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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



7236
Josephus Flavius, Against Apion, 2.87-2.144


nanOr how is it possible that all the Jews should get together to these sacrifices, and the entrails of one man should be sufficient for so many thousands to taste of them, as Apion pretends? Or why did not the king carry this man, whosoever he was, and whatsoever was his name (which is not set down in Apion’s book)


υελ ξυρ ινυεντυμ ηομινεμ θυιξυμθυε φυιτ, νον ενιμ συο νομινε ξονσξριπσιτ, Αυτ θυομοδο ευμ ιν συαμ πατριαμ ρεχ νον ξυμ πομπα δεδυχιτ, δυμ ποσσετ ηοξ φαξιενς ιπσε θυιδεμ πυταρι πιυς ετ γραεξορυμ αματορ εχιμιυς, ασσυμερε υερο ξοντρα ιυδαεορυμ οδιυμ σολαξια μαγνα ξυνξτορυμ?with great pomp back into his own country; when he might thereby have been esteemed a religious person himself, and a mighty lover of the Greeks, and might thereby have procured himself great assistance from all men against that hatred the Jews bore to him.


σεδ ηαεξ ρελινθυο; ινσενσατος ενιμ νον υερβις σεδ οπεριβυς δεξετ αργυερε. σξιυντ ιγιτυρ ομνες θυι υιδερυντ ξονστρυξτιονεμ τεμπλι νοστρι, θυαλις φυεριτ, ετ ιντρανσγρεσσιβιλεμ ειυς πυριφιξατιονις ιντεγριτατεμ.But I leave this matter; for the proper way of confuting fools is not to use bare words, but to appeal to the things themselves that make against them. Now then, all such as ever saw the construction of our temple, of what nature it was, know well enough how the purity of it was never to be profaned;


θυαττυορ ετενιμ ηαβυιτ ιν ξιρξυιτυ πορτιξυς, ετ ηαρυμ σινγυλαε προπριαμ σεξυνδυμ λεγεμ ηαβυερε ξυστοδιαμ; ιν εχτεριορεμ ιταθυε ινγρεδι λιξεβατ ομνιβυς ετιαμ αλιενιγενις; μυλιερες ταντυμμοδο μενστρυαταε τρανσιρε προηιβεβαντυρ.for it had four several courts, encompassed with cloisters round about, every one of which had by our law a peculiar degree of separation from the rest. Into the first court every body was allowed to go, even foreigners; and none but women, during their courses, were prohibited to pass through it;


ιν σεξυνδα υερο πορτιξυ ξυνξτι ιυδαει ινγρεδιεβαντυρ εορυμθυε ξονιυγες, ξυμ εσσεντ αβ ομνι πολλυτιονε μυνδαε, ιν τερτια μασξυλι ιυδαεορυμ μυνδι εχιστεντες ατθυε πυριφιξατι, ιν θυαρταμ αυτεμ σαξερδοτες στολις ινδυτι σαξερδοταλιβυς, ιν αδψτυμ υερο σολι πρινξιπες σαξερδοτυμ προπρια στολα ξιρξυμαμιξτι.all the Jews went into the second court, as well as their wives, when they were free from all uncleanness; into the third went the Jewish men when they were clean and purified; into the fourth went the priests, having on their sacerdotal garments;


ταντα υερο εστ ξιρξα ομνια προυιδεντια πιετατις, υτ σεξυνδυμ θυασδαμ ηορας σαξερδοτες ινγρεδι ξονστιτυτυμ σιτ; μανε ετενιμ απερτο τεμπλο οπορτεβατ φαξιεντες τραδιτας ηοστιας ιντροιρε ετ μεριδιε ρυρσυς, δυμ ξλαυδερετυρ τεμπλυμ.but for the most sacred place, none went in but the high priests, clothed in their peculiar garments. Now there is so great caution used about these offices of religion, that the priests are appointed to go into the temple but at certain hours: for, in the morning, at the opening of the inner temple, those that are to officiate receive the sacrifices, as they do again at noon, till the doors are shut.


δενιθυε νεξ υας αλιθυοδ πορταρι λιξετ ιν τεμπλυμ, σεδ εραντ ιν εο σολυμμοδο ποσιτα αλταρε μενσα τυριβυλυμ ξανδελαβρυμ, θυαε ομνια ετ ιν λεγε ξονσξριπτα συντ.Lastly, it is not so much as lawful to carry any vessel into the holy house; nor is there any thing therein, but the altar [of incense], the table [of show-bread], the censer, and the candlestick, which are all written in the law:


ετενιμ νιηιλ αμπλιυς νεθυε μψστεριορυμ αλιθυορυμ ινεφφαβιλιυμ αγιτυρ νεθυε ιντυς υλλα επυλατιο μινιστρατυρ; ηαεξ ενιμ θυαε πραεδιξτα συντ ηαβεντ τοτιυς ποπυλι τεστιμονιυμ μανιφεστατιονεμθυε γεστορυμ.for there is nothing farther there, nor are there any mysteries performed that may not be spoken of; nor is there any feasting within the place. For what I have now said is publicly known, and supported by the testimony of the whole people, and their operations are very manifest;


λιξετ ενιμ σιντ τριβυς θυαττυορ σαξερδοτυμ ετ ηαρυμ τριβυυμ σινγυλαε ηαβεαντ ηομινυμ πλυς θυαμ θυινθυε μιλια, φιτ ταμεν οβσερυατιο παρτιξυλαριτερ περ διες ξερτος, ετ ηις τρανσαξτις αλιι συξξεδεντες αδ σαξριφιξια υενιυντ ετ ξονγρεγατι ιν τεμπλυμ μεδιαντε διε α πραεξεδεντιβυς ξλαυες τεμπλι ετ αδ νυμερυμ ομνια υασα περξιπιυντ, νυλλα ρε, θυαε αδ ξιβυμ αυτ ποτυμ αδτινεατ, ιν τεμπλο δελατα.for although there be four courses of the priests, and every one of them have above five thousand men in them, yet do they officiate on certain days only; and when those days are over, other priests succeed in the performance of their sacrifices, and assemble together at mid-day, and receive the keys of the temple, and the vessels by tale, without any thing relating to food or drink being carried into the temple;


ταλια ναμθυε ετιαμ αδ αλταρε οφφερρε προηιβιτυμ εστ πραετερ ιλλα, θυαε αδ σαξριφιξια πραεπαραντυρ. θυιδ εργο απιονεμ εσσε διξιμυς νισι νιηιλ ηορυμ εχαμιναντεμ υερβα ινξρεδυλα προτυλισσε? σεδ τυρπε εστ; ηιστοριαε ενιμ υεραμ νοτιτιαμ σε προφερρε γραμματιξυς νον προμισιτ.nay, we are not allowed to offer such things at the altar, excepting what is prepared for the sacrifices.


nanNow, if he knew the purity of our temple, he hath entirely omitted to take notice of it; but he forges a story about the seizing of a Grecian, about ineffable food, and the most delicious preparation of dainties; and pretends that strangers could go into a place whereinto the noblest men among the Jews are not allowed to enter, unless they be priests.


ηοξ εργο πεσσιμα εστ ιμπιετας ατθυε μενδαξιυμ σποντανευμ αδ εορυμ σεδυξτιονεμ, θυι νολυεριντ δισξυτερε υεριτατεμ. περ εα σιθυιδεμ μαλα ετ ινεφφαβιλια, θυαε πραεδιξτα συντ, νοβις δετραηερε τεμπταυερυντ.This, therefore, is the utmost degree of impiety, and a voluntary lie, in order to the delusion of those who will not examine into the truth of matters. Whereas, such unspeakable mischiefs as are above related, have been occasioned by such calumnies that are raised upon us.


ρυρσυμθυε ταμθυαμ πιισσιμυς δεριδετ αδιξιενς φαβυλαε συαε μνασεαμ. αιτ ενιμ ιλλυμ ρετυλισσε, δυμ βελλυμ ιυδαει ξοντρα ιυδαεος ηαβερεντ λονγο θυοδαμ τεμπορε ιν αλιθυα ξιυιτατε ιυδαεορυμ, θυι δοριι νομιναντυρ, θυενδαμ εορυμ θυι ιν εα απολλινεμ ξολεβατ υενισσε αδ ιυδαεος, ξυιυς ηομινις νομεν διξιτ ζαβιδον δεινδε θυι εις προμισισσετ τραδιτυρυμ σε εις απολλινεμ δευμ δοριενσιυμ υεντυρυμθυε ιλλυμ αδ νοστρυμ τεμπλυμ, σι ομνες αβσξεδερεντ.10. Nay, this miracle of piety derides us farther, and adds the following pretended facts to his former fable; for he says that this man related how, “while the Jews were once in a long war with the Idumeans, there came a man out of one of the cities of the Idumeans, who there had worshipped Apollo. This man, whose name is said to have been Zabidus, came to the Jews, and promised that he would deliver Apollo, the god of Dora into their hands, and that he would come to our temple, if they would all come up with him


ετ ξρεδιδισσε ομνεμ μυλτιτυδινεμ ιυδαεορυμ; ζαβιδον υερο φεξισσε θυοδδαμ μαξηιναμεντυμ λιγνευμ ετ ξιρξυμποσυισσε σιβι ετ ιν εο τρες ορδινες ινφιχισσε λυξερναρυμ ετ ιτα αμβυλασσε, υτ προξυλ σταντιβυς αππαρερετ, θυασι στελλαε περ τερραμand bring the whole multitude of the Jews with them; that Zabidus made him a certain wooden instrument, and put it round about him, and set three rows of lamps therein, and walked after such a manner, that he appeared to those that stood a great way off him, to be a kind of star walking upon the earth:


τὴν πορείαν ποιουμένων, τοὺς μὲν ̓Ιουδαίους ὑπὸ τοῦ παραδόξου τῆς θέας καταπεπληγμένους πόρρω μένοντας ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν, τὸν δὲ Ζάβιδον ἐπὶ πολλῆς ἡσυχίας εἰς τὸν ναὸν παρελθεῖν καὶ τὴν χρυσῆν ἀποσῦραι τοῦ κάνθωνος κεφαλήν, οὕτω γὰρ ἀστεϊζόμενοςthat the Jews were terribly frightened at so surprising an appearance, and stood very quiet at a distance; and that Zabidus, while they continued so very quiet, went into the holy house, and carried off that golden head of an ass (for so facetiously does he write), and then went his way back again to Dora in great haste.”


γέγραφεν, καὶ πάλιν εἰς Δῶρα τὸ τάχος ἀπελθεῖν. ἆρα οὖν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἂν εἴποιμεν, ὅτι τὸν κάνθωνα τουτέστιν ἑαυτὸν ̓Απίων ἐπιφορτίζει καὶ ποιεῖ τῆς μωρολογίας ἅμα καὶ τῶν ψευσμάτων κατάγομον; καὶ γὰρ τόπους οὐκ ὄντας γράφει καὶ πόλεις οὐκ εἰδὼς μετατίθησιν.And say you so, sir! as I may reply; then does Apion load the ass, that is himself, and lays on him a burden of fooleries and lies; for he writes of places that have no being; and not knowing the cities he speaks of, he changes their situation;


ἡ μὲν γὰρ ̓Ιδουμαία τῆς ἡμετέρας χώρας ἐστὶν ὅμορος κατὰ Γάζαν κειμένη, καὶ Δῶρα ταύτης ἐστὶν οὐδεμία πόλις, τῆς μέντοι Φοινίκης παρὰ τὸ Καρμήλιον ὄρος Δῶρα πόλις ὀνομάζεται μηδὲν ἐπικοινωνοῦσα τοῖς ̓Απίωνος φλυαρήμασι: τεσσάρων γὰρfor Idumea borders upon our country, and is near to Gaza, in which there is no such city as Dora, although there be, it is true, a city named Dora in Phoenicia, near Mount Carmel, but it is four days’ journey from Idumea.


