought to have looked upon those epistles,
and in particular to have examined the testimonies given on our behalf,
under Alexander and all the Ptolemies, and the decrees of the senate and
of the greatest Roman emperors. And if Germanicus was not able to make
a distribution of corn to all the inhabitants of Alexandria, that only
shows what a barren time it was, and how great a want there was then of
corn, but tends nothing to the accusation of the Jews; for what all the
emperors have thought of the Alexandrian Jews is well known, for this distribution
of wheat was no otherwise omitted with regard to the Jews, than it was
with regard to the other inhabitants of Alexandria. But they still were
desirous to preserve what the kings had formerly intrusted to their care,
I mean the custody of the river; nor did those kings think them unworthy
of having the entire custody thereof, upon all occasions.
But besides this, Apion objects to us thus: "If the Jews (says
he) be citizens of Alexandria, why do they not worship the same gods with
the Alexandrians?" To which I give this answer: Since you are yourselves
Egyptians, why do you fight it out one against another, and have implacable
wars about your religion? At this rate we must not call you all Egyptians,
nor indeed in general men, because you breed up with great care beasts
of a nature quite contrary to that of men, although the nature of all men
seems to be one and the same. Now if there be such differences in opinion
among you Egyptians, why are you surprised that those who came to Alexandria
from another country, and had original laws of their own before, should
persevere in the observance of those laws? But still he charges us with
being the authors of sedition; which accusation, if it be a just one, why
is it not laid against us all, since we are known to be all of one mind.
Moreover, those that search into such matters will soon discover that the
authors of sedition have been such citizens of Alexandria as Apion is;
for while they were the Grecians and Macedonians who were ill possession
of this city, there was no sedition raised against us, and we were permitted
to observe our ancient solemnities; but when the number of the Egyptians
therein came to be considerable, the times grew confused, and then these
seditions brake out still more and more, while our people continued uncorrupted.
These Egyptians, therefore, were the authors of these troubles, who having
not the constancy of Macedonians, nor the prudence of Grecians, indulged
all of them the evil manners of the Egyptians, and continued their ancient
hatred against us; for what is here so presumptuously charged upon us,
is owing to the differences that are amongst themselves; while many of
them have not obtained the privileges of citizens in proper times, but
style those who are well known to have had that privilege extended to them
all no other than foreigners: for it does not appear that any of the kings
have ever formerly bestowed those privileges of citizens upon Egyptians,
no more than have the emperors done it more lately; while it was Alexander
who introduced us into this city at first, the kings augmented our privileges
therein, and the Romans have been pleased to preserve them always inviolable.
Moreover, Apion would lay a blot upon us, because we do not erect images
for our emperors; as if those emperors did not know this before, or stood
in need of Apion as their defender; whereas he ought rather to have admired
the magnanimity and modesty of the Romans, whereby they do not compel those
that are subject to them to transgress the laws of their countries, but
are willing to receive the honors due to them after such a manner as those
who are to pay them esteem consistent with piety and with their own laws;
for they do not thank people for conferring honors upon them, When they
are compelled by violence so to do. Accordingly, since the Grecians and
some other nations think it a right thing to make images, nay, when they
have painted the pictures of their parents, and wives, and children, they
exult for joy; and some there are who take pictures for themselves of such
persons as were no way related to them; nay, some take the pictures of
such servants as they were fond of; what wonder is it then if such as these
appear willing to pay the same respect to their princes and lords? But
then our legislator hath forbidden us to make images, not by way of denunciation
beforehand, that the Roman authority was not to be honored, but as despising
a thing that was neither necessary nor useful for either God or man; and
he forbade them, as we shall prove hereafter, to make these images for
any part of the animal creation, and much less for God himself, who is
no part of such animal creation. Yet hath our legislator no where forbidden
us to pay honors to worthy men, provided they be of another kind, and inferior
to those we pay to God; with which honors we willingly testify our respect
to our emperors, and to the people of Rome; we also offer perpetual sacrifices
for them; nor do we only offer them every day at the common expenses of
all the Jews, but although we offer no other such sacrifices out of our
common expenses, no, not for our own children, yet do we this as a peculiar
honor to the emperors, and to them alone, while we do the same to no other
person whomsoever. And let this suffice for an answer in general to Apion,
as to what he says with relation to the Alexandrian Jews.
