ALEXANDRIA
153'
ALEXANDRIA
rights, which Philo neglects to record, but which gave some pretence for the excesses which followed. At all events, the Alexandrians, regarding them as abandon- ed by the authorities to their mercy, openly proceeded to the most violent extremities. The Jews were forcibly driven out of all the other parts of the city, and confined to one quarter ; and the houses from which they had been driven, as well as their shops and ware- houses, were plundered of all their effects. Impover- ished, and pent up in a narrow corner of the city, where the greater part were obliged to lie in the open air, and where the supplies of food were cut oft*, many of them died of hardship and hunger ; and whoever was found beyond the boundary, whether he had escaped from the assigned limits or had come in from the country, was seized and put to death with horrid tortures. So likewise, when a vessel belonging to Jews arrived in port, it was boarded by the mob, pil- laged, and then burnt, together with the owners. At length King Herod Agrippa, who staid long enough in Alexandria to see the beginning of these atroci- ties, transmitted to the emperor such a report of the real state of affairs as induced him to send a centu- rion to arrest Flaccus, and bring him a prisoner to Rome. This put the rioters in a false position, and brought some relief to the Jews ; but the tumult still continued, and as the magistrates refused to acknowl- edge the citizenship of the Jews, it was at length agreed that both parties should send delegates, five on each side, to Rome, and refer the decision of the con- troversy to the emperor. At the head of the Jewish delegation was the celebrated Philo, to whom we owe the account of these transactions ; and at the head of the Alexandrians was the noted Apion. The latter chiefly rested their case upon the fact that the Jews were the only people who refused to consecrate images to the emperor, or to swear by his name. But on this point the Jewish delegates defended themselves so well that Caligula himself said, "These men are not so wicked as ignorant and unhappy in not believing me to be a god." The ultimate result of this appeal is not known, but the Jews of Alexandria continued to be harassed during the remainder of Caligula's reign ; and their alabarch, Alexander Lysimachus (brother of Philo), was thrown into prison, where he remained till he was discharged by Claudius, upon whose acces- sion to the empire the Alexandrian Jews betook them- selves to arms. This occasioned such disturbances that they'attracted the attention of the emperor, who, at the joint entreaty of Herod and Agrippa, issued an edict conferring on the Jews of E<_rypt all their ancient privileges (Philo, In Flacc. p. 1019-1043; Josephus, Ant. xviii, 10 ; xix, 4). The state of feeling in Alex- andria which these facts indicate was very far from be- ing allayed when the revolt of the Jews in Palestine caused even those of the nation who dwelt in foreign parts to be regarded as enemies both by the populace and the government. In Alexandria, on a public oc- casion, they were attacked, and those who could not save themselves by flight were put to the sword. Only three were taken alive, and they were dragged through the city to be consigned to the flames. At this spec- tacle the indignation of the Jews rose beyond all bounds. They first assailed the Greek citizens with stones, and then rushed with lighted torches to the amphitheatre to set it on fire and burn all the people who were there assembled. The Roman prefect, Ti- berius Alexander, finding that milder measures were of no avail, sent against them a body of 17,000 sol- diers, who slew about 50,000 of them, and plundered and burned their dwellings (Josephus, War, ii, 18, 7 ; comp. Matt, xxiv, 6).
After the close of the war in Palestine, new disturb- ances were excited in Egypt by the Sicarii, many of whom had fled thither. They endeavored to persuade the Jews to acknowledge no king but God, and to throw off the Roman yoke. Such persons as opposed
their designs, and tendered wiser counsels to their brethren, they secretly assassinated, according to their custom. But the principal Jews in Alexandria hav- ing in a general assembly earnestly warned the peo- ple against these fanatics, who had been the authors of all the troubles in Palestine, about GOO of them were delivered up to the Romans. Several fled into the Thebaid, but were apprehended and brought back. The most cruel tortures which could lie devised had no effect in compelling them to acknowledge the emperor for their sovereign ; and even their children seemed endowed with souls fearless of death and bodies inca- pable of pain. Vespasian, when informed of these transactions, sent orders that the Jewish temple in Egypt should be destroyed. Lupus, the prefect, how- ever, only shut it up, after having taken out the con- secrated gifts ; but his successor, Paulinus, stripped it completely, and excluded the Jews entirely from it. This was in A.D. 75, being the 343d year from its erec- tion by Onias. The Jews continued to form a princi- pal portion of the inhabitants, and remained in the en- joyment of their civil rights till A.D. 415, when they incurred the hatred of Cyril, the patriarch, at whose instance they were expelled, to the number of 40,000, and their synagogues destroyed. However, when Am- rou, in A.D. G40, took the place for the Caliph ( (mar, he wrote to his master in these terms : " I have taken the great city of the "West, which contains 4000 pal-" aces, 4000 baths, 400 theatres, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetable food, and 40,000 tributary Jews." From that time the prosperity of Alexandria very rapidly declined; and when, in 9G9, the Fatemite caliphs seized on Egypt and built New Cairo, it sunk to the rank of a secondary Egyptian city. The discovery of the pas- sage to the East by the Cape in 1497 almost annihilated its remaining commercial importance ; and although the commercial and maritime enterprises of Mehemet Ali have again raised it to some distinction, Alexan- dria must still be accounted as one of those great an- cient cities whose glory has departed. "When Benja- min of Tudela visited the place (Itin. i, 158, ed. Asher), the number of Jews was not more than 3000, and does not now exceed 500 families of African Jews, besides about 150 families of the Italian community (Benja- min's Eight Years in Asia and Africa, Hannov. 1859, p. 2S0). The entire population, at present, is rapid- \y increasing, but the statistical statements greatly vary. Pierer's Universal Lexicon (Altenburg, 1857) gives G0,C00; Chambers's Encydopadia (Edinburgh and New York, 1860, vol. i), 80,000; the Almanac de Ontha for 18G0, 400,000. It is now called Scanderia or El-Iskenderiyeh (Mannert, x, 615 sq. ; Forbiger, Handb. d. alt. Geogr. ii, 777; Rtippell, Abyssinien, i. 82; Nie- buhr, Trav. i, 32 sq. ; Ukert, Erdbesehr. v. AfriJca, i, 183 sq. ; Descr. de VEgypte, xviii, 83 sq. ; Olivier, Voyage, iii, 1 sq. : Schubert, Rets, i, 484 sq. ; comp. Penny C'/clopmlia, s. v. ; Smith's Diet, of Class. Geogr. s. v. ; M'Culloch's Gazetteer, s. v.). See Egypt.