ἡμερῶν ὁδὸν τῆς ̓Ιουδαίας ἀφέστηκεν. τί δ' ἡμῶν ἔτι κατηγορεῖ τὸ μὴ κοινοὺς ἔχειν τοῖς ἄλλοις θεούς, εἰ ῥᾳδίως οὕτως ἐπείσθησαν οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν ἥξειν τὸν ̓Απόλλωνα πρὸς αὐτοὺς καὶ μετὰ τῶν ἄστρων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ᾠήθησαν ὁρᾶν αὐτὸν περιπατοῦντα;Now, then, why does this man accuse us, because we have not gods in common with other nations? If our forefathers were so easily prevailed upon to have Apollo come to them, and thought they saw him walking upon the earth, and the stars with him;


λύχνον γὰρ οὐδέπω δῆλον ὅτι πρόσθεν ἑωράκασιν οἱ τὰς τοσαύτας καὶ τηλικαύτας λυχνοκαί̈ας ἐπιτελοῦντες, ἀλλ' οὐδέ τις αὐτῷ βαδίζοντι κατὰ τὴν χώραν τῶν τοσούτων μυριάδων ὑπήντησεν, ἔρημα δὲ καὶ τὰ τείχη φυλάκων εὗρε πολέμου συνεστηκότος, ἐῶ τἆλλα.for certainly those who have so many festivals, wherein they light lamps, must yet, at this rate, have never seen a candlestick! But still it seems that while Zabidus took his journey over the country, where were so many ten thousands of people, nobody met him. He also, it seems, even in a time of war, found the walls of Jerusalem destitute of guards. I omit the rest.


τοῦ ναοῦ δ' αἱ θύραι τὸ μὲν ὕψος ἦσαν ἑξήκοντα πηχῶν, εἴκοσι δὲ τὸ πλάτος, κατάχρυσοι δὲ πᾶσαι καὶ μικροῦ δεῖν σφυρήλατοι: ταύτας ἔκλειον οὐκ ἐλάττους ὄντες ἄνδρες διακόσιοι καθ' ἑκάστηνNow the doors of the holy house were seventy cubits high, and twenty cubits broad, they were all plated over with gold, and almost of solid gold itself, and there were no fewer than twenty men required to shut them every day; nor was it lawful ever to leave them open


nanthough it seems this lamp-bearer of ours opened them easily, or thought he opened them, as he thought he had the ass’s head in his hand. Whether, therefore, he returned it to us again, or whether Apion took it and brought it into the temple again, that Antiochus might find it, and afford a handle for a second fable of Apion’s, is uncertain.


πρὸς δευτέραν ̓Απίωνι μυθολογίαν καταψεύσασθαί τινα καὶ ὅρκον ἡμῶν ὡς ὀμνυόντων τὸν θεὸν τὸν ποιήσαντα τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν μηδενὶ εὐνοήσειν ἀλλοφύλῳ, μάλιστα11. Apion also tells a false story, when he mentions an oath of ours, as if we “swore by God, the maker of the heaven, and earth, and sea, to bear no good will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the Greeks.”


δὲ ̔́Ελλησιν. ἔδει δὲ καταψευδόμενον ἅπαξ εἰπεῖν μηδενὶ εὐνοήσειν ἀλλοφύλῳ, μάλιστα δ' Αἰγυπτίοις: οὕτως γὰρ ἂν τοῖς ἐξ ἀρχῆς αὐτοῦ πλάσμασιν ἥρμοττεν τὰ περὶ τὸν ὅρκον, εἴπερ ἦσαν ὑπὸ Αἰγυπτίων τῶν συγγενῶν οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν οὐχὶ διὰ πονηρίανNow this liar ought to have said directly that “we would bear no good will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the Egyptians.” For then his story about the oath would have squared with the rest of his original forgeries, in case our forefathers had been driven away by their kinsmen the Egyptians, not on account of any wickedness they had been guilty of, but on account of the calamities they were under;


ἀλλ' ἐπὶ συμφοραῖς ἐξεληλαμένοι. τῶν ̔Ελλήνων δὲ πλέον τοῖς τόποις ἢ τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν ἀφεστήκαμεν, ὥστε μηδεμίαν ἡμῖν εἶναι πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἔχθραν μηδὲ ζηλοτυπίαν. τοὐναντίον μέντοι πολλοὶ παρ' αὐτῶν εἰς τοὺς ἡμετέρους νόμους συνέβησαν εἰσελθεῖν, καί τινες μὲν ἐνέμειναν, εἰσὶ δ' οἳ τὴν καρτερίαν οὐχ ὑπομείναντες πάλιν ἀπέστησαν.for as to the Grecians, we are rather remote from them in place than different from them in our institutions, insomuch that we have no enmity with them, nor any jealousy of them. On the contrary, it hath so happened, that many of them have come over to our laws, and some of them have continued in their observation, although others of them had not courage enough to persevere, and so departed from them again;


καὶ τούτων οὐδεὶς πώποτε τὸν ὅρκον εἶπεν ἀκοῦσαι παρ' ἡμῖν ὀμωμοσμένον, ἀλλὰ μόνος ̓Απίων, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἤκουσεν: αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ συνθεὶς αὐτὸν ἦν.nor did any body ever hear this oath sworn by us: Apion, it seems, was the only person that heard it, for he indeed was the first composer of it.


Σφόδρα τοίνυν τῆς πολλῆς συνέσεως καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ μέλλοντι ῥηθήσεσθαι θαυμάζειν ἄξιόν ἐστιν ̓Απίωνα: τεκμήριον γὰρ εἶναί φησιν τοῦ μήτε νόμοις ἡμᾶς χρῆσθαι δικαίοις μήτε τὸν θεὸν εὐσεβεῖν ὡς προσῆκεν, δουλεύειν δὲ μᾶλλον ἔθνεσιν [καὶ] ἄλλοτε ἄλλοις καὶ τὸ κεχρῆσθαι συμφοραῖς τισι περὶ τὴν πόλιν, αὐτοὶ δῆλον ὅτι πόλεως ἡγεμονικωτάτης ̔Ρωμαίοις ἐκ τῶν ἄνωθεν ἄρχειν, ἀλλὰ μὴ12. However, Apion deserves to be admired for his great prudence, as to what I am going to say, which is this, “That there is a plain mark among us, that we neither have just laws, nor worship God as we ought to do, because we are not governors, but are rather in subjection to Gentiles, sometimes to one nation, and sometimes to another, and that our city hath been liable to several calamities, while their city [Alexandria] hath been of old time an imperial city, and not used to be in subjection to the Romans.”


δουλεύειν συνειθισμένων: καίτοι τούτων ἄν τις ἀπόσχοιτο τοιαύτης μεγαλοψυχίας. τῶν μὲν γὰρ ἄλλων οὐκ ἔστιν ὅστις ἀνθρώπων οὐχ ἱκανῶς καθ' αὑτοῦ φαίη τοῦτον ὑπ' ̓Απίωνος λελέχθαιBut now this man had better leave off his bragging; for every body but himself would think that Apion said what he hath said against himself;


τὸν λόγον: ὀλίγοις μὲν γὰρ ὑπῆρξεν ἐφ' ἡγεμονίας διακαιροπτίας γενέσθαι, καὶ τούτους αἱ μεταβολαὶ πάλιν ἄλλοις δουλεύειν ὑπέζευξανfor there are very few nations that have had the good fortune to continue many generations in the principality, but still the mutations in human affairs have put them into subjection under others; and most nations have been often subdued, and brought into subjection by others.


τὸ πλεῖστον δὲ φῦλον ἄλλων ὑπακήκοεν πολλάκις. Αἰγύπτιοι δ' ἄρα μόνοι διὰ τὸ καταφυγεῖν, ὥς φασιν, εἰς τὴν χώραν αὐτῶν τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ σωθῆναι μεταβάλλοντας εἰς μορφὰς θηρίων ἐξαίρετον γέρας εὕροντο τὸ μηδενὶ δουλεῦσαι τῶν τῆς ̓Ασίας ἢ τῆς Εὐρώπης κρατησάντων, οἱ μίαν ἡμέραν ἐκ τοῦ παντὸς αἰῶνος ἐλευθερίαςNow for the Egyptians, perhaps they are the only nation that have had this extraordinary privilege, to have never served any of those monarchs who subdued Asia and Europe, and this on account, as they pretend, that the gods fled into their country and saved themselves, by being changed into the shapes of wild beasts. Whereas these Egyptians are the very people that appear to have never, in all the past ages, had one day of freedom, no, not so much as from their own lords.


οὐ τυχόντες ἀλλ' οὐδὲ παρὰ τῶν οἰκοδεσποτῶν. ὅντινα μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐχρήσαντο Πέρσαι τρόπον οὐχ ἅπαξ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλάκις πορθοῦντες τὰς πόλεις ἱερὰ κατασκάπτοντες τοὺς παρ' αὐτοῖςFor I will not reproach them with relating the manner how the Persians used them, and this not once only, but many times when they laid their cities waste, demolished their temples, and cut the throats of those animals whom they esteemed to be gods;


nanfor it is not reasonable to imitate the clownish ignorance of Apion who hath no regard to the misfortunes of the Athenians, or of the Lacedemonians, the latter of whom were styled by all men the most courageous, and the former the most religious, of the Grecians.


εἶναι, τοὺς δὲ εὐσεβεστάτους τῶν ̔Ελλήνων ἅπαντες λέγουσιν. ἐῶ βασιλέας τοὺς ἐπ' εὐσεβείᾳ διαβοηθέντας [ὧν ἕνα Κροῖσον], οἵαις ἐχρήσαντο συμφοραῖς βίου: ἐῶ τὴν καταπρησθεῖσαν ̓Αθηναίων ἀκρόπολιν, τὸν ἐν ̓Εφέσῳ ναόν, τὸν ἐν Δελφοῖς, ἄλλους μυρίους, καὶ οὐδεὶς ὠνείδισεν ταῦτα τοῖς παθοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς δράσασιν.I say nothing of such kings as have been famous for piety, particularly of one of them whose name was Cresus, nor what calamities he met with in his life; I say nothing of the citadel of Athens, of the temple at Ephesus, of that at Delphi, nor of ten thousand others which have been burnt down, while nobody cast reproaches on those that were the sufferers, but on those that were the actors therein.


καινὸς δὲ κατήγορος ἡμῶν ̓Απίων ηὑρέθη τῶν ἰδίων αὐτοῦ περὶ τὴν Αἴγυπτον κακῶν ἐκλαθόμενος, ἀλλὰ Σέσωστρις αὐτὸν ὁ μυθευόμενος Αἰγύπτου βασιλεὺς ἐτύφλωσεν: ἡμεῖς δὲ τοὺς ἡμετέρους οὐκ ἂν εἴποιμεν βασιλέας Δαυίδην καὶ Σολομῶνα πολλὰ χειρωσαμένους ἔθνη.But now we have met with Apion, an accuser of our nation, though one that still forgets the miseries of his own people, the Egyptians; but it is that Sesostris, who was once so celebrated a king of Egypt, that hath blinded him. Now we will not brag of our kings, David and Solomon, though they conquered many nations;


τούτους μὲν οὖν παραλίπωμεν: τὰ δὲ γνώριμα πᾶσιν ̓Απίων ἠγνόηκεν, ὅτι Περσῶν καὶ μετ' ἐκείνους ἡγουμένων τῆς ̓Ασίας Μακεδόνων Αἰγύπτιοι μὲν ἐδούλευον ἀνδραπόδων οὐδὲν διαφέροντεςaccordingly we will let them alone. However, Apion is ignorant of what every body knows, that the Egyptians were servants to the Persians, and afterwards to the Macedonians, when they were lords of Asia, and were no better than slaves


ἡμεῖς δὲ ὄντες ἐλεύθεροι προσέτι καὶ τῶν πέριξ πόλεων ἤρχομεν ἔτη σχεδὸν εἴκοσί που καὶ ρ μέχρι Μάγνου Πομπηίου, καὶ πάντων ἐκπολεμηθέντων πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίων τῶν πανταχοῦ βασιλέων μόνοι διὰ πίστιν οἱ παρ' ἡμῖν σύμμαχοι καὶ φίλοι διεφυλάχθησαν.while we have enjoyed liberty formerly: nay, more than that, have had the dominion of the cities that lie round about us, and this nearly for a hundred and twenty years together, until Pompeius Magnus. And when all the kings every where were conquered by the Romans, our ancestors were the only people who continued to be esteemed their confederates and friends, on account of their fidelity to them.


̓Αλλὰ θαυμαστοὺς ἄνδρας οὐ παρεσχήκαμεν οἷον τεχνῶν τινων εὑρετὰς ἢ σοφίᾳ διαφέροντας. καὶ καταριθμεῖ Σωκράτην καὶ Ζήνωνα καὶ Κλεάνθην καὶ τοιούτους τινάς. εἶτα τὸ θαυμασιώτατον τοῖς εἰρημένοις αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν προστίθησι καὶ μακαρίζει13. “But,” says Apion, “we Jews have not had any wonderful men amongst us, not any inventors of arts, nor any eminent for wisdom.” He then enumerates Socrates, and Zeno, and Cleanthes, and some others of the same sort; and, after all, he adds himself to them, which is the most wonderful thing of all that he says, and pronounces Alexandria to be happy, because it hath such a citizen as he is in it;


τὴν ̓Αλεξάνδρειαν, ὅτι τοιοῦτον ἔχει πολίτην: ἔδει γὰρ αὐτῷ μάρτυρος ἑαυτοῦ: τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ἄλλοις ἅπασιν ὀχλαγωγὸς ἐδόκει πονηρὸς εἶναι καὶ τῷ βίῳ καὶ τῷ λόγῳ διεφθαρμένος, ὥστε εἰκότως ἐλεήσαι τις ἂν τὴν ̓Αλεξάνδρειαν, εἴπερ ἐπὶ τούτῳ μέγα ἐφρόνει. περὶ δὲ τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν ἀνδρῶν γεγονότων οὐδενὸς ἧττον ἐπαίνου τυγχάνειν ἀξίων ἴσασιν οἱ ταῖς ἡμετέραις ἀρχαιολογίαις ἐντυγχάνοντες.for he was the fittest man to be a witness to his own deserts, although he hath appeared to all others no better than a wicked mountebank, of a corrupt life, and ill discourses; on which account one may justly pity Alexandria, if it should value itself upon such a citizen as he is. But as to our own men, we have had those who have been as deserving of commendation as any other whosoever; and such as have perused our Antiquities cannot be ignorant of them.


Τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ἐν τῇ κατηγορίᾳ γεγραμμένων ἄξιον ἦν ἴσως ἀναπολόγητα παραλιπεῖν, ἵν' αὐτὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων Αἰγυπτίων ᾖ ὁ κατηγορῶν: ἐγκαλεῖ γὰρ, ὅτι ζῷα θύομεν καὶ χοῖρον14. As to the other things which he sets down as blameworthy, it may perhaps be the best way to let them pass without apology, that he may be allowed to be his own accuser, and the accuser of the rest of the Egyptians. However, he accuses us for sacrificing animals, and for abstaining from swine’s flesh, and laughs at us for the circumcision of our privy members.


οὐκ ἐσθίομεν καὶ τὴν τῶν αἰδοίων χλευάζει περιτομήν. τὸ μὲν οὖν περὶ τῆς τῶν ἡμέρων ζῴων ἀναιρέσεως κοινόν ἐστι καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους ἅπαντας, ̓Απίων δὲ τοῖς θύουσιν ἐγκαλῶν αὑτὸν ἐξήλεγξεν ὄντα τὸ γένος Αἰγύπτιον: οὐ γὰρ ἂν ̔́Ελλην ὢν ἢ Μακεδὼν ἐχαλέπαινεν: οὗτοι γὰρ εὔχονται θύειν ἑκατόμβας τοῖς θεοῖς καὶ χρῶνται τοῖς ἱερείοις πρὸς εὐωχίαν, καὶ οὐ διὰ τοῦτο συμβέβηκεν ἐρημοῦσθαι τὸν κόσμον τῶν βοσκημάτων, ὅπερ ̓Απίων ἔδεισεν.Now, as for our slaughter of tame animals for sacrifices, it is common to us and to all other men; but this Apion, by making it a crime to sacrifice them, demonstrates himself to be an Egyptian; for had he been either a Grecian or a Macedonian [as he pretends to be], he had not shown any uneasiness at it; for those people glory in sacrificing whole hecatombs to the gods, and make use of those sacrifices for feasting; and yet is not the world thereby rendered destitute of cattle, as Apion was afraid would come to pass.


εἰ μέντοι τοῖς Αἰγυπτίων ἔθεσιν ἠκολούθουν ἅπαντες, ἠρήμωτο μὲν ἂν ὁ κόσμος τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τῶν ἀγριωτάτων δὲ θηρίων ἐπληθύνθη, ἃ θεοὺς οὗτοι νομίζοντες ἐπιμελῶς ἐκτρέφουσιν.Yet, if all men had followed the manners of the Egyptians, the world had certainly been made desolate as to mankind, but had been filled full of the wildest sort of brute beasts, which, because they suppose them to be gods, they carefully nourish.


nanHowever, if any one should ask Apion which of the Egyptians he thinks to be the most wise, and most pious of them all, he would certainly acknowledge the priests to be so;


τοὺς ἱερεῖς: δύο γὰρ αὐτούς φασιν ὑπὸ τῶν βασιλέων ἐξ ἀρχῆς ταῦτα προστετάχθαι, τὴν τῶν θεῶν θεραπείαν καὶ τῆς σοφίας τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν. ἐκεῖνοι τοίνυν ἅπαντες καὶ περιτέμνονται καὶ χοιρείων ἀπέχονται βρωμάτων, οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ τῶν ἄλλων Αἰγυπτίωνfor the histories say that two things were originally committed to their care by their king’s injunctions, the worship of the gods, and the support of wisdom and philosophy. Accordingly, these priests are all circumcised, and abstain from swine’s flesh; nor does any one of the other Egyptians assist them in slaying those sacrifices they offer to the gods.


οὐδὲ εἷς ὗν θύει τοῖς θεοῖς. ἆρ' οὖν τυφλὸς ἦν τὸν νοῦν ̓Απίων ὑπὲρ Αἰγυπτίων ἡμῖν λοιδορεῖν συνθέμενος, ἐκείνων δὲ κατηγορῶν, οἵ γε μὴ μόνον χρῶνται τοῖς ὑπὸ τούτου λοιδορουμένοις ἔθεσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἐδίδαξαν περιτέμνεσθαι, καθάπερ εἴρηκεν ̔Ηρόδοτος;Apion was therefore quite blinded in his mind when, for the sake of the Egyptians, he contrived to reproach us, and to accuse such others as not only make use of that conduct of life which he so much abuses, but have also taught other men to be circumcised, as says Herodotus;


ὅθεν εἰκότως μοι δοκεῖ τῆς εἰς τοὺς πατρίους αὐτοῦ νόμους βλασφημίας δοῦναι δίκην ̓Απίων τὴν πρέπουσαν: περιετμήθη γὰρ ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἑλκώσεως αὐτῷ περὶ τὸ αἰδοῖον γενομένης. καὶ μηδὲν ὠφεληθεὶς ὑπὸ τῆς περιτομῆς ἀλλὰ σηπόμενος ἐν δειναῖς ὀδύναις ἀπέθανεν.which makes me think that Apion is hereby justly punished for his casting such reproaches on the laws of his own country; for he was circumcised himself of necessity, on account of an ulcer in his privy member; and when he received no benefit by such circumcision, but his member became putrid, he died in great torment.


δεῖ γὰρ τοὺς εὖ φρονοῦντας τοῖς μὲν οἰκείοις νόμοις περὶ τὴν εὐσέβειαν ἀκριβῶς ἐμμένειν, τοὺς δὲ τῶν ἄλλων μὴ λοιδορεῖν: ὁ δὲ τούτους μὲν ἔφυγεν, τῶν ἡμετέρων δὲ κατεψεύσατο. τοῦτο μὲν ̓Απίωνι τοῦ βίου τὸ τέλος ἐγένετο καὶ τοῦτο [παρ'] ἡμῶν ἐνταῦθα τὸ πέρας ἔστω τοῦ λόγου.Now, men of good tempers ought to observe their own laws concerning religion accurately, and to persevere therein, but not presently to abuse the laws of other nations, while this Apion deserted his own laws, and told lies about ours; and this was the end of Apion’s life, and this shall be the conclusion of our discourse about him.


σεδ συντ απυδ νος ασινι θυοδ απυδ αλιος σαπιεντες υιρος ονερα σιβιμετ ιμποσιτα συστινεντες, ετ λιξετ αδ αρεας αξξεδεντες ξομεδαντ αυτ υιαμ προποσιταμ νον αδιμπλεαντ, μυλτας υαλδε πλαγας αξξιπιυντ θυιππε οπεριβυς ετ αδ αγριξυλτυραμ ρεβυς νεξεσσαριις μινιστραντες.but if they come to our threshing floors and eat our corn, or do not perform what we impose upon them, we beat them with a great many stripes; because it is their business to minister to us in our husbandry affairs.


σεδ αυτ ομνιυμ γυρδισσιμυς φυιτ απιον αδ ξομπονενδυμ υερβα φαλλαξια αυτ ξερτε εχ ρεβυς ινιτια συμενς ηαεξ ιμπλερε νον υαλυιτ, θυανδο νυλλα ποτεστ ξοντρα νος βλασπηεμια προυενιρε.But this Apion of ours was either perfectly unskilful in the composition of such fallacious discourses, or however, when he began [somewhat better], he was not able to persevere in what he had undertaken, since he hath no manner of success in those reproaches he casts upon us.


αλτεραμ υερο φαβυλαμ δερογατιονε νοστρα πλεναμ δε γραεξις απποσυιτ, δε θυο ηοξ διξερε σατ εριτ, θυονιαμ θυι δε πιετατε λοθυι πραεσυμυντ οπορτετ εος νον ιγνοραρε μινυς εσσε ινμυνδυμ περ τεμπλα τρανσιρε θυαμ σαξερδοτιβυς σξελεστα υερβα ξομπονερε.8. He adds another Grecian fable, in order to reproach us. In reply to which, it would be enough to say that they who presume to speak about divine worship, ought not to be ignorant of this plain truth, that it is a degree of less impurity to pass through temples than to forge wicked calumnies of its priests.


nanNow, such men as he are more zealous to justify a sacrilegious king than to write what is just and what is true about us, and about our temple; for when they are desirous of gratifying Antiochus, and of concealing that perfidiousness and sacrilege which he was guilty of, with regard to our nation, when he wanted money, they endeavor to disgrace us, and tell lies even relating to futurities.


προπηετα υερο αλιορυμ φαξτυς εστ απιον ετ διχιτ αντιοξηυμ ιν τεμπλο ινυενισσε λεξτυμ ετ ηομινεμ ιν εο ιαξεντεμ ετ προποσιταμ ει μενσαμ μαριτιμις τερρενισθυε ετ υολατιλιυμ δαπιβυς πλεναμ, ετ οβστιπυισσετ ηις ηομο.Apion becomes other men’s prophet upon this occasion, and says, that “Antiochus found in our temple a bed and a man lying upon it, with a small table before him, full of dainties, from the [fishes of the] sea, and the fowls of the dry land; that this man was amazed at these dainties thus set before him;


ιλλυμ υερο μοχ αδορασσε ρεγις ινγρεσσυμ ταμθυαμ μαχιμυμ ει σολαξιυμ πραεβιτυρυμ αξ προξιδεντεμ αδ ειυς γενυα εχτενσα δεχτρα ποποσξισσε λιβερτατεμ; ετ ιυβεντε ρεγε, υτ ξονφιδερετ ετ διξερετ, θυις εσσετ υελ ξυρ ιβιδεμ ηαβιταρετ υελ θυαε εσσετ ξαυσα ξιβορυμ ειυς, τυνξ ηομινεμ ξυμ γεμιτυ ετ λαξριμις λαμενταβιλιτερ συαμ ναρρασσε νεξεσσιτατεμ αιτ.that he immediately adored the king, upon his coming in, as hoping that he would afford him all possible assistance; that he fell down upon his knees, and stretched out to him his right hand, and begged to be released: and that when the king bade him sit down, and tell him who he was, and why he dwelt there, and what was the meaning of those various sorts of food that were set before him, the man made a lamentable complaint, and with sighs, and tears in his eyes, gave him this account of the distress he was in:


ινθυιτ εσσε θυιδεμ σε γραεξυμ, ετ δυμ περαγραρετ προυινξιαμ προπτερ υιταε ξαυσαμ διρεπτυμ σε συβιτο αβ αλιενιγενις ηομινιβυς ατθυε δεδυξτυμ αδ τεμπλυμ ετ ινξλυσυμ ιλλιξ, ετ α νυλλο ξονσπιξι σεδ ξυνξτα δαπιυμ πραεπαρατιονε σαγιναρι.and said that he was a Greek, and that as he went over this province, in order to get his living, he was seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and brought to this temple, and shut up therein, and was seen by nobody, but was fattened by these curious provisions thus set before him:


ετ πριμυμ θυιδεμ ηαεξ σιβι ινοπιναβιλια βενεφιξια προδιδισσε ετ δετυλισσε λαετιτιαμ δεινδε συσπιξιονεμ ποστεα στυπορεμ, αξ ποστρεμυμ ξονσυλεντεμ α μινιστρις αδ σε αξξεδεντιβυς αυδισσε λεγεμ ινεφφαβιλεμ ιυδαεορυμ, προ θυα νυτριεβατυρ, ετ ηοξ ιλλος φαξερε σινγυλις αννις θυοδαμ τεμπορε ξονστιτυτο.and that truly at the first such unexpected advantages seemed to him matter of great joy; that, after a while they brought a suspicion upon him, and at length astonishment, what their meaning should be; that at last he inquired of the servants that came to him, and was by them informed that it was in order to the fulfilling a law of the Jews, which they must not tell him, that he was thus fed; and that they did the same at a set time every year:


ετ ξομπραεηενδερε θυιδεμ γραεξυμ περεγρινυμ ευμθυε ανναλι τεμπορε σαγιναρε ετ δεδυξτυμ αδ θυανδαμ σιλυαμ οξξιδερε θυιδεμ ευμ ηομινεμ ειυσθυε ξορπυς σαξριφιξαρε σεξυνδυμ συας σολλεμνιτατες ετ γυσταρε εχ ειυς υισξεριβυς ετ ιυσιυρανδυμ φαξερε ιν ιμμολατιονε γραεξι, υτ ινιμιξιτιας ξοντρα γραεξος ηαβερεντ, ετ τυνξ ιν θυανδαμ φουεαμ ρελιθυα ηομινις περευντις αβιξερε.that they used to catch a Greek foreigner, and fat him thus up every year, and then lead him to a certain wood, and kill him, and sacrifice with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of his entrails, and take an oath upon this sacrificing a Greek, that they would ever be at enmity with the Greeks; and that then they threw the remaining parts of the miserable wretch into a certain pit.”


δεινδε ρεφερτ ευμ διχισσε παυξος ιαμ διες δεβιτα σιβιμετ συπερεσσε ατθυε ρογασσε, υτ ερυβεσξενς γραεξορυμ δεος ετ συπεραντες ιν συο σανγυινε ινσιδιας ιυδαεορυμ δε μαλις ευμ ξιρξυμασταντιβυς λιβεραρετ.Apion adds farther, that “the man said there were but a few days to come ere he was to be slain, and implored Antiochus that, out of the reverence he bore to the Grecian gods, he would disappoint the snares the Jews laid for his blood, and would deliver him from the miseries with which he was encompassed.”


ηυιυσμοδι εργο φαβυλα νον ταντυμ ομνι τραγοεδια πλενισσιμα εστ, σεδ ετιαμ ιμπυδεντια ξρυδελι ρεδυνδατ, νον ταμεν α σαξριλεγιο πριυατ αντιοξηυμ, σιξυτ αρβιτρατι συντ θυι ηαεξ αδ ιλλιυς γρατιαμ ξονσξριπσερυντ;Now this is such a most tragical fable, as is full of nothing but cruelty and impudence; yet does it not excuse Antiochus of his sacrilegious attempts, as those who wrote it in his vindication are willing to suppose;


νον ενιμ πραεσυμπσιτ αλιθυιδ ταλε, υτ αδ τεμπλυμ αξξεδερετ, σεδ σιξυτ αιυντ ινυενιτ νον σπερανς. φυιτ εργο υολυντατε ινιθυυς ιμπιυς ετ νιηιλομινυς σινε δεο, θυαντα ιυσσιτ μενδαξιι συπερφλυιτας, θυαμ εχ ιπσα ρε ξογνοσξερε υαλδε φαξιλλιμυμ εστ.for he could not presume beforehand that he should meet with any such thing in coming to the temple, but must have found it unexpectedly. He was therefore still an impious person, that was given to unlawful pleasures, and had no regard to God in his actions. But [as for Apion] he hath done whatever his extravagant love of lying hath dictated to him, as it is most easy to discover by a consideration of his writings;


νον ενιμ ξιρξα σολος γραεξος δισξορδια λεγυμ εσσε δινοσξιτυρ, σεδ μαχιμε αδυερσυς αεγψπτιος ετ πλυριμος αλιος. Θυεμ ενιμ ηορυμ νον ξοντιγιτ αλιθυανδο ξιρξα νος περεγριναρι, υτ αδυερσυς σολος ρενουατα ξονιυρατιονε περfor the difference of our laws is known not to regard the Grecians only, but they are principally opposite to the Egyptians, and to some other nations also: for while it so falls out, that men of all countries come sometimes and sojourn among us, how comes it about that we take an oath, and conspire only against the Grecians, and that by the effusion of their blood also?


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

24 results
1. Septuagint, Ecclesiasticus (Siracides), 31.17-31.18, 31.21-31.22, 32.9 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)

31.17. Be the first to stop eating, for the sake of good manners,and do not be insatiable, lest you give offense. 31.18. If you are seated among many persons,do not reach out your hand before they do. 31.21. If you are overstuffed with food,get up in the middle of the meal, and you will have relief. 31.22. Listen to me, my son, and do not disregard me,and in the end you will appreciate my words. In all your work be industrious,and no sickness will overtake you. 32.9. Among the great do not act as their equal;and when another is speaking, do not babble.
2. Philo of Alexandria, Against Flaccus, 20, 17 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

17. But when a magistrate begins to despair of his power of exerting authority, it follows inevitably, that his subjects must quickly become disobedient, especially those who are naturally, at every trivial or common occurrence, inclined to show insubordination, and, among people of such a disposition, the Egyptian nation is pre-eminent, being constantly in the habit of exciting great seditions from very small sparks.
3. Philo of Alexandria, On The Embassy To Gaius, 166, 355-367, 66-77, 139 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

139. And what would they not have done in the case of those whom they looked upon as men? a people who look upon dogs, and wolves, and lions, and crocodiles, and numerous other beasts, both terrestrial and aquatic, and numerous birds, as gods, and erect in their honour altars, and temples, and shrines, and consecrated precincts, throughout the whole of Egypt? XXI.
4. Appian, Civil Wars, 2.90 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

5. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 18.257-18.260, 19.278-19.285 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

