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After the death of Tiberius, Caius received the empire, and,
besides innumerable other acts of tyranny against many people, he
greatly afflicted especially the whole nation of the Jews These things
we may learn briefly from the words of Philo, who writes as follows:
"So great was the caprice of Caius in his conduct toward all, and
especially toward the nation of the Jews. The latter he so bitterly
hated that he appropriated to himself their places of worship in the
other cities, and beginning with Alexandria he filled them with images
and statues of himself . The temple in the holy city, which had
hitherto been left untouched, and had been regarded as an inviolable
asylum, he altered and transformed into a temple of his own, that it
might be called the temple of the visible Jupiter, the younger
Caius." Innumerable other terrible and almost indescribable
calamities which came upon the Jews in Alexandria during the reign of
the same emperor, are recorded by the same author in a second work, to
which he gave the title, On the Virtues. With him agrees also
Josephus, who likewise indicates that the misfortunes of the whole
nation began with the time of Pilate, and with their daring crimes
against the Saviour. Hear what be says in the second book of his
Jewish War, where he writes as follows: "Pilate being sent to
Judea as procurator by Tiberius, secretly carried veiled images of
the emperor, called ensigns, to Jerusalem by night. The following
day this caused the greatest disturbance among the Jews. For those
who were near were confounded at the sight, beholding their laws, as
it were, trampled under foot. For they allow no image to be set up in
their city." Comparing these things with the writings of the
evangelists, you will see that it was not long before there came upon
them the penalty for the exclamation which they had uttered under the
same Pilate, when they cried out that they had no other king than
C'sar. The same writer further records that after this another
calamity overtook them. He writes as follows: "After this he.
stirred up another tumult by snaking use of the holy treasure, which is
called Corban, in the construction of an aqueduct three hundred stadia
in length. The multitude were greatly displeased at it, and when
Pilate was in Jerusalem they surrounded his tribunal and gave
utterance to loud complaints. But he, anticipating the tumult, had
distributed through the crowd armed soldiers disguised in citizen's
clothing, forbidding them to use the sword, but commanding them to
strike with clubs those who should make an outcry. To them he now gave
the preconcerted signal from the tribunal. And the Jews being
beaten, many of them perished in consequence of the blows, while many
others were trampled under foot by their own countrymen in their
flight, and thus lost their lives. But the multitude, overawed by
the fate of those who were slain, held their peace." In addition to
these the same author records many other tumults which were stirred up
in Jerusalem itself, and shows that from that time seditions and wars
and mischievous plots followed each other in quick succession, and
never ceased in the city and in all Judea until finally the siege of
Vespasian overwhelmed them. Thus the divine vengeance overtook the
Jews for the crimes which they dared to commit against Christ.
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