capricious emperor had just conferred upon him, excited the ill-will
of the Alexandrian mob. Flaccus looked on while the people attacked
the Jewish quarters, sacked the houses, and assailed everyone that
came within their reach. The most distinguished Jews were not spared,
and thirty members of the Council of Elders were dragged to the
marketplace and scourged. Philo's account gives a picture strikingly
similar to that of a modern pogrom. The brutal indifference of Flaccus
did not indeed avail to ingratiate him with the emperor, and he was
recalled to Italy, exiled, and afterwards executed.

The recall of Flaccus did not, however, put an end to the troubles;
the mob had got out of hand, the anti-Semitic demagogues were elated,
and a fresh opportunity for outrage soon presented itself. The mad
emperor, having exhausted ordinary human follies, went on to imagine
himself first a god and then the Supreme God, and finally ordered his
image to be set up in every temple throughout his dominion. The Jews
could not obey the order, and the mob rushed into fresh excesses upon
them, defiled the synagogues with images of the lunatic, and in the
great synagogue itself set up a bronze statue of him, inscribed with
the name of Jupiter. With bitterness Philo points out that it was easy
enough for the vile Egyptians, who worshipped reptiles and beasts, to
erect a statue of the emperor in their temples; for the Jews, with
their lofty idea of God, it was impossible. Against the attack upon
their liberty of conscience they appealed directly to Gaius. An
embassy was sent to lay their case before him, and Philo went to Italy
at the head of the embassy. "He who is learned, gentle, and modest,
and who is beloved of men, he shall be leader in the city." So said
one of the rabbis of old, and the maxim is especially appropriate to
Philo, who in name and deed was "beloved of men." Philo has left us a
very full account of his mission, so that this incident of his life is