18.257. 1. There was now a tumult arisen at Alexandria, between the Jewish inhabitants and the Greeks; and three ambassadors were chosen out of each party that were at variance, who came to Caius. Now one of these ambassadors from the people of Alexandria was Apion, who uttered many blasphemies against the Jews; and, among other things that he said, he charged them with neglecting the honors that belonged to Caesar; 18.258. for that while all who were subject to the Roman empire built altars and temples to Caius, and in other regards universally received him as they received the gods, these Jews alone thought it a dishonorable thing for them to erect statues in honor of him, as well as to swear by his name. 18.259. Many of these severe things were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Caius to anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be. But Philo, the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the alabarch, and one not unskillful in philosophy, was ready to betake himself to make his defense against those accusations; 19.278. 2. Now about this time there was a sedition between the Jews and the Greeks, at the city of Alexandria; for when Caius was dead, the nation of the Jews, which had been very much mortified under the reign of Caius, and reduced to very great distress by the people of Alexandria, recovered itself, and immediately took up their arms to fight for themselves. 19.279. So Claudius sent an order to the president of Egypt to quiet that tumult; he also sent an edict, at the requests of king Agrippa and king Herod, both to Alexandria and to Syria, whose contents were as follows: 19.281. Since I am assured that the Jews of Alexandria, called Alexandrians, have been joint inhabitants in the earliest times with the Alexandrians, and have obtained from their kings equal privileges with them, as is evident by the public records that are in their possession, and the edicts themselves; 19.282. and that after Alexandria had been subjected to our empire by Augustus, their rights and privileges have been preserved by those presidents who have at divers times been sent thither; and that no dispute had been raised about those rights and privileges 19.283. even when Aquila was governor of Alexandria; and that when the Jewish ethnarch was dead, Augustus did not prohibit the making such ethnarchs, as willing that all men should be so subject [to the Romans] as to continue in the observation of their own customs, and not be forced to transgress the ancient rules of their own country religion; 19.284. but that, in the time of Caius, the Alexandrians became insolent towards the Jews that were among them, which Caius, out of his great madness and want of understanding, reduced the nation of the Jews very low, because they would not transgress the religious worship of their country, and call him a god: 19.285. I will therefore that the nation of the Jews be not deprived of their rights and privileges, on account of the madness of Caius; but that those rights and privileges which they formerly enjoyed be preserved to them, and that they may continue in their own customs. And I charge both parties to take very great care that no troubles may arise after the promulgation of this edict.”
6. Josephus Flavius, Against Apion, 1.1, 2.1-2.3, 2.5-2.99, 2.101-2.144 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

