Flaccus, the governor of Egypt,
who had hitherto ruled fairly, hoping to ingratiate himself by
misrule, allowed himself to be led by worthless minions, who, from
motives of private greed, desired a riot at Alexandria; he was won
over by the anti-Semites and gave the mob a free hand in their attacks
upon the "alien Jews."[76] The arrival of Agrippa, the grandson of
Herod, who was on his way to his kingdom of Palestine, which the
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.
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