1.1. 1. I suppose that, by my books of the Antiquities of the Jews, most excellent Epaphroditus, I have made it evident to those who peruse them, that our Jewish nation is of very great antiquity, and had a distinct subsistence of its own originally; as also I have therein declared how we came to inhabit this country wherein we now live. Those Antiquities contain the history of five thousand years, and are taken out of our sacred books; but are translated by me into the Greek tongue. 1.1. but as for the place where the Grecians inhabit, ten thousand destructions have overtaken it, and blotted out the memory of former actions; so that they were ever beginning a new way of living, and supposed that every one of them was the origin of their new state. It was also late, and with difficulty, that they came to know the letters they now use; for those who would advance their use of these letters to the greatest antiquity pretend that they learned them from the Phoenicians and from Cadmus; 1.1. but after some considerable time, Armais, who was left in Egypt, did all those very things, by way of opposition, which his brother had forbidden him to do, without fear; for he used violence to the queen, and continued to make use of the rest of the concubines, without sparing any of them; nay, at the persuasion of his friends he put on the diadem, and set up to oppose his brother; 2.1. 1. In the former book, most honored Epaphroditus, I have demonstrated our antiquity, and confirmed the truth of what I have said, from the writings of the Phoenicians, and Chaldeans, and Egyptians. I have, moreover, produced many of the Grecian writers, as witnesses thereto. I have also made a refutation of Manetho and Cheremon, and of certain others of our enemies. 2.1. for in his third book, which relates to the affairs of Egypt, he speaks thus:—“I have heard of the ancient men of Egypt, that Moses was of Heliopolis, and that he thought himself obliged to follow the customs of his forefathers, and offered his prayers in the open air, towards the city walls; but that he reduced them all to be directed towards the sun-rising, which was agreeable to the situation of Heliopolis; 2.1. Or how is it possible that all the Jews should get together to these sacrifices, and the entrails of one man should be sufficient for so many thousands to taste of them, as Apion pretends? Or why did not the king carry this man, whosoever he was, and whatsoever was his name (which is not set down in Apion’s book) 2.2. I shall now therefore begin a confutation of the remaining authors who have written any thing against us; although I confess I have had a doubt upon me about Apion the grammarian, whether I ought to take the trouble of confuting him or not; 2.2. As for the number of those that were expelled out of Egypt, he hath contrived to have the very same number with Lysimachus, and says they were a hundred and ten thousand. He then assigns a certain wonderful and plausible occasion for the name of Sabbath; 2.2. It commands us also, when we marry, not to have regard to portion, nor to take a woman by violence, nor to persuade her deceitfully and knavishly; but to demand her in marriage of him who hath power to dispose of her, and is fit to give her away by the nearness of his kindred; 2.5. For I also have observed, that many men are very much delighted when they see a man who first began to reproach another, to be himself exposed to contempt on account of the vices he hath himself been guilty of. 2.5. 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 Thermus the Roman ambassador was there present.” 2.6. However, it is not a very easy thing to go over this man’s discourse, nor to know plainly what he means; yet does he seem, amidst a great confusion and disorder in his falsehoods, to produce, in the first place, such things as resemble what we have examined already, and relate to the departure of our forefathers out of Egypt; 2.6. 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? 2.7. and, in the second place, he accuses those Jews that are inhabitants of Alexandria; as, in the third place, he mixes with these things such accusations as concern the sacred purifications, with the other legal rites used in the temple. /p 2.7. These Egyptians therefore were the authors of these troubles, who not having 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; 2.8. 2. Now, although I cannot but think that I have already demonstrated, and that abundantly, more than was necessary, that our fathers were not originally Egyptians, nor were thence expelled, either on account of bodily diseases, or any other calamities of that sort 2.8. for Apion hath the impudence to pretend, that “the Jews placed an ass’s head in their holy place;” and he affirms that this was discovered when Antiochus Epiphanes spoiled our temple, and found that ass’s head there made of gold, and worth a great deal of money. 2.9. yet will I briefly take notice of what Apion adds upon that subject; 2.9. Now, such men as he are more zealous to justify a sacrilegious king than to write what is just and what is true about us, and about our temple; for when they are desirous of gratifying Antiochus, and of concealing that perfidiousness and sacrilege which he was guilty of, with regard to our nation, when he wanted money, they endeavor to disgrace us, and tell lies even relating to futurities. 2.11. that, he also set up pillars instead of gnomons, under which was represented a cavity like that of a boat, and the shadow that fell from their tops fell down upon that cavity, that it might go round about the like course as the sun itself goes round in the other.” 2.11. Now, if he knew the purity of our temple, he hath entirely omitted to take notice of it; but he forges a story about the seizing of a Grecian, about ineffable food, and the most delicious preparation of dainties; and pretends that strangers could go into a place whereinto the noblest men among the Jews are not allowed to enter, unless they be priests. 2.12. This is that wonderful relation which we have given us by this great grammarian. But that it is a false one is so plain, that it stands in need of few words to prove it, but is manifest from the works of Moses; for when he erected the first tabernacle to God, he did himself neither give order for any such kind of representation to be made at it, nor ordain that those who came after him should make such a one. Moreover, when in a future age Solomon built his temple in Jerusalem, he avoided all such needless decorations as Apion hath here devised. 2.12. though it seems this lamp-bearer of ours opened them easily, or thought he opened them, as he thought he had the ass’s head in his hand. Whether, therefore, he returned it to us again, or whether Apion took it and brought it into the temple again, that Antiochus might find it, and afford a handle for a second fable of Apion’s, is uncertain. 2.13. He says farther, “How he had heard of the ancient men, that Moses was of Heliopolis.” To be sure that was because, being a younger man himself, he believed those that by their elder age were acquainted and conversed with him. 2.13. for it is not reasonable to imitate the clownish ignorance of Apion who hath no regard to the misfortunes of the Athenians, or of the Lacedemonians, the latter of whom were styled by all men the most courageous, and the former the most religious, of the Grecians. 2.14. Now, this [man], grammarian as he was, could not certainly tell which was the poet Homer’s country, no more than he could which was the country of Pythagoras, who lived comparatively but a little while ago; yet does he thus easily determine the age of Moses, who preceded them such a vast number of years, as depending on his ancient men’s relation, which shows how notorious a liar he was. 2.14. However, if any one should ask Apion which of the Egyptians he thinks to be the most wise, and most pious of them all, he would certainly acknowledge the priests to be so; 2.15. But then as to this chronological determination of the time when he says he brought the leprous people, the blind, and the lame, out of Egypt, see how well this most accurate grammarian of ours agrees with those that have written before him. 2.15. and if I be compelled to make mention of the laws of other nations, that are contrary to ours, those ought deservedly to thank themselves for it, who have pretended to depreciate our laws in comparison of their own; nor will there, I think, be any room after that for them to pretend, either that we have no such laws ourselves, an epitome of which I will present to the reader, or that we do not, above all men, continue in the observation of them. /p 2.16. Manetho says that the Jews departed out of Egypt, in the reign of Tethmosis, three hundred and ninety-three years before Danaus fled to Argos; Lysimachus says it was under king Bocchoris, that is, one thousand seven hundred years ago; 2.16. When he had therefore come to such a good resolution, and had performed such wonderful exploits, we had just reason to look upon ourselves as having him for a divine governor and counsellor; and when he had first persuaded himself that his actions and designs were agreeable to God’s will, he thought it his duty to impress, above all things, that notion upon the multitude; for those who have once believed that God is the inspector of their lives, will not permit themselves in any sin; 2.17. Molo and some others determined it as every one pleased; but this Apion of ours, as deserving to be believed before them, hath determined it exactly to have been in the seventh olympiad, and the first year of that olympiad; the very same year in which he says that Carthage was built by the Phoenicians. The reason why he added this building of Carthage was, to be sure, in order, as he thought, to strengthen his assertion by so evident a character of chronology. But he was not aware that this character confutes his assertion; 2.17. The reason why the constitution of this legislation was ever better directed to the utility of all than other legislations were, is this, that Moses did not make religion a part of virtue, but he saw and he ordained other virtues to be parts of religion; I mean justice, and fortitude, and temperance, and a universal agreement of the members of the community with one another; 2.18. for if we may give credit to the Phoenician records as to the time of the first coming of their colony to Carthage, they relate that Hirom their king was above one hundred and fifty years earlier than the building of Carthage; concerning whom I have formerly produced testimonials out of those Phoenician records 2.18. for no other people but we Jews have avoided all discourses about God that any way contradict one another, which yet are frequent among other nations; and this is true not only among ordinary persons, according as every one is affected, but some of the philosophers have been insolent enough to indulge such contradictions, while some of them have undertaken to use such words as entirely take away the nature of God, as others of them have taken away his providence over mankind. 2.19. as also that this Hirom was a friend of Solomon when he was building the temple of Jerusalem, and gave him great assistance in his building that temple, while still Solomon himself built that temple, six hundred and twelve years after the Jews came out of Egypt. 2.19. What are the things then that we are commanded or forbidden?—They are simply and easily known. The first command is concerning God, and affirms that God contains all things, and is a being every way perfect and happy, self-sufficient, and supplying all other beings; the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. He is manifest in his works and benefits, and more conspicuous than any other being whatsoever, but as to his form and magnitude, he is most obscure. 2.21. for he says, that “when the Jews had travelled a six days’ journey, they had buboes in their groins: and that on this account it was that they rested on the seventh day, as having got safely to that country which is now called Judea; that then they preserved the language of the Egyptians, and called that day the Sabbath, for that malady of buboes in their groin was named Sabbatosis by the Egyptians.” 2.21. Accordingly our legislator admits all those that have a mind to observe our laws, so to do; and this after a friendly manner, as esteeming that a true union, which not only extends to our own stock, but to those that would live after the same manner with us; yet does he not allow those that come to us by accident only to be admitted into communion with us. /p 2.22. And would not a man now laugh at this fellow’s trifling, or rather hate his impudence in writing thus? We must, it seems, take it for granted, that all these hundred and ten thousand men must have these buboes! 2.22. 32. Nay, indeed, in case it had so fallen out, that our nation had not been so thoroughly known among all men as they are, and our voluntary submission to our laws had not been so open and manifest as it is 2.23. But, for certain, if those men had been blind and lame, and had all sorts of distempers upon them, as Apion says they had, they could not have gone one single day’s journey; but if they had been all able to travel over a large desert, and, besides that, to fight and conquer those that opposed them, they had not all of them had buboes in their groins after the sixth day was over; 2.23. while they made use of other men as their servants for all the necessaries of life, and had their food prepared for them by the others: and these good and humane actions they do for no other purpose but this, that by their actions and their sufferings they may be able to conquer all those against whom they make war. 2.24. for no such distemper comes naturally and of necessity upon those that travel; but still, when there are many ten thousands in a camp together, they constantly march a settled space [in a day]. Nor is it at all probable that such a thing should happen by chance: this would be prodigiously absurd to be supposed. 2.24. uch as these, that they may be allowed to be as numerous as they have a mind to have them; that they are begotten one by another, and that after all the kinds of generation you can imagine. They also distinguish them in their places and ways of living, as they would distinguish several sorts of animals: as some to be under the earth; as some to be in the sea; and the ancientest of them all to be bound in hell; 2.25. However, our admirable author Apion hath before told us, that “they came to Judea in six days’ time;” and again, that “Moses went up to a mountain that lay between Egypt and Arabia, which was called Sinai, and was concealed there forty days, and that when he came down from thence he gave laws to the Jews.” But then, how was it possible for them to tarry forty days in a desert place where there was no water, and at the same time to pass all over the country between that and Judea in the six days? 2.25. 36. Wherefore it deserves our inquiry what should be the occasion of this unjust management, and of these scandals about the Deity. And truly I suppose it to be derived from the imperfect knowledge the heathen legislators had at first of the true nature of God; nor did they explain to the people even so far as they did comprehend of it: nor did they compose the other parts of their political settlements according to it 2.26. And as for this grammatical translation of the word Sabbath, it either contains an instance of his great impudence or gross ignorance; 2.26. and perhaps there may be some reason to blame the rigid severity of the Lacedemonians, for they bestowed the privilege of their city on no foreigners, nor indeed would give leave to them to stay among them; 2.27. for the words iSabboand iSabbathare widely different from one another; for the word Sabbath in the Jewish language denotes rest from all sorts of work; but the word Sabbo, as he affirms, denotes among the Egyptians the malady of a bubo in the groin. /p 2.27. And to be sure Apollonius was greatly pleased with the laws of the Persians, and was an admirer of them, because the Greeks enjoyed the advantage of their courage, and had the very same opinion about the gods which they had. This last was exemplified in the temples which they burnt, and their courage in coming, and almost entirely enslaving the Grecians. However, Apollonius has imitated all the Persian institutions, and that by his offering violence to other men’s wives, and castrating his own sons. 2.28. 3. This is that novel account which the Egyptian Apion gives us concerning the Jews’ departure out of Egypt, and is no better than a contrivance of his own. But why should we wonder at the lies he tells us about our forefathers, when he affirms them to be of Egyptian original, when he lies also about himself? 2.28. 40. We have already demonstrated that our laws have been such as have always inspired admiration and imitation into all other men; 2.29. for although he was born at Oasis in Egypt, he pretends to be, as a man may say, the top man of all the Egyptians; yet does he forswear his real country and progenitors, and by falsely pretending to be born at Alexandria, cannot deny the pravity of his family; 2.29. Those accusers reproached our legislator as a vile fellow; whereas God in old time bare witness to his virtuous conduct; and since that testimony of God, time itself hath been discovered to have borne witness to the same thing. /p 2.31. As for the Egyptians’ claim to be of our kindred, they do it on one of the following accounts; I mean, either as they value themselves upon it, and pretend to bear that relation to us: or else as they would draw us in to be partakers of their own infamy. 2.32. But this fine fellow Apion seems to broach this reproachful appellation against us [that we were originally Egyptians] in order to bestow it on the Alexandrians as a reward for the privilege they had given him of being a fellow citizen with them; he also is apprised of the ill will the Alexandrians bear to those Jews who are their fellow citizens, and so proposes to himself to reproach them, although he must thereby include all the other Egyptians also; while in both cases he is no better than an impudent liar. /p 2.33. 4. But let us now see what those heavy and wicked crimes are which Apion charges upon the Alexandrian Jews. “They came (says he) out of Syria, and inhabited near the tempestuous sea, and were in the neighborhood of the dashing of the waves.” 2.34. Now, if the place of habitation includes any thing that is reproachful, this man reproaches not his own real country [Egypt], but what he pretends to be his own country, Alexandria; for all are agreed in this, that the part of that city which is near the sea is the best part of all for habitation. 2.35. Now, if the Jews gained that part of the city by force, and have kept it hitherto without impeachment, this is a mark of their valor: but in reality it was Alexander himself that gave them that place for their habitation, when they obtained equal privileges there with the Macedonians. 2.36. Nor can I devise what Apion would have said, had their habitation been at Necropolis, and not been fixed hard by the royal palace [as it is]; nor had their nation had the denomination of Macedonians given them till this very day [as they have]. 2.37. Had this man now read the epistles of king Alexander, or those of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, or met with the writings of the succeeding kings, or that pillar which is still standing at Alexandria, and contains the privileges which the great [Julius] Caesar bestowed upon the Jews; had this man, I say, known these records, and yet hath the impudence to write in contradiction to them, he hath shown himself to be a wicked man: but if he knew nothing of these records, he hath shown himself to be a man very ignorant; 2.38. nay, when he appears to wonder how Jews could be called Alexandrians, this is another like instance of his ignorance; for all such as are called out to be colonies, although they be ever so far remote from one another in their original, receive their names from those that bring them to their new habitations. 2.39. And what occasion is there to speak of others, when those of us Jews that dwell at Antioch are named Antiochians, because Seleucus the founder of that city gave them the privileges belonging thereto? After the like manner do those Jews that inhabit Ephesus and the other cities of Ionia enjoy the same name with those that were originally born there, by the grant of the succeeding princes; 2.41. and if Apion reject this way of obtaining the privilege of a citizen of Alexandria, let him abstain from calling himself an Alexandrian hereafter; for otherwise, how can he who was born in the very heart of Egypt be an Alexandrian, if this way of accepting such a privilege, of which he would have us deprived, be once abrogated? Although indeed these Romans, who are now the lords of the habitable earth, have forbidden the Egyptians to have the privileges of any city whatsoever 2.42. while this fine fellow, who is willing to partake of such a privilege himself as he is forbidden to make use of, endeavors by calumnies to deprive those of it that have justly received it; for Alexander did not therefore get some of our nation to Alexandria, because he wanted inhabitants for this his city, on whose building he had bestowed so much pains; but this was given to our people as a reward; because he had, upon a careful trial, found them all to have been men of virtue and fidelity to him; 2.43. for, as Hecateus says concerning us, “Alexander honored our nation to such a degree that, for the equity and the fidelity which the Jews exhibited to him, he permitted them to hold the country of Samaria free from tribute. 2.44. of the same mind also was Ptolemy the son of Lagus, as to those Jews who dwelt at Alexandria.” For he intrusted the fortresses of Egypt into their hands, as believing they would keep them faithfully and valiantly for him; and when he was desirous to secure the government of Cyrene, and the other cities of Libya to himself, he sent a party of Jews to inhabit them. 2.45. And for his successor Ptolemy, who was called Philadelphus, he did not only set all those of our nation free, who were captives under him, but did frequently give money [for their ransom]; and, what was his greatest work of all, he had a great desire of knowing our laws, and of obtaining the books of our sacred scriptures: 2.46. accordingly he desired that such men might be sent him as might interpret our law to him; and in order to have them well compiled, he committed that care to no ordinary persons, but ordained that Demetrius Phalereus, and Andreas, and Aristeas; the first, Demetrius, the most learned person of his age 2.47. and the others, such as were intrusted with the guard of his body, should take the care of this matter: nor would he certainly have been so desirous of learning our law and the philosophy of our nation had he despised the men that made use of it, or had he not indeed had them in great admiration. /p 2.48. 5. 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: 2.49. and as for Ptolemy Philometor and his wife Cleopatra, they committed their whole kingdom to 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; 2.51. 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 Philometor, came from Cyrene, and would have ejected Cleopatra as well as her sons out of their kingdom 2.52. that he might obtain it for himself unjustly. 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. 2.53. Accordingly, God gave a remarkable attestation to his righteous procedure; for when Ptolemy Physco 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; 2.54. 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; 2.55. 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. 2.56. 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 2.57. 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: 2.58. moreover, she had her brother slain by private treachery, and she destroyed the gods of her country and the sepulchres of her progenitors; and while she had received her kingdom from the first Caesar, she had the impudence to rebel against his son 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; 2.59. but what need I enlarge upon this head any farther, 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]; 2.61. 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. 2.62. 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; 2.63. 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 2.64. 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. /p 2.65. 6. 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 out one against another, and have implacable wars about your religion? 2.66. 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. 2.67. 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? 2.68. 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? 2.69. 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 in 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. 2.71. 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; 2.72. 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. 2.73. Moreover, Apion would lay a blot upon us, because we do not erect images to 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 magimity 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. 2.74. 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? 2.75. 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 2.76. 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; 2.77. 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. 2.78. And let this suffice for an answer in general to Apion as to what he says with relation to the Alexandrian Jews. /p 2.79. 7. However, I cannot but admire those other authors who furnished this man with such his materials; I mean Posidonius and Apollonius [the son of] Molo, who while they accuse us for not worshipping the same gods whom others worship, they think themselves not guilty of impiety when they tell lies of us, and frame absurd and reproachful stories about our temple; whereas it is a most shameful thing for freemen to forge lies on any occasion, and much more so to forge them about our temple, which was so famous over all the world, and was preserved so sacred by us; 2.81. To this my first answer shall be this, that had there been any such thing among us, an Egyptian ought by no means to have thrown it in our teeth, since an ass is not a more contemptible animal than [...] and goats, and other such creatures, which among them are gods. 2.82. But besides this answer, I say farther, how comes it about that Apion does not understand this to be no other than a palpable lie, and to be confuted by the thing itself as utterly incredible? For we Jews are always governed by the same laws, in which we constantly persevere; and although many misfortunes have befallen our city, as the like have befallen others, and although Theos [Epiphanes], and Pompey the Great, and Licinius Crassus, and last of all Titus Caesar, have conquered us in war, and gotten possession of our temple, yet have they none of them found any such thing there, nor indeed any thing but what was agreeable to the strictest piety; although what they found we are not at liberty to reveal to other nations. 2.83. But for Antiochus [Epiphanes], he had no just cause for that ravage in our temple that he made; he only came to it when he wanted money, without declaring himself our enemy, and attacked us while we were his associates and his friends: nor did he find any thing there that was ridiculous. 2.84. This is attested by many worthy writers; Polybius of Megalopolis, Strabo of Cappadocia, Nicolaus of Damascus, Timagenes, Castor the chronologer, and Apollodorus, who all say that it was out of Antiochus’s want of money that he broke his league with the Jews, and despoiled their temple when it was full of gold and silver. 2.85. Apion ought to have had a regard to these facts, unless he had himself had either an ass’s heart or a dog’s impudence; of such a dog I mean as they worship; for he had no other external reason for the lies he tells of us. As for us Jews, we ascribe no honor or power to asses, as do the Egyptians to crocodiles and asps, when they esteem such as are seized upon by the former, or bitten by the latter, to be happy persons, and persons worthy of God. 2.86. Asses are the same with us which they are with other wise men, viz., creatures that bear the burdens that we lay upon them; 2.87. but if they come to our threshing floors and eat our corn, or do not perform what we impose upon them, we beat them with a great many stripes; because it is their business to minister to us in our husbandry affairs. 2.88. But this Apion of ours was either perfectly unskilful in the composition of such fallacious discourses, or however, when he began [somewhat better], he was not able to persevere in what he had undertaken, since he hath no manner of success in those reproaches he casts upon us. /p 2.89. 8. He adds another Grecian fable, in order to reproach us. In reply to which, it would be enough to say that they who presume to speak about divine worship, ought not to be ignorant of this plain truth, that it is a degree of less impurity to pass through temples than to forge wicked calumnies of its priests. 2.91. Apion becomes other men’s prophet upon this occasion, and says, that “Antiochus found in our temple a bed and a man lying upon it, with a small table before him, full of dainties, from the [fishes of the] sea, and the fowls of the dry land; that this man was amazed at these dainties thus set before him; 2.92. that he immediately adored the king, upon his coming in, as hoping that he would afford him all possible assistance; that he fell down upon his knees, and stretched out to him his right hand, and begged to be released: and that when the king bade him sit down, and tell him who he was, and why he dwelt there, and what was the meaning of those various sorts of food that were set before him, the man made a lamentable complaint, and with sighs, and tears in his eyes, gave him this account of the distress he was in: 2.93. and said that he was a Greek, and that as he went over this province, in order to get his living, he was seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and brought to this temple, and shut up therein, and was seen by nobody, but was fattened by these curious provisions thus set before him: 2.94. and that truly at the first such unexpected advantages seemed to him matter of great joy; that, after a while they brought a suspicion upon him, and at length astonishment, what their meaning should be; that at last he inquired of the servants that came to him, and was by them informed that it was in order to the fulfilling a law of the Jews, which they must not tell him, that he was thus fed; and that they did the same at a set time every year: 2.95. that they used to catch a Greek foreigner, and fat him thus up every year, and then lead him to a certain wood, and kill him, and sacrifice with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of his entrails, and take an oath upon this sacrificing a Greek, that they would ever be at enmity with the Greeks; and that then they threw the remaining parts of the miserable wretch into a certain pit.” 2.96. Apion adds farther, that “the man said there were but a few days to come ere he was to be slain, and implored Antiochus that, out of the reverence he bore to the Grecian gods, he would disappoint the snares the Jews laid for his blood, and would deliver him from the miseries with which he was encompassed.” 2.97. Now this is such a most tragical fable, as is full of nothing but cruelty and impudence; yet does it not excuse Antiochus of his sacrilegious attempts, as those who wrote it in his vindication are willing to suppose; 2.98. for he could not presume beforehand that he should meet with any such thing in coming to the temple, but must have found it unexpectedly. He was therefore still an impious person, that was given to unlawful pleasures, and had no regard to God in his actions. But [as for Apion] he hath done whatever his extravagant love of lying hath dictated to him, as it is most easy to discover by a consideration of his writings; 2.99. for the difference of our laws is known not to regard the Grecians only, but they are principally opposite to the Egyptians, and to some other nations also: for while it so falls out, that men of all countries come sometimes and sojourn among us, how comes it about that we take an oath, and conspire only against the Grecians, and that by the effusion of their blood also? 2.101. with great pomp back into his own country; when he might thereby have been esteemed a religious person himself, and a mighty lover of the Greeks, and might thereby have procured himself great assistance from all men against that hatred the Jews bore to him. 2.102. But I leave this matter; for the proper way of confuting fools is not to use bare words, but to appeal to the things themselves that make against them. Now then, all such as ever saw the construction of our temple, of what nature it was, know well enough how the purity of it was never to be profaned; 2.103. for it had four several courts, encompassed with cloisters round about, every one of which had by our law a peculiar degree of separation from the rest. Into the first court every body was allowed to go, even foreigners; and none but women, during their courses, were prohibited to pass through it; 2.104. all the Jews went into the second court, as well as their wives, when they were free from all uncleanness; into the third went the Jewish men when they were clean and purified; into the fourth went the priests, having on their sacerdotal garments; 2.105. but for the most sacred place, none went in but the high priests, clothed in their peculiar garments. Now there is so great caution used about these offices of religion, that the priests are appointed to go into the temple but at certain hours: for, in the morning, at the opening of the inner temple, those that are to officiate receive the sacrifices, as they do again at noon, till the doors are shut. 2.106. Lastly, it is not so much as lawful to carry any vessel into the holy house; nor is there any thing therein, but the altar [of incense], the table [of show-bread], the censer, and the candlestick, which are all written in the law: 2.107. for there is nothing farther there, nor are there any mysteries performed that may not be spoken of; nor is there any feasting within the place. For what I have now said is publicly known, and supported by the testimony of the whole people, and their operations are very manifest; 2.108. for although there be four courses of the priests, and every one of them have above five thousand men in them, yet do they officiate on certain days only; and when those days are over, other priests succeed in the performance of their sacrifices, and assemble together at mid-day, and receive the keys of the temple, and the vessels by tale, without any thing relating to food or drink being carried into the temple; 2.109. nay, we are not allowed to offer such things at the altar, excepting what is prepared for the sacrifices. /p9. What then can we say of Apion, but that he examined nothing that concerned these things, while still he uttered incredible words about them! But it is a great shame for a grammarian not to be able to write true history. 2.111. This, therefore, is the utmost degree of impiety, and a voluntary lie, in order to the delusion of those who will not examine into the truth of matters. Whereas, such unspeakable mischiefs as are above related, have been occasioned by such calumnies that are raised upon us. /p 2.112. 10. Nay, this miracle of piety derides us farther, and adds the following pretended facts to his former fable; for he says that this man related how, “while the Jews were once in a long war with the Idumeans, there came a man out of one of the cities of the Idumeans, who there had worshipped Apollo. This man, whose name is said to have been Zabidus, came to the Jews, and promised that he would deliver Apollo, the god of Dora into their hands, and that he would come to our temple, if they would all come up with him 2.113. and bring the whole multitude of the Jews with them; that Zabidus made him a certain wooden instrument, and put it round about him, and set three rows of lamps therein, and walked after such a manner, that he appeared to those that stood a great way off him, to be a kind of star walking upon the earth: 2.114. that the Jews were terribly frightened at so surprising an appearance, and stood very quiet at a distance; and that Zabidus, while they continued so very quiet, went into the holy house, and carried off that golden head of an ass (for so facetiously does he write), and then went his way back again to Dora in great haste.” 2.116. for Idumea borders upon our country, and is near to Gaza, in which there is no such city as Dora, although there be, it is true, a city named Dora in Phoenicia, near Mount Carmel, but it is four days’ journey from Idumea. 2.118. for certainly those who have so many festivals, wherein they light lamps, must yet, at this rate, have never seen a candlestick! But still it seems that while Zabidus took his journey over the country, where were so many ten thousands of people, nobody met him. He also, it seems, even in a time of war, found the walls of Jerusalem destitute of guards. I omit the rest. 2.119. Now the doors of the holy house were seventy cubits high, and twenty cubits broad, they were all plated over with gold, and almost of solid gold itself, and there were no fewer than twenty men required to shut them every day; nor was it lawful ever to leave them open 2.121. 11. Apion also tells a false story, when he mentions an oath of ours, as if we “swore by God, the maker of the heaven, and earth, and sea, to bear no good will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the Greeks.” 2.122. Now this liar ought to have said directly that “we would bear no good will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the Egyptians.” For then his story about the oath would have squared with the rest of his original forgeries, in case our forefathers had been driven away by their kinsmen the Egyptians, not on account of any wickedness they had been guilty of, but on account of the calamities they were under; 2.123. for as to the Grecians, we are rather remote from them in place than different from them in our institutions, insomuch that we have no enmity with them, nor any jealousy of them. On the contrary, it hath so happened, that many of them have come over to our laws, and some of them have continued in their observation, although others of them had not courage enough to persevere, and so departed from them again; 2.124. nor did any body ever hear this oath sworn by us: Apion, it seems, was the only person that heard it, for he indeed was the first composer of it. /p 2.125. 12. However, Apion deserves to be admired for his great prudence, as to what I am going to say, which is this, “That there is a plain mark among us, that we neither have just laws, nor worship God as we ought to do, because we are not governors, but are rather in subjection to Gentiles, sometimes to one nation, and sometimes to another, and that our city hath been liable to several calamities, while their city [Alexandria] hath been of old time an imperial city, and not used to be in subjection to the Romans.” 2.128. Now for the Egyptians, perhaps they are the only nation that have had this extraordinary privilege, to have never served any of those monarchs who subdued Asia and Europe, and this on account, as they pretend, that the gods fled into their country and saved themselves, by being changed into the shapes of wild beasts. Whereas these Egyptians are the very people that appear to have never, in all the past ages, had one day of freedom, no, not so much as from their own lords. 2.132. But now we have met with Apion, an accuser of our nation, though one that still forgets the miseries of his own people, the Egyptians; but it is that Sesostris, who was once so celebrated a king of Egypt, that hath blinded him. Now we will not brag of our kings, David and Solomon, though they conquered many nations; 2.135. 13. “But,” says Apion, “we Jews have not had any wonderful men amongst us, not any inventors of arts, nor any eminent for wisdom.” He then enumerates Socrates, and Zeno, and Cleanthes, and some others of the same sort; and, after all, he adds himself to them, which is the most wonderful thing of all that he says, and pronounces Alexandria to be happy, because it hath such a citizen as he is in it; 2.136. for he was the fittest man to be a witness to his own deserts, although he hath appeared to all others no better than a wicked mountebank, of a corrupt life, and ill discourses; on which account one may justly pity Alexandria, if it should value itself upon such a citizen as he is. But as to our own men, we have had those who have been as deserving of commendation as any other whosoever; and such as have perused our Antiquities cannot be ignorant of them. /p 2.137. 14. As to the other things which he sets down as blameworthy, it may perhaps be the best way to let them pass without apology, that he may be allowed to be his own accuser, and the accuser of the rest of the Egyptians. However, he accuses us for sacrificing animals, and for abstaining from swine’s flesh, and laughs at us for the circumcision of our privy members. 2.138. Now, as for our slaughter of tame animals for sacrifices, it is common to us and to all other men; but this Apion, by making it a crime to sacrifice them, demonstrates himself to be an Egyptian; for had he been either a Grecian or a Macedonian [as he pretends to be], he had not shown any uneasiness at it; for those people glory in sacrificing whole hecatombs to the gods, and make use of those sacrifices for feasting; and yet is not the world thereby rendered destitute of cattle, as Apion was afraid would come to pass. 2.139. Yet, if all men had followed the manners of the Egyptians, the world had certainly been made desolate as to mankind, but had been filled full of the wildest sort of brute beasts, which, because they suppose them to be gods, they carefully nourish. 2.141. for the histories say that two things were originally committed to their care by their king’s injunctions, the worship of the gods, and the support of wisdom and philosophy. Accordingly, these priests are all circumcised, and abstain from swine’s flesh; nor does any one of the other Egyptians assist them in slaying those sacrifices they offer to the gods. 2.142. Apion was therefore quite blinded in his mind when, for the sake of the Egyptians, he contrived to reproach us, and to accuse such others as not only make use of that conduct of life which he so much abuses, but have also taught other men to be circumcised, as says Herodotus; 2.143. which makes me think that Apion is hereby justly punished for his casting such reproaches on the laws of his own country; for he was circumcised himself of necessity, on account of an ulcer in his privy member; and when he received no benefit by such circumcision, but his member became putrid, he died in great torment.
7. Pliny The Elder, Natural History, None (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

8. Suetonius, Nero, 16.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

9. Tacitus, Histories, 5.5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

5.5.  Whatever their origin, these rites are maintained by their antiquity: the other customs of the Jews are base and abominable, and owe their persistence to their depravity. For the worst rascals among other peoples, renouncing their ancestral religions, always kept sending tribute and contributions to Jerusalem, thereby increasing the wealth of the Jews; again, the Jews are extremely loyal toward one another, and always ready to show compassion, but toward every other people they feel only hate and enmity. They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart, and although as a race, they are prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; yet among themselves nothing is unlawful. They adopted circumcision to distinguish themselves from other peoples by this difference. Those who are converted to their ways follow the same practice, and the earliest lesson they receive is to despise the gods, to disown their country, and to regard their parents, children, and brothers as of little account. However, they take thought to increase their numbers; for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born child, and they believe that the souls of those who are killed in battle or by the executioner are immortal: hence comes their passion for begetting children, and their scorn of death. They bury the body rather than burn it, thus following the Egyptians' custom; they likewise bestow the same care on the dead, and hold the same belief about the world below; but their ideas of heavenly things are quite the opposite. The Egyptians worship many animals and monstrous images; the Jews conceive of one god only, and that with the mind alone: they regard as impious those who make from perishable materials representations of gods in man's image; that supreme and eternal being is to them incapable of representation and without end. Therefore they set up no statues in their cities, still less in their temples; this flattery is not paid their kings, nor this honour given to the Caesars. But since their priests used to chant to the accompaniment of pipes and cymbals and to wear garlands of ivy, and because a golden vine was found in their temple, some have thought that they were devotees of Father Liber, the conqueror of the East, in spite of the incongruity of their customs. For Liber established festive rites of a joyous nature, while the ways of the Jews are preposterous and mean.
10. Anon., Marytrdom of Polycarp, 12.2 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

12.2. 2 When this had been said by the herald, all the multitude of heathen and Jews living in Smyrna cried out with uncontrollable wrath and a loud shout: "This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, the destroyer of our Gods, who teaches many neither to offer sacrifice nor to worship." And when they said this, they cried out and asked Philip the Asiarch to let loose a lion on Polycarp. But he said he could not legally do this, since he had closed the Sports.
11. Apuleius, The Golden Ass, 9.14 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

12. Gellius, Attic Nights, 5.14.1, 5.14.3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

13. Justin, First Apology, 68, 5 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

5. Why, then, should this be? In our case, who pledge ourselves to do no wickedness, nor to hold these atheistic opinions, you do not examine the charges made against us; but, yielding to unreasoning passion, and to the instigation of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment. For the truth shall be spoken; since of old these evil demons, effecting apparitions of themselves, both defiled women and corrupted boys, and showed such fearful sights to men, that those who did not use their reason in judging of the actions that were done, were struck with terror; and being carried away by fear, and not knowing that these were demons, they called them gods, and gave to each the name which each of the demons chose for himself. And when Socrates endeavoured, by true reason and examination, to bring these things to light, and deliver men from the demons, then the demons themselves, by means of men who rejoiced in iniquity, compassed his death, as an atheist and a profane person, on the charge that he was introducing new divinities; and in our case they display a similar activity. For not only among the Greeks did reason (Logos) prevail to condemn these things through Socrates, but also among the Barbarians were they condemned by Reason (or the Word, the Logos) Himself, who took shape, and became man, and was called Jesus Christ; and in obedience to Him, we not only deny that they who did such things as these are gods, but assert that they are wicked and impious demons, whose actions will not bear comparison with those even of men desirous of virtue.
14. Lucian, Alexander The False Prophet, 38 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

38. It was with his eye on this Italian propaganda, too, that he took a further step. This was the institution of mysteries, with hierophants and torch bearers complete. The ceremonies occupied three successive days. On the first, proclamation was made on the Athenian model to this effect: ‘If there be any atheist or Christian or Epicurean here spying upon our rites, let him depart in haste; and let all such as have faith in the God be initiated and all blessing attend them.’ He led the litany with, ‘Christians, avaunt!’ and the crowd responded, ‘Epicureans, avaunt!’ Then was presented the child bed of Leto and birth of Apollo, the bridal of Coronis, Asclepius born. The second day, the epiphany and nativity of the God Glycon.
15. Minucius Felix, Octavius, 8.4 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

16. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 10.96-10.97 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

17. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 10.96-10.97 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

18. Tertullian, Apology, 10.1, 40.2 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

19. Anon., The Acts of Paul And Thecla, 15, 20, 8-9, 13 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)

20. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, 4.2.1-4.2.5, 4.26.10 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)

4.2.1. The teaching and the Church of our Saviour flourished greatly and made progress from day to day; but the calamities of the Jews increased, and they underwent a constant succession of evils. In the eighteenth year of Trajan's reign there was another disturbance of the Jews, through which a great multitude of them perished. 4.2.2. For in Alexandria and in the rest of Egypt, and also in Cyrene, as if incited by some terrible and factious spirit, they rushed into seditious measures against their fellow-inhabitants, the Greeks. The insurrection increased greatly, and in the following year, while Lupus was governor of all Egypt, it developed into a war of no mean magnitude. 4.2.3. In the first attack it happened that they were victorious over the Greeks, who fled to Alexandria and imprisoned and slew the Jews that were in the city. But the Jews of Cyrene, although deprived of their aid, continued to plunder the land of Egypt and to devastate its districts, under the leadership of Lucuas. Against them the emperor sent Marcius Turbo with a foot and naval force and also with a force of cavalry. 4.2.4. He carried on the war against them for a long time and fought many battles, and slew many thousands of Jews, not only of those of Cyrene, but also of those who dwelt in Egypt and had come to the assistance of their king Lucuas. 4.2.5. But the emperor, fearing that the Jews in Mesopotamia would also make an attack upon the inhabitants of that country, commanded Lucius Quintus to clear the province of them. And he having marched against them slew a great multitude of those that dwelt there; and in consequence of his success he was made governor of Judea by the emperor. These events are recorded also in these very words by the Greek historians that have written accounts of those times. 4.26.10. But your pious fathers corrected their ignorance, having frequently rebuked in writing many who dared to attempt new measures against them. Among them your grandfather Hadrian appears to have written to many others, and also to Fundanus, the proconsul and governor of Asia. And your father, when you also were ruling with him, wrote to the cities, forbidding them to take any new measures against us; among the rest to the Larissaeans, to the Thessalonians, to the Athenians, and to all the Greeks.
21. Origen, Against Celsus, 1.15 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

1.15. How much more impartial than Celsus is Numenius the Pythagorean, who has given many proofs of being a very eloquent man, and who has carefully tested many opinions, and collected together from many sources what had the appearance of truth; for, in the first book of his treatise On the Good, speaking of those nations who have adopted the opinion that God is incorporeal, he enumerates the Jews also among those who hold this view; not showing any reluctance to use even the language of their prophets in his treatise, and to give it a metaphorical signification. It is said, moreover, that Hermippus has recorded in his first book, On Lawgivers, that it was from the Jewish people that Pythagoras derived the philosophy which he introduced among the Greeks. And there is extant a work by the historian Hecat us, treating of the Jews, in which so high a character is bestowed upon that nation for its learning, that Herennius Philo, in his treatise on the Jews, has doubts in the first place, whether it is really the composition of the historian; and says, in the second place, that if really his, it is probable that he was carried away by the plausible nature of the Jewish history, and so yielded his assent to their system.
22. Orosius Paulus, Historiae Adversum Paganos, 7.12.6-7.12.8 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)

23. Jerome, On Illustrious Men, 13 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)

24. Papyri, Cpj, 2.153



Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
aelian Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
alexander polyhistor Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
anti-judaism Piovanelli, Burke, Pettipiece, Rediscovering the Apocryphal Continent: New Perspectives on Early Christian and Late Antique Apocryphal Textsand Traditions. De Gruyter: 2015 (2015) 373
apion, aigyptiaka Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
apion, his image of egpyt Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
apion Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149, 154; Taylor and Hay, Philo of Alexandria: On the Contemplative Life: Introduction, Translation and Commentary (2020) 21
apion the grammarian Piovanelli, Burke, Pettipiece, Rediscovering the Apocryphal Continent: New Perspectives on Early Christian and Late Antique Apocryphal Textsand Traditions. De Gruyter: 2015 (2015) 373
appian Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
aulus gellius, on apion Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
aulus gellius Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
cannibalism Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
cassiodorus Bar Kochba, Pseudo-Hecataeus on the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora (1997) 45
cassius dio Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
chaeremon Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149
chaeremon the stoic, on the egyptian priests Taylor and Hay, Philo of Alexandria: On the Contemplative Life: Introduction, Translation and Commentary (2020) 21
claudius, emperor Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149
claudius, roman emperor, expulsion of jews from rome by Feldman, Judaism and Hellenism Reconsidered (2006) 336
cyrene & cyrenaica Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
diaspora revolt, inscriptional evidence Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
diaspora revolt Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
egypt Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
eusebius Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
gladiatorial combat, and the diaspora revolt Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
hadrian Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
herodotus Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
isidorus, as anti-jewish adviser Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149
isidorus Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149
italy/italians Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
jews in alexandria, anti-jewish polemic Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149, 154
josephus, on apion Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149
josephus Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
libya Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
migration Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
moses Piovanelli, Burke, Pettipiece, Rediscovering the Apocryphal Continent: New Perspectives on Early Christian and Late Antique Apocryphal Textsand Traditions. De Gruyter: 2015 (2015) 373
paulus orosius Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
philo, as contemporary of apion Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149
philo, as contemporary of chaeremon Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149
pliny the elder, on apion Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
popular responses (to christianity), charges of cannibalism, ass-worship, magic etc Esler, The Early Christian World (2000) 878
popular responses (to christianity) Esler, The Early Christian World (2000) 878
sabbath observance' Piovanelli, Burke, Pettipiece, Rediscovering the Apocryphal Continent: New Perspectives on Early Christian and Late Antique Apocryphal Textsand Traditions. De Gruyter: 2015 (2015) 373
tatian Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
theophrastus Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 154
trajan Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80
violence, inter-ethnic Schliesser et al., Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World (2021) 149
zeus Spielman, Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World (2020